Military History of Late Rome, 284–361

Ilkka Syvänne

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781473871830
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia europea

This ambitious series gives the reader a comprehensive narrative of late Roman military history from 284-641. Each volume (5 are planned) gives a detailed account of the changes in organization, equipment, strategy and tactics among both the Roman forces and her enemies in the relevant period, while also giving a detailed but accessible account of the campaigns and battles. Volume I covers the period 284-361, starting with recovery from the 'third-century crisis' and the formation of the Tetrarchy. Constantine's civil wars and stabilization.are also major themes, with the pattern repeated under his sons. Constantius II's wars against the usurper Magnentius, the Danubian tribes and the Sassanid Persians illustrate the serious combination of internal and external threats the Empire faced at this time. The author discusses these and the many other dramatic military events in their full context and puts forward some interesting conclusions on strategic and tactical developments. He argues, for example, that the Roman shift from infantry to cavalry as the dominant arm occurred considerably earlier than usually accepted. Anyone with an interest in the military history of this period will find it both informative and thought-provoking.

Chapter One

The Early Third Century Roman Empire

Structures

The Emperor

The Principate created by Augustus was essentially a monarchy that retained republican forms and offices and pretended to be a republic, but in practice the Princeps/emperor retained all the powers. The judicial basis of a Princeps’ rule consisted of: 1) the imperium of proconsular powers or imperium maius; 2) the powers of people’s tribune; and 3) the office of Pontifex Maximus. The proconsular powers (executive powers) gave the emperor the command of military forces and the administration of most of the provinces. The tribunician powers (legislative powers) gave the emperor immunity from prosecution, rights of veto over any public decision, the right to propose legislation, and the right to hear legal cases. The office of Pontifex Maximus made the emperors the official head of state religion and made them the guardians of the Roman calendar and timekeeping. In addition to the formal powers, the emperors possessed informal power over the senators and people, which was publicly recognized under the name auctoritas (influence). The auctoritas was symbolized with the official surname Augustus, which also entailed superhuman powers so that the emperor could in theory perform miracles and would on his death become a god.

When combined these gave the emperor all the executive, legislative and judiciary powers. He controlled Rome’s foreign policy and military forces, appointed all civil and military functionaries, proposed and legislated imperial legislation, and acted as the Supreme Court. It did not take long for the republican façade to crumble. The reigns of Tiberius and Caligula had already demonstrated the fact that the Augusti were tyrants whose power rested solely on their monopoly of violence, and these emperors did not hesitate to use naked force against their enemies or imagined enemies.

There were several inherent weaknesses in this system. The most important of these was that the Principate did not establish an orderly system of succession. A Princeps’ power rested on his control of the army which meant that the army could choose its own ruler, and the lack of orderly succession meant that there would always be civil wars fought by different Roman armies. It did not take long for the Praetorians to realize that they could make emperors and after that for the provincial armies to realize that they could also make their own emperors. Since the power of the emperor depended upon his control of armed forces, it became dangerous for any emperor to give control of a large field army or garrison to any capable military commander, which in turn meant that it was practically impossible to defeat two major threats simultaneously. If the emperor was a capable military commander he could deal with one threat at a time, but if he then assigned a sizable army to a capable leader he always took a huge gamble. The emperors sought to minimize the threat of usurpation by limiting the number of legions commanded by each general and by creating the Frumentarii and Peregrini to keep an eye on the generals. However, the events of the third century prove that this system was neither efficient nor safe enough.

In addition, the effectiveness of the government and its economic, diplomatic and military policies all depended on the personal abilities of each emperor. A bad emperor like Decius or Valerian could overthrow the entire system while a good emperor like Aurelian or Probus could save the empire even from the brink of collapse.

Central Administration

The central administration was effectively created by Augustus as an extension of his own private household. As a result, the imperial palace located on the Palatine Hill became the focal point of the Empire. Its members obviously consisted of the emperor, the imperial family, the consilium (private council), and the household staff.

The private council of the emperor was originally created by Augustus as an informal body of advisors which grew to an official body of advisors. The advisors consisted of persons whom the emperor considered competent and loyal and who would give valuable advice. The advisors were known with the official titles amici (friends) or comites (companions) and had also certain ceremonial and official duties. The comites were an inner circle of trusted friends who also accompanied the emperor on his travels and military campaigns. At some point in time during the second century AD (probably during Hadrian’s reign) the friends became an official body of permanent advisors who henceforth were also known as the consiliarii (counsellors/advisors). The emperor called his advisors together whenever he felt he needed advice on domestic or foreign policy, or in some problematic legal case. Unsurprisingly, the counsellors often included well-known jurists. In the latter part of the third century the newly created Protectores (bodyguards and staff-college) became to be considered as part of emperor’s comites.

The emperor’s household staff consisted originally solely of domestics, i.e. of imperial freedmen and slaves dressed in white clothes. It was an imperial chancellery consisting of bureaus/departments/ministries. From the reign of Hadrian onwards the head of each of the departments was an equestrian procurator. The staffs of freedmen and slaves were additionally grouped hierarchically into decuries. The heads of the bureaus of the central government were: 1. a rationibus (in charge of the imperial accounts, treasury and finances, which included the payments to the troops in money and in kind etc.), who was assisted by the magister rei privatae (in charge of the emperor’s personal finances); 2. a libellis (in charge of the petitions to the emperor); 3. ab epistulis (imperial correspondence) divided into Greek and Latin sections; 4. a cognitionibus (hearing of judicial matters); 5. a studiis (preparation of files, reports and dossiers for the emperor); 6. a censibus (examination of the financial standing of persons seeking to become senators or equestrians); 7. a commentariis (archives); 8. a memoria (secretarial services).

This chancellery/household of the emperor was effectively in charge of directing all of the resources and forces of the Empire as the emperor saw fit. It should also be noted that the emperor’s household included many other functionaries. The most important of these were the cubicularii of the imperial bedchamber. The physical closeness to the emperor gave a cubicularius (usually a eunuch) the chance of gaining considerable influence and thereby the position of favourite with many official positions.

The Administration

The administration of the Empire consisted of three layers: 1) Rome; 2) Italy; and 3) the Provinces. Rome was the capital of the Empire with about one million inhabitants fed by a huge logistical network controlled by the emperor and his central government. The city was divided into regions controlled by curators who in their turn were under the control of the urban prefect. The urban prefect was in control of the administration of the capital and had the duty of keeping public order. His duties were later enlarged to encompass central and south Italy, and then the whole of Italy. The city of Rome lost its privileged position in the course of the third century as a result of two things: 1) The granting of citizenship to all free persons by Caracalla in 212, together with his father’s granting of equestrian status to soldiers which gave the soldiers unprecedented chance of social mobility; and 2) The constant wars waged by the emperors, who were not native Roman senators, meant that in practice the empire was ruled from the marching camp or from the base of operations.

Italy ranked second in the hierarchy. It was formally under the jurisdiction of the senate but in practice the emperor controlled everything through his own representatives, who included members of the emperor’s Privy Purse. The principal advantage of Italy over the provinces was Roman citizenship and that Italians were not ruled by (often corrupt) governors. Nor did they have troops billeted, with the exception of the navy and Legio II Parthica, but this changed with the granting of citizenship to all free persons by Caracalla in 212.

The provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial provinces. The former were ruled by imperial legates (legati Augusti pro praetore), the length of whose term was dictated by the emperor, and the latter by proconsuls (proconsulares) who were chosen by lot from among the senators for a one year term. The imperial provinces were further divided into two categories: 1) senatorial legates; and 2) equestrian legates.

Municipal administration

Roman control of people, taxation and movement of goods, valuables and money was based on control of urban settlements and their surroundings. In the east the societies had already organized themselves around cities before the Roman conquests, but in the west the Romans actively founded new cities and settlements in an effort to organize the societies on the Roman model. It was the local Romanized elites who performed the actual administration and taxation of the cities and subjects. Theoretically the municipal administration of all of the cities consisted of three levels: 1) Popular assembly of citizens (no longer functioning in the third century); 2) Municipal council or Order of Decurions (also called a Senate), consisting of the former magistrates and/or wealthy citizens with the unenviable duty of paying the taxes in cases when the taxes fell short of the requirement; and 3) The magistrates with executive powers.

Roman Society, Its Classes and Taxation

Roman society was a class-based society that was divided into judicial and social hierarchies. The judicial hierarchy consisted of the division of the men into freemen and slaves. The slaves were the property of their master and therefore their living conditions were very variable. The possibility of being freed made the slaves work harder and made them less likely to revolt. The freemen consisted of freeborn men and freedmen. The former consisted of the Roman citizens and of the tribesmen of varying rights, unless of course the individual (notable, auxiliary) had obtained Roman citizenship from the emperor. After the granting of citizenship to most of the freemen by Caracalla in 212 it was possible for foreigners to rise to very high positions and even become emperors (for example Maximinus Thrax) to the great ire of the old ruling classes. The freedmen consisted of those who had either managed to buy their freedom or had been granted freedom by their master. The freedmen had no political rights and were usually, but not always, tied to a patron-client relationship with their former master. The position of freedmen was not inherited. The children of the freedmen were freeborn men with full rights.

The three social categories were the senatorial order, the equestrian order, and the plebeians (plebs). The senatorial order was a hereditary order consisting of Roman citizens (senators, wives, and children) with a minimum property of 1,000,000 sesterces. As a sign of their social standing, the senators wore toga laticlavius (a broad-brimmed toga). The order was not a closed one, but acceptance into it depended on the goodwill of the emperor, which was one of the means the emperors used for canvassing support. By the third century the bulk of the senators were provincials. However, the senators had an obligation to reside at Rome and to invest one third of their property in Italy. The most important military and civilian offices of the empire were the privilege of the senatorial class until around the 260s.

The equestrian order was a non-hereditary order whose members consisted of Roman citizens who had at least 400,000 sesterces, and had successfully applied to be enrolled into its ranks in order to serve in the imperial administration in the posts reserved for equestrians. Its members consisted of those who had inherited money or who were self-made men. The most successful equestrians could hope to attain the senatorial rank. The equestrians wore the toga angusticlavius (a thin-brimmed toga) as a sign of their rank. The role of the equestrians in the imperial administration was constantly on the rise because the emperors recognized that the heterogeneous equestrians were generally more loyal and professional than the senators. In fact the position of Praetorian Prefect, which was the most important position right after the emperor, was the privilege of the equestrian class.

The rest of the free population consisted of the plebs, which included both rich and poor. The rich plebs consisted of the foreign notables and decurions who were allowed to wear the toga praetexta (a one-side brimmed toga), and of the rich businessmen and bankers and so on, who did not possess similar dignitas as the notables and decurions. The ‘middle class’ plebs consisted of the artisans, boutique keepers, merchants, bakers, artists, intellectuals/philosophers and so on. The poor plebs consisted of the peasants, carriers, labourers and so on and probably formed the majority of the Roman population.

From about the mid-second century onwards the old judicial and social standings and divisions started to disappear and a new form of class division emerged consisting of the honestiores and humiliores. The process was accelerated when Caracalla granted citizenship to all freeborn men, which meant that the rich wanted to find other forms of privilege to separate them from the poor, and they were in th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Plates
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 The Early Third Century Roman Empire
• Chapter 2 Enemies and Allies
• Chapter 3 The Third Century Crisis
• Chapter 4 The Rebirth of Rome: the Tetrarchy
• Chapter 5 The Age of Constantine the Great
• Chapter 6 The Sons of Constantine
• Appendix: Christian Controversies
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Plates Section