A bloody and mournful victory: the Roman infantryman’s experience of frontline battle

This thesis will use the Keegan model to investigate what the experience of frontline combat was for the Roman infantryman – and why the Roman infantryman became such a feared proponent of classical infantry warfare and the decisive force in Roman battle. It will draw in modern studies and models of battlefield psychology to show the effects of battleshock and morale on Roman infantry. And it will show how this experience of combat influenced Roman tactics – and how the flexibility of Roman formations grew out of a need to use the chaos of the classical battlefield to effect an outcome, rather than having the chaos confuse an outcome.