Cowards? The townspeople would have been able to beat them if they had only tried. But as Vulpes said, all of them were selfish cowards who only hoped to win the lottery, even though they saw their loved ones dragged away to be killed.
If I may?
Nowhere is it suggested that a bunch of drunk, high townspeople would have been able to beat a group of professional, well-trained and ruthless soldiers.
To illustrate; Let's say you've got fifty people in a room, unarmed, against five people with machine guns. You can rush them, but you're all going to die. Ultimately, to quote Colonel Corazon Santiago, ""Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together, a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained, well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate."."
Even if the townspeople were armed, fact of the matter is they are no match for professional soldiers like Legion.
It's
real easy to sit here on our moral high horses and say "well, they should have done something" but fact is, if you're staring down a gun barrel I think you might have a bit of a different perspective on the matter.
The charge that Legion doesn't care about education or learning is a valid one; it's highly militant and places no value on education (ironically enough, considering Caesar was a Follower). Such a society would be extremely detrimental in the long run, as it would remain rooted at a basic subsistence level of existence. Suppressing scientific growth is bad, and won't end well.