04-04-2007, 08:40 PM
The earliest civil war I can find reference to is the First Servile War, 135–132 BC.
I put it to an esteemed member of the board that the only wounds received by Romans were from foreigners, and not Romans, prior to Augustus. Of course, I was generalising, and the one above shows that.
But I can't find reference to a civil war prior to the one I mention above. Just to get this into perspective, if we take the time it took for a civil war to actually happen from the founding of Rome in 753 BC, that's a full 618 years of the Roman army only fighting foreigners. If we count the years up to the First Servile War from the establishment of the Republic in 510 BC, it's still 375 years.
But then we get this diagram from 135 BC up to c. 30 BC, and it's a different picture altogether:
http://www.umich.edu/~classics/programs ... _Wars.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Repu ... civil_wars
I can't even find a handy reference list of post Augustan civil wars.
What happened? Why did they begin to turn on themselves so much after a certain point? Monkeysphere theory?
This page may hold a clue:
http://www.crystalinks.com/romemilitary.html
As enduring units, they (the legions) were able to become more effective fighting forces; more importantly, they could now form lasting loyalties to their commanders, as the typical 1-year consul system began to break down and generals served for greater durations. This is what made the civil wars possible, and it is why scholars often cite the Marian Reforms as the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic.
I put it to an esteemed member of the board that the only wounds received by Romans were from foreigners, and not Romans, prior to Augustus. Of course, I was generalising, and the one above shows that.
But I can't find reference to a civil war prior to the one I mention above. Just to get this into perspective, if we take the time it took for a civil war to actually happen from the founding of Rome in 753 BC, that's a full 618 years of the Roman army only fighting foreigners. If we count the years up to the First Servile War from the establishment of the Republic in 510 BC, it's still 375 years.
But then we get this diagram from 135 BC up to c. 30 BC, and it's a different picture altogether:
http://www.umich.edu/~classics/programs ... _Wars.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Repu ... civil_wars
I can't even find a handy reference list of post Augustan civil wars.
What happened? Why did they begin to turn on themselves so much after a certain point? Monkeysphere theory?
This page may hold a clue:
http://www.crystalinks.com/romemilitary.html
As enduring units, they (the legions) were able to become more effective fighting forces; more importantly, they could now form lasting loyalties to their commanders, as the typical 1-year consul system began to break down and generals served for greater durations. This is what made the civil wars possible, and it is why scholars often cite the Marian Reforms as the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
