Triarii evidence for elite status

[Horatius]

Hello everyone I have come with a direct question.

Does anyone know where the evidence of Triarii as elite infantry compared to Hastati and Principes comes from? I have always heard them described as elite; but after going through mountains of Polybius, Livy, and others I have yet to find much evidence to support that. What I have found is that they were wealthier and with better gear but only saw action as a last resort or when used by an unconventional commander. The reason I say this is because after the wars to subdue other Latins off the top of my head the only battle I could think of where Triarii were used was Zama; but in that battle Triarii didn't provide the shock towards the Carthaginians the Principes did; and the Principes were used in a shock role more then once; and when Triarii were used at the end it was with Hastati and Princepes and I saw no evidence for them fighting any differently or any better than their middle class peers. have I missed any battles where they did get use for shock instead of the principes outside of the extremely early period when they were still hoplites?

[Atilius]

Does anyone know where the evidence of Triarii as elite infantry compared to Hastati and Principes comes from?There is no evidence that they were elite; during the EB time frame they were simply the legion's most experienced soldiers. In fact, Polybios' description of the Roman army clearly states that even their equipment no longer differed from that of the hastati and principes except for the fact that they used a spear in place of a sword.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

In EB, the Camillan Triarii (hoplite) has very slightly better stats than the Classical Greek Hoplite. So the Camillan Triarii are very good hoplites, better than their Greek equivalent. Presumably that's because the Triarii are made up of experienced men.

[Brucaliffo]

They were not elite.
Principes and Triarii were different because of their tactical employment.

Principes were shock infantry, medium order rank, close combat.
Triarii were close order infantry, heavy order rank, phalanx combat.

[antisocialmunky]

It depends on your definition of elite... at which point all objectivity goes out the window and you are what you want them to be.

[moonburn]

for them to become triarii they had to survive being a hastati and then survive being a princeps so sure as hell they wheren´t just older and wealthier they where more experienced soldiers who had seen alot of batles in their lifetime and had survived them all thats what being a triarii meant