I'm listening to the History of Rome podcast right now and it is skipping over some seriously logistical questions I have:

It seems Rome is just going from battle to battle to battle. From the Gallic sack to the Latin Wars directly into the Samnite wars, directly into the wars with Phyrrus, etc. How did they maintain their armies for so long, especially when the armies were made up of middle class citizens and up, only a small portion of the population. Who was tending the fields? What was the population at the time? Were their conquests enough to make up for this?

It just seems like they can do all these things while their enemies cannot. I think I am just missing a middle point that would connect all this together and make it more believable.