"At various stages in its history the Roman army comprised a militia, citizen soldiers, mercenaries and professional troops, both conscripts and volunteers, although there was no clear linear development. The earliest Roman army will have consisted of the king, his retainers, nobles and whatever clan members could be organized to fight, largely in raids against neighbouring communities. This was a citizen militia habituated to seasonal warfare, in which we may guess that soldiers were motivated by ideas of survival, self-defense and patriotism. By protecting themselves, their families and their smallholdings, they also ensured the survival of the Roman state. Of course, peer pressure will also have been important, as they saw other small farmers in the ranks with them.
As Rome developed politically and militarily, the will of the upper classes usually prevailed in decisions on war and peace, and the government regularly conscripted its citizens, though preferring those who could equip themselves. This, however, did not mean that the Roman people were unwilling soldiers. On the contrary, they were apparently quite belligerent. The levy for Rome's legionary army around the mid-third century BC suggests that a large proportion of eligible men with property (assidui) were enlisted. Citizens were apparently willing to serve in large numbers at least down to the mid-second century BC. In 225 BC perhaps about 17 per cent of the adult male citizens were in the army, rising to more than 25 per cent at the climax of the war with Hannibal. Furthermore, after 218 BC campaigns were no longer seasonal but could last all year. It is difficult to see how, even with the use of conscription, the senate could have pursued an active foreign policy without a significant measure of popular support and cooperation. The comic playwright Plautus, who was writing between c. 205 and 184 BC, certainly assumes that his audience is familiar with war. He often uses specifically Roman military metaphors, puts a famous battle narrative in a Roman context, and, in a stock feature of his work, the Prologues, commonly ends by wishing the audience well in war.
Roman warfare in this period was often brutal. The troops' methods for dealing with captured cities caused the Greek historian Polybius, who had military experience, to comment that they were more violent than Hellenistic armies. Indeed, Roman fighting methods and the ferocity of Roman troops apparently intimidated Macedonian soldiers. It has been suggested that the Romans had a pronounced willingness to use violence against alien peoples, and `behaved somewhat more ferociously than most of the other politically advanced peoples of the Mediterranean world'. Perhaps therefore in a violent and warlike society men readily accepted the idea of going into battle to kill those whom they saw as enemies…"
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Amicalement
Armand
paints a legend from the Trojan Wars.
