DOCSLIB.ORG

The Late Roman Field Army

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Late Roman Field Army Richard S. Cromwell. The Rise and Decline of the Late Roman Field Army. Shippensburg, Penn.: White Mane Publishing, 1998. ix + 79 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-57249-087-1. Reviewed by Wayne Lee Published on H-War (December, 1998) Richard Cromwell, branching out consider‐ the Rhine and Constantinople, only occasionally ably from his previous scholarly works on mod‐ mentioning Africa, Britain, or Asia. Furthermore, ern German history, attempts here to survey, in towards the end of the book the eastern portion of very brief compass, the origins and consequences the empire drops out, with the explanation that it of the development of the Roman comitatensis, or maintained a more successful system of defense. mobile feld army, from approximately 280 A.D. to Cromwell turns instead to the relatively rapid de‐ the end of the western Roman Empire in 476. cline of the western empire, particularly under Cromwell sticks close to his subject, the feld Honorius (with Stilicho as the military comman‐ army, passing over current debates on Roman der) and his immediate successors. strategy and the socio-cultural role of the imperial It is also important to note that Cromwell ig‐ frontier.[1] In fve short chapters (not including a nores the Limitanei, the old army as converted to prologue and a conclusion), Cromwell traces the border troops, save for noting their occasional use changes in administrative structure, deployment, as pools of recruits for the comitatensis. Nor is and, most importantly, the composition of the mo‐ this a book about arms, armor, or tactics. bile feld army, from Diocletian's formalization of Cromwell sticks to his title: the field army. that organization through its dissolution in the Cromwell's thesis is that the mobile feld west. army (and consequently, although not explicitly, Cromwell, relying heavily on Ammianus, "defense-in-depth" a la Luttwak) was a workable Zosimus, and the recent interpretive structure concept of defense for as long as the army incor‐ provided by Emilienne Demougeot, provides a porated Germans into Roman-like units (auxilia) continuous narrative of the military events of his under Roman discipline and alongside traditional period, positioning the changes in army structure Roman heavy infantry (the legions). This system, into that narrative.[2] In general, Cromwell deals however, pressured by civil war and then rup‐ exclusively with the army between the mouth of tured by the disaster at Adrianople, did not sur‐ H-Net Reviews vive. Valens, and then Theodosius, resorted to us‐ tions associated with the International Congress ing Germans as allied or federate troops, under of Roman Frontier Studies. their own commanders and their own military Visually, Cromwell's work is hampered by ex‐ system. The "Roman" portions of the feld army, tremely poor graphic presentation. The sole map, increasingly ignored and suffering from systemic while not exactly illegible, is extremely difficult to corruption, fnally dissolved, although not with‐ use. The few illustrations in the middle of the out a successful role in stopping Attila at Chalons. book seem to be poor photocopies from other The question of the presence and role of the works, and most of them relate to a relatively barbarians in the Roman army is an important unimportant discussion of a particular auxilium-- one, but it is not clear that Cromwell's approach the Cornuti. A further graphic shortcoming may suffices to solve the problem. Cromwell hopes that be found in the otherwise useful organizational by analyzing the shifting organizational structure tables which are, unfortunately, unnumbered, of the feld army--that is, the various ratios of aux‐ and whose captions run together with the body of ilia, legions, and later of federates (to put it in sim‐ the text. ple terms)--that he can make conclusions about In short, Cromwell's work has value, if for no the relationship between "Romanness," "German‐ other reason than its brevity and clarity in dis‐ ness," and military efficiency. To this organiza‐ cussing the extremely complex changes in the tional argument he adds anecdotal references to military structure of the late Roman army, but for support generalizations about demoralization in $40, there are better options. General military his‐ the Roman components of the army and of a torians, in particular, would be better served by growing German sense of military superiority Edward Luttwak's more comprehensive study. that left them less amenable to Roman discipline Notes (p. 27). His organizational argument is well pre‐ sented, holds together, and operates from a good [1]. Edward N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy grasp of the secondary literature on that subject of the Roman Empire (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins (given the brevity of the work). University Press, 1976); Arthur Ferrill, The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation His comments about morale and the relative (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986); Benjamin sense of military superiority are scantily support‐ Isaac, The Limits of Empire: The Roman Army in ed, however, and pose exactly the kind of ques‐ the East (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), C. R. tions that lead into the literature on the nature of Whittaker, Frontiers of the Roman Empire: A So‐ the frontier that Cromwell ignores. He acknowl‐ cial and Economic Study (Baltimore: Johns Hop‐ edges the long history of Germans in the Roman kins University Press, 1994); Hugh Elton, Frontiers army, emphasizing instead the qualitative differ‐ of the Roman Empire (Bloomington: Indiana Uni‐ ence between their initial role as auxilia and later versity Press, 1996); Everett L. Wheeler, "Method‐ as federates. One is never comfortable, however, ological Limits and the Mirage of Roman Strate‐ with Cromwell's rather presumptive hard-line dis‐ gy," Journal of Military History 57 (1993), 7-42 and tinction between "Germans" and "Romans." 215-240. It is precisely in this area where reference to [2]. Emilienne Demougeot, La Formation De the debates on the nature of the frontier might L'Europe Et Les Invasions Barbares (Paris: Aubier, have been useful. Cromwell, for example, does 1979). not refer to C. R. Whittaker's important work on the frontier, uses archaeological evidence only in‐ Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights re‐ cidentally, and in fact neglects all of the publica‐ served. This work may be copied for non-profit 2 H-Net Reviews educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-war Citation: Wayne Lee. Review of Cromwell, Richard S. The Rise and Decline of the Late Roman Field Army. H-War, H-Net Reviews. December, 1998. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2610 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Politics of Roman Memory in the Age of Justinian DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the D
    The Politics of Roman Memory in the Age of Justinian DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Marion Woodrow Kruse, III Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Anthony Kaldellis, Advisor; Benjamin Acosta-Hughes; Nathan Rosenstein Copyright by Marion Woodrow Kruse, III 2015 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the use of Roman historical memory from the late fifth century through the middle of the sixth century AD. The collapse of Roman government in the western Roman empire in the late fifth century inspired a crisis of identity and political messaging in the eastern Roman empire of the same period. I argue that the Romans of the eastern empire, in particular those who lived in Constantinople and worked in or around the imperial administration, responded to the challenge posed by the loss of Rome by rewriting the history of the Roman empire. The new historical narratives that arose during this period were initially concerned with Roman identity and fixated on urban space (in particular the cities of Rome and Constantinople) and Roman mythistory. By the sixth century, however, the debate over Roman history had begun to infuse all levels of Roman political discourse and became a major component of the emperor Justinian’s imperial messaging and propaganda, especially in his Novels. The imperial history proposed by the Novels was aggressivley challenged by other writers of the period, creating a clear historical and political conflict over the role and import of Roman history as a model or justification for Roman politics in the sixth century.
    [Show full text]
  • The Imperial Roots of Merovingian Military Organization
    BernardS. Bachrach 3 · The imperial roots of Merovingian military organization Since the mid-nineteenth centurY e.trlv either of late antique or of early medieval milit­ mcdiev<Il miliurv hisron· has heen reduced ro a ary organization <Ind warfare:' rather simple formula. Prior ro the \fiddle .-\�es In rhis context, it is important ro emphasize warfare in \\-/cstnn Europe \\·a� dornin.Jt�.:..: b�· four closdy reb red milit�lry devdopmems rh.u the high\�· trained and \\·dl oq;..mi1ed in;�:.:�:ry took place during the later empire. Followins legions of the Ronun empire. Then for �c·. cr.1l the crash of the third century. the imperial gm·­ hundred year\, the barb:mans, who <.:ithc .lrc ernment decided to pur:;ue a grand srr;negy dur 1 [)tlhrilck 198�: Oman credired or bbmed f(H destroying the Rc•!!un we have come to characr<.:rizc a\ 'defemc in •·F+ Lot 194(,· empin· and cre:Hing thL· so-c.llled Thrk .-\:::c< . deprh·. This required the radical transf(mll.l­ \\"t:rf1<:r 198+ Dudi.H I')\10: (;oft"art 1980: fought according to the 1ribal cu�torn":> thJ� ::lc� tion orr he citie..., of the Lucr Ronun empire inro Ba.;:·hrach 1994b, I')')� h. had brought with thl·m from the Cn:-n,m 'han..knnr centers of milira0· strength whKh \Verne! 198+ Durliat forests. These h.uhari.ms. ,,·ho \\·ere g.nho:-r<;:·d had f(mr imerre!ared military functions: 1. sup­ l')')O; Coff.m I')Sl'l: into embarrassingly sm,1ll .lrmed �roups 'C�.J..:h ply depors; 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Portraying the Legionary
    Portraying the Legionary Historical background for members of the Legio Praesidiensis - 400AD By John Conyard INTRODUCTION As a disclaimer I should say that some of the information given here is very subjective, and the nature of early 5th Britain can only be given cursory examination in such an article. However this article is aimed at giving the level of information often requested by members of Comitatus, portraying the very real members of the Praesidiensis that lived 1,600 years ago. BACKGROUND The Roman army of Late Antiquity was divided into two. The field army or comitatenses consisted of relatively well-paid, well-motivated troops held centrally and able to respond rapidly to major threats. The static frontier troops or limitanei were more than just part time soldiers or soldier farmers, as some writers seem to believe. They were drilled and capable of dealing with small-scale incursions and routine policing actions. On occasion they were called to serve with the field army and such units were called pseudocomitatenses. All ranks were basically career soldiers in an army of over 500,000 men, with a well-defined path set out in front of them. The Praesidiensis served the Western Emperor Honorius, who reigned from 393- 423AD. He is often considered ineffectual and weak, but he ruled for thirty years of Rome’s most turbulent history. By 400AD our Emperor would have been 16 years old. The power in the West was Stilicho, the magister militum or magister peditum praesentalis. His character and motives have been much questioned, but he was certainly not a Vandal barbarian.
    [Show full text]
  • Barbarization” Through the Shifting Strategic and Tactical
    Duke University The Fall of Rome: Understanding “Barbarization” through the Shifting Strategic and Tactical Requirements of Roman Warfare in Late Antiquity Curtis Lee CLST 551S: Roman Archaeology Alicia Jiménez 20 November 2020 Introduction In the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire had begun to see the incursion of various aggressive peoples along its borders on the Rhine, Danube, and in the East along the Euphrates. Contemporaneous to these new threats, the Roman Army had begun to increasingly adapt to the regional peculiarities present within its respective zones of operations and through its use of auxilia and incorporation of “barbarizing” affects in the legions. In doing so, it has been said to have become institutionally barbarized—adopting the same barbarian affects used by the “other” who they so opposed—which has, in turn, led Classical scholarship to point towards this “barbarization” as a diminution of the capabilities of the Roman army, and an overdetermined cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire. However, this paper seeks to upset this traditionalist narrative through an examination of the archaeological site as Dura-Europos. Using this mid-3rd century site from the province of Syria Creole, this paper seeks to understand the shifting strategic goals of the Roman army during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD in response to the aggressive expansion of the Sassanid Persians, and how the material record reflects both military cultural changes and tactical alterations—in terms of defenses, town layout, deployments, etc.—incorporated as a means of adapting to newfound strategic necessities. Furthermore, by examining the transformation occurring within the Roman army both structurally and culturally during this period, and combining historical and archaeological means of investigation, this paper answers how and why the Roman army became increasingly provincial and why this was not a cause of the fall of Rome, but a sustaining force that defended the empire during times of crisis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Britons in Late Antiquity: Power, Identity And
    THE BRITONS IN LATE ANTIQUITY: POWER, IDENTITY AND ETHNICITY EDWIN R. HUSTWIT Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bangor University 2014 Summary This study focuses on the creation of both British ethnic or ‘national’ identity and Brittonic regional/dynastic identities in the Roman and early medieval periods. It is divided into two interrelated sections which deal with a broad range of textual and archaeological evidence. Its starting point is an examination of Roman views of the inhabitants of the island of Britain and how ethnographic images were created in order to define the population of Britain as 1 barbarians who required the civilising influence of imperial conquest. The discussion here seeks to elucidate, as far as possible, the extent to which the Britons were incorporated into the provincial framework and subsequently ordered and defined themselves as an imperial people. This first section culminates with discussion of Gildas’s De Excidio Britanniae. It seeks to illuminate how Gildas attempted to create a new identity for his contemporaries which, though to a certain extent based on the foundations of Roman-period Britishness, situated his gens uniquely amongst the peoples of late antique Europe as God’s familia. The second section of the thesis examines the creation of regional and dynastic identities and the emergence of kingship amongst the Britons in the late and immediately post-Roman periods. It is largely concerned to show how interaction with the Roman state played a key role in the creation of early kingships in northern and western Britain. The argument stresses that while there were claims of continuity in group identities in the late antique period, the socio-political units which emerged in the fifth and sixth centuries were new entities.
    [Show full text]
  • Barbarian Invasion
    The Representation of the Roman Army c.363-425AD in Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion Daniel McDevitt Senior Sophister Trinity College Dublin Word Count: 11,539 McDevitt i Acknowledgments An enormous thank you to Dr. Hazel Dodge for all her help with this paper, for not laughing too much when I suggested the idea of analyzing a video game, and for her speedy and timely responses to my many frantic emails. A thank you to my mom and grandmom for encouraging me to pursue my education and supporting me in my moving to a foreign country for university. A thank you to my muse who inspires me to be a better person and has supported me in my many moments of self­doubt. And finally a thank you to my father for always giving me the motivation to succeed. McDevitt ii Table of Contents Abbreviations………………………………………………………….pg iii Introduction…………………………………………………………….pg 1 Chapter 1: Military Unit Types and Titles …………………….…....pg 4 Chapter 2: Army Recruitment, Training, and Upkeep………….. pg 21 Chapter 3: Arms and Armor ……………………………………….pg 36 Conclusion………………………………………………………….. pg 49 Appendix ………………………………………………………….... pg 51 Bibliography……………………………………………………...…. pg 65 McDevitt iii Abbreviations Amm. ­ Ammianus Marcellinus Barbarian Invasion ​­ ​Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion C.Th. ­ C​ odex Theodosianus Not. Dig. ­ N​ otitia Dignitatum Veg. ­ Vegetius Zos. ­ Zosimus McDevitt 1 Introduction The working objective of this dissertation is to examine the manner in which the video game R​ ome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion represents the realities of the Roman army between 363 and 425 AD. Before getting into format and layout, a few notes first on the relevance of the objective of this paper, the time period under study, and the video game itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Notitia Dignitatum As a Historical Source
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library An Assessment of the Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source for the Late Roman Bureaucracy A thesis submitted by: Ruth O’Hara For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Dr Michael Williams Head of Department: Dr. Kieran McGroarty Department of Ancient Classics National University of Ireland, Maynooth, October 2013 Contents Abstract 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Approaching the Notitia Dignitatum ................................................................. 5 1.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 10 2. The Notitia Dignitatum: Nature and Reception .................................................... 11 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 11 2.2 The nature of the Notitia Dignitatum .............................................................. 11 2.2.1 The nature of the text .................................................................................. 13 2.3 Dating ................................................................................................................ 17 2.3.1 The
    [Show full text]
  • Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2013 Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E. Thomas Christopher Lawrence [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Lawrence, Thomas Christopher, "Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1751 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Thomas Christopher Lawrence entitled "Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. Michael E. Kulikowski, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Christine Shepardson, Maura Lafferty, Thomas Burman Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.
    [Show full text]
  • Limitanei in Historia Augusta. Can Remarks About a Frontier Army Be Used to Date Historia Augusta?
    RES HISTORICA 49, 2020 DOI:10.17951/rh.2020.49.97-115 Robert Suski (University of Bialystok, Poland) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5227-2743 E-mail: [email protected] Limitanei in Historia Augusta. Can Remarks About a Frontier Army Be Used to Date Historia Augusta? Limitanei w Historia Augusta. Czy wzmianki o armii przygranicznej można wykorzystać do datowania Historia Augusta? ABSTRACT The Historia Augusta is the most enigmatic source of the late antiquity. Its author of- ten departs from the truth, even on most salient issues. He not only suggests that he had written his work earlier than he actually did, but also assumes 6 different nickdonyms to confirm his version of events.Limitanei (the sold in of throntier districts) were mentioned in Historia Augusta four times. All these references, however, contain anachronistic terminol- ogy both for the times when, according to the author, they were to happen and the times of writing. In the article below I have analyzed these references. I believe that it allows us to better undr understanding of the author's mentality. One of themse references is dee paortant. For long time it was believed to be a testimony to the transformation of the Roman frontier army into a peasant militia. This interpretation seems to be rejected nowa- PUBLICATION INFO e-ISSN: 2449-8467 ISSN: 2082-6060 THE AUTHOR’S ADDRESS: Robert Suski, the Faculty of History and International Relations of the University of Bialystok, 1 Niezależnego Zrzeszenia Studentów Square, Białystok 15-420, Poland SOURCE OF FUNDING: Statutory Research of the Faculty of History and International Relations of the University of Bialystok SUBMITTED: ACCEPTED: PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2019.03.28 2020.01.15 2020.12.21 EDITORIAL WEBSITE OF THE JOURNAL: COMMITTEE E-mail: https://journals.umcs.pl/rh [email protected] 98 ROBERT SuSKI days.
    [Show full text]
  • Centres of the Late Roman Military Supply Network in the Balkans: a Survey of Horrea
    EFTHYMIOS RIZOS CENTRES OF THE LATE ROMAN MILITARY SUPPLY NETWORK IN THE BALKANS: A SURVEY OF HORREA Beatitudine d(omini) n(ostri) Constantis victoris | ac triumfatoris semper Aug(usti) | provisa copia quae horreis deerat | postea quam condendis horrea deesse coeperunt | haec Vulc(atius) Rufinus v(ir) c(larissimus) praef(ectus) praet(orio) per se coepta || in securitatem perpetem rei an- nonariae dedicavit 1 »In the happy times of our lord Constans, the victorious and triumphant eternal Augustus. While supplies were anticipated that were insufficient to fill the warehouses, eventually the warehouses started to be insuf- ficient for the goods to be stored. The vir clarissimus Vulcatius Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect, dedicated these (warehouses), which were commis- sioned by him, for the perpetual security of the annona.« This inscription celebrates the dedication of new depots for storing the supplies of the army at the Pannon- ian city of Savaria (Szombathely; Kom Vas / H) in A. D. 347-350 2. It seems that, although Savaria already had warehouses, increased annonary imports caused a storage crisis and the old facilities came to be insufficient. Thus the text provides a unique reflection of a moment in the development of the infrastructure of the an- nona militaris in a province of the European frontiers of the empire. The securitas perpetua rei annonariae was an important concern for the praetorian prefectures which managed this immense logistics system. In the frontier provinces, where large quantities of imported and locally produced military supplies were ac- cumulated, there was an urgent need for horrea, and such buildings must have been a priority in the build- ing agenda of the state and the army.
    [Show full text]
  • The Military Reforms of the Emperor Diocletian
    The Military Reforms of the Emperor Diocletian John F. Hall Throughout the course of the third century A.D., the Roman Empire was subjected to repeated attack, both by Germanic tribes and by the armies of a resurgent Persia under the militaristic Sassanid dynasty. Compounded by an ever-deteriorating internal state of affairs, the result of frequent civil conict, Roman military efciency declined so appreciably that the once impregnable fortied frontier, the limites, were frequently pierced, exposing the interior of the empire to attack and plunder. By the time of Diocletian’s accession as emperor, four great problems had arisen in the military sphere: (1) deteriorating discipline within an army committed to self- aggrandizement, (2) decient military capability of politically appointed commanders, (3) inadequate tactical mobility of army units, and (4) divestment of the limites to provide contingents for emergency eld armies. Diocletian undertook to resolve these problems by a bold reorganization of the military—the rst signicant revision of the army since the time of Augustus three centuries before and the greatest alteration of the theoretical basis of Roman military practice ever undertaken. The reforms were effective in curtailing both external aggression and internal disintegration. Moreover, the later military revisions of Constantine were not original but rather continued in logical fashion the reforms of Diocletian, laying the foundation of a military system and methodology that extended beyond the end of antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. The extensive military reforms and accompanying frontier reorganization accomplished by Diocletian originated from a desire to maintain a strong and internally secure empire through a defensive system that would be effective against external aggression.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eastern Roman Empire Under Justinian
    International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2017, PP 109-113 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2349-0381.0404013 www.arcjournals.org The Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian Prof. Univ. Ph. D. Marius Ţepelea University of Oradea, Romania Abstract: The Roman Empire that Justinian inherited no longer stretched over the whole Mediterranean region. It has been reduced to its eastern Greek-speaking half. In the Balkans, it controlled the area occupied now by Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia, wich together made up the prefecture of Illyricum. Its northern frontier was the Danube River, north of which were various Germanic, Hun and Slavic peoples who made constant incursions into imperial territory but thus far had made no permanent settlements. In Asia, the prefecture of the Orient comprised an area west of a frontier that ran roughly from the eastern tip of the Black Sea south to the Euphrates River, and from there across the desert of Jordan to the Gulf of Aqaba. In Africa, it controlled Egypt, and the southern part of present-day Libya. The former Roman Western Empire was occupied by barbarian kingdoms: the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, the Visigoth kingdom in Spain, the Frankish kingdom in France and the Ostrogoth kingdom in Italy. Keywords: Eastern Roman Empire, Justinian, Constantinople, Roman army. The greatest emperor of the Eastern Roman world was born in 482 in Tauresium, in the Roman province of Dardania, in a common peasant family that spoke Latin. His father was Petrus and his mother, Vigilantia.
    [Show full text]