Schoolcraft College

Roman Soldier

Michael Tucker

Professor Thomson

History 134

13 November 2017
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As a Legionnaire in the Roman army, I am seen as the most elite soldiers in our ranks. It

is something I have prepared for all my life, in fact, I joined the Roman army at 17 years old.

Because the Legionnaires must be the best soldiers, it is very selective to get accepted. If an

applicant could not handle himself in battle or was too short, he would be denied. Those denied

could still fall into the Roman Army’s ranks, however to be a Legionnaire, you had to be in peak

physical condition. We spent our non-fighting days training and marching. As Legionnaires, we

would lead or battalions on 20 mile marches with full gear. As a general rule we were told that as

Roman soldiers, we need to be able to march 20 miles, completely armoured.

I have been a Legionnaire for 10 years of my 25. If we do survive all 25 years, then as a

reward for our service, we will receive a piece of land and live in together in a military town

called a Colinia. In my community I am among the most respected. I make three times the

amount of an Auxiliary. An Auxiliary soldier would fight the front lines and hold forts. I am

currently training a Century of about 80 men the basics of invasion and war. We are in swim

training currently. As soldiers it is their responsibility to be able to swim up rivers and flank the

enemies. Next week we will teach them how to build bridges and create siege weapons. If we

want to defeat the Etruscans then each one of our soldiers need to be better than theirs.

Unfortunately, yesterday I spotted a soldier sleeping on duty. He was supposed to be

guarding a food storage outside of our compound. According to our law, sleeping on duty is

punishable by death. For a Roman, being in the military is the most serious and intense thing to

do, most men in this time would never fall asleep while on active duty. Now that everyone has

seen what happens when you do not follow orders, I think today should run smoothly. Following

our daily 20 mile march, the soldiers under my command will build and assemble a camp. We
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will camp here for the remainder of the night and leave in the morning. Tomorrow we will march

an additional 20 miles, train, and set up camp for the night. We will repeat that process until

ordered to come home.