Rome:History of its MIlitary after the fall of monarchy

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Rome:History of its MIlitary after the fall of monarchy

Postby Ikeno_Dathorion » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:25 am

After the fall of the Roman Monarchy in 509 B.c. Rome became what we would call a military dictatorship. The army began to play a part in selecting emperors, removing them typically by assassination. Imperator became a very risky office to hold. At last the senate refused to nominate any more candidates and left the selection totally up to the army, but the decision to do that did not bring stability in government. In the end the empire broke in two and then splintered into rival, warring armies. By that time there were but few Romans in the Roman army. It consisted mainly of provincial troops, due to the practice of placating enemies by letting them serve in the army, which exerted military discipline over them.

This ws pulled from Wikipedia Giving all credit... to them i Just Enjoy Roman Militristic Ideals
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Postby Faolan » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:42 am

I was watching a special on Boudicca and the Iceni tribe of britans who led an uprising against the romans for their freedom. A desperate battle was fought between the commander Paulinus and Boudicca, somewhere in england, as Paulinus had only one and a half legions at his desposal and Boudicca had nearly 6-8 times that.

Cool scenario battle.
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Postby Dr. Kazi » Sun Jun 11, 2006 11:06 am

Ikeno, I don't know whether you got that from Wiki or not, but it is a completely innacurate description of Rome's history.

After the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud in 509 BC (many think that the reign of him and his father indicates that Rome was in fact dominated by Etruria at this time), the Romans established the Republic, which would last well into the first century BC. During the Republic, power in Rome was held by the aristocratic members of the Senatorial class, who competed with one another for election to the office of Consul. (There were two Consuls.) In this way Rome resembled an oligarchy, and Senate nominated canidates for these offices, but the power of election rested with the people. Begining with the Consul Marius around 100 BC, who saved Rome from a tremendous incursion of barbarian tribes, generals began to exert increasing power, because the lower classes were allowed to serve in the army, and held their loyalty to their generals, who could provide them with land and rewards after a successful campaign, rather than the traditional middle class army, which held its loyalty to Rome itself. This began a century long cycle of civil wars, which were finally brought to an end by Octavius, adopted nephew of Julius Caesar, and his General Agrippa, who smashed Mark Antony. Octavius did not make the mistake of siezing great ammounts of power, or behaving arrogantly, as his predecessors (especially Julius) had. He patiently gathered an increasing number of constitutional powers to himself, until the people themselves demanded that he rule. Octavian, now Augustus, was Imperator in all but name. The Republic ended in 27 BC (I think), one of the years that Augustus recieved a bunch of his powers.

So, yeah, you sort of overlooked the entire history of the Roman Republic, including such historically interesting footnotes as the First Second and Third Punic wars, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, Rome's path from Italian village to Mediterranean power, and its conquest of the three Kingdoms remaining of Alexander's Empire. What you describe is kind of what happened on and off during the Imperial period.
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Postby Ikeno_Dathorion » Sun Jun 11, 2006 7:57 pm

i dont know but thats what i got and read and i thoiught it was interesting...
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Postby Spork » Sun Jun 11, 2006 8:49 pm

Wikipedia is just like our Geddon, it runs the same way, anyone can come in and start tampering with others "posts." Be it completely inaccurate or down to the point.
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Postby Dr. Kazi » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:21 pm

It's not your fault the info wasn't right. Honestly, I'm surprised something like that has stayed up on wikipedia without being corrected.

The history of Rome and its military is incredibly interesting. What I find most intriguing is actually not Rome's battlefield prowess, but her wartime resilience. The Roman Army was far, far from unbeatable. In fact, when you begin to study her history in depth, it is striking how many times her armies were utterly crushed on the battlefield. But (and this is more true of the Republic than the Empire) every time they lost one army, another one was raised to take its place. Take the Battle of Cannae. Hannibal utterly destroyed an army of 80,000 Romans with a force half that size. 80,000 men lost in a day, that is the kind of battle that ends Empires. But not Rome, they raised another army and kept fighting, until Hannibal was finally forced from the Italian peninsula without ever losing a battle. Rome wasn't invincible, only unstoppable.
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Postby Ikeno_Dathorion » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:32 pm

well with that said one thing can be turly factual know. When one good fighter quits belegarth another can be groomed.
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Postby Ikeno_Dathorion » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:33 pm

well with that said one thing can be turly factual know. When one good fighter quits belegarth another can be groomed.
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