ABSTRACT
The growth and consolidation of the Roman empire is beautifully illustrated in the development of her army. Beginning with an army of citizen farmers who campaigned in the summers under temporary generals and yearly consuls in the regal period and the early republic (seventh to fourth centuries BC), Rome’s army changed as her territories expanded in the third to first centuries BC from a temporary conglomeration of Italian farmers to a more formalized, permanent and professionalized force, which employed men from all over the Mediterranean as well as international tactics (e.g. at the Battle of Zama; see Chapter 2). Like Rome’s political sphere in the late republic, the army was increasingly controlled by individuals (generals), many of whom came from Rome’s most prestigious families. These generals not only recruited armies (starting with P. Scipio Africanus during the Punic Wars) but took a greater role in organizing (see discussion on ‘Marian mules’, Chapter 2), paying and gaining land settlements for their soldiers. The role of the army also changed from one based solely upon protection to one of financial and political support:
The situation deteriorated at the end of the republic into a series of bloody civil wars that set Romans against Romans. In the aftermath, the emperor Augustus responded by creating the first centralized system of organization for the Roman army, which addressed the social, political, administrative and economic roles that the Roman army had come to play.
