Roman Legion in late Antiquity

[Mark Hygate]

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Finally, the economic problems of the third century onwards demanded that the army change to armour and equipment that was cheaper to make and almost, if not as, effective as earlier styles. The change in equipment may have forced a change in tactics and hence a change in unit structure in different parts of the Empire......

Spears, swords, shields, armour, heavy throwing weapons, light throwing weapons and bows.....

Changes were minor, refinements happened, economics played a part - but nothing really changed in well over 1,000 years. The medieval period eventually saw extremes of plate armour and longbows, but there was no overriding need to change tactics and therefore battlefield organisations until gunpowder - and not much needed then (a Napoleonic French Corp at Waterloo (now including guns) is almost identical to a Polybian Consular army). Only with the advent of rapid-firing machine-guns, modern artillery and tanks did the next revolution in warfare occur.