Legions Major Weakness - Cavalry?

[caldrail]

The romans were actually very intelligent in their use of cavalry. The days of mad headlong charges at the enemy had to arrive, and its as well to remeber that roman horses weren't as readily available as in later eras, expensive, and thus valuable commodities that you wouldn't want to risk unduly. That said, we shouldn't underestimate how potentially effective they could be. Hannibals returning cavalry sealed up the roman army which in theory outnumbered the horsemen by a considerable degree. That also shows the value of tight coherent defense (which you correctly point out) and how effective cavalry is at fighting at the edge of a formation, using height, weight, mobility, and picking off stragglers seperated from their fellows.

 

Interesting point about the light infantry. Given such men were better able to keep some sort of pace with horses it allowed support. This does indicate that cavalry alone in these times weren't so capable of the decisive victories we see later (again, another point you raised). The cavalry are therefore a distraction to the enemy, to conceal the approach of this support, or a defensive measure for the light infantry in keeping enemy cavalry off their backs (a primary task for roman cavalry).

 

However, whilst this all sounds very flexible and strategically sound, the ability of ancient generals was not always so inspiring, and unlike the flexible tactics we're discussing here, it was more probable that without the command structures available in later era's the ancient armies relied on battle plans arranged before the start, and any advantage was to be gained by luring the enemy army into a worse situation. Cavalry and infantry interaction for support was in the ancient world dependent on situation, the observational skills of those involved, and whether the commanders involved had anything between their ears.

[Gaius Octavius]

At one time the Romans had camel units. (I don't know if they were Roman or allies.) Were they used in battle? If so, how? Any battle(s) in particular? Ditto, elephants. Could it be that the Romans did not expand their own cavalry arm because of the terrain they generally fought on? (At one time, each legionary was was trained in horsemanship.) At Zama, Scipio manhandled Hannibal's elephants quite easily.

[caldrail]

Camel units are recorded as in use in Egypt in the 2nd century AD. The terrain had little impact on the expansion of cavalry, since cavalry became ever more important and the dominant arm in the late empire. Legionaries weren't always taught horsemanship. This is something written by Vegetius and therefore represents an ideal situation. It wasn't possible for instance to train post-marian legionaries to ride because the legions of that time had no cavalry contingent. Julius Caesar did so because he needed cavalry there and then, not because he instituted a training program for his men.

 

Elephants, despite their size and strength, are not well suited to battle and panic easily, with a tendency to run between gaps in men no matter what the mahout has to say about it.

[Julius Ratus]

I did a good bit of research on this topic while at the university. There is not to much for me to add to this discussion. As usual, Caldrail has repeatedly hit the nail on the head, in matters dealing with the Roman military.

 

What I will add is that the Romans frequently used mercenary cavalry, or had allied contingents to make up for their general lack of cavalry. (By 'general lack' I mean that 120 Cavalry in a Legion of 5000 or so is not a very high ratio.) In the Early Republic, the majority of the cavalry were fielded by the legions of the Socii. By the Second Punic War mercenaries/foreign allies start being used; Numidians. By the Late Republic mercenary usage was widespread. Caesar used Germans and Gauls to great effect in all his wars. At Pharsalus Pompey used a whole hoard of varried cavalry units, under the command of Labienus. I haven't done much research on the Late Empire, but I think this trend towards mercenary cavalry continuing.

 

As Caldrail has pointed out, cavalry was not used during the ancient era as it was in Mediaeval times. For one thing, most horses were generally of a smaller breed that they are today. (Read Xenophon's 'Cavalry Commander' and 'Horsemanship' for more tidbits on ancient horses. The titles may be a bit off, but both are in the 'Scripta Minora'.) The only armies of the classical era, to the best of my knolledge, who used shock cavalry were the Macedonians and the Parthians. Most armies used them as harassment forces.