The two consuls (who had come to replace the king) were primarily generals whose task it was to lead Rome’s armies in war. In times of military emergency, when unity of command was sometimes necessary, Rome appointed a dictator in place of the consuls, who, however, could not hold supreme military command for longer than six months.

The Senate, which may have existed under the monarchy and served as an advisory council for the king, now advised both magistrates and the Roman people. Although in theory the people were sovereign and the Senate only offered advice, in actual practice the Senate wielded enormous power because of the collective prestige of its members.

During the republic there were two different popular assemblies, the centuriate assembly and the tribal assembly. The centuriate assembly was military in nature; it voted on war and peace and elected all those magistrates who exercised imperium (military power). The tribal assembly was a nonmilitary civilian assembly that elected those magistrates who did not exercise imperium. It did most of the legislating and sat as a court for serious public offenses.

In 451 BCE Rome received its first written law code, inscribed upon 12 bronze tablets and publicly displayed in the forum. Its provisions concerned such matters as legal procedure, debt foreclosure, paternal authority over children, property rights, inheritance, and funerary regulations. This so-called Law of the Twelve Tables was to form the basis of all subsequent Roman private law.


#thread55

we're done for now.

A room without books is like a body without a soul - Marcus Tullius Cicero

let's talk about how much of a military genius Hannibal Barca is

After being soundly defeated at Trebia and Trasimene the Romans had gathered enough men to face Hannibal again, this time at Cannae with a force reported to be around 65,000 strong

Hannibal knew that the traditional style of Roman warfare was to pour infantry into the centre of the enemy lines with overwhelming force.

He planned around that by placing his Iberian & Gallic infantry at the centre with his Carthaginians at the flanks

Hannibal expected his superior Numidian & Hispanic cavalry to defeat the Roman cavalry, thus preventing any Roman flanking action while guaranteeing his own.

The battle began with fierce cavalry action on both flanks with the Numidians keeping the Roman busy while the Carthaginian cavalry led by Hasdrubal on the other flank brutally cut down and routed the Romans they engaged while maintaining enough discipline to not chase after them

Instead, Hasdrubal led his cavalry around the back of the Roman line to attack the Roman cavalry in the rear

As the infantry lines engaged each other, dust blew in the faces of the already sleep deprived men as the Roman troops slowly became enveloped by the Carthaginian line as Hannibal has his centra slowly move backwards creating a crescent formation

This damaged the cohesion of the Roman line as they ran into the gaps of the managed retreat of Hannibal’s centre. They were soon compacted so close together that they had little room to move while also ignoring the un-engaged Carthaginian troops on their flank

Then, at the perfect moment, Hannibal’s cavalry charged into the Roman rear while his flanking infantry fully encircled the panicking Romans.

Now trapped, there was no escape.

It was a slaughter. One estimate has six hundred legionaries being killed every minute until darkness brought an end to the battle.

(I've read somewhere that the Carthaginian started to take prisoners because their arms were too tired from the stabbing)

In total 50,000 Romans fell in the slaughter.

2 quaestors, 29 of the 48 military tribunes died including the consul of the previous year, Geminus, along 80 men of senatorial class.

One historian equates the death toll with the first day of the Somme in 1916.