3. The Rise of Rome¶
Core Argument¶
3. The Rise of Rome
The Roman state was forged in near-perpetual warfare, a crucible that produced the martial virtues of valour, discipline, and submission to the state. Yet from its inception, the Republic was riven by class contradiction. The plebeians, who formed the backbone of the army, occasionally refused to fight; Livy attributed these mutinous moods to tribune agitation, but the discontent was organic. Patricians pacified the plebs through concessions: permitting the plunder of Anxur, and crucially, decreeing that soldiers should receive pay from the public treasury, ending the system of self-financed service. The tribunes correctly warned that this required a tax on the people. The conquest of Veii in 396 BC nearly doubled Roman territory, providing land for citizen-soldiers and making control of conquered land the central question of the Republic.
In 387 BC, Rome suffered catastrophic defeat by migrating Gauls at the Allia river, leading to the sack of the city. Recovery was swift, but the three bitter Samnite wars (343–290 BC) drained resources while making Rome master of Italy. The army was transformed into manipular legions, more mobile than the Greek phalanx. The free peasantry formed the army’s backbone, yet after the Samnite wars, returning soldiers were ruined by debt and cheap grain imports, intensifying class struggle. The patricians used external threats to defuse domestic conflict—a tactic Hegel analysed as rulers employing the ‘external enemy’ to divert attention from internal oppression. War changed the mode of production, which in turn changed the nature of war and the army.
The formative period culminated in conflict with Carthage, the dominant trading power in the Western Mediterranean. Rome’s intervention in Sicily, under the pretext of aiding mercenaries at Messana, sparked the Punic Wars (264–241, 218–201, 149–146 BC). Roman historians portrayed these as defensive, but Rome was an aggressive power seeking total domination of Italy, making war with Carthage inevitable. The First Punic War ended with Carthage evacuating Sicily and paying an indemnity. The Second Punic War began when Rome used Hannibal’s siege of Saguntum as a pretext, determined to prevent Carthage’s recovery. Hannibal invaded Italy but failed to secure widespread Latin support; Rome avoided direct battle, wore him down, and defeated him at Zama. The Third Punic War was deliberately provoked; Carthage was destroyed in 146 BC, its population enslaved. That same year, Rome destroyed Corinth. Victory added new territories, boosted the merchant class, and transformed the mode of production. The Punic Wars changed the army, recruiting proletarians and creating professional generals. Conquests increased the ager publicus, controlled by patricians, while plebeian soldiers returned to ruined farms. The old patrician-plebeian conflict transformed into a struggle of rich against poor.