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Roman army tactics and modern warfare
Roman army tactics and modern warfare
Roman army tactics and modern warfare
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Following their joint success in disposing the kings, Rome’s patricians enjoyed greater privileges and powers while the plebeians got the short end of the economic and political stick, a disparity of resource allocation that would ultimately lead to the revolt of the plebeian masses.
The Revolt
As William Morey points out in the chapter “The Struggle for Economic Rights” found in his book Outlines of
Roman History, following the kings, Rome was a republic, albeit an aristocratic one rather than a democratic one. Plebeians were barred from holding office and the patricians took on many of the power-hungry habits of the kings they had recently deposed. (1901). An imbalance in political power, whatever its ills and causes, has been tolerated
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Following the war, although public land was supposed to be publicly held, as a resource it was monopolized by the patrician class for their use and gain and withheld from the plebeians, who unable to utilize it as a resource were further confined to their poverty (1901).
The division between the patrician and plebeian classes left the plebeians with little capital except for their role as fighters in the army. The plebeian revolt, or first secession, was simply to withholding this one resource, leaving the patricians to fight their own battles. And it worked.
In 494 BC, the plebeians marched away from the ranks of the Roman army, which the patrician generals quickly realized would lead to the destruction of Rome. Morey points out two important concessions that the plebeians won through negotiations to bring them back into the fold. The first is that all debtors who couldn’t pay had their debts forgiven and everyone in debtors’ prison was freed. This provide economic relief, the second concession, which is very important to the trajectory of the empire, was to ensure that similar economic oppression did not continue in the future, which meant giving the plebeians a political voice. This
The socioeconomic structure of ancient Sparta was unbalanced and disproportioned, and because of the social unrest between the citizens of Sparta economic reforms were desperately needed. Plutarch highlights this issue when he says:
Burbank and Cooper in their book Empires in World History portray the evolution of power and the development of different states. They elaborate on how powerful cities and states imposed their rules and waged conquest on surrounding territories. Political dynasties developed strongly among states inspired by religious, politic and economic trends. The Han dynasty of China and the Imperial Rome were some of the powerful states that developed during the third century. The two states adopted different strategies and ideas in developing of their emperor. The Roman, for instance, developed a more advanced for of governance as opposed to the Han. Their system of governance emerged as an expensive identity around the Mediterranean. These two empires controlled and conquered their territory in unique and different ways that made them strong and remarkable during their heyday.
The year is 476 A.D. and the Roman Empire has collapsed after being overthrown by barbarians. Looking back, the causes of Rome’s decline can be separated into four categories, social, economic, military, and political. The social aspects of Rome’s fall are the rise of christianity and civil wars. The rise of christianity displaced Rome’s polytheistic roots which viewed the emperor as having a godly status. Pope and church leaders took an increased role in political affairs which further complicated governance. Civil wars also deteriorated the empire. More than 20 men took the throne in only 75 years and the empire was thrust into chaos. The economic aspects of Rome’s fall were high taxes from the government and labor deficit. The roman empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire was the first example in history on the collapse of a constitutional system which was caused by the internal decay in political, military, economics, and sociological issues. The government was becoming corrupt with bribery. Commanders of the Roman army turned their own army inward towards their own Constitutional systems, fueled by their own ruthless ambition. This paper will talk about how the violence and internal turmoil in 133B.C.-27 B.C. was what provoked the economic stagnation in the city of Rome and to the end of the Republic and the many corrupt politicians and generals who only thought of nothing more than personal gains and glory. The senate lost control of the Roman military and the reason they rose against the senate was because the senate were no longer able to help manage the social problems or the military and administrative problems of the empire. The economics of the Roman Empire soon hit rock bottom due to the high taxation to support the army. Gold was also eroding since Rome was no longer bringing new resources through the expansion. Emperors then tried to mint coins out of silver and copper instead and the end result was inflation and dramatic rises in
The roman republic came into existence at the termination of the Roman kingship in 507 B.C.E. The last king of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was expelled by Collatinus and Brutus, as a result of his arrogance involving the matter of one of his relations raping the wholesome Roman matron Lucretia and her subsequent suicide. The rape of Lucretia was really a representation of the frustration that the roman citizens felt regarding the kingship. The later kings had little regard for roman values and the roman populus, which they used as something of a slave labor force. Brutus and Collatinus became the first Roman Consuls, elected by popular vote.
In an attempt to promote justice and equality, Lycurgus and Solon fostered political, social, and economic reformations in their cities. Lycurgus instituted elders, redistributed land, made currency worthless, and established common messes. Lycurgus created a strictly equal city. However, it limited Sparta as a whole to advance. On the other hand, Solon works to resolve this problem in Athens by creating fairness for people with different upbringing. Solon allotted political privilege according to wealth instead of lineage, abolished slavery, and wiped the poor’s slate of debt clean. To alleviate social injustice, Lycurgus promoted strict equality while Solon understands socioeconomic inequalities are inevitable and still attempts to even out the playing field so that each person has the agency to advance.
Over the span of five-hundred years, the Roman Republic grew to be the most dominant force in the early Western world. As the Republic continued to grow around the year 47 B.C it began to go through some changes with the rise of Julius Caesar and the degeneration of the first triumvirate. Caesar sought to bring Rome to an even greater glory but many in the Senate believed that he had abused his power, viewing his rule more as a dictatorship. The Senate desired that Rome continued to run as a republic. Though Rome continued to be glorified, the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus finally converted Rome to an Empire after many years of civil war. Examining a few selections from a few ancient authors, insight is provided as to how the republic fell and what the result was because of this.
The patricians and the plebians were residents of Rome. They were two different races of people (Rose, 1922, P. 1). The patricians were the aristocracy that generally lived in the city while the plebeians were the normal common people that generally lived in the country. Together they had fought together to over throw the last of the kings in ancient Rome. After the kings were thrown out of Rome the patricians took up the majority of the power. The plebeians were still entitled to vote but they could not sit in any of the offices of power or in the senate. Even though Rome was now calling itself a republic the truth is that it was only a republic for the aristocracy. (Morey, 1901 P. 1). Soon after the kings were over thrown it was obvious
Following their victory over the Tarquin, Rome was ready for a Republican form of government as opposed to the despotic tyrant control they had been under. Patricians were the ruling class. They not only had the wealth in Rome, they held power in senate. All laws were of their making and designed to keep them in power. The spoils of war were, by law, the property of the people as a whole, but the Patricians kept it for their own, increasing their wealth. At the same time, the Plebeians were falling further and further into debt. Their lives differed little from that of their Spartan neighbors, the Helots. The only difference was the Plebeians did have the right to vote, yet
Rome became a powerful empire engulfing much of Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia and what seemed like this great entity called the Romans were always in the search of more territory and land to conquer and assimilate into their ever growing vast empire. However, this was not always the case, before Rome became one of the greatest empires in all of history, Rome was a republic. They were government consisted of a Senate who much like our country today represented certain classes of the citizens of the Republic. During the growth and rise of the Roman republic conquering neighboring territories and competing for land grabs was not Romans primary objectives. Romans believed in the well being and wealth of Rome, and if that meant the total destruction of a potential adversary, then as history will show that is unfortunately to the detriment of the adversary what happened.
The Roman Republic began approximately around 509 B.C. when the nobles drove the King and his family out of Rome. This monumental incident helped shape the start to the transformation of the monarchy into a republican governmental system. This is known to have begun by that of the Roman nobles trying to hold their power that they had gained. The Republic was “[a] city-state [which] was the foundation of Greek society in the Hellenic Age; in the Hellenistic Age, Greek cities became subordinate to kingdoms, larder political units ruled by autocratic monarchs” (Perry 105)
Ultimately, the Roman Republic’s downfall lay in its lack of major wars or other crises, which led to a void of honor and leadership. War united all of Rome’s people, and provided the challenge to its leaders to develop honor and leadership by their causes and actions. The lack of war allowed the Roman Republic to stagnate and become self-indulgent. By the end of the Punic Wars, which combined these elements, Rome was sure to fail. Without a common thread uniting its society, the Roman Republic unraveled because it had nothing left holding it together.
As more land and personal property was seized, more citizens found themselves salves to the Romans. These provincial citizens had no rights and the Roman aristocracy had little incentive to provide them with any. (UNRV, 2003)
I would like to discuss how, in at least three ways, the economic and political differences between the patricians and the plebeian classes ultimately led to a plebeian revolt. The first succession was due to these 3 factors. (B.C. 494) 1. Poverty & Distress of the Plebeians due to previous wars left the Plebeians in a state of poverty. 2. The Unjust Law of Debt put the Plebeians in a place where they had to borrow money from the rich Patricians putting them in the debtor class. If they could not pay their debt, they were arrested and made a slave of the creditor. 3. The Unequal Division of the Public Land which was public land which had been gained in a war. The land was supposed to belong to all the people and could have been used in helping the poor get out of debt. However the government was in the hands of the Patricians which secured the land for themselves. This was what caused the Plebeians to revolt and leave the Patricians to fight their own battles in the first succession. The Patricians realized right away that this would be the destruction of Rome. They made a decree to forgive all debts to those who were insolvent and release all who had been imprisoned. In addition they did the following: (Morey, THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC RIGHTS, 2014) 1. The Tribunes of the People were given to protect the plebeians from
The rivalry between the patricians and plebeians in ancient Rome was mainly economical. The patricians were the higher class of society who controlled wealth. They were the minority. The majority were the commoners or plebeians. The plebeians played a key important role in ancient Roman society as they were the backbone of the roman territory and defending it was a task they were looked up to. The peace and security of Rome means the Plebeians must be willing to fight in the army. And for them to be able to fight, the class discrimination they faced which was mainly based on economic differentiation must not be translated into political differentiation. The plebeians did indeed face political discrimination as a result of their social class based on wealth. The political discrimination saw Rome through many upheavals and challenge by the plebeians to the status quo in a bid to impose change and better their political voice and economic situation. The unity of both classes of ancient Rome-namely the Patricians and Plebeians- in getting rid of monarchy did not translate to unity after the mission was successful. The Patricians were at advantage as they got better political and economic gains in ancient Rome.