Imperial Courage

What is it about?

Augustus introduced a new style of recruitment for the Roman army, drawing new soldiers from across the empire and created a new relationship between officers from the level of centurion upwards and the men they commanded. The new system abandoned the communal approach to building unit solidarity through trust, described by Polybius and implicit in accounts of late Republican warfare such as Caesar’s commentaries, to one based on fear of punishment and often brutal training regimes. The new system, which presented senior officers, including members of the imperial family held that courage was a quality to be taught from the top down.

Featured Image

Photo by Caio Fernandes on Unsplash

Photo by Caio Fernandes on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Shows how the the idea of discipline in Roman imperial army differed from the army of the Roman Republic, as recruitment changed.