This is a thread on the arms and armour of the Roman Army from the founding of Rome 753 BC to the fall of Constantinople in AD 1453

Over 2000 year of military innovation, indomitable spirit, and glory!

[Thread]🧵 • The Earliest Times •

The traditional date for the founding of Rome is 753 BC. At this point Rome is centuries away from being thru powerful city we know. Warfare for the next few centuries seems to be small-scale skirmishing between warrior bands. A hint of this is given in Livy when he describes the Fabii gens asking the senate to let them fight the city of Veii by themselves with 306 men.

This is a reconstruction of the earliest Roman warriors based on burial finds. However, it would be a mistake to assume that armour at this time was standard across all Romans.

Pyrrhus of Epirus had invaded Italy and defeated the Romans in battle. Peace was offered and some Romans seemed willing to accept terms.

Then the blind old Appius Claudius Caecus was led into the Senate House with a warning from the past…

[Thread]🧵 Rome had emerged the dominant power on the Italian peninsula after many gruelling years of warfare which saw the Samnites defeated and alliances made with the Greek cities of Southern Italy.

But the good times created by the hard men of the 4th and 3rd centuries were at risk when Pyrrhus of Epirus, one of the mightiest warriors ever, invaded Italy at the behest of the city of Tarentum which bristled at Roman power.

FABIVS MAXIMVS was Rome’s least likely hero in her most uncertain times!

Scorned for his guerrilla warfare strategy until vindicated by the Cannae disaster when the Romans turned to him to save them.

This is the life of Fabius Maximus, the Shield of the Romans!

[Thread]🧵 The Fabii claimed descent from Hercules and it is ironic that their least warlike son was to be their greatest member.

Fabius Maximus was born in around 280 BC, the year Pyrrhus defeated the Romans at Heraclea.

As a youth he was given the moniker Ovicula or ‘the lamb’ for his mild manner, slow speech, and long deliberation before taking decisions. Plutarch wrote that some ‘esteem him insensible and stupid; and few only saw that this tardiness proceeded from stability, and discerned the greatness of his mind, and the lionlikeness of his temper.’

Today in AD 602,

The Roman field army in the Balkans rebelled and marched on Constantinople, led by the usurper Phocas!

The emperor Maurice was forced to watch the decapitation of his five young sons before he was killed.

[Thread]🧵 In the late 6th century, the Roman Empire faced major threats from three directions; the Persians in the east, the Lombards in Italy, and threat of the Avar and Slavic peoples who had recently arrived in the Balkans. To make matters worse, the empire had been struck by outbreaks of plague

The emperor Maurice succeeded Tiberius II in AD 582 and had successfully campaigned against all of these threats, but after 20 years of rule, the impact of regular campaigning was causing problems.

One particular success was the intervention in the Persian civil war in favour of the Shah Khusrow II, which brought close relations afterward.

But the emperor was ever conscious of the financial burden of such prolonged campaigning and in 588 attempted to cut army pay by 25% which provoked a brief mutiny.

When assassins came for the Emperor Galba, all of his guards betrayed him except for one man alone…

𝐒𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬, ‘the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman Empire’.

[Thread]🧵 Imperial legitimacy was shattered upon the death of the Emperor Nero and the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in AD 68. Once it was seen that one man could revolt and take power, other men wanted to do the same.

The first of these men was Galba, governor of Hispania, who became emperor with the support of other key figures including the legate Otho.

Galba’s reign is dated from the 8th of June, AD 68.

Mighty were the Romans, and mightiest among them was 𝐀𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧, the general who came from obscurity to rescue the empire and restore the world.

[Thread]🧵 • 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐲 •

The stability of the Roman Empire faltered in the third century. Beginning with the fall of the Severan dynasty upon the murder of Emperor Severus Alexander in the aftermath of a defeat of his army by Germanic tribes who had slowly grown in strength over the preceding centuries.

The troops declared Maximinus Thrax as emperor but this led to the Year of the Six Emperors which saw all claimants killed.

In AD 1352,

In the dead of night, an English rogue named John of Doncaster led a band of men to cross the moat and scale the walls of Guînes castle in a daring attempt to seize it.

[Thread]🧵 The castle at Guînes was strong and well fortified and located just six miles south of Calais which had been taken by the English and successfully defended in 1350 from an attempt of the French knight Geoffroi de Charny to sneak a force in.

It was also used to hold English prisoners of war.

In AD 608,

The Persians were thundering into the Roman Empire, conquering all that lay before them.

When the Roman army abandoned Mardin, the defence of the city was taken up by…

The Warrior Monks of Mardin!

[Thread] In 602 the Roman army rebelled against the emperor Maurice chose Phocas, a senior military officer, as their emperor, they marched in Constantinople and killed Maurice and five of his sons.

In 603 the Persian Shah Khusrow, who had been greatly helped by Maurice after being ousted in his youth, declared war. A Roman general named Narses also rebelled against Phocas.

Today in AD 1090,

A deadly riot broke out as part of a plot to turn Rouen over to the forces of King William Rufus.

It ended with the instigator being hurled off the tower of Rouen!

[Thread]🧵 William the Conqueror had three surviving sons; Robert Curthose, William Rufus, and Henry Beauclerc.

The unprecedented nature of his conquest of England meant that he had to decide what to do with his smaller ancestral Dukedom of Normandy and his much larger and richer kingdom of England.

When he died in 1087, he left Normandy to his eldest son Robert Curthose, and England to his second son, William Rufus. To his youngest son Henry Beauclerc, he left a large sum of money.

In 321 BC,

The Romans were utterly humiliated by the Samnites who lured them into a trap and defeated them in a bloodless ‘battle’ at the Caudine Forks.

[𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝]🧵 War between the Romans and Samnites broke out after the Romans began spreading their influence southward and came up against the Samnites.

In 321 when the ‘foremost soldier and commander’ of the Samnites, Gaius Pontius, decided to set a trap on the Roman army advancing toward him.

In 4th century BC,

The peace and stability of Ancient Rome came crashing down when the city was plundered and its people driven off during…

• The Gallic Sack of Rome • The earliest deeds of the Romans are shrouded by time and other factors. Nevertheless, these stories were based on a real event.

By the early 4th century BC, the Gauls had invaded Italy and the Etruscans of Clausium called on the Romans for help.

The Romans went forth and suffered a terrible defeat at the battle of Allia. The traditional account tells that the Roman army fled to Veii and according to Livy, the Gauls were surprised by the extent of their victory and feared a trap. When no further attack came, they marched on Rome.

In Rome the people were terrified for they witnessed a Roman army leave and a Gallic army return. The presence of the army in Veii was not known to them.

Today in AD 312,

Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in one of the most consequential battles of all time!

[Thread] 🧵 In AD 305, Diocletian retired leaving the tetrarchy, the rule of four emperors, in control of the empire.

Today in AD 899,

Alfred the Great died.

He spent his life tirelessly fighting to drive out the invaders who plagued his people and in doing so laid the foundation of the English nation.

This is a thread on the greatest ever English king.

[Thread]🧵 The first Viking attacks on England were coastal raids.

The first notable example was in the Isle of Portland, and then in AD 793 when ‘the ravaging of wretched heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne.’

Alcuin lamented the Viking attacks:

‘…never before has such a terror appeared as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments.’

The Viking raids continued until the mid-9th century when they took on a different form: conquest.

Today in AD 1415,

Henry V won possibly the greatest victory ever achieved by the men of England at…

• THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT •

[Thread]🧵 ‘𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟
𝐀𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝’

By 1410 the civil war raging in France caused by the infirmity of the mad King Charles led to both sides seeking help from England.

In AD 1413 Henry V was crowned king upon the death of his father and reasserted the claim to the throne of France that stemmed from his ‘most famed of famous ancestors’ Edward III.

It has been alleged that Alexios Komnenos betrayed the Crusaders and sat back while they fought his war for him.

But is that true?

To answer that we must look both at what he did and didn’t do during the First Crusade.

[Thread]🧵 In AD 1095, the Turks had overrun most of Anatolia, Nicea had been lost, Anatolia was in chaos, and Turkic pirates were a serious threat in the Aegean.

Alexios Komnenos, having spent so many years fighting to bring stability back to the empire, had suffered a coup attempt in light of the situation in Anatolia.

He wrote to Pope Urban to request help and the Pope gave his famous speech at Clermont. This initiated what we call the First Crusade.

When the main crusade contingents arrived, most of the leaders swore an oath to Alexios to return imperial territory they captured. The details of this oath are not known and it is likely that neither sides fully understood each other’s approach to such an oath.

Today in AD 1081,

The impetuous young emperor Alexios Komennos rushed to battle the Normans invading the Balkans and suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Robert Guiscard.

At the Battle of Dyrrhachion!

[Thread]🧵 By the mid-late 11th century the Roman Empire faltered from its medieval peak and was beset on all sides by new threats; Normans in Italy, Pechenegs and Rus on the Balkans, and Seljuk Turks in the east.

The Normans had completed their conquest of southern Italy and had invaded the Balkans in May 1081.

Just a month before, the young General Alexios Komnenos had seized power from his ineffectual predecessor by marching on Constantinople.

After the Norman Conquest, thousands of dispossessed Anglo-Saxons fled for distant shores.

From Ireland to Constantinople and beyond, the English refugees became monarchs, mercenaries and adventurers.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐨-𝐒𝐚𝐱𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚!

[Thread]🧵 • 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍 •

In AD 1066 King Edward of England died childless.

The Witan, as was tradition in England, elected Harold Godwinson as King over the young Edgar Ætheling, the cousin of the late King Edward.

But the William of Normandy claimed that Edward promised him the crown and even that Harold Godwinson had sworn him allegiance.

At the same time Harald Hardrada, now king of Norway, also claimed the throne.

Harold Godwinson marched north to destroy the army of Harald before marching back down to Hastings were they were slaughtered at the battle at Hastings in October 1066. Harold, his brothers, and much of the English aristocracy died.

Today in AD 1066:

Harold Godwinson and the noblest men of England put up a valiant last stand against the invading army of William the Conquerer!

The Battle of Hastings heralded the end of Anglo-Saxon England, & the start of the diabolical onslaught of the Normans!

[Thread]🧵 In 1066, King Edward the Confessor was close to death and had not arranged for the succession.

He was so ill that he could not even attend the consecration of his most important building project, Westminster Abbey

The First Crusade was one of the most momentous events in all of history, but also one of the most controversial.

In 1096 Christian armies travelled to the Holy Land to wage war.

But was the First Crusade justified?

[Thread]🧵 • Setting the Scene •

In order to understand the First Crusade we must first understand the world in which the tensions between east and west were created.

In the early 7th century, Muslim armies from Arabia began attacking the Levantine territories of the east Roman Empire. This is known today as the Islamic Conquests.

Throughout the 7th century, the Muslim armies conquered the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, and then into Gothic Spain in the early 8th century.

These maps show the approximate position of the Roman Empire in AD 600 and the result of the Islamic Conquest. (The empire also suffered some territorial losses to other peoples like the Goths and Slavs).

Today in 331 BC:

Alexander the Great defeated Darius III for the second and final time at the Battle of Gaugamela.

The victory resulted in the complete conquest of the entire Achaemenid Empire!

[Thread]🧵 The doom of the great Achaemenid empire was fated by the rise of the mighty Philip of Macedon, who campaigned tirelessly to establish hegemony over the Greek cities and created one of the greatest armies the world has ever seen in the process.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒’ 𝐖𝐀𝐑

The epic struggle between England and France which saw valiant warriors like the Black Prince, Henry V, and Jean the Good fighting in some of the most momentous battles of all time!

[Timeline Thread]🧵 • 1326:

- Charles IV of France formally renews Auld Alliance between France and Scotland.

• 1327:

- Death of Edward II of England; accession of Edward III with power held by Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella (Edward’s mother)

• 1328:

- Death of Charles IV of France; accession of Philippe VI. Charles’ nearest male relative was Edward III of England, his nephew.

Edward III’s claim is asserted by his mother and Mortimer but no action was taken. The claim was considered to have lapsed when Edward paid homage for his French lands.

- England and Scotland sign the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton (the ‘Shameful Peace’) against the wishes of Edward III.

• 1329:

- Death of Robert I of Scotland (Robert Bruce); accession of David II

• 1330:

- Edward III assumes full control after a coup at Nottingham castle.

• 1332:

- Edward III intervenes in Scotland on behalf of Edward Balliol and the disinherited Scottish nobles.

- Battle of Dupplin Moor (12 August) saw the success of dismounted men-at-arms and longbowmen. 1500 Englishmen defeated a Scottish army estimated to be around 15,000 strong.