The Roman Military with Dr Bret Devereaux

This is a very exciting special episode all about the Roman military. We were incredibly fortunate to speak to an expert in the field about the Roman army in the early and middle republic. 

Special Episode – The Early Roman Military with Dr Bret Devereaux

Dr Bret Devereaux is a historian specialising in the ancient world and military history. He holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in classical civilizations from Florida State University. He teaches at North Carolina State University. 

His research interests include the Roman economy and the Roman military. Key to this is considering how the lives of people were shaped by structures of power, violence and wealth and the ways these factors shaped military capacity.

His monograph Why the Romans Always Won: Mobilizing Military Power in the Ancient Mediterranean is under contract with Oxford University Press. We cannot wait to get our hands on a copy, and we’re sure you will want to put this on your wish list too! 

Dr Devereaux is an incredibly passionate and eloquent scholar, and he was very generous with his time. In this episode we were able to explore the evolution of Roman warfare from small-scale, localised conflicts to epic clashes with civilisations like the Carthaginians. 

Dr Bret Devereaux

Things to Look Out For:

• Lots of issues in our source material! How unusual for us
• War between powerful Roman clans 
• The Fabulous Fabians and the Battle of the Cremera
• The sophisticated military system developed by the Romans 
• War with King Pyrrhus of Epirus (Pyrrhic Wars)  
• The Punic Wars (Rome vs Carthage)
• Discussion of Livy 8.8
• Polybius’ description of the Roman Army

You can follow and support Bret at his blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: A look at history and popular culture. Here you will find fascinating blog posts, book recommendations and collections of resources that you might find useful if you are a teacher.  

If you are keen to learn more about the academics mentioned during the interview, you can find a list of the scholars mentioned below: 

• Nathan Rosenstein 
  • Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. (1990)
  • Rome and the Mediterranean 290 to 146 BC : the Imperial Republic
• Jeremy Armstrong
  • The Consulship of 367 BC and the Evolution of Roman Military Authority
  •  Romans at war : soldiers, citizens and society in the Roman Republic
  •  Early roman warfare : from the regal period to the first Punic War
• Walter Schiedel 
  • The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (2017)
  • On Human Bondage: After Slavery and Social Death (2017) 
  • The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy (2012)
• Peter Connolly
  • Greece and