For centuries the Roman Republic and Roman Empire were able to conquer and force their will on other people around the Mediterranean Sea.

The success of Rome was built on its army, and its army was able to sustain its dominance for so long because of its system of superior

organization and logistics.

It was this system that allowed them to excel in ancient warfare for such a long period of time.

Learn more about how Roman armies worked and what made them so successful

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. And the Before I get into how the Roman army functioned I should note that the Roman military

was not a static thing. Rome in its various iteration was around for a really long time and during that time there

were changes that were gradually made in how the army was organized.

Furthermore, army logistics differed depending on where the army was and in what sort of environment they were in.

How you scrounge for food will be very different in a desert than it would have been in a forest.

So take this with a little bit of a grain of salt.

What I'll be going over was typical, but not necessarily universal during the Roman

period.

So with that, let's start with the organization of the Roman army, and the base unit of the Roman military

was the Legion. A Legion would have consisted of anywhere between 4,500 to 5,800 men, depending on the period.

During the Republic, there may have been as few as 4,200 foot soldiers and 300 cavalry.

Later, during the Imperial period, there could have been as many as 5,600 infantry and 200 auxiliary troops.

Below the Legion in structure there were cohorts and centuries.

A Legion with 4,800 men would have had 10 cohorts of six centuries, with each century consisting of 80

Legionnaires.

The organization of legions was standard, which allowed for legions to be quickly disbanded and merged with little

interruption. If a legion had to be merged with another one, everyone would already know their

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