Strategy and Doctrine
Roman Legion Tactics (Manipular and Cohort System)
Also Known As Manipular System
Ancient, Roman Republic
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The tactical system of the Roman legion evolved through two major forms. The manipular system, developed in the centuries after the Battle of the Allia in 387 BC and formalized by the mid Republic as the historian Polybius described it, organized the legion into three lines, hastati, principes and triarii, each subdivided into maniples of two centuries, fighting in a flexible checkerboard formation screened by skirmishers. By the late Republic, around 100 BC, the cohort system replaced the three line maniple structure with ten cohorts of six centuries each, organized by experience rather than by a soldier's property class, giving the legion a more uniform and adaptable fighting unit. Julius Caesar's own legions in the Gallic Wars fought under the cohort system.
Facts
Core ClaimOrganize heavy infantry into small, flexible sub units, maniples under the earlier system, cohorts under the later one, that can maneuver, relieve each other in the fighting line and adapt to broken ground better than a single rigid phalanx. 1 Origin YearMarks the traditional starting point of the maniple reform after the Battle of the Allia; the legion's own tactical system kept evolving for centuries afterward, with the cohort system standard by about 100 BC. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Caesar's legions fought under the cohort system during the Gallic Wars.
The Roman Legion is the standing force that fought under this tactical system.
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