Campaign history of the Roman military
As with most ancient civilizations, Rome's military served the triple purpose of securing its borders, exploiting peripheral areas through measures such as imposing tribute on conquered peoples, and maintaining internal order.
Since the enlargement the population in Apennine peninsula had increased and led to certain changes in agriculture, such as switch to goat breeding from cattle, indicating higher levels of protein supply in the diet which played a crucial role in stature of the locals.
); Camillus claimed that, since he was a dictator, no agreement was valid without his acquiescence, so no ransom was due and he answered Breno with another famous phrase: 'Non auro sed ferro liberanda est patria' (It is with iron, not with gold, how the homeland is released).
The Romans then proved victorious at the Battle of Bovianum and the tide turned strongly against the Samnites from 314 BC onwards, leading them to sue for peace with progressively less generous terms.
It had shown that it was capable of pitting its armies successfully against the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean, and further showed that the Greek kingdoms were incapable of defending their colonies in Italy and abroad.
Since the Alps formed a natural barrier to the north, and Rome was none too keen to meet the fierce Gauls in battle once more, the city's gaze turned to Sicily and the islands of the Mediterranean, a policy that would bring it into direct conflict with its former ally Carthage.
[98] However, the terms of peace that Rome proposed were so heavy that negotiations failed,[98] and in response, the Carthaginians hired Xanthippus of Carthage, a mercenary from the martial Greek city-state of Sparta, to reorganise and lead their army.
[104] Continuing distrust led to the renewal of hostilities in the Second Punic War when Hannibal, a member of the Barcid family of Carthaginian nobility, attacked Saguntum,[105][106] a city with diplomatic ties to Rome.
[148] Between the second and third Macedonian wars Rome faced further conflict in the region due to a tapestry of shifting rivalries, alliances and leagues all seeking to gain greater influence.
[177] Memories of the sack of Rome by Celtic tribes from Gaul in 390/387 BC, had been made into a legendary account that was taught to each generation of Roman youth, were still prominent despite their historical distance.
[198] The pirates had seized the opportunity of a relative power vacuum and had not only strangled shipping lanes but had plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia,[197] and had even made descents upon Italy itself.
By 59 BC an unofficial political alliance known as the First Triumvirate was formed between Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus to share power and influence.
Her death led to partial reconciliation between Octavian and Antony who went on to crush the army of Sextus Pompeius, the last focus of opposition to the second triumvirate, in the naval Battle of Naulochus.
In the West, following humiliating defeats at the hands of the Sugambri, Tencteri and Usipetes tribes in 16 BC,[245] Roman armies pushed north and east out of Gaul to subdue much of Germania.
[137][246][247] Despite the loss of a large army almost to the man of Varus' famous defeat at the hands of the Germanic leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD,[248][249][250] Rome recovered and continued its expansion up to and beyond the borders of the known world.
However, disputes soon broke out amongst the different tribes, rendering co-operation impossible; Vespasian, having successfully ended the civil war, called upon Civilis to lay down his arms, and on his refusal his legions met him in force, defeating him[276] in the Battle of Augusta Treverorum.
[305] Jewish anger towards Rome grew due to the incompetent and often harsh rule of successive governors[306][307][308] coupled with Roman insensitivity[309] – Tacitus says disgust and repulsion[310] – towards their religion.
[312][313] The spark came in 66 AD, when violence broke out in Jerusalem after the Roman governor seized a large amount of money from the Temple and killed many;[314] this act led to an open uprising against Rome.
Cestius Gallus, the Roman governor of Syria, attempted to quell the revolt but withdrew after initial engagements in Jerusalem,[315][316][317] with his force decisively ambushed and annihilated in the Battle of Beth-Horon, losing a contingent equivalent to a legion.
[322] In 70 AD, Titus succeeded Vespasian and, using a force significantly larger than the one deployed for the Roman invasion of Britain,[323] managed to take Jerusalem after a long siege, during which the Temple was razed.
This was achieved through a triumph in Rome (the only one celebrating the subjugation of an existing province's population),[330] the minting of Judaea Capta coins,[331] and the construction of commemorative monuments[332] such as the Arch of Titus.
[335] Marcius Turbo, a leading general, was sent to quell the uprisings in Egypt and Libya,[336] while Lusius Quietus handled Jewish unrest in Mesopotamia and Judaea (the "Kitos War").
[340] This suppression caused extensive devastation across Judaea, leading to massive loss of life, widespread displacement, and enslavement, while also inflicting heavy casualties on Roman forces.
The Cherusci, Bructeri, Tencteri, Usipi, Marsi, and Chatti of Varus' time had by the 3rd century either evolved into or been displaced by a confederacy or alliance of Germanic tribes collectively known as the Alamanni,[344] first mentioned by Cassius Dio describing the campaign of Caracalla in 213 AD.
[355] The Goths first appeared in history as a distinct people in this invasion of 268 AD when they swarmed over the Balkan peninsula and overran the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Illyricum and even threatened Italia itself.
[365] However, Cassius Dio marks the wider imperial decline as beginning in 180 AD with the ascension of Commodus to the throne,[366] a judgement with which Gibbon concurred,[367] and Matyszak states that "the rot ... had become established long before" even that.
[366] Although the crisis of the 3rd century was not the absolute beginning of Rome's decline, it nevertheless did impose a severe strain on the empire as Romans waged war on one another as they had not done since the last days of the Republic.
Some small measure of stability again returned at this point, with the empire split into a Tetrarchy of two greater and two lesser emperors, a system that staved off civil wars for a short time until 312 AD.
After overthrowing the Parthian confederacy,[344][374] the Sassanid Empire that arose from its remains pursued a more aggressive expansionist policy than their predecessors[375][376] and continued to make war against Rome.
During the reign of the Tetrarchy, emperors Diocletian and Galerius brought a decisive conclusion to the war, sacking Ctesiphon in 299 AD and expanding the Roman eastern frontier dramatically with the Treaty of Nisibis.
