War And Society In Early Rome

This volume focuses on the changing relationship between warfare and the Roman citizenry; from the Republic, when war was at the heart of Roman life, through to the Principate, when it was confined to professional soldiers, and to the Late Empire and the Roman army's eventual failure.

This book combines the rich, but problematic, literary tradition for early Rome with the ever-growing archaeological record to present a new interpretation of early Roman warfare and how it related to the city's various social, political, religious, and economic institutions. Largely casting aside the anachronistic assumptions of late republican writers like Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, it instead examines the general modes of behaviour evidenced in both the literature and the archaeology for the period and attempts to reconstruct, based on these characteristics, the basic form of Roman society and then to 're-map' that on to the extant tradition. It will be important for scholars and students studying many aspects of Roman history and warfare, but particularly the history of the regal and republican periods.

This well-documented study of the Roman army provides a crucial aid to understanding the Roman Empire in economic, social and political terms. Employing numerous examples, Brian Campbell explores the development of the Roman army and the expansion of the Roman Empire from 31 BC-280 AD. When Augustus established a permanent, professional army, this implied a role for the Emperor as a military leader. Warfare and Society in Imperial Rome examines this personal association between army and emperor, and argues that the Emperor's position as commander remained much the same for the next 200 years.

Argues for an entirely new understanding of early Roman society visible through the evolution of early Roman warfare.

The role of warfare is central to our understanding of the ancient Greek world. In this book and the companion work, War and Society in the Roman World, the wider social context of war is explored. This volume examines its impact on Greek society from Homeric times to the age of Alexander and his successors and discusses the significance of the causes and profits of war, the links between war, piracy and slavery, and trade, and the ideology of warfare in literature and sculpture.

While copious amounts have been written about the Roman army, most study has focussed on the later Republic or the Imperial period when the legionary system was already well-developed. Here Dr Jeremy Armstrong traces the development of Rome's military might from its earliest discernible origins down to the First Punic War. He shows how her armies evolved from ad-hoc forces of warriors organized along clan lines and assembled for the city's survival, to the sophisticated organization of the legions that went on to dominate all of Italy and then (after the period covered) the entire Mediterranean world. The author reviews both the literary sources and the latest archaeological evidence to provide a fresh analysis of Roman military organization, equipment, tactics and strategy. He shows how Rome's military apparatus adapted to meet the changing strategic needs of new enemies and broader ambitions. This study of the origins of the Classical world's most formidable war machine will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in Classical, and especially Roman, military history.

This volume addresses the fundamental importance of the army, warfare, and military service to the development of both the Roman Republic and wider Italic society in the second half of the first millennium BC. It brings together emerging and established scholars in the area of Roman military studies to engage with subjects such as the relationship between warfare and economic and demographic regimes; the interplay of war, aristocratic politics, and state formation; and the complex role the military played in the integration of Italy. The book demonstrates the centrality of war to Rome’s internal and external relationships during the Republic, as well as to the Romans’ sense of identity and history. It also illustrates the changing scholarly view of warfare as a social and cultural construct in antiquity, and how much work remains to be done in what is often thought of as a "traditional" area of research. Romans at War will be of interest to students and scholars of the Roman army and ancient warfare, and of Roman society more broadly.

"A remarkable book,in which Forsythe uses his thorough knowledge of the ancient evidence to reconstruct a coherent and eminently plausible picture which in turn illuminates early Roman society more immediately than any other category of evidence is able to do. Forsythe displays his impressive ability to demonstrate to what extent and why the tradition that dominates the extant historical narratives is not credible."—Kurt Raaflaub, author of The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece "An excellent synthetic treatment of early Roman history found in both modern literary and archaeological materials."—Richard Mitchell, author of Patricians and Plebeians

Historians have long asserted that during and after the Hannibalic War, the Roman Republic's need to conscript men for long-term military service helped bring about the demise of Italy's small farms and that the misery of impoverished citizens then became fuel for the social and political conflagrations of the late republic. Nathan Rosenstein challenges this claim, showing how Rome reconciled the needs of war and agriculture throughout the middle republic. The key, Rosenstein argues, lies in recognizing the critical role of family formation. By analyzing models of families' needs for agricultural labor over their life cycles, he shows that families often had a surplus of manpower to meet the demands of military conscription. Did, then, Roman imperialism play any role in the social crisis of the later second century B.C.? Rosenstein argues that Roman warfare had critical demographic consequences that have gone unrecognized by previous historians: heavy military mortality paradoxically helped sustain a dramatic increase in the birthrate, ultimately leading to overpopulation and landlessness.