ABSTRACT

Roman warfare was an adaptation of Greek hoplite warfare and the hoplite ideology of decisive battle, but with peculiar features, the most striking of which was its sheer success. Connections between war and religion, strong in all ancient societies, were nowhere stronger than at Rome; and Roman religion, in warfare as in all else, was characterized by an intense legalism. The Roman system developed in three stages: the conquest of Italy, circa 400-270 B.C.; the conquest of the western Mediterranean, circa 270-200 B.C.; and the conquest of the Greek world, circa 200-146 B.C. The Romans gradually assumed direct control over their client states, and when they were all absorbed, a territorial empire took shape. The legions were now settled in permanent camps behind fortified frontiers, and behind these frontiers all the native elites were gradually incorporated into a single ruling class, united by a uniform Greco-Roman literary culture resembling the mandarin elite of China.