War and Warfare in Ancient Rome

2013 ◽  
pp. 28-45
Author(s):  
Randall S. Howarth
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Synoptic View

This chapter offers a synoptic view of the evolution of Roman war and warfare, highlighting the threshold moments and key and problematic issues pertaining to the understanding of the Romans at war. Romans routinely distributed at least seventy thousand soldiers in consular and pro-consular armies every year by the last third of the third century BC. The wars with Carthage had promoted Roman advantage. The Imperial authorities have difficulty in enrolling soldiers and maintaining the ones they had. Roman diplomatic success had connoted on partnership in the conduct of war and the sharing of its benefits. The most obvious path to prestige in Rome has been found in the management of war and its rewards. It is noted that the Roman army and the habits of Rome at war should not be regarded in isolation from the social, diplomatic, and political contexts in which they existed.

The Legion and the Centuriate Organization

1970 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. V. Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Early Republic ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of

It is generally recognized that Rome of the early Republic offers a good example of the correlation between military and political organization. The ordering of the Roman citizenry in centuries, classes and age-groups was in origin and essence a military system. The Comitia Centuriata was the exercitus urbanus—the army on parade in the Field of Mars.But by the third century B.C. the Roman army and the centuriate assembly were manifestly two different systems, even if vestiges of their interconnection lingered on. The process whereby this differentiation had come about is, unfortunately, not so clear. The traditional accounts of early Roman history generally failed to devote much attention to questions of that order. Yet the effort to tackle and, if possible, solve this complex of problems can hardly be evaded. The answers given, or assumed, by modern historians are bound to determine how the whole history of early Rome is interpreted and represented.

scholarly journals The structure and organization of mobile army of the Emperor Gallienus in 260 – 268

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Dmitrii Georgievich Volynkin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
The Third ◽  
Effective Instrument ◽  
The Military

In the middle of the III century, the Roman Empire marked the advent of a prolonged crisis. In order to confront the barbarian invasions and usurpers revolt, military transformations, the Roman Empire was in needed for military transformations and revision of the military machine that has formed in the previous periods. In the late 250s – early 260s, the Emperor Gallienus created a mobile army corps, which in the ancient sources received a name of the “Dalmatian horsemen”. The following questions arise on the structure and size of this mobile corps. Relying on numismatic, narrative, and epigraphic sources, this article examines the changes in organizational and staffing structure of the Roman army in the middle of the III century; assesses the size and composition, and tasks of the Gallienus’ mobile corps. The author analyzes the opinions that have accumulated in the Russian and foreign historiography throughout 200 years, and develops a relevant perspective on the problem of creating a field army during the third century crisis.  The conclusion is made that the Emperor Gallienus had formed a strong mobile army. It was not just a cavalry, but was based on the vexilationes of the border legions of infantry and horsemen. Gallienus did not seek to create a permanent mobile army, being guided by the prevailing military and political circumstances. He used the mobile corps for retaining the controlled territories, repelled the barbarian invasions and suppressed the usurpers. Gallienus’ mobile army has proven to be an effective instrument in hands of the central government. Aurelian reinforced the army with additional detachments, and later on successfully used it against Palmyrene and Gallic separatists, having restored the unity of the empire.

The Discourse of Voluntary Martyrdom: Ancient and Modern

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candida R. Moss
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
The Social

While the social and intellectual basis of voluntary martyrdom is fiercely debated, scholarship on Christian martyrdom has unanimously distinguished between “martyrdom” and “voluntary martyrdom” as separate phenomena, practices, and categories from the second century onward. Yet there is a startling dearth of evidence for the existence of the category of the “voluntary martyr” prior to the writings of Clement of Alexandria. This paper has two interrelated aims: to review the evidence for the category of the voluntary martyr in ancient martyrological discourse and to trace the emergence of the category of the voluntary martyr in modern scholarship on martyrdom. It will argue both that the category began to emerge only in the third century in the context of efforts to justify flight from persecution, and also that the assumption of Clement's taxonomy of approaches to martyrdom by scholars is rooted in modern constructions of the natural.

Living and Working on the Capitoline Hill

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Moralee
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Third ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Hill

Chapter 2 surveys the evidence for the maintenance of the Capitoline Hill’s temples, statues, festivals, and administrative uses into the sixth century. While imperial rites celebrated at the Capitol faded in significance by the end of the third century, the hill was at the heart of the social and administrative worlds of late antique Rome. The chapter thus turns to the ways in which the hill was embedded in multiple late Roman neighborhoods and used for administrative purposes. Even as Rome’s urban environment was undergoing serious transformations in the use of public spaces, archaeology, epigraphy, and literary sources demonstrate that the Capitoline Hill was surrounded by neighborhoods displaying a high degree of sociability and commerce throughout this period.

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