Many of Rome’s enemies are well known: Carthage, the Gauls, the Cimbri and Teutones, the Dacians, the Parthians, Sasanians, and Goths-the list is long and distinguished, as they say. However, Rome’s wars from her birth as a single city in Latium show that she had to contend with all manner of enemies, some of whom were more powerful than her.
In her early wars, Rome is said to have fought in a similar manner to her neighbours - what used to be called the Italian hoplite manner. We have seen in earlier issues (see XIV.2), however, that this may have been artistic license, and that warbands rather than ‘national’ phalanxes may have been more likely. Soon, Rome began to develop a military system all her own, one which absorbed, learned, and adapted from her allies, enemies, and most of all, her defeats. Victory, after all, as the old
