Rome

Rome

264 – 133 BC

Military recruitment

• The Roman army began like the part-time Greek army, with farmers returning to their fields after a quick summer campaign.

• Then it changed into a professional organization with long terms of service far from home.

Military recruitment

• Scipio's revolution changed the way of the legions.

• Rome was now to use proper tactics on the battlefield, rather than merely relying on the fighting superiority of the legionaries.

• The Roman soldiers would be led by clever men seeking to outmanoeuvre their foe rather than merely being lined up and marching at the enemy.

Military recruitment

• If Rome had the best soldiers it now should also acquire the best generals.

• The poorest classes in Rome were given the opportunity of a military career, veterans given land, and the composition of the legions changed.

• (Seleucid wars)

Spanish wars

• 153 - 133 B.C. -- no longer the early Republican period.

• During the Second Punic War (218 to 201 B.C.), the Carthaginians tried to make stations in Hispania from which they could launch attacks on Rome.

Spanish wars

• An effect of fighting against the Carthaginians, was that the Romans gained territory on the Iberian peninsula.

• They named Hispania one of their provinces after defeating Carthage.

• The area they gained was along the coast. They needed more land inland to protect their bases.

Spanish wars

• 134 BC - Scipio Aemilianus was brought in as consul, with Marius and the Numidian prince Jugurtha under him.

• 133 BC - Scipio besieged Numantia. When they succumbed to famine and cannibalism, they surrendered becoming part of Scipio's triumph or sold as slaves. Numantinus was razed.

More on Spanish wars

• http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/republicanromanbattles/qt/082807SpainWars.htm

Seleucid War 192-188 B.C.

• Under the consuls Flamininus and then Manius Acilius Glabrio Rome fought the Seleucid War against Antiochus, king of Syria from 192-188 B.C.

• During the Macedonian Wars, Antiochus and Philip V of Macedon had been allies, taking chunks of Greece and the Greek cities in Asia Minor until the Romans stepped in to grant Greece its freedom.

Seleucid War 192-188 B.C.

• Philip seems to have ignored the alliance when Rome seemed the more likely victor.

• He seems to have granted Rome access to Macedonia's territory because the Romans arrived in Gonni, which they couldn't have done without Philip's help.

Seleucid War 192-188 B.C.

• This made the odds decidedly worse for Antiochus. • Antiochus retreated and faced the Romans at

Thermopylae near the famous pass where the Spartans and their allies had once met the Persians.

• Unlike the routed Spartans, Antiochus survived. The treaty he signed with Rome gave the territory he had taken in Greece back to the Greeks. Antiochus was confined to Syria.