How to be a Roman General:  Terms and Concepts

Usual view:  Roman Army and its generals are conservative and mechanistic

Commanders not trained soldiers but aristocratic elected politicians

          10 campaigning seasons in the (unarmored) cavalry, ages 17-27

          attached sometimes to a general’s staff?

          No formal military training in command or its problems

         Centurions and military tribunes

         Courage and scars:  M. Servilius Pulex Geminus (consul 202 B.C.):  Character

         After 120 B.C.:  no 10 campaigns needed.  M. Tullius Cicero (consul 63 B.C.):

         Rome’s 90 battlefield defeats under the Republic

         Grit—and resources

Polybius (Greek historian, ca. 150 B.C.)

         Pedigree—and activeness

C. Julius Caesar (consul 59 B.C.), special command in Gaul, 58-49 B.C.

        Q. Tullius Cicero (subordinate of Caesar, 54 B.C.)

       Q. Fabius Maximus the Delayer, 217 B.C.

 “Caesarian” generalship by others:

       Gessius Florus , governor of Judaea,66 A.D.

      C. Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, 66-67 A.D.

      M. Antonius Primus in the Balkans, autumn 69 A.D.

              Civil War:  Vespasian vs. Vitellius

      C. Suetonius Paulinus, governor of Britain, 60 A.D.   (Boudicca)

      P. Quinctilius Varus, governor of Germany, 9 A.D.  (Teutoberger Wald)

       Serv. Sulpicius Galba, Further Spain, 150 B.C.

      M. Minucius Rufus, 2^nd in command to Fabius Maximus, Italy, 217 B.C.

               Cannae, 216 B.C.

The “Homeric” quality of Roman generalship

The Roman tradition of generalship:  Rommel?

     M. Claudius Marcellus, (consul 208 B.C.)

     Q. Petilius Cerealis at Trier, 70 A.D.

     Serv. Sulpicius Galba, northern Italy, 43 B.C.

    M. Porcius Cato (consul 195 B.C.), in Spain

    The military handbook of Onasander (2^nd century A.D.)

    Caesar at Thapsus, 46 B.C.

    P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (consul 147 B.C.), at Carthage

Character:   physical courage;  moral courage;  auctoritas