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Class: light · Category: infantry · Men per unit: 40

Reforms: Unlocked by Polybian Reform · Older units become this one with Polybian Reform · No longer recruitable after The Late Republican Reforms · Becomes a newer unit with A New Man: Gaius Marius (switched off), The Late Republican Reforms

These Hastati are the youngest members of the heavy infantry of the Mid-Roman Republic. In this period, Rome has become one of the strongest powers in the Western Mediterranean. Therefore, these soldiers are consistently heavily armed and properly trained. They make up the first line in the Roman army that either routs the enemy upon the first charge or grinds them down until the principes come into the fray to help break the enemy lines.

For the beginnings of the hastati, view the description of the Early Hastati. For the Mid-Republic, our best description comes from Polybios of Megalopolis (ca. 200-120 BC). An Achaian historian, he was a hostage in Rome in the 160s to 150s BC and wrote a history of its rise to hegemony in the Mediterranean. As part of the famous Roman army description of his sixth book, Polybios explains the levying of the Roman army, with the hastati making up those soldiers between the youngest (the velites) and the ones in the prime of their life (the principes) (Polyb. VI.21.7). In a legion, they are put into a line of 1,200 men, separated into 10 companies (which Polybios calls “speirai” and which is usually translated via Livy’s “maniples“; Polyb. VI.21.8-9).

These men are armed with the “complete panoply”, which includes a scutum shield, described by Polybios as an oblong shield with a convex surface, covered with hide, measuring two and a half feet in width and four feet in length, the top and bottom being reinforced with iron edging and the handle with an iron boss (VI.23.1). They carry a sword of the “Iberian type”, commonly called a gladius hispaniensis, as well as two javelins called pila, characterized by a long iron shank which is able to penetrate shields further than a normal javelin. Actually, the Romans at the time wore two different kinds of javelins, one being more akin to a hunting spear, according to Polybios, which we could not represent in RIS (Polyb. VI.23.6-11). Their helmet is a Montefortino type, very prominently represented in Roman art and archaeology with a crest of three black or red feathers, intended to strike fear into their enemies (VI.23.12-13). They are armoured with a bronze pectoral breastplate, which Polybios calls a “heart-protector” (kardiophylax), two spans in diameter, to which the closest analogy could be those kardiophylakes portrayed in the Campanian context (VI.15; Devereaux, The Material and Social costs of Roman Warfare (2018), pp. 246-250). They also wear a greave (Polybios uses the singular “proknemis” implying a single greave), likely on the leading left leg. Those rated above 10,000 drachmae in the census were expected to bring mail armour to the levy, which probably did not apply to many hastati, who would not have gathered as much experience and wealth as of yet. The strength of the hastati was set at roughly 1,200 per legion in Polybios’ standardized description, though he adds that all sections of the army, except the triarii, could be increased in number. This is demonstrated by Quinctius Attalus’ march into Boiotia in 197 BC, for which Livy notes the strength of his hastati as being 2,000 (Liv. XXXIII.1.2).

The hastati’s most famous explicit battle appearance is probably that in the battle of Zama in 202 BC, where Publius Cornelius Scipio (later Africanus) does the standard Roman deployment that Polybios had previously explained, the hastati being in the first line with certain intervals between their maniples, which the principes of the second line can reinforce (Polyb. XV.9.7; XV.13.7). Being in the first line, the hastati were naturally the ones who had to be the bravest and most impetuous, building up the momentum for the entire army to sweep up the enemy. When they were hesitant, it seems to have been the standard practice for commanders to snatch the standard of a hastati maniple and to lead them in the charge. Though such traditions may sometimes be exaggerated, it has happened often enough that a consul or centurion grabbed a standard from its bearer to lead the Roman army forward (Liv. III.70.10; VI.8.1; IX.41.18; X.36.9; XXVI.5.15; XXVII.14.8). Towards the end of the 2nd and into the 1st century BC, the maniple seems to have been replaced by the cohort as the main tactical unit of the Roman army. The maniple and their respective officers still defined the sections of the cohort in the 1st century BC, however, as demonstrated by Caesar, who mentions centurions of his maniples, like Q. Fulginius, centurion of the first hastati maniple [ex primo hastato] of his 13th legion (Caes. BC. I.46.4).

	Primary	Secondary
Attack	13	13
Charge bonus	16	17
Type	thrown · blade	melee · blade
Damage	piercing	piercing
Projectile	pilum_early	—
Range	40	—
Ammunition	2	—
Properties	Armour-piercing (counts only half the target's armour) · used just before charging into combat	—

	Primary	Secondary
Total	37	—
Armour	9	—
Defence skill	23	—
Shield	5	—

Hit points	1
Ground: scrub / sand / forest / snow	0 / -1 / 0 / -1
Charge distance	30
Formations	Square

Technical stats

Time between blows (primary / secondary)	2.5 s / 2.5 s
Extra fatigue in hot climates	2
Collision mass per man (1.0 is normal)	1.16
Spacing between men: close / loose	1 × 1.2 m / 2 × 2.4 m
Default ranks	5

In battle: Can sap

A core roster unit for 4 factions, each able to raise it anywhere they hold the right building:

Roman Rebels (first civil war) · Roman Rebels (second civil war) · Rome · The Roman Senate

Exactly what a settlement must have, route by route (2)

Building	Also requires
Direct Rule	Tier 2 Military Industrial Complex · Tier 1 Colony · Polybian Reform · not The Late Republican Reforms
Homeland	Garrison Building or Tier 1 Military Industrial Complex · Polybian Reform · not The Late Republican Reforms