Storming The Heavens
Soldiers, Emperors, And Civilians In The Roman Empire
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- 62,99 €
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- 62,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
In the closing years of the second century B.C., the ancient world watched as the Roman armies maintained clear superiority over all they surveyed. But, social turmoil prevailed at the heart of her territories, led by an increasing number of dispossessed farmers, too little manpower for the army, and an inevitable conflict with the allies who had fought side by side with the Romans to establish Roman dominion. Storming the Heavens looks at this dramatic history from a variety of angles. What changed most radically, Santosuosso argues, was the behavior of soldiers in the Roman armies. The troops became the enemies within, their pillage and slaughter of fellow citizens indiscriminate, their loyalty not to the Republic but to their leaders, as long as they were ample providers of booty. By opening the military ranks to all, the new army abandoned its role as depository of the values of the upper classes and the propertied. Instead, it became an institution of the poor and drain on the power of the Empire. Santosuosso also investigates other topics, such as the monopoly of military power in the hands of a few, the connection between the armed forces and the cherished values of the state, the manipulation of the lower classes so that they would accept the view of life, control, and power dictated by the oligarchy, and the subjugation and dehumanization of subject peoples, whether they be Gauls, Britons, Germans, Africans, or even the Romans themselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a fascinating sequel to his Soldiers, Citizens, and the Symbols of War from Classical Greece to Republican Rome, Santosuosso traces the rise and fall of the Roman Empire via the rise and fall of the Roman army. By the second century B.C.E., Rome had established dominance in the Mediterranean world through its military conquests and its policy of Romanization of the conquered nations. Yet, internally the relationship between the army and the state was beginning to deteriorate. In the middle of the second century, the army, which until then had come from the ranks of land-owning citizens, was thrown open to all citizens. Numerous social and civil wars occurred in the latter half of the second century and into the first century B.C.E. over questions of Roman citizenship and slavery, the most famous being the slave revolt of the gladiator Spartacus. In addition, since most of the soldiers had no land to return to, they fought battles not for the honor and glory of the state but for the loot they could gain. Thus, commanders bent themselves to the wills of the soldiers in order to ensure loyalty. The Roman army, then, began a slow devolution into a rapacious group of pillagers and still later into an army that served the needs and desires of the emperor rather than the empire. Caesar and Augustus briefly brought the army back to its original purpose. By the time of the late Roman Empire (roughly 450 476 C.E.), however, the army was in such political, social and military disarray that the barbarians poured in over the porous Roman borders and brought the empire to its knees. Santosuosso's crackling prose and lively narrative provide illuminating glimpses into this history. Maps.
