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Velites (Singular: Veles) were a class of infantry in the Polybian legions of the early Roman republic. Velites were light infantry
Light infantry

Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, Harassment and delaying the enemy advance....
 and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii
Gladius

Gladius is a Latin word for sword. Early Ancient Rome swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early part of the conquest of Hispania....
 for use in melee
Mêlée

Melee generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....
. They rarely wore armour, as they were the youngest and poorest soldiers in the legion and could not afford much equipment.






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Velites (Singular: Veles) were a class of infantry in the Polybian legions of the early Roman republic. Velites were light infantry
Light infantry

Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, Harassment and delaying the enemy advance....
 and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii
Gladius

Gladius is a Latin word for sword. Early Ancient Rome swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early part of the conquest of Hispania....
 for use in melee
Mêlée

Melee generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....
. They rarely wore armour, as they were the youngest and poorest soldiers in the legion and could not afford much equipment. They did carry small wooden shields for protection though, and wore a headdress made from wolf skin to allow officers to differentiate between them and other heavier legionaries.

Velites did not form their own units; a number of them were attached to each maniple
Maniple (military unit)

Maniple was a tactical unit of the Roman legion adopted from the Samnites during the Samnite Wars. It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit....
 of hastati
Hastati

Hastati were a class of infantry in the Structural history of the Roman military#Manipular legion who originally fought as spearmen, and later as swordsmen....
, principes
Principes

Principes were spearmen, and later swordsmen, in the Structural history of the Roman military#Manipular legion . They were men in the prime of their lives who were fairly wealthy, and could afford decent equipment....
 and triarii
Triarii

Triarii were spearmen in the Structural history of the Roman military#Manipular legion . They were the oldest and among the wealthiest men in the army, and could afford good quality equipment....
. They were typically used as a screening force, driving off enemy skirmishers and disrupting enemy formations with javelin fire before retiring behind the lines to allow the heavier armed hastati to attack. They were normally the ones who engaged war elephant
War elephant

A war elephant is an elephant trained and guided by humans for combat. Their main use was in charge s, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks....
s and chariots if they were present on the field; their high mobility and ranged weaponry made them much more effective against these enemies than heavy infantry. An early Roman legion contained approximately 1,000 velites. Velites were eventually done away with after the Marian reforms
Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
.

Equipment and organisation

Velites were the youngest and usually the poorest soldiers in the legion, and could rarely afford much equipment. They were armed with hastae velitares, light javelins with tips designed to bend on impact to prevent it being thrown back, similar to the heavier pila
Pilum

The pilum was a heavy javelin commonly used by the Military history of ancient Rome#Roman army in ancient times. It was generally about two meters long overall, consisting of an iron shank about 7 mm in diameter and 60 cm long with pyramidal head....
 of other legionaries. As a backup weapons, they also carried gladii
Gladius

Gladius is a Latin word for sword. Early Ancient Rome swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early part of the conquest of Hispania....
, relatively short thrusting sword
Sword

A sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used as a cutting, thrusting, and clubbing weapon in many civilizations throughout the world. The word sword comes from the Old English language wikt:sweord, cognate to Old High German swert, Middle Dutch swaert, Old Norse sver? Old Frisian and Old Saxon swerd and Dutch langua...
s 74 centimetres (29 inches) in length that were the main weapons of the hastati and principes. They fought in a very loose, staggered formation like most irregular
Irregular

Something that is irregular does not follow the expected pattern. The term is used in many different fields, with quite different meanings.* In astronomy, an astronomical object whose shape or behavior varies considerably from the archetype is called an irregular....
 troops and carried small round shields, 90 cm (3 feet) in diameter.

In the legion, the 1200 velites did not form their own units; 40 of them were attached to each maniple of hastati, principes and triarii. They usually formed up at the front of the legion before battle to harass the enemy with javelin fire and to prevent the enemy doing the same before retiring behind the lines to allow the heavier infantry to attack. In a pitched battle
Pitched battle

A pitched battle is a battle where both sides choose to fight at a chosen location and time and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges....
, the velites would form up at the front of the legion and harass the enemy with javelin fire and cover the advance of the hastati, who were armed with swords, and were the first line of attack. If the hastati failed to break the enemy, they would fall back and let the principes, similarly equipped though more experienced infantry, take over. If the principes failed, they would retire behind the triarii, heavily armoured, spear armed legionaries and let them carry on.

History

Velites were descended from an earlier class of light infantry, leves
Lèves

L?ves is a Communes of France in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France in north-central France.L?ves is twinned with the English village of Nailsworth, Gloucestershire....
, dating from the Camillan legion of the 5th century BC, who had a very similar role to the velites. They were also the poorer and younger soldiers in the legion, though the rorarii and accensi
Accensi

Accensi were light infantry in the Structural history of the Roman military#Manipular legion . They were the poorest men in the legion, and could not afford much equipment....
 classes were considerably poorer and were eventually done away with, having insufficient equipment to be effective soldiers. Leves were likewise armed with a number of javelins, but carried a spear rather than a sword. Like the velites, leves did not have their own units, but were attached to units of hastati.

Velites were first used at the siege of Capua
Siege of Capua

The Siege of Capua was a military operation involving the states of medieval southern Italy, beginning in May 1098 and lasting forty days. It was an interesting siege historically for the assemblage of great persons it saw and militarily for the cooperation of Italo-Normans and Saracen forces which it necessitated....
 in 211 BC, and were made up of citizens who would normally be too poor to join the hastati but where called up due a shortage of manpower. They were trained to ride on horseback with the Equites and jump down at a given signal to fling javelins at the enemy. After the siege, they were adopted into the legions as a force of irregular light infantry
Light infantry

Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, Harassment and delaying the enemy advance....
 for ambushing and harassing the enemy with javelins before the battle began in earnest.

With the formal military reforms
Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
 of Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman Republic general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic Marian Reforms of Roman legion, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate Cohort ....
 in 107 BC, designed to combat a shortage of manpower due to wars against Jugurtha
Jugurtha

Jugurtha or Jugurthen was a Berber Ancient Libya King of Numidia, born in Cirta. The name Jugurthen pronounced in Berber Yugur tn or Yugr tn is actually a Berber name and phrase meaning: is greater than them....
, the different classes of units were done away with entirely. The wealth and age requirements were scrapped. Now soldiers would join as a career, rather than as service to the city, and would all be equipped as medium infantry
Medium infantry

Medium infantry refers to ground troops, less heavily armed and armored than heavy infantry, but more so than light infantry. In the early modern period, medium infantry has largely gradually eliminated due to discontinued use of body armour....
 with the same, state purchased equipment. Auxilliae
Auxiliaries (Roman military)

Auxiliaries formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army of the Principate , alongside the citizen Roman legion. By the 2nd century, the auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and in addition provided almost all the Roman army's Roman cavalry and more specialised troops ....
, local irregular troops would now be used to fulfill other roles such as archery
Archery

Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with Bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport....
, skirmishing and flanking.

See also

  • Equites