The Roman Army - (M.) Dobson The Army of the Roman Republic. The Second Century BC, Polybius and the Camps at Numantia, Spain. Pp. xii + 436, ills, maps. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2008. Cased, £40. ISBN: 978-1-84217-241-4.

2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 218-220
Author(s):  
A. T. Fear
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Army

scholarly journals The Groma and the Gladius: Roman Surveyors in the Later Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jason C Morris
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Land Surveying

<p>Boundaries have been a concern for all settled peoples in all times and places. The Romans  were no exception to this rule. Literary documents from the second century B.C. right  through to the end of the Western Empire in the fifth century A.D. show a continuous  preoccupation with the delineation of boundaries and the ownership or control of land. As part of this preoccupation, the Romans developed a complex legal framework for coping with property ownership. To accompany this legal framework, they developed a sophisticated system of boundary marking and land surveying known as centuriation. A great deal of scholarly attention has been expended on understanding both the system of centuriation and the legal framework governing Roman land use. Far less attention has been paid to the social development of the agrimensores or land surveyors who actually carried out the operation of centuriation and dealt with the problems of property disputes in the Imperial period. This thesis will focus on the social identity of the Roman land surveyors with a particular emphasis on understanding their origins in the surveying institutions of the later Republic. To accomplish this study, the thesis will be broken down into three broad chapters, each chapter containing two or three subsections. The first chapter will examine the social identity and evolution of the finitor, who has traditionally been considered the surveyor of the Roman Republic. The second chapter will examine the identity of the agrimensores or mensores in the particular context of the Roman army in an effort to distinguish them from the metatores, three names which have been considered to refer to the same or a similar occupation. The third chapter will examine the mensor in the context of the Roman Republic and trace the social forces that shaped their identity as specialists in land law and surveying.</p>

scholarly journals The Groma and the Gladius: Roman Surveyors in the Later Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jason C Morris
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Land Surveying

<p>Boundaries have been a concern for all settled peoples in all times and places. The Romans  were no exception to this rule. Literary documents from the second century B.C. right  through to the end of the Western Empire in the fifth century A.D. show a continuous  preoccupation with the delineation of boundaries and the ownership or control of land. As part of this preoccupation, the Romans developed a complex legal framework for coping with property ownership. To accompany this legal framework, they developed a sophisticated system of boundary marking and land surveying known as centuriation. A great deal of scholarly attention has been expended on understanding both the system of centuriation and the legal framework governing Roman land use. Far less attention has been paid to the social development of the agrimensores or land surveyors who actually carried out the operation of centuriation and dealt with the problems of property disputes in the Imperial period. This thesis will focus on the social identity of the Roman land surveyors with a particular emphasis on understanding their origins in the surveying institutions of the later Republic. To accomplish this study, the thesis will be broken down into three broad chapters, each chapter containing two or three subsections. The first chapter will examine the social identity and evolution of the finitor, who has traditionally been considered the surveyor of the Roman Republic. The second chapter will examine the identity of the agrimensores or mensores in the particular context of the Roman army in an effort to distinguish them from the metatores, three names which have been considered to refer to the same or a similar occupation. The third chapter will examine the mensor in the context of the Roman Republic and trace the social forces that shaped their identity as specialists in land law and surveying.</p>

The Purpose of the Lex Calpurnia de repetundis

1987 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Administrative History ◽  
Selection Of

In 149 B.C. the tribune L. Calpurnius Piso proposed a law which was to have momentous consequences for the legal, political and administrative history of the Roman republic. It was his lex de rebus repetundis which first established the practice of trial before a quaestio perpetua, a jury, drawn from a panel of jurors who had always to be available, which became the standard procedure for criminal cases in the late republic. For over fifty years, from the first tribunate of C. Gracchus in 123 to the passing of the Lex Aurelia in 70, such courts were to provide a political storm-centre as various political figures attempted for their own ends to alter the criteria for the selection of the iudices who manned the juries. Moreover, from the late second century B.C. down to at least the second century A.D., the process de repetundis formed the most important means that was available to Rome's provincial subjects of bringing an action against a provincial governor for maladministration.

Miles Gloriosus: The Christian and Military Service according to Tertullian

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Gero
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Important Evidence

The aim of this paper is to throw some light on Tertullian's attitude to military service. His statements on this subject are highly useful for a more accurate understanding of his own changing views on the empire and the duties of citizenship. They are also important evidence for marking a crucial stage in the pre-Constantinian evolution of the relations of church and state. It will be seen that the whole question of Christians serving in the Roman army became relevant only in the late second century; Tertullian is one of the earliest literary witnesses for this momentous development. Therefore, on both counts, the texts deserve close scrutiny.

The Rise of Rome

2013 ◽  
pp. 215-235
Author(s):  
Michael Sage
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Republican Period ◽  
New Recruits

This chapter describes the rise of Rome. The end of the seventh and the first half of the sixth century were marked by the beginnings of urbanization, and by a substantial population increase in Rome. The cavalry was significant in the early regal and Republican battles. The Roman army had undergone a tactical revolution by the middle of the second century that included substantial numbers of allied forces in the Republican period. Early Roman tactics were usually aggressive and designed to break the enemy formation by a frontal assault. The growth of the semi-professional army in the late Republic allowed the development of legions of veteran soldiers, offering the commander a tactical advantage that could be especially effective against formations of new recruits.

Rethinking second-century BC military service: the speech of Spurius Ligustinus

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Biglino
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Citizen Soldiers

AbstractSeveral elements suggest that Polybius’ description of the Roman army in Book VI of his Histories depicts a rather outdated military system, making it hard to accept it as an up-to-date portrait of the legions by the mid-second century BC. After all, the Roman army had been experiencing a series of changes since the mid-third century that were affecting both the army’ structure and how citizens experienced military service. This paper argues that the famous episode of Spurius Ligustinus (Livy 42.34) contains several suggestions about the nature of these changes and their social ramifications. Although Livy embellished his source for rhetorical reasons, this episode still offers crucial evidence not only on the Roman army but especially, through the figure of Ligustinus himself, on the mid-Republican citizen-soldiers. Through a careful examination of key sections of this episode this paper aims to explore how, by this point, the army already presented features traditionally associated with Gaius Marius and his reforms, thus further emphasizing the outdatedness of Polybius’ description. By offering the very unique profile of an individual Roman citizen of the mid-second century and his relationship with military service, the speech of Ligustinus depicts a more believable and up-to-date representation of military service during the crucial decades of Roman Mediterranean expansion.

scholarly journals Two epigraphic-historical notes

Starinar ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 189-196
Author(s):  
Svetlana Loma
Keyword(s):  
Professional Associations ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Corporate Associations ◽  
Phd Thesis ◽  
The Military ◽  
Private Associations ◽  
Administrative Tasks ◽  
First Time

Recently a monograph appeared dealing with Roman epigraphical monuments from the West-Serbian town of Cacak and its neighbourhood (S. Ferjancic / G. Jeremic / A. Gojgic, Roman Epigraphic Monuments from Cacak and its Vicinity Cacak 2008, Engl. Summary pp. 103-107). Authored by one specialist in Roman history and epigraphy and two archaeologists, the book is rather thin and does not provide much new data, apart from the identification of the equestrian officer Tiberius Claudius Gallus with Severus' senator - which was taken from my PhD thesis without citing it - and from two inscriptions, ? 20 and ? 21, forming the subject of the present paper. Published here for the first time, they both contain important information which the co-authors failed to notice. The consuls of 227 A.D. in an inscription from Cacak The ? 21 (fig. 1) was found in the site of Gradina on the mountain Jelica, S. of Cacak. It is engraved on a whitish limestone monument, apparently an ara, the middle and lower parts of which are preserved after it has been reshaped to be used as building material. The four-line inscription was read by the editors as follows: [- - -] Aur(elius) F[- - - v(otum)] l(ibens) p(osuit) Mal+[- - -]et Al[- - - co(n)s(ulibus)] Idibus [- - -]. Unable to identify the pair of consuls mentioned in lines two and three, the authors interpret the inscription as a funerary one: [- - -]Aur(elius or -elio) F[- - - vix(it) ann(is)] L P. Mal+[- - -]et Al[- - - f(ecerunt) ? die ?] Idibus [- - -]. In fact, they misread the final cluster of the line two, by having mistaken for L the long right serif of M (in ligature with A) together with a trace of a subsequent letter, which proves to be an X. The alignment of the letters at the beginning of the lines suggests that the left side of the inscription is entirely preserved. The inscription reads as folows: ] \ Aur(elius) F+[ -] \ l(ibens) p(osuit) Max[imo] \ et Al[bino co(n)s(ulibus)] \ Idibus [ -]. M. Laelius Maximus Aemilianus (PIR2 L56) - probably son of Marcus Laelius Maximus (PIR2 L55), one of the leading senators under Septimius Severus - and M. Nummius Senecio Albinus (PIR2 N235) were the eponymous consuls of 227. The pair is attested in several inscriptions, e.g. CIL VIII 18831 from Numidia which resembles this one in recording the exact date: Bacaci Aug(usto) \ sac(rum) \ Albino et Ma\ximo co(n)s(ulibus) \ Kal(endis) Mai(is) [3] Si\ttius Novellus \ et Q. Galerius Mu\stianus magg(istri) \ [Thib(ilitanorum?)]. Here Albinus' name precedes that of Maximus, which is usually the case. Nevertheless, a parallel with Maximus named before Albinus is provided by an inscription from Dacia (ILD 774, near Cluj): Deae Ne\mesi sac\rum Aur(elius) Ru[f]inus \ be(ne)f(iciarius) co(n)s(ularis) \ leg(ionis) XIII Gem(inae) \ Sever(ianae) v(otum) l(ibens) p(osuit) Maximo et Albi\[no] co(n)s(ulibus). Consequently, ? 21 is a votive inscription, largely restorable and precisely datable. The Collegium curatorum of the Cohors II Delmatarum in an inscription from Cacak Forty years ago within the Ascension Church yard in Cacak the lower part of a Roman limestone monument has been accidentally unearthed, bearing an inscription, three last lines of which are partially preserved (? 20 of the catalogue, (fig. 2), wherein only the mention of a cohort was recognized by the editors, who read: ]\[- - -]ALB[- - -| -]GIATI +[- - -|- - -co]h(ortis) eiusde(m) [- - -|- - - The elegant, shaded letters are lined up one below the other, which suggests that the text was arranged following the principle of centering. Above the L in the first line there is a trace of an O or a Q, unnoticed by the editors. So, there are 4 lines partially preserved. The space left between the lines 2 and 3 being larger than that between 1-2 and 3-4 respectively, the two last lines seem to constitute a separate entry. The genitive case cohortis eiusdem implies a preceding designation of the dedicant(s), and what we have before is a nominative plural ending in ?giati followed by a word of which only the first letter, C or O, is still discernible. As the most probable, if not the only possible, we propose the following restoration of the last two lines (fig. 8): [colle]giati c[urat(ores)]|[co]h(ortis) eiusde[m] possibly with a p(osuerunt) or d(edicaverunt) in the end. Despite its fragmentariness, the present inscription bears an important testimony to the existence, within the Roman army, of professional associations (collegia militaria) independent of regular military structures. The evidence for them is based solely on epigraphic sources; some hundred inscriptions contradict the paragraph of the Digesta (47.22) forbidding the soldiers to organize corporate associations in the camps. The cohort in question is doubtless the cohors II Aurelia Delmatarum milliaria equitata, which is known to have been stationed permanently, from the seventies of the second century A.D. to the fifties of the third century, in the eastern part of Dalmatia around the modern city of Cacak. It was a mixed infantry and cavalry unit, and the rank of curator (curator equitum singularium, curator alae, curator cohortis) is attested exclusively in the mounted units of the Roman army. It was higher than the simple eques; in the auxiliary troops, the curators may have been charged with special tactical or economic-administrative tasks. The lower officers (principales) and the soldiers with special tasks were allowed to form private associations fostering loyalty to the Emperor. All Roman collegia including the military ones, had their religious purpose and their official meeting room (schola) was also a sanctuary of their patron deity. It might be a part of the headquarters building, as in the case of the Castra Nova equitum singularium in Rome, where, beneath the Basilica of St John Lateran an Ionic capitel was uncovered with inscription on it dated with AD 197 recording the dedication of the schola curatorum to Minerva Augusta (AE 1935 156 = AE 1968, 8b).

scholarly journals Tactics of the Roman legion against the Hellenistic armies: The superiority of the Romans or the mistakes of the Hellenistic commanders?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-56
Author(s):  
Vitaliy S. Kalmykov
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Roman Society

The article discusses the battles of the Roman army against the armies of the Hellenistic states. The analysis of the tactics of the Roman and Hellenistic armies is given. The battles at Heracles with the army of King Pyrrhus, as well as the battles at Bagrad under the command of the Spartan Xanthippus against the army of Carthage are presented as examples. Special attention is given to the battles of the Romans with the Macedonians during the Second Macedonian War. The reasons for the victories and defeats of the Roman and Hellenistic armies are determined. It is concluded that the Roman Republic won thanks to its perseverance, great human resources, and skillful diplomacy. The Hellenistic generals knew Roman tactics and their features very well but did not fully understand the essence of Roman society and the state. That was their major mistake.

Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar. A survey of the first century BC – third century ad Latin and Latin-Greek documents referring to Roman citizens and their business in Egypt

2021 ◽  
pp. 168-198
Author(s):  
Giulio Iovine ◽  
Ornella Salati
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Annotated List

The paper provides an updated and annotated list of Latin and bilingual Latin-Greek papyri from the first century bc to the early third century ad – including very recently published and still unpublished – that refer to the lives and businesses of Roman citizens in Egypt. It also covers documents connected with the Roman army, that is produced in military officia to be specifically used by soldiers (acknowledgments of debt, receipts of money etc.). They are connected not with the army life, but with the life outside the barracks, among tradesmen, merchants, and (from the second century ad onwards) in the milieu of veterans.

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