What is the meaning of an outstretched hand when its own arm has been eviscerated by war and its palm now sprouts a Purple Heart Medal? This question has puzzled me since I first encountered the McGregor portrait. And it has puzzled me as being of a piece with the larger canvas of the uncertain civil-military social relationship that has accumulated in America during twenty years of war.
What Compelled the Roman Way of Warfare? #Reviewing Killing for the Republic
While still a republic, Rome built its empire through the virtues of its agrarian-based citizens and thanks to a political system characterized by the pursuit of liberty through divided sovereignty and participatory citizenship. The foundational element was a valorized civic mindedness, nourished by religious rituals, civic monuments, a commitment to family honor and communal glory, and that agrarian lifestyle. The latter habituated Roman citizens to the essential need of fulfilling their duty. Rome successfully cultivated martial virtues among the populace so that ordinary citizens could pursue their duty toward family and patria while also earning individual glory, but without threatening the delicate balance required to preserve the republican state.