But the most perfect military establishment of that age, was certainly the Macedonian, in the reigns of Phi lip and Alexander. Their brilliant conquests in Europe and in Asia, aflOrd indubitable evidence of the vast superiority of the Grecian discipline over that of every other nation. The Macedonian phalanx was irresisti ble : Closely wedged sixteen deep, with shields joined, and pikes projecting, it presented an impenetrable front, and bore down all opposition. The fall of the Greek republics, and of the Persian empire, is the first great revolution in the affairs of mankind which history has circumstantially recorded ; and it was the effect of the superiority which a standing army has over every sort of militia.
So certain are the effects of discipline, and the regu lar organization of any body of men, that, in the sangui nary contest between Carthage and Rome, their armies alternately conquered as they were trained and inured to war. The veteran troops of Carthage, under the il lustrious Hannibal, overcame the new levies of the Romans in three pitched battles ; but the Roman armies, acquiring discipline from experience under the great Scipio, defeated, in their turn, the Carthaginian militia of Spain. The sagacious policy of Rome transferred the war to Africa, where Scipio found nothing to oppose his well-exercised army but a militia, which he defeated. Hannibal was recalled from Italy with the remains of his army, to avert the danger, or to save the city ; but his battalions were principally composed of raw and dispirited troops ; and, on the plains of Zama, the su periority of Roman discipline decided the fate of Car thage. But at no period of the history of mankind do we find an army more completely organized and disci plined than that of Rome, in the days of her conquests. Perfect in all its parts, it has formed a model to modern times ; and, to rival the glory of the masters of the world, it is necessary to adopt their military institutions.
When the necessities of the state required it, every Roman citizen, from the age of sixteen to forty-six, was obliged to enrol himself as a soldier, excepting those exempted for special reasons. When the levies were completed, they were formed into legions ; each legion was divided into ten cohorts, each cohort into three maniples, each maniple into two centuries. According to this division, if there were 100 men in the century, the legion consisted of 6000; and 300 cavalry were usually joined to it, which were divided into ten turnice, or troops ; and each turnia into three decurix, or bodies of ten men. The first line in battle was formed of the hastati, or young men in the flower of life ; the second of the firincilies, or men of middle age ; the third of the triarii, or veteran soldiers. There was also a fourth kind
elf troops, called velites, light armed, and adapted for skirmishing ; and they were generally stationed in front, or in flank, of the line. The legion was commanded by six tribunes, under the supreme authority of the gene ral ; each tribune having about 1000 men under his charge, with the privilege of appointing the officers of the centuries, who were generally taken from the com mon soldiers. Each maniple had two centurions, dis tinguished in rank by first and second ; and the first centurion of the first century of the first maniple of the triarii presided over all the others, and had the charge of the standard of the legion, and a seat in the council of war. The centurions took rank in regular gradation, from the first to the lowest of the tenth maniple of the hastati. Each centurion chose two lieutenants and two ensigns. A sword, and two long javelins, were the arms of the hastati, principes, and triarii; and their accoutre ments were, a shield made of wood, covered with a bull's hide ; a head-piece of brass coming down to the shoul ders ; and a coat of mail, generally made of leather, covered with plates of iron in the form of scales. The velites were armed with bows and slings, and seven ja velins, with slender points like arrows, and equipped with a two-edged sword, a buckler, and helmet. The cavalry used nearly the same armour as the foot.
Like the youth of Sparta, t le Romans were early ac customed to the exercise of arms ; and in the camp they were kept in constant activity. Walking and running completely armed, swimming, leaping, and vaulting, shooting the arrow, and throwing the javelin; and oc casionally long marches, at the rate of four miles an hour, with a load of sixty pounds weight, confirmed the habits, and constituted the severe discipline of a Roman army. The legions of Rome were for ages invincible, and ex tended her conquests and her fame over the known world. But nations have their periods ; they rise, they mature ; they fall, and time unfolds their destiny. Lux ury, refinement, and the love of ease, gradually corrupt ed the manners of the Romans, debased their minds, and relaxed their discipline. They laid aside their heavy armour, converted their infantry into cavalry, and their army degenerated into a feeble militia, unable to repel the incursions of the barbarians of the North, who, at last, overwhelmed the empire of the West, and spread dark ness and desolation over the face of Europe.