The late Roman Republic (100 BCE 31 BCE) or early/classical Roman Empire (31 BCE -180 CE) - Assignment Example

Republic army included a transition from mid-Republic Roman army between 300 BCE and 80 BCE, which constituted a rather temporary levy that was based on adult male citizen conscription, to the army of Imperial Roman Empire (Jones 78). The latter was typically a professional force that was mainly based on volunteer recruitment. The Social War started between the Roman Republic and its former previous allies in Italy (Lintott 59). The former Roman allies were collectively referred to as the Socii.

The war broke out following the grievance by the Socii, in that they shared Rome’s military campaign risks, but not the associated rewards (Taylor 77). The Socii were defeated, but they finally achieved some of their basic objectives especially regarding the need for legal proclamations of Lex Plautia Papiria and Lex Julia. The two proclamations saw over 500,000 Italians being granted citizenship (Taylor 7). The war ended 88 BCE and all Italian socii (allies) of Rome were provided with full Roman citizenship.

This aspect ended the legions’ dual structure alongside the non-citizen alae, which were abolished, while a henceforth recruitment of Italian allies was imitated. Non-Italian allies that had fought for Rome for a long time kept on serving together with the legions although they remained irregular units that were specifically under their own leaders. The late Republic Roman army was thus made of legions of six thousand men each, although the actual number of legions would reduce because of the campaigning adverse effects.

The legions were raised freely, but private armies that consisted of dozens of legions were raised by competing generals mainly during the Roman civil wars period, at the end of the Roman Republic (Fleming 143). By 30 BCE, the number of legions ranged from 50 to 100. Augustus later brought down this number to 28 legions for the army of Imperial Rome. A number of transitions took place within the same period. A wide campaign by Rome including