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Michael J Taylor
University of Texas Press

Soldiers and Silver: Mobilizing Resources in the Age of Roman Conquest

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AuthorMichael J Taylor
PublisherUniversity of Texas Press
PublishedDec 03 2024
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139781477330777
Dimensions9 X 6 X 1.1 inches
Weight-
BISAC
CategoriesHistory > Ancient - Rome
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

By the middle of the second century BCE, after nearly one hundred years of warfare, Rome had exerted its control over the entire Mediterranean world, forcing the other great powers of the region--Carthage, Macedonia, Egypt, and the Seleucid empire--to submit militarily and financially. But how, despite its relative poverty and its frequent numerical disadvantage in decisive battles, did Rome prevail? Michael J. Taylor explains this surprising outcome by examining the role that manpower and finances played, providing a comparative study that quantifies the military mobilizations and tax revenues for all five powers. Though Rome was the poorest state, it enjoyed the largest military mobilization, drawing from a pool of citizens, colonists, and allies, while its wealthiest adversaries failed to translate revenues into large or successful armies. Taylor concludes that state-level extraction strategies were decisive in the warfare of the period, as states with high conscription and low taxation raised larger, more successful armies than those that primarily sought to maximize taxation. Comprehensive and detailed, Soldiers and Silver offers a new and sophisticated perspective on the political dynamics and economies of these ancient Mediterranean empires.

Author Bio

Michael J. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the State University of New York at Albany. Previously, he was a Lecturer of History at the University of California, Berkeley and a Lecturer of Classics at Santa Clara University.

He holds a Ph.D. in Ancient History from UC Berkeley and an A.B. in History from Princeton University. His research focuses on the Roman Republic and the Hellenistic world during the third and second centuries BC.

His dissertation, a comparative study of state revenues and the military mobilizations of Rome, Carthage, and the Hellenistic kingdoms, examines these metrics of state power against the outcomes of interstate conflict. Other research interests include politics in Republican Rome, Roman military organization, and visual representations of warfare in the ancient world.

While in graduate school, he served as an officer in the California Army National Guard, deploying to Iraq as a platoon leader and Kosovo as a company executive officer.

Source: The University of Texas at Austin and University at Albany SUNY

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