Warfare in the Roman Republic

Description

Few ancient institutions capture students' interests and imaginations more than the Roman army. The conquest of territory that we still recognize, the sense of a professional military that is the forerunner of our modern armies, and the leaders all draw students, both young and old, to the army. Students often joke that ancient history should be easy because it is ancient, thinking that it does not change because it is so old. Indeed, much of what we call the drums-and-trumpets style of work is stuck in old methods and styles. But the reality is that military history, including the history of ancient warfare, is changing all the time. Just as historians in other specializations started drawing on new methods and engaging in more social history, postcolonial history, and cultural history after 1945, so did military historians. This led to the emergence of a war-and-society approach.^ By 1970 historians could refer to a new military history that drew heavily on the social sciences and other fields to consider warfare in new ways. Other specialized fields of study have also opened up military history: conflict archaeology, crowd psychology, game theory, and forensic anthropology have had an enormous impact on the way historians approach ancient warfare. We have new topics of detailed study such as mutiny, battlefield physiology, and gender, as well as new ways of looking at traditional topics such as logistics, economics, combat motivation, and death. Archaeologists uncover new artifacts, sites, and sources such as new inscriptions that illustrate features of Roman career paths. Specialists using new laboratory sciences reveal previously unavailable data, including the ways in which particular weapon use can appear in skeletal remains.^ Historians employ new ways of looking at old and new evidence to reveal lost information, examine neglected topics, or elaborate new interpretations. As a result, the field of ancient history, including military history, is a far cry from students' misconceptions of it as static. Another traditional reason for the continuing fascination with ancient military history is the inspirational quality found in famous leaders and battles of the past. Traditional military history has typically had a strong educational element--training leadership skills through biographies of famous commanders. Ancient Roman warfare has provided a number of leaders--Caesar is the most obvious example, but we cannot ignore Scipio Africanus, Scipio Aemilianus, Pompey, and Antony, among so many others.^ Regardless of their success in locating the elusive recipe, authors continue to present the lives and actions of important ancient leaders for the leadership and historical lessons we may draw from their careers.--Adapted from introduction.

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