Virtue and Providence: Perceptions of Ancient Roman Warfare in Early Modern England

abstract:While historians have investigated how early modern Europeans gleaned instrumental lessons from ancient military sources, Nicholas Popper argues that this form of reading was part of a broad range of interpretative strategies derived from practices of historical analysis that figures like Machiavelli, Justus Lipsius, and Walter Ralegh directed to military texts. Historical modes of reading also underlay the methods of soldiers and scholars who devised alternative and arcane accounts of military success that challenged what they saw as the amorality of the new military science. By placing English military reading and writing in a wider context, the essay suggests that ancient Roman warfare emerged not only as a model for imitation but also as an instrument for assessing the providential significance of the forces threatening and protecting early modern Europe.