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( Roman army)
The Roman Army was a military organization employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military. Its main infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion; (for a catalogue of individual legions, dates and deployments, see List of Roman legions). The army in the late Roman Empire consisted of about 375,000 men, organized hierarchically. The main Roman soldiers in the Empire were the legionaries. There were other soldiers in the army known as the auxilia. Auxilia were non-citizens recruited mostly from the provinces. They were paid less than legionaries but at the end of their service they were granted Roman citizenship (see Roman auxiliaries). Despite the fact that the Roman Navy controlled the Mediterranean, it never operated as an entity independent from the Roman Army. The army was enmeshed with Roman political life. Commanders of legions, or Legatus Legionis were appointed by the emperor and the tribunes and other senior officers were senate appointments. Centurions, the professional soldiers commanding units of 80-100 men, were often promoted from the ranks by the emperor or other influential political figures. The Roman army conquered the regions of modern-day Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Southern Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, northwest Saudi Arabia, Lower Egypt, northern Libya, northern Algeria, northern Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, France, England, Wales, Belgium and Monaco. The Roman army was later succeeded by the Byzantine army, which served under the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). Among Roman soldiers, the smallest organization unit was called a "contubernium". This was a group of 8 soldiers (however originally it was made of 10), that shared a tent and ate together. There were 10 contubernia in a "century". A century was the next largest group of soldiers. A century was a group of originally 100 men in the Early Roman Republic but later reduced to 80 men during the Roman Empire. The next largest group of soldiers were called "maniples". Next were the "cohorts". These were made up of 6 centuries (480 men). A "prima cohors" was the first cohort in a legion; it was much larger than the other cohorts, containing about 5 double strength centuries (800-men). Finally, the largest group in the Roman Army was the legion.There were ten cohorts including the "prima cohors" in a legion. A full-strength legion contained 6,000 men though it was not uncommon for most legions to be undermanned due to previous battles. All of these numbers depended on the date (ex. Scipio Africanus reformation, Gaius Marius reformation). The republican army's strength, in peace, was four legions, but the number was increased during wartime. The highest number of legions was 70 after the civil war between Octavian (Augustus) and Mark Antony, due to having two whole Roman empires fighting when the remainder of Antony's forces joined with Octavian's. The number was decreased to 28 legions soon after, as the economically strained empire could not pay such huge numbers. After the Varus disaster, only 25 legions remained.
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