Early Roman Warfare. From the Regal Period to the First Punic War

201 Pages·2016·13.65 MB·English

by  Jeremy Armstrong

Early Roman
Warfare
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Early Roman
Warfare
From the Regal Period to the
First Punic War
Jeremy Armstrong
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First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Jeremy Armstrong 2016
ISBN 978 1 78159 254 0
The right of Jeremy Armstrong to be identified as the Author of this
Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
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Contents
Introduction ix
Chapter 1 Rome’s Regal Armies 1
Chapter 2 The Power of the Clans 29
Chapter 3 The Army in the Fifth Century 57
Chapter 4 The Gallic Sack and Rome’s Rebirth 87
Chapter 5 Rome and the Latins 111
Chapter 6 Rome and the Mediterranean World 137
Conclusions 166
Notes 172
Bibliography 174
Index 176
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Introduction
T
he development of the early Roman army and the nature of early
Roman warfare are complicated topics, and ones which have been
the subject of sustained debate by historians in recent years. The
very existence of this debate is perhaps a little surprising considering that
the literary sources, superficially at least, seem to present a reasonably
clear and coherent narrative for the evolution of Rome’s armed forces
during this period. Both Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus – our
two main sources for the period – suggest that Rome’s early tribal army,
created by Romulus at the city’s foundation in or around 753 bc, was
transformed into something resembling a hoplite phalanx under the reign
of Rome’s sixth king Servius Tullius, as part of his ‘Centuriate Reforms’
sometime in the middle of the sixth century bc, and was then eventually
‘broken up’ into the famous ‘manipular legion’ in the late fourth century
bc during Rome’s wars with the Samnites. Each of these military changes
coincided, at least roughly, with broad political and social developments
within the city – including the foundation of the city, the aforementioned
‘Centuriate Reforms’ in the sixth century and the ending of the ‘Struggle
of the Orders’ in the fourth century. The end result was the emergence in
the early third century bc of a highly efficient military system which went
on to drive Rome’s territorial expansion during the next 200 years. The
archaeology also, at least initially, seemed to support this model. Early
excavations in Central Italy unearthed heavy bronze military equipment,
most notably hoplons or aspides (the large circular bronze shields made
famous by Greek hoplites), in contexts dating to the Archaic period –
which seemed to corroborate the presence of hoplites and hoplite warfare
in and around Rome during this period. And of course the existence and
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