The roman army was very well organized for its era. They arranged troops into legions, which were a combination of five thousand men of differing experience and skill. Each legion consisted of about eight cohorts. A cohort was made up of around six hundred men each, and those were broken down even further into maniples, or groupings of around three hundred men each. Lastly, there were century's that had roughly one hundred men. At any one time, a legion only had four thousand troops ready for battle. The number one cohort of a legion was generally twice as big as the other cohorts and handled administrative and supply duties.

The standard legion was a mixture of different kinds of fighters. Some carried only spears; while others carried heavy armor, shields and swords. They were generally kept together according to their equipment. The equites were the cav

The tactics employed by the Romans were simple in comparison to military strategies today, but were revolutionary at the time. They used many tactics to overcome their foes, some of which were written down into books and circulated to the other generals, also called legatus or legionary legate. The Roman army always sought out the terrain that would give them the greatest advantage. In general, they sought out higher ground when facing enemy infantry, and looked to fight on rougher terrain when they felt cavalry would be used. They tried to fight with the sun at their back, because they believed that would dazzle their enemies. They also fought with the wind at their back, to give their archers better range and hopefully blinding the enemy with dust. There were also a number of unit tactics that they employed. These included: the tortoise, the wedge, the saw, enveloping and vastatio. The tortoise was strictly for defense and generally used against archer fire. The unit would place their shields above and in front of themselves as to ward off archer's arrows. This was an extremely successful tactic and is believed to be the motivation behind the creation of the tank. Next was the wedge, an offensive tactic that had the legionnaires form a triangle, pierce their way into an enemy's line, and force them into restrictive positions. The saw was just the opposite of the wedge. It was a defensive tactic where a detached unit sat behind the front line and filled holes that arose during the course of a battle. Finally, one of the most devastating and effective tactics that is still in use today is the vastatio. This was the practice of destroying or removing of all crops, animals and people that could help an enemy survive.

There were many gr

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