Roman Vegetius 'Epitoma Rei Militaris'

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.

“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on”.

“There are many good people who don’t know what the options are when it comes to war. In most cases, we have other options,” he says. “Consider how 300 years ago, if you had an infection in your leg, the doctor would amputate it. Now we have antibiotics and other options that we can use before it gets to that point. It is the same with peace. But we have to be realistic that when things get out of control, nonviolence isn’t a silver bullet. We have to be proactive and prevent

The military prowess of Roman commanders and legionaries proved to be successful enough to turn a small community into an ancient super power. There are many discussions to be had about the tactics and success of the Roman army, some of which are: their style of fighting, the attitude toward the fight, and the fruits of their war.

7. “The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into sphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise…make the masses to comfortable.”

The Roman military was one of the most powerful and successful militaries of all time because they trained stronger troops, created superior weaponry and had better leadership than any other military in their time-period. The Roman military’s leadership was a crucial factor in the Roman’s success as demonstrated by military general Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was one of the better generals of his time-period because his troops appreciated him more, mostly because Caesar allowed them to have a large share of whatever they plundered. With Caesar allowing his troops to have a large portion of whatever they seize, he could get his army to follow his every command no matter what the situation was, even if it was considered illegal in Roman law. Caesar broke Roman law, when he ordered his troops to cross the Rubicon, which is the point where no general could take his armies past and because of this, Caesar continued pursing his conquest of Gaul. Gaul is one of the largest areas of the Roman area, known today as France After the Roman Empire collapsed, Caesar became a member of the ruling “Triumvirate,” as well as Crassus and Pompey. Caesar then set out to eliminate the other members and when he took out Pompey, Caesar appointed himself dictator for life. Caesar was an important leader to the Roman success because he was able to control his troops no matter if the situation was legal or illegal and if food was scarce, his troops followed his every command, which made them a

"...no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both."

"I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us" (President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1942, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War).

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 documents I chose were about the roman army (From a book in 450 CE called Concerning Military Matters by a Roman historian Vegetius) and about the foreign invasions ( A map from various sources). Why I chose the document about the roman army is because when you have a military that is not really willing to fight or wear their armor, I don’t think they will be successful in winning the war at all. It probably all started because when Rome was wealthy and full of power, they probably didn’t have a lot of worries so they got lazy and thought they don’t have to go to war and wear armor, but they still went, but not so prepared. So when they went to war (with no armor or anything to protect themselves) they probably ran away instead of fighting, and most of them died because the enemy or the invaders probably knew already from previous wars that now the romans don’t wear armor so they brought archers and just shot them with the bows and they would all die because of no protection whatsoever, and the rest would run away. That is one of the reasons that led the roman empire to fall apart, not having anyone willing to do anything about the war.

The hypothesis of this report is that the military reforms instituted by Gaius Marius ultimately paved the way for the fall of the Roman Republic.

Explain the role of the army and its use for political purposes during this period.

The Roman Army The Roman army is still admired today by historians and many others alike. How far advanced technologically the Romans were over 2000 years ago still amazes many people today. They built roads that a still used today, their baths are still admired with many still standing and much of today's archaeology dates back to Roman and Greek principals. The Roman army itself was the most feared army of that period and it too is a cause of fascination.

In The Laws of War and Peace, De jure belli ac pacis– Paris, 1625 (2nd ed. Amsterdam 1631), Grotius was responding in part to Desiderius Erasmus' In Praise of Folly, which presented an impassioned and influential statement of Renaissance Catholic pacifism. Grotius wrote: “Fully convinced...that there is a common law among nations, which is valid alike for war and in war, I have had many and weighty reasons for undertaking to write upon the subject. Throughout the Christian world I observed a lack of restraint in relation to war, such as even barbarous races should be ashamed of; I observed that men rush to arms for slight causes, or no cause at all, and that when arms have once been taken up there is no longer any respect for law, divine

The “Art of War” and “De Re Militari” two military treatises were written one continent and around five centuries apart by authors that came from two vastly different backgrounds and cultures. Both authors penned treatises intended to inform and educate commanders about war yet the underlying theme is not victory but to ensure the survivability of their soldiers in battle. Sun Tzu and Vegetius differ on their ideas of this specifically on the relationship the military holds between the governing body as well as relations with the civilian population. However, what they do come together on ideas of efficient battle that minimizes Soldier loss as much as possible.