Life and Times in the Roman Legion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Life and Times in the Roman Legion - Essay Example C. The ancient Roman army was made up of several legions which included several cohorts of heavy infantry. Although the main legions consisted of Roman citizens there existed some auxiliary units that comprised soldiers who were not Roman citizens. These smaller units served as boosters for the legions. In the early years legions numbered approximately one hundred and twenty soldiers each. There were substantial increases in sizes in later centuries. From the early period military service was an obligation and duty upon Roman citizens, but also a kind of privilege (Campbell, J. B. 4). Soldiers served in the army and were categorized according to wealth and political power. All male citizens in Rome who were healthy and in possession of property were divided into five classes with the purpose of serving in the military. Those with substantial amount of wealth served as cavalry. They also enrolled as equestrians. These men were also dressed in accordance with their wealth and power. They normally wore a spear, sword, helmet, breast plate and round shield. Many members of the cavalry eventually ended up in politics. In comparison to the other classes in the military the cavalry had the least number of men. The three lower classes of soldiers were drawn from among the not so wealthy. They served in the infantry and wore fewer decorations than those persons in the cavalry. They, however, formed the principal unit in the military. The fifth and lowest group composed only of slingers. Since they were the least armed they sometimes acted as scouts. Soldiers were responsible for the acquisition of their weapons. Those citizens who had no property and lacked the resources to acquire weapons were excluded from military service. This classification within the legions changed when Gaius Marius (157 B.C. – 86 B.C) assumed political power. His reform of the military changed it into a more

Summary Report - Triumph of the Nerds, Parts 2 Essay

Summary Report - Triumph of the Nerds, Parts 2 - Essay Example IBM is one player that made entry into the industry through Tom Watson and Tom Watson Jr. The idea was forthright, and IBM saw an opportunity to use in venturing into the PC market. In 1979, IBM selected Bill Lowe the head of the team. The presenter goes ahead to state that despite IBM having all the necessary components in building the architecture of the PC, they had one crucial problem as they lacked the appropriate OS to run the PC as well as the language. Bill Gates having been in the programing language sector, was approached by IBM, but instead directed them to Gary Kildall who had developed CPM. Kildall’s wife refused to accent to the request for CPM and IBM went back to Bill Gates who acquired QDOS from Tim Patterson at a cost of $50,000, only to later license it to IBM at a cost of $50 per PC. On the release of IBM PCs in 1981, 2 million PCs were sold. The presenter goes ahead to state that IBM woes never ended. Since Tim Patterson and Bill Gates never sold licenses to IBM, they were able to sell them to other PC manufactures and this ideally reduced IBM’s market share. Intel, who had made IBM’s CPU like Microsoft were able to sell their products to other PCs manufacturers, which reduced IBM’s market more. Other players such as Compaq then made entry into the market by selling IBM clone PCs, making significant profits, and capturing great market share. Considering that Microsoft had all the necessary requirements after the development of their Windows OS, they ventured into the billion-dollar market, becoming a key player in the industry. IBM, however, with the lack of strategies to prevent Microsoft and Intel from selling their products to other manufactures lost their share in the market into the dust. The presenter has made it clear how various players emerged into the PC industry, some making substantive progress while others getting toppled along the way. The presentation