Մասնակից:O'micron/Հռոմ

Վիքիպեդիայից՝ ազատ հանրագիտարանից

Ռազմական ոլորտ[խմբագրել | խմբագրել կոդը]


Military[խմբագրել | խմբագրել կոդը]

Հիմնական հոդվածներ՝ Military history of ancient Rome, Military of ancient Rome, Structural history of the Roman military, Roman army, և Roman navy

Կաղապար:RomanMilitary

Modern replica of lorica segmentata type armor, used in conjunction with the popular chainmail after the 1st century AD
Roman tower (reconstruction) at Limes – Taunus / Germany

The early Roman army (c. 500 BC) was, like those of other contemporary city-states influenced by Greek civilization, a citizen militia that practiced hoplite tactics. It was small (the population of free men of military age was then about 9,000) and organized in five classes (in parallel to the comitia centuriata, the body of citizens organized politically), with three providing hoplites and two providing light infantry. The early Roman army was tactically limited and its stance during this period was essentially defensive.[1][2][3]

By the 3rd century BC, the Romans abandoned the hoplite formation in favor of a more flexible system in which smaller groups of 120 (or sometimes 60) men called maniples could maneuver more independently on the battlefield. Thirty maniples arranged in three lines with supporting troops constituted a legion, totalling between 4,000 and 5,000 men.[1][2]

The early Republican legion consisted of five sections, each of which was equipped differently and had different places in formation: the three lines of manipular heavy infantry (hastati, principes and triarii), a force of light infantry (velites), and the cavalry (equites). With the new organization came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states.[1][2]

At nominal full strength, an early Republican legion included 4,000 to 5,000 men: 3,600 to 4,800 heavy infantry, several hundred light infantry, and several hundred cavalrymen.[1][4][5] Legions were often significantly understrength from recruitment failures or following periods of active service due to accidents, battle casualties, disease and desertion. During the Civil War, Pompey's legions in the east were at full strength because they were recently recruited, while Caesar's legions were often well below nominal strength after long active service in Gaul. This pattern also held true for auxiliary forces.[6][7]

Until the late Republican period, the typical legionary was a property-owning citizen farmer from a rural area (an adsiduus) who served for particular (often annual) campaigns,[8] and who supplied his own equipment and, in the case of equites, his own mount. Harris suggests that down to 200 BC, the average rural farmer (who survived) might participate in six or seven campaigns. Freedmen and slaves (wherever resident) and urban citizens did not serve except in rare emergencies.[9]

After 200 BC, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for service were gradually reduced. Beginning with Gaius Marius in 107 BC, citizens without property and some urban-dwelling citizens (proletarii) were enlisted and provided with equipment, although most legionaries continued to come from rural areas. Terms of service became continuous and long—up to twenty years if emergencies required although six- or seven-year terms were more typical.[10]

Beginning in the 3rd century BC, legionaries were paid stipendium (amounts are disputed but Caesar famously "doubled" payments to his troops to 225 denarii a year), could anticipate booty and donatives (distributions of plunder by commanders) from successful campaigns and, beginning at the time of Marius, often were granted allotments of land upon retirement.[1][11] Cavalry and light infantry attached to a legion (the auxilia) were often recruited in the areas where the legion served. Caesar formed a legion, the Fifth Alaudae, from non-citizens in Transalpine Gaul to serve in his campaigns in Gaul.[12] By the time of Caesar Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. Legionaries received 900 sesterces a year and could expect 12,000 sesterces on retirement.[13]

At the end of the Civil War, Augustus reorganized Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, distributed through the provinces of the Empire.[14] During the Principate, the tactical organization of the Army continued to evolve. The auxilia remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions. A new versatile type of unit—the cohortes equitatae—combined cavalry and legionaries in a single formation. They could be stationed at garrisons or outposts and could fight on their own as balanced small forces or combine with other similar units as a larger legion-sized force. This increase in organizational flexibility helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces.[15]

The Emperor Gallienus (253–268 AD) began a reorganization that created the last military structure of the late Empire. Withdrawing some legionaries from the fixed bases on the border, Gallienus created mobile forces (the Comitatenses or field armies) and stationed them behind and at some distance from the borders as a strategic reserve. The border troops (limitanei) stationed at fixed bases continued to be the first line of defense. The basic unit of the field army was the "regiment", legiones or auxilia for infantry and vexellationes for cavalry. Evidence suggests that nominal strengths may have been 1,200 men for infantry regiments and 600 for cavalry, although many records show lower actual troop levels (800 and 400).[16]

Many infantry and cavalry regiments operated in pairs under the command of a comes. In addition to Roman troops, the field armies included regiments of "barbarians" recruited from allied tribes and known as foederati. By 400 AD, foederati regiments had become permanently established units of the Roman army, paid and equipped by the Empire, led by a Roman tribune and used just as Roman units were used. In addition to the foederati, the Empire also used groups of barbarians to fight along with the legions as "allies" without integration into the field armies. Under the command of the senior Roman general present, they were led at lower levels by their own officers.[16]

Military leadership evolved over the course of the history of Rome. Under the monarchy, the hoplite armies were led by the kings of Rome. During the early and middle Roman Republic, military forces were under the command of one of the two elected consuls for the year. During the later Republic, members of the Roman Senatorial elite, as part of the normal sequence of elected public offices known as the cursus honorum, would have served first as quaestor (often posted as deputies to field commanders), then as praetor.[17][18] Julius Caesar's most talented, effective and reliable subordinate in Gaul, Titus Labienus, was recommended to him by Pompey.[19]

Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, c. 122 BC; the altar shows two Roman infantrymen equipped with long scuta and a cavalryman with his horse. All are shown wearing chain mail armour.

Following the end of a term as praetor or consul, a Senator might be appointed by the Senate as a propraetor or proconsul (depending on the highest office held before) to govern a foreign province. More junior officers (down to but not including the level of centurion) were selected by their commanders from their own clientelae or those recommended by political allies among the Senatorial elite.[17]

Under Augustus, whose most important political priority was to place the military under a permanent and unitary command, the Emperor was the legal commander of each legion but exercised that command through a legatus (legate) he appointed from the Senatorial elite. In a province with a single legion, the legate commanded the legion (legatus legionis) and also served as provincial governor, while in a province with more than one legion, each legion was commanded by a legate and the legates were commanded by the provincial governor (also a legate but of higher rank).[20]

During the later stages of the Imperial period (beginning perhaps with Diocletian), the Augustan model was abandoned. Provincial governors were stripped of military authority, and command of the armies in a group of provinces was given to generals (duces) appointed by the Emperor. These were no longer members of the Roman elite but men who came up through the ranks and had seen much practical soldiering. With increasing frequency, these men attempted (sometimes successfully) to usurp the positions of the Emperors who had appointed them. Decreased resources, increasing political chaos and civil war eventually left the Western Empire vulnerable to attack and takeover by neighboring barbarian peoples.[21]

Less is known about the Roman navy than the Roman army. Prior to the middle of the 3rd century BC, officials known as duumviri navales commanded a fleet of twenty ships used mainly to control piracy. This fleet was given up in 278 AD and replaced by allied forces. The First Punic War required that Rome build large fleets, and it did so largely with the assistance of and financing from allies. This reliance on allies continued to the end of the Roman Republic. The quinquereme was the main warship on both sides of the Punic Wars and remained the mainstay of Roman naval forces until replaced by the time of Caesar Augustus by lighter and more maneuverable vessels.[22]

As compared with a trireme, the quinquereme permitted the use of a mix of experienced and inexperienced crewmen (an advantage for a primarily land-based power), and its lesser maneuverability permitted the Romans to adopt and perfect boarding tactics using a troop of about 40 marines in lieu of the ram. Ships were commanded by a navarch, a rank equal to a centurion, who was usually not a citizen. Potter suggests that because the fleet was dominated by non-Romans, the navy was considered non-Roman and allowed to atrophy in times of peace.[22]

Information suggests that by the time of the late Empire (350 AD), the Roman navy comprised several fleets including warships and merchant vessels for transportation and supply. Warships were oared sailing galleys with three to five banks of oarsmen. Fleet bases included such ports as Ravenna, Arles, Aquilea, Misenum and the mouth of the Somme River in the West and Alexandria and Rhodes in the East. Flotillas of small river craft (classes) were part of the limitanei (border troops) during this period, based at fortified river harbors along the Rhine and the Danube. That prominent generals commanded both armies and fleets suggests that naval forces were treated as auxiliaries to the army and not as an independent service. The details of command structure and fleet strengths during this period are not well known, although fleets were commanded by prefects.[23]

Economy[խմբագրել | խմբագրել կոդը]

Հիմնական հոդվածներ՝ Roman agriculture, Roman commerce, Roman finance, և Roman currency
Night view of Trajan's Market, built by Apollodorus of Damascus

Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and human resources. As such, Rome's economy remained focused on farming and trade. Agricultural free trade changed the Italian landscape, and by the 1st century BC, vast grape and olive estates had supplanted the yeoman farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price. The annexation of Egypt, Sicily and Tunisia in North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn, olive oil and wine were Italy's main exports. Two-tier crop rotation was practiced, but farm productivity was low, around 1 ton per hectare.

Industrial and manufacturing activities were smaller. The largest such activities were the mining and quarrying of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the buildings of that period. In manufacturing, production was on a relatively small scale, and generally consisted of workshops and small factories that employed at most dozens of workers. However, some brick factories employed hundreds of workers.

The economy of the early Republic was largely based on smallholding and paid labor. However, foreign wars and conquests made slaves increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on slave labor for both skilled and unskilled work. Slaves are estimated to have constituted around 20% of the Roman Empire's population at this time and 40% in the city of Rome. Only in the Roman Empire, when the conquests stopped and the prices of slaves increased, did hired labor become more economical than slave ownership.

Although barter was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed coinage system, with brass, bronze, and precious metal coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in India. Before the 3rd century BC, copper was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, across central Italy. The original copper coins (as) had a face value of one Roman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its intrinsic value as metal. After Nero began debasing the silver denarius, its legal value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic value.

Horses were expensive and other pack animals were slower. Mass trade on the Roman roads connected military posts, where Roman markets were centered.[24] These roads were designed for wheels.[25] As a result, there was transport of commodities between Roman regions, but increased with the rise of Roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip from Gades to Alexandria via Ostia, spanning the entire length of the Mediterranean.[26] Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.

Some economists consider the Roman Empire a market economy, similar in its degree of capitalistic practices to 17th century Netherlands and 18th century England.[27]


  1. ↑ 1,0 1,1 1,2 1,3 1,4 Keegan, John (1993). A History of Warfare. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. էջեր 263–264. ISBN 978-0-394-58801-8.
  2. ↑ 2,0 2,1 2,2 Potter, David (2004). «The Roman Army and Navy». In Flower, Harriet I. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջեր 67–70. ISBN 978-0-521-00390-2.
  3. ↑ For a discussion of hoplite tactics and their sociocultural setting, see Victor Davis Hanson, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, Alfred A. Knopf (New York 1989) 0-394-57188-6.
  4. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (1996). The Roman Army at War 100 BC–AD 00. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջ 33. ISBN 978-0-19-815057-2.
  5. ↑ Jo-Ann Shelton, ed., As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History, Oxford University Press (New York 1998)0-19-508974-X, pp. 245–249.
  6. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (2003). The Complete Roman Army. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd. էջեր 22–24, 37–38. ISBN 978-0-500-05124-5.
  7. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (2008). Caesar: Life of a Colossus. Yale University Press. էջեր 384, 410–411, 425–427. ISBN 978-0300126891. Another important factor discussed by Goldsworthy was absence of legionaries on detached duty.
  8. ↑ Between 343 BC and 241 BC, the Roman army fought every year except for five. Oakley, Stephen P. (2004). «The Early Republic». In Flower, Harriet I. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջ 27. ISBN 978-0-521-00390-2.
  9. ↑ P.A. Brunt, "Army and Land in the Roman Republic," in The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays, Oxford University Press (Oxford 1988) 0-19-814849-6, p. 253; William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327–70 BC, Oxford University Press (Oxford 1979) 0-19-814866-6, p. 44.
  10. ↑ Keegan, John (1993). A History of Warfare. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. էջեր 273–274. ISBN 978-0-394-58801-8.
  11. ↑ Brunt, pp. 259–265; Potter, pp. 80–83.
  12. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (2008). Caesar: Life of a Colossus. Yale University Press. էջ 391. ISBN 978-0300126891.
  13. ↑ Karl Christ, The Romans, University of California Press (Berkeley, 1984)0-520-04566-1, pp. 74–76.
  14. ↑ Mackay, Christopher S. (2004). Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջեր 249–250. ISBN 978-0-521-80918-4. Mackay points out that the number of legions (not necessarily the number of legionaries) grew to 30 by 125 AD and 33 during the Severan period (200–235 AD).
  15. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (1996). The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջեր 36–37. ISBN 978-0-19-815057-2.
  16. ↑ 16,0 16,1 Elton, Hugh (1996). Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350–425. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջեր 89–96. ISBN 978-0-19-815241-5.
  17. ↑ 17,0 17,1 Brennan, Correy T. (2004). «Power and Process Under the Republican 'Constitution'». In Flower, Harriet I. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջեր 66–68. ISBN 978-0-521-00390-2.
  18. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (1996). The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջեր 121–125. ISBN 978-0-19-815057-2.
  19. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian (1996). The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջ 124. ISBN 978-0-19-815057-2.
  20. ↑ Mackay, Christopher S. (2004). Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջեր 245–252. ISBN 978-0-521-80918-4.
  21. ↑ Mackay, Christopher S. (2004). Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. էջեր 295–296. ISBN 978-0-521-80918-4.. Also chapters 23–24.
  22. ↑ 22,0 22,1 This paragraph is based upon Potter, pp. 76–78.
  23. ↑ Elton, Hugh (1996). Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350–425. Oxford: Oxford University Press. էջեր 99–101. ISBN 978-0-19-815241-5.
  24. ↑ Sabin, Philip; van Wees, Hans; Whitby, Michael, eds. (2007). The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare. Cambridge University Press. էջ 231. ISBN 978-0521782746.
  25. ↑ Heseltine, John (2005). Roads to Rome. J. Paul Getty Museum. էջ 11. ISBN 978-0711225527.
  26. ↑ Քաղվածելու սխալ՝ Սխալ <ref> պիտակ՝ «Atlas» անվանումով ref-երը տեքստ չեն պարունակում:
  27. ↑ Temin, Peter (2001). «A Market Economy in the Early Roman Empire». Abstract Archives. Economy History Services. Արխիվացված է օրիգինալից 15 June 2010-ին.
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