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Roman soldiers wore their swords on the right at first. By the AD 300s most Romans wore their swords on the left -as centurions always had

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Soldiers far from home got lonely. Roman mothers sent letters and parcels from home to cheer them up.

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Roman soldiers wore sandals, with iron studs on the leather soles. Hard-wearing, but easy to slip when running on wet stones

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https://goo.gl/images/MFph79

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https://goo.gl/images/ksCplN

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Roman soldiers kept fit by running, marching and practice-fighting. They could march 20 miles (30 km) a day wearing armour. They could swim or cross rivers in boats, build bridges, and smash their way into forts. Each man carried his weapons and shield, some food and camping equipment (such as spare clothes, cooking pot and an axe or spade).

Roman soldiers almost always obeyed orders. They usually caught in lines, marching forwards with their shields facing the enemy. If they were being fired at from above (with arrows or rocks), the men would lift their shields over their heads for protection. They looked like a tortoise, so they called this formation testudo (Latin for tortoise).

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We know about Roman armour and weapons from pictures and statues, and from finds by modern archaeologists.

A Roman soldier wore armour made from strips of iron and leather (lorica and segmentata in Latin). On his head was a metal helmet (galea). He carried a rectangular shield (scutum), curved so it protected his body. The shield was made of wood and leather .
The soldiers' main weapons were a short sword for stabbing (gladius) and a long spear, or javelin (pilum) for throwing. The javelin had a sharp iron point , and a thin, bendy shaft. When it hit an enemy's shield, the point stuck in, but the shaft bent This made it difficult to pull out. The long spear shaft got in the way, so the enemy soldier had to throw away his shield.

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Legionairies were the best Roman soldiers, and the best paid. There were other soldiers though. An auxiliary was a soldier who was not a Roman citizen. He was paid a third as much as a legionary. Auxiliaries guarded forts and frontiers, but also taught in battles, often on the lines, where it was most dangerous.
Some soldiers had special skills. They shot bows and arrows, flung stones from slingshots, or could swim through rivers to surprise an enemy.

Artillery soldiers fired giant catapults, called onagers in Latin, machines that fired rocks or balls of burning tar. The Romans used big wind-up crossbows, called ballistas in Latin, too.
Usually, Romans liked to fight on foot. They used cavalry (soldiers riding on horses) to chase a fleeing enemy. In a battle, that cavalry often lined up on either side of the infantry (foot-soldiers).

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There were about 30 legions in the Roman
army. Each legion had about 4,000 soldiers
to 6,000 soldiers, called legionairies. Each
legion had ten cohorts. Each cohort was made
up of six troops of around 80 soldiers called
centuries. Each century was lead by a centurion.
A centurion carried a short rod, to show his importance.
He could also use his stick to beat any soldier who
disobeyed an order. The officer commanding the whole legion was called a legate

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Only men could be in the Roman army. Every Roman soldier was a Roman citizen. Women and slaves could not be citizens. He had to be at least 20 years old. He was not supposed to get married while he was a soldier. Most soldiers in the Roman army came from outside Italy . There were Roman soldiers from Africa, France, Germany and the Middle East.

Soldiers had to stay in the army for at least 25 years! Then they could retire with a pension or a gift of land to farm. Old soldiers often settled down to old age together, in a military town or colonia.

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[Imperial Roman Army] Organization & Structure

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Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mhv The Imperial Roman Army consisted of the provincial armies, the garrison in Rome and the Roman Navy. The brunt of the forces was in the Provincial armies that were made up by the legions and their auxiliaries in total around 240k men.