Tamiya 1:72 Roman Imperial Infantry

Art. No.: 500788043 Product Name: 1:72 Roman Imperial Infantry 1/72. This model is a replica of a Roman infantry unit. The Roman army was the best organized and most well-trained army of antiquity. This advantage allowed the Romans to control virtually the entire known world at that time: the entire Mediterranean coast, most of Central Asia, North Africa up to the desert, all of Europe across the Rhine and Danube in the east, as well as Britain in the northwest. Generally, Roman legionaries were equipped with short double-edged swords, the gladius, and spears, the pila. A crucial element was the shield of a legionary: although it was quite cumbersome, it had a rectangular shape. During a siege, soldiers could form up in a turtle-like formation known as the testudo or "tortoise" formation. In a closed testudo, the front row of legionaries placed their shields in front of them, the soldiers in the middle held their shields above their heads, and the flank soldiers completed the turtle on the left and right flanks. This arrangement created a very solid layer of protection from shields. In such a formation, legionaries were practically invulnerable to arrows and spears.