A day in the life of a Roman soldier - Robert Garland

The year is 15 CE, and the Roman Empire is prospering. Most of the credit will go to the emperor, but this success wouldn’t have been possible without loyal soldiers like Servius Felix. Robert Garland illuminates what life was like for a solider in the Roman army.

Lesson by Robert Garland, animation by Brett Underhill.

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[jiplinnartz]

If anyone wants to know, I counted all "5000" men in the picture and it comes up to 2143 men. Nice try ;)

[midget_spinner]

This should be a series where we follow servius around I’m interested if he’ll ever get back to his girl lmao

[PennyDreadful]

I was alittle worried when they mentioned him being in Germany. But luckily he's led by Germanicus and not Varus at the moment so he'll be fine.

[davidefacchini]

God: you can’t survive 25 years of service

Servius: *hold my spear*

[CCJJChannels]

25 year commitment? Sounds like my old Verizon contract.

[ScipioWasHere]

This is how my parents described their walks to school

[steveevans]

For anyone wondering, Servius completed his military service, married, and settled down with the girl back home. They had three kids together and built a small farm.

[TheHungryArtists]

I didn't know Samurai Jack was once a roman soldier

[cryper]

"Beware of the old in a profession where men die young" or something like that.

[rafimuhammadzakaria]

When he says, "he is stationed in Germania" my heart sank :'(
But then 'under Germanicus' and I took a big sigh of relief.

Funny how these videos make you care for a person who lived 2000 years ago

[gianfrancow]

For those who want to know what happened to this expedition: this is most probably Germanicus expedition under emperor Tiberius. Germanicus decided to avenge Teutoburgus defeat with a double attack, penetrating by land with the army and by the sea with a huge fleet landing troops and supplies in northern Germany. But while land troops (Servius army) advanced deep in Germany, pursuing German tribes who avoided open battle, the northern fleet was destroyed and displaced by a huge storm. When Germans heard the news, they imagined that gods had cursed the Romans, so they rounded up and besieged Germanicus camp. Roman troops were starving with no supplies and no water, Germans even sent envoys who promised food and women to roman deserters, but finally, after a speech to his troops, Germanicus launched an all out attack over besieging germans, who panicked and hardly escaped the carnage. After other minor episodes, Germanicus army (and so Servius) met a huge German army led by Arminius near Weser river (Idistavisius plain): over ten thousands Germans were killed, and the same Arminius, winner of Teutoburgus, only escaped by faking his death, while leaving his wife and son in the hands of the Romans. Romans erected a monument there, with an inscription who said that they annihilated the tribes between the Rhyne and the Elb river, avenging the deaths of Tehthoburgus. They also recovered all the eagles of the fallen legions, except one. At this point Germanicus wanted to penetrate in eastern Germany, but the old emperor Tiberius, who was growing jealous and was afraid to be detronized, recalled him back in Italy and aborted the whole operation. Germanicus was then sent to Syria as governor, where he suddenly died, most probably poisoned by Tiberius. His remains were burned and his heart found still intact. In Italy where Germanicus was loved as hero, people reacted horribly to the news of his death: they started to assault the temples of the gods, dissecrating and beheading the statues, sacking the treasures and beating up the priests. "That's was the revenge of the italic people, against gods so cruel to permit the death of such a good and brave man." (Source: Tacitus, annales)

[albebelt]

Actually soldiers often went back to Rome during time of peace. It was not just 25 years of war without interruption.

[thebegottenwarrior]

Everybody gangsta til the trees start shouting war crys.

[michaelshannon]

Things about the military that have not changed:

Avoiding watch duty, marching until your feet fall off, dreaming about going home, the 20 or so years until you get retirement benefits, and above all the brotherhood.

[elliotking]

I cant imagine what was going through their heads in war



probably swords

[lawhertz]

"i only like you as a friend" girl that the roman soldier held dear.

[MrThwor]

I didn't know that samurai Jack served in the roman legions

[Imoaninyourroomeverynight]

I like this "Legionary Jack" thing so far.

[xtdnjjq]

I was one of a military soldier in S.Korea only for 2 years. I can't imagine how to bear so much of years on military service. Looking back on the past period in military service, spending just 1 day was feel like 1 year to me.

[silverfish]

And then that girl gets married before he comes home
*oof*