ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|16 pages

Writing about Romans at war *

ByJeremy Armstrong, Michael P. Fronda

chapter 2|18 pages

The institutionalization of warfare in early Rome *

ByFred K. Drogula

chapter 3|17 pages

The price of expansion

Agriculture, debt-dependency, and warfare during the rise of the Republic, c. 450–287 *
ByPeter VanDerPuy

chapter 5|23 pages

Organized chaos

Manipuli, socii, and the Roman army c. 300 *
ByJeremy Armstrong

chapter 6|17 pages

Poor man’s war – rich man’s fight

Military integration in Republican Rome *
ByMarian Helm

chapter 8|20 pages

The middle Republican soldier and systems of social distinction *

ByKathryn H. Milne

chapter 9|17 pages

Uncovering a “Lost Generation” in the senate

Demography and the Hannibalic War *
ByCary Barber

chapter 10|20 pages

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph” *

ByMichael P. Fronda

chapter 11|19 pages

Ager publicus

Land as a spoil of war in the Roman Republic *
BySaskia T. Roselaar

chapter 12|22 pages

The manipular army system and command decisions in the second century *

ByJeremiah McCall

chapter 13|15 pages

Anecdotal history and the Social War *

ByJessica H. Clark

chapter 14|20 pages

SPQR SNAFU

Indiscipline and internal conflict in the late Republic *
ByLee L. Brice

chapter 15|16 pages

From slave to citizen

The lessons of Servius Tullius *
ByJack Wells

chapter 16|14 pages

The transformation of the Roman army in the last decades of the Republic *

ByFrançois Gauthier

chapter 17|11 pages

Epilogue

ByNathan Rosenstein