Evolution Of The Purpose And Power Of Roman Military

One of the many noteworthy reasons Rome came to its demise was the unstable nature of their military. The Romans were rarely using their armor to shield themselves and it was getting tiresome to wear the armor. The emperor then did not require the use of body armor anymore, “Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets.” (page 15). Because of the decision to cast away the breastplates and helmets, it made it effortless to wound and kill the Romans with skilled archers, such as the Huns (Doc D). Another pivotal fault was the draft, “The exempted categories were...numerous” (Doc B). Draft exemptions meant that not enough men were fighting and too many were lazing around. Even bakers and cooks were not required to serve under martial law(Doc B). Because of these mistakes, the Roman military became weak. Not having enough members on their command,

With no strength, the armor they wore seemed heavy, as the Roman Historian Vegetius states from an excerpt in Document B. The military men started to ask to remove the breastplate,and later removed their helmets. With no armor protecting them in battle, the numbers grew short,as countless soldiers fell from numerous wounds. Rome tried to fix the problem by conscription, but failed to enforce it as numerous categories were excluded from the draft. With no soldiers to defend Rome, the invaders viewed this as an opportunity to attack, which was the third problem that played in Rome’s

This shows that the Roman military were not very strong or motivated when it came to protecting their people They just gave up and put their life on the line while doing it. Strength and motivation are very important when it comes to having a good army and since Rome’s army did not have any of these qualities, towards the end of the Roman Empire’s life, their army was not any help at all. This is relevant because if the army is lazy and very easy to beat then Rome would be vulnerable and invaders could attack and conquer them at any time. If invaders attacked them then Rome would immediately have to surrender, throwing away all their hard work. Even though the military’s problems were a massive part in Rome’s decline, Rome still had many more difficult situations to deal

One trait every army must have to be successful is the willingness and drive to dominate. The Roman army took these traits to a whole different level. The Romans were very extreme in battle as well. They often enjoyed humiliating other city-states by burning them to the ground. In 264 B.C.E. a battle between other Greek city-states forced Rome and Carthage, who dominated the western part of the Mediterranean, into conflict. The First Punic War was for the control of Sicily.4 This battle lasted twenty-three years.4 The Romans were losing a lot of men, but they continued to battle on.4 Finally, the persistence paid off.4 The Romans learned how to fight by sea and cut off the Carthaginian supply line into

The military prowess of Roman commanders and legionaries proved to be successful enough to turn a small community into an ancient super power. There are many discussions to be had about the tactics and success of the Roman army, some of which are: their style of fighting, the attitude toward the fight, and the fruits of their war.

Fall of the Western Roman Empire The Roman Empire was doomed to crumble and fall from the beginning. The specific reason for it’s infamous decline could stem from many different reasons. From my point of view, I believe Rome’s internal decay, economic collapse, and the infiltration of barbarians contributed to the disintegration of the Roman Empire. One of the many reasons why, one of the largest, most influential empires of ancient times perished, was because of internal decay.

The Roman Republic military was one of the first well-organized military of all time. Because of this, most succeeding militaries follow their example by adopting and adapting some of the same characteristics. The Roman and U.S. military are from different eras, but still share similar characteristics as well as vast modernized differences that have established the U.S. military as efficient and organized.

Chapter 2 entitled “From The Flavians To The Severi” informs the reader of Luttwak’s belief that Rome’s expeditionary units, as was used in the second century, were highly less effective than the legions of the first century because they were not as movable. The author tells us, “… legions were deployed at fixed bases which, in most cases, they were never to leave again; and soldiers soon acquired unofficial families in the settlements that grew spontaneously around the legionary bases. It is sometimes assumed that this domestication diminished the army’s combat capabilities by undermining its fighting spirit”.

The documents I chose were about the roman army (From a book in 450 CE called Concerning Military Matters by a Roman historian Vegetius) and about the foreign invasions ( A map from various sources). Why I chose the document about the roman army is because when you have a military that is not really willing to fight or wear their armor, I don’t think they will be successful in winning the war at all. It probably all started because when Rome was wealthy and full of power, they probably didn’t have a lot of worries so they got lazy and thought they don’t have to go to war and wear armor, but they still went, but not so prepared. So when they went to war (with no armor or anything to protect themselves) they probably ran away instead of fighting, and most of them died because the enemy or the invaders probably knew already from previous wars that now the romans don’t wear armor so they brought archers and just shot them with the bows and they would all die because of no protection whatsoever, and the rest would run away. That is one of the reasons that led the roman empire to fall apart, not having anyone willing to do anything about the war.

The Romans were so strong and able to unify due to the strong miliary and obedient soldiered that were on their side. " The Romans devoted themselves to the discipline of warfare in ways the Greeks (except for the Spartans) and the Persians did not. " Not only were they devoted to the dicipline of warfare, each individual soldier had a duty to honor his ancestors. "The Roman man’s primary duty

Throughout the years the armies of ancient Rome have invaded and conquered most of Europe. For quite a long time other civilizations feared them because of their massive, well trained legions of soldiers. Some people might have read about their feats in battle elsewhere. Often research focuses solely on the strategies and technology employed by Rome in times of battle, but what about the soldiers themselves? People usually think of the Roman military as a well oiled machine that acted precisely and consistently, but there have been multiple documented mutinies throughout the Roman army over time. What kind of training did they go through after they were drafted into the Roman military? Was their training both physical and mental to try to

Many of Rome's successes were due to its highly trained and disciplined army. Rome's army became the best in the known world. The Roman army was organized into divisions of soldiers according to their social class. The ranks of the army could be divided into five classes. The first class were those who were the most well-off, they were equipped with the best weapons,

Rome felt under constant threat, at the beginning of the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic was initially ruled by the rich and powerful. This ruling began “After the overthrow of the monarchy, Roman nobles, eager to maintain their position of power, established a republican form of government”(p.129). Later on, this power to the rich would prove chaos. The patricians who “were descendants of the original senators appointed during the period of the kings were great landowners, who constituted an aristocratic governing class”(p.129). The plebeians did not have this power of authority like the patricians did. The plebeians were “constituted the considerably larger group of non-patrician large landowners, less wealthy landholders, artisans, merchants, and small farmers”(p.129). These people could vote with the patricians but could not be elected into office, they could not marry someone out of the patricians and vice versa, it was forbidden for these groups to intertwine.

If you were a member of the auxilium then when you completed your service you would be given Roman citizenship. Therefore, the vast majority of the soldiers in the army were there by choice. This therefore meant that the soldier's morale was kept high and mutinies were rare. A key reason for the army's success was the training the legionaries received.

Also, Augustus recruited soldiers from the Roman provinces. These auxiliary troops were granted Roman citizenship upon completion of military service, and they became important agents of Romanization because the provinces now had a share in the defense of the Empire. In addition, Augustus raised a new military force, the 9,000-strong Praetorian Guard, to act as personal bodyguards of the Emperor and to specifically protect the city of Rome from all enemies, foreign or domestic.