Roman Army's Superiority to the Celts Essay

The legions of Rome were one of the biggest factors in Rome's success as an empire. They conquered vast quantities of land, and were often used by the government to improve the morale of people living in cities, which often had parts that were cramped and unsanitary. The legions were set apart from contemporary armies due to their level of organisation and especially as they fought as a unit and not as individuals, as many tribes did.

The Roman Republic military was one of the first well-organized military of all time. Because of this, most succeeding militaries follow their example by adopting and adapting some of the same characteristics. The Roman and U.S. military are from different eras, but still share similar characteristics as well as vast modernized differences that have established the U.S. military as efficient and organized.

Another sizeable contributing factor to the expansion of the Roman Empire was the sacking of Rome by the Gauls in 390 B.C.. “The Romans were completely dumbfounded by the wild and undisciplined charge of the howling Gauls. The Roman’s tightly packed phalanx, a military formation they had adopted from the Greeks of

One trait every army must have to be successful is the willingness and drive to dominate. The Roman army took these traits to a whole different level. The Romans were very extreme in battle as well. They often enjoyed humiliating other city-states by burning them to the ground. In 264 B.C.E. a battle between other Greek city-states forced Rome and Carthage, who dominated the western part of the Mediterranean, into conflict. The First Punic War was for the control of Sicily.4 This battle lasted twenty-three years.4 The Romans were losing a lot of men, but they continued to battle on.4 Finally, the persistence paid off.4 The Romans learned how to fight by sea and cut off the Carthaginian supply line into

Rome was the largest and most powerful empire of its time. Its reign from 27 CE to 200 CE was by far the greatest civilization at that point. However, at some point every empire falls. The primary reason for this was the people of Rome. Due to the citizen’s unhappiness, Rome slowly crumbled starting with its leaders, then its army, and finally its economy.

According to the Romans nomads were considered to be barbarians, however over time Romans began to develop nomadic customs which were no longer considered barbaric but civilized. To the Romans a ‘barbarian’ was anyone who was an outsider of their land, and in that case nomads were considered to be barbaric. Nomads are known as a small group of people that don’t have a permanent settlement, and travel and migrate from place to place. Nomadic people also had a different type of lifestyle from the Romans, for example the nomads hunted and gathered their food, and which was considered cave man like. Before the fall of Rome the Romans were considered to be civilized people with a respectable religion and

Romans fought in a manner very similar to the Greeks. In early times they utilized the phalanx and a cavalry back-up, but around the 1st century BCE they began to form a “checkered board” pattern. This allowed them to cover more ground and allow men room to fight. In the first century they also retired using a cavalry (Cartwright). The form of foot soldiers only with no horseback cavalry was uncommon. In

The Romans were civilised in many things, they included: central heating, roads, surgery, medicine laws, religions, reading, writing, numbers, and baths and toilets.

The Roman army was the most powerful war machine of its time and arguably many others. It is this vast war machine that facilitated the Roman Empire and its creation. I call the Roman army a war machine because of the meticulous organization the army displayed, organization so thorough it mimics the individual cogs and gears in a machine working in perfect unison to achieve a common goal. The roman army was responsible for developing revolutionary fighting techniques which not only secured Rome’s position as the most powerful force in the world, but would influence the fighting styles of other armies for hundreds of years. But a machine so intricate and complex was not created in a day. It was through much trial and error and the test of time that the Roman army became the world power that we remember it as. I call the legions a world power because without the approval of the legions an emperor would be powerless. History documents show many Generals who already had the approval of their legions ascending to power, most notably Julius Caesar. So the Roman army was a very prominent military and political influence. Although the Roman army did not simply consist of soldiers and future politicians, it also included engineers. These engineers were responsible for the building of the roads that carried soldiers to and from battle, along with numerous military technologies that would influence the future of warfare. The Roman army’s history and the creation of new war

The Roman state at this point could not supply its army with weaponry so it required its soldiers to do so. This slowly changes during the Struggle of the Orders, with middle and lower class citizens having the right to be a part of the army and other reforms were introduced including payment for servitude (Ward, 69). In the following centuries, the republic did not severely reform the military’s enrollment strategy, other than during the latter part of the 2nd Punic War. Scipio was able to convince Roman citizens to volunteer for an expedition to invade Africa. This was the first time the state did not enforce its law requiring soldiers to be property owners (Ward 110), because of the huge losses incurred during the previous battles of the war.

If you were a member of the auxilium then when you completed your service you would be given Roman citizenship. Therefore, the vast majority of the soldiers in the army were there by choice. This therefore meant that the soldier's morale was kept high and mutinies were rare. A key reason for the army's success was the training the legionaries received.

A Review of Edward N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century A.D. to the Third.

The Roman empire is considered one of the most powerful and longest lasting empire of all time by most historians. At its peak the Roman empire managed to take control and rule nearly the whole inhabited world at the time. Though their military achievements were outstanding the Romans also excelled at legislature. The Romans ran a governmental system which was most like a republic which the power was in the hand of the senators and patricians. The senators and patricians were mostly extremely rich elders of the community who linked themselves to gods. Though the people were the ones who voted for the senators the rich always voted who they wanted because they were the first to vote which made the senate corrupt since the lower classes barely got a say. Although the Roman empire was extremely successful historians are always doing research to figure out what elements led to its collapse. However, the Roman legislature, use of propaganda to sway public opinion, military power to conquer lands, and philosophy were essential reasons for the extended survival of the Roman empire.

Rome, considered by most the greatest empire of the ancient world, stretched from modern day England to Palestine and was more successful than all previous Empires. Rome's government, military, economic and civic structures were all superior to those of their predecessors.

Ancient Rome, the period between the 8th and 1st centuries B.C. in which Rome grew from a little colony to an emerging empire. "Roman imperialism introduced extremes of wealth and poverty that honed social and economic conflict within the Roman state ." The enormous army and their countless loots, as well as their captured slaves, produced many changes along the countryside such as small farms becoming large plantations, and peasants left without lands decided to journey to Rome and other cities. "Immense wealth inflamed the ambitions of Roman nobles who struggled for personal domination rather than collective rule ." This dominant emergence of power and rule thus led to the conquering and control of other societies. The