Swords Against the Senate : The Rise of the Roman Army and the Fall of the Republic

by HILDINGER E

• ISBN13: 9780306811685
• ISBN10: 0306811685
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Personal intrigue, treachery, and occasional moral virtue vie in ancient Rome--undisputed ruler of the world, but fatally unable to control its own citizens or army In the first century B.C., Rome was the ruler of a vast empire. Yet at the heart of the Republic was a fatal flaw: a dangerous hostility between the aristocracy and the plebians, each regarding itself as the foundation of Rome's military power. Turning from their foreign enemies, Romans would soon be fighting Romans. Swords Against the Senate describes the first three decades of Rome's century-long civil war that transformed it from a republic to an imperial autocracy, from the Rome of citizen leaders to the Rome of decadent emperor thugs. As the republic came apart amid turmoil, Gaius Marius, the "people's general, " rose to despotic power only to be replaced by the brutal dictator Sulla. The Roman army, once invincible against foreign antagonists, became a tool for the powerful, and the Roman Senate its foe.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
An Unlikely Revolutionary	p. 1
The Army	p. 19
Fissures Show	p. 35
The Breach Widens	p. 45
The Jugurthine War	p. 59
The Jugurthine War Continues	p. 81
Marius and Jugurtha	p. 97
Trouble in the North	p. 111
The Northern Campaign	p. 125
After the Wars	p. 141
The Italian War	p. 155
Civil War	p. 167
Sulla, Marius and Mithridates	p. 181
The Return	p. 201
Epilogue	p. 211
Notes	p. 213
Bibliography	p. 225
Index	p. 229
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