[split] Psychology of the Roman soldier

[Bryan]

Hi guys.  I'll just add my 2 cents worth with a book recommendation. Lt.col. Dave Grossman book "on combat " it is a book on the psychological effects of ancient and modern warfare. Very detailed. I got Dave's audio book.    He talks about enuculation against the stress warfare can only come from continuous realistic training and experience

I'd be wary of using Grossman as a source. Much of his work about the hesitancy of man to kill one another was based on the works of S.L.A. Marshall, who has been subsequently discredited for falsifying interview questions and answers. In addition, he puts a lot of emphasis on behavioral conditioning, which was all the rage in the 20th century military, especially post WWII. But Romans didn't understand the science behind behaviorism, not in the scientific approach that Grossman explains training now in his books and presentations. 

In addition, many Roman armies for most of the Republic didn't conduct any training. They were levied, organized into legions, lines, and maniples, then marched directly to their theater of operation. Individual training would have taken place as young men and boys under the tutelage of male family members. Commanders, be they consuls or praetors, or even military tribunes, might institute something like unit training, but it was rare. No standardized formal drill was conducted in many armies, suggesting a method of warfare that didn't require training to perform. Formal standardized individual training caught on during the Late Republic when Romans suffered from a new class of recruits who hadn't been raised properly so they didn't know the martial skills (either because all male relatives were doing military service while they grew up, or because they were Proletariat), in addition to more capable enemies who required extensive training in order to defeat (Numantines, Jugurtha, Cimbri Terror) all required heavy training and major reforms to defeat the enemy.