Marriage and manpower in the hannibalic war: Assidui, proletarii and livy 24.18.7-8

Historia - Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte

Volumn 51, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 163-191

  Rosenstein, Nathan ^a  

^a OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 61249140707     PISSN: 00182311     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (86)

1. P.A. Brunt, Italian Manpower (Oxford, 1971) [hereafter, Brunt, Italian Manpower] 66
2. cf. E. Gabba, Republican Rome. The Army and The Allies trans. P.J. Cuff (Oxford, 1976) 5-6 (= "Le origini dell'esercito professionale in Roma: i proletari e la riforma di Mario", Ath. 27 [1949] 177-178) [hereafter, Gabba, Republican Rome]
3. 2] 3.2.306-316, cf. 247 n. 115 and 614-615, Table 1, argues for six new legions in 214, following Livy 24.11.2-4, which total is accepted by A.J. Toynbee, Hannibal's Legacy. The Hannibalic War's Effects on Roman Life (London, 1965) [hereafter, Toynbee, Hannibal's Legacy] 2.650-651
4. P. Marchetti, Histoire économique et monétaire de la deuxième guerre punique (Bruxelles, 1978) 56-59 [hereafter, Marchetti, Histoire économique], also argues for six new legions, but assigns them differently than De Sanctis or Toynbee
5. cf. L.R. Taylor, Roman Voting Assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar (Ann Arbor, 1966) [hereafter, Taylor, Assemblies] 86
6. See, however, A. Yakobson, "Petitio et Largitio: Popular Participation in the Centuriate Assembly of the Late Republic," JRS 82 (1992) 45 [hereafter, Yakobson, Petitio]
7. Pace CT. Nicolet, The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome trans. P.S. Falla (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980) [hereafter, Nicolet, World of the Citizen] 92
8. J.M. Frayn, Subsistence Farming in Roman Italy (Fontwell, Sussex, 1979) 28-29, 88-94
9. K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves. Sociological Studies in Roman History vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1978) 19-22
10. and cf. for Greece T. Gallant, Risk and Survival in Ancient Greece. Reconstructing the Rural Domestic Economy (Stanford, 1991) 82-86
11. Review of Brunt, Italian Manpower, JRS 62 (1972) 192-193
12. J. Rich, "The Supposed Roman Manpower Shortage of the Later Second Century B.C.," Historia 32 (1983) 294 [hereafter, Rich, Manpower Shortage]
13. E. Lo Cascio, "Recruitment and the Size of the Roman Population from the Third to the First Century BC" in W. Scheidel, ed., Debating Roman Demography (forthcoming) [hereafter, Lo Cascio, Recruitment]. I thank Prof. Lo Cascio for allowing me to see a copy of this paper in advance of publication
14. Brunt, Italian Manpower (as in n. 2) 403, although his claim that Livy's figures derive from Fabius Pictor is mere speculation. I accept here the general consensus that the figure of 400 drachmas that Polybius gives in his text represents 400 denarii or 4,000 asses: F.W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius (Oxford, 1957-1979) [hereafter, Walbank, Comm.] 1.176, cf. 698, 706
15. R. Thomson, "The Pay of the Roman Soldier and the Property Qualifications of the Servian Classes" in O.S. Due et al., Classica et Mediaevalia Francisco Blatt Septuagenario Dedicata (Copenhagen, 1973) 194-208
16. However, this Position has been challenged by Marchetti, Histoire économique (as in n. 3) 168-198
17. reviving the theory of H. Mattingly, "The Property Qualifications of the Roman Classes," JRS 27 (1937) 99-107
18. a further Statement of this position in P. Marchetti, "Paie des troupes et dévaluations monétaires au cours de la deuxième guerre punique" in Les "Dévaluations" à Rome, époque républicaine et impériale (Rome, 1978) 195-209
19. See, however, the critique of R. Thomson, Les "Dé valuations" 209-211
20. and M. Crawford's brief survey of the controversy: Coinage and Money linder the Roman Republic. Italy and the Mediterranean Economy (London, 1985) [hereafter, Crawford, Coinage and Money] 146-147
21. So both E. Lo Cascio, "Ancora sui censi minimi delle cinque classe 'serviane'," Ath. n.s. 76 (1988) [hereafter, Lo Cascio, Ancora] 273-302, esp. 289-290
22. and D. Rathbone, "The Census Qualifications of the Assidui and the Prima Classis" in H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, et al. eds., De Agricultura. In Memoriam Pieter Willem de Neeve (Amsterdam, 1993) [hereafter, Rathbone, Census Qualifications] 121-152, esp., 125, although these authors disagree with one another in other, crucial, respects
23. cf. 26.35.1-36.12 for a similar expedient in 210, and J. Libourel, "Galley Slaves in the Second Punic War," CPh 68 (1973) 116-119 for other instances of slaves as rowers
24. Y. Shochat, Recruitment and the Programme of Tiberius Gracchus (Bruxelles, 1980) 66, similarly argues that the senate's decision to compel Citizens resident in maritime colonies to serve as rowers in 190 indicates a shortage of proletarii at that date: Livy 36.3.4-6, although it is noteworthy that Livy does not mention explicitly that the Senate took this Step because of a shortage of oarsmen
25. 2 (as in n. 3) 3.2.313
26. J.H. Thiel, Studies on the History of Roman Sea-Power in Republican Times (Amsterdam, 1946) 11-12
27. P. De Neeve, Colonus. Private Farm Tenancy in Roman Italy during the Republic and Early Principate (Amsterdam, 1984) passim, esp. 119-121
28. Criticism of De Neeve in P.A. Brunt, The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays (Oxford, 1988) 248 n. 31
29. M.I. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (London, 1980) [hereafter, Finley, Ancient Slavery] 83-84
30. T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 B.C.) (London, 1995) [hereafter, Cornell, Beginnings] 333
31. Even P.A. Brunt, Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (London, 1971) [hereafter, Brunt, Conflicts] 18-19, sees slaves as the principal labor force on large estates at this time
32. Polyb. 6.19.2
33. W.V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327-70 B.C. (Oxford, 1979) [hereafter, Harris, War and Imperialism] 44-45
34. Additionally, Romans who were members of coloniae maritimae were exempt from legionary Service, at least down to 207: Livy 27.38.2-3, and so reduced the pool of potential assidui somewhat. But only ten of these had been founded, and the number of men initially sent out to each was only 300: E.T. Salmon, Roman Colonization Under the Republic (Ithaca, New York, 1970) [hereafter, Salmon, Colonization] 71-72, 81. Hence the number of iuniores resident in them and so exempt from the draft by the time of the Hannibalic War cannot have been great
35. cf. P. Cartledge, "Hoplites and Heroes: Sparta's Contribution to the Technique of Ancient Warfare," JRS 97 (1977) 23-24
36. Y. Garland, War in the Ancient World: A Social History trans. J. Lloyd (London, 1975) 89-90
37. And in fact, practice ran counter to theory: light armed solders were a constant and significant feature of Greek warfare during the classical period: H. van Wees, "Politics and the Battlefield. Ideology in Greek Warfare" in A. Powell, ed., The Greek World (London, 1995) 162-165
38. cf. W.K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War 5 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971-91) 4.51-54
39. K. Raaflaub, "Archaic and Classical Greece" in K. Raaflaub and N. Rosenstein, eds., War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (Washington, D.C, 1999) [hereafter, Raaflaub, Greece] 136-137
40. And cf. V.D. Hanson, The Other Greeks. The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (New York, 1995) [hereafter, Hanson, Other Greeks] 294-301 who argues that scholars have generally over-estimated the costs of a hoplite panoply. Marchetti's bizarre notion, Histoire économique (as in n. 3) 217, that the principes and triarii in a legion came exclusively from the first census class derives from a gross misreading of Polyb. 6.23.15-16
41. cf. G. Tibiletti, "Recerche di Storia Agraria Romana," Ath. n.s. 28 (1950) 223-224
42. Randall Howarth, "Rome, The Italians, and The Land," Historia 48 (1999) 283-284
43. D.W. Baronowski, "Roman Military Forces in 225 B.C. (Polybius 2.23-24)," Historia 42 (1993) 181-202 with references to earlier scholarship. The consensus view represented by these scholars is strongly challenged, however, by Lo Cascio, Recruitment (as in n. 11)
44. 2 (as in n. 3) 3.2.282-283
45. On the veracity of Cn. Fulvius Flaccus' defeat in Apulia by Hannibal in 212, see N. Rosenstein, Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle Roman Republic (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990) 207-208
46. 2 (as in n. 3) 3.2.437 n. 13 cf. 631-633
47. A.W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides (Oxford, 1959-1981) 1.11-12
48. cf. G. Grundy, Thucydides and the History of His Age (Oxford, 1948) 1.244-257
49. P. Vidal-Naquet, "La tradition de l'hoplite athénien" in J.P. Vernant, ed., Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne (Paris, 1968) 166
50. J.K. Anderson, Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970) 2-3
51. Y. Garlan, Recherches de poliorcétique grecque (Athens, 1974) 22-26
52. V.D. Hanson, Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece revised ed., (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998) 49-55, 132-137
53. cf. idem, The Western Way of War. Infantry Battle in Classical Greece (New York, 1989), 33-35
54. J. Ober, Fortress Attica. Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier 404-322 B.C. (Leiden, 1985) 33-34
55. L. Foxhall, "Farming and Fighting in Ancient Greece" in J. Rich and G. Shipley, eds., War and Society in the Greek World (London, 1993) 138-142
56. Harvest and sowing dates: M.S. Spurr, Arable Cultivation in Roman Italy (London, 1986) 42-44, 66-67
57. The date at which these legions were levied depends on Polyb. 3.40.1-3 and Asc. 3C, on which see A.M. Eckstein, "Two Notes on the Chronology of the Outbreak of the Hannibalic War," RhM 126 (1983) 257-268
58. P.S. Derow, "The Roman Calender, 218-191," Phoenix 30 (1976) 274-279
59. P. Dusy's attempt to revise the chronology of the war's early years radically downwards, in effect making events happen at a seasonal date as much as three months earlier than the Roman calender date, has little to commend it: "II grano dell'Apulia e la data della bataglia del Trasimeno," PP6 44 (1989) 102-115
60. and D. Praetor, Hannibal's March in History6 (Oxford, 1971) 70-74 on the chronology; and then spent the winter billeted in Placentia and Cremona: Livy 21.63.1
61. R. Salier, Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family (Cambridge, 1994) [hereafter Saller, Patriarchy] 25-41, esp. 37-38; quote from page 36
62. The data for Italy do not differ markedly from those for other provinces: 27-36. Cf. also idem, "Men's Age at Marriage and its Consequences in the Roman Family," CP 82 (1987) 21-34
63. On Africanus: G.V. Sumner, Orators in Cicero's Brutus: Prosopography and Chronology (Toronto, 1973) 34-36
64. So F. Münzer, Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien (Stuttgart, 1920), 104-107, 171, 267-268, 278
65. R. Syme, "Marriage Ages for Roman Senators," Historia 36 (1987) 319-326 (= Roman Papers [Oxford, 1979-] 6.233-240)
66. J. Hajnal, "European Marriage Patterns in Perspective" in D.V. Glass and D.E.C. Eversley, eds., Population in History (London, 1965) 101-143
67. idem, "Two Kinds of Preindustrial Household Formation System" in R. Wall, J. Robin, and P. Laslett, eds., Family Forms in Historic Europe (Cambridge, 1983) 65-104
68. P. Laslett, "Family and Household as Work Group and Kin Group" in Wall et al., op. cit. 526-527
69. Cf. Brunt, Italian Manpower (as in n. 2) 138, for claims that demands for military Service led men to delay marriage. On the decline in the number of Italians in the Imperial legions
70. see G. Forni, Il reclutamento delle legioni da Augusto a Diocleziano (Milano, 1953)
71. As it did, for example, in France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonnic periods: A. Forrest, Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire (New York, 1989) [hereafter, Forrest, Conscripts and Deserters] 89-90. On the penalties for evasion of Service: Brunt, Italian Manpower (as in n. 2) 391-392
72. on the Republic's police capabilities: W. Nippel, Public Order in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 1995) 4-16 and passim
73. Extended families as the Solution to the problems raised by conscription are suggested by J.K. Evans, War, Women, and Children in Ancient Rome (London, 1991) [hereafter, Evans, War, Women, and Children] 113-114
74. Cf. the small size of families in Asia Minor: D. Martin, "The Construction of the Ancient Family: Methodological Considerations," JRS 86 (1996) 40-60 at 46, and 52-53, with references to earlier discussions
75. Evans, War, Women, and Children (as in n. 66) 106-107 assumes that women alone could not have performed the necessary agricultural work, but cf. W. Scheidel, "The Most Silent Women of Greece and Rome: Rural Labour and Women's Life in the Ancient World," G&R 42 (1995) 208-209
76. D.G. Faust, Mothers of Invention. Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill, 1996) 30-34, 53-79
77. Th. Mommsen, Römisches Staatsrecht (Leipzig, 1888) 3, 1 241-244, followed by Brunt, Italian Manpower (as in n. 2) 391
78. J. W. Geary, We Need Men: The Union Draft in the Civil War (Dekalb, 1991) [hereafter, Geary, We Need Men] 82-83, although in the French case many of these exemptions were for failure to meet the height requirement, which for this reason was progressively lowered to about 4 feet 8 inches during Napoleon's final levies. How finicky Roman recruiting officers would have been after 216 about the stature or physical robustness of draftees must remain uncertain; not very, one suspects
79. For draftees to the Union Army during the American Civil War, for example, the Federal Enrollment Act of 1863 provided for "[h]ardship exemptions... for reasons that included being the only son of parents who depended on him for their livelihood, a widower with children under 12 years of age, or an older brother of parentless young children who depended on him for support." Geary, We Need Men (as above n. 81) 66
80. cf. E. Murdock, One Million Men; The Civil War Draft in the North (Madison, 1971) 78-80
81. For potential French draftees during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, marriage brought exemption from service as did economic hardship: Forrest, Conscripts and Deserters (as in n. 64) 48-49, 53-54
82. See Rosenstein, "Competition and Crisis in Mid-Republican Rome," Phoenix 47 (1993) 313-338
83. and G. Mason, "The Agrarian Rome of the Coloniae Maritimae," Historia 41 (1992) 75-87
84. Cp. M. Crawford's Suggestion that a farm of two iugera was at some point arbitrarily set as the floor for the fifth class: "The Early Roman Economy, 753-280 B.C." in L'Italie préromaine et la Rome républicaine: Mélanges offerts à Jacques Heurgon (Rome, 1976) 1.206
85. G. Forni, "Manio Curio Dentato Uomo Democratico," Ath. n.s. 31 (1953) 197
86. L.R. Taylor, Voting Districts of the Roman Republic: The Thirty-five Urban and Rural Tribes (Rome, 1960) 60