Rethinking second-century BC military service: the speech of Spurius Ligustinus

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Biglino
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Citizen Soldiers

AbstractSeveral elements suggest that Polybius’ description of the Roman army in Book VI of his Histories depicts a rather outdated military system, making it hard to accept it as an up-to-date portrait of the legions by the mid-second century BC. After all, the Roman army had been experiencing a series of changes since the mid-third century that were affecting both the army’ structure and how citizens experienced military service. This paper argues that the famous episode of Spurius Ligustinus (Livy 42.34) contains several suggestions about the nature of these changes and their social ramifications. Although Livy embellished his source for rhetorical reasons, this episode still offers crucial evidence not only on the Roman army but especially, through the figure of Ligustinus himself, on the mid-Republican citizen-soldiers. Through a careful examination of key sections of this episode this paper aims to explore how, by this point, the army already presented features traditionally associated with Gaius Marius and his reforms, thus further emphasizing the outdatedness of Polybius’ description. By offering the very unique profile of an individual Roman citizen of the mid-second century and his relationship with military service, the speech of Ligustinus depicts a more believable and up-to-date representation of military service during the crucial decades of Roman Mediterranean expansion.

Miles Gloriosus: The Christian and Military Service according to Tertullian

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Gero
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Important Evidence

The aim of this paper is to throw some light on Tertullian's attitude to military service. His statements on this subject are highly useful for a more accurate understanding of his own changing views on the empire and the duties of citizenship. They are also important evidence for marking a crucial stage in the pre-Constantinian evolution of the relations of church and state. It will be seen that the whole question of Christians serving in the Roman army became relevant only in the late second century; Tertullian is one of the earliest literary witnesses for this momentous development. Therefore, on both counts, the texts deserve close scrutiny.

The Transformation of Italy, 225–28 B.C.

2001 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 50-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neville Morley
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Demographic History ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Main Symptom ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Widespread Acceptance ◽  
History Of

For a study of social and economic questions an assessment of population is indispensable. It must make a difference to our picture of the agrarian troubles that vexed the late Republic, whether we take Italy to have been densely or thinly settled.Although debate continues on the causes, chronology, and extent of the ‘second-century crisis’ in Italy, a consensus has developed on its main symptom: the free peasantry, numbers already depleted by the burdens of military service, was displaced from the land by imported slaves and so continued to decline, a development which contributed significantly to the troubles of the succeeding century. Underpinning this consensus is widespread acceptance of what might be called the ‘Beloch-Brunt’ model of the demographic history of Italy in this period. This model suggests that between the late third century (Polybius' account of the numbers of Romans and Italians under arms in 225 B.C. permits an estimate of the total population) and the late first century (Augustus' first census of Roman citizens in 28 B.C., the first truly reliable one since the enfranchisement of the Italians) the free population had declined from about four and a half million people to about four million.

scholarly journals Two epigraphic-historical notes

Starinar ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 189-196
Author(s):  
Svetlana Loma
Keyword(s):  
Professional Associations ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Corporate Associations ◽  
Phd Thesis ◽  
The Military ◽  
Private Associations ◽  
Administrative Tasks ◽  
First Time

Recently a monograph appeared dealing with Roman epigraphical monuments from the West-Serbian town of Cacak and its neighbourhood (S. Ferjancic / G. Jeremic / A. Gojgic, Roman Epigraphic Monuments from Cacak and its Vicinity Cacak 2008, Engl. Summary pp. 103-107). Authored by one specialist in Roman history and epigraphy and two archaeologists, the book is rather thin and does not provide much new data, apart from the identification of the equestrian officer Tiberius Claudius Gallus with Severus' senator - which was taken from my PhD thesis without citing it - and from two inscriptions, ? 20 and ? 21, forming the subject of the present paper. Published here for the first time, they both contain important information which the co-authors failed to notice. The consuls of 227 A.D. in an inscription from Cacak The ? 21 (fig. 1) was found in the site of Gradina on the mountain Jelica, S. of Cacak. It is engraved on a whitish limestone monument, apparently an ara, the middle and lower parts of which are preserved after it has been reshaped to be used as building material. The four-line inscription was read by the editors as follows: [- - -] Aur(elius) F[- - - v(otum)] l(ibens) p(osuit) Mal+[- - -]et Al[- - - co(n)s(ulibus)] Idibus [- - -]. Unable to identify the pair of consuls mentioned in lines two and three, the authors interpret the inscription as a funerary one: [- - -]Aur(elius or -elio) F[- - - vix(it) ann(is)] L P. Mal+[- - -]et Al[- - - f(ecerunt) ? die ?] Idibus [- - -]. In fact, they misread the final cluster of the line two, by having mistaken for L the long right serif of M (in ligature with A) together with a trace of a subsequent letter, which proves to be an X. The alignment of the letters at the beginning of the lines suggests that the left side of the inscription is entirely preserved. The inscription reads as folows: ] \ Aur(elius) F+[ -] \ l(ibens) p(osuit) Max[imo] \ et Al[bino co(n)s(ulibus)] \ Idibus [ -]. M. Laelius Maximus Aemilianus (PIR2 L56) - probably son of Marcus Laelius Maximus (PIR2 L55), one of the leading senators under Septimius Severus - and M. Nummius Senecio Albinus (PIR2 N235) were the eponymous consuls of 227. The pair is attested in several inscriptions, e.g. CIL VIII 18831 from Numidia which resembles this one in recording the exact date: Bacaci Aug(usto) \ sac(rum) \ Albino et Ma\ximo co(n)s(ulibus) \ Kal(endis) Mai(is) [3] Si\ttius Novellus \ et Q. Galerius Mu\stianus magg(istri) \ [Thib(ilitanorum?)]. Here Albinus' name precedes that of Maximus, which is usually the case. Nevertheless, a parallel with Maximus named before Albinus is provided by an inscription from Dacia (ILD 774, near Cluj): Deae Ne\mesi sac\rum Aur(elius) Ru[f]inus \ be(ne)f(iciarius) co(n)s(ularis) \ leg(ionis) XIII Gem(inae) \ Sever(ianae) v(otum) l(ibens) p(osuit) Maximo et Albi\[no] co(n)s(ulibus). Consequently, ? 21 is a votive inscription, largely restorable and precisely datable. The Collegium curatorum of the Cohors II Delmatarum in an inscription from Cacak Forty years ago within the Ascension Church yard in Cacak the lower part of a Roman limestone monument has been accidentally unearthed, bearing an inscription, three last lines of which are partially preserved (? 20 of the catalogue, (fig. 2), wherein only the mention of a cohort was recognized by the editors, who read: ]\[- - -]ALB[- - -| -]GIATI +[- - -|- - -co]h(ortis) eiusde(m) [- - -|- - - The elegant, shaded letters are lined up one below the other, which suggests that the text was arranged following the principle of centering. Above the L in the first line there is a trace of an O or a Q, unnoticed by the editors. So, there are 4 lines partially preserved. The space left between the lines 2 and 3 being larger than that between 1-2 and 3-4 respectively, the two last lines seem to constitute a separate entry. The genitive case cohortis eiusdem implies a preceding designation of the dedicant(s), and what we have before is a nominative plural ending in ?giati followed by a word of which only the first letter, C or O, is still discernible. As the most probable, if not the only possible, we propose the following restoration of the last two lines (fig. 8): [colle]giati c[urat(ores)]|[co]h(ortis) eiusde[m] possibly with a p(osuerunt) or d(edicaverunt) in the end. Despite its fragmentariness, the present inscription bears an important testimony to the existence, within the Roman army, of professional associations (collegia militaria) independent of regular military structures. The evidence for them is based solely on epigraphic sources; some hundred inscriptions contradict the paragraph of the Digesta (47.22) forbidding the soldiers to organize corporate associations in the camps. The cohort in question is doubtless the cohors II Aurelia Delmatarum milliaria equitata, which is known to have been stationed permanently, from the seventies of the second century A.D. to the fifties of the third century, in the eastern part of Dalmatia around the modern city of Cacak. It was a mixed infantry and cavalry unit, and the rank of curator (curator equitum singularium, curator alae, curator cohortis) is attested exclusively in the mounted units of the Roman army. It was higher than the simple eques; in the auxiliary troops, the curators may have been charged with special tactical or economic-administrative tasks. The lower officers (principales) and the soldiers with special tasks were allowed to form private associations fostering loyalty to the Emperor. All Roman collegia including the military ones, had their religious purpose and their official meeting room (schola) was also a sanctuary of their patron deity. It might be a part of the headquarters building, as in the case of the Castra Nova equitum singularium in Rome, where, beneath the Basilica of St John Lateran an Ionic capitel was uncovered with inscription on it dated with AD 197 recording the dedication of the schola curatorum to Minerva Augusta (AE 1935 156 = AE 1968, 8b).

Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar. A survey of the first century BC – third century ad Latin and Latin-Greek documents referring to Roman citizens and their business in Egypt

2021 ◽  
pp. 168-198
Author(s):  
Giulio Iovine ◽  
Ornella Salati
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Annotated List

The paper provides an updated and annotated list of Latin and bilingual Latin-Greek papyri from the first century bc to the early third century ad – including very recently published and still unpublished – that refer to the lives and businesses of Roman citizens in Egypt. It also covers documents connected with the Roman army, that is produced in military officia to be specifically used by soldiers (acknowledgments of debt, receipts of money etc.). They are connected not with the army life, but with the life outside the barracks, among tradesmen, merchants, and (from the second century ad onwards) in the milieu of veterans.

The Literary Sources for the Pre-Marian Army

1971 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 13-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The subject of the arms and organisation of the Roman army in and before the mid-second century B.C. is one of almost inextricable confusion. The amount of weight to be put on the various contradictory pieces of literary evidence is still to a great extent uncertain: which of them are antiquarian reconstructions rather than genuine tradition, and if they are reconstructions, how intelligent are they and on what sort of evidence are they based? Archaeology does not give us all the help we might expect; too often its dates are imprecise, too often also we remain unclear whether a representation relates to the natives of the place where it was found, or whether it is meant to be realistic or idealising, which tends to mean archaising or hellinising. Literature and archaeology agree to make us believe that at some time in the archaic period the phalanx style of hoplite warfare was introduced to Rome, possibly from Etruria; some time between the early fourth and the mid-third century the manipular army developed out of it, tactically more flexible, armed with pila as throwing weapons and with swords, and bearing long shields, scuta or θνρϵοί (as opposed to the hoplites who had of course carried thrusting spears and circular clipei or ἀσπίδϵς). Probably general agreement has not been reached on much more than that. Any exact history of developments is probably quite unattainable; there may have been far more changes than scholars have been accustomed to reckon with, and several different weapons may sometimes have been in use simultaneously. Names may have changed in meaning over the years. The present paper is only designed to take up again several of the literary sources, and to attempt to reach some sort of conclusion as to their nature and reliability—chiefly on internal grounds, though with archaeological aid where this is possible.

The Date of the Muratorian Fragment

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-172
Author(s):  
John F. Lingelbach
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Church History ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Historical Theology ◽  
First Time ◽  
Objective Methodology

Three hundred years after its discovery, scholars find themselves unable to determine the more likely of the two hypotheses regarding the date of the Muratorian Fragment, which consists of a catalog of New Testament texts. Is the Fragment a late second- to early third-century composition or a fourth-century composition? This present work seeks to break the impasse. The study found that, by making an inference to the best explanation, a second-century date for the Fragment is preferred. This methodology consists of weighing the two hypotheses against five criteria: plausibility, explanatory scope, explanatory power, credibility, and simplicity. What makes this current work unique in its contribution to church history and historical theology is that it marks the first time the rigorous application of an objective methodology, known as “inference to the best explanation” (or IBE), has been formally applied to the problem of the Fragment’s date.

Collective Military Resistance and Popular Power: Views from the Late Republic (90–31 BC)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-255
Author(s):  
Dominic Machado
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Military Recruitment ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Collective Resistance ◽  
The Status ◽  
Action Taking ◽  
Popular Power

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.

Death in Motion: Funeral Processions in the Roman Forum

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Favro ◽  
Christopher Johanson
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Digital Representations ◽  
Funeral Rituals ◽  
Roman Forum ◽  
Interactive Simulations

Scientifically accurate, three-dimensional digital representations of historical environments allow architectural historians to explore viewsheds, movement, sequencing, and other factors. Using real-time interactive simulations of the Roman Forum during the mid-Republic and the early third century CE, Diane Favro and Christopher Johanson examine the visual and sequential interrelationships among audience, actors, and monuments during funeral rituals. Death in Motion: Funeral Processions in the Roman Forum presents a hypothetical reconstruction of the funeral of the Cornelii family in the early second century BCE and argues that the conventional understanding of the staging of the funeral oration may be incorrect. It then reviews the imperial funerals of the emperors Pertinax and Septimius Severus to compare the ways that later building in the Roman Forum altered the ritual experience, controlled participant motion, and compelled the audience to submit to an imperial program of viewing.

Danebury, Hampshire: Second Interim Report on the Excavations 1971–5

1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Religious Nature ◽  
Continuous Strip

SummaryThe results of five seasons of excavation (1971–5) are summarized. A continuous strip 30–40 m. wide extending across the centre of the fort from one side to the other was completely excavated revealing pits, gullies, circular stake-built houses, rectangular buildings, and 2-, 4-, and 6-post structures, belonging to the period from the sixth to the end of the second century B.C. The types of structures are discussed. A sequence of development, based largely upon the stratification preserved behind the ramparts, is presented: in the sixth–fifth century the hill was occupied by small four-post ‘granaries’ possibly enclosed by a palisade. The first hill-fort rampart was built in the fifth century protecting houses, an area of storage pits, and a zone of 4-and 6-post buildings laid out in rows along streets. The rampart was heightened in the third century, after which pits continued to be dug and rows of circular houses were built. About 100 B.C. rectangular buildings, possibly of a religious nature, were erected, after which the site was virtually abandoned. Social and economic matters are considered. The excavation will continue.

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