Concepts and Traditions of Military Leadership in Early Rome (to 367 BC)
Concepts and Traditions of Military Leadership in Early Rome (to 367 BC)
This chapter reveals that the origins of Roman military command do not lie in the traditional account of a joint consulship that was established at the foundation of the republic. Rather, two underlying trends are visible: military command was originally a separate sphere from civilian governance, and so the commander was originally understood to be different from the magistrate; and the early Romans understood military command to be a decentralized activity that could be undertaken simultaneously by several independent praetors or other commanders. Hence, the republic had started with a far less centralized and regularized system of command, as opposed to traditional accounts that point to a concept of military command that has remained unchanged since the foundation of the republic.
Keywords: Roman military command, Roman republic, civilian governance, joint consulship, Roman commander
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