07d: Wars and Peaces

From the beginning of Roman times, military service was not an obligation for citizens: it was a privilege. Only citizens who could afford their own weapons were allowed serve. The more equipment and the better equipment a citizen could purchase, the greater his role in the army, and the greater his political rights. It was assumed that those with the most money could afford the best equipment; better equipped soldiers did more service to the nation, and therefore the better equipped soldiers deserved more of a voice in the government. The lowest proletarians fought with slings; the better-off could fight with cheap swords and perhaps even inexpensive armor. The lower patricians could afford better swords and better armor; the better off patricians could even afford to serve as cavalry. No wonder the idealized picture of Roman life during the archaic days of the mos maiorum included a paterfamilias who went from the field to the battlefield, as needed. One such Roman hero was the general Cincinnatus, who was literally called from the fields to serve as dictator. The Romans also celebrated the equally heroic mother who did her work and her absent husband's work too. Since Rome's enemies in her earliest days were also agricultural societies, there was a gentlemen's agreement that wars would start after the planting was done and end in time to harvest the crops.

Military organization was just part of the Romans' success. We have seen that the Romans were fanatical about observing religious ritual. This fixation upon ritual was part of Roman warfare too, as shown by the ius fetialis and the concept of the "just war." The Romans believed that their gods would grant Roman victory if and only if the Romans themselves were wronged. That is, provided that the Romans themselves didn't start the war. The case for war had to be discussed openly by the Roman Senate and the Roman People, meaning that all Roman citizens had at least some part in the decision. Supposedly Numa Pompilius himself, the second king of Rome, established the way by which war was first declared and then announced by hurling a spear into hostile territory. If the territory was too far away, a spear could be hurled into a special part of the Forum which had been reserved and labeled "Hostile Territory" for just this purpose. Fetial law - or ius fetialis - was a distinct and unique reflection of Roman religious scruples. On the other hand, even the most monstrous and greedy dictators, like Hitler and Stalin in the last century, have tried to present themselves as the aggrieved party before unleashing aggressive war.

The Roman army fought as well as it did because all but the poorest of Roman men had a personal stake in its success. By 272 Rome became master of all Italy. The Latin League had been effectively broken up by 338 BC, and its cities granted "Latin Rights" which usually lead to full Roman citizenship.  The Etruscan cities were not so much defeated as they were assimilated, and tended to recieve full Roman citizenship at once.  Many other Italian cities, seeing the writing on the wall, willingly allied themselves with the Romans. Some held out, though, like the powerful mountain tribe called the Samnites. Rome fought the Samnites on and off for fifty years over Southern Italy. The outcome was not a foregone conclusion. At the battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC) the Samnites wiped out an entire Roman empire. When the Romans finally won in 290 BC, they refused to grant the Samnites the usual generous peace terms. The Samnites, in turn, nursed their injuries and plotted revenge. The Romans were also twice invaded by Gauls out of the North. In 386 BC, Rome itself was occupied; in desperation, the Romans elected the general Camillus dictator. Under his guidance the Romans drove off the Gauls, and paid them to stay away. After saving Rome, Camillus gave up his dictatorship and went back to the farm. Between 290 and 284 BC, Rome fended off another Gallic tribe called the Senones. Roman victory in the Pyrrhic Wars of 282-272 BC, first undertaken to preserve Rome's sphere of influence in southern Italy, effectively gave Rome control over Italy.

During these wars of conquest, the Romans captured took many, which were simple to deal with - they became slaves. Dealing with the defeated city-states, however, would become a big problem, as would dispensing the ager publicus, or farmland conquered during the wars. The early Romans had never dreamed their state would become so powerful. Since Rome's wars over the years had occured with no particular pattern, the Romans had not established set procedures for dealing with the territories they had won and the allies they had made. Some problems could be handled by increasing the number of magistrates, or by letting defeated city-states keep ruling themselves.  But the sheer inconsistency of Rome's arrangements would eventually cause a great deal of trouble. For one thing, the ager publicus tended to wind up not in the government's hands, but in the hands of the conquering generals and their friends. Sometimes the Romans established colonies - settlements full of Roman citizens which became independent cities. Some lucky city-states were granted full Roman citizenship, with all its benefits (right to Roman justice, to marry a Roman, to do business with Romans, and to vote in Roman elections) and obligations (the obligation to pay taxes and serve in the army). A select number of city-states got partial citizenship, usually the "Latin Rights," first granted to the cities of the Latin League upon their defeat in 338 BC and which usually led up to full Roman citizenship.

Finally, some cities and peoples - like the Samnites - got not much of anything at all - merely the "right" to pay Roman taxes and provide soldiers for the Romans' wars. This category of cities often remained under the control of their traditional local elites - with a certain amount of Roman supervision, of course. This greatly pleased the local elites, but not the local proletarians. Occasionally, some forward-thinking Roman politician would try to come up with some sort of plan for extending some sort of common Roman citizenship across Italy. But ideas like this tended to be very dangerous to the men who had them. Under the Roman patron-client system, any city recieving full Roman citizenship in this way would become the client of whichever Roman politician had won it for them. Such an individual amount of power, of course, would fly in the face of the mos maiorum. Eventually, the Romans preferred to fight the bloody and stupid Social War of 91-88 BC rather than grant citizenship to all Italy. Only the prospect of war in the East made the Romans finally give in. But that is another story.