What Was the Role of the Roman Special Forces?

In this Survive History video, Dr Simon Elliott explains the role of the exploratores in the Roman army - the equivalent of the Roman special forces. Penetrating deep into enemy territory, Roman scouts would gather intelligence on routes of advance and enemy defences, which was vital to the success of the Roman legions and auxiliaries.

[riccardo]

"We must penetrate deeply behind enemy lines"

Legate Diddy, 69 AD.

[IditNnSvnt]

Not just the tip of the spearhead but really penetrate deep behind enemy lines

[skepticalsmurf]

apparently the Ninth Legion traveling through Germania were too trusting 😬

[jwilliams]

This video definitely unlocked a new micro-obsession for me

[civilwildman]

This could make a good plot for an Assassin’s Creed game. 💡

[kraken]

Citations, context, and nuance needed. There's some details and setting notes that should go along with the description of "roman special forces"

[cristhianramirez]

A spy game with exploratores would be so cool, like an Assasins creed, but i dont trust them after their recent fumbles..

[Tobias-ls]

So basically, the Roman exploratores were basically US Marine Force Recon meets SAS/Delta Force.

[johannesdekoning]

I can no longer hear this guy without Metatron supervising..

[DLockholm]

Damn imagine if Varus had used the exploratores to scout ahead deep into the forest instead of blindly believing his resentful barbarian hostage

[Stew-kvnw]

So is that where the word explorer came from?

[fredhercmaricaubang]

Don't you mean "Speculatores"? I always thought "Exploratores" meant "Recon" or "Recce" troopers.

[ErikLundgren-pp]

Problem was they were usually locals. Were they always trustworthy?

[jtcsderp]

Penetrate *really* deep before the legionaries' spearheads did, huh?

[BillyAsWell]

The Ninth must have been a punitive unit

[LucaGentili-dv]

Why is the centurio wearing his typical crista transversa scouting behind enwmy lines?

[HawkmanWalker]

Calling it special forces is not historically accurate

[davidlittle]

that's just a description of scouts

[Der-Oberst]

You have NO idea what the Romans did. You weren’t there and you’re not that old. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Error__Account_Deleted]

Hard to believe his credibility if he’s still perpetuating the “obliterated” 9th Legion myths.