+Danny Phan That's because all TW battles are mosh pits. In reality, those situations almost always led to confusion and panic. Apparently CA doesn't understand discipline and formation. Whether or not a unit runs away is based on casualties and the status of the general, according to CA.
Me earlier "I don't need to watch this video, I've seen plenty on battle tactics...ah whatever I'll watch it." "The romans first used phalanxes" *mind explodes*
A good example of why the "sub commanders" method worked was Macedonia vs ROME. Where the lines of the Phalanx and legions meet. and it was a sub commander who took his men and lead them in a gap to rear flank the Macedonian lines.
I think I know where you might have seen that mention about Triarii demanding to be put to the fight. In compiled works of Niccolò Machiavelli. Aside of world-famous "Prince" he made a fairly lengthy analysis of tactics, strategy and problems with morale. Large portion was dedicated to Romans IIRC.
It has been an honor and a privilege to have been here all this time and watched you create the Roman series on this channel. It’s by far my favorite experience on TH-cam. And something I won’t forget any time soon. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication my friend. SPQR
Imagine sending wave after wave against the Roman wall you're facing, finally thinking you've felled their experienced reserve lines only for *yet another* line of men to march up, each of them absolutely scarred, calloused looking mofos who have seen more battles than you've seen new years. It's come to the Triarii.
The most impressive example of what was said in the end of the video about Rome's adaptability is probably back when it was fighting Carthage. It built a navy out of nothing and rebuilt it several times (I believe). They also turned sea battles into land battles to suit their strengths.
In fact main reason for the Marian reforms wasn't the one you stated. Main reason was that soldiers went on campaigns for years and their farms were neglected, their families destroyed...etc. That was the main reason for professional army.
@@manuelmigoya2109 When the cohort came into being, it was after (most of) the traditional 'civilised' enemies were already defeated and Rome faced another round of fresh menace from Gaul and Germany in the west and Parthia in the east. Protracted service lead to professional armies and that lead to cohorts.
Rome's first armed forces were civilians turned soldiers to defend their own territory - or capture the neighbouring one. The different soldier classes mirrored the different classes in their society. Velites - lightly armed skirmishers were recruited from the poor citizens who still could afford to buy the gear required Hastati - the younger citizens with enough cash to buy a helmet, breastplate, sword, shield and javelins. Principes - the more mature citizens with more money to buy better equipment Triarii - combat veterans who had seen many battles and had enough money to buy the most expensive gear Now I wonder myself, what if you were a mature citizen but rather poor? Would you still have fight with the Hastati? Probably. Roman logic about serving to defend Rome: if you had a stake in the Roman state, however small, you were obliged to invest in military gear, do the training and go on campaign. The poorest class, who had no money, didn't have any obligation to fight because they couldn't afford the gear. And the state was not going to provide it for them at time in history. *Main reasons for the Marian Reforms IMO:* *1.* Roman citizens were mostly farmers who had to return to their farms for the harvest - prolonged campaigns caused these farmers to lose their property because it was neglected, not producing any income because little farming was done and many of poor farmers were bought out by the big corporations/ wealthy Roman citizens who were also of the Senatorial class and who created big superfarms out of their 'collection' of acquired estates (Latifundia); *2.* The class of disposessed poor Romans without money had become so big and was growing every day (see 1.) that the ruling class was thinking, why not give them a chance to fight and gain glory and riches, while also if they died it was no big loss to Rome - anyway with them in the army, they were removed from the streets and alleys (begging, stealing from decent Roman citizens, etc.) *3.* After serving their full 20 year term (it varied) in the legions, veterans were settled in conquered lands if land was available - this had several advantages: these former poor Romans would not be returning to Rome, by settling them in conquered territory they were accellerating the colonization efforts and if there were enemy infiltrations or rebel uprisings, militias could recruit quite a few veteran soldiers from the Roman colonists; But as many people who have read a bit of Rome's history, there never was enough conquered land to settle all veterans, a major issue for Caesar and for which he fought on the Senate floor. The wealthy Romans, most from the senatorial class, would also reserve the best land for themselves, increasing their own wealth and power even more. The rich were getting incredibly richer, the poor were forced to join the legions for a chance at a better life or remain on the streets and in the slums, relying on free bread and games to survive. All this also explains why the Roman armed forces, following the Marian Reforms, had little to no feelings of loyalty to Rome itself. Rome had a bargain with these new kind of soldiers - get rid of the poor by making them fight on a far away front and if they lost or won, most times they would never return to Rome. In my opinion, it's not that the new type of Roman soldiers were greedier, it's just that looting enemy posessions was their only opportunity to improve their own living standards. Some less informed people might think, why not get a job on one of those big superfarms or Latifundia instead of risking your life by going to war? Rome's superwealthy didn't have paid workers on their lands. On these superfarms, masses of slaves were forced to do back breaking work. Being a house slave in Rome was a super cushy job compared to the former and even a gladiator had better prospects than a slave on a superfarm.
Riley The Flaming Wookie Cookie True, but even then it's rather slow, so even unorganized units would be able to get out of the way or around the phalanx.
Duesal Bladesinger True, not very effective unless you're protecting a narrow path or the phalanx can stretch across the entire battlefield. Although the Roman's managed to improve upon the Phalanx with their "Testudo".
+Duesal Bladesinger Alexander the Great saw this weakness and made some changes to the traditional phalanx. He made the phalanx a tight, slow moving unit that lumbered towards the front line as his other units moved about. He had mercenaries stationed in front and behind the blocks to shoot arrows and throw spears. He made the sarissas longer so they could deflect missiles. Alexander also established a second line of mercenaries behind his phalanxes to avoid flanking. He also had cavalry from Theassaly to guard his left flank (he was on the right himself). When he entered eastern Persia he integrated elephants into his army, so the phalanx groups had to be smaller.
A self-sufficient army like the Cohort should not happen to a country for the long-term stability. If the central government allows a troop to be self-sufficient, maybe it would relieve it's financial burden and let the troop fight more effectively for a while. But after the war, you'll find the troop is no longer controlled by you but the generals, which is as known as warlords.
You’re assuming essentially instant communications. When it took a week to get a message to or from your army, you can’t effectively control your army anyway.
this video helped me a lot in age of empires 2 specifically, ive been setting up my units in a cohort system, with cavalry, ranged, melee, siege weapons and even multiple workers, on multiple occasions ive constructed fortifications in the middle of a battle to great success, exampe given: setting up wooden walls to protect a trebuchet
This is why I greatly respect romans. They might just be the most pragmatic, get-your-shit-together of the ancients. The greeks did a great job thinking about ideas and the romans about making things happen both very important.
Obviously this doesn't go into crazy detail but I'm always blown away at how much history from this time has been recorded and how we know all of this stuff
I cannot express with English terminology how much I love your style with these illustrated narratives! I highly urge that you don't stop. For anything.
The combination of some of the most brutal warfare tactics and Beethoven piano sonata is sublime. Great work. I especially enjoyed your vids on JC’s campaign through Gaul. Will contribute when I can soon.
@@geekzombie8795 Sounds like an implausible theory, sorry to say. Even way back further in the mid 2000s we had people uploading HD content and HD audio captured using HD capable equipment. If you find those videos the audio quality is still very good due to the original bitrate being very good. It's primarily on the channel uploaders who many lacked the equipment or technical knowhow to have better audio, especially back then. Poor microphones or software capture settings for example. Also, for this video, most classical music are in the public domain, so they wouldn't be subjected to any degradation due to copyright prevention or detection if any such system DOES exist. I could be wrong though and would be surprised if what you suggested is true. But the facts so far point to your idea not being plausible.
I have to be honest hear, this channel is amazing. Julius Caesar is somebody I enjoy reading about and look up to him in some ways. Your video on his greatest military victory at the Battle of Alesia was spot on. Best part was that it was not lengthy and boring in the form of a lecture. You were able to provide the information in a direct, yet intriguing way. I enjoy these videos, and props for spending time on making them.
"I've always like this saying because it has a meaning that's unique to Roman culture" Actually there are very strong parallels between this and Napoleon's guard. When the time came to 'send in the Guard', it meant shit had hit the fan. But at the same time, they were the ones you could rely on to get things done.
Excellent work! My advice, though, would be to add pictures of the soldiers to help the uninitiated get a better idea of what each unit looked like on an individual level, and so get an idea of how they operated as a group. Each illustration need only have a few seconds of screen time, but it would be enough to convey the concept. For instance, a layman will have no idea what a phalanx looks like, and seeing a picture of a box being described as "spearmen" isn't very informative. Show them pictures of, say, hoplites in formation, so the audience can see just how impregnable the phalanx was from the front, and also how slow and difficult to manoeuvre it was. Do the same with the legionary cohorts and manipular units as well. These small changes will give your videos a lot more flavour. This aside, your video is superb. Well done.
Not to mention that the Marian reforms enabeled the proles and plebs to join the army; whereas before only people with ownership of a farm could join in and you had to pay for your own equipment. The Marian reforms made it so that the ranks were easily filled with new recruits, the state payed the soldiers and payed for their weapons and equiptment.
Another important part of the Cohort system was that it allowed any able male to join the military instead of restricting recruitment to Rome’s upper classes who could afford to buy their personal equipment themselves. This meant that Rome could more easily raise new armies even in the middle of a war or after major losses because they didn’t have to wait a generation for a new crop of upper-class men to be born. They could recruit from the masses of urban poor that had accumulated in Rome and throughout the empire.
That's really a feature of the recruitment system, not the organizational system. In theory, it would have been entirely possible to continue with the maniple system, let recruits work their way up from hastati to triarii while using state-provided equipment. There were iirc even times during the 2nd Punic War when that was indeed done.
I may or may not have watched every single one of your videos after watching this. Subscribed - I'll see about helping out on Patreon too. Keep up the good work!
I'm linking this video in my Steam review for Rome II Total War, your videos, especially this one reaaally helped me in the game and your content is simply amazing!
***** Doesn't sound like a microphone problem but a signal chain problem. It sounds like this is recorded at the same sample rate as an AM radio broadcast. Learning to record a voiceover in an audio workstation at a higher sample rate might be a better option. I don't know though, he might be recording with a gaming headset or something, and in that case, at least get a good USB mic like a Blue Yeti... You can find a good one used for sure.
***** I'm listening on quality headphones and his voice is crystal clear to me. Maybe you have a more sensitive ear than me, but I figured I'd let you know since it could also be some audio issue on your end.
Will Mountain Great points. Plus it might just as well be a problem with TH-cam. My friend and I made few tutorial videos for our students and the end result was bad. To put it mildly. After many tries we gave up and just asked students to give us pendrives and we will return them with records, since they were a lot better before TH-cam black box did something.
I use to always find the Minaple system to be stupid because I thought you'd want to use your best soldiers first to take control of the battle early. But then I played Civilization 4 and it made me reverse that the decision. In Civ 4 I always attack with the least experienced units first and my logic was it gives less experienced soldiers more opportunities to accumulate experience and increases the likelihood of your best men surviving the battle. I think the logic applies relatively well to real armies.
Noobies at the front, if they survive, promote them. Veterans at the front wasn't the Roman way, but it was the Spartan way. Spartans had their best troops in the front. It's an interesting contrast considering both armies excelled in the ancient world.
+Trepur349 Also if the more experienced at front and they route or get killed in battle, that would be bad for the soldiers at the back with less experiance and just witnessed their best men being taken out by the enamy forces. Not good for moral
Brilliant video. Ever since watching the anime LoTGH I have became fascinated with military formations and history. Never have I seen a video so well explained. And god the mixture of classical music and history here is just a dream come true. This is the best channel ever.
Legends of the Galactic heroes Its not your typical big boobed hentai that gives anime such a bad name. Its a proper series with lots of details that are still relevant to this day
I'm not really seeing the racism, but anyways... You guys are all wrong. The late Roman army was every bit as tough, disciplined, and effective as earlier times, and was never "all mercenaries." The early imperial army was comprised of over 50% auxiliary troops. The late army was no different. The late Roman Army was also 2-3 times larger than in earlier times, and they campaigned on multiple fronts every year. And the army of Aurelian, or Constantine was unstoppable.
Excellent choice of background music!!! "The Passionate Symphony", employing a Russian word, Патетическая (Pateticheskaya), meaning "passionate" or "emotional", which was then (mis-)translated into French as pathétique, meaning "solemn" or "emotive". Certainly the subject of warfare tactics is solemn, evokes emotions, and is passionate for those on the side of warfare as well as the pacifists who are not. Well done.
***** What are you saying ? You say stupid things: a legion had more or less 5000 / 7000 men + some few "auxilia" troops !!! 300 000 / 700 000 is a modern army !!!
Something inspiring is how many views and likes this video has despite how awful the audio quality is. It shows that you can start from no where and still succeed.
The video is missing the final step in (Western) Roman military organization. The cohort system was very independent and self-sufficient which often served the Romans well, but in the long term this led to problems with loyalty. Soldiers were loyal to their commanders rather than the state, and their independence and military backing allowed military officers to play a major, often destabilizing role in politics. With the legions being unreliable, the Roman state began to rely more and more heavily on its auxiliaries (who were recruited from foreign volunteers and other non-citizens). Furthermore, the Roman Empire at this point had grown to a massive size and had largely stopped expanding. But its long borders still needed defending, and the ability to quickly coordinate a response to an incursion was paramount. So Rome transitioned to an army that was highly mobile, with specialized formations designed to conduct a defense in depth against enemy invasions. The first line of defense were the Limitanei, who were stationed directly on the border. They were relatively lightly equipped, but could respond to any enemy action very quickly. If a more serious threat emerged that the Limitanei alone could not contain, the second line of the Comitatenses would be mobilized. They were organized on a regional scale in large formations and were not as mobile as the Limitanei, but much better equipped to handle major threats and large-scale warfare. If an enemy would ever manage to break through the Limitanei and defeat the Comitatenses, he would come face to face with the third line of the Palatini. These were former palace guards and elite troops. They were organized in the same manner as the Comitatenses, but were more experienced and highly paid soldiers. They were deployed alongside the Comitatenses to face the most serious threats to Roman territory. Together, the Comitatenses and Palatine made up the field armies of the late Empire, and aside from defence could also be mobilized to fight civil wars or to conduct invasions into enemy territory. The Limitanei formed the frontier armies which rarely ventured far from their border fortresses. This prevented the problem that Rome had earlier where civil wars drew so much soldiers away from the frontier that it became really vulnerable to foreign invaders and raiders.
"The mandiples were just too damn small now." I laugh so hard when a serious and formal video uses informal casual language especailly curse words. The little things that make my day.
There's a bunch missing, like Velites in the manipular system, the role of cavalry is shortened a lot (maybe better, considering the quality of roman cavalry), and auxiliaries, but shortened to the point - I like your description a lot!
The main issue with the Cohorts in my personal opinion is that by removing the variable from the army you make it easier to be planned against. By having perfectly identical units, you only need to figure out how to take down one and the rest could easily crumble with it as they are simple a copy of the other. (I know its not actually this simple because Legionary spam but its the principle behind it)
Wow, I have yet to see a military lesson as entertaining and thorough as this one. Keep this up man! Great job! You've just earned another subscriber. I look forward to see more videos from your channel. :D
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent: it is the one most adaptable to change." --Some guy who thinks he's Charles Darwin
Roman Battle Systems (1) *The Phalaynx System* (0:37) - Taken From Greece - Tough but Slow - One Giant Straight Line of Spears - Not Ideal on Mountainous Terrain (2) *Maniples* (2:35) + Checkerboard Pattern + Flexible + Swords and Shields (A) Hastati (3:29) - Young and Inexperienced Frontline + Sword and Shield + also Javelins (B) Principes (4:17) + Older Veterans, More Experienced + Swap out with Hastati (C) Triarii (4:39) + The Oldest/Most Experienced + The Elite Veterans + Last Resort ("It's come to the Triarii) - The guys got impatient, really wanted to fight (3) *Cohort System* (6:53, 7:20) 40 Manipoles -----> 10 Cohorts + Mobile + Self-Sufficient Sub-Commanders 9:40 So What? + PRAGMATISM
I like your inclusion of the anecdote at around 6 minutes with the disclaimer 'it's probably a lie.' I've got dozens of these things in my head from books I read years ago. Sure add them to a discussion with open minded interested people. It makes your point even if it's anecdotal. But none of us wants to have to listen to the person who knows one wrong thing that they alone know to be true and if they can only bludgeon enough people with it.... I spent my whole life wanting to know more about the Romans, daily life, how they did things. Very informative video. Much appreciated. Thank you
"We are the Romans. Your life as it has been is over. Your culture will adapted to serve us. Your defensive capabilities are unable to withstand us. Lay down your arms and await integration. Resistance, is futile."
outstanding video, thank you. answered many questions i had about the topic with clear and concise explanation. would love to see more on roman military
HC: Maniples were just too damn small now. Against the hill people of central Italy, one maniple here and one maniple there can make all the difference in the world. But now, armies were huge, and a single maniple here or there was kind of irrelevant. Battle of Tigranocerta: Am I a joke to you?
Interesting fact, the cohort is mentioned in the chorus of the Italian national anthem today , even more interesting fact, i just discovered the spellcheck in chrome recognizes the word cohort
Cohort is a common English word. It can describe a common year or set of years in school (eg 2015's cohort of students being all the students in school at that time). Armies are the same- a cohort is now commonly called a platoon or brigade.
+SantomPh Not exactly. As I understand it, cohorts were entirely self sufficient. Not only were they fighting units, but they were engineers and logistical units on top of that. Today we have specialized units to deal with combat, logistics and engineering. We don't tend to mix it up (just like we don't make army soldiers fly CAP for bombers).
+SantomPh wow platoons and brigades are entirely different and not at all an equivalent or successor of the cohort. one is about 30-60 men, the other is typically 1-3000 (depending on the army). A cohort was around 500 men, making it more equivalent to a rump (understrength) battalion. If you meant to say that these are the smallest tactical units of today, that would also be inaccurate, as the squad or fireteam are the basic tactical units of a modern army fighting your typical low-intensity war.
+trombonista92 It is also a word used a great deal in biology, especially Ecology or Population studies where a Cohort is a group of individuals that were born in a particular time period. Fish born during the 2015 mating season for example would be the 2015 Cohort. For organisms with multiple mating events one would use either the whole year or part of the generational length.
Triarii : "Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually dies young"
There are old sell-swords and bold sell-swords, but there are no old, bold sell-swords.
-Brown Ben Plumb
+Bazuzeus sam fisher lol
+Bazuzeus they had better moral better training and the best equipment
+Anarchist o war They had because they were veterans of battles where they had worse equipment
they were hardly ever used,and were given top of line stuff. and if it got destroyed they would replace it.
6:08 "Let's go back to the battle of the trebia river, if you recall" haha, thanks for the vote of confidence, but I do not, in fact, recall
it was when Rome invaded Carthage
+Supreme Onii-Chan it was actually when Carthage invaded Rome (well Roman territory)
Close enough xD never knew much roman stuff but im still learnin
It was when the forces of House Arryn rescued the Romans from the genius military Commander: Ramsay Bolton
He was there, his father was a triarrii god damnit
Tries strategies on Rome 2 Total War:
Our men are running from the battlefield.
A shameful display!!!
+Danny Phan THIS IS A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY
+Danny Phan OUR MEN FLEE THE FIELD OF BATTLE!!!!!1!!!111!!
LOL the TW guys are here again
+Danny Phan That's because all TW battles are mosh pits. In reality, those situations almost always led to confusion and panic.
Apparently CA doesn't understand discipline and formation. Whether or not a unit runs away is based on casualties and the status of the general, according to CA.
It's come to the triarii...
Losely translated, send the spacemarines
So the romans were the first to make it to space
@@pqbdwmnu *Nazi Vikings
* send the Spartans II
I prefer to Winly translate, thank you.
For the Emporer brother
I forgot the name of this channel, so I typed in "Rome Squares" into the search bar and it popped up.
Third selection from the top.
Works for me.
Those damn Roman squares! They destroyed Carthage.
Brand recognition, Historia Civillis does it well
@@Zarafin Hanno II and his greed destroyed Carthage 😂 Rome should have erected golden statues of the carthaginian aristocrat throughout the city
Lol
Hannabal was a genius who was betrayed by his own senate. History was almost nearly completely different.
"The Triarii were so rarely used..:"
Me, trying to recruit them in Rome Total War: "Damn you, Marius!!!"
But the Marian Reforms mad baller ass troopies.
Facts
you can keep recruiting them as long as you haven't researched Cohort Organisation
@@5ynthesizerpatel In Rome 1, when any of the Roman factions builds Imperial Palace, Marian Reforms begins and you can't recruit old school anymore.
It has to be an imperial palace IN ITALY aswell
Now looking for a 'Its come to the Triarii' T-shirt.
me too
yeessss
Did you find it
Did you find it
Me earlier "I don't need to watch this video, I've seen plenty on battle tactics...ah whatever I'll watch it." "The romans first used phalanxes" *mind explodes*
Italy and Greece are the best thing that could ever happen
@@berghesein Would replace Italy with Rome but sure that'll do.
he said the phalanx was the first system Rome adopted, not that they were the first to use it.
@@Aloysius2113 yes I know, although I see how the way I wrote it is a little up in the air.
@@Aloysius2113 "they first used it" not "they were first to use it"
A good example of why the "sub commanders" method worked was Macedonia vs ROME. Where the lines of the Phalanx and legions meet. and it was a sub commander who took his men and lead them in a gap to rear flank the Macedonian lines.
Cynoscephalae?
@@RamdomViewYep, his name is lost to history, so lets just call him Chadus Maximus 🎉
I think I know where you might have seen that mention about Triarii demanding to be put to the fight. In compiled works of Niccolò Machiavelli. Aside of world-famous "Prince" he made a fairly lengthy analysis of tactics, strategy and problems with morale. Large portion was dedicated to Romans IIRC.
He said the ROMANS were more virtuous than the famously austere Spartans...
Dave Cöen .
@@lucasblaise11 The Spartans have nothing on the Romans.
@@CThyran That's why he's comparing them
@@jackattack9118 ya, the Spartans were far more brutal and crazy than Rome ever thought of being and that's saying something.
It has been an honor and a privilege to have been here all this time and watched you create the Roman series on this channel.
It’s by far my favorite experience on TH-cam. And something I won’t forget any time soon.
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication my friend.
SPQR
Agree @Historia Civilis rocks🤘
Where are the incendiary pigs?
Lol, and the war dogs
+Dweliq and the screeching women?
don't forget the druids!
Roman ninja Arcanii
what game u talking about?
Imagine sending wave after wave against the Roman wall you're facing, finally thinking you've felled their experienced reserve lines only for *yet another* line of men to march up, each of them absolutely scarred, calloused looking mofos who have seen more battles than you've seen new years. It's come to the Triarii.
Yeah but what if the Etruscans research Castle Age faster and just mass Scorpions?
Spam light cavalry.
Good thing I had pikemen to counter
Patrick Mcgowan Horse archers bruh.
Inebolu Balikcisi good thing i brought skirmishers
Patrick Mcgowan Mangonels for the win.
The most impressive example of what was said in the end of the video about Rome's adaptability is probably back when it was fighting Carthage. It built a navy out of nothing and rebuilt it several times (I believe). They also turned sea battles into land battles to suit their strengths.
In fact main reason for the Marian reforms wasn't the one you stated. Main reason was that soldiers went on campaigns for years and their farms were neglected, their families destroyed...etc.
That was the main reason for professional army.
things never have only one cause. Both are true.
@@manuelmigoya2109 Tell that to House...
@@navy2af lmao
@@manuelmigoya2109 When the cohort came into being, it was after (most of) the traditional 'civilised' enemies were already defeated and Rome faced another round of fresh menace from Gaul and Germany in the west and Parthia in the east. Protracted service lead to professional armies and that lead to cohorts.
Rome's first armed forces were civilians turned soldiers to defend their own territory - or capture the neighbouring one.
The different soldier classes mirrored the different classes in their society.
Velites - lightly armed skirmishers were recruited from the poor citizens who still could afford to buy the gear required
Hastati - the younger citizens with enough cash to buy a helmet, breastplate, sword, shield and javelins.
Principes - the more mature citizens with more money to buy better equipment
Triarii - combat veterans who had seen many battles and had enough money to buy the most expensive gear
Now I wonder myself, what if you were a mature citizen but rather poor? Would you still have fight with the Hastati? Probably.
Roman logic about serving to defend Rome: if you had a stake in the Roman state, however small, you were obliged to invest in military gear, do the training and go on campaign.
The poorest class, who had no money, didn't have any obligation to fight because they couldn't afford the gear. And the state was not going to provide it for them at time in history.
*Main reasons for the Marian Reforms IMO:*
*1.* Roman citizens were mostly farmers who had to return to their farms for the harvest - prolonged campaigns caused these farmers to lose their property because it was neglected, not producing any income because little farming was done and many of poor farmers were bought out by the big corporations/ wealthy Roman citizens who were also of the Senatorial class and who created big superfarms out of their 'collection' of acquired estates (Latifundia);
*2.* The class of disposessed poor Romans without money had become so big and was growing every day (see 1.) that the ruling class was thinking, why not give them a chance to fight and gain glory and riches, while also if they died it was no big loss to Rome - anyway with them in the army, they were removed from the streets and alleys (begging, stealing from decent Roman citizens, etc.)
*3.* After serving their full 20 year term (it varied) in the legions, veterans were settled in conquered lands if land was available - this had several advantages: these former poor Romans would not be returning to Rome, by settling them in conquered territory they were accellerating the colonization efforts and if there were enemy infiltrations or rebel uprisings, militias could recruit quite a few veteran soldiers from the Roman colonists;
But as many people who have read a bit of Rome's history, there never was enough conquered land to settle all veterans, a major issue for Caesar and for which he fought on the Senate floor. The wealthy Romans, most from the senatorial class, would also reserve the best land for themselves, increasing their own wealth and power even more. The rich were getting incredibly richer, the poor were forced to join the legions for a chance at a better life or remain on the streets and in the slums, relying on free bread and games to survive.
All this also explains why the Roman armed forces, following the Marian Reforms, had little to no feelings of loyalty to Rome itself. Rome had a bargain with these new kind of soldiers - get rid of the poor by making them fight on a far away front and if they lost or won, most times they would never return to Rome. In my opinion, it's not that the new type of Roman soldiers were greedier, it's just that looting enemy posessions was their only opportunity to improve their own living standards.
Some less informed people might think, why not get a job on one of those big superfarms or Latifundia instead of risking your life by going to war?
Rome's superwealthy didn't have paid workers on their lands. On these superfarms, masses of slaves were forced to do back breaking work.
Being a house slave in Rome was a super cushy job compared to the former and even a gladiator had better prospects than a slave on a superfarm.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand why TH-cam has recommended me this but I’m happy about it
Ah, the phalanx. Fantastic for defense, fucking awful for attack.
+Duesal Bladesinger Unless the unit marches towards an un-organized enemy unit.
Riley The Flaming Wookie Cookie True, but even then it's rather slow, so even unorganized units would be able to get out of the way or around the phalanx.
Duesal Bladesinger True, not very effective unless you're protecting a narrow path or the phalanx can stretch across the entire battlefield. Although the Roman's managed to improve upon the Phalanx with their "Testudo".
+Duesal Bladesinger Alexander the Great saw this weakness and made some changes to the traditional phalanx.
He made the phalanx a tight, slow moving unit that lumbered towards the front line as his other units moved about. He had mercenaries stationed in front and behind the blocks to shoot arrows and throw spears. He made the sarissas longer so they could deflect missiles.
Alexander also established a second line of mercenaries behind his phalanxes to avoid flanking. He also had cavalry from Theassaly to guard his left flank (he was on the right himself).
When he entered eastern Persia he integrated elephants into his army, so the phalanx groups had to be smaller.
MrNotadream You forgot the "Jon Snow" at the end.
I'd love to see more information on the engineering techniques of the army, and how they pulled off such massive projects in such short time.
Everyone works. Don't stop until it's done. You'd be surprised how much 10,000 guys can accomplish when they're following orders.
@@JohnDobak and being slaves dying of overwork
You’d be surprised how much you can build when you’ve got 10,000 slaves working on it and “fair labor standards” are nonexistent in the time period
A self-sufficient army like the Cohort should not happen to a country for the long-term stability. If the central government allows a troop to be self-sufficient, maybe it would relieve it's financial burden and let the troop fight more effectively for a while. But after the war, you'll find the troop is no longer controlled by you but the generals, which is as known as warlords.
Spoiler alert: Guess what happened to Rome next.
Marius happened~~
More like Mister C and his crossing of the Rubicon.
Yeah thats why the praetorians later became the king makers.
You’re assuming essentially instant communications. When it took a week to get a message to or from your army, you can’t effectively control your army anyway.
"not to scale due to the fact human life is finite and we are all going to die one day"
No U “My OCD trumps human mortality “
...edgy
@@lenny_1369 dude i made this comment 4 years ago i have no fuckin idea what i was on lmao I think i mighta been quoting something
@@bukay5861 You were sharing what the freeze-frame joke is at 7:50 :)
Bump
Mic quality jumpscared me. You have been at this a long time...
I am very happy to see how popular you've gotten! :D Your hard work has paid off!
this video helped me a lot in age of empires 2
specifically, ive been setting up my units in a cohort system, with cavalry, ranged, melee, siege weapons and even multiple workers, on multiple occasions ive constructed fortifications in the middle of a battle to great success, exampe given: setting up wooden walls to protect a trebuchet
This is why I greatly respect romans. They might just be the most pragmatic, get-your-shit-together of the ancients. The greeks did a great job thinking about ideas and the romans about making things happen both very important.
lmao, how many people came here to pick up better battle tactics and strategies when playing Rome: Total War?
nah, for that game just put skirmishers up front and infantry behind them
yep
Matt Pask
Rome 2 actually
Well, Total War in general but yes.
Matt Pask I play Attila: Total War. The air was filled with smoke and blood.
Obviously this doesn't go into crazy detail but I'm always blown away at how much history from this time has been recorded and how we know all of this stuff
I cannot express with English terminology how much I love your style with these illustrated narratives!
I highly urge that you don't stop. For anything.
1:03 Ghost Grey dot illusion, hey!
+Daythem Kaverous Holy shit I did not notice that.
+Daythem Kaverous I was just about to say that ;p
HERMANNNNNN!!!!!!!
His videos are infested with these :D
The combination of some of the most brutal warfare tactics and Beethoven piano sonata is sublime.
Great work. I especially enjoyed your vids on JC’s campaign through Gaul. Will contribute when I can soon.
@@geekzombie8795
Sounds like an implausible theory, sorry to say. Even way back further in the mid 2000s we had people uploading HD content and HD audio captured using HD capable equipment. If you find those videos the audio quality is still very good due to the original bitrate being very good. It's primarily on the channel uploaders who many lacked the equipment or technical knowhow to have better audio, especially back then. Poor microphones or software capture settings for example.
Also, for this video, most classical music are in the public domain, so they wouldn't be subjected to any degradation due to copyright prevention or detection if any such system DOES exist.
I could be wrong though and would be surprised if what you suggested is true. But the facts so far point to your idea not being plausible.
This channel is seriously one of the best I have come across. Saturday, wake up, coffee and watch Historia Civillis! Thank you!
Thank you for that "It's come to the Triarii"-saying, very interesting trivia.
I have to be honest hear, this channel is amazing. Julius Caesar is somebody I enjoy reading about and look up to him in some ways. Your video on his greatest military victory at the Battle of Alesia was spot on. Best part was that it was not lengthy and boring in the form of a lecture. You were able to provide the information in a direct, yet intriguing way. I enjoy these videos, and props for spending time on making them.
Rome total war memories.
You are an excellent teacher! For real! I think you break things down terrifically, and the pauses allow space to grasp things. Thanks!
Please more videos like this on different nations. Maybe more videos on Romans on things like how the troops trained.
Great Video I love the Rome stuff
"I've always like this saying because it has a meaning that's unique to Roman culture"
Actually there are very strong parallels between this and Napoleon's guard. When the time came to 'send in the Guard', it meant shit had hit the fan. But at the same time, they were the ones you could rely on to get things done.
You've been a big help to me, now I understand how every battle underwent. I hope you create more of this.
For me Biggus Dickus was the best Roman commander of all time. Give him an army of 5k and he would easily defeat an army twice it's size.
It's an army of 5K now...but later when the battle gets hot, it's an army of 12K. How this happens is a mystery to us all.
@@tom.walderThats steam full force unlike the japanese invasion of pearl harbor in 1941.
@@tom.walder😂under appreciated comment!
What I learned is... Romans were really fond of man nipples. history is fascinating.
I think they were Greeks not Romans
Your pun gives me cancer but a pun is a pun and I respect that
Bon apple tea intensifies
Excellent work! My advice, though, would be to add pictures of the soldiers to help the uninitiated get a better idea of what each unit looked like on an individual level, and so get an idea of how they operated as a group. Each illustration need only have a few seconds of screen time, but it would be enough to convey the concept.
For instance, a layman will have no idea what a phalanx looks like, and seeing a picture of a box being described as "spearmen" isn't very informative. Show them pictures of, say, hoplites in formation, so the audience can see just how impregnable the phalanx was from the front, and also how slow and difficult to manoeuvre it was. Do the same with the legionary cohorts and manipular units as well.
These small changes will give your videos a lot more flavour. This aside, your video is superb. Well done.
No
Nooo
This is box country, gtfo
Grymbaldknight
brilliant and helpful suggestion
Bobonono ono. No!
Man I was told of this channel today and really have enjoyed it. Love the graphs.
Not to mention that the Marian reforms enabeled the proles and plebs to join the army; whereas before only people with ownership of a farm could join in and you had to pay for your own equipment.
The Marian reforms made it so that the ranks were easily filled with new recruits, the state payed the soldiers and payed for their weapons and equiptment.
I really enjoyed this video. I've been a Roman enthusiasts since I was a child. Thank you for posting!
Another important part of the Cohort system was that it allowed any able male to join the military instead of restricting recruitment to Rome’s upper classes who could afford to buy their personal equipment themselves.
This meant that Rome could more easily raise new armies even in the middle of a war or after major losses because they didn’t have to wait a generation for a new crop of upper-class men to be born. They could recruit from the masses of urban poor that had accumulated in Rome and throughout the empire.
That's really a feature of the recruitment system, not the organizational system. In theory, it would have been entirely possible to continue with the maniple system, let recruits work their way up from hastati to triarii while using state-provided equipment. There were iirc even times during the 2nd Punic War when that was indeed done.
ONE MILLION! Congratulations so much!
I may or may not have watched every single one of your videos after watching this. Subscribed - I'll see about helping out on Patreon too. Keep up the good work!
I'm linking this video in my Steam review for Rome II Total War, your videos, especially this one reaaally helped me in the game and your content is simply amazing!
Parabéns pelo canal, é maravilhoso, sou professor de história estou adorando o conteúdo.
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
Great video but you should get a new microphone if you can
***** Doesn't sound like a microphone problem but a signal chain problem. It sounds like this is recorded at the same sample rate as an AM radio broadcast. Learning to record a voiceover in an audio workstation at a higher sample rate might be a better option. I don't know though, he might be recording with a gaming headset or something, and in that case, at least get a good USB mic like a Blue Yeti... You can find a good one used for sure.
***** I'm listening on quality headphones and his voice is crystal clear to me. Maybe you have a more sensitive ear than me, but I figured I'd let you know since it could also be some audio issue on your end.
Will Mountain Great points. Plus it might just as well be a problem with TH-cam. My friend and I made few tutorial videos for our students and the end result was bad. To put it mildly. After many tries we gave up and just asked students to give us pendrives and we will return them with records, since they were a lot better before TH-cam black box did something.
It was 2015 and the Channel was still growing back then.
This ability to learn and develop, to create and improve is what I admire so much about the Romans!
Will you be doing a video on Byzantine battle tactics too?
Great video! Knew most of it already, but put together this way it's a joy to watch. Keep it up!
I’ve used the “its come to the triarii” phrase so much since I first watched this so many years ago
i cant believe i barely discovered your channel, loving all your content.
I use to always find the Minaple system to be stupid because I thought you'd want to use your best soldiers first to take control of the battle early.
But then I played Civilization 4 and it made me reverse that the decision. In Civ 4 I always attack with the least experienced units first and my logic was it gives less experienced soldiers more opportunities to accumulate experience and increases the likelihood of your best men surviving the battle.
I think the logic applies relatively well to real armies.
Nice story
pawns at the front for a reason
Noobies at the front, if they survive, promote them.
Veterans at the front wasn't the Roman way, but it was the Spartan way. Spartans had their best troops in the front.
It's an interesting contrast considering both armies excelled in the ancient world.
Trepur349 s
+Trepur349
Also if the more experienced at front and they route or get killed in battle, that would be bad for the soldiers at the back with less experiance and just witnessed their best men being taken out by the enamy forces. Not good for moral
Brilliant video. Ever since watching the anime LoTGH I have became fascinated with military formations and history. Never have I seen a video so well explained. And god the mixture of classical music and history here is just a dream come true. This is the best channel ever.
exact name of anime? I wanna watch it
Legends of the Galactic heroes
Its not your typical big boobed hentai that gives anime such a bad name. Its a proper series with lots of details that are still relevant to this day
But a cohort wasn't just a giant man nipple.
Superb production quality and explanation. Excellent video
This video does not explain the late roman (192-476 AD) tactics. BTW it is good.
The only roman tactic after 200 ad was hiring barbarians while the "romans" sat in the cities having sex, wine, bread and being scared shitless.
I'm not really seeing the racism, but anyways...
You guys are all wrong. The late Roman army was every bit as tough, disciplined, and effective as earlier times, and was never "all mercenaries."
The early imperial army was comprised of over 50% auxiliary troops. The late army was no different. The late Roman Army was also 2-3 times larger than in earlier times, and they campaigned on multiple fronts every year.
And the army of Aurelian, or Constantine was unstoppable.
A very nice summary about the roman army transformation over the centuries. I'm looking forward to watch others videos of yours.
Does anyone notice how the Phalanx gives off an optical illusion of grey dots in between each square?
Excellent choice of background music!!! "The Passionate Symphony", employing a Russian word, Патетическая (Pateticheskaya), meaning "passionate" or "emotional", which was then (mis-)translated into French as pathétique, meaning "solemn" or "emotive". Certainly the subject of warfare tactics is solemn, evokes emotions, and is passionate for those on the side of warfare as well as the pacifists who are not. Well done.
Ahhhhh, the Sonata Pathetique...
What ?
The background music in this video is the 2nd Movement from Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique.
+TheusZeusDeus Shut up... You more on...
***** I disagree.
*****
What are you saying ? You say stupid things: a legion had more or less 5000 / 7000 men + some few "auxilia" troops !!! 300 000 / 700 000 is a modern army !!!
Something inspiring is how many views and likes this video has despite how awful the audio quality is. It shows that you can start from no where and still succeed.
Rome the series brought me here. Was not disappointed!
+Shard Live Action Roleplaying god im seeing you everywhere...
I've been looking for this sort of thing for so long. Thank you
The video is missing the final step in (Western) Roman military organization. The cohort system was very independent and self-sufficient which often served the Romans well, but in the long term this led to problems with loyalty. Soldiers were loyal to their commanders rather than the state, and their independence and military backing allowed military officers to play a major, often destabilizing role in politics. With the legions being unreliable, the Roman state began to rely more and more heavily on its auxiliaries (who were recruited from foreign volunteers and other non-citizens). Furthermore, the Roman Empire at this point had grown to a massive size and had largely stopped expanding. But its long borders still needed defending, and the ability to quickly coordinate a response to an incursion was paramount.
So Rome transitioned to an army that was highly mobile, with specialized formations designed to conduct a defense in depth against enemy invasions. The first line of defense were the Limitanei, who were stationed directly on the border. They were relatively lightly equipped, but could respond to any enemy action very quickly. If a more serious threat emerged that the Limitanei alone could not contain, the second line of the Comitatenses would be mobilized. They were organized on a regional scale in large formations and were not as mobile as the Limitanei, but much better equipped to handle major threats and large-scale warfare. If an enemy would ever manage to break through the Limitanei and defeat the Comitatenses, he would come face to face with the third line of the Palatini. These were former palace guards and elite troops. They were organized in the same manner as the Comitatenses, but were more experienced and highly paid soldiers. They were deployed alongside the Comitatenses to face the most serious threats to Roman territory.
Together, the Comitatenses and Palatine made up the field armies of the late Empire, and aside from defence could also be mobilized to fight civil wars or to conduct invasions into enemy territory. The Limitanei formed the frontier armies which rarely ventured far from their border fortresses. This prevented the problem that Rome had earlier where civil wars drew so much soldiers away from the frontier that it became really vulnerable to foreign invaders and raiders.
Well I guess you’re some kind of smart guy or something huh
This channel is freaking awesome.
So has anybody else come here from "korean riot police use ancient roman tactics" whilst wondering what those tactics were?
Sam Davis yea
I did see that. Awesome.
yes
i am
good call
Thanks, both entertaining and informative. I appreciate your research and editing put into this film.
"The mandiples were just too damn small now." I laugh so hard when a serious and formal video uses informal casual language especailly curse words. The little things that make my day.
The animation style, I just absolutely love it!
There's a bunch missing, like Velites in the manipular system, the role of cavalry is shortened a lot (maybe better, considering the quality of roman cavalry), and auxiliaries, but shortened to the point - I like your description a lot!
Leves, Rorarii, and Accenssi in the early manipular system too
Plz make more of these, great videos come back!
Fantastic video content. my students enjoy it
u make the best roman vidoes .. keep it up man .. much appreciated
The main issue with the Cohorts in my personal opinion is that by removing the variable from the army you make it easier to be planned against. By having perfectly identical units, you only need to figure out how to take down one and the rest could easily crumble with it as they are simple a copy of the other. (I know its not actually this simple because Legionary spam but its the principle behind it)
I find myself watching these time and time again.
Wow, I have yet to see a military lesson as entertaining and thorough as this one. Keep this up man! Great job! You've just earned another subscriber. I look forward to see more videos from your channel. :D
Dude your the best!! this vid itself allowed me to change my tactics and learn how to use my units in total war Rome 2 efficiently
It would be cool if you make a video about Chinese battle tactics during Qin Shi Huang Di's time
Vincent Pataray hell fucking yes
Vincent Pataray That army got wiped out? Send the 4th one in!
Or Sun Tzu
@@Em-yd9jn so basically Roman army type?
Oh god. Where has this channel been all my life.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent: it is the one most adaptable to change."
--Some guy who thinks he's Charles Darwin
Great video. Also Turkish captions were perfect (I didn’t see any mistake). Thanks for the information.
Roman Battle Systems
(1) *The Phalaynx System* (0:37)
- Taken From Greece
- Tough but Slow
- One Giant Straight Line of Spears
- Not Ideal on Mountainous Terrain
(2) *Maniples* (2:35)
+ Checkerboard Pattern
+ Flexible
+ Swords and Shields
(A) Hastati (3:29)
- Young and Inexperienced
Frontline
+ Sword and Shield
+ also Javelins
(B) Principes (4:17)
+ Older Veterans, More Experienced
+ Swap out with Hastati
(C) Triarii (4:39)
+ The Oldest/Most Experienced
+ The Elite Veterans
+ Last Resort ("It's come to the Triarii)
- The guys got impatient, really wanted to fight
(3) *Cohort System* (6:53, 7:20)
40 Manipoles -----> 10 Cohorts
+ Mobile + Self-Sufficient
Sub-Commanders
9:40 So What?
+ PRAGMATISM
I like your inclusion of the anecdote at around 6 minutes with the disclaimer 'it's probably a lie.' I've got dozens of these things in my head from books I read years ago. Sure add them to a discussion with open minded interested people. It makes your point even if it's anecdotal. But none of us wants to have to listen to the person who knows one wrong thing that they alone know to be true and if they can only bludgeon enough people with it.... I spent my whole life wanting to know more about the Romans, daily life, how they did things. Very informative video. Much appreciated. Thank you
"We are the Romans. Your life as it has been is over. Your culture will adapted to serve us. Your defensive capabilities are unable to withstand us. Lay down your arms and await integration. Resistance, is futile."
outstanding video, thank you. answered many questions i had about the topic with clear and concise explanation. would love to see more on roman military
HC: Maniples were just too damn small now. Against the hill people of central Italy, one maniple here and one maniple there can make all the difference in the world. But now, armies were huge, and a single maniple here or there was kind of irrelevant.
Battle of Tigranocerta: Am I a joke to you?
I love these types of videos. Keep it up man.
No mention of the Auxilia?
Matthew Marden that was more of a marching stance, not a fighting one
I’m so happy you got a better mic
1:04 - did you see any dots in between the squares?
Carlos Ceniza its a ilussion black dots isnt really there
Okay
Keep doing what you are doing man, these are really interesting!
4:00 No mention of Velites?! BLASPHEMY
This was an outstanding video!
Interesting fact, the cohort is mentioned in the chorus of the Italian national anthem today , even more interesting fact, i just discovered the spellcheck in chrome recognizes the word cohort
+trombonista92 cohort is an English word as well, imported from latin. "I was attacked by a cohort of his goons"
Cohort is a common English word. It can describe a common year or set of years in school (eg 2015's cohort of students being all the students in school at that time).
Armies are the same- a cohort is now commonly called a platoon or brigade.
+SantomPh
Not exactly.
As I understand it, cohorts were entirely self sufficient.
Not only were they fighting units, but they were engineers and logistical units on top of that.
Today we have specialized units to deal with combat, logistics and engineering. We don't tend to mix it up (just like we don't make army soldiers fly CAP for bombers).
+SantomPh wow platoons and brigades are entirely different and not at all an equivalent or successor of the cohort. one is about 30-60 men, the other is typically 1-3000 (depending on the army). A cohort was around 500 men, making it more equivalent to a rump (understrength) battalion. If you meant to say that these are the smallest tactical units of today, that would also be inaccurate, as the squad or fireteam are the basic tactical units of a modern army fighting your typical low-intensity war.
+trombonista92 It is also a word used a great deal in biology, especially Ecology or Population studies where a Cohort is a group of individuals that were born in a particular time period. Fish born during the 2015 mating season for example would be the 2015 Cohort. For organisms with multiple mating events one would use either the whole year or part of the generational length.
I love your videos, very informative.