<P> Later, though, the army came into the hands of a family of careerists and professional soldiers, the Cornelii, a gens of the most ancient stock, patrician in the best sense of the word . They were the first real successors to Servius . After much trial and error, suffering personal losses, they produced one of the best and most influential generals Rome ever had, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus . He built the Servian army into a victorious fighting machine . </P> <P> Let the Carthaginians ravage Italy, Scipio declared--he took the war to Carthage, landing in North Africa with a republican army . The strategy succeeded: Hannibal was recalled at once--he came home immediately, with a disrupted army, and he was beaten by Scipio at the Battle of Zama, in 202 BC . Using the tactics developed by Scipio--now entitled Africanus--plus good generalship, the army, at last, lived up to the potential imparted to it by King Servius . </P> <P> Roman army tactics worked as follows . The general first picked his ground . The Roman military now understood fairly well the importance of taking the initiative and picking its own ground, with some infamous exceptions . If the terrain was not right, the army remained within its fortified camp (which was virtually unassailable) until the enemy moved on, and then followed, waiting for an opportunity to engage . </P> <P> The ideal terrain was a gently sloping hill with a stream at the bottom . The enemy would have to ford the stream and move up the slope . The film, Spartacus, recreates this scenario . </P>

What was the role of the army in the roman republic