- Title
- Retreats and withdrawals in republican Roman warfare
- Creator
- Morgan, Daniel
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Roman battles and campaigns have been studied for centuries, but one aspect of the subject that has received less attention than others is the fate of defeated armies. Accounts of major disasters in which enormous numbers of men died are, of course, well known, and these have received the most attention from modern scholars examining the outcome of defeat in ancient battles. However, there is significant evidence in the ancient sources that many armies which were defeated in battle were not destroyed, but were able to escape their enemies relatively intact. Such orderly retreats and withdrawals, and the role they played in ancient warfare, have yet to be examined in detail. This thesis will examine retreats and withdrawals in various battles and campaigns, and analyse how they affected the tactics and strategies of Roman armies in the Middle to Late Republic. Subjects for examination will include the prevalence of these manoeuvres, the reasons they were carried out, the manner in which they were conducted, and their impact on Roman military success and failure. It will be demonstrated that retreats and withdrawals occurred commonly enough to have had a major impact on the outcomes of battles and campaigns, and that the conduct of these manoeuvres, as well as planning for them, significantly shaped Roman tactics and strategies. The Romans deliberately trained and prepared for retreats and withdrawals, and they developed the sophistication and complexity of their tactics for these manoeuvres until they could carry them out with unparalleled organisation and skill. By the first century BC, this was a significant factor in their military success. It will thus be shown that even a heavily defeated army was not necessarily doomed to slaughter, and that a major aspect of Roman tactics and strategy has been overlooked in modern studies.
- Subject
- roman army; roman tactics; ancient battle tactics; retreats from battle; withdrawals from battle; roman retreats; roman withdrawals; how battles ended; routs; ancient battles
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1420760
- Identifier
- uon:37634
- Rights
- Copyright 2020 Daniel Morgan
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 398 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |