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[escribe] Velites.-

Velites were a class of light infantry in the army of the Roman Republic.

Velites appear as a troop type throughout the Punic Wars of the third and second centuries BC. They disappear from history at the end of the second century BC when, as citizen soldiers, they would have served as more heavily-equipped legionaries. Their role on the battlefield would have been taken by non-citizen, foreign fighters from then on.

The velites (pronounced well-ih-tays) were skirmishers, armed with a short sword (gladius) or dagger and several small javelins. At this point in the Republic (up until the end of the second century BC), soldiers generally paid for their own equipment. Given that each veles tended to be from the poorer brackets of Roman citizenry, he would only have been able to afford light armour. This may have included greaves and limited body armour for some, but virtually all would have worn a bronze helmet and carried a basic round shield. Their armour and weaponry made them the most mobile of all the Roman infantry of the time.

The velites did not form their own line; maniples of principes and hastati had a certain number of velites assigned to them, and they came under the command of the centurions of these units. In this sense, despite not being part of the main formation, they were regular soldiers. During battle the velites would engage the enemy with their javelins before retiring behind the hastati and principes. They are recorded in the sources as wearing wolf-skins over their helmets, in order that their centurions would recognise their own men when calling them back behind the line.

The success of the Roman army is frequently attributed to its heavy infantry. However, as with irregular infantry with which velites had much in common (that is, fighting in loose formation), their effectiveness is often overlooked; the velites were highly effective in turning back war elephants, on account of discharging a hail of javelins at some range and not presenting a "block" which could be trampled on or otherwise smashed - unlike the close order infantry behind them. At the Battle of Zama in 202 BC they proved their usefulness, and were no doubt critical in helping to herd Hannibal's war elephants through the formation to be slaughtered.

The velites of the Roman Republican army at its height in the 2nd century BC were possibly soldiers who would have comprised the earlier rorarii and accensi classes, these being comprised of the supposedly unreliable and otherwise poor combatants of the original fifth class Phalanx. In Polybius's "Rise of the Roman Empire", he states that the velites were usually the youngest of the soldiers. Though they still owned land, the velites were usually the poorer of the Roman military accepted classes, until the time of Marius, when the property qualification was dropped for military service.

At this point, all fit and healthy citizens could serve in the legions, the poorer of which would have assistance in being equipped with weapons and armour. The wealth of the individual soldier and his position within the rank and file thus became increasingly irrelevant, and equipment and training became more standardised for service as a legionary. From this time, up until the establishment of the Roman Empire under Augustus and beyond, the Roman Army increasingly made use of foreign irregulars as skirmishers. The velites would slowly have been either disbanded or re-equipped as more heavily-armed legionaries from the time when Marius and other Roman generals reorganised the army in the late second and early first centuries BC. Their role would most likely have been taken by irregular auxiliary troops as the Republic expanded overseas.

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Este artículo ha sido traducido desde: Wikipedia en inglés. Licencia GFDL

Los velites ("veles" en singular) era la unidad de infantería ligera del Ejército Romano. Estaba formada por los ciudadanos más pobres y aquellos que todavía no se consideraban adultos para formar parte de otras unidades de infantería como son los hastati. Se dice que los velites entraron a formar parte en el año 211 sustituyendo a los peor armados y menos eficientes, sin embargo, esta afirmación es una dudosa interpretación de un único pasaje de Livio. Los velites iban armados con una espada y con un haz de jabalinas ligeras; protegidos por un escudo circular de unos 40 cm de diámetro y muchos de ellos, tenían en su cabeza unos cascos que cubrían con trozos de pieles (casi siempre de lobo) para hacerse distinguir delante de los oficiales. Administrativamente, estaban asignados a una centuria y un manípulo concreto.

En la batalla esta unidad realizaba escaramuzas. Por lo general, había 1.200 velites por cada 3.000 miembros de la infantería romana, pero en tiempos de crisis, su número se multiplicaba. Las reformas de Mario suprimieron esta categoría de infantería ligera, y los antiguos velites fueron integrados con la infantería pesada en las nuevas cohortes.

[escribe] Enlaces externos

• Ejército Romano

El contenido de este artículo incorpora material de una entrada de la Wikipedia, publicada con licencia CC-BY-SA 3.0.

El velite era una de las unidades de infantería ligera del ejército romano antes de la reforma de Mario, era generalmente de algún pueblo bajo el dominio de Roma. Iba armado con un yelmo, escudo, espada y jabalinas y como protección para el cuerpo se cubrían con una piel de lobo.

Los velites formaban siempre en primera línea de combate, seguidos de los hastati, principes y triari. Actuaban en las primeras escaramuzas de la batalla para luego replegarse entre los huecos que dejaban las centurias antes de formar para el combate.

El contenido de este artículo incorpora material de una entrada de la Wikipedia, publicada con licencia CC-BY-SA 3.0.