Hey people! The conclusion of our take a look at the Siege of Eregion in Rings of Energy must wait every week as a result of I’m off to a convention this week, the annual assembly of the Society for Army Historical past, this yr in Cellular, Alabama! I’m set to speak about how Roman army commanders had been ready for command (under), however as I kind this, we additionally had an interesting early morning roundtable, organized by Lee Brice on the idea of self-discipline in historical Roman and Greek armies; Clausewitz was invoked (drink!) as was Sunzi (that’s, Solar Tzu) and even Foucault (bingo!). But it surely was an interesting dialogue the place I feel the massive takeaway is how – regardless of efforts to deal with ‘self-discipline’ as a single cross-cultural idea – self-discipline is each a number of conjoined concepts (synchronization, obedience, programs of rewards and punishments, and so forth.) and likewise considerably culturally contingent.
I had hoped to get the weblog submit achieved earlier than leaving, however alas, it was to not be. However, in order that I don’t go away you with nothing to learn, I determine I can provide the summary to my speak, a number of the charts and diagrams I made as an example my factors, after which just a few attention-grabbing hyperlinks.
So my speak for SMH 2025 is “Studying Imperium: Command Preparation within the Center Republic.” Right here is the summary:
By the Roman Republic’s outstanding string of army triumphs in the course of the third and second centuries B.C.E., the Romans may boast of comparatively few ‘army geniuses.’ As an alternative, the Roman aristocracy proved itself remarkably adept at churning out a procession of efficient, if uninspired, workmanlike generals who had been as much as the duty of managing the more and more advanced logistics and tactical system Rome relied upon for fulfillment in conducting simultaneous army operations in a number of theaters at appreciable distance. The Romans lacked, nonetheless, formal establishments for officer coaching, a flaw that has been cited as proof of a extra normal Roman incapability to assume and plan strategically. This paper argues that the customary military-political profession path of the Roman Republic, the cursus honorum, functioned within the place of such formal establishments, structuring a Roman aristocrat’s profession as a sequence of apprenticeships below the eyes of extra skilled commanders. Efficiency was in flip evaluated by elections by Roman voters and thru assignments by the Senate, whereas time spent as ‘back-benchers’ within the Senate between assignments served to homogenize strategic imaginative and prescient. This method served to ‘mass produce’ Roman generals who, if not endowed with genius, had been nonetheless succesful and dependable devices of Roman strategic coverage as set by the Senate.
Now I can’t share the total textual content of the speak – like most convention papers, it’s preliminary and really tough across the edges, representing the start of a undertaking that’s nonetheless below growth. However for the presentation, I did draw up some primary charts which I believed may curiosity you all, so right here they’re.
Let’s begin with this one, a graph of all attested Roman instructions (outlined right here by me as a Justice of the Peace or promagistrate confirmed to have both a military or a territorial provincia) by yr for the great stretch of Livy we now have from 218 to 167. There are some gaps – these sharp downturns within the 170s are principally situations the place Livy hasn’t reported what the praetors are doing or is giving an incomplete image of pro-magistrate assignments, so the actual line ought to most likely be a bit steadier and considerably increased on the again finish.
I additionally made, merely for illustrative functions to assist an viewers principally of extra trendy army historians preserve monitor of how the Roman profession path works, a chart of the usual development a Roman aristocrat’s political-military profession may take (although I’ve caught to militarily related roles, thus the absence of aediles, tribunes of the plebs, and so forth):
And at last, as an example a degree about how an up-and-coming (moderately than senior) Roman aristocrat may expertise the Senate, I made a decision to make up a chart of the ‘typical’ composition of the Roman Senate within the Second Century, given our typical assumptions about life expectancy and mortality within the Roman world and assuming most of those fellows are holding their places of work at or close to the earliest eligible age. The result’s a really approximate breakdown, however maybe a helpful one:
Lastly, some hyperlinks!
First off, I’ve been on some podcasts! On the fantasy entrance, I lately talked Tolkien with the oldsters over on the Prancing Pony Podcast once more, this time about a number of the early historical past of Gondor and Rohan contained within the appendices and Unfinished Tales. On the traditional historical past entrance, I additionally had an extended dialogue with Liberal Currents’ Samantha Hancox-Li on everybody’s least favourite murderous Roman dictator, L. Cornelius Sulla, each on what he did and a bit on why the latest new proper appears oddly obsessive about such a destructive determine.
And for one thing to learn, information journalist and podcaster David H. Montgomery over with YouGov put collectively an interesting survey of American’s attitudes in the direction of the European Center Ages. Some anticipated, if unlucky outcomes, in that Individuals nonetheless very a lot imagine in a ‘darkish ages,’ but additionally some surprises, just like the comparatively low recognition of Saladin, who I had thought had a bit extra pop-cultural presence because the archetypal ‘noble Muslim ruler.’ For extra discovered commentary on the outcomes, David Perry and Matthew Gabriel (the authors of The Brilliant Ages) mentioned the leads to some attention-grabbing element.
So we’ll be again subsequent week, once we’ll shut out our take a look at the Siege of Eregion in Rings of Energy. After that, I’m planning at the least a quick dialogue on the non-existence of historical ‘particular forces,’ mulling over a ‘Transient Historical past of Classical Decadence’ and there’s additionally been requests for a deeper take a look at the Carthaginian army system of the Punic Wars. So extra to sit up for, as soon as I’m again from Cellular!
