Rome grew from a small Italian village to a city-state and into a large empire, the most powerful state of the ancient world, that ruled the shores of the Mediterranean and much of western Europe. The Roman state began as a kingdom (753 b. C. is the traditional date), then continued as a republic (509-27 b. c.) and then as an empire (27 b. c.-a. d. 476). The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent in the early second century A. D. Rome ruled Europe west of the Rhine River and south of the Danube, as well as present-day Romania. To the east, Rome ruled Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Palestine; to the south, it ruled Egypt and the entire northern coast of Africa, in fact all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea, which was called Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”). Once the empire was established, Rome gave it two centuries of relative peace, called Pax Romana (“Roman Peace,” approximately from 29 b. c. to A. D. 192 between the reigns of Augustus and Commodus). Roman civilization, largely influenced by Greek culture, spread throughout the empire, and the language of Rome — Latin — and the legal system established by the Romans remain important parts of Western culture. The Romans also introduced Christianity, after emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312, and made it the official religion in the empire. In a. d. 395 an administrative division of the empire into eastern and western parts was made permanent. The western part entered into a gradual decline and collapsed in a. d. 476 under the invasion of Germanic tribes. The eastern part, later called the Byzantine Empire, flourished and lasted until 1453.
Roman conquest and occupation of these large territories was accomplished by the Roman army— one of the most successful and long-lived armies of antiquity. The Roman army developed standards of discipline, organization and efficiency that would not be seen again in Europe until the 18th century. It began as a small non-permanent militia drawn from rich citizens, designed only for short campaigns.
By the late 4th century B. C., it took the form of the familiar and famous legions, which proved very effective in battles. The Roman army was predominantly a force of heavy infantrymen equipped with body armor, helmets, and shields, and armed with spears, javelins, and swords. Each legion included a squadron of mounted men, usually 120 strong, for use as reconnaissance, orderlies or dispatch riders rather than as combat cavalry. However, in the 3rd century, large cavalry units gradually superseded the infantry legions as Rome’s most important force, many of them attested in the 4th and early 5th centuries, in order to increase mobility.
In early times the free Roman citizen-soldier’s morale was civic and patriotic, but prolonged campaigning caused important reforms traditionally associated with general Marius Gaius (157-87 B. C.). The early Roman citizen militia appeared unsuitable for long service, so increasingly the Roman army became a permanent force consisting of professional soldiers and volunteers drawn from the poor social classes. The growth of professionalism and the permanence of units improved the army’s overall quality and more particularly helped develop specialist tasks such as engineering and siege-craft. However, professionalism eventually broke the allegiance of the army to the state that had previously been the main source
This map shows the Roman Empire at the height of its power in circa a. d. 117 during Emperor Trajan’s reign.
Of political stability. The army of the Roman Empire remained in the form of strong professional legions assisted by mercenary auxiliaries until the 3rd century A. D. The 25 legions that defended the empire during the reign of Augustus each numbered more than 5,000 soldiers. They were the backbone of the Roman army, supported by auxiliary troops. However the fighting spirit, which had made the fortune of the Republic, deserted the Italians by the age of Hadrian (76-a. d. 138). In the old republican days, war was a national duty and a fruitful pastime, as fighting was for the most part under the blue Mediterranean sky, in a land of vines and olives. Campaigns were short, and — most important — plunder was good. But the boring garrison life in a legionary camp in the cold north, on the Danube or the Rhine, or on the Roman walls in Britain was a different matter. This sort of soldiering did not attract the Italians. So when the people of Italy became unwilling to volunteer in sufficient numbers for the rigors of army life, the force needed to defend the borders came to be recruited principally from the remote provinces. The Romans fell back on the expedient of recruiting into the legions the very barbarians from whom the empire had to be defended from. As the defending force came in the end to be composed and commanded by foreigners—mainly by German barbarians — this inevitably led to disaster. Indeed the emperor in Rome was often merely a name to them, and their loyalty came to be concentrated on their immediate leaders. When the barbarians wanted to involve themselves in Roman politics, when they revolted, and when they marched into the Roman Empire, there was thus very little opposing force to drive them back.
World History
