Title: Imperium: How Rome became an Empire | by Christos Antoniadis | Medium
Headings: Imperium: How Rome became an Empire
Imperium: How Rome became an Empire
Factors of Imperial Expansion
The Republican System
Roman attitudes to non-Romans and Italian elites
The Roman Army
Rome Dominant
From Res Publica to Principate
The Fall of the Republic
Octavian Caesar Augustus — Rome’s First Emperor

Content: The core of the Roman military was the legion, heavy infantry that during the early and mid Republic was raised from among the property owning citizens of the state. After Gaius Marius’ reforms, the Roman military was professionalized and its quality this increased even further. The standard sword of all legionaries was the gladius, a Spanish cut and thrust sword. It was among the most deadly weapons of antiquity. They also carried the scutum, an oval shield. The legions were far more flexible as a military unit than the phalanx the Greeks used. The phalanx relied a lot on cohesion and that could be disrupted in rough terrain. In the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC, the Roman legions’ flexibility was able to defeat the rigidity of the Greek phalanx. The Romans, according to Polybius, were adaptable to change: they swiftly imitated them [Greek arms], for the Romans are better than
anyone at changing their practices and emulating what they see to be better
(6.25.11).