Killing for the Republic: Citizen-Soldiers and the Roman Way of War

Written by Steele Brand

Narrated by Tom Parks

The year 146 BC marked the brutal end to the Roman Republic's 118-year struggle for the western Mediterranean. Breaching the walls of their great enemy, Carthage, Roman troops slaughtered countless citizens, enslaved those who survived, and leveled the 700-year-old city. That same year in the east, Rome destroyed Corinth and subdued Greece. Over little more than a century, Rome's triumphant armies of citizen-soldiers had shocked the world by conquering all of its neighbors.

How did armies made up of citizen-soldiers manage to pull off such a major triumph? And what made the republic so powerful? In Killing for the Republic, Steele Brand explains how Rome transformed average farmers into ambitious killers capable of conquering the entire Mediterranean. Rome instilled something violent and vicious in its soldiers, making them more effective than other empire builders. Unlike the Assyrians, Persians, and Macedonians, it fought with part-timers. Examining the relationship between the republican spirit and the citizen-soldier, Brand argues that Roman republican values and institutions prepared common men for the rigors and horrors of war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781977365972

Reviews for Killing for the Republic

[Igor Murawski · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent overview of a “citizen soldier” concept, as seen and understood by the Romans but also modern (especially American) society. Conclusion of the book is very relevant to our view of wars in a democratic world. The only gripe I have with this audiobook is an atrocious Latin of the American narrator who was hacking through Latin names and words with a happy abandon of a true Roman legionary.