The Roman army (Latin: exercitus Romanorum; Ancient Greek: στρατός/φοσσᾶτον Ῥωμαίων) is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the Roman Kingdom (to c. 500 BC), the Roman Republic (500–31 BC), the Roman Empire (31 BC – 395/476 AD) and its successor, the East Roman or Byzantine Empire (395–1453). It is thus a term that spans approximately 2,000 years, during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in composition, organization, equipment and tactics, while conserving a core of lasting traditions.
Read more about Roman Army: Early Roman Army (to C. 300 BC), Roman Army of The Mid-Republic (c. 300 – 107 BC), Imperial Roman Army (30 BC – AD 284 ), Late Roman Army/East Roman Army (284–641), Komnenian Byzantine Army (1081–1204), Palaiologan Byzantine Army (1261–1453)
Famous quotes containing the words roman and/or army:
“The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English rule was, “All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.” And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What is called common sense is excellent in its department, and as invaluable as the virtue of conformity in the army and navy,—for there must be subordination,—but uncommon sense, that sense which is common only to the wisest, is as much more excellent as it is more rare.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)