Early Roman Warfare: From the Regal Period to the First Punic War by Jeremy Armstrong

[Dan Howard]

He is partially right. You'd expect warfare in this region to be the same as warfare further south where the Greek tyrants ruled. That involved warlords and clans but it also involved hoplites. Romans fought as hoplites just like most other peoples in Italy during that time. Even the Gallic mercenaries from further north likely fought as hoplites when they served in those armies.

FWIW nobody has successfully explained the difference between a hoplite in a phalanx formation and a spearman who served in shield walls everywhere else for four thousand years.