Up until the last decade of the 2nd century BC, the eligibility requirements to become a Roman soldier in the service of the Republic were very strict.
He had to be a member of the fifth census class or higher.
He had to own property worth 3,500 sesterces in value.
He had to supply his own armaments.
(Plutarch) When war threatened, the consuls of the day would be charged with the duty of recruiting an army from the eligible citizenry of the Republic. As a rule, one of the consuls would lead this mainly volunteer army into battle. As can be imagined, not all elected consuls were adept at leading an army. For example, in the year 113 BC the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo was defeated at the Battle of Noreia by invading tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutons. This disaster was followed by a protracted war in Africa against King Jugurtha of Numidia. The consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus was sent to defeat Jugurtha. Metellus never lost any armies and did win some battles but after two years had not achieved total victory. Gaius Marius, one of his legates, requested Metellus release him from his duties so he could return to Rome and run for consul at the end of 108 BC. But when Marius became junior consul in 107 BC and was appointed the task of concluding the war with Jugurtha, he had no army. The army Metellus had commanded in Africa was assigned to the senior consul Lucius Cassius Longinus to expel the Cimbri who were once again encroaching on the Roman province of Gaul across the Alps. Marius had no troops with which to conduct the war in Africa as the eligible citizenry from whom he could recruit an army was severely depleted due to previous military disasters and the expansion of the latifundia at the expense of small landowners. To overcome this problem he introduced a number of reforms.
Marian reforms
The foremost of the Marian reforms was the inclusion of the Roman landless masses, the capite censi, men who had no property to be assessed in the census. Instead they were "counted by the head". These men were now among the ranks of those who could be recruited even though they owned no significant property. Because these poor citizens could not afford to purchase their own weapons and armour, Marius arranged for the state to supply them with arms. He thus offered the disenfranchised masses permanent employment for pay as professional soldiers, and the opportunity to gain spoils on campaign. With little hope of gaining status in other ways, the masses flocked to join Marius in his new army. These professional soldiers were recruited for an enlistment term of 16 years, later to rise to 20 years full service and 5 years as evocati under the reforms of Augustus.
The second important reform implemented by Marius was the formation of a standing army. Marius was able to standardize training and equipment throughout the Roman legions. Drilling and training took place all year round, even in times of peace, not just when war threatened.
Marius organized the legions as follows. The total number of men in a full strength legion was about 6,000, of whom 4,800 were actual soldiers. The rest were classified as non-combatants. The internal organization of a legion consisted of 10 cohorts of 6 centuries each. The century consisted of 100 men, 80 legionaries and 20 non-combatants. However the first cohort was irregular and consisted of 5 double strength centuries (containing 160 men). Each century was divided again into 10 contubernium led by a decanus. The contubernium contained 8 legionaries and 2 non-combatant servants who tented and messed together. The century fought as a unit, marched as a unit and camped as a unit. The century carried with it all the arms and accoutrements required to feed and maintain it as a fighting unit. Each man was responsible for carrying his own supplies, weapons, and several days worth of rations. The sight of these soldiers with heavy packs on their backs earned them the nickname, "Marius' Mules". This change drastically reduced the size of the baggage train required as support and made the army much more mobile. Between 2 and 6 legions clubbed together constituted an army. The legions were kept in peak physical condition and discipline by constant training, unmatched in the ancient world.
The third reform that Marius was able to introduce was legislation that offered retirement benefits in the form of land grants. Members of the head count who had completed their term of service would be given a pension by their general and a plot of land in the conquered region on which to retire. Officers and commanders were given monetary rewards that were 10–25 times greater than that of a common foot soldier.
Finally, Marius granted citizens of the Italian allies (Etruria, Picenum etc.) full Roman citizenship if they fought for Rome and completed a period of service in the Roman army.
Although Roman iron-working was enhanced by a process known as carburization, the Romans are not thought to have developed true steel production. From the earliest history of the Roman state to its downfall, Roman arms were therefore uniformly produced from either bronze or, later, iron. As a result the 1300 years of Roman military technology saw little radical change in technological level. Within the bounds of classical military technology, however, Roman arms and armor was developed, discarded, and adopted from other peoples based on changing methods of engagement. It included at various times stabbing daggers and swords, stabbing or thrusting swords, long thrusting spears or pikes, lances, light throwing javelins and darts, slings, and bow and arrows.
Roman military personal equipment was produced in large numbers to established patterns and used in an established way. It therefore varied little in design and quality within each historical period. According to Hugh Elton, Roman equipment (especially armor) gave them "a distinct advantage over their barbarian enemies." who were often, as Germanic tribesmen, completely unarmoured. However, Luttwak points out that whilst the uniform possession of armour gave Rome an advantage, the actual standard of each item of Roman equipment was of no better quality than that used by the majority of its adversaries.The relatively low quality of Roman weaponry was primarily a function of its large-scale production, and later factors such as governmental price fixing for certain items, which gave no allowance for quality, and incentivised cheap, poor-quality goods.
The Roman military readily adopted types of arms and armour that were effectively used against them by their enemies. Initially Roman troops were armed after Greek and Etruscan models, using large oval shields and long pikes. On encountering the Celts they adopted much Celtic equipment and again later adopted items such as the gladius from Iberian peoples. Later in Rome's history, it adopted practices such as arming its cavalry with bows in the Parthian style, and even experimented briefly with niche weaponry such as elephants and camel-troops.
Besides personal weaponry, the Roman military adopted team weaponry such as the ballista and developed a naval weapon known as the corvus, a spiked plank used for affixing and boarding enemy ships.
Roman commerce
Basics
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Roman trade was the engine that drove the Roman economy of the late Republic and the early Empire. Fashions and trends in historiography and in popular culture have tended to neglect the economic basis of the empire in favor of the lingua franca of Latin and the exploits of the Roman legions. The language and the legions were supported by trade while being at the same time part of its backbone. Romans were businessmen and the longevity of their empire was due to their commercial trade.
Whereas in theory members of the Roman Senate and their families were prohibited from engaging in trade, the members of the Equestrian order were involved in businesses, despite their upper class values that laid the emphasis on military pursuits and leisure activities. Plebeians and freedmen held shop or manned stalls at markets while vast quantities of slaves did most of the hard work. The slaves were themselves also the subject of commercial transactions. Their high proportion in society (compared to that in Classical Greece), and the reality of runaways, the Roman Servile Wars and minor uprisings, they gave a distinct flavor to Roman commerce.
The intricate, complex, and extensive accounting of Roman trade was conducted with counting boards and the Roman abacus. The abacus, using Roman numerals, was ideally suited to the counting of Roman currency and tallying of Roman measures.
Negotiatores, mercatores and pedlars
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The Romans knew two types of businessmen, the negotiatores and the mercatores. The negotiatores were in part bankers because they lent money on interest. They also bought and sold staples in bulk or did commerce in wholesale quantities of goods. In some instances the argentarii are considered as a subset of the negotiatores and in others as a group apart. The argentarii acted as agents in public or private auctions, kept deposits of money for individuals, cashed cheques (prescriptio) and served as moneychangers. They kept strict books, or tabulae, which were considered as legal proof by the courts. The argentarii sometimes did the same kind of work as the mensarii, who were public bankers appointed by the state. The mercatores were usually plebeians or freedmen. They were present in all the open-air markets or covered shops, manning stalls or hawking goods by the side of the road. They were also present near Roman military camps during campaigns, where they sold food and clothing to the soldiers and paid cash for any booty coming from military activities.
There is some information on the economy of Roman Palestine from Jewish sources of around the 3rd century AD. Itinerant pedlars (rochel) took spices and perfumes to the rural population.This suggests that the economic benefits of the Empire did reach, at least, the upper levels of the peasantry.
Commercial infrastructure
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The Forum Cuppedinis in ancient Rome was a market which offered general goods. At least four other large markets specialized in specific goods such as cattle, wine, fish and herbs and vegetables, but the Roman forum drew the bulk of the traffic. All new cities, like Timgad, were laid out according to an orthogonal grid plan which facilitated transportation and commerce. The cities were connected by good roads. Navigable rivers were extensively used and some canals were dug but neither leave such clear archaeology as roads and consequently they tend to be underestimated. A major mechanism for the expansion of trade was peace. All settlements, especially the smaller ones, could be located in economically rational positions. Before and after the Roman Empire, hilltop defensive positions were preferred for small settlements and piracy made coastal settlement particularly hazardous for all but the largest cities.
By the 1st century, the provinces of the Roman Empire were trading huge volumes of commodities to one another by sea routes. There was an increasing tendency for specialization, particularly in manufacturing, agriculture and mining. Some provinces specialized in producing certain types of goods, such as grain in Egypt and North Africa and wine and olive oil in Italy, Hispania and Greece.
Knowledge of the Roman economy is extremely patchy. The vast bulk of traded goods, being agricultural, normally leave no direct archaeology. Very exceptionally, as at Berenice, there is evidence of long distance trade in pepper, almonds, hazelnuts, stone pine cones, walnuts, coconuts, apricots and peaches besides the more expected figs, raisins and dates (Cappers). The wine, olive oil and garum (fermented fish sauce) trades were exceptional in leaving amphorae behind. There is a single reference of the Syrian export of stiff quince jam or marmalade to Rome.
Re: Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
Seen a lot of them before but not all, good stuff. Fall and rise of an empire from the good old BBC was a really cool little series. Also picked up masada in sainsburys a few weeks ago for a tenner. Aint seen it since i was small, really good tv movie
Re: Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
Originally Posted by joe33
Seen a lot of them before but not all, good stuff. Fall and rise of an empire from the good old BBC was a really cool little series. Also picked up masada in sainsburys a few weeks ago for a tenner. Aint seen it since i was small, really good tv movie
Submitted the whole 'Rise and Fall of an Empire' parts.
Re: Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
Thanks for posting them although I have seen them all before, so am still hungry for ROME2, honestly these videos will just make us even more in need of Rome2
Re: Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
I like The Siege of Jotopata,there have a nice dark red shields,looks already used and dirty not like brand new.. this is exactly what CA should do in the game...make shields used and dirty,it looks so real then
Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
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Re: Hunger for Rome II, but can't wait? Watch this!
Originally Posted by joe33
