The Republican Roman Army : A Sourcebook

317 Pages·2013·1.52 MB·English

by  Michael M. Sage

THE REPUBLICAN ROMAN ARMY:
A SOURCEBOOK
The Republican Roman Armyassembles a wide range of source material and intro-
duces the latest scholarship on the evolution of the Roman army and the Roman
experience of war. The author has carefully selected and translated key texts, many
of them not previously available in English, and provided them with comprehen-
sive commentaries and essays.
This wide-ranging survey of documents recreates the social and historical frame-
work in which ancient Roman warfare took place – from the archaic and Servian
period through to the Late Republic. The topics addressed extend beyond the con-
ventional questions of army mechanics such as strategy and tactics, and explore
questions such as the army’s influence on Roman society and its economy.
Complete with notes, index and bibliography, The Republican Roman Army
provides students of ancient and military history with an unprecedented survey of
relevant materials.
Michael M. Sagereceived his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1973 and
has been a member of the faculty of Classics at the University of Cincinnati since
1975.
THE REPUBLICAN
ROMAN ARMY
ASourcebook
Michael M. Sage
First published 2008
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
Transferred to Digital Printing 2010
© 2008 Michael M. Sage
Typeset in Times New Roman by
Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 10: 0–415–17879–7 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–17880–0 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–92661–7 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–17879–2 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–17880–8 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–92661–1 (ebk)
CONTENTS
Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
The sources 1
1 Rome’s earliest armies: the archaic and Servian period 4
Political and social institutions 4
The structure of the archaic army 5
Other combat groups 10
The introduction of the phalanx in central Italy 15
2 The development of the manipular army 42
The iron century 42
The development of the manipular army 63
The Roman allies 125
The manipular army in battle 142
Changes in census qualifications 197
3 The army of the late Republic 199
The development of the cohort as a tactical unit 199
Booty 208
Military rewards and honors 213
Punishments 225
Conditions of service 234
The late Republican army in battle 254
v
CONTENTS
Roman imperialism 267
Siege warfare 276
War at sea 283
Suggested readings 289
Index 299
vi
ABBREVIATIONS
AC Antiquité Classique
BAR British Archaeological Reports
CAH Cambridge Ancient History
ClAnt Classical Antiquity
CQ Classical Quarterly
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome
TAPhA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological
Association
vii
INTRODUCTION
The last three decades have seen a renewed interest in both Greek and Roman mil-
itary history. The focus of recent studies has shifted from the traditional areas of
tactics, strategy and battle analysis to a greater emphasis on the relationships of
armies to the societies that produced them and to recreating the experience of bat-
tle in the ancient world.
In Republican military studies the traditional areas have long received attention,
owing to the well-recognized connection between changes in the Roman army and
the political fortunes of the Republic, but they have recently been approached from
a far wider perspective than had earlier been the case and new methods of analysis
have been brought to bear.
The second line of analysis owes it origins to the epoch-making study by John
Keegan, The Face of Battle (New York, 1978), which attempted to recreate the
experience of battle over the course of five hundred years. The detailed descriptions
of the battles of the Second Punic War and of some of the battles that marked
Rome’s expansion into the eastern Mediterranean as well as Caesar’s accounts of
his Gallic campaign and the Civil War provide material for such a reconstruction
that has no parallel in earlier or later Roman history.
This sourcebook is an attempt to bring together relevant ancient testimony
on various aspects of the Roman army and its relation to Roman society to the
end of the Republic. Commentary has been added to place these passages in context
and to provide some of the insights offered by recent scholarship on these
problems.
The sources
Any attempt to trace the history of the Roman army during the Republic faces for-
midable problems. This is especially true of the written sources that are fundamen-
tal to tracing the evolution of Roman tactics and strategy. The major historical
sources for the earliest period, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, both writing
towards the end of the first century, anachronistically project the army of the third
and second centuries back into the Regal period and the first centuries of the
Republic. This may in part be due to the fact that the birth of historical writing at
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THE REPUBLICAN ROMAN ARMY
Rome took place about 200, precisely in the period. Although historical writing
focused on politics and military affairs, it tended to avoid technical details of army
organization and structure. There are occasional exceptions to this indifference but
they mostly concern modifications to weapons associated with major political and
military figures such as the changes in the javelin or pilumascribed to Marius and
Caesar. However, they seem to be the product of interest less in these details than in
the figures themselves. It is significant that none of the major changes in army
organization have found their way into the historical record. Although both Livy’s
and Dionysius’ histories contain valuable digressions such as their accounts of the
Servian army (see pp. 19ff.) they make no attempt to integrate them into their narra-
tives. The one exception to this is the account of the Roman army by the mid-
second-century Greek historian Polybius. Unlike Livy and Dionysius he had
personal experience of warfare and an interest in its technical side as reflected in his
comparison of Roman tactical formations with the Greek infantry phalanx.
Polybius’ main aim was to explain the success of Rome’s army to a Greek audience
and in doing so he gave the most detailed account of the Roman army of the mid-
second century that we possess. It is fundamental to any description of the Roman
army of this period.
The most significant contribution to understanding the evolution of tactics and
organization is provided by the antiquarian tradition which arose in the second cen-
tury. The most important author is M. Terentius Varro, who wrote in the middle of
the first century. Unfortunately, much of this work has been lost and survives only
in fragments quoted in later authors. Antiquarian writers were unconstrained by the
rules of historical writing that discouraged the use of technical terms and allowed
only limited treatment of institutional development. These were, in fact, the very
questions that preoccupied antiquarian writers. It is likely that an antiquarian writer
is the source of the digressions in Cicero, Livy and Dionysius on the Servian army.
The fragmentary nature of the extant material and its often narrow focus prevent the
antiquarian tradition from offering a coherent account of army development, but it
is vital to the construction of such an account.
Military manuals offer little help in reconstructing Roman military history. The
earliest known work by Cato the Elder (c.160) is available only in fragments. It
does show some interest in the history of the Roman army and in practical military
matters such as military organization and various battle formations. The extant
military manuals are all of imperial date and fall into two classes: collections of
stratagems or manuals of advice for commanders. They occasionally preserve
anecdotes useful for historical purposes but for the most part they are of little use.
There are some exceptions such as the second-century ADworks, such as the man-
ual on tactics by Arrian and his account of his expedition against the Alans while
governor of Cappadocia in 135 or the manual by Pseudo-Hyginus on the layout of
the Roman camp, that do deal with technical matters but their subject is the army of
the Empire. There is a noticeable change in military manuals in the late Empire
where the focus of these works shifts to the practical aspects of warfare. Of partic-
ular use is the work of Vegetius, who does employ sources dating from the
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INTRODUCTION
Republic, in particular Cato’s manual. However, it is often difficult to separate
genuine Republican material in his work from later developments.
Material remains can be useful in elucidating certain aspects of Roman warfare.
Pictorial representations of equipment and of combat are especially helpful for
periods for which we have little or no written information. Weapons finds can both
confirm written descriptions and aid the understanding of the use of such equip-
ment in battle. Of special importance in understanding second-century Roman
camps has been a series of five second-century Roman camps near the site of
Numantia in north central Spain.
Inscriptions are less helpful for the Republican period than Empire. They are rel-
atively few in number and are confined to the elite. Of more importance are the
Fasti, especially the list of consuls and of those commanders who celebrated a tri-
umph. The consular list seems to be accurate as far back as the mid-fourth century,
but even for earlier periods it forms the basis for any chronological reconstruction
of the period. There are serious problems with reliability of the list of triumphators
prior to the third century and there are some serious gaps in the list as we have it, but
it does serve as a check on accounts found in the written sources.
The reliability of accounts of campaigns and battles prior to the third century has
always been a problem. The earliest campaigns for which the sources provide some
sense of the overall strategy involved are the campaigns against the Samnites and
Gauls after 300. This is also the period when at least the general course of individ-
ual battles, such as Sentinum in 295, can be reconstructed with some accuracy. In
general, serious problems remain even for later battles. The two greatest difficulties
are the problem of matching the topography of the battle site with the description
given in the sources, for example the various locations suggested by modern schol-
ars for the battle of Cannae in 216, and the reliability of troop and casualty numbers.
Despite these difficulties a coherent account of the development of Rome’s mil-
itary forces can be traced. The information is uneven, with the earliest period giv-
ing rise to the most serious problems. Many of these difficulties are the result of the
tradition’s lack of interest in technical matters. It is telling that the sources are silent
on the causes of and the individuals involved in major tactical changes that
occurred during the Republic.
3