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At the close of the second-century BC, Rome had achieved hegemony over the City-
States, Kingdoms, and Tribes of the Mediterranean Sea. She had in turn humbled the
Carthaginians, the Iberian tribes, the city states of Greece, and the Successor Kingdoms of
Macedonia and Seleucia into submission to Rome. Only Gaul of the Long Hairs and the
Kingdom of Egypt remained fully independent realms. The manner by which Rome came into
conflict with the former states and how she came to possess their holdings was often hap-hazard
and unintended. It stands however, that from the final subjugation of the Italian peninsula at the
close of the third-century BC to the close of the second-century BC Rome had come to rule over
an Empire that outdid Alexanders Empire in terms of diversity of peoples. The expansion of the
Republics borders, and the retention of her holdings, must be attributed to the superiority of her
Before any examples of battles in which Roman arms triumphed over those of her
enemies, an examination of the Roman army at the time of the middle-republic. The Roman
army that conquered Italy was modeled on that of Classical Greece and as such was armed in the
hoplite fashion, with bronze helmet, greaves, cuirass, a large round shield (clipeus), and spear
(hasta).1 While effective in open battle, the hoplite phalanx was less effective when deployed on
broken ground. Gaps were opened up in the solid and connected line, which allowed an enemy to
cut its way into the ranks and cause enough disorder to force the Phalanx to rout. This was
exemplified at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, the specifics of which will be discussed in depth
latter on. Another weakness of the phalanx was that it did not lend itself to maneuver, allowing
for the possibility of a flank being turned with the result that the center cannot redeploy to meet
the enemy.
The transition from hoplite legion to manipular legion took place during the Third
Samnite War (298-290 BC). Several new pieces of equipment were introduced, and a new
organizational structure put in place. As Nic Fields notes, the round clipeus was replaced with an
oval-rectangular scutum, the hasta with a throwing spear called a pilum, and the division of the
Phalanx into maniples.2 Following these alterations, the typical Legion was constituted as
follows: three-thousand heavy infantry divided into three classes. One thousand two hundred
men of young age, the Hastati, and another one thousand two hundred men of a more advanced
age, the Principes. These two classes were armed with a gladius, scutum, and pilum, with bronze
or mail armour depending on his wealth. Six hundred men of middle age named the Triarii
formed a core of veterans, who were armed with hasta and scutum, along with mail armour. Then
followed one thousand two hundred lightly armed skirmishers called velites, who could only
afford to arm themselves with javelins and a small round shield. Three hundred cavalrymen,
equites, were also attached to each legion, fitting themselves out at heavy cavalry with mail
armour, thrusting spear, and round shield.3 Each year, the Romans would raise four of these
legions from her citizenry, with each Consul for the year being given command of two legions.
These legions were augmented by an equal number of troops, organized in a similar manner to
the Roman legions, levied from cities and communities in Italy that possessed allied status,
effectively doubling the amount of men under arms that Rome could put into the field each
campaign season.
It was armies thusly composed that marched into Sicily, Spain, North Africa, Greece and
Asia Minor for two centuries. The conquests can be roughly divided into two conflicts; one with
2 Nic Fields, Roman Republican Legionary 298-105 BC (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2012), 11.
Carthage that lasted for one century, and another that deals with Romes intervention in the
politics of the Eastern Mediterranean for the second century. The Punic Wars, specifically the
first and second, effectively marked the last time the Romans faced a serious threat to their
existence. While the Kingdoms of Macedonia and Seleucia could marshal tremendous forces to
their royal standards, neither power ravaged the Italian peninsula for over a decade or marched
close enough to the eternal city to observe her gates. The titanic struggle between the two
western Republics began almost as an accident, when a band of raiders, who had seized a town
on the north of Sicily that faced the toe of Italy, reached out to the Romans requesting assistance
against a Carthaginian Squadron who had occupied their citadel. The Roman were at a loss, for
these raiders were obviously criminals, however the presence of a Carthaginian held city so close
to their recently acquired territory was deemed to be of the highest risk. A Consul was dispatched
with an army to aid the Mamertines, as the raiders called themselves, and was successful in not
only forcing the Carthaginian garrison to surrender, but defeated in turn a Carthaginian and then
a Syracusan army sent to reverse this reverse. The King of Syracuse, Hiero II, correctly read the
mettle of the Romans and signed a treaty of friendship that would last for the entirety of his long
The First Punic War was fought primarily through massive naval battles, and siege and
counter-siege in Sicily. This was a war of many firsts for the Roman Republic; it marked the first
time a Roman army had been deployed outside of Italy, and the first time that Rome has
commissioned a navy. For twenty-three long and costly years, Rome and Carthage put to sea
massive fleets numbering hundreds of warships manned by hundreds of thousands of sailors and
marines, and armies numbering in the tens of thousands. The scale of this conflict is captured at
4 Anthony Everitt, The Rise of Rome: The Making of the Worlds Greatest Empire (New York: Random
House, 2012), 220-222.
4
the Battle of Cape Ecnomus where three hundred and thirty Roman galleys, man by one hundred
thousand oarsmen and one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers men a Carthaginian fleet of
three hundred and fifty galleys with an equal number of sailors and marines met off the southern
coast of Sicily. In the ensuing battle, the first major naval victory for the Romans, some fifty
thousand men were killed on both sides.5 The second war with Carthage, though intended to be
fought in Spain and North Africa, was instead fought primarily in Italy herself. Hannibal
marched his army from Iberia, into Gaul and across the Alps, into Italy and for over a decade
fought the Romans to a standstill. Such were his abilities, that following three disastrous defeats,
the third of which cost the Romans two double Consular Armies (some eighty-thousand men), it
was decided to avoid battle with the seemingly invincible North African until attrition forced him
to return home.6 Eventually however, an army was dispatched to Iberia and was successful in
driving the Carthaginians from their bases among the Spanish tribes.7 When a Roman army was
dispatched to North Africa to threaten the capital, Hannibal was finally recalled to defend his
homeland. In 202 BC a Roman Army was able, with the help of their newfound ally Masinissa of
Numidia, to finally defeat Hannibal and force peace-terms upon the defeated Punics. Carthage
was forced to give up the remainder of her colonies and became in effect a puppet state of
Rome.8
The horrific casualties incurred in this century-long conflict demonstrate the iron-resolve
of the Romans, who were willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of their sons to Mars if it would
purchase victory. Indeed, the conflict with Carthage was won not so much by the superiority of
Roman arms or leadership, but by their willingness to simply outspend their opponents in terms
of that most valuable commodity. This is in contrast to the subsequent conflicts that Rome would
enter into in the East, where the superiority of the manipular legion over the Macedonian phalanx
would be proven. Since the campaigns of Philip II that ended in the subjugation of the city-states
of Greece, the Macedonian phalanx was lauded as the most effective battlefield formation in the
Hellenic world. The mass of men wielding fourteen cubit (twenty-one feet) pikes was deemed to
BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and finally Pydna (168 BC), Roman legions defeated the Macedonian-
style phalanx, as the maniples were able to make use of the gaps in the enemy line caused by
broken and uneven ground. One inside these holes, the maniple was able to cut its way deep into
To maintain this vast territory, the Republic turned to two governing models. The first
was to organize the territory as a province which would be entrusted to a governor who would be
granted the rank of proconsul. He, along with an assigned quaestor, would be responsible for not
only taking in the required tribute and taxes owed to the treasury, but to maintain the defences of
the province and ensure any local tribes remain pacified. Here there was a possibility for
personal enrichment, as loot and slaves won during a campaign were spoils of war. Another
method was to seek out some local potentate and grant him the protection of Rome, deferring
much of the cost of administering a territory while retaining a steady tribute and local ally. This
latter option was preferred when it was possible and did in fact yield surprising results. Two
King Hiero II of Syracuse, once committed to an alliance with Rome at the beginning of
the First Punic War, remained a most faithful and helpful ally to the Senate and People of Rome
for the entirety of his life. The series of campaigns undertaken by Rome in Sicily during the hard
years of the first war would not have been possible were it not for the constant supply of materiel
provided by Hiero.10 In a final act of service, Hiero maintained the grain supply from Sicily and
secure it from Carthaginian aggression for the first few years of the Hannibalic War, allowing
Rome to respond to the threat of Hannibals army in Italy. When he finally died in 215 BC after
forty-eight years of staunch support for Rome, a series of coups led to the betrayal of the treaty
of friendship between Rome and Syracuse and Rome was forced to divert valuable legions to
pacify the now rebellious island.11The story of Masinissa and his friendship with Rome draws
many parallels with that of Hiero. His first contact with Rome was hostile, serving in Iberia
against Publius Cornelius Scipio (latter to earn the cognomen Africanus), and was eventually
brought into alliance with the Romans through the promise of the Kingdom of Numidia. He
provided invaluable service at the Battle of Zama which brought an end to Hannibals war for
good. Again like Hiero, for the entirety of his long life he provided a stable ally in North Africa
The Romans were perhaps singularly unique among their contemporaries in their
willingness to make terrible sacrifices to their state. They endured twenty years of naval disasters
that cost over one hundred thousand lives, and a decade of a hostile army rampaging and
pillaging its way throughout Italy. It was not simply a willingness to endure painful casualty lists
that won Rome her empire. When they met the finest military machine known to the civilized
world, Roman legions cut their way through that invincibility and cast the superiority of the
armies of the Successor Kingdoms into the trash-bin of history. The administration of her newly
won empire also deserves admiration, for while it was certainly susceptible to exploitation Rome
was remarkably welcoming to the conquered peoples they now ruled over. Taking in account the
above, it follows that the Roman Republic was uniquely placed to triumph over all that crossed
her path and establish an empire that has had a lasting impact on the west.