The Second Roman War
The Second Roman War was in its most
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The Second Roman War was in its most immediate aspect a clash of armies, and its form and ultimate outcome were determined in large part by the capabilities of armies, Hannibal's own and that of his Roman opponents. It is true that war is "politics by other means," and that the results of war depend depend more than the results of individual battles. Indeed, Cannae demonstrates almost perfectly the limitations of a "decisive battle." It is hard to imagine a battle more decisive in its purely military aspect, yet Rome survived the defeat and went on to finally win the war. Had Hannibal lost at Cannae, however, the Second Roman War would almost certainly have followed an entirely different course, and probably would have ended very much earlier, with incalculable effects on the future. While the clash of armies was thus not by itself the absolute arbiter of the war, it still played a central role, and to understand the war it is necessary to understand the armies that fought it. This chapter will be devoted to a consideration of the armies that each side brought to the war, and to the nature and tactics of the battles they were intended to fight. The actual experience of battle in the Second Roman War will for the most part be reserved for the narrative of the war itself in subsequent chapters; the purpose of this chapter is to provide the groundwork for that narrative. The chapter is divided into three main sections; the first deals with Hannibal's army,
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ly the triarii, according to Polybius, remained armed with long spears throughout this period, though some modern writers suggest that the principii also carried a long thrusting spear rather than pila, at least at the beginning of the Second Roman War. At some earlier time, the hastati must surely have been armed with the spear--indeed characterized by their use of that weapon--but they had clearly abandoned it long before Polybius wrote his description, and probably long before the Second Roman War.
Roman armies of the early Republic had fought as a phalanx, a mode of warfare developed in Greece before 700 BC and introduced into Italy by the Greek cities there by the sixth century at the latest. Although "century," as in comitia centuriata, must originally been a term of military organization, it must have lost its initial significance early on and become purely a term of political organization. The centuries of the comitia centuriata varied widely in size, the original connotation of 100 men having been lost, and cannot have been tactical units; nor would such units have been relevant in a phalanx army.
Current opinion varies as to the date of the transition from phalangite order to some form of manipular order.
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Approximate Pages = 35 (250 words per page)
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