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The Romans prided themselves on adapting and improvising to win but the legio had a nominal strength and disposition. Visualize 120 heavy infantry legionaries standing in full gear shoulder to shoulder two-plus feet apart. Call them twentysomethings in age and fitness. Then visualize a second rank behind these of 120 thirtysomethings standing shoulder to shoulder the same distance apart. Finally, visualize 60, 40-50 year olds behind them, standing four or so feet apart, side-by-side and kneeling on one knee while holding thrusting spears pointing forward over the heads of those in front of them. Together with 120, give-or-take, late teens velites who were javelin throwing light infantry, this would be a maniple.

 

Now visualize nine more of these maniples, side-by-side on the right side of this maniple and you have a legio or legion with a nominal strength of 4200. (You might note that this would mean there would be 1200 men standing side-by-side in a legion. At even only two feet per man, that's 800 yards or almost a half mile. Four legions side-by-sidewould extend over a mile and a half to almost 2 miles.)

 

The velites typically started an engagement by running out in front with bundles of pila or barbed point javelins and hurling the pila at the shields of the enemy. When they were done, they would retire through the ranks of the heavy infantry twentysomethings through 40s year olds and the heavies would then engage the enemy soldiers with swords and shields (Perhaps the enemy front rank would still be trying to deal with the javelins hanging on their shields as they were attacked. Apparently, physical and mental stamina was what determined victory. Having to fight using a shield with one or more pila dangling from it would be wearing).

 

 

I am not sure how the individual Roman soldiers choreographed their being relieved but generally said, they retired through the ranks behind them.  I have read also, that the Roman ranks stood with some empty space between soldiers and that the front soldiers could step back between the ones behind them who could then continue the battle. I suppose that the second and third ranks were easily visible to the enemy soldiers. Therefore, those enemy soldiers knew they would be isolated,  trapped  and killed should they try to slip by in the space between the soldiers in the front Roman ranks without first neutralizing them first.

"Visualize 120 heavy infantry legionaries standing in full gear shoulder to shoulder two-plus feet apart."  I should have written - "standing at two foot plus intervals".