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QuietDragon2728

Hello,

How did military service promote Romanization?

Thank you !

Noémie C

Hello QuietDragon2728,

Thank you for your question :)

The Roman Empire wanted to expand, not only to make territorial conquests and get more resources, but also to spread its culture and its system elsewhere in the world by maintaining peace within the Empire. To achieve this, Rome used its professional army made by Roman soldiers who had no other occupation than to train to become good soldiers. This was not necessarily the case for other Empires, where the inhabitants were called to go to war without any training. Thanks to the professional army, peace was maintained in the Empire for a good period, called the pax romana (Roman peace). At a time when wars were common, the people of the Empire wanted to take advantage of this peace. There will even be several nations wishing to take advantage of this peace who will voluntarily choose to join the Empire. To have the right to benefit from it, however, they had to live in the Empire and accept and respect Roman values ​​and institutions.

The role of Roman military service in Romanization is therefore important. To be a Roman citizen and benefit from the privileges offered by this society, patricians and plebeians had to do their military service. They were required to serve for 25 years in the professional Roman army where they only trained in combat. It is therefore thanks to compulsory military service that the Empire succeeded in building up a professional army capable of maintaining peace in the Empire, promoting the propagation of Roman culture (Romanization).

Feel free to write to us again if you have any other questions! :)

- Noémie