The Roman Annexation and Administration of Cyprus

The events leading up to and surrounding the annexation of Cyprus from Ptolemaic Egypt by Rome and the administration of the island have been studied at length. For the sake of brevity, this chapter summarizes key details in light of recent scholarly interpretations of the events that occurred throughout this period of transition in the island’s history (from Ptolemaic to Roman, then back to Ptolemaic rule, before securely returning to Roman rule once and for all in 30 BC). Literary evidence has been crucial for understanding the organization and character of Roman administration of the island from 58 to 22 BC. After 22 BC, literary references of the identities and activities of Roman officials posted to the island are sparse, and from here on it is the material record that is most instructive. This chapter examines familiar, previously overlooked, and new material, to analyse further the nature of local interactions with Rome’s representatives. The available evidence for the proconsuls of Roman Cyprus significantly outweighs information for other officials; therefore, this study deals only with their representation and does not address records of their subordinates. The following features of the epigraphic, numismatic, and literary sources will be examined: where monuments were set up, by whom and why; the use of epithets; and in general, the use of epigraphic conventions and language. This chapter presents a revised list of proconsuls before closing with discussion of local levels of administration—notably the koinon Kuprion

Frontier Army of the Late Roman Empire in the Mid-4th c. A.D. (Case of Isauria and the Rhine Frontier): on the Ways of Territorial Deployment of Military Units

Introduction. During the whole 4th c. the Late Roman frontier military units constantly took part in military campaigns against different enemies of the Empire, hovewer the author of this paper asks the question how precisely frontier military units managed their service, i.e. which functions they exercised and how they interacted to local civilian population of the province where they stood in. The author believes that a set of functions depended foremost on the location landscape. Methods and materials. The author applies the comparison approach, i.e. compares the peculiarities of two regions where the frontier armies stood: Isauria at the southeast of Asia Minor (mountain landscape) and Upper Germany at the Rhine frontier (mainly plain territory). The source accounts are “The Life of St. Conon of Isauria” (hagiography), an important inscription of Julian the Caesar (future Emperor Julian the Apostate) from Upper Germany (epigraphy) and the work of Ammianus Marcellinus “The Deeds” (Res gestae). Analysis. The author compares evidence on the military arrangement of two provinces and considers how their frontier units defended these lands from external and internal enemies, how they interacted to local population and how precisely they located in its forts. Conclusions. As a result the author concludes that the Roman administration could not place a large number of regular military units in Isauria, because this province had not enough fertile plain lands, this region suffered from the lack of food supply. The hard and cruel mountain landscape enforced to make the bands of irregular city militia – in the case of Isaurian assaults citizens formed military detachments, which were temporarily attached to regular units called vexillations. In contrast, at the Rhine frontier, where there were enough fertile flat lands, the Roman administration might place many regular units and, moreover, this region received detachments from expeditionary troops. In other words, the Roman administration had enough food supply to maintain a high number of regular frontier garrisons.

Chwiejna lojalność żołnierzy Justyniana. Przyczyny rebelii w rzymskiej armii w Afryce w latach 536–546 n.e. Słowa

[The wavering loyalty of Emperor Justinian’s soldiers. The causes of the military revolts in Africa (536–545 AD)] Shortly after the liquidation of the Vandal rule in northern Africa and the restoration of the Roman administration, the newly established prefecture was shaken up by a series of military mutinies and rebellions. The revolts in the years 536–545 AD are represented in the contemporary witness accounts (esp. historian Procopius of Caesarea, poet Flavius Cresconius Corippus) as a case of a “civil war” among the Romans in the context of the concurrent conflict with the Berber (“Moor”) tribes. The history of the army mutinies has been depicted in accordance with the literary conventions and the propaganda‑oriented assumptions of the authors, with a striking background picture of the Roman army in a state of continual readiness to rise up in revolt against the emperor’s authority, which is something virtually unknown from any other contemporaneous war theatre, in consideration of a comparable scale. In his analysis of the unfolding events, the Author attempts to address not only the questions of the political intentions of the various rebellion leaders, but also (or even in particular) the motivations which would make the soldiers take part in such precarious undertakings. He points to a number of political, religious, and economic factors which caused the northern African army mutinies to escalate so violently, concluding with a paradoxical observation that in the newly established prefecture, the emperor would have counted on the loyalty of the locally recruited soldiers rather than on the elite troops to whose military skills he owed the re‑conquering of Africa.

Local Understandings of Roman Criminal Law and Procedure in Asia Minor

This chapter deals with the knowledge provincials had, and the use they made, of Roman criminal procedure in the provinces of Asia Minor during the imperial period. This will be examined through two main categories of evidence: (1) petitions to emperors complaining about Roman soldiers or functionaries’ abuses against local population, (2) funerary inscriptions including provisions claiming that fines should be paid to the imperial treasury in case of desecration. This evidence supports the view that (unlike part of scholarship has been assuming for a long time) Roman criminal procedure still included accusatorial features under the Principate and that a formal accusation was needed for a proper criminal investigation to be launched. It is argued that provincials were deeply aware of what Roman criminal law was and could explicitly refer to some specific provisions in order to defend their own interests and even to challenge decisions made by the Roman administration.

Order and Chaos in Roman Administrative Terminology

This chapter examines one of the mechanisms used by the Roman administration in Egypt to organize data: ‘all-embracing’ categories, and the manner in which the imperial government divided and categorized the provincial population. The concentration is on taxes and registration. Differences are found in the categorizations most commonly employed in different parts of the province and in different types of document, meaning that individuals could be labelled differently depending on context. While many categories had their roots in the previous regime, there were a few significant innovations, most notably the invention of the category of ‘the Egyptians’ to encompass all who were not Roman or Alexandrian. This has significant implications for the creation of a unified set of rules, applicable to this category of people in all legal cases and thus transformed the legal landscape from that under the Ptolemies.

Creating Memory in Vandal Period Africa

The Vandals left no origo gentis even though history is an essential factor for the construction of group identity. But the creation of memory in the Vandal kingdom in North Africa can be reconstructed with archaeological sources. For this an attempt by looking for visualisations in the form of images and inscriptions in Vandal Period Africa is made and interpreted against the background of “creating memory”. These observations are based on “official” visualisations. They are a sort of propaganda and because of this are contained within the content of the ideological superstructure. The created memory is addressed to the various groups living under Vandal rule. It is addressed to the former Roman administration, to the inhabitants of Carthage and Christianity as a whole. Only in the private sphere could the tradition of a family genealogy be seen, most probably needed for legitimation – and, if there was a need for this, it points to internal conflicts.

Regolamento doganale di Cauno (B10-C1)

The paper focuses on the famous customs-law from Kaunos (SEG XIV, 639). Leaving aside those aspects of the text that have been better studied, such as the relations between a civitas libera and the Roman administration or the taxability of certain categories of goods from the portorium, the study concentrates on a less important point the obligation to declare the imported goods. The focal point of the study is paragraph B10-C1, which is in a very fragmentary state of conservation. The two editions of the inscription are analysed with special attention to the different integrations and interpretations proposed by the editors and by other scholars. The analysis leads to the conclusion that it is possible to make an internal parallel with paragraph C8-D5 of the same inscription and to propose a new integration of the damaged l. B13.

A Military Unit of the Celtae (the Celts) and Some Peculiarities of Late Roman Military Titles in the 4th C. AD

Introduction. The Late Roman administration used to practice many ways of interrelations with the Barbarian tribes, but modern scholarship tended and tends to pay main attention to external perspectives of interrelations, i.e. issues of barbaric invasions and methods of their accomodation within the Roman territory. In contrast, modern scholarship pays little attention to internal perspectives of interrelations, and partly, to one of the point of internal interrelations, which is strictly under consideration in this paper. This point is a meaning of official titles, which Roman administration gave to military detachments composed of the German warriors. Basing on evidence about an elite military unit of the Celtae and the name Celtae itself, the author aims to regard peculiarities of Late Roman military nomenclature and to trace how this nomenclature reflected an official political ideology of imperial supremacy, a system of Romans’ views and opinions about the Barbarians. Methods. The author studies these matters by comparing the evidence of Ammianus Marcellinus, Greek dedicatory inscription from the city of Stobi (the province of Macedonia) and some panegyrics (the so-called Latin panegyrics, a speech of Julian the Apostate in honor of the Emperor Constantius II and the “Thanksgiving oration” of a prominent Gallic rhetorician Ausonius for the Emperor Gratianus). The author traces how all these texts are treated and meant a word Celtae/Κελτοί. Analysis. The author proposes and proves an idea that a military unit of the Celtae was composed of the captive Alamanni presumably between the reign of the Emperor Diocletian (284-305) and 351/352. Results. Having based on the evidence enumerated above, the author concluded that the the unit of the captive Alamanni received an official title of Celtae because the Romans used to name the German captives as more ancient people, over which the Roman won decisive and brilliant victories in previous times. This naming practice was one of the persistent peculiarities of the Late Roman military nomenclature and records management working.

The Corrupting Sea

The chapter focuses on a period that has often been described in terms of a moral and institutional decline. It interrogates both legal and literary sources pertaining to imperial Roman administration, and asks to what extent do they offer evidence of increasing corruption or merely greater awareness of its debilitating effects. In addition, it also explores the extent to which the rhetoric of corruption itself can be seen as an anticorruption tactic on the part of some elites, with the power to shape norms outside the formal remit of the law. Ultimately, what it shows is that, though corruption may not have been a problem unique to the later Roman Empire, the array and severity of anticorruption tactics introduced during this period do distinguish it from previous eras of Roman history.