help! with deducing from a source! (1 Viewer)

[unfold]

this is the source:

…Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a living advertisement of the need, during these critical emergencies, as in Caesar’s campaigns, for senior officers who were not of the traditional senatorial origin, but came from a social lower social class.

from: Michael Grant, “The Army of the Caesars”

SO...my question is: what does it imply? that there were not enough traditional senatorial men to be in the position of senior officers? or that they had limited abilities in commanding? please help me!! any suggestions are GREAT! because i'm doing a presentation on Agrippa.

thankyou all.

 

[wrong_turn]

perhaps the reason is htat some officers rise to the top of the ranks through connections within. this can be seen from pompey, though he had some blood in him, with his father being a famous general..but yeh like what i said befor eth epompey crap.

 

[AsyLum]

The civil wars had greatly culled, for lack of a better word, the majority of the senatorial/military and created a huge power vacuum in that regard, one which the senatorial ranks would never really replenish.

With Marius' professionalism of the army, the effective use of the personal army by Sulla and then the triumvirate, in particular Pompey, for he had held no seat of power before commanding his own army, had created an environment upon which the traditional power bases and resource of senior military officers from which to pull them from.

 

[angelduck]

a living advertisement of the need, during for senior officers who were not of the traditional senatorial origin, but came from a social lower social class.[/I]

I didnt do Agrippina but this is the most important part of quote, and the need stated above might be due to the need for lower clkasses to be represented, to have power so civil wars werent as likely?

 

[unfold]

The civil wars had greatly culled, for lack of a better word, the majority of the senatorial/military and created a huge power vacuum in that regard, one which the senatorial ranks would never really replenish.

With Marius' professionalism of the army, the effective use of the personal army by Sulla and then the triumvirate, in particular Pompey, for he had held no seat of power before commanding his own army, had created an environment upon which the traditional power bases and resource of senior military officers from which to pull them from.

Hey everyone, thanks for ur suggestions. and for AsyLum's response, i have a further question. I'm actually not quite clear of what you said. When u said: "the civil wars had greatly culled the marjority of the senatorial/mlitary (?) and a created a huge power vacuum" ..... so exactly where were those senatorial/military (?) culled TO and for what reason? and are you saying that there wasnt enough Romans of senatorial ranks to replenish this "power vacuum"?

 

[AsyLum]

Yeah sorry was a bit tired, the civil wars had a great toll upon the ruling class because of the many battles and deaths which it created. The ruling class and aristocracy from which the original families and traditional power base of rome was to come from became weakened forever.

 

[wrong_turn]

well the patricians is where the high ranking senatorial positions were given to. and they also comanded the army in the high postioned ranks.

 

[Magister]

Re "culling" the senatorials and leaders

Hi all!

"Culling" is a very apt word to describe the virtual decimation of the oligarchy and equestrian class in Rome, especially during the period of Marius and Sulla (civil war), the Social Wars, other threats to Rome, and the civil wars of Pompey and Caesar and the Second Triumvirate. Sulla's proscriptions took an incredible toll on the senatorial class in particular and those who replaced them (remember too, that Sulla enlarged the Senate) were his adherents who possessed lower standards, pedigree and sense of tradition than the old order. Sallust comments on this in a most scathing fashion in his "Jugurthan War" commentary and marks the moral decline of Roman leadership from this period. The entry of the Equites into a stronger position also influenced the politics of this time. It laid the seeds for many of the future disasters experienced by the Republic.

I hope this may provide some food for thought.

Magister