Beating the War Chest; Warfare, money and power in Scipio’s campaigns during the Second Punic War

Abstract

The Second Punic War secured Roman dominance over the Mediterranean and laid the foundation of the later empire. Not only did Rome subdue its most important rival, but Roman society underwent significant changes as the result of large scale warfare. Both the costs and revenue of war greatly increased, generals enjoyed greater independence while on overseas campaigns, and soldiers increasingly became paid professionals rather than middle class farmers and citizen-soldiers. Eventually this process would culminate into Crassus's privately financed army and the civil wars of the first century BC. As the embodiment of this process during the Punic Wars, Scipio Africanus and his campaigns serve as a case study to uncover the relation between money, power and warfare and the dangers to the stability of the Roman Republic.