They copied the form of the Sabine fhield, and armed their troops with the Spanish fword. Horfes for their cavalry were procured from Numidia; and the wreck of a Carthaginian veffel, fortunately thrown upon their coaft, was the model of their firft ship of war. At the beginning of the conteft with Carthage, they had not a fingle veffel of this defcription; but at its clofe they were mafters of the fea. They ftationed the captured elephants, which had been employed against them in the Punic wars, in the front of their army against Philip of Macedon. The genius of fuch a people, fo verfatile and alive to improvement, seemed to form them for extenfive empire; and hence it is the less extraordinary, that the ready adoption of foreign arms and inventions proved deftructive to the nations which originally used them",

But the peculiar glory of Roman tactics arofe from the formation and difcipline of the legion. Agreeable to the genius of the people, it was better calculated for attack than defence. With respect to activity, it had great advantages over the Grecian and Macedonian phalanx, which was only fo conftructed, as to force its way by the depth and folidity of its compact and clofely-wedged ranks. Under Romulus, the number of a legion confifted of 3000 foot and 300 horfe foldiers: when Hannibal was in Italy, it was increased to 5000 men.

W

* Αγαθοι γαρ ει και τινες έτεροι μεταλαβειν εθη, και ζηλώσαι το βέλτιον, 'Papasos. Polybius, lib. vi. fect. 20, 21, 24. edit. Gronov.

Each

Each legion was divided into ten cohortes, each cohors into three manipuli, and each manipulus into three ordines, or ranks. The haftati compofed the front, the principes the centre, and the triarii the rear rank. The open order, which the legionary troops preferved, gave to every foldier the free exercife of his arms, and afforded space for reinforcements to advance to the relief of thofe, whofe ftrength was exhaufted. The spaces likewife gave room for the first line to fall back into the second, and with them to make a new attack; and if these two ranks when united were overpowered, they retired to the rear rank, with whose affiftance they renewed the charge with threefold impetuofity. The regular manner, in which this advance or retreat was conducted, conftituted the perfection of the Roman difcipline. The fuccefs, which it muft finally fecure, was certain, when we confider the legions opposed to irregular barbarians, who, if once routed, never returned to a fecond attack. In many battles, the Romans were at firft repulfed by the number or impetuofity of the hoftile troops: but by their judicious arrangements and evolutions, the event was ultimately favourable; the enemy was checked in the midft of his fuccefsful career, and the laurel of victory was fuddenly fnatched from his hands*

bus Livy contrafts the phalanx with the legion, and points out the fuperior excellence of the latter, when comparing the forces of Alexander with the Romans" Statarius uterque miles, ordines fervans: fed illa phalanx immobilis et unius

generis:

The first model of a Roman camp feems to have been suggested by the rude intrenchments, which Romulus caufed to be thrown up to defend his rifing city. This plan was in fucceeding times greatly improved; and the camp of the Romans was remarkable for the perfect regularity of its quadrangular form: it was divided by parallel lines, compofing fpacious streets, for the accommodation, in feparate detachments, of cavalry, infantry, and auxiliaries; was fecured by the breadth and depth of its ditch, and the loftiness of its ramparts, armed with a line of strong and clofe palifades. When at this day we trace the remaining veftiges of their encampments, we can in fome degree realize the deferiptions which the ancients have given us, and fairly infer the greatnefs of their strength from their long duration. Many camps in this ifland, and upon the continent, fuch as that near Kyneton, upon the borders of Herefordshire-the camp near Dorchester in Dorfetfhire; at Cafter, or Venta Icenorum, near Norwich; Cæfar's camp upon the Rhine, and that which overtops the white cliffs of Dieppe, may be fuppofed, from their prefent fresh and unbroken appearance, to have been formed only a few centuries ago.

generis: Romana acies diftinctior, ex pluribus partibus conftans: facilis partienti, quacunque opus effet, facilis jungenti." Liv. lib. viii. c. 8. et lib. ix.

"Yet was this phalanx never or very feldom able to stand against the Roman armies, which were embattelled in fo ex5. T HC cellent a forme, as I know hot whether any nation on befides them have used, either before of fince." Sir W. Raleigh,

5..

The elegant and lively historian Livy, prefents us with a very ftriking inftance of the effect produced upon the minds of their enemies, by the martial improvements made by the Romans. Philip the fecond, king of Macedon, caufed the bodies of fome of his foldiers, who had fallen in a fkirmish, to be brought into his camp, that they might be buried with military honours. His motive was to inftigate his army, to expofe themselves more refolutely to the dangers of war. But the method which he took to roufe their courage produced a contrary effect. His troops, who had been accustomed to fight with the Greeks and Illyrians, and to inflict and receive only flight wounds made by darts and arrows, now beheld the bodies of their dead comrades marked by deep and ghaftly cuts, and deprived of heads and limbs by the keen and vigorous ftrokes of the Spanish fwords, the weighty weapons of the Romans. With difmay they reflected upon the enemies with whom they had to contend, and the great fuperiority of their arms, and mode of fighting. Philip himself, no lefs alarmed, recalled his fon Perfeus and his troops from the straights of Pelagonia to reinforce his defponding army. From a lofty hill he foon after reconnoitered the pofition of the enemy, and took a diftinct view of their camp. He remarked the different quarters into which it was divided the exact order in which the tents were pitched, and the interfections which formed the streets. Afto, nished at the admirable arrangement of all the parts, he candidly declared, as Pyrrhus king of

Epirus

Epirus had done before, that no nation could equal the Romans in the fkill displayed in this effential branch of the art of war".

But the Romans found, that the perfection of their movements in the field, and the fecurity of their pofition in camps, would not complete the military art, without impofing the stricteft restraints upon the conduct of a foldier, and holding out the most lucrative and glorious recompence for his valour. Such was the inflexible rigour of martial law, that cowardice and difobedience led to inevitable death, inflicted by the fwords and darts of his comrades; whilft, on the other hand, every exploit was attended by its appropriate honour. The rich trappings of horfes, the golden chain, the civic, the mural, and the roftral crowns, awaited the return of the veteran from the field of battle; and penfions arifing from the fale of the conquered lands, or fettlements upon fertile fpots of ground, were granted for the fupport of his declining age, and as the rewards of his long and faithful fervices.

The Triumph, which derived its origin from the earliest age of the republic, when Romulus returned home laden with fpoils of his vanquished enemies, tended in a much greater degree to cherish this martial fpirit. This ceremony, repugnant as it was to the feelings of humanity, and calculated

y. Liv. lib. 31. c. 36.

to