Customer Reviews

The Cavalry of the Roman Republic

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As many people know, information on the citizen cavalry of the mid Roman Republic is hard to come by. Ancient history, with its patchy details, is wide open to interpretation of one kind or another. Sometimes these interpretations become the accepted 'way things were', even if there's no real proof to back up the conclusions are made.

A case in point is the subject of this little volume, by Jeremiah McCall. Citizen cavalry, the Republic's staple mounted force from the fifth century BC until the first, had disappeared by the time of Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus. Until this excellent text came along, the widely held belief was that Roman citizen cavalry had become inferior to the enemies it faced, and was therefore dispensed with.

As McCall cogently argues, there is no hard proof for this at all, and in fact, the evidence points to the Roman citizen cavalry being, for the most part, just as good as the enemies they faced. When they weren't - for example in the Second Punic War - changes were made. (This is when McCall moots that the much debated change of equipment and weaponry took place.) The theory he comes up with for the demise of the citizen cavalry is also sensible: that by the first century BC, the route to success, fame and fortune for young equestrians no longer began with service in the cavalry, but in the political world.

Just seven chapters long, this text is well-written and presented. There is an exhaustive set of notes at the back mentioning all its classical sources. With its well-made challenge to another common assumption about Rome, it's a 'must read' for anyone interested in the Roman Republic's armies. And the good news is that a paperback edition is scheduled for March 2011. Bringing the price down significantly will definitely make it worth purchasing.

Ben Kane, author of The Forgotten Legion.