In this book L. provides a broad survey of warfare in the Roman world. But he adopts a slightly different approach from previous publications of this kind, since he takes the emphasis away from the traditional battles and army structures to take into account the relationship between warfare and Roman life. L.'s stated aim is to ‘contribute to the ongoing integration of Roman military history into Roman historical studies more broadly’ (p. xv). The relevance of this approach is immediately apparent since Roman military history has long focused on tactics and strategy and, later, on military hierarchy or recruitment, which explains the (false?) impression of its ‘ghettoisation’ in the field. If recent scholarly discussions have now widely addressed social and cultural aspects of Roman warfare, we lacked a clear, consistent and concise handbook in English to sum up their main conclusions in a study mainly intended for students and teachers. L.'s book fills this gap.
The book's main strength is to cover the topic from the mid-fourth century bc to the early seventh century ad. Most of the previous volumes were focused on a specific period or left out the beginnings of the Republic or, more often, late antiquity, to concentrate on the more iconic time of the Principate. But in a social and cultural approach, a more global overview of the evolution of Roman warfare is undoubtedly needed. In order to understand better the roots and final modifications of the Roman representations and practices of war, L. sometimes even reverses the traditional balance of power and leaves more space to the Republic and late antiquity than the Principate.
The introductory chapter provides three helpful overviews of the military events of Roman history, of the evolution of Roman military forces and of the literary and material evidence traditionally used on the topic. These overviews will be useful for those who have little prior knowledge of Roman military history and will efficiently refresh the memory of other readers. The book is then divided into seven chapters, which effectively identify key themes of Roman warfare.
The first chapter discusses the Roman representations of war and peace to reassess how far Roman society was militaristic. If the controversy about Roman imperialism is certainly different from the militaristic one, L. nevertheless provides a well-balanced summary of both: celebrating war or, less frequently, peace, was not often unequivocal in Roman culture. The next chapter investigates military service and courage. L. highlights the relationships between military service, citizenship and ownership and convincingly insists on their lasting quality throughout Roman history. Then, the need of both virtus and disciplina in the army is well described, and the chapter ends with a welcome insight on the occasional involvement of women in combat. Manpower and money, the subject of the third chapter, leads to an evaluation of involvement in recruitment, which, as expected, was not always perfect in Roman history. But it also tackles economic and demographic history. Without giving up the hope of providing an approximative assessment of the question, L. rightly remains cautious as regards statistical evidence for the ancient world and demonstrates that warfare certainly has its benefits but also many costs. Chapter 4, ‘Authority and Allegiances’, accurately presents the controversy of pre-battle speeches and adds new and convincing evidence to it: the short speech pronounced by Patricius to his troops in the early sixth century. Then, L. handles the military culture of the soldiers, which explains obedience and, sometimes, mutiny in the Roman world, but also the choices of soldiers in the civil wars. Chapter 5, ‘Society and Identity’, is dedicated to the relationship between the army as a community and the wider society of the Roman world. First, L. emphasises the sense of collective identity that soldiers could have. But, as L. rightly points out, the camps were not ‘total institutions’ and did not prevent soldiers from interacting with ‘civilians’ and, mostly, from linking official religion with more local beliefs. Chapter 6, ‘Culture and Communication’, offers a glimpse into the Roman habit of adopting features from their opponents, which was a common phenomenon, though it was also, as L. puts it, ‘an asymmetric cultural process’ in the case of the Roman army (p. 139). Then, despite L.'s legitimate caution about the concept of Romanisation, he lists the Roman cultural customs that soldiers were exposed to: bathing, diet, official religion and, mostly, Latin. Chapter 7 deals with the experiences of war from a ‘bottom-up’ perspective, according to J. Keegan's approach, and also engages with more modern models. L. skilfully demonstrates how tactics are defined by the soldiers’ morale, emotions and solidarity and tackles the new trends of embodied military culture using the battle of Forum Gallorum by way of illustration. He finally addresses the question of the participation and fate of ‘civilians’ in warfare. Chapter 7 is followed by an epilogue, which offers a synthesis about how far war had an impact on Roman history. The volume also contains several good illustrations, a bibliographical essay, useful chronologies of significant events and Roman emperors, a glossary, a full bibliography (24 pages) and an index.
In the course of the book L. raises important issues relevant to the relationship between warfare and power, the notion of identity – or ‘identities’ – inside and outside the army, and even the permeability between the army and the rest of society. These key themes give the book its real unity. Moreover, by its recurrent caution with the lack of evidence, the volume is a thought-provoking contribution to the core question of how far scholarship can or cannot be reliable on those topics. L. is, for instance, rightly cautious about most of the academic controversies, including, among others, those of Romanisation, linguistic turn, demographic evaluations and the aftermath of the Second Punic War. As a whole, the combination of high-quality synthesis with precise examples is convincing, and novelties are at times added with much success.
The book is firmly based on recent and valuable bibliography. Occasionally, it would have been worthwhile to insist more heavily on some references in footnotes. J. Lendon's Soldiers and Ghosts (2005) is, for instance, invaluable for the ‘courage’ topic, as N. Rosenstein's Imperatores Victi (1990) is on the defeated generals. Likewise, A. Goldsworthy and I. Haynes's edited collection (The Roman Army as a Community [1999]) or S. James's work (TRAC 98 [1999]) probably deserved a mention in the section ‘The Community of Soldiers’ (p. 113), and H. Van Wees's theories on genocide (‘Genocide in the Ancient World’, in: The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies [2010]) could have been relevant in the section on civilians and warfare. Sadly, foreign-language literature is largely ignored when it would have usefully deepened some of the themes tackled, such as the anthropology of war, the discussion of the role of Spain in the evolution of warfare, the reality of the Marian reforms, violence in wartime, desertions, resilience after defeats, citizenship and recruitment or the handling of weapons. Even if the book is mainly aimed at students, mention of the existence of some valuable studies in foreign languages could show how they feed the debates of international scholarship.
These few remarks do not, however, alter the general impression of a solid, interesting and useful work. In a few pages, L. manages to provide a broad and comprehensive survey of Roman warfare, admirably taking recent literature into account in a concise and straightforward style: it is a tour de force.
