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Short description

These Velites are recruited from among Rome's allies and equipped in the same way as their Roman counterparts.

Description

The military superiority of the Roman Republic rested heavily on the manpower and loyalty of its allies, the Italic Socii. Most of these communities, tribes or city states had been subjected by force during the early centuries of Rome's expansion across Italy, but they remained remarkably loyal to the Republic even in its darkest days.

Polybios (III, 90, 13-14) comments on their steadfastness after the crushing defeat at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC: "For up to now, although the Romans had been beaten in two battles, not a single Italian city had revolted to the Carthaginians, but all remained loyal, although some suffered much. From which one may estimate the awe and respect that the allies felt for the Roman state."

The Socii were organised by the Romans into legions like their own - each with the same number of velites, hastate, principes, and triarii, but with up to three times as many equites (cavalry) and served alongside them for the majority of the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BCE, including the Punic Wars, the struggle against the Hellenic powers of the eastern Mediterranean, the Numantian Wars, the war against Jugurtha, and the defeat of the Cimbri and Tuetones.

In the pre-Marian Republican legion, the Velites were the youngest and poorest of the serving soldiers. Generally, unable to afford to equip themselves as infantry, they relied upon their speed and daring to get them through a battle. Unlike the infantry, the Velites were not organised, instead it seems that they attached themselves to each century or maniple of infantry.

Velites were ordered to carry a sword, a clutch of javelins and a shield, called a parma, measuring 3ft in diameter, which offered good protection from the dangers of battle. For ease of identification and to mark themselves out, they would wear a wolf's skin over a plain helmet, which allowed their commanding officers to judge if they fought pluckily or not.

Polybius, in his "Histories" (Book 6, 21.6 - 22) describes at length the accoutrements of a serving Veles: "The wooden shaft of the javelin measures about two cubits in length and is about a finger's breadth in thickness; its head is a span long hammered out to such a fine edge that it is necessarily bent by the first impact, and the enemy is unable to return it. If this were not so, the missile would be available for both sides."

The role of the Velites was probably formed from the earlier, now amalgamated Rorarii and Accensi classes, though historical documentation is unclear as to the exact function of these classes. It is only with the appearance of the Velites, that the role of the lowest class of citizen in the Roman Army becomes more apparent. Velites would have all but disappeared with the reforms of Gaius Marius, which enabled those Romans who had no property to speak of yet appeared in the 'Head Count' (capite censi), to serve in the Roman army, whilst turning the State into the provider of equipment.

Therefore, those who would have previously served as Velites through a lack of class, age and equipment, could now serve as infantry in a post-Marian army. n

Marius' reforms also began to break down the distinction between Roman and Italian legions - granting citizenship to Italians that enlisted in the legions and effectively making all the legions under the Republic's command truly "Roman legions".

Following the Social Wars, as swathes of Italian communities south of the River Po had been given Roman citizenship, the concept of separate allied Italic and Roman legions became completely obsolete. This, combined with the fact that the Marian reforms ensured that standardised equipment was provided by the state, meant that the Romans could recruit their reformed legions from the entire Italian peninsula, though remnants of the manipular system remained in the positions and titles of centurions within each cohort of the reformed legions.