11-10-2014, 06:01 PM
Quote:One overlooked fact, when comparing Roman legions is amount of experience they had. Legions that crushed Macedonians at Cynoscephalae, were full of Zama veterans, soldiers with years of combat experience. Same soldiers were present also at Magnesia.
For Pydna, new generation of Romans was drafted, veterans present, were men with combat experience from small war in Iberia, but they had no experience facing disciplined enemy in large battle. For that particular reason, a lot of older men (men who fought at Magnesia and Thermopylae) were drafted again into legions, and spread out across the maniples to train younger men.
Anyway, armies that faced Germans had no real previous combat experience, even veterans (Principes and Triarii) had no real combat experience, so they were not as effective as Legions full of Zama veterans.. Only when Marius reformed legions and enforced combat training things improved. For example, in new legion, only men with real combat experience were put into prominent Veteran cohorts, such position was not guaranteed just based on age.
Like the rest of Rome's history, the late 2nd Cent BC saw Rome in a constant state of warfare. Those that fought at Arausio against the Cimbri/Teutones would have included veterans of the Gallic wars of the 120s, the various occupation armies in Gaul and Spain squashing rebellions and banditry, the wars against the Thracians and Scordisci in Illyria, as well as campaigns to quell uprisings in Sardinia and of course Jugurtha's War in Numidia. Further in 109, a number of previous laws that had restricted service limits were rescinded, which would have filled the Legions with even more veterans (though many unwillingly conscripted).
