Once the Romans had set up a republic, they worked to protect it. They were afraid that the Etruscans would try to regain control of Rome. To prevent this, the Romans crossed the Tiber River and conquered several Etruscan cities. Roman land now bordered that of other Italian people. To protect their new boundaries, the Romans either conquered their neighbors or made alliances with them. By 290 B. C., Rome was the leading power in central Italy. By 275 B. C., it ruled the whole peninsula. By 146 B. C., Rome ruled most of the Mediterranean world.
The Romans were able to gain territory because they had a strong army that was organized into legions (le?' juhnz). Each legion contained some 5,000 soldiers called legionaries (le?' juh ner e? z) and was divided into groups of 60 to 120 soldiers.
The legion had several advantages over the phalanx. The legion was smaller and could move faster. Soldiers in a phalanx fought as a group and attacked from only one direction. Each legionary depended on his own fighting ability. The groups within a legion could split off from the main body and attack from the sides and the rear as well as the front.
Rank and File The basic unit of the Roman legion was the maniple—120 soldiers standing side by side in ranks of 10 and lined up one behind another in files of 12. The term rank and file, which refers to the ordinary members of an organization, comes from this military system.
World History
