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Early Roman wars - Printable Version

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Early Roman wars - Barbula - 12-27-2018

Hello Dear Members 


I entered this forum because I think that there are many qualified members in this forum who are able to give me advice.

As all members of this forum , I am very interested in ancient Roman history, especially in the history of war in ancient Rome.

It is well- known , that there is a lack of sources considering the early history of ancient Rome, and that`s my problem.

It is also well - known that Rome always  fought a lot of wars during its whole history. But there are very few known wars from the 8th and 7th centuries BC. 
My question is: Did the Romans fight that few wars during this time or are most of this wars just not known today because of the lack of sources ?


RE: Early Roman wars - Shield And Spear Art - 12-29-2018

Read Livy.

  Rome fought a lot of wars during it's beginning phases against the other Latins, the Sabines and the Etruscan states, among others.  What qualified as "war" during that time in that region was mostly small scale raiding and skirmishing.  It was not like the organized armies that came about at later periods. 

A great book to look into is The Beginnings of Rome, by T.J. Cornell.  He is kind of THE authority on early Roman society.  You can find it on Amazon.


RE: Early Roman wars - Barbula - 12-30-2018

First of all , thanks for your advise!

You have already mentioned Livy, and he is also the core of my question. Livy wrote 142 books about Roman history , but only one book covers a period of almost 250 years. My question is , how many wars from the early Roman period are still know to us today?

Macedonia was founded in 808 BC and also started with skirmishing and small scale raiding, so it has a similar early history to Rome in the Regal Period . It is known , that the early Macedonians fought "wars" against the neighbouring tribes every year.

Did early Rome also fight "wars" that often?


RE: Early Roman wars - Shield And Spear Art - 12-31-2018

Unfortunately, most of Rome's early writings seemed to have been lost before Livy or Dionysius of Helicarnassus got around to compiling the early history on paper. And even so, the Romans were not prolific writers in their early history, (nearest anyone can tell.) There was a lot of legal lists that gave facts but little detail and various inscriptions that they used as reference, as well as local legends, stories and anecdotes.   It's hard to tell what can be relied on and what can't, but there is likely truth in a lot of it.  Also, the way Livy approached it has problems to it as well, and all other ancient writers of that subject are arguably less credible then him, or used him as a direct source. 

You should keep in mind that early Rome could hardly even be described as a proper city.  It was collection of hill settlements that were linked by a forum in the valley below and possibly a crude palisade for protection.  Its "army" was made up of maybe a few thousand able-bodied men with little organization, scant armor and mostly ranged weapons.  The idea of war was for plunder or tribute and possibly women, (poor Sabines.)  Also, the scope of war was very local.  Rome went to war with the Veii quite often, which was only about 30 miles away, and most wars happened in about that range early on. Things expanded a little bit after that with the adoption of a Greek-style Hoplite army of around 4000 to 6000 troops, but it wasn't by a large factor. By the time of the Gallic sack of Rome, they only really had loose control over the Latins in a 300ish year span of time.

Again, I HIGHLY recommend "The Beginnings of Rome," as it addresses all the questions you are asking here with a strong understanding of both the ancient sources and the latest archeology up to the time of its writing.  Sadly, there is no way of knowing for sure the specifics of what wars were fought against who and when.  At the end of the day, we are just going to have to take Livy's word for it.


RE: Early Roman wars - Dan Howard - 12-31-2018

(12-30-2018, 03:13 PM)Barbula Wrote: First of all , thanks for your advise!

You have already mentioned Livy, and he is also the core of my question. Livy wrote 142 books about Roman history , but only one book covers a period of almost 250 years. My question is , how many wars from the early Roman period are still know to us today?

Macedonia was founded in 808 BC and also started with skirmishing and small scale raiding, so it has a similar early history to  Rome in the Regal Period . It is known , that the early Macedonians fought "wars" against the neighbouring tribes every year.

Did early Rome also fight "wars" that often?

If you want to know where Rome was involved in wars during the early republic, look at where the consuls were sent. For many decades at least one consul was sent to Gaul every year. During times of major strife both consuls were sent to Gaul. Cisalpine Gaul was known as "toga wearing Gaul" in the late republic but it took over a century to pacify and Romanise it.