Constantius II

Mediterraneo Antico, 2024

This article compares Greek and Roman attitudes towards internal conflict. It dis- cusses existing bibliography and looks for a middle solution between the existing approach- es: bellum ciuile was indeed a radical departure from Greek heirloom (Armitage), but the processes of communal breakdown present strong similarities across time and space. There is no contradiction, because civil war is a social fact – and therefore dependent on ideologies and concepts – and also a violent process, the unfolding of which progressively erodes all so- cial institutions. This idea is defended on a conceptual level and then weighed against ancient literary evidence on the strategies implemented by fifth-century Athenians and first-century Romans to wage war and achieve – or not – reconciliation. The rationale for the observed differences is then explored and rooted within the economic, demographic and cultural traits of both societies.

Michigan War Studies, 2008

Review of The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, vol. 2, Cambridge, 2008

The 8 th edition of the colloquium provides the opportunity for academics, researchers, doctors, PhD students in the humanities, social sciences and military sciences to approach the topic of war in the Greco-Roman world in various areas:, mentalities and not only. We suggest this topic under the sign of Mars, as well as Ares and Athena since the ancient Greco-Roman world saw many major conflagrations, some of which changed the world forever. The great Greco-Latin epics (but not only) are actually inspired by or chronicles of wars. The main thematic area is complemented by that of peace, for without peace, the wars of Greco-Latin antiquity would not have had an object of dispute. The Greeks were the first inventors in this field of military science, if we just consider the words strategy and polemic. It is not incidentally that military terminology contains many terms of Greek origin. The Greek gods fight each other, or they are the patrons of one or the other of the confronting human camps. Some of the Greek gods are cruel, like Ares, others craft weapons, like Hephaestus, and Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war, but an intelligent war based on stratagems. The great Greek heroes and not only were above all perfect warriors, the Iliad being their theatre of operations. The Greeks were the first to wage unconventional wars, such as colonization and the struggle for hegemony, (the struggle for spheres of influence). With Sparta the art of war became state policy and mentality. The Romans multiplied the Spartan model worldwide, transforming warriors grouped in the equestrian order into the Roman government. The Romans waged several types of wars: of conquest, economic, secret, psychological even through Romanization, but also social and civil. The Aeneid is the chronicle of the war of Aeneas, the Trojan hero, as well as the manifest of Roman militarism. Mars, the Roman god of war, is the father of Rome's founder and also the god of planned, organized, intelligent war, with laws and discipline, in which the ultimate goal is a peace favouring the winner, therefore Rome created PAX ROMANA. The armies, military leaders, weapons, techniques, tactics and military art were for the Romans priorities of state policy, a world state for a considerable length of time. Most of the

International Journal of The Classical Tradition, 2009