Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War

by Thomas A. Timmes

  His audience sat silently listening until he concluded by stating that the last item about the archers was his idea and not one approved by the Consul. This bit of forthrightness greatly impressed Levi. Manius was then subjected to a barrage of questions. For the next two hours, he addressed each one in turn with patience, honesty, and the respect due to Senate employees with the power to approve or disapprove his recommendations. He thought one or two questions were unnecessary, but most showed that they grasped exactly what he was talking about and appeared favorably disposed to pursue the projects. Some they had heard before, which confirmed their validity.

  When the last question was answered, Levi concluded the session and pulled Manius aside. “Centurion, I have a proposition for you. You don’t have to answer me now, but think about it. The hubristic Centurion who is our current military liaison to help with these equipment matters prefers the pleasures of Rome more than the hard work of improving the Roman Army. I think you’re the right man to replace him. If you agree, I will speak to the Legate and have you reassigned immediately. Give me your answer in two days. We have a lot of work to do.” With that, Manius bade Levi farewell and promised to give him his answer in two days.

  This was a very hard decision for Manius and his sentiments swung back and forth. One minute he was completely for it, the next completely against it. All he had known since age 17 was the Army. This job would confine him to an office working with bureaucrats who never served a day in a Legion. But deep down, he was excited at the prospect of working behind the scenes to improve the Army and, if he were completely honest with himself, to do something different. He would have to ask Levi how long this assignment would last. But now he had to see Lucia. Maybe an assignment in Rome was not such a bad idea.

  When he saw Levi two days later, Manius knew what he wanted to do; “Thank you Quaestor for the offer. I’ve decided to accept.” Levi was pleased. He liked Manius. He then let on that he already had the Legate’s approval to transfer Manius. It was a choice in name only. Levi knew immediately that Manius was his man and had him reassigned two days ago.

  Manius was provided a staff of five to help with the planning and oversight, an additional 20 soldiers to help with the equipment testing, three scribes, an office budget director, and a procurement specialist. Levi told him, “You have three months to develop a plan and budget to accomplish all the recommendation from Telamon.” Levi also suggested that Manius include a dozen other projects that had been lying dormant such as converting the large oval shield to a curved rectangular one with a stout metal ball centered on the enemy side of the shield. This ball would strengthen the shield and serve to more effectively batter an opponent. Levi stressed the need for winter clothing for the Legions including items such as socks, scarves, leg wrappings, and a heavier cloak.

  Levi told him, “Once your budget and plan are approved by the full Senate, you will have three years to successfully complete all equipment modifications and any force structure related changes.” Manius was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task, but Levi promised he would be there to assist and guide him.

  Manius assembled his team and assigned specific projects to each of his staff officers to personally oversee. Levi successfully shepherded the funding bills through the bureaucracy and Manius was now free to begin the necessary procurement and testing to launch the effort. In addition to his office in the Forum, Manius established a field office outside the city to conduct the actual testing and evaluation. He was not with the Legions, but at least he could still be in the field, if only part time.

  Manius discovered that the development and testing process was slow, frustrating, and fraught with setbacks. Even though he was the on-scene expert, members of the Committee for Military Procurement would periodically visit his field office to see a demonstration or simply handle the equipment, which often resulted in a demand to make changes. Over time he learned how to subvert the bad recommendations and implement the good ones without offending anyone.

  He did not know it at the time, but he was learning how to be a tactful diplomat; how to successfully navigate his way through bureaucratic hurdles and how to please those in power with real results. Manius was rapidly becoming more than a mere soldier. Levi noticed how quickly Manius adapted to his new environment and was pleased with the results of his effort. The two men develop a bond of friendship that would last throughout the coming years.

  Lucia moved her few possession into her mother-in-law’s house, which was just a stone’s throw from the Tiber. It was a little cramped with the three of them, but it was free and better than living on the streets of Rome. Lucia surrendered to Flavia the small amount of money she received from the Army for Gaius’ death and took on the bulk of the domestic chores. In return, Flavia took over some of the duties of raising Decima. Everyone benefitted from the new arrangement and it was peaceful.

  Manius meanwhile had become a very solicitous and dutiful son. He tried to see his mother almost every day. He helped with the chores, entertained Decima, took long walks with Lucia, and contributed a large part of his salary to the household. He still lived at Campus Martius, but had acquired a horse as part of his new job, making the travel back and forth that much easier. As time passed, Lucia was coming to grips with the death and absence of Gaius. She was becoming increasing lonely and dependent on Manius. Initially she felt guilty when she caught herself looking at him and admiring his good looks, broad chest, and stately bearing.

  Manius spent a lot of time just looking at Lucia, and made no attempt to hide it. He was in love. After the one year period of mourning passed, he asked her to marry him and she readily agreed despite the fact that she was again marrying a soldier and could lose him too. The fact that Manius was 13 years older did not make a bit of difference. She loved him and that was all that mattered. She felt secure around Manius and knew he loved her and Decima. Manius had enough money to build an add-on to the house so they could have privacy while still helping his mother Flavia. The Tullus household was again a place of life and joy with Decima definitely keeping everyone’s feet firmly grounded in reality. Manius was living life to the full; he was relaxed and rejoicing in his new found passion and purpose.

  He also found time to foster a personal relationship with Levi. The two men saw eye to eye on most issues of the day and enjoyed their frequent professional meetings and conversations despite the fact that one was a professional soldier and the other an intellectual bureaucrat. On special occasions, Levi and his wife Rivkah would invite Manius and Lucia to their villa for dinner or entertainment. It was during these times, that a special bound formed between the two couples. They always enjoyed one another’s company because the relationship was free of stress, hostility, or subtle judging. During the next three years, the relationship matured and they became trusted life-long friends.

  Manius initially viewed Levi and Rivkah as foreigners and, therefore, a little beneath him. After all, they were Jewish and lived in the area designated for non-Romans. Levi never did or said anything to offend Manius, but there was an unspoken bias on Manius’ part that he had absorbed from the culture and particularly from his father. Despite the fact that Manius admired Levi for his intelligence, hard work, and honesty, Manius felt superior to Levi and even more so for treating him with respect and dignity. His cultural prejudice would lie dormant just below the surface for the next 18 years.

  After three years of countless trial and error, an endless search for lighter yet stronger materials, and hours of field testing by the soldiers assigned to him, Manius declared victory! He and his team had produced, tested, evaluated, procured, and instituted the Telamon recommendations and several other good ideas submitted by leaders and soldiers in the field.

  Manius was especially proud of the mobile ballista his team developed. They had taken a heavy cumbersome siege weapon and successfully down-sized it to accompany a Legion on the move. It was now a relatively light weapon mounted on a platform that could be pulled like a
wagon. Its large sturdy wheels were designed to be pulled or pushed through dirt, mud, snow, or wetlands. Troops would curse it and hate dragging it around, but cheer when they witnessed its arrows slam into a line of charging enemy infantry or cavalry.

  Improving the standard Roman helmet was another of Manius’ pet project. His team engineered and tested several versions of hinged cheek protectors and felt they had finally gotten it right. It was wholeheartedly approved by the troops that tested it and later was adopted by the army. Manius also affixed crossing reinforcing bars at the crown of the helmet to blunt sword blows. To alleviate one of the loudest Legionaries’ complaints, he glued woolen pads to the inside of the helmet to reduce chaffing. Then, as a final enhancement, he developed a fingerless left handed glove to protect the Legionaries’ knuckles while carrying their shields.

  Manius tinkered with the ballista’s arrow, but did not introduce the results to the army. It still had too many kinks, but he continued to work on it as a personal project. He reasoned that if the ballista arrow had fins it would improve its accuracy and ability to fly, much like a conventional bowman’s arrow. While working on this project, his craftsman attached wings about half way up the shaft and forward of the firing mechanism. When the first arrow with wings was released, instead of going straight to the target, it sailed upwards at a 45 degree angle and overshot the target.

  This was totally unexpected and, therefore, peaked everyone’s’ interest. They eventually discovered that the size of the wings and angle of their tilt determined its range and angle of flight. The arrow could be made to either dive into the ground or soar upwards. They also discovered that by imbedding lead weights into the shaft of the arrow, it had a much greater penetrating power albeit a shorter range. The bottom line for Manius was that the wings would increase the normal ballista range of 400 yards by about 200 yards. Further effort on the project was abandoned for the moment, but Manius would return to it.

  The Army Board accepted the modifications and the new equipment was issued to the Legions. Manius had grown in sophistication and practical wisdom during this entire process and impressed all with whom he came into contact. Levi was so pleased with the results of Manius’ effort that he recommended him for promotion to Military Tribune. The Concilium Plebis concurred and Manius became Tribune Manius Titurius Tullus [a Brigadier General].

  His pay had gone from 1 As per day as a common soldier to 5 As per day as a Centurion to 6.5 as a Tribune. When he told Lucia that he had been promoted, she quickly calculated that their pay would jump from their Centurion’s pay of 1825 As per year to 2380 [$5000].

  The Battle of Clastidium 222 BC (6 years before Cannae)

  Now that Tribune Tullus had completed his three year assignment with Levi to improve the Army’s equipment, he immediately requested an assignment with a Legion, but not to just any of the six currently in the field. He specifically asked to be assigned to one of the two Legions commanded by four-time Consul and highly experienced soldier Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

  Marcellus was raised with the purpose of entering military service. He quickly distinguished himself as an ambitious warrior, who was known for his skill in hand-to-hand combat. He is noted for saving the life of his brother, Otacilius, when the two were surrounded by enemy soldiers.

  As a young man in the Roman army, Marcellus rapidly rose through the ranks. For his exceptional service, in 226 BC he was appointed curule aedile of the Roman Republic. An aedile was an overseer of public buildings and festivals and an enforcer of public order. This is generally the first position one seeks when desiring a political career. The title of curule signifies that the person is a patrician, or upper classman, rather than a plebeian, or commoner as was Marcellus. Around the same time that he became an aedile, Marcellus was also awarded the position of augur, an interpreter of omens.

  By the age of 46, in 222 BC, Marcellus was elected to serve as one of the two Consul of the Roman Republic, the highest political office and military position in Rome. The second Consul was also an experienced soldier by the name of Publius Cornelius Scipio. Consul Scipio’s father was Lucius Cornelius Scipio, himself a well known Consul, Censor, and General of the victorious Roman fleet during the 1st Punic War.

  The Scipio family was one of the oldest and most widely respected of the six major patrician families in Rome. [Consul Scipio’s brother was also a Consul who was killed in 211 BC during the 2nd Punic War. This Scipio was the father of the most famous Scipio of all, Scipio Africanus, 235-183 BC, who was a Roman Consul, survivor of Cannae, and the General who finally defeated Hannibal in the battle of Zama in 202 BC.]

  Consul Marcellus had a reputation as an exceptionally detailed planner and one who could conceptualize an entire campaign before it happened. Rumors abounded that he drove his subordinates to the point of exhaustion and treated the ordinary troops a bit too harshly. Nonetheless, Manius felt Marcellus had much to teach him and looked forward to campaigning with him.

  Marcellus reviewed Tribune Manius’ application to serve with him and was pleased to grant his request. Manius had already acquired a reputation as a loyal, intelligent, and experienced soldier. Marcellus appointed him as Senior Tribune for Maneuver and Operations of the two assigned Legions. Manius was junior to the two Legates who commanded the Legions, but since Manius spoke for the Consul in matters of maneuver and operations, he wielded considerable authority. Manius viewed his appointment as a unique learning opportunity and totally committed himself.

  After the Battle of Telamon, three years earlier, Roman spies in the Cisalpine Gaul began to report that the Gallic Insubres and the non-Gallic Ligures along with the Boii and Gaesatae had established a fort at Acerrae alongside the River Addua [Adda]. This fort was close to where the Addua joins the Podus [Po] River, which is a major east-west river and vital for Roman commerce. The Insubres built the fort at Acerrae [modern Pizzighettone/Gera)] and used the fort to extract taxes and goods from Roman and non-Roman river traffic.

  The Abdua is a tributary of the Po. It rises in the Alps near the border with Switzerland, flows through Lake Como, passes by the fort at Acerrae, and joins the much larger Po. The fort is about seven miles upstream from the confluence of the two rivers.

  Another reason for Rome’s interest in the fort at Acerrae was that the Roman supply fort at Clastidium [modern Casteggio] was a mere 50 miles to the west. The supply fort was also situated 30 miles south of and precariously close to the Insubres capital of Mediolanum [Milan]. Clastidium was established to collect, store, and eventually ship to Rome various trade goods such as grain and metal ore gathered from the several Gallic and non-Gallic tribes in the Cisalpine. The relationship worked fairly well and required a relatively small garrison to defend. The fort at Clastidium was built to defend against a weak opponent. After all, the local Gallic population benefited from the fort as much, if not more so, than did the Romans. An attack was always possible, but considered remote.

  Figure 7 Clastidium (Google Maps)

  This thinking, however, changed with the establishment of the fort at Acerrae and the resultant Gallic interference with commerce on the rivers. Strong enemy forces were now an easy three to five days march away from Clastidium and in direct competition for trading goods. The Roman Senate and the Comitia Centuriata studied the problem, weighed the options, and concluded that as long as Acerrae stood, it posed a continual threat to Rome’s interests in the Cisalpine. Acerrae had to be removed either peaceably or by force.

  There was another unspoken yet powerful motivator for the Comitia Centuriata to vote to go to war over Acerrae. Ever since the city of Rome was invaded 165 years ago by these wild, undisciplined and frightening Gallic men from the north, a deep fear of them had been embedded into Roman culture and psyche. To the average Roman, they represented the dark brooding malevolent evil of childhood fantasy that refused to simply go away upon waking or growing up. It was a very real threat and was at the core of Roman decision making. This fear was fueled, in part, by the simple
fact that the average Gallic male stood two to three inches taller than the average Roman and elicited an unspoken Roman insecurity.

  The two Consuls were each assigned two Legions and instructed to march without delay to “disestablish” the fort at Acerrae by any means necessary. They were also instructed to strengthen the fortifications at Clastidium and to send a message throughout the Cisalpine that Rome would not tolerate any interference with her trade. The four Legions began the process of assembling the necessary food, fodder, and fuel to sustain them for at least 6-months in the field.

  As the senior Consul, Marcellus was given the honor of planning the campaign, but Scipio retained the right to veto any aspect of the plan. This was standard procedure and ensured full cooperation between the two Consuls.

  Marcellus gathered a few trusted former Consuls, former and sitting Senators, and the four Legates, as well as several experienced soldiers, including Manius, to brainstorm a concept of operations. The Legions meanwhile made preparations to deploy.

  After three full days of non-stop discussion and planning, Marcellus directed his staff to assemble the 24 Tribunes from the four Legions, 60 Centurions (15 from each Legion), and 80 ordinary Legionaries (20 from each Legion). This was 100% Marcellus. After he had already thought his way through the upcoming campaign, he would assemble the key players involved in the operation and brief them. Afterwards, he would request input from the assembly, but rarely received any since his thinking was so detailed and complete.

  On the appointed day, Marcellus rose, faced the audience, surveyed the faces, nodded to a few, and began to speak. At first his delivery was slow, precise, and authoritarian, but as he warmed to his topic, he picked up the pace, showed his enthusiasm, and pulled everyone along with his confidence and professionalism. This was a leader that soldiers and civilians alike wanted to follow!