Unit 2: Vae Victus - Part 2

Military Culture (War)

Early Republic Army (develops the legion) - organized by class; all soldiers responsible for own equipment

• patricians - flag officers; generals/colonels (aristocrats)
• equities - cavalry (wealthy land owners)
• triarii - hoplite spearmen- phalanx; elder soldiers (middle class land owners)
• principies - heavy infantry (middle class land owners)
• hastati - light infantry (middle class land owners)
• velaties - skirmishers (proletarians)

From Phalanx to Manipular Force

Influences:

• technology
• metallurgy improvements for steel
• bronze weapons to iron/steel weapons
• creation of gladius (sword) and pilum (throwing spear)
• environment
• battles move from plains to mountains
• enemy
• Etruscans (phalanx: hoplite) to Samnites (manipular: shield and spear)
• adapt and learn tactics, technology, etc. from enemies

Conquest of Italy

push influence across peninsula sequentially, one enemy at a time

using diplomacy with others to isolate and ultimately conquer enemy

• 1st Samnite War (343-341) - Romans defetaed - learn maniple
• 2nd Samnite War (326-304) - Romans defeated - manipular tactics
• 3rd Samnite War (298-290) - Romans win

Unit 2: Vae Victus - Part 1

Themes: Competition - only meaningful if death is on the line; world of politics and sport are essentially the same

• Anima
• Numen
• Virtus

Internal Politics - primarily domain of patricians

patricians had:

• allies and money
• training included rhetoric and warfare
• deep and wide social network

Cursus Honorum
(course of honors; path to power)

Magistrates:

quester - aid to magistrate; access to the Senate; apprenticeship

aedile - manager of city grain and public works (temples, aquaducts, roads); building inspector; fire marshall; extremely lucrative and dangerous position

praetor - imperium=immunity from indictment and power to impose death penalty; lead an army; function as judges in legal system both civil and criminal; law enforcement for Mos Maiorum (will of the ancestors)

consul -imperium; chief executive officers; command Roman military; power propose, prevent or veto legislation

Tyranny Prevention (based on two principles)

• annuality - all elected office terms one year; non-consecutive terms allowed
• collegiality - more than one individual for each office; power divided and disperssed

Elections [patrician]

religious festivals (Jupiter Optimus Maximus)

all citizens vote according to class: wealthiest - to - proletarian

process primarily controlled by the wealthiest citizens

Elections [plebian]

tribunes elected only to represent plebian tribes

Senate

lifetime membership; representatives and power derived of Jupiter; advisory (Senatus Consultum) but no legislative power; foreign and military policy makers

Citizenship and Class Structure

Concepts of Citizenship

Civitas

• relationship between man and city; responsibilities of a member of collective society
• most important value; linked to ownership of self, self-posession, self-control (moderation, temperance)
• individual value is based on other's perceptions; social currency
• individual value is conditional

Gloria - glory; reputation, fame

Dignitas - dignity; position in the social order

Fama - fame; others report of an individual, more well-known the better

Honos - a post of honor or elected office

Individual Citizen's Value = Gloria + Dignitas+ Fama + Honos

Class Structure

Patrician (senatores) - families from the founding of the city; senate is heads of patrician families

Equestrian (equites) - elevated middle class; knight or elevated plebean; earned through acts of great bravery or procurement of wealth

Plebeian (plebs or vulgus) - middle or lower class; freeborn citizens of newer families, tribes

Salves (servi), Foreigners (peregrini), Non-Citizens - little or no value