How to Beat the Romans
If you’re fighting the Romans the odds are against you, but there are some things you can do to tilt the balance in your favour
Tips and tricks for taking on the ancient fighting force
In the long history of the Roman Empire, the Romans (obviously) won many more times than they lost. In their military history, however, they also suffered some devastating defeats and setbacks. If they were any other empire, those defeats may have spelled their demise, but the Romans had a habit of coming back and, if you did not wipe them out, they would get you in the end. There are, however, several tricks and lessons we can learn from those occasions on which the Romans were bested. If you learn your lessons from history well, perhaps you too could beat the Romans.
TRICK THEM AND TRAP THEM The Battle of the Caudine Forks, 321 BCE
As Rome began to take the first steps towards empire and pressed her cause to become the masters of the Italian peninsula, she came into conflict with her neighbours. One of the most powerful of these were the Samnites, located to the south. The Samnite commander, Gaius Pontius, sent a soldier in disguise to tell the Romans that the Samnites were besieging a city (which they were not). The Romans were taken in by this subterfuge and marched to relieve the city. Their route would take them through a narrow mountain pass (the Caudine Forks) with only a single entrance and exit. When the Romans entered the pass, however, they found the far end barricaded and their retreat now blocked by the Samnite army. The Samnite commander asked his father for advice and was told that the Samnites could either kill every Roman at their leisure and eliminate them as a threat, or free them (and gain them as a friend and ally). Eventually (as the Roman army starved), the Romans were forced to go ‘under the yoke’, a sign of abject humiliation and subservience. The Romans would long remember the humiliation but soon renewed the war with the Samnites, eventually conquering them in 290 BCE.
MAKE THEM ATTACK YOU ON GROUND OF YOUR CHOOSING The Battle of Adrianople, 9 August 378 CE
In 376 CE, a number of Gothic tribes gathered on the far bank of the Danube and asked for admission to the Roman Empire. Rome had by that point been split into two empires, east and west, and the Goths were seen as a potential bulwark against the Huns, a marauding and warlike people who had forced the Goths westwards. Allowed into the empire, the Goths were immediately maltreated by Roman officers and officials and broke into revolt. Over the next two years they defeated several armies and the Eastern Roman emperor himself, Valens, was forced to muster an army and deal with the threat. The Goths were led by an able strategist in Fritigern, who was cunning and wily. Valens was also jealous of his nephew, Gratian, the western emperor who had recently been successful against various German tribes. Fritigern kept his actual numbers concealed and therefore lured an over-eager Valens to face him alone. Ill-prepared, Valens marched his army against the Gothic wagon-laager, where his troops began to skirmish before they were fully deployed. The Gothic cavalry charged unexpectedly, forcing the Roman cavalry from the field. They then surrounded the Roman infantry and overwhelmed them with missiles. The losses were as great as those at Cannae.
MAKE THEM THINK THEY ARE WINNING The Battle of Cannae, 2 August 216 BCE
The Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca marched his army from Spain and (unexpectedly) invaded Italy in 218
BCE. He inflicted several defeats on the Romans over the next two years but the greatest of these was at Cannae. The Romans marched to meet Hannibal on the plains of Apulia in southeastern Italy. Hannibal drew up his army with his Spanish and Celtic mercenaries in the middle of his formation and his African veterans on each wing, with his cavalry placed on each flank to protect the infantry. The Romans had some 80,000 men, more than the Carthaginians, drawn up in a deep formation but in the usual three lines: hastati, principes and triarii. The Romans advanced and forced the Carthaginian centre back – this was the usual sign you were winning a battle. Meanwhile, Hannibal’s cavalry had forced the inferior Roman cavalry to flee from the field. As the Romans advanced, confident they were winning, the African veterans were able to press in on the Roman flanks. When the Carthaginian cavalry returned, they charged the rear of the Roman lines and the double envelopment was complete. The Roman army was annihilated in a battle that is still lauded and studied to this day. Only 15,000 Romans survived.
TRICK, ISOLATE AND SURROUND THEM Battle of Carrhae, 9 June 53 BCE
The development of Rome’s empire meant individual commanders competed to add to it. While Julius Caesar was subjugating Gaul, his companion Crassus (the wealthiest man in Rome) decided that he would add Parthia to compete with Caesar and gain glory for himself. He marched an army of seven legions (some 50,000 men) into the Parthian Empire in 53 BCE. Crassus’ army was mostly infantry but that of the Parthians consisted mostly of cavalry, both horse archers and heavily armoured cataphracts. Although he was advised to avoid the desert (the most direct route), Crassus ignored this advice and marched directly towards the Parthian cities. The Parthian king, Orodes II, sent out his general, Surena, with an allcavalry force which probably numbered only 10,000 men. Betrayed by his guide into attacking the Parthians, Crassus marched into the driest part of the desert towards the town of Carrhae. There, he encountered Surena’s forces and formed his men into a hollow square. Surena was able to ride his horse archers around the square and pepper it with arrows, then follow up with heavy cavalry charges when the Romans broke ranks to attack. He also used feigned retreats and the famed ‘Parthian shot’ (an archer turning and firing from a retreating horse). The Romans surrendered, suffering 30,000 casualties and losing several legionary standards.
CATCH THEM UNAWARES The Battle of the Allia, 18 July c.390 BCE
The Gallic people the Senones had invaded Italy, settling in the north. They were on the march but the Romans did not take any extra precautions, they simply mustered their usual army. They were therefore surprised when the Senones marched against them and met them at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia Rivers, only 16km from Rome. The Romans had no time to set up camp or propitiate the gods. They did, however, extend their line to match the width of the Gallic line, which made their own line dangerously thin. The Senones, suspecting a trick, attacked the Roman reserves placed on a hill, quickly routing them. This led to panic and flight among the rest of the Romans and they were cut down as they fled. The Senones were stunned at their unexpected and overwhelming victory. Rome was now undefended and the Senones moved against the city before nightfall. Many in the city fled. Expecting another trick, the Senones waited until the next day to enter the city, putting it to the sword. They besieged the remaining residents but were eventually paid off to leave. Memories of Rome’s fall to the Senones were evoked with fear for hundreds of years afterwards.
LURE THEM INTO A FOREST AND AMBUSH THEM The Battle of Teutoburg, September 9 CE
The first Roman emperor, Augustus, continued to push the boundaries of the Roman Empire outward, especially in northern Europe, advancing beyond the Rhine. The armies of the empire had begun to rely on Romanised locals to man her armies, and that would lead to disaster in the Teutoburg Forest. The Cherusci tribe had been defeated in 9 BCE and the sons of the king, Arminius and Flavus, were sent to be educated at Rome. Arminius rose in the Roman army becoming both a citizen and of equestrian rank. By 9 CE he was a trusted adviser to the governor of Germania, Publius Quinctilius Varus.
Varus had three legions (XVII, XVIII and XIX) and advanced with them beyond the Rhine towards the
Weser. Arminius, however, was in communication with the tribes and they ambushed the Romans on the march in an isolated wood, destroying the three legions over the course of several days as the Romans attempted to flee. The loss became known as the Varian Disaster (the Clades Variana), putting an immediate stop to Augustan expansion of the empire. The numbers of Varus’ legions were never again given to Roman units and Augusts is supposed to have cried out: “Varus! Give me back my legions!”