Maniple (military unit)
Maniple (Latin: manipulus, literally meaning "a handful") was a tactical unit of the Roman legion adopted from the Samnites during the Samnite Wars (343–290 BC). It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit.
Maniple members, seen as each other's brothers in arms, were called commanipulares (singular, commanipularis), but without the domestic closeness of the much smaller contubernium.
History
The manipular system was adopted at around 315 BC, during the Second Samnite War. The rugged terrain of Samnium where the war was fought highlighted the lack of manoeuvrability inherent in the phalanx formation which the Romans had inherited from the Etruscans. The main battle troops of the Etruscans and Latins of this period comprised Greek-style hoplite phalanxes, inherited from the original Greek military unit, the phalanx.
After suffering a series of defeats culminating in the surrender of an entire legion without resistance at Caudine Forks the Romans abandoned the phalanx altogether, adopting the more flexible manipular system, famously referred to as "a phalanx with joints".
