Whenever there was a war in Rome all land-owning male citizens of Rome were forced to report to the field of Mars, god of war. The field was in the center of Rome, where all could easily reach it. At the field the permanent soldiers would train the citizens to be soldiers. Soldiers were grouped into legions, each of which held 4200 men. The legions were further divided into roughly 20 maniples. The military wasn’t very coherent and they did’nt write down reliable information until they changed the system altogether. This military system was kept up by the Romans up until 107 B.C. when they were conquered by the Gauls. A military commander named Gaius Marius had been exiled for political reasons before the events of the Gallic Wars. When he learned that Rome was being destroyed by the Gauls he gathered an army from the countryside on his way to Rome and fought with the Gauls. When he won and drove the Gauls back to France was named second-Romulus, who was the most respected figure to the Romans. As such he was reinstated as leader of the roman military and decided to fix some things about it and clarify some rules. This new rendition of the Roman military upped the size of a legion to 5000 men. Each legion was divided into 5 cohorts, which were in turn divided into 10 centuries. Marius also changed the qualifications for the military, making it so even slaves could join the military and earn their freedom if the got promoted high enough. This form of the military stayed the same for 470 years. This form of military is part of the reason Rome became so famous and powerful, so if anyone reading this has plans to do what Rome did I recommend using this military formation.
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