War and Society in Early Rome
From Warlords to Generals

Argues for an entirely new understanding of early Roman society visible through the evolution of early Roman warfare.

Jeremy Armstrong (Author)

9781107093577, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 April 2016

332 pages, 9 b/w illus. 3 maps 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.61 kg

This book combines the rich, but problematic, literary tradition for early Rome with the ever-growing archaeological record to present a new interpretation of early Roman warfare and how it related to the city's various social, political, religious, and economic institutions. Largely casting aside the anachronistic assumptions of late republican writers like Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, it instead examines the general modes of behaviour evidenced in both the literature and the archaeology for the period and attempts to reconstruct, based on these characteristics, the basic form of Roman society and then to 're-map' that on to the extant tradition. It will be important for scholars and students studying many aspects of Roman history and warfare, but particularly the history of the regal and republican periods.

Introduction
1. The evidence
2. Rome in the sixth century
3. Rome's regal army (c.570–509)
4. Fighting for land (509–452)
5. The incorporation of the plebs (451–390)
6. The Gallic sack, the rebirth of Rome, and the incorporation of the Latins (390–338)
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]