History 104 Term Paper: Evolution of the Roman Empire
Founded in near the third century BCE, the Roman Empire grew from a small village on the Tiber River which during the peak of it’s expansion, controlled most of modern day continental Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. Due to their unique military and political innovations as well as heavy focus on infrastructure, Romans were able to become the most extensive empire. Ancient Rome transitioned from a rigid empire which was centered around citizenship, wealth, and gender, but by the first century, the need for capable men to run Rome’s vast empires was slowly eroding old social barriers. The more territory the Romans conquered the more the empire evolved to adapt to the need for a larger military as well as developing the need for stable infrastructure. Roman infrastructure had a permanent focus on engineering and architecture, both civil and military, which allowed for the constant expansion of the empire. Approximately 390 BCE, migrations from northern and central Europe in which groups of Gallic peoples from the Alps region intruded northern Italy and conquered the Etruscans which at the time had control over Rome. The violent conquest of Italy created a disconnect between the Etruscan city-states, and eventually though they managed to defeat the Gauls, the Etruscans never regained control of Italy, including the Romans. The Gauls invading Italy allowed for the Romans to be able to expand and develop by creating an unassailable military by conquering neighboring communities. This provided the Roman army with a large force of manpower, which in turn threatened other Latin city-states. Rather than thinking of Romans as a system of mutual defense, but as a threat, fearing that they would be conquered and forced to assimilate or be killed. Between 340 and 355 BCE, other Latin city-states began attacking the Romans, but much to their demise were overcome. The Romans continued to conquer one community after another, which provided extensive manpower for their army, creating a stable foundation for the empire.
264 to 241 BCE, the Romans entered their first of three Punic Wars with the Carthaginians. These wars were significant to geopolitical history; the rise of the Roman Empire was directly related to the downfall of the Carthaginians, as the Romans gained more territory, they were able to control trade in the Mediterranean and rapidly gained more power without any opposition. The first war was a prolonged naval battle over the Italian island, Sicily, which allowed for the Romans to have the dominant position in the western Mediterranean. The Romans’ ability to defeat the Carthaginians showed the power and structure of the Roman military with such little experience. The second Punic War began in 218 BCE and lasted to 201 BCE, and by this time the Romans had an extensive military, where Carthaginians were only able to send 20,000 soldiers, Rome was able to turn to reserves of up to 750,000 men. Hannibal had been Carthaginian general, Hannibal, was aware of the strength of their opponents military, and concluded the only way to have any chance of defeating them was to attack the Italian peninsula. Hannibal was influenced by the Hellenistic armies in India armies from Indian rulers, used war elephants to cross the Alps to invade Italy. Doing so, Hannibal was able to dominate the land outside of Rome, but Rome’s superior military tactics and diplomacy led to the second defeat of the Carthaginians. The last war of “extermination” took place between 149 and 146 BCE ended the five centuries long reign of the Carthaginians. During this time, the Romans developed a war ethos centered around honor; men started pushing themselves into battle over and over again despite wounds they may have received in previous battles. This was driven by the strict regimen and training the soldiers received. During this, minor infractions were punishable by death along with other harsh punishments to drive soldiers to create this war ethos.
The Roman arm was broken up into legionary forces, a clear-cut ranking system, by 150-120 BCE which many credited to the empire’s military success. Each legion was composed of roughly 5,500 men, which were then subdivided into smaller units, called cohorts,
– citizenship within the army
-wealth
As the Roman grew and the army began to need more men to fight, and to fight with incentive. Romans realized, that enslaving the territories they conquered and forcing men to serve in the army wouldn’t create a strong army. Rather than enslave the people of the territories they conquered, they would allow the city-states to voluntarily join the Roman Empire, or else the Romans would violently conquer the area. If a city-state voluntarily joined the empire, the peoples were granted citizenship and were able to enjoy the same rights as birthright citizens, except the right to vote. Yet, this was implemented at the beginning of Julius Caesar’s reign circa 48 BC. Previously, citizenship was only granted to those whose parents were both born Roman citizens. During this time, only a handful of wealthy citizens had control of the empire, while the second class, called plebeians, weren’t granted any rights regarding the political state of affairs. The plebeians began resenting their second class citizenship and lack of rights and protested by the government by refusing to work