The Romans' Manipole System

The roman fighting strength was optimally between eight and ten thousand men, with forty 200 legionaries. When it marched from place to place, however, it was attended by a baggage train of non combatants numbering themselves in the thousands. So it would not be surprising to see a legion of 40 200 men marching through the countryside, 15 thousand strong. Each soldier was equipped with two spears and a sword. As they approached the enemy, they hurled the spears and inflicted as much damage as they could before meeting them hand to hand. Once engaged in hand to hand combat, it was simply a matter of killing or wounding everything that moved until the enemy broke and fled.