Maniple (military unit)

Maniple (from the Latin Manipulus, from manus " hand (full), flock " ) referred to a sub-unit of the Roman legion. Originally divided into a legion of the Roman Republic in 30 maniple, which were divided in the second century BC in two Centuries and disintegrated into ten Dekurien or Contubernia. As a Centurie originally 100 men, but later about 80 men involved, the team's strength of Manipels was therefore about 160 men. The maniple were the tactical units of the Legion, commanded by senior senior centurion.

Since the Punic Wars, three maniple could be summarized as needed to a cohort, which is the main tactical unit below the Legion instead of Manipels since the reforms of Marius.

The function of creating and the use of Manipelsystems was that the production of a phalanx in the size of an entire legion, especially in rough terrain was extremely difficult to achieve, since individual soldiers of trees, rocks, etc., were stopped. So you decided to use the subdivision into maniple, which thus could dodge a natural obstacle better. The gaps between the manipuli were then, just before contact with the enemy, back to a formation Legion strength, closed. Thus, the uniform and thus faster and safer movement of a phalanx was guaranteed in obstacle- rich terrain. This tactic was finally be replaced during the Empire ( Hadrian ) through the conversion of the cavalry of supporting units to major combat troops.

• Military Association ( Rome)