Roman Discipline and Punishment

The maniple system also had the advantage of being far harder to flank than a phalanx. Any attempt to do so would either be met by the cavalry, back line maniples ordered forward, or by front line manipoles themselves peeled off from the main fight and sent in a different direction. It 's not that anyone could be inserted and the result would have been the same. Nor was it the case that the romans were bigger or stronger than their opponents. In fact, in many cases, facing huge, lumbering germanic tribes, the romans looked puny by comparison. Rather, the legions prevailed because of a group discipline that became the nightmare of opposing armies