This was the title given to the lieutenant-general or
associate chosen by a Roman commander or provincial governor
to be his second-in-authority.
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 12._
LEGES JULIÆ,
LEGES SEMPRONIÆ, &c.
See JULIAN LAWS; SEMPRONIAN LAWS, &c.
LEGION, The Roman.
"The original order of a Roman army was, as it seems, similar
to the phalanx: but the long unbroken line had been divided
into smaller detachments since, and perhaps by Camillus. The
long wars in the Samnite mountains naturally caused the Romans
to retain and to perfect this organisation, which made their
army more movable and pliable, without preventing the separate
bodies quickly combining and forming in one line. The legion
now [at the time of the war with Pyrrhus, B. C. 280] consisted
of thirty companies (called 'manipuli') of the average
strength of a hundred men, which were arranged in three lines
of ten manipuli each, like the black squares on a chessboard.
The manipuli of the first line consisted of the youngest
troops, called 'hastati'; those of the second line, called
'principes,' were men in the full vigour of life; those of the
third, the 'triarii,' formed a reserve of older soldiers, and
were numerically only half as strong as the other two lines.
The tactic order of the manipuli enabled the general to move
the 'principes' forward into the intervals of the 'hastati,'
or to withdraw the 'hastati' back into the intervals of the
'principes,' the 'triarii' being kept as a reserve. … The
light troops were armed with javelins, and retired behind the
solid mass of the manipuli as soon as they had discharged
their weapons in front of the line, at the beginning of the
combat."
_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 3, chapter 16 (volume 1)._
"The legions, as they are described by Polybius, in the time
of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which
achieved the victories of Cæsar, or defended the monarchy of
Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the Imperial
legion may be described in a few words. The heavy-armed
infantry, which composed its principal strength, was divided
into ten cohorts, and fifty-five companies, under the orders
of a correspondent number of tribunes and centurions. The
first cohort, which always claimed the post of honour and the
custody of the eagle, was formed of 1,105 soldiers, the most
approved for valour and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts
consisted each of 555; and the whole body of legionary
infantry amounted to 6,100 men. … The legion was usually
drawn up eight deep, and the regular distance of three feet
was left between the files as well as ranks. … The cavalry,
without which the force of the legion would have remained
imperfect, was divided into ten troops or squadrons; the
first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of 132
men; whilst each of the other nine amounted only to 66."
_E. Gibbon
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 12._
LEGION OF HONOR, Institution of the.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1803.