Maniple (military unit)
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- For the liturgical garment, see Maniple (vestment).
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Maniple (Latin: manipulus) was a tactical unit of the Roman legion, consisting of two centuriae within a single cohort. It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit.
Maniple members, seen as each others' brothers in arms, were called commanipulares (singular commanipularis), but without the domestic closeness of the much smaller contubernium.
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[edit] Historical origin
In 390 BC, the Gauls sacked Rome after defeating the Roman Republican army at Allia River. One of the weaknesses of the Roman army that the Gauls had exposed was the inflexibility of their Hellenic style phalanx formation that they inherited from the Etruscans. To overcome this sort of limitation, the army was split up into subsets called Maniples (it translates roughly to English as 'handfuls') that could perform actions with more independence from one another.
During the Roman Republic, the army was organized into three lines, the hastati, the principes, and the triarii. Each of these lines was divided into maniples of 120, 120 and 60 men, respectively. Thus, the legion proper consisted of about 3,000 men. The three lines of infantry were divided by experience and fighting ability, with the youngest soldiers in the hastati making the first engagement. Where resistance was strong this rank would dissolve back through the Roman line and allow the more experienced soldiers in the principes to fight. In turn, the principes could yield to the hardened triarii if necessary.
There were also very light troops called velites. Armed with light armour and javelins, they stood in front of the line to launch missiles first and screen the army's formation and size from the eyes of the enemy, but then they moved off when the battle began. The velites were not separated into maniples.
After the Marian reforms of the legion, the maniple existed, but as sub-unit within the cohort structure, with the cohort being the primary tactical unit, although cohorts could be broken down into maniples should the terrain or tactical situation call for smaller, more flexible units.
Before his time the maniple had been the tactical unit. Now it was the cohort. A legion consisted of ten cohorts, each cohort containing three maniples, and each maniple two centuries. - The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla - Epochs Of Ancient History by A.H. Beesley
[edit] Drill and fighting formations
- No part of drill is more essential in action than for soldiers to keep their ranks with the greatest exactness, without opening or closing too much. Troops too much crowded can never fight as they ought, and only embarrass one another. If their order is too open and loose, they give the enemy an opportunity of penetrating. Whenever this happens and they are attacked in the rear, universal disorder and confusion are inevitable. Recruits should therefore be constantly in the field, drawn up by the roll and formed at first into a single rank. They should learn to dress in a straight line and to keep an equal and just distance between man and man. They must then be ordered to double the rank, which they must perform very quickly, and instantly cover their file leaders. In the next place, they are to double again and form four deep. And then the triangle or, as it is commonly called, the wedge, a disposition found very serviceable in action. They must be taught to form the circle or orb; for well-disciplined troops, after being broken by the enemy, have thrown themselves into this position and have thereby prevented the total rout of the army. These evolutions, often practised in the field of exercise, will be found easy in execution on actual service. (De Re Militari)
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
[edit] Primary Sources
- Primary sources for early Roman military organization include the writings of Polybius and Livy.
- A primary source for later Roman military organisation and tactics is Epitoma rei militaris (also referred to as De Re Militari), by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
[edit] Secondary Sources
- Pauly-Wissowa (German-language encyclopaedia on everything relating to Classical Antiquity)
[edit] External links
- The Military Institutions of the Romans (De Re Militari) Translated from the Latin by Lieutenant John Clarke (1767)
[edit] See also
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