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The Roman army went through four great phases. The first phase was during the reign of the seven kings of Rome (754BC -509BC) the Roman army just charged into battle in a similar fashion to the barbarians that the Romans are famous for defeating. Then after the Greeks invented the phalanx formation the Romans adopted it too (as did much of the Mediterranean).

In the fourth century BC Rome invented the "maniple" system commonly refeered to as a phalanx with joints. In this system the hastati (the young men) were in the front line to absorb the shock of the charge, the principas (the average legionary) in the centre to charge in after the shock was absorbed and the triarii (the veterans) at the back to charge in if the battle wasn't going very well. It was during the creation of the maniple system that the famous structure of the Roman army was born.

Every Roman legion (5000 - 6000 men) had ten centuries (50 - 60 men). Sounds simple but the fact was because of the sheer discipline of the soldiers centuries could peel off and reinforce week points in the Roman line. They could also accomplish complex manoeuvres during the heat of battle because of the individuality of the centuries. There is no way any other army of that time could do that.

In case you were wondering the fourth great phase of the Roman army was due to "the Marian reforms" but I shall not go into that considering it has no bearing on the answer.

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