War and the Roman State

Pyrrhus' failure to win a decisive victory underlines the depth of Rome’s resources. Unlike other city-states, Rome, with its colonies and municipia, was able to muster citizen troops on a scale that made it possible to compete with, and eventually overcome, the armies of Hellenistic rulers. The Greek cities of Sicily provided the occa¬sion for Pyrrhus’ departure. After Agathocles’ death in 289, his kingdom of Syracuse became embroiled in civil war. Carthage, which controlled the western part of Sicily, took advantage of this disorder and attempted to establish its control over the entire island. In these circumstances, the Syracusans in 278 offered Pyrrhus the supreme command of their forces if he would bring his army to assist them. In the two years that Pyrrhus then spent in Sicily, he did succeed in driving the Carthaginians out of most of the island, but he was not able to expel them altogether nor could he defeat the stronger Carthaginian fleet. His allies in Italy suffered much in his absence. Lists of Roman commanders who achieved great victories—the so-called fasti triumphales record defeats of Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttii in 277 and 276.
In 275, Pyrrhus returned to Italy, prompted perhaps by renewed appeals from his Italian allies as well as increasing dissatisfaction with his leadership in Sicily. Later that year, Pyrrhus’ army met the Romans at Beneventum in Samnium, and this time the Roman army won. The victorious consul, Manius Curius Dentatus, would later build an aqueduct at Rome from his share of the plunder from Pyrrhus’ camp. By the end of the year, Pyrrhus had crossed the Adriatic and returned home. There he would achieve some success for a time, only to be killed during street fighting at Argos in southern Greece in 272. Pyrrhus’ failure proved disastrous for many of his allies, who in consequence would lose their independence to Rome and suffer Roman depredations. In 272, Tarentum became a Roman ally. Wars with the Samnites and the Lucanians con-tinued into the 260s. The foundation of Latin colonies at Paestum in 273, Beneventum in 268, and Aesernia in 263 mark their defeat. By this time, the Romans had reduced to the status of allies, voluntarily or otherwise, around 150 once-independent communities. Another important consequence of Rome’s war with Pyrrhus and the associated involvement in the affairs of the Greek cities of the south was an altogether closer engagement with the Greek world and its culture. Although there would be no direct Roman participation in the wars of the Hellenistic states until the last decades of the third century, well before that Rome was no longer just an Italian power. Hellenistic monarchies and leagues of Greek cities now had to factor Rome into their plans, and their wars affected Rome.

In over a century of virtually continuous warfare, Roman officials and armies established their city as the most powerful in Italy, and they erected around it a network of alliances that made Rome a key participant in the larger politics of the Mediterranean world. This pattern of regular warfare merits explanation, although no single element or cause can serve as the key to all of Rome’s wars.
Several features of Roman society and politics encouraged acceptance of, and perhaps the active search for, frequent wars. Possession of the military virtues was central to the self-image of the Roman elite, to the ways they competed among themselves for offices and honors, and to their claims to leadership in their city and over the elites and inhabitants of other communities.Regular warfare provided ambitious Romans with the opportunity to display their bravery and skill, and to accomplish deeds that would spread their fame among the citizens vital achievements for those who wished to reach high office. Indeed, the office of consul, the highest in Rome and the focus of elite competition, was itself substantially military in nature, and its occupants would have expected, and probably desired, to command armies in the field. Military command, moreover, had given successful members of the Roman elite a leading role both in their own city and in the surrounding ones of allies and dependents. To maintain this position, they felt obliged to punish cities that challenged Rome or refused to remain subordinate, and equally to protect dependent communities or groups within them who proved loyal.

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