I guess they were regimented by region. I can't imagine as a father, focusing on anything but making sure my son survives, fuck orders.

The most feared Roman soldiers were small team gay lover squads (The band of thebes).

Their only defeat came at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), against Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. It is written that Philip, after the fight, took a view of the slain; coming upon the place where the three hundred that fought his phalanx lay dead together and, understanding that it was the band of lovers, he wept. Around 300 BC, the town of Thebes erected a giant stone lion on a pedestal at the burial site of the Sacred Band that still stands today.