The economic and demographic impacts of these international wars are explored elsewhere. Here it is important to stress how constant a feature they were in Romans’ and Italians’ lives: a point well illustrated by Ligustinus’ career. The regular demands for experienced recruits were one effect of another feature of Roman wars after 264: the unprecedented size of forces in service. Warfare had been a regular feature of Roman society from the outset, as Roman tradition itself recognized. The temple of Janus was closed, as a mark of total peace, supposedly only twice before Augustus’ time - under King Numa (Livy 1.19.3) and in 235. But war-service from the third century on became more enduring and more large-scale.
Third-century legions consisted, in principle, of 4,200 Roman infantry and 300 cavalry (the latter recruited from well-to-do citizens), plus Latin and Italian allied troops up to twice these numbers. In the First Punic War two consular armies, each two legions strong, were levied yearly. From 261 until 249, and then again in 242-241, further recruits were needed for the Romans’ ventures on the sea, mainly drawn not from Roman citizens but from their maritime Italian allies. On a conservative calculation, the fleet sent to invade Africa in 256 was manned by 69,000 crewmen; the one raiding Africa in 253 had nearly as many, and in 249, when two consular fleets suffered disasters thanks to the enemy and the elements, their combined crews may have exceeded 80,000 men.
The demands these efforts put on manpower were notable. When a big fleet and the legions both campaigned, as in 256 or 249, peninsular Italy had over a hundred thousand able-bodied men at war. On a rough estimate, in such years over 12 percent of available males were in arms. This was an unprecedented effort, although discontinuous and although its effects remain obscure.3
Even heavier demands ensued. There were some 155,000 men called up in 225 to face the Gallic invasion, and nearly as many (145,000 or so, for armies and fleets) at the start of Hannibal’s war. At the height of this, in 212-211, with 25 legions in Italy, Cisalpine Gaul, Spain, and Sicily, and over 200 warships in commission, the total of Romans, Latins, and Italians under arms has been calculated at about 233,000. Even in the war’s last year the republic’s forces totaled around 110,000. These were extraordinary figures for a peninsula whose available manpower shortly before 218 totaled 770,000 according to Polybius (2.24); still extraordinary if, as has been argued, that figure should be corrected upwards to about 875,000 - very roughly, the military-age manpower of Iowa or East Anglia today.
After 200, with commitments across the Mediterranean from Spain to Asia Minor, numbers soon went up again: over 212,000 in 190; in the last year of the Third Macedonian War, still about 150,000; and in 146, when Carthage and Corinth were sacked, the fleet and 12 legions (each now 5,500 strong and with allied contingents to match) totaled roughly the same again. Every decade between 225 and 146 (it has been reckoned) had at least 8 percent, and during the Second Punic War up to 29 percent, of Romans aged 16 and over in arms. In turn, though citizen-to-allied ratios varied during the same decades, the demands made on Latins and Italian socii will have been no lighter and often were heavier.
Society was thus war-permeated on virtually a permanent basis. Most Romans and Italians must, like Ligustinus, have seen military service themselves or had kinsmen who did so, or both.4
World History
