Gary Brueggeman's The Roman Army

The Imperial army’s skirmish position

This entry was posted on March 26, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The following schematic shows two post-Marian armies of four legions each with thin lines of skirmishers deployed in front of each army. In the post-Marian... Read more

The Republican army’s skirmish position

This entry was posted on March 25, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The following schematic shows two pre-Marian armies of four legions each with thin lines of skirmishers deployed in front of each army. In the early ... Read more

The skirmishers

This entry was posted on March 24, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

Veles, funditor and sagittarius Three types of skirmishers are shown in this drawing. The first three figures are velites used in the early republic. They... Read more

Model of the charge

This entry was posted on March 23, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

Model of the charge of an individual in the first rank This drawing requires some explanation. It is a time and distance graph of the... Read more

Elements of the charge

This entry was posted on March 20, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The model of what the charge of the legion may have looked like is based on three fundamental building blocks. They are: how fast did... Read more

Trajectory calculator

This entry was posted on March 20, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The fundamental formulas for the parabolic path of a missile can be entered into an Excel spreadsheet to product a Trajectory Calculator.  The actual spreadsheet... Read more

Description of the century and maniple

This entry was posted on March 19, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The configuration for the century most frequently given is an arrangement of 10 files and 6 ranks with the files on 0.9m (3’) intervals and... Read more

The spacing of individual soldiers

This entry was posted on March 18, 2020 by Jasper Oorthuys.

There is an ongoing question of the spacing required by legionaries. Vegetius says that each soldier required 1.83m (6’) of space. Most texts describe the... Read more

Alternative to gaps: The articulated phalanx

This entry was posted on March 17, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

Hans Delbrück presents a detailed analysis of the question of gaps in the line. He believes that the description in Livy should be regarded as... Read more

The Republican army’s skirmish position

This entry was posted on March 16, 2020 by Gary Brueggeman.

The following schematic shows two pre-Marian armies of four legions each with thin lines of skirmishers deployed in front of each army. In the early ... Read more