- The Roman Army used a variety of tactics against their enemies.
List of Tactics
- Ambush
- Circumvallation
- Contravallation
- Cohort System
- Double Envelopment
- Maniple System
- Roman Marching Camp
- Phalanx System
- Testudo
- The Orb
- Vastatio
- Wedge Formation
- Roman Battle Formations
Other Army Tactics
- Roman Siege Machines:
- to destroy the Walls of Enemy Cities and Fortresses and deny them safe havens.
- Rotation of Soldiers:
- the fighting legionaries in the front line were rotated every few minutes, with a fresh line.
- Denial of Supplies:
- Prevention of Food and weapons from reaching the enemy.
- Disruption of Enemy Charges:
- Infantry Techniques for disrupting an enemy charge using Cavalry, Chariots or Elephants.
- River Logistics:
- Resupply via the Rivers: Tacitus relates that Germanicus used the rivers to resupply the legions during the Gallic Wars.
- High Ground:
- Digging in on high ground or using a strongly fortified position. Then waiting for the enemy to attack, weakening them through attrition, then conducting a series of sharp counter-attacks.
- Catapults:
- Use of Artillery to weaken the enemy lines prior to an attack: Every Centuria in the Legion had its own Torsion Catapult called a Cheiroballistra. This meant there were 60 Catapults in each Legion.
Roman Authors describing Military Tactics
- Polybius (c.200-c.118 BCE)
- ‘The Histories’. They cover the period 220-146 BCE.
- It includes an eye witness account of the final Fall and Sack of Carthage in 146 BCE.
- Vitruvius (c.88-c.26 BCE)
- De Architectura
- Book X describes Catapults and Siege Machines.
- Frontinus (c.35 – 103/104 CE)
- Strategemata
- It is a collection of 4 Books, containing 500 examples of different Tactics.
- Dio Cassius (c. 155-235 CE)
- The ‘History of Rome’ written in 80 Volumes covering 1,000 years of Roman history and wars.
- He describes the Testudo.
- Vegetius (c.390-c.450 CE)
- De Rei Militari.
- A Manual on Military Strategy.
- Maurice (582-602 CE)
- He was a Roman Emperor in the East who wrote a Manual on War.
- The Strategikon was used for the next 1,000 years.