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Lower-Class Violence in the Late Antique West

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Lower-Class Violence in the Late Antique West View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose E-theses Online LOWER-CLASS VIOLENCE IN THE LATE ANTIQUE WEST MICHAEL HARVEY BURROWS SUBMITTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS SCHOOL OF HISTORY JANUARY 2017 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Michael Harvey Burrows to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2016 The University of Leeds and Michael Harvey Burrows 2 Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the support and assistance of many friends, family and colleagues. A few of these have made such a contribution that it would be disrespectful not to recognise them in particular. It has been a privilege to be a part of the cadre of students that came together under the supervision – directly or indirectly – of Ian Wood. I am grateful to Mark Tizzoni, Ricky Broome, Jason Berg, Tim Barnwell, Michael Kelly, Tommaso Leso, N. Kıvılcım Yavuz, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Hope Williard, Lia Sternizki and associate and fellow Yorkshireman Paul Gorton for their advice and debate. Ian, in particular, must be praised for his guidance, mastery of the comical anecdote and for bringing this group together. We all owe him a debt. Among this esteemed company I must recognise Glenn McDorman, Cătălin Țăranu and especially Otávio Luiz Vieira Pinto for their companionship. Glenn is the only historian I know who approaches a search for imaginary ghost-Romans in a Scottish blizzard with such enthusiasm. Cătălin remains a Dacian beyond compare. And I am hugely indebted to my comrade Otávio, whose friendship and hospitality were without limit. I must also recognise the contribution of fellow medievalists, Iason Tzouriadis and Hervin Fernández-Acevez. I do not hold their later-medieval interests against them. Beyond the confines of the University of Leeds, I must also attribute special thanks to Brent Shaw for his comments of the varied fields of bandit studies, and football. Thanks must also be given to my friends and teammates from ‘back home’. Their company was always a welcome distraction (and on a related note, I and many others remain in debt to the National Health Service, which has diligently treated all football and non-football related injuries that I have sustained). My mother has been endlessly patient and optimistic, my grandma a bastion of support, my father a fountain of wit and insight, and my big sister, Kay Burrows, a constant friend. They know how important they all are. Finally, I must devote special thanks to my partner, Carla Harwood, who I adore. 3 Abstract Historical sources from Late Antiquity are not primarily concerned with what might be called ‘social history’. More often they are interested in matters of faith, war and politics, or the biographies of great men and women. Archaeology has allowed us great insight into the material culture of ordinary people during the period, but we still rely on history to inform us about the agency of the lower classes. Unfortunately the preoccupations of extant written sources make it difficult to understand how common people in Late Antiquity perceived their lives, and how they tried to influence their position in society. It is hoped that an investigation of lower-class violence will provide a way for us to gain some insight into these issues. Violence, as an extreme and relatively rare form of social interaction, cannot necessarily tell us about everyday concerns, but the implicit danger of violence means that it provides a good indicator of what issues and grievances were taken very seriously by common people in Late Antiquity. Moreover violence, especially as performed by lower-class people whose social role was non-violent, was one of the ways in which ordinary people in Late Antiquity caught the eye of contemporary writers. Consequently, though the evidence for lower-class violence in Late Antiquity is patchy and pejorative, it does actually exist, and occasionally in some detail. Therefore, violence will form the thematic thread of this investigation into the lives of lower-class people in Late Antiquity. It cannot hope to be an exhaustive analysis of their lives in general, but will hopefully provide some insight into their wants and needs, their experience of change and their relationships with authority. 4 Abbreviations Primary Sources CJ = Corpus Juris Civilis, Volumes I-III, ed. by P. Krueger and T. Mommsen (Berlin: Weidmann, 1900-4). CTh = Codex Theodosianus, in The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, ed. and trans. by Clyde Pharr (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952). Dig. = Digesta: The Digest of Justinian, ed. by T. Mommsen and P. Krueger with English trans. by A. Watson (Philadelphia, P.A.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985). LH = Libri Historiarum X, ed. by B. Krusch and W. Levison, MGH SRM, 1 (Hanover: Impenis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1951). Quotes in English, with page numbers, from: The History of the Franks, trans. by Lewis Thorpe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974). N.Val = Valentinian, ‘Novels’, in The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, ed. and trans. by Clyde Pharr (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952). SHA = Scriptores Historiae Augustae, trans. by David Magie (London: Heinemann, 1922-1932). Collections CSEL = Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. MGH = Monumenta Germaniae Historica. AA = Auctores Antiquissimi, 19 vols (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877 – 1919). SRM = Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, ed. B Krusch and W. Levison, 7 vols (Hanover, 1885 – 1920). 5 Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………….3 Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………...4 Abbreviations …………………………………………………………………………..5 Contents ………………………………………………………………………………..6 Introduction: Lower-class violence in the late antique West. ………………………….9 i. Why lower-class violence? …………………………………………….9 ii. Terminology: class, legitimacy and violence. …………………………14 iii. What will be in this study, and why? …………………………………21 1. Chapter One: Endemic Banditry. ………………………………………………...27 1.1. Endemic banditry: banditry, society and lower-class violence. ……………..32 1.2. Bandit social relations within uplands. ……………………………………...35 1.3. Techniques of banditry and anti-banditry. …………………………………..50 1.4. Bandit social relations beyond the uplands. …………………………………62 1.5. Interim conclusion. …………………………………………………………..69 2. Chapter Two: Epidemic Banditry in the late antique West. ……………………...74 2.1. Epidemic bandits: fugitives, deserters and veterans. ………………………...75 2.2. The context of epidemic banditry in Late Antiquity. ………………………102 2.3. The social and political implications of epidemic banditry in the late antique West. ………………………………………………………………………..124 3. Chapter 3: The Bacaudae: history, historiography and banditry. ………………..128 3.1. Context for ‘bacaudic’ rebellion: historiography and history. ………………132 3.2. Evidence for the third-century Bacaudae. …………………………………..152 3.3. Evidence for the fifth-century Bacaudae. …………………………………...163 6 3.4. Bacaudae as latrones? Understanding the Bacaudae as brigands in socio- political context. …………………………………………………………….179 3.5. Interim conclusion: Bacaudae, scamarae, vargi and barbari: changing conceptions of banditry in in the late antique West. …………………………190 4. Chapter Four: Retainers: lower-class people in legitimated violent roles. ……….196 4.1. When are violent roles legitimate? …………………………………………199 4.2. Retainers and the late Roman aristocracy. …………………………………..200 4.3. Legitimated lower-class violence in the post-Roman West. ………………..213 4.4. Lower-class violence and the Church. ………………………………………223 4.5. Interim conclusion: legitimated violence, social mobility and agency. ……..232 5. Chapter Five: Riots: community, transgression and lower-class urban violence in Late Antiquity. …………………………………………………………………..236 5.1. Who rioted? ………………………………………………………………...239 5.2. Motivations for rioting in the late antique West. …………………………..251 5.2.1. Secular riots. ………………………………………………………...254 5.2.1.1. Commodity shortage and Moral Economy. …………………256 5.2.1.2. Riot and relations with authority. …………………………...259 5.2.1.3. Secular riots and the ‘Outsider’. …………………………….273 5.2.2. Religious riots. ………………………………………………………280 5.2.2.1. Riots against spiritually transgressive ‘Outsiders’. …………281 5.2.2.2. Religious violence within the community. ………………….287 5.2.2.3. Outsiders, insiders and shifting perceptions of transgression..292 5.3. Interim Conclusion: rioting and lower-class agency in Late Antiquity. ……295 Conclusion. ………………………………………………………………………….298 i. Who was violent, and how? ……………………………………………..299 ii. Lower-class violence and authority. …………………………………….300 iii. Lower-class violence and the community. ……………………………...301 iv. Lower-class violence and its impact on the End of the Western Roman Empire. ………………………………………………………………….303 7 v. The End of the Western Roman Empire and its effect on Lower-class violence: violence and quality of life during the transformation of the Roman World. …………………………………………………………...304 Bibliography. ………………………………………………………………………..310 Ancient Sources. …………………………………………………………………….310 Modern Sources. …………………………………………………………………….320
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