Republican Army
During the Roman Republic a "Polybian" legion (ca. 300–88 BC) of citizen-levies had a cavalry complement of 300 horse, divided into 10 turmae (squadrons) of 30 men each. Each turma was led by 3 decurions, who were elected by the squadron members themselves. Although decurio literally means "leader of 10 men", it does not appear that a turma was sub-divided into 3 troops of 10 men each. Instead, one decurion would act as squadron commander and the other two as his deputies. All decurions were members of the Roman equestrian order, as were many of their subordinates.
Read more about this topic: Decurion (Roman Cavalry Officer)
Famous quotes containing the words republican and/or army:
“A Republican by principle and devotion, I will, until my death, oppose all Royalists ... and all enemies of my Government and the Republic.”
—Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (1763–1844)
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)