ABSTRACT
The earliest Republican armies were naturally a continuation of the armies of the regal period, and, in particular, the army under the Etruscan kings, especially the two Tarquins, who may really have been one. The ‘Romulean’ army comprised traditionally 3,000 pedites and 300 celeres, provided by the three original Roman tribes, and presumably organized as a legion. It was most likely a purely patrician force. The influx of new settlers from the neighbouring hills and their organization into new tribes changed the army into a predominantly plebeian one, at the same time increasing its size. This reorganization was traditionally ascribed not to the Tarquins but to Servius Tullius, who was believed to have ruled between them. There are strong grounds, however, for ascribing ‘the Servian constitution’ not to the regal period, but to the middle of the fifth century BC (Dion. Hal. IV 16–21 and Livy I 42–8; Scullard, 1980, 74-).
