THE ROMAN LEGION: WORLD'S GREATEST KILLING MACHINE (ANCIENT ROME HISTORY DOCUMENTARY)

THE ROMAN LEGION: WORLD'S GREATEST KILLING MACHINE (ANCIENT ROME HISTORY DOCUMENTARY)

It was the most impressive fighting machine ever assembled. Its prowess on the battlefields of the ancient world was unmatched, and its power could challenge even that of the emperor. From its humble beginnings as a band of part-time soldiers to its ultimate evolution as the most feared, disciplined and accomplished fighting force the world had ever seen, this is the definitive story of the Roman Legion.

Military experts revisit its epic campaigns, such as the hundred-year struggle to win Carthage, and reveal the incredible tactics and weaponry it developed and employed.

Leading historians tell of the legions' awesome influence in Roman politics, laying the empire at the feet of Caesar, yet snatching it away from the demented Caligula.

Finally, trace the inevitable decline of the force that had bent most of the known world to its will. Itís the ultimate examination of the legendary ROMAN LEGIONS.

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Closed Caption:

history channel march along with the
greatest killing machine the world had
ever seen
conquerors who turned the ancient world
into an empire men so fierce
they were feared by their own emperors
for nearly a thousand years the world
quake to their footsteps and to the very
sound of their name
the Roman legions the elite troops of
Rome's all-powerful army would conquer
an empire that stretched from the
Highlands of Scotland to the sands of
Arabia
but Rome's domination of the ancient
world would come only after
and what
journey because why hero
it's regions and the humblest of
beginnings
was born around 700 BC on the spot where
its legendary founders Romulus and Remus
were raised by a she-wolf
it was nothing more than a collection of
farmers huts located on roles palatine
hill
Rome's grandeur and the might of its
legions was still far in the future
Rome's army was composed of local
civilians currently called together for
skirmishes with neighboring villages
tropical sound
gather to be ranked according to wealth
only men of property were allowed to
fight because they could be trusted to
defend the city
fighting for Rome was considered an
honor and everyone provided his own
equipment
the wealthy could afford swords and
shields were the officers
poor Romans who could only afford
slingshots became the foot soldiers
this civilian army was given the Latin
name for call up the Geo
more Legion
the legions had some early success
against their neighbors but in 390 BC
Roman confidence was shattered in a way
that would change their history and the
worlds forever
roaming warriors from France the Gauls
swept down through italy / running
regions on the edge of Rome for six
months
the Gauls burned and looted Rome before
moving on leaving the Romans with stark
evidence in their armies inferiority
Rome now knew that survival would depend
on having a discipline professional
military machine and they would spend
the next few centuries perfecting just
that
what would enable Rome to build the
world's greatest army at the heart of
their rise to the top was a deep belief
in their own destiny
remember Roman it is for you to rule
nations to tame the proud by war
virgin Roman poet a Roman noble saw
himself was in competition not only with
the others in his cohort but with his
ancestors the Roman word was I Malati Oh
emulation and that's where they really
got that tremendous Drive that
tremendous pride the need not to let the
family down which drove many of these
men
the Roman armies determination to become
invincible could be seen in their
training
there were in bliss drills and marches
to the point of exhaustion
no one had ever trained with such a
machine like discipline they train with
the intensity of war that is why the
shock of war affects them little
Josephus ancient historian
discipline became a cult
literally worshipped by the legions
soldiers and broken pane
lives
Legionnaires could be stoned to death by
their own unit for cowardice in battle
or even for falling asleep on sentry
duty
from Roman military life came the word
decimation the practice of killing every
tenth man in a unit that him you need or
deserve didn't
the guilty man would draw lots and one
in ten would then be clubbed to death by
his car
it is horrible but i think it makes
perfect sense within the climate of the
time
the only way in the final instance to
set a standard of fear in a rough
military group of men was by some very
harsh punishment
minor offenses drew a sudden thrashing
from the feared career officers the
century ins who carried vine branches
for the task
but on the battlefield it was the harsh
discipline that gave the legions the
edge over their enemies their opponents
often fought in loose arrangements
seeking individual glory but every one
of the five thousand soldiers in a Roman
legion had a precise role play in a
master strategy and assault would begin
at long range using catapults which
showered the family with boulders and
iron bolts
next the Legion would launch its
javelins causing terrible injuries as a
rain
on the seventeenth
then the Legionnaires would stand
shoulder to shoulder tapping their
swords against their shields in a
reverberating beat of impending
finally they begin their advance a
moving
wall of destruction
when they closed with the enemy the
Romans then drew the Claudius the short
stabbing sort but their shield extended
from their chin to their ankles
they then advanced and very few enemies
could stand up to this wall of shields
with the with the claw de poking out in
front
Rome's enemies often used long slashing
swords that looked impressive but were
ineffective and close fighting the
Romans use their shields and they're
short stabbing swords to do the maximum
possible damage
I can jump from a bit with the shield
not from slightly off balance and file
that the power of the end of it was
trying to make out wondering what to do
next
the sword would come out from the side
that the shield and you would get them
suddenly under the under the rooms in
and up
using these techniques Rome began to
conquer the Italian peninsula tens of
thousands of fellow Italians were
massacred and slain or forced to fight
for Rome
but where would Rome's thirst for glory
and could wrongs legions protected
against its growing enemies by around
300 BC the legions were making roam the
master of Italy but how would the Legion
fare against the inevitable challenge
from foreign powers
when that challenge came it would leave
the world no doubt about the skill and
the ruthlessness of Rome's military
machine
into 64-bc a dispute over territory
spark a brutal war with another
expanding city on the Mediterranean
carthage in northern Africa
Carthage was a sea power while Rome was
not but Rome countered that advantage
with a stunning combination of
determination and self-confidence
the Romans quickly began building ships
using a design stolen from the
Carthaginians but the legions faced
another problem
Roman soldiers had no experience with
sailing strategy
unfazed they overcame the problem
through a leap of imagination on dry
land
they pretended to row in unison to
develop their armsmen ship once the
boats were built they did some real
sailing near the coast and pronounce
themselves ready for war
they think that nothing is impossible if
they have decided on it
Olivia's Greek historian
but how could a landlubber Navy hope to
battle Carthage the master sailors again
the Romans show their inventiveness by
turning sea battles in to land battles
they invented the boarding bridge a type
of gangplank that let them invade enemy
ships seems bizarre seem simplistic but
it worked
what they did was to try to make naval
fighting infantry fighting in other
words you put your foot soldiers on a
boat
you try to get close to the enemy to
grapple them close to put a bridge over
then they went over and they fought with
them like they were fighting a land
stunned by the strategy the Carthaginian
fleet was routed
but victory at sea was not enough over
the next hundred years
Rome and Carthage with fight grueling
land
battles all around the Mediterranean
post
the most spectacular threat to Rome came
from Carthage's great general Hannibal
led his army and elephants from Africa
through Spain and across the Alps into
Italy
Hannibal inflicted some crushing defeats
on the Roman legions and he laid siege
to Rome itself role might have fallen if
legions advancing on Carthage had not
forced Hannibal to return home to defend
his own capital
among the many casualties of the war was
the Greek mathematician Archimedes he
designed catapults for Carthage and he
was working on you geometric figures
when a Roman Legionnaire discovered him
and stabbed him to death
yeah
yeah
yeah
yeah
for Carthage dreams of empire were about
to end
finally after a century of exhausting
battles the Roman legions marched on
cartilage in 149
bc they burned the city plowed into the
ground and so did with salt
symbolically dooming their enemy for all
eternity
there is a sort of a bloodlust that
develops the more of the Romans get in
touch with people they don't understand
culturally the more they seem to have a
great deal of blood thirst
Rome emerged as the ruthless new leader
of the Mediterranean but controlling its
newly won territories was a burden
Rome had 130,000 soldiers in uniform
one Roman man in eight was in the Army
for Romans with property being in the
legions was becoming too much of a
full-time job
so the ranks were thrown open to all
citizens
and Rome expanded even further from its
conquered lands Rome recruited units
with special skills like archery and
cavalry to fight alongside the legions
the Syrian archers were famous
we are told that they learned to ride
and to shoot as children
the Romans were never any good at
archery this isn't a Roman skill so
they're bringing in these skilled
archers
the foreign recruits were called
auxiliary these and if they serve 25
years they were rewarded with Roman
citizenship
but was there a hidden danger for Rome
and expanding its army this way
the result was that many soldiers now
had less interest in defending Rome
then in making their fortune through the
spoils of war their loyalty was no
longer to Rome but to their generals
they understood who gave them the food
and the money in the chance for sacking
pillaging so that their idea Rome gets
very diluted in the outskirts and people
serving say in the Middle East are Rome
Schmo my mean it's not what is Romans
they didn't have the same ideals
the ambition of one general in
particular made him a hero to his troops
Julius Caesar Caesar recruited and paid
his own legions and train them to give
unquestioned devotion
on one occasion when supplies ran low
they even followed orders to eat grass
they conquered most of France leaving a
million dead and wounded in their wake
so loyal were Caesar's legions that they
had no hesitation in killing their own
countrymen for him
in 49 cc
Cesar and his twelve legions return to
Italy to fight a civil war against
Rome's official army in a battle for
absolute power
the world's greatest army had turned
against itself
legion was now fighting
find a case where a father finds himself
fighting his son father as an all
soldier in the Legion and his son has
been newly recruited in a region which
finds itself on the other side and they
meet in battle but the meeting battle
without knowing to the ER and that her
son killed the father and only after
that after is more than it
examining the body and discovered who it
is
Caesar's legions so battle-hardened and
loyal one easily
Cesar then became dictator for life but
his assassination soon after led to more
civil war
the legions would not be brought
together again until Augustus emerged as
the first emperor and restored unity
Augustus made the soldiers swear
allegiance to the Emperor not too
ambitious generals
he also paid them directly from Rome in
coins that reminded them exactly to the
Emperor
and it really made them very very loyal
very very committed
very very focused there were rewards for
loyalty
there were rewards for competence there
was continuity and I think that when
they were fighting far less organized
opponents
that was an enormous advantage
with newly focus determination the
legions rapidly expanded the Empire in
the first century AD penetrating as far
as Britain local tribes in there hill
forts tried resisting but were massacred
by the relentless Roman machine
was there a fortress anywhere that could
resist the power of the Roman legions
near the Dead Sea high above the deserts
of what is now Israel
stands a stronghold that 2,000 years ago
must have seemed impregnable to any
human force even the Roman legions the
fortress of Masada was part of Judea
which the Romans had conquered around
the time of Jesus is bird
the Roman occupation was bitterly
resented by the natives of Judy of the
Jews
yeah
there is a feeling that what the Romans
are trying to do is to try to undermine
jewish belief and of course the Jews had
always had they're all history is one of
what's necessary for survival and what's
necessary for survival as maintenance of
your language in your belief system
in the year 66 the Jews revolted in open
warfare and Jewish rebels battled the
legions across the Holy Lands in
retaliation
the Romans destroyed most of the capital
of Jerusalem including the Great Temple
the legions carried off Jewish holy
relics and paraded them through Rome in
triumph
but Jewish resistance was not finished
bands of zealots began occupying ancient
fortresses in the desert intent on
continuing the struggle the greatest of
these fortresses Masada was on a plateau
1,300 feet high
it had been built a hundred years
earlier by King Herod as a safe haven
against attack by the Egyptian army and
it seemed unassailable
960 Jewish zealots were using it as a
base for pillaging the surrounding
countryside
secure in their fortress they dared the
Romans to try to take them
there was no prospect of starving the
place out anytime soon because Herod and
his successors had put huge stores of
food
there was plenty of water because Herod
had constructed huge are rain-fed
cisterns inside the mountain that were
fitted that we're fed during the winter
rains
the only way to take Masada was by
direct assault
the apparently impossible task of
assaulting the plateau fortress fell to
a single Legion the 10 backed by a
thousand auxiliary troops and Jewish
prisoners captured in the war
the Legion was 15,000 men strong when it
arrived at the foot of Masada in the
autumn of 72 ad the full force of Roman
might was about to launch itself against
a rebel outpost
even though the legions had already
taken Jerusalem
it was symbolic more than anything
Plutarch once said that if you get in
trouble with the Romans they put their
boot on your neck and I think the Romans
were putting their boots now on to the
Jewish neck
unlike the rebels above who were well
supplied the legion was camped in a
merciless desert scorching by day and
freezing at night
all food and building materials for a
siege would have to be tracked in from
great distances
another army might have moved on but not
the legions powered by Roman pride
take almost any seemingly impregnable
fortress through the use of siege
engines and their own courage and with
this army Rome conquered the entire
Mediterranean world
the only time that the Mediterranean
world has ever been under the rule of a
single a single government
the 10th Legion began by encircling the
entire plateau with a stone wall 6 feet
high and nearly three miles long a
message to the rebels that they were cut
off forever
but how could the Romans even hope to
assault the summit from nearly every
angle the cliffs were just too steep
but there was one possibility an outcrop
on the western side here the Legion
would try building a ramp to the top in
order to bring its heavy weapons within
range of the rebels you can imagine of
course how every soldier is a engineer
is a shovel person is carrying pails of
dirt and rocks and things as well as
carrying their weapons
the Romans and their Jewish prisoners
began building the ramp as the rebels
shower them with rocks and any other
missiles they could find
Romans pressed on and after six months
came within 50 yards of the summit
from there the catapults force the
rebels back while the Romans battered an
opening through the outside walls they
breached the outer wall but found the
rebels had retreated behind a second
wall made of Earth and timber which
their battering rams would not budge
so the Roman set this wall on fire and
waited for the next morning to make
their final assault
but inside the rebels were not prepared
to wait for the inevitable
they knew the Fate awaiting them after
capture by the legions slavery rate and
ritual murder
the zealots leader Eleazar Ben Yair told
them god had decided their fate and that
it was better to die honorably now and
to wait for the Romans in the morning
come while our hands are free and can
hold a sword
let them do noble service let us die on
in slave by our enemies and leave this
world as free men and the aids are Ben
Yair
when the Romans burst into the fortress
the next morning they found no enemy to
meet them
shouts to surrender brought nothing but
apples
finally two women and five children
emerged from hiding to announce
themselves as the only survivors the
Jewish rebels had killed all the other
women and children and then themselves
in a final act of defiance and it was a
heroic defense by the defenders but from
the perspective of a Roman historian
what's really astounding about this
whole operation is that the Romans took
the seemingly impregnable fortress while
suffering almost no casualties in doing
so
nothing demonstrates the power of the
Romans brilliant since each craft more
than the siege of Masada a military
force that could take Masada must have
felt invincible
but was there a way to defeat the
legions
yeah
deep in a German forest and enemy would
prove that there was to the legions
horrible cost
yeah
the Roman legions have registered one
crushing victory after another
throughout the ancient world but were
they invincible in this German forest in
the year 9 ad they would have their
answer
Germany had long been a prize target for
the Romans and under the emperor
augustus the legions has subdued the
local tribes or so they thought
Rome was so confident of its hold on
Germany that Augustus appointed his
great-nephew as military commander there
Antilles various was a lawyer by trade
with little knowledge of war
and his appointment to Germany can I
think be interpreted as a sign that
Augustus and his advisers thought that
Germany was now largely pacified and
ready for regular civilian
administration
why were the Romans so complacent one
reason was that many German soldiers had
fought with the legions in the European
campaigns one of them
Arminius had fought so well that the
Romans had made him a night of the
Empire
even though he left the army to return
to Germany
the Romans still count him as an ally
but that trust would prove fatal
are many is told the Roman commander
veras of an uprising in northern Germany
and advised him to take three legions
there to deal with it
varus was warmed that that
Arminius was leading in on I mean he was
you know there were Germans who were
prepared to come to Varys and say don't
trust him and various according to this
account wouldn't listen to their
when various headed north in his trust
and ignorance he was walking into a
full-scale rebellion a rebellion planned
by are many as himself as a former Roman
officer
Arminius knew exactly how to set the
trap
and because Arminius who was even a
Roman citizen had been schooled in the
Roman army before he turned traitor to
Roman returned to his own country
he knew Roman military tactics he knew
Roman military operations
he knew well the forces that he was
going to ambush in the forest
Baris had taken within three legions and
auxiliary these about 20,000 soldiers in
all plus 10,000 civilians the regular
camp followers
the Romans were traveling as if in time
of peace
they had women and even children with
them in the column
I following in the in the baggage train
so really they were they set themselves
up for a battle that they really
couldn't win
varus was so unsuspecting that he took a
shortcut through a narrow gap between a
forest and a swamp
just as are many as had hoped
it began to rain and they were making
their way between the mountain on one
side and the marsh to the other side and
then came the initial German attack
which was launched by Spears from some
distance at first which killed quite a
few of the Romans and put them into
confusion
Arminius had caught the legions at their
most vulnerable on open fields Roman
discipline was almost unbeatable
but in the depths of the German forest
the legions had no answer to the
guerrilla tactics of their opponents
imagine the scene in this forest 2,000
years ago with the Romans trapped here
in the pouring rain that pandemonium the
wagons overturning the cavalry horses
stampeding the Roman women and children
crying shrieking as they died
the fighting lasted three days and ended
in a complete disaster for the Romans 3
entire legions and their followers some
30,000 people was slaughtered
only a few hundred escaped
yeah
Forest himself committed suicide along
with his top officers rather than fall
into the German hands and probably with
good reason because the Germans in fact
treated the captured Romans in a very
barbaric fashion burn them alive and so
forth
the news caused panic and disbelief in
Rome
overnight the Empire had lost three of
its twenty eight legions more than ten
percent of its army for years afterwards
Augustus roamed the palace screaming
quintilius Varis give me back my legions
but perhaps the blame way less with
field commander Varys and more with the
judgments made in Rome itself after the
disaster after his death he was the
escaped he was the fall guy
the blame for the disaster is not only
his back
Augustus azure justice and his advisers
back in Rome
yeah
also at fault with the legions
themselves and a state of mind that
allowed them to fall into the fatal trap
laziness the Romans made the one error
they taught never to make they got the
relaxed they were not highly energized
and so they were caught by the Germans
who knew how to have fight in this type
of territory very well
Rome would never conquer Germany but it
would send soldiers to the same German
forest a few years later to discover the
fate of the Lost legions
they came across an awful scene of on
very jumbles of bones lying around and
skulls pounded into tree trunks and
military equipment scattered everywhere
and so forth and they tried to gather up
the bones and give these Roman comrades
a decent burial
ever since the exact site of the
disaster had been lost to history
are many as have become a great German
folk hero
but there was no record of just where in
the forest he won his historic victory
that changed in 1987
when an archaeologist using a metal
detector like this one found dozens of
buried Roman coins here was this the
definitive clue to the site
none of the coins were dated later than
nine ad meaning they were almost
certainly carried by viruses legions
further digging has an earth equipment
such as a Roman doctors medical
instruments that would have gone unused
here and the metal mask of a Roman
cavalry officer a silent witness to the
horror of an ancient slaughter
Oh
the tragedy in the forest was an
enormous blow to the Roman legions but
they would recover and go on to new
conquest it would literally reshape the
world as they went
how could an army capable of savage
destruction also be creators of beauty
of cities roads and monuments
through six centuries and visual
contests the Roman legions built an
empire that stretched from Britain
across the length of Europe to the
deserts of the Middle East
once conquered the colonies were
controlled through fear to resist the
legions was to invite terrible
punishment and it was not just the
Concord who feared them the fear
extended to the Emperor's themselves
no ever ruled without the Legion support
and not one survived their displeasure
yeah
most powerful of all was the Praetorian
Guard stationed in Rome itself
it had the power of life and death over
the Emperor's on a single day in 4180
the guard murdered the Emperor Caligula
and then replaced him with his uncle
Claudius and they found cowering in fear
behind a palace curl
naked kill whoever was there that wasnt
paying them or wasn't taking good care
of them or they felt was acting contrary
to the their interests which were not
really always the interest of Rome but
the interests of their leaders
yeah
so great was the Army's power to make or
break Emperor's that in the year 193 the
Praetorian Guard put the crown up for
auction to wealthy Romans began bidding
for it and the soldiers spurred them on
to raise their bids
finally Darius Julianus was declared the
winner
when he promised each guard a bribe of
five years pay
but Giuliana's overpaid just 66 days
later he was killed by a soldier inside
the palace and the legions in the field
installed one of their generals Septimus
Severus as Emperor
he was one of 10 Legion commanders who
would become emperor
the basic problem of the room state is
that there is no Constitution
there is no easy system of succession
within a constitutional form once three
or four or five generals realize that
whichever one gets to Rome will become
emperor
the temptation is too hard to avoid
not surprisingly
Emperor's did their best to keep the
legions busy in the field so that they
didn't have time to hatch plots when
they weren't fighting battles the
legions were usually building great
public works
partly to keep everybody busy but partly
because if you were an ally of Rome the
Romans would show you that they were
your good friends and how Bill civic
buildings each Legion included
architects engineers surveyors and
craftsmen and with Legionnaires
providing the labor they rebuilt the
world
for themselves the legions built complex
forts complete with bath houses and
sometimes amphitheaters where they would
hold Roman games perhaps even
sacrificing prisoners captured in war
with their public works
they imitated Rome itself building
aqueduct baths nails and above all roads
the legions color the Empire inroads to
allow the fast movement of troops and
trade
many had been turned into Europe's
highways and many others are still in
use
on the frontiers of Europe the legions
were the torch bearers of civilization
in many places
Roman technology had never been seen
before
many European cities including bath
london Barcelona and bond were begun as
Roman settlements
gradually as they became the preeminent
civilization in the Mediterranean world
they saw themselves as the civilized as
against these barbarians
why did the Legion spend so much effort
in building up their colonies
it was a way of keeping the provinces
under control
local leaders soon became aristocrats
fond of their Roman comforts
savage people were drawn towards baths
and elegant banquets
but these were the chains of enslavement
tacitus Roman historian but Roman moon
could not last forever
by the year 400 the iron grip of the
Roman legions was weakening
what caused the greatest army the world
has ever seen to be toppled from power
one reason was its increasing reliance
on foreign soldiers now only one soldier
in a hundred was Italian compared with
sixty-five percent in Augustus his day
I think that the Romans lost a lot of
their initial energy because they were
now that their ranks are being occupied
by people who had other interests other
religions other enthusiasm James
with less national pride the legions
famous discipline began to fade once
they're strict rules had banned the
soldiers from marrying now Legionnaires
were raising families inside the fort's
from inside the barrack buildings there
are quite clearly not merely soldiers
shoes but children's shoes
it looks as if soldiers had their
families actually in the barracks with
the Roman tactic and fighting in tight
formation is required the strictest
discipline
without it the strategy could not
succeed the legions became easy targets
for the fiercely determined barbarians
invading Italy like the Vandals and the
hards
Attila the Hun mocked the ones
formidable legions as cowards hiding
behind their shields legions were
recalled from the frontiers to defend
Italy but the Barbarian raids food
irresistible
the notion that the Romans could stand
there with their finger in the dike
along the Rhine River forever
i think is folly
it is not simply a matter of being tough
enough
the pressures are beyond that Rome and
the western half of its Empire fell to
the barbarians in 476 ad the legions
melted back into the general population
the glory days of their infantry warfare
were gone
overwhelmed by the cavalry charges that
have brought the barbarians victory
but no defeat on the battlefield could
erase the mark of the legions
unlike any force before or since they
dominated the Mediterranean and beyond
leaving a legacy of
laws language and architecture that we
still encounter on every step of our
journey in search
history
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