Deconstructing Disciplina:: Disentangling Ancient and Modern Ideologies of Military Discipline in the Middle Republic

This article challenges the idea, presented by both ancient and modern writers, that the armies of the Middle Republic were governed by a clearly articulated ideology of discipline. I contend that the notion of an all-encompassing system of military discipline is a fiction created by a variety of interconnected and historically-constructed intellectual genealogies by examining the two most important sources for the discipline of Middle Republican army, Polybius and Livy, and the reception of their ideas in post-Renaissance Europe.