The Roman army was broken down into different
groups to have a clear chain of command during battle. The smallest unit was
the conturbenium, which was a group of eight soldiers. These men marched together
and shared a tent or a room at a fort. Ten conturbenium made up a century (only
eighty men on average) which was commanded by a centurion. Six centuries would
be combined to make up a cohort. Then ten Cohorts would be combined to make
up a legion or about 6,000 men. The first cohort of the legion was usually twice
the size of a normal cohort, and had the best soldiers in it. The legion, all
of which was infantry, was the backbone of the Roman army. "Each legion
contained four lines, or groups, of soldiers. The front line soldier was the
velites, who was trained to throw spears at the enemy. Behind the velites was
the hastatus and the preinceps. These soldiers did most of the fighting. They
had light armor and used swords. The last line was the triarius, who wore heavy
armor" (Matthews 1989, pg 6-7). In addition to the legionaries, auxiliary
cohorts of cavalry or specialists such as archers, would also be part of the
unit.
Color Naval Pictures of World War II 