Timothy Brady Phd Thesis 2020
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Citizens, Mutineers, and Aggressors The Representation of Soldiers in Three Roman Historians Timothy Brady A Thesis Submitted For a Doctorate of Philosophy in Classics Department of Classics Royal Holloway, University of London 1 I, Timothy Brady, declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been clearly indicated. _____________________________ 20/09/2019 2 Abstract This thesis examines the portrayal of common citizen-soldiers in the work of Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. In doing so, it reveals each historian’s perception of the rôle of the citizen-soldier and the social, moral, and political place of military service within the framework of the Roman State. The three historians allow for an exploration of this perception from the Republican period, the reign of Augustus, and the beginning of the 2nd century AD. This allows the reader to follow the development of the ideology of military service in the transition from the Republic to the High Empire. The general scholarly consensus remains that Roman historians did not think about the soldiery in a complicated or nuanced way, and rather that they dismissed and disdained them as an armed mob. This thesis argues against this consensus in support of more recent scholarship that has began to examine how the Roman historians portrayed soldiers in their narrative. Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus each represent soldiers as engaged social and political individuals and military service as being fundamental to their conception of how the common Roman citizen interacted with the Roman state. Sallust presents military service as a unifying, democratic, and – if done correctly – reforming activity that all Roman citizens took part in. For Sallust, military service was so 3 fundamental to the maintenance of Roman society that the corruption of military mores led directly to the corruption of the larger res publica. Livy also presents military service as a unifying and reforming activity, but one that was restricted to plebeian soldiers. In his reconstruction of the Early and Middle Republic, military service provided the plebeian citizen with social capital as well as an organised route for political engagement. The army became the vehicle for organised resistance to the Republican élite. The thesis concludes with chapters on Tacitus’ Annales and Historiae. In the Annales Tacitus uses the mutiny of AD 14 to demonstrate that organised military resistance was no longer acceptable in the new context of the principate. In the Historiae Tacitus establishes that the new dynamics of loyalty in the Imperial Army, where the vital connexion was now between the emperor and the individual soldier, had profoundly altered the relationship that citizen soldiers had with the Roman state. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................. 29 Sallust and the Military Habitus of Moral and Immoral Republics ......................... 29 The Ideal Republic ................................................................................................... 31 The Corruption of the Republic............................................................................... 50 The Corruption of the Armies ................................................................................. 57 Reforming the Habitus of a Roman Army ............................................................... 63 The Armies in Africa, Asia, and Italy. ....................................................................... 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................ 89 Imperium Requires Consent .................................................................................... 89 Livy as a source for military affairs.......................................................................... 97 Plebeian Military Identity in Livy’s History............................................................ 101 From the Founding of the Republic to the Siege of Veii ....................................... 113 From the Siege of Veii to 292 ................................................................................ 155 The Conquest of the Mediterranean .................................................................... 185 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 195 CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................ 201 Republican Mutiny and Imperial Discipline in Pannonia and Germany................ 201 The Mutinies of 14 AD as a Republican Moment ................................................. 205 The Mutinies of 69 AD as an Imperial Moment .................................................... 222 Percennius’ Right to Speak ................................................................................... 225 A Catiline in the Camp ........................................................................................... 239 The Imperial Resolution of the AD 14 Mutinies .................................................... 246 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 254 CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................... 261 Tacitus’ Historiae and the Loyal Soldier ................................................................ 261 An Army of Individuals .......................................................................................... 264 The soldier and his emperor ................................................................................. 270 The Miles and the social structure of the Legion .................................................. 283 The Soldier and the Civilian................................................................................... 302 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 312 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 324 5 Acknowledgements The process of writing a thesis is largely a process of accruing debts. The greatest debt I owe to Professor Richard Alston, through whose excellent guidance this thesis has gradually taken form. His patient advice has repeatedly steered me out of the quicksand and onto the path of righteousness. I am also grateful for the alternative perspective and advice offered by my advisor, Professor Boris Rankov. This thesis has benefitted greatly from support from the department of Classics at Royal Holloway University of London, and I would particularly like to thank the academics who helped me through my upgrade and annual reviews with advice and support: Professor Lene Rubinstein, Dr. Liz Gloyn, and Dr. Siobhan Chomse. This thesis has developed with feedback from conferences and papers and I would like to thank the audiences in London, Szeged, and Bologna for their input. One doesn’t spend four years studying the Roman army without understanding the importance of logistics and organisation, and my time at RHUL would have been much more difficult without the excellent support of Margaret Scrivner and Sue Turnbull. I would be remiss if I did not thank the wonderfully supportive PhD community, both past and present, of the Department of Classics. Particularly Matt Ward and Giulia Maltagliati, who volunteered to read sections of the thesis and provided comprehensive feedback, but also H. Baldwin, W. Coles, P. Morlacchi, and D. Van Der Linde. Helpful advice and support for the process was provided by Drs. Cole, Preston, Ramsey, and Turner. Further thanks goes to the larger University of London PhD community, who have always been ready with advice or answers. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their endless support and understanding. My sister and my father, who let me prattle on about the Romans for far longer than anyone should have to suffer. My grandmother, as well as the rest of my family, have encouraged me greatly. 6 INTRODUCTION The objective of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the social and political position of soldiers in the works of Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. In so doing, I analyse the ideologies and models of military service presented by these three historians. Their accounts provide insight into each historian’s understanding of how the Roman citizens who made up the common soldiery of the legions interacted with each other, with the state, and with other parts of the res publica.1 Given the fundamental rôle that the army played both in the Roman state and in the historical accounts of the three chosen historians, these models contribute to our understanding of how the authors understood Roman citizenship as it applied to non-élite Romans. It is