When the Romans thought themselves injured by any nation, they sent one or more of the priests, called feciales, to demand redress, and if it was not immediately given, thirty-three days were granted to consider the matter, after which war might be justly declared; then the feciales again went to their confines, and having thrown a bloody spear into them, formally declared war against that nation.
The levy of the troops, the encampment, and much of the civil discipline, as well as the temporary command of the army, was intrusted to the military tribunes, six of whom were appointed to each legion.
During the early period of the republic, the standing army in time of peace usually consisted of only four legions, two of which were commanded by each consul, and they were relieved by new levies every year, the soldiers then serving without any pay beyond their mere subsistence. But this number was afterwards greatly augmented, and the inconvenience of raw troops having been experienced, a fixed stipend in money was allowed to the men, and they were constantly retained in the service.
The legion usually consisted of three hundred horse, and three thousand foot: the different kinds of infantry which composed it were three, the hastati, principes, and triarii. The first were so called because they fought with spears: they consisted of young men in the flower of life, and formed the first line in battle. The principes were men of middle age who occupied the second line. The triarii were old soldiers of approved valor, who formed the third line.
There was a fourth kind of troops, called velĭtes from their swiftness and agility: these did not form a part of the legion, and had no certain post assigned them, but fought in scattered parties, wherever occasion required, usually before the lines.
The imperial eagle was the common standard of the legion; it was of gilt metal, borne on a spear by an officer of rank, styled, from his office, aquilifer, and was regarded by the soldiery with the greatest reverence. There were other ensigns, as A. B. C. D. in the frontispiece.
The only musical instruments used in the Roman army, were brazen trumpets of different forms, adapted to the various duties of the service.
The arms of the soldiery varied according to the battalion in which they served. Some were equipped with light javelins, and others with a missile weapon, called pilum, which they flung at the enemy; but all carried shields and short swords of that description, usually styled cut and thrust, which they wore on the right side, to prevent its interfering with the buckler, which they bore on the left arm.
The shield was of an oblong or oval shape, with an iron boss jutting out in the middle, to glance off stones or darts; it was four feet long and two and a half broad, made of pieces of wood joined together with small plates of iron, and the whole covered with a bull's hide.
They were partly dressed in a metal cuirass with an under covering of cloth; on the head they wore helmets of brass, either fastened under the chin, with plates of the same metal, or reaching to the shoulders, which they covered and ornamented on the top with flowing tufts of horse hair.