The Roman Legionary

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you picture ancient Roman Soldiers, an image of battle-hardened warriors equipped with iron breastplates, large rectangular shields and mighty helmets will no doubt come to mind. Immortalised in cinematic classics like 'Gladiator' or HBO Period Dramas - the depictions of Roman legionaries tend to all look the same on the surface. But how accurate is this bloodthirsty, armour clad vision - and how did the actual Roman legionaries change across the centuries?

In this episode Tristan welcomes best selling author Ben Kane to the podcast, to delve into the history of the Roman legionaries. Looking at what the clothing, weapons, and archaeology can tell us about legionaries across time (and continent) - who exactly were the Roman legionaries, and how do you separate fact from fiction?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a fan of the podcast, well I've got some exciting news for you, because we,
0:04.3	at History Hit, were with publishing a book. If you've ever wondered who the third man
0:09.8	on the moon was, or why a pigeon became a hero to the American army, or even whether
0:15.8	Napoleon was really that small. Well then, the History Hit Misscellany will have the answer.
0:23.0	It's available to preorder now, and will be published on the 28th of September. You
0:28.2	can preorder from your favourite bookshop, or visit historyhit.com slashbook. And don't
0:33.9	worry, there's ancient history a plenty in there. I'm made sure of it.
0:40.7	This episode is sponsored by the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books
0:45.3	and ideas. Now as you all know on the ancients, we love to delve into the detail, because
0:50.3	it's in the detail that you really understand why particular topics are so fascinating.
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1:43.0	It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's episode
1:56.4	what we're talking about the most iconic military unit of ancient Rome. We're talking all
2:02.8	about the legionary soldier, we'll be looking at the legionaries, arms, his armour, his
2:08.3	length of service, his evolution over hundreds of years of Roman history, and to talk through
	...

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