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To: SunkenCiv

Yes.

But the Persians never actually incorporated non-Persians into the actual Persian army proper. The army which Darius led into Greece was actually an assemblage of different military forces recruited from various subject people who fought in their own weapons and style. The Romans did this also with Auxiliary forces. But, as in the case of the Alaudae, one of the earliest examples, they recruited into the Roman Army proper individuals of non-Roman blood and armed and trained them as Roman soldiers proper.

The Romans did so with non-Roman and non-Italic people to an increasing extent with time so that the Roman Army proper towards the end of the Empire was nearly entirely composed of people recruited from outside the Italian Peninsula.

Even the auxiliaries were officered by Roman soldiers, learned Latin, and when discharged received full Roman citizenship. An inclusiveness absent in other Ancient Empires.

I believe the Romans practiced a form of incorporation and assimilation of subject peoples into their power structure to a far greater extent than any political entity before them and any of the political entities which existed after them for some time.

And that, I believe, is one of the reasons for the strength and stability of the Empire.


45 posted on 06/23/2012 4:17:40 AM PDT by ZULU (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=D9vQt6IXXaM&hd)
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To: ZULU

Great summary! Even though the Roman Empire underwent tremendous political turmoil leading to various regime changes, including having no central gov’t for much of the 3rd c AD, the stability of the Roman legions kept the local governance and commerce on track. Not bad for an empire with no public education system, no general literacy, no banking system, no postal system, a remarkable variety of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups...


46 posted on 06/24/2012 7:40:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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