Ut fidem dictis adhibeant

Mnemosyne ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-658
Author(s):  
Andreas Abele

Abstract Sulpicius Severus’ account of St Martin sharing his cloak with the beggar at the gate of Amiens is still one of the most prominent and best-known episodes of late antique Christian hagiography. This deed is considered above all as the epitome of Martin’s charity and will to follow Christ. Furthermore, this episode also serves to apologize Martin’s military service in the Roman army. The latter was a heavy burden for Sulpicius’ saint, which the author of his Vita had to get rid of in the most credible way possible. Sulpicius asserts that Martin’s compulsory military service was dominated by Christian virtues. A narratological close reading focusing on the categories of ‘distance’ and ‘focalization’ and applying linguistic analysis tools as well shows that eventually it is the narrative disposition of the ‘Amiens episode’ that makes the narrator’s earlier apologetic authorial statements credible.

1918 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Rostovtseff

Modern inquiries into the history of the Roman army have elucidated the fact that there were two periods in the evolution of the Roman recruiting-system, whether of the Roman legions or of the auxiliary troops. The first period embraced the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, while the second began with Diocletian. The most characteristic features of the first period were as follows: recruiting of legions among the town population or territories attributed to a town; recruiting of auxiliary troops chiefly among the population of non-municipal territories; prevalence of the idea of conscription, which remained as a matter of fact chiefly theoretical as far as the legions were concerned, the latter consisting chiefly of volunteers; granting of Roman citizenship to soldiers who were serving in the legions at the moment of their being enrolled, and the receiving of Roman citizenship by the soldiers of auxiliary troops after the completion of their period of service; absence of any form of compulsion in the recruiting system. The second period presents entirely different features. The distinction between legions and auxiliary troops vanished almost completely, as both were recruited chiefly among the rural population; for the idea of conscription as the fulfilment of the duty of citizenship was substituted either the idea of military service for money, the idea of mercenary troops, or the idea of compulsory military service, this service being treated in the same way as the compulsory levying of taxes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Nolen Fortuin

With the institution of compulsory military service in South Africa in 1948 the National Party government effected a tool well shaped for the construction of hegemonic masculinities. Through this, and other structures like schools and families, white children were shaped into submissive abiding citizens. Due to the brutal nature of a militarised society, gender roles become strictly defined and perpetuated. As such, white men’s time served on the border also “toughened” them up and shaped them into hegemonic copies of each other, ready to enforce patriarchal and racist ideologies. In this article, I look at how the novel Moffie by André Carl van der Merwe (2006) illustrates hegemonic white masculinity in South Africa and how it has long been strictly regulated to perpetuate the well-being of the white family as representative of the capitalist state. I discuss the novel by looking at the ways in which the narrator is marked by service in the military, which functions as a socialising agent, but as importantly by the looming threat of the application of the term “moffie” to himself, by self or others.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-255
Author(s):  
Dominic Machado

AbstractThis article attempts to read the phenomenon of collective resistance in the Roman army of the Late Republic as political action. Taking my inspiration from post-colonial theories of popular power, I contend that we should not understand acts of collective resistance in military settings as simple events activated by a singular cause, but rather as expressions of individual and collective grievances with the status quo. Indeed, the variant practices of military recruitment in the Late Republic, and the exploitative nature of Rome’s imperial rule put oppressed groups – Italians, provincials, and former slaves – in constant contact with the state apparatus. Thus, military service offered an essential space for political action in the first century BC. These findings help us to better understand how popular power could be realized beyond traditional institutional settings in this period.


2013 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Nicola Mondaini ◽  
Mauro Silvani ◽  
Teo Zenico ◽  
Fabrizio Gallo ◽  
Franco Rosso ◽  
...  

Introduction: Few studies on the prevalence of male sexual diseases are currently available due to difficult application of observational studies or andrological disease prevention campaigns on large series of apparently healthy subjects. The medical check-up linked to compulsory military service represented in Italy a valid tool for epidemiological and observational study for 18 year old boys from 1861 to 2004. The stopping of compulsory military service and its related medical check-up could have determined an important social impact in terms of a lower level of attention and care on male genital/sexual diseases. The aim of the present observational study was to check the prevalence of genital/ sexual diseases among young male high-school students and promote an alternative campaign of information among young students. Methods: A prospective observational analytical study on young male students was conducted by 6 urological centres. Genital and sexually transmitted diseases were presented with slides to students in a general assembly. Some students were then counselled and filled out a short questionnaire on their lifestyle. Results: 12,535 students (10,432 males-83.6%) followed the presentation. and 4,897 males (46.7%) decided to be checked-up by the urologist and out of them 1554 (31.7%) presented relevant andrological diseases. Five-hundred students completed the questionnaire concerning their lifestyle. Many of them had not yet experienced condom use during sexual intercourse (27.8%). Drug abuse was reported by 39.6% of subjects and alcohol consumption in 80.8% of them. Conclusions: These data suggest the need for a national information campaign on male sexual disorders to promote sexual health.


Slavic Review ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-256
Author(s):  
Karl von Loewe

The existence of compulsory military service has become a major theme in recent attempts to explain the development of Lithuanian society and politics in the early sixteenth century. Much of the discussion has centered on the relationship between military service and feudalism. This article concentrates not on that question but on the nature of military service and the understanding it can provide of the structure and dynamics of the economy of Lithuania in the sixteenth century.


2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Byers

Abstract Compulsory military service took on the most organized, long-term form it has ever had in Canada during the Second World War. But few historians look beyond the politics of conscription to study the creation, administration or impact of a training system that affected more than 150,000 people. Faced with the Mackenzie King government's policy of conscripting manpower only for home defence, and their own need for overseas volunteers, Army leaders used conscripts raised under the National Resources Mobilization Act to meet both purposes. This paper explores the Army's role in creating and administering the compulsory military training system during the war, the pressures put on conscripts to volunteer for overseas service, and the increased resistance to volunteering that resulted by 1944. The consequences of the Army's management of conscription came very much to shape the political events that took place in 1944, and cannot be fully understood outside that context.


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