Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome.

To answer one of the most basic questions about Rome, why was it able to control so much

territory for so long, one need look no further than the Roman Legion.

There were myriad secondary reasons, competent hands-off administration, sound economic policies,

and superior engineering skills, but at the beginning and end of the day, it was the

Legion that secured the longevity of Rome.

No fighting force matched it in the ancient world.

But its dominance was not the result of finding a perfect method of organizing and leading

men and then sticking to that static model forever.

Rather, the Romans constantly tinkered, rearranged, and proved the legions, depending on circumstances.

One of the great virtues of Rome, and when the Romans themselves took immense pride

in, was their ability to learn from their own mistakes and adopt the superior methods

of their enemies.

When I was in college, I took a course in ancient political theory where we studied Plato and

Aristotle, the Sophists, and other Greek thinkers.

But when we got to the Romans, apart from some cursory reading of Cicero and Marcus Aurelius,

my professor spent the class periods teaching us Legion infantry tactics and how the Roman

roads and camps were built.

That was Roman political theory, not discourses on the meaning of justice or comparative essays

on state organization, but rather how best to build a wall and how to maintain lines

of communication in the thick of battle.

The Romans did not spend a lot of time with their head in the clouds, but they did spend

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