Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/780

 744 ARMY chief. This troop, mounted on the march, but fighting on foot, was considered the elite ot the army ; it carried and guarded the MMfitNM, the signal banner for the whole army. In bat- tle, Csesar generally fought in three lines, four cohorts per legion in the first, and three in the second and third lines each ; the cohorts of the second line dressed on the intervals of the first. The second line had to relieve the first; the third line formed a general reserve for decisive manoeuvres against the front or flank of the enemy, or for parrying his decisive thrusts. Wherever the enemy so far outflanked the line that its prolongation became necessary, the army was disposed in two lines only. One single line (acies simplex) was made use of in an extreme case of need only, and then without intervals between the cohorts ; in the defence of a camp, however, it was the rule, as the line was still eight to ten deep, and could form a reserve from the men who had no room on the parapet. Augustus completed the work of making the Roman troops a regular standing army. He had 25 legions distributed all over the empire, of which eight were on the Rhine (considered the main strength of the army), three in Spain, two in Africa, two in Egypt, four in Syria and Asia Minor, six in the Danu- bian countries. Italy was garrisoned by chosen troops recruited exclusively in that country, and forming the imperial guard ; this consisted of 12, later on of 14 cohorts; and the city of Rome had also 7 cohorts of municipal guards (vigile*), formed originally from emancipated slaves. Besides this regular army, the prov- inces had to furnish, as formerly, their light auxiliary troops, now mostly reduced to a sort of militia for garrison and police duty. On menaced frontiers, however, not only these auxiliary troops, but foreign mercenaries also, were employed in active service. The number of legions increased under Trajan to 30, under Septimius Severus to 33. The legions, besides their numbers, had names, taken from their stations (L. Germanica, L. Italicci), from em- perors (L. Augusta), from gods (L. Primige- nia, L. Apollinaris), or conferred as honorary distinctions (Z. Jidelis, L. pia, L. invicta). The organization of the legion underwent some changes. The commander was now called prafectm. The first cohort was doubled in strength (cohors milliarid), and the normal strength of the legion raised to 6,100 infantry and 726 cavalry; this was to be the minimum, and in case of need one or more cohortes mil- liariffi were to be added. The cohors milliaria was commanded by a military tribune, the others by tribunes or prcepositi ; the rank of eenturio was thus confined to subalterns. The admission of liberated or non-liberated slaves, natives of the provinces, and all sorts of people into the legions, became the rule ; Roman citizenship being required for the prae- torians in Italy only, and even there this was abandoned in later times. The Roman nation- ality of the army was thus very soon drowned in the influx of barbaric and semi-barbaric, Romanized and non-Romanized elements ; the officers alone maintained the Roman character. This deterioration of the elements composing the army very soon reacted upon its armament and tactics. The heavy breastplate and pi- lum were thrown aside ; the toilsome system of drill, which had formed the conquerors of the world, was neglected ; camp-followers and luxuries became necessary to the army, and the impedimenta (train of baggage) increased as strength and endurance decreased. As had been the case in Greece, the decline was mark- ed by neglect of the heavy line infantry, by a foolish fancy for all sorts of light armament, and by the adoption of barbaric equipments and tactics. Thus we find innumerable classifica- tions of light troops (auxiliatores, exculcatores, jaculatores, excursatores^prcecursatores, scutati, funditores, balistarii, tragularii), armed with all sorts of projectiles; and we are told by Vegetius that the cavalry had been improved in imitation of the Goths, Alans, and Huns. Finally, all distinction of equipment and arma- ment between Romans and barbarians ceased, and the Germans, physically and morally su- perior, marched over the bodies of the un- Romanized legions. The conquest of the West by the Germans thus was opposed by but a small remnant, a dim tradition of the ancient Roman tactics ; but even this small remnant was now destroyed. The whole of the middle ages is as barren a period for the development of tactics as for that of any other science. The feudal system, though in its very origin a mil- itary organization, was essentially opposed to discipline. Rebellions and secessions of large vassals, with their contingents, were of regular occurrence. The distribution of orders to the chiefs turned generally into a tumultuous coun- cil of war, which rendered all extensive opera- tions impossible. Wars, therefore, were seldom directed on decisive points ; struggles for the possession of a single locality filled up entire campaigns. The only operations of magnitude occurring in all this period (passing over the confused times from the 6th to the 12th cen- tury) are the expeditions of the German em- perors against Italy, and the crusades, the one as resultless as the other. The infantry of the middle ages, composed of the feudal retainers and part of the peasantry, was chiefly com- posed of pikemen, and mostly contemptible. It was great sport for the knights, covered with iron, to ride singly into this unprotected rabble, and lay about them with a will. A portion of the infantry was armed on the con- tinent of Europe with the crossbow, while in England the longbow became the national weapon of the peasantry. This longbow was a very formidable weapon, and secured the superiority of the English over the French at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. Easily pro- tected against rain, which rendered the cross- bow unserviceable at times, it projected its arrow to distances above 200 yards, or not