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4 results

  • 5 - Warfare and the state

  • from Part I - The Late Republic and the Principate
    • By Dominic, Professor of Ancient History, King’s College London, Richard, Professor of Ancient History, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 158-197

  • Summary

    The extant literature of the Roman world of the late Republic and Principate has occasional brief references to soldiers' pay, preparations for particular campaigns and the burden of military expenses. The four centuries of the late Republic and Principate are supposed to have seen two major changes in Roman military provisioning: introduction of a civil administration supplying the dispersed units of the army of the Principate; and the abandonment of this system in the third century AD in favour of direct requisitioning of supplies by the army. The lack of ancient statistics makes it difficult to assess the overall impact of the Roman army and warfare on the economy of the Roman world. Six decades of regular civil wars ushered in a period of two centuries in which civil political conflicts did not escalate into war. The chapter also discusses this Roman revolution and the removal of the soldiery from the politics of the imperial centre.

  • 2 - Military forces

  • from Part I - The Late Republic and the Principate
    • By Boris Rankov, Professor of Roman History, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 30-75

  • Summary

    The period of the late Republic and early Principate is one in which Rome's military forces underwent a transformation in almost all aspects. C. Marius, a senator, used the popular revulsion against the aristocratic mismanagement of Rome's armies, obtained the command in Africa for himself. The army he employed to win his African victories had been subject to better individual training than before. In the course of Augustus' reign, a standing Roman army was set up on a permanent basis, under the command of the reigning emperor and the direct control of his appointed legates. The legions of the Principate were equipped with 120 cavalry. In the middle Republic, each legion had had 300, drawn from the very wealthiest members of society, including senators. Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew, stationed troops in Rome on a standing basis for the first time, although both he and his successors were careful as far as possible not to offend lingering Republican sensibilities.

  • 3 - War

  • from Part I - The Late Republic and the Principate
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 76-121

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses the types of war fought by the Roman army in the late Republic and Principate. It examines the context in which these conflicts occurred, their frequency, duration, decisiveness and results. Much of the chapter deals with strategy, or the practical factors such as intelligence, communications and logistics which impose limits upon it. It is convenient to divide the foreign wars fought by the army in this period into four broad groups: wars of conquest, wars to suppress rebellion, punitive expeditions, and wars fought in response to invasions or raids. Beyond the desire of the emperor to prevent the movement of troops for one operation causing problems in other areas, it is hard to see how any form of grand strategy could have coped with so many local, ever-changing problems. The strategy in civil wars was always simple and wars ended with the death of one of the rival leaders. Compromises were inevitably temporary.

  • 6 - War and Society

  • from Part I - The Late Republic and the Principate
    • By Colin Adams, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Liverpool
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 198-232

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses two themes related to Roman warfare in the late Republic and early Principate: the impact of society and social structures on the conduct of war, and the reciprocal effect of war on society. It focuses on the changing character of external wars in the late Republic, the pressures which this caused in Rome and Italy, both socially and politically, and how these were eventually to lead to internal or civil wars which tore the Roman Republic apart. No matter what the causes of wars were, there is no doubt that there was a massive influx of public and private wealth and slaves into Italy in the second century BC and beyond. The human cost of wars in Italy, and throughout the Mediterranean world, must have been great. The effect of Roman imperialism in the Mediterranean and beyond was determined not just by events on the ground, but in the political developments in the city of Rome itself.