War in the ancient world was a far different concept than we hold today. War was seen as the norm with peace simply being interludes until the next conflict, making for incredibly frequent wars between powers. As well war was the main source of wealth for a states and important individuals, be it from taking the treasury of the conquered and/or selling slaves taken. Indeed slavery was one of the main sources of wealth taken during conquest as their sale netted huge profits for the commanding general as well as for the troops. War was necessary for the maintenance of the Roman slave economy as conquest provided the massive numbers of slaves required to maintain the production of goods and proved the necessary servile tasks.

While the seizing of a treasury provided a huge quantity of money, the acquisition of slaves was far more economically important as they provided the lion’s share of labor for the Roman economy. While the romans did seize the treasury during the Third Illyrian War, they also took a truly massive number of slaves, estimated between 100-150 thousand slaves.

The largest recorded tally for a single operation that may bear some semblance to reality is that of 150,000 captives taken in the sack of Epirus in 167 BC

However, this capture of such massive numbers of slaves meant far more than just unskilled labor, many of the captured individuals were highly skilled and educated artisans, teachers, and craftsmen. Rome changed far more because of this than because of the money they earned from the sale of slaves and seized money. This massive influx of learned Greek individuals became part of the overall Hellenization of Roman civic life. Aristocratic Romans had Greek teachers to educate their children in philosophy, art, culture, amoung many other skills which continued to make Roman life more Greek as they continued to adopt more and more trappings of Greek life.

Focusing simply on the political side, there was always pressure to go to war as politicians gained significant notoriety and money from the campaigns they led along with titles and triumphs. Those who led campaigns earned higher offices and more honors as well as gaining public recognition with titles, war was a good thing and seen as a primary source of honor and prestige for a Roman man.

As for austerity, the Roman moral system held a virtue known as Frugalitas, the Roman virtue of frugality and temperance. Aristocratic men needed to walk a thin line between notoriety and over-spending. Julius Caesar was chastised for his over expenditure on the games as was Pompey the Great, as they had spent so much and were seen as stooping so low as to try and buy the mob with extravagant games. Frugality was a core virtue to the conservative elements amoung the Roman political class however it was frugality while maintaining a certain level of generosity.

Sources:

The Roman slave supply by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University

The History of Rome Book 45 by Titus Livy