Turma

A turma (; plural turmae; ) was a cavalry unit in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-administrative divisions of a thema. The word is often translated as "squadron" but so is the term ala, a unit that was made up of several turmae.

==Roman army== ===Republic=== In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the time of the Punic Wars and Rome's expansion into Spain and Greece, the core of the Roman army was formed by citizens, augmented by contingents from Rome's allies (socii). The organization of the Roman legion of the period is described by the Greek historian Polybius (cf. the so-called "Polybian army"), who writes that each 4,200-strong infantry legion was accompanied by 300 citizen cavalry (equites). This contingent was divided into ten turmae. According to Polybius, the squadron members would elect as their officers three decuriones ("leaders of 10 men"), of whom the first to be chosen would act as the squadron's commander and the other two as his deputies. As in earlier times, these men were drawn from among the 18 centuriae of the equestrian order, the wealthiest classes of the Roman people, who could afford to provide for the horse and its equipment themselves.