Saw Gladiator again earlier, and the opening scene is still as awesome as ever. I remember watching it in the movie theater with some friends when it first came out 15 years ago, back when we were still in high school. My only knowledge of Roman history at that period was that Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, and the Roman republic became an empire under his adopted son Augustus. My history class didn’t go through the period extensively and just mentioned the highlights. But yeah, sure, I had heard of Marcus Aurelius and knew what the legions were. Seeing them in action on the opening scene against that barbarian horde was just awe inspiring. I think at that time it was second on my list of impressive battle scenes, first always goes to Saving Private Ryan, of course. Here’s the scene I’m giddily gushing about.

Fast forward to present time, and I’m now a bit more educated on how the legions actually fight. Seeing the opening scene still evoked the cool factor but sadly I now find myself  cringing at it. See, the Roman Empire’s forte is war. They’re quite good at it because it’s their main business. Sure, they do conduct trade with their vassal states and such, but make no mistake: they’re the best when it comes to war. At the forefront of their war machine is the Roman legion. A standard legion is comprised of 5200 legionnaires, though the number could be higher or lower depending on the circumstances. During Julius Caesar’s 10 year war in Gaul (modern day France), his legions were almost always understrength at 3500 plus.

A legionnaire’s main weapon is a short sword called the gladius. It’s not fancy looking or big, but it certainly gets the job done. Being small, it doesn’t require much effort to swing it up and down in a stabbing fashion. It also needs just little room to use, as opposed to swinging a big ass long sword like Mel Gibson’s in Braveheart. Now imagine a row of legionnaires with their big square shields called scutum on one hand, and this lethal weapon on the other, marching in formation against your barbarian ass. Drilled in combat formations and tactics until they dropped, a Roman legionnaire knows how to best utilize their strengths against a disorganized, undisciplined barbarian horde. That’s why if you read through the battles in Julius Caesar’s Gallic campaign, you’ll see the pattern of large barbarian armies being annihilated by their smaller legion counterparts.

My point in all this is seeing the legionnaires in the movie Gladiator breaking formation, going one on one with the barbarians, is a sure way for all of them to get slaughtered. Their discipline and formation are their main advantages and they pretty much threw those away. Blame Hollywood I suppose. If it was a realistic battle, you would see the legion in close formation with their shields up. As the barbarians throw themselves against this impenetrable line, the legionnaires would systematically cut through the barbarians with swift stabbing motions. Repeat this process over and over until there’s none left, or the remaining barbarians start to retreat. Any time a legion breaks formation is when it starts getting routed. Try watching this scene from HBO’s award winning series Rome to get a better idea on how a legion should work.