Bandits in The Roman Empire

The Past and Present Society
Bandits in the Roman Empire Author(s): Brent D. Shaw Reviewed work(s): Source: Past & Present, No. 105 (Nov., 1984), pp. 3-52 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650544 . Accessed: 03/12/2012 16:18
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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE*

Removejusticeand whatare statesbut gangsofbanditson a largescale?And what in miniature?1 are banditgangs but kingdoms himalongwithtwo When theyreachedthe place called the Skull theycrucified and theotheron theleft. .. One of thebanditshanging bandits,one on the right and us therecursedhim. "Are you not the Christ?",he said. "Then save yourself him. "Have you no fearofGod as well". But theotherone spoke up and reproved at all?", he said. "You receivedthe same sentenceas he did, but in our case we forwhatwe did. But thismanhas done nothing deserved wrong". it; we are paying "Jesus", he said, "Rememberme when you enterinto yourkingdom"."Yes, I promiseyou", Jesusreplied,"today you will be withme in Paradise".2 A MAJORPROBLEM IN ROMAN HISTORY IS THE ROLE OF VIOLENCE IN
the relationship the makingof Roman society,and in particular betweenindividualmen who wieldedviolentforceand the Roman considerentails becauseitnecessarily state.This is a difficult question of and the ationofthecorollary practilegitimacy problems political cal exerciseof power. There are, of course, manyaspects to this hereis theinversion problem.The one on whichI shallconcentrate ofviolenceby menwho werestigmaofthenormal:thedeployment or "bandits".3 Latrones were tized by the Roman state as latrones
* I wouldlike to thankGabrielHerman,KeithHopkins,Ian Newbould,Elizabeth and criticisms made in the course Rawson and RichardSaller forhelpfulcomments of writing this article. I Cityof God, 4.4. Augustine, 2 Luke 29.33-43. 3 This paper is primarily directedto the centralproblemof politicallegitimacy, in the Roman empirethatare and so does not treatmanyotheraspectsof banditry to thisquestion.Then again,certain detailedaccountsof relevant notdirectly highly in specific contexts, namelythoseof Isauriaand Judaea,have been regional banditry works set aside fortreatment separateof thisarticle.Some ofthegeneral deliberately cited on ancientbrigandagewhich I have consultedbut have not been specifically belowincludeG. Barbieri,"Latrones", in E. de Ruggiero (ed.), Dizionario epigrafico of di antichita romane, 4.I5 (1947), pp. 460-6; A. D. Dmitriev,"The Phenomenon in the Roman Empire", Vestnik drevneii istorii Latrones as a Form of Class Conflict in (I95I), no. 4, pp. 61-72 (in Russian); H. Dull and G. Mickwitz,"Strassenraub", der classischen (hereReal-Encyclopadie Altertumswissenschaft Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, afterRE) supplbd. vii (1940), cols. 1239-44; H. Fiehn, "Strassenraub",RE iv. 2 de l'ordreimperial: aventuriers, irreguliers, (1932), cols. 171-2; J. Gage, "Les d6chets et troupesde brigands",ch. 4.5, in his Les classessocialesde l'empire romain (Paris, Das Latrocinium als einebesondere FormdesWiderstands 1964),pp. 143-8;R. Guenther, Sklavenhalterstaat des Klassen und Barbarenim romischen wdhrend der unterdrucken Prinzipats (Leipzig, 1953); G. Humbert,"Latrocinium",in Ch. Darembergand E. etromaines, desantiquites iii.2 (1904), pp. 991-2; R. grecques Saglio (eds.), Dictionnaire "Grassatores",RE vii (I912), cols. 1829-30;R. MacMullen, "BrigandKleinfeller, Unrest and Alienation of theRomanOrder:Treason, age", appendixB in his Enemies inthe Mass., 1967),pp. 255-68; C. E. Minor,"Brigand,InsurrecEmpire (Cambridge, in theLaterRomanEmpire"(Univ. ofWashington, tionist Movements and Separatist Seattle,Ph.D. Thesis, I97I); G. Pfaff, "Latrocinium",RE xii (1925), cols. 978-80. I was not able to consultA. Bertot,"Le brigandage dans l'occident Unfortunately romainsous le Haut-Empire" (Univ. de Bordeaux, Diplome d'etudes superieures d'histoire,JulyI953).
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I05 4 men who threatened the social and moralorderof the stateby the use of privateviolencein pursuitof theiraims. Withinthe broad definition of such men as bandits,E. J. Hobsbawm, the father of modernbanditstudies,has proposeda special subtype, thatof the "social bandit":
4 E. J. Hobsbawm,Bandits(London, 1969; Penguinedn., Harmondsworth, 1972; all citations are fromthe latteredition),p. I7. Cf. E. J. Hobsbawm, "The Social Rebels: Studiesin Archaic FormsofSocial Movement Bandit", ch. 2 in his Primitive in theIgthand 20thCenturies, 3rd edn. (Manchester,I971; repr. 1974), pp. 13-29; E. J. Hobsbawm,"Social Banditry", ch. 4 in H. A. Landsberger (ed.), RuralProtest: Peasant Movements and Social Change(New York, I974), pp. 142-57. 5 See A. Blok, "On Brigandage withSpecial Reference to PeasantMobilization", Gids, xviii(1971), pp. 208-16; A. Blok, "The Peasantand theBrigand: Sociologische Social Banditry Studiesin Society and Hist., xiv (1972), Reconsidered",Comparative pp. 494-503,withtheriposte by Hobsbawm,"Social Bandits:Reply",ibid.,pp. 503because it is relatedto an evaluation of the historical 5. Blok's critiqueis important role of the Mafia in Sicily and the real problem of its relationship to peasant he refines some of the assumptions in Hobsbawm'sthesisin exploitation. Although his critique,P. O'Malley, "Social Bandits,Modern Capitalismand the Traditional A Critiqueof Hobsbawm", Jl. Peasant Studies,vi (1979), pp. 489-501, Peasantry: stillaccepts manyof Hobsbawm's fundamental (forexample,the role of postulates class) thatare questionedin thispaper. 6 See Hobsbawm, "Social Bandits: Reply". In his new preface to Bandits(1972 "unconvinced" His reply, edn.) he saysthathe remains byBlok's criticisms. however, is a rather weak one, to the effect that". .. thereseemsto be sufficient evidencefor genuineRobin Hood behaviourby at least somebanditsand carefulreadersof this book will observethatI have notclaimed that'noblebandits' are common" (p. I3, my admits italics). If thisis the limitednatureof Hobsbawm's claim, thenhe virtually what he himself to be Blok's position,namelythat"the 'noble bandit' understands or Robin Hood is almostwholly'mythical' and does notreflect how banditsactually behavedbut rather how the commonpeople wished such men would act". 7 This is nottheplace to engagein an extended of Hobsbawm's work,but critique a few generalobservations should be made here. The first chapterof his general of a "social bandit", makes study (Bandits), which is devoted to the definition the critical element in the definition. Such menare "not regarded as simple perception
(cont.onp. 5)
The Robin Hoods of popularfolklore are characteristic social banrebelswithinand at the marginof peasantsociety. dits, primitive AntonBlok, amongothers, has criticized Hobsbawn'sthesis ofsocial as a form of individual or minority he thinks that banditry rebellion; in fact fewbandits havebeengenuine ofsocialprotest. Behind figures the mirageof "the good thief",he argues,lies a reality dominated men who are either secessionist or who by violentanti-social wholly activelyprey on the peasant populace whose interests they are Hobsbawm is "unconvinsupposed (in popular myth)to protect.5 ced" by Blok's critique;he remainsadamantin his claim thatreal social bandits have existed and are not just figments of popular or mythical of peasantthought.6 imagination figures hiscriteria for socialbandits, Hobsbawmplaces Among identifying of these men as something other greatemphasison the perception thancommoncriminals.7 An obvious dangerwiththisapproachis
The pointabout social banditsis thattheyare peasantoutlawswhomthelordand the state regardas criminals,but who remainwithinpeasant society,and are consideredby theirpeople as heroes,as champions, forjustice avengers, fighters . . .and in any case as men to be admired,helped and supported.4
BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
like ideologies,can be deceptive;even oppressed thatperceptions, ordestructive as towhois actually beneficial can mistaken be peasants thenwhichsetofmental And ifperceptions interests. oftheir differ, of social withthe realities to takeas coherent imagesis thehistorian filtered the The following story, through upper-class exploitation? the lens of the late second-century physicianGalen, highlights problem:
of a banditlying on rising On another occasionwe saw the skeleton groundby the his attack.None of the roadside. He had been killed by some traveller repelling in of would buryhim, but theirhatred him wereglad enoughto local inhabitants see his bodyconsumedby thebirdswhich,in a coupleofdays,ate hisflesh, leaving the skeletonas if formedical demonstration.8
(n. 7 cont.)
of dissection, is embeddedin a discourseon the merits That story, of a hatredthat a smallwarning.In it we finda graphicdescription social went to the extremeof denyingproperburial, the ultimate penaltyin the Roman world. The problem for the historianis twofold:is this case aberrantor the norm? And if the peasants' is the robbertherefore "not a are correctly reported, perceptions social bandit"? and that of distinguishing social Because of these difficulties, in thisarticlewith I shall deal first banditsfrombanditstout court, to grapple in general in theRomanworldbefore attempting banditry of the more A consideration with the problemof social banditry. thecontext ofa vasthistorical within state,that phenomenon general new perspectives on the of imperialRome, should be able to offer the historian of imperial debate raisedby Hobsbawm. Immediately
criminalsby public opinion"(p. 17, my italics). Again, theyare peasant outlaws as criminals[but who] are considered "whom the lord and the stateregard by the people as heroes . . ." (ibid.). Hobsbawm then emphasizes(p. i8) that it is this thatis the criterion by whichthe social banditis separated perceptualrelationship The thirdchapter, on "The Noble Robber" (pp. 41 ff.), from the commoncriminal. in order to construct his model. beginswith the image and with popular beliefs "what Althoughsome caveats are advanced (forexample,thatthisonlyrepresents social bandits should be") and the verylimitedclaim made that "genuine Robin Hoods havebeenknown",theseconcessions areobscured in thesubsequent treatment. The wholechapteris constructed witha methodology thatproceedsfrom "myth"to ofthe "reality"withno clear breakbetweenthetwo(see, forexample,his treatment act of personalinjusticeas a motivator, p. 43). In discussingjusticeand the bandit he beginswitha postulate,cites legendary and anecdotalmaterial, and thenadmits thatbehaviour was "not alwaysin accordwiththismodel" (p. 53). Yet how muchit was "not in accord" is never fullyexplored. All the otherchaptersare similarly so thatitis somewhat to readat thebeginning constructed ofthefinal startling chapter on "The Banditas Symbol"that"We have so farlookedat thereality of banditsand as a source at theirlegend or mythchiefly about that . of information reality . ." (p. the oppositehas been the case. The myths, 127, myitalics),whenprecisely legends and public opinions have been used, fromthe beginning, to construct "reality". and the most admission in earlier the book worrysome Perhaps striking appears (p. 56) whereHobsbawm statesthatif robbersof this typedid not existthen peasants wouldhavetoinvent them. Hobsbawm is aware of this Although perfectly possibility, his book neverputs the hypothesis to a rigorous test. 8 Galen, 1.2 OnAnatomical 22 trans. C. Procedures, (Kuhn, ii, -2), (Oxford, Singer 1956), p. 3.
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9 For example,Augustus,Res gestae,5.34; Florus, Epitome, 2.7 (3.19.2); Pliny, citedin n. 85 below. 5.5, and the literature Panegyric, 42.3; cf. Cicero, Verrines, 10The phrase bellumiustum, much abused in this context,does not ordinarily in so faras the statewas was "just" by definition mean "just" war. Every bellum betweenregularand irregular concerned.Iustumbasicallysignalledthe distinction I do not thinkthattherewas anyseriousdebateover"the justwar" in preconflicts. bellum Nor not one usingthe terminology and certainly iustum. Christian antiquity, discussionof the so-called fetialrite (for a do I wish to enterinto a protracted see Livy 1.24.4 ff.) since thereis no indicationthatthis ritehad any description War withthe conceptof "the just war". J. W. Rich, Declaring explicitconnection in the Roman Republic in the Period of Transmarine Expansion(Brussels, 1976), Bellum sheds no lighton the problem.On the concept,see S. Albert, unfortunately iustum:Die Theoriedes 'Gerechten Bedeutung fur die Krieges' und ihrepraktische Zeit (Kallmiinz, 1980), Roms in Republikanischen Auseinandersetzungen Auswdrtigen of"iustum" in hera priori definition error whocommits every possiblemethodological ancient cannotfindany consistent as the modern"just" and then,not surprisingly, account a straightforward herviewof"the justwar"; for data to substantiate empirical
(cont.onp. 7)
he is confronted Rome beginshis enquiry,however, withtechnical theidentification of banditsin his sourcematproblems concerning as always,are rootedin the paucityof the erials. The difficulties, ancienthistorian's data and in theirpeculiarbiases. The common a banditis latro termin Latin used to designate and (plurallatrones) of banditry, forthe phenomenon latrocinium. Roman writers, from in thesort tonovelists, did notindulge ofsociological however, jurists analysiswe do. Hence almost everykind of violentoppositionto of warwas subsumedunderthecatch-all short established authority rubricof latrocinium, with littleor no consciousdifferentiation of of violencebeneaththatumbrellaterm. the subcategories or statistviolencedefinedby the The basic formof legitimate was thatofwarfare. Romanstate'slegalapparatus The legalauthorito the typeof organizedviolenceconties gave formal recognition ducted by the Roman state itself,or directedagainstit by other states, by labelling it "war" or bellum.The generalcategoryof or real type,had of only one dominant bellum, thoughit admitted thateffectively dichotomized warinto certain expressions peripheral Wars could be waged by the stateagainst two broad subcategories. and sociallyinferior unstructured foes,in whichcase they inchoate, or irregular were regarded as "bush" conflicts wars. The enemyin was oftenunrecognizable such conflict (in bothsensesof theword) and hence could onlybe definedby some de factoresponseby the of thethreat he posed to thestate's stateor by the sheermagnitude armed force. A war of this type was usually qualifiedby some the assumption of a genuineconflict additionaltermthatmodified The as, for example, with the term"slave" war (bellumservile).9 as genuine- a othertypeof war was the one thatwas recognized a battlebetween established twolegitimately conflict between states, structures of societies thatsharedmanifest thearmedforces political forms of combat. In this to and whichfought according recognized was used in description thewarwas term case, ifanysupplementary Almostall other iustum.10 labelled "real" or "genuine", a bellum
under the rubricof categoriesof warfarewere lumped together or latrocinium. banditry itis therefore ofmodern As partofa programme analysis necessary if somewhat selection of the matto make a preliminary, arbitrary, But one must erials presentedto us in our sourcesas latrocinium. make no legal or social bear in mind that the sources themselves and theseothertypesofviolent betweenbanditry distinction action; the reasonsforthiswholesaledesigit is we who do so. Only after have been understood nationof themas latrocinium maytheseother of violencebe drawnback into the generalargument. forms First, a type of entrepreneurial violence I exclude fromconsideration communities associatedwithpastoralist alongthesouthern primarily of theempire,a form ofviolencewe todaycall and easternfrontiers I also exclude thattypeof violencebetweenor razzia or raiding.11 withinvillage or ethnicgroups ordinarily designatedby the term I shall also ignorecertaintypesof violenceof a marginally feud.12 as communalresistance politicalnaturethatare usuallyconstrued or immediately after the to theexpansionof theRoman stateduring groundstwo forms conquestof a givenregion.13 On less justifiable willnotbe considered ofbanditry here,types which,becauseoftheir and spatiallocation,demandseparate of organization special forms a typeof violencein an urban context These are, first, treatment. thatis usuallysubsumedundertheheadingof"crime",and, second, on thehighseas whichevenin our own socialdemonology banditry is conceded the separatetitle of piracy.14 Lastly, many full-scale
of the use of the phrase,see H. Drexler,"Bellum iustum",Rheinisches cii Museum, (1959), PP. 97-I40. 11There is no good singlework devotedto the razzia as a formof violence,but one may consultW. G. Irons, "Livestock RaidingamongPastoralists: An Adaptive 1 (1965), Arts and Letters, Academy ofScience, PapersoftheMichigan Interpretation", of pp. 383-414; L. Sweet,"Camel Raidingof NorthArabianBedouin: A Mechanism American lxvii(1965), pp. 1132-50.For some Anthropologist, EcologicalAdaptation", ancientexamples, see Pliny, Natural History, 5.5.38; Strabo i6.1.26 (C 747) and 15.3.4 (C 728). 12 See, forexample,E. L. Peters,"Some Structural Aspectsof the Feud among theCamel-Herding BedouinofCyrenaica", xxxvii(1967), pp. 261-82,and the Africa, work of Cohesive Force: Feud in the Mediterranean and the J. Black-Michaud, synoptic MiddleEast (Oxford,1975), esp. ch. I wherehe distinguishes modelsfor generative the feud and otherforms of social violence,including war. Raiding,or razzia, may the more generaltypeof the feud. See indeed only be a mechanismforoperating Strabo4.6.7 (C 205) and CorpusInscriptionum Latinarum (hereafter CIL) x, 7852 = LatinaeSelectae(hereafter ILS) 5947 (Sardinia,A.D. 69), a feudbetween Inscriptiones twovillagesthatlastedat least 185 yearsand was finally to an end (we think) brought intervention to punishone side severely by a forceful by the statewhichthreatened forits longaecontumaciae. 13 The mostaccessibleanalyses of thistypeof violenceare thoseby S. L. Dyson, "Native Revoltsin theRomanEmpire",Historia, xx (I97I), pp. 239-74;S. L. Dyson, "Native RevoltPatterns in the Roman Empire",in H. Temporini und (ed.), Aufstieg derromischen Welt,ii.3 (Berlin, 1974), pp. I38-75. Niedergang 14 There is no adequate study of either forGraeco-Roman phenomenon antiquity. For piracyone mayconsultH. A. Omerod,Piracyin the Ancient World: An Essay in Mediterranean to theearlier work History (Liverpool,1924; repr.1978),withreference
(cont.onp. 8) (n. 10 cont.)
PAST AND PRESENT
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have been accordedtheepithet thatwould otherwise "war" conflicts even by the Roman state's own criteria, but which were labelled arealsodisregarded for intheimmedireasons, "banditry" ideological to thisproblemonce theinitial ate discussion,thoughI shallreturn has been completed. stageof the investigation This listof exclusions on the mayseemto be such radicalsurgery that therewill be littleleftto analyse.The "body" of latrocinium false. The exceptionsjust noted however,is entirely impression, the of violent acts shortof war thatare exhaust hardly catalogue knownto have existedin the Roman empire,or theinformation on the specificresidual formof violence that we defineas banditry. Indeed, to judge froma number of "barometric"readingsthis was a common phenomenonin the residual core of latrocinium theempirein anyperiodone wouldcareto societies thatconstituted can be foundin everynook Justas evidenceof slavery investigate. almost and can be seentoaffect ofRomansocialstructure and cranny so everyconceivabletypeof legal actionthatthe statesanctioned, ofimperial tothefunctioning toobanditry society. appearsas integral is ubiquiOf course,one would not presumeto claimthatbanditry ofslavery. Yet muchthesame tousin thesamewayas theinstitution Unlikeslavery, ofthesubjectin thelaws can be noted.15 resurfacing however,banditry appears to have been perceivedas marginalto thatimpingedon the centralRoman society,albeit a phenomenon mostmundaneaspectsof Roman social life. in some obvious to be understood I do not mean this statement of manylaws directed at the sense, as forexamplein the existence of a more intrusion I am subtle Rather of bandits. thinking repression of the phenomenoninto numerouslaws that have no obvious or In theselawsbrigandage withbanditry. connection direct constantly much one ofcommon as a peripheral surfaces concern, item,though on the highseas and other in the mannerof earthquakes, tempests as one of is mentioned "naturaldisasters".That is to say, banditry almostanylegalactfrom thatcould affect occurrences thoseexternal to sales of buildingcontracts, of a will to the signing thedeposition of dowry.16 Among the marriagesand the transfer agreements,
(n. I4 cont.)
cretoise of Sestierand Ziebarth;P. Brule, La piraterie (Paris, I979). For hellenistique de la piraterie grecque",Dialogues historique analysis,see Y. Garlan,"Signification iv (1978), pp. 1-16. d'histoire ancienne, 15 See M. I. Finley, The Ancient (London, I973), p. 63, on W. W. Economy Buckland, The Roman Law of Slavery(Cambridge,19o8). the abilityto make a will; 16 Digesta(hereafter Dig.) 32. .pr. (Ulpian), affecting CodexJustinianus (hereafter depositsand heirship; CJ) 4.34.I (A.D. 234), affecting ofa will; CJ 4.24.6 (A.D. 225), on pledges;CJ 5.31.8 Dig. 28. I. 3.pr., on themaking a petition; dowries;Dig. Dig.23.3.5.4 and 24.3.2I, affecting (A.D. 291), on delaying to camp is chargedas AWOL unless 49.16.I4, a soldieron leave and late returning delayedby storms,bad weatherat sea, or by banditson land; CJ 6.46.6.pr. (A.D. sales in the an inheritance; CJ 6.38.I.pr. (A.D. 213), interrupting 532), interrupting countryside.
commoncauses ofdeathrecognized by thelaws are old age, sickness and attacksby bandits.17Still otherlaws list brigandswith other naturaldisasters(our Acts of God) forwhichno legal actioncould be taken,othersbeing storms, fires, sickness,natural earthquakes, death and the actions of runawayslaves.18Then too, the actual was thought to be a common and publictrialofbandits apprehension of enter the realm the occurrence to schooltext. Here we find enough the forum of the Roman the scene of the banditbeing led through of everyday as one of those vignettes life used in a municipality schooltext to assist in the learningof Latin, much as our primers a sceneof"law and order"as partofthenormal contain round might in "our town" forchildren of daily activity to learn.19 ofbanditry, Another indexoftheubiquity attested bothin thelaw codes and in otherliterary sources,is the generaldangerassociated withtravelbeyondtownwalls. The traveller by ship expectedthe of sea stormsand pirates,the traveller on land attacksby disasters bandits. In the mid-first centurySt. Paul specifiedbandits as a commondangerto be facedon land and sea. EarlierJesushimself had used thestory oftheGood Samaritan: thetaleofa foreigner who had been attackedby banditson the main road fromJerusalem to The journey was notmorethanfifteen milesin length over Jericho. travelled one of the most frequently routesin Judaea.The parable occurrence withwhichanyone ofJesus'listeners a common exploited could readily muchas ifwe wereto pass by thevictim of a identify, traffic accident.20The situationwas no different even for highRoman citizensin the heartland of the empire.The satirist ranking made a savage pointof the lack of security in the centreof Juvenal the cityof Rome, and the senatorSeneca notedthe dangersof road travel outside its walls.21 Persons of high social status (perhaps to "disappear"whiletravelling, them)wereknownsimply especially
17Dig. I3.6.5.4. 18 Attacksby banditsare listedamong commonnaturaldisasters loans: affecting the deathsof slaves (except those due to negligence or wrongful intent),attacksby and slaveswho runawaywho are notusuallyguarded, fires, Dig. pirates, shipwrecks, is givenon the value of cattleand theydie in a fire or are 13.6.I8.pr. If an estimate stolenby bandits,it is commune damnum, Dig. I7.2.52.3. It is listedamongcommon misfortunes: winter attacksby bandits, sickness,seastorms, weather, Dig. 27.I.3.7; heirscan lose property if the loss involvesthe deathsof slaves or of otheranimals, theft,pillage, fire,ruin, shipwreck,or the violence of enemies or bandits,Dig. and the sale of 35.2.30.pr; cf. CJ 4.65.I (A.D. 213) and 4.65.12 (A.D. 245); rustling animals,Dig. 19.2.9.4 (A.D. I6os); cf. Dig. I9.5.20.I and 39.5.34. . 19A. C. Dionisotti," 'From Ausonius' Schooldays':A Schoolbookand its Relatives",Ji. Roman Studies,lxxii (1982), pp. 83-125, at p. 104, lines 74 f., and pp.
20 II Corinthians on thelatter can be found 1.26; cf. Luke Io.25-37. Commentary in J. Jeremias,The Parables ofJesus, 3rd edn. (London, I972; trans.of his Die Gleichnisse 8th edn., Gottingen, Jesus, 1970), pp. 202-3. 21 Juvenal,Satires, IO.Ig-22; cf. Seneca, Letters,I23, in a situationgenerally affected and cf. banditattacks". I4.9, "only the poor man is safefrom by banditry,
119, 122-3.
IO
PAST AND PRESENT
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22 TheLetters ofPliny:A Historical 6.25; cf. A. N. Sherwin-White, Pliny,Letters, I cannotaccepthis concluand Social Commentary (Oxford,1966), pp. 384-6,though "rare" just because Plinynotesthem. sion thatsuch incidentswere necessarily 23 2.22. Letters, Symmachus, 24 For a see Epictetus,Discourses, 4.I.94 f. description, 25 CIL ii, 1389 (Baetica, Conventus See the following: Astigitanus), 2968 (Tarra= Conventus Nova); Carthago conensis, 3479 5928 (Tarraconensis, Caesaraugustus), = = Ad 8021 (Dacia, Mediam), 1585 iii, I559 8009 (Dacia, Slatina), I579 (Dacia, = = ILS ILS 8506 (Dalmatia, SpalDobreta), 2399 8514 (Dalmatia, Spalato),2544 ato), 8266 = I4574 (Upper Moesia, Urbica), 8542 (Upper Moesia, Orahoracnear = = ILS ILS 5II2 (Dalmatia, Spalato), 14587 8504 (UpperMoesia, Prizren),8830 Ravna); vi, 234 = ILS 2011 (Rome), 20307 = ILS 8505 (Rome); viii, 20307 = 2282 ILS 5795 (Africa,Lambaesis); xiii, 259 (Aquitania,LugdunumConvenarum), 3689 (Belgica, (Lugdunensis, Lugdunum), 2667 (Lugdunensis, Augustodunum), Gehaborner Hof); ILS 2646 (AidussinanearTergeTreviri),6429 (Upper Germany, 1903:209(Aquileia), 1901:I9 (UpperMoesia, Ravna), ste),8507 = Annieepigraphique 1934:209 (Dalmatia, Petch); on the cases fromthe lowerDanubian region,see D. (cont.onp. 12)
ofarmedbodyguards. and thisin spiteoftheprotection The younger to his friend HisPlinynotes one such instancein a letterwritten of his, one panus. A Roman equesnamed Robustus and a friend AtiliusScaurus,had set out on thehighroad to Ocriculum, a town miles northof Rome on the Via Flaminia, the major only forty roadtothePo valley.Theywereneverseenagain.A thorough arterial searchturnedup no traceof eitherman or, forthatmatter, any of He remarks their attendants. to Hispanusthat Plinyis notsurprised. the same fate probablystruckthese men as once befellMetilius of his fromComum in northern Italy. Crispus,a fellowtownsman Crispus left Comum one day with his bodyguardof slaves. He of this type, endemic to the was never seen again.22 Insecurity is to be foundnot onlyin Italyand Judaeaof thefirst countryside, it was ubiquitous,thoughin varying century; degreesof intensity, In thelatefourth in theempirein all periodsofitsexistence. century the senatorQuintus Aurelius Symmachuswrote in a letterthat of Rome he did notdare to venture he was prefect although beyond with the walls of the citybecause the roads outsidewere infested scenes of travelin Such dangersproducedserio-comic brigands.23 thatregularly theprovinces in whichone of thefewarmedconvoys and his staff, was touredthe roads of a region,thatof thegovernor bands of people who hoped thattheymight accompanied by motley repreescape the perilsof the road by huddlingclose to the safety on the move".24 sentedby "government This impressionof a generalyet somewhatindefinable danger reinforced by two otherindicators. by banditsis further presented foundon tombstones that is a smallnumberofinscriptions The first commemorate men, women and childrenwho were murderedby are foundin bandits. Althoughfew in number,such inscriptions almost all regionsof the empire,includingplaces close to Rome to a commonenoughoccurrence itself.The deathswere evidently found on most a brief a formulaic rise to tombstones, expression give a latronibus ("killed by bandits").25The epitaphs are interfectus
TombstonefromPrizrenin the Metohija regionof Upper Moesia (southern Yugohis father, Scerviaedus slavia), set up by Sita Dasipi and his wifeto commemorate a latronibus): Sitaes, who was "killed by bandits" (interfectus CorpusInscriptionum Latinarum, iii, 8242.
I2
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indicative of a larger small surely problemthanis suggested bytheir absolute numbersince it would be unusual, given the prevailing for explicitmentionto be commemoration, etiquetteof funerary we do have,therefore, made ofbanditsat all. The number is a harsh if limitedadmissionof a more widespreaddangermade explicitin indexoftheubiquity ofbanditry theother sources.The other literary is to be foundin the numberof concretemeasurestaken by the advance Roman state- the buildingof guardposts,watchtowers, - to provideprotection forthose stationsand otherfortifications using the roads. The elaborate defensivesystems(the so-called and African limes)foundalong theRhine-Danube,Syro-Palestinian as large-scale frontiers oftheempireare usuallyinterpreted strategic enemiesof the state.Alworksdirectedagainstthe greatexternal in thisobservation, itcannot there is a basic truth obscurethe though of thesesystems are knownfrom factthatmanyelements epigraphic to ensure a generalsafetyfor evidence to have been constructed on local roads. Not a fewof thesefrontier and transport travellers weredirected as muchto thesolution of low-level defences regional threatsto securityas they were to more awesome "barbarian" armies.26 Hence one mayacceptthatbanditry posed a specific typeofthreat both is to define to theRoman state.The problemforthehistorian One mightbegin moreaccurately. and the phenomenon the threat written witha certainJuliusSenex who is namedin a letter by the Pius in the early I50s senatorFronto to the emperorAntoninius A.D. Senex, Fronto states,is a close personalfriendof his from Mauretania,one of Rome's African provinces.The reason Fronto thehunting downofbandits. mentions Senexis hispeculiar expertise: totakeup thegovernoris Fronto'simpending The context departure developedFronto ship of the Roman provinceof Asia. As matters is stillillustrative seemsnotto have takenup thepost,but theletter of the type of personal friendhe was considering takingon his was hunter skill as a bandit Senex's staff. administrative Obviously
de istorie din Dacia", Studiisi cercetdri in inscriptiile a latronibus Tudor, "Interfecti iv (I953), PP. 583-95. veche, 26 See CIL iii, 3385 = ILS 395 = 8913 (Matrica-Baata,on the banks of the Danube, Lower Pannonia, A.D. i85), cf. 10312-13 (Intercisa,Dunapentele,Upper Pannonia); viii, 2495 (Qsar Sidi al-Haj, Numidia, A.D. i88) and 2494 = ILS 2636 1905:114 and 145 (ad CIL iii, 3385) (Loth Borj, Numidia). Cf. Annie epigraphique and I9I0:I45 (ibid.); CIL iii, I2483 = ILS 724 (Troesmi,Iglitzae,A.D. 337-40),and in whicha commandagainstbandits and senators careersof equestrians themilitary latrones adversus is noted: praefectus (AE 1968:109, Satricum,Italy); cf. CIL xi, arcendibus 6107 = ILS 509 (Umbria,on the Via Flaminia,A.D. 246); and praefectus latrociniis 5010 = ILS 7007, (CIL xiii,621 I, Ad navemsuperiorem, UpperGermany; the of and a series,see generalstudy Nyon, Noviodunum).On the last inscription, de Suisse (CIL XIII, 5010): etude "A proposd'une inscription L. Flam-Zuckerman, xxix(I970), pp. 451dans 1'empire de brigandage du phenomene romain",Latomus, 73.
(n. 25 cont.)
Tombstonefrom Viminacium, Upper Moesia (Kostolac, east of Belgrade),of Lucius Blassius Ni g by a rear-riding Legio VII Claudia, on a missionin his official transport, protected army)from Latinarum, iii, I650.
I4
PAST AND PRESENT
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regardedas necessaryeven foran old and long-pacified province like Asia.27 Since the maintenance of law and order(and its close the collectionof tribute)was the principalduty of the corollary, he had to call on the expertise of men like Senex. The governor, sectionof theDigestentitled theDuties ofa Provincial "Concerning Governor" statesas much,withreference to the (De officio praesidis) sortsof men who threatened orderin provincial society:
The text is not just an ideologicalexpression of the state and its In a letter enemies; it embodies the actual practiceof governors. written to his brother ofAsia at thetime Quintus,who was governor him on a good governorship, a very (60 B.C.) Cicero congratulates of orderin important part of which consistedin the maintenance the countryside. The lettermakes specificreference to Quintus' of bandits in theregionofMysiain north-western Anatorepression lia.29The situation had not improved muchin thegeneral regionof Asia when, preciselya decade later, Cicero himselftook up the of Cilicia (51-50 B.C.).30 This practical side of governgovernorship ance maythenbe relatedto some of themoredetailedprovisions of thelegalinjunction to thegovernor quotedabove. Thoughtheinitial sectionof the law includesa detailednamingof criminal types,the finalsentencerefersonly to latrones in general,as a category in whichall the othersubtypes are included.That is the promiseand the problemwithsuch sourcematerials: froma common everyone thief to a rampant pillageris lumpedunderthe label latrosince all form to the same provincial order. partof a commonthreat as thetextis, it does provide an important clue to the But, limited betweenstaterepresentatives of power analysisof the relationship and the latrones, no matter who the latter mayhave been. The law assumesthatbanditscannotoperatewithout a broadernetwork of
27
It is the dutyof a good and seriousgovernor to see thatthe provincehe governs remainspeacefuland quiet. This is not a difficult taskif he scrupulously ridsthe of evil and hunts them down. Indeed, he must hunt men, province assiduously down desecrators and pillagersof sacred property bandits(latrones), (sacrilegi), and commonthieves and punisheach one in accordkidnappers (plagiarii), (fures), ance withhis misdeeds.And he mustuse forceagainsttheir collaborators (receptawithout whom the bandit(latro)is not able to remainhiddenforlong.28 tores)
Fronto,To Antoninus Pius, 8 (Naber, I69 = Loeb, Fronto,i, pp. 236-7). weretemplerobbers Dig. 1.18.13; sacrilegi 2.1.9 (Livy 29.18.8; Cicero,Verrines, and 2.5.188; On theLaws, 2.40), plagiariiwere kidnappers(Cicero, To hisBrother and were common thieves. Quintus,1.2.6), fures 29 Brother Quintus, Cicero, To his 1.1.25. 30 For his of the "free Cilicians", theirbanditry, and his campaign description them for which he was hailed see Cicero, To Atticus, against "imperator", 5.20. The situation, however,did not improve.At the end of his governorship, upon leaving the provincein Juneof 50 B.C. he wroteto Atticus(6.4.I) thatbrigandage was still in theregion;cf. To hisFriends, nearTaurusin 51 B.C. to Caelius 2.9.1 (from rampant of eventsin the outsideworld:"I am in a Rufus)wherehe notesthathe is ignorant and because of regionwherenews comes in slowlyboth because of its remoteness in the countryside". banditry
28
Relieffromthe villageof BoyiikKadife (western the head of Turkey),showing on horseback in paramilitary facingthreeof his men who are attired gear; thefi who is styleda "hero" in the inscription: L. Robert,Etudesanatolie
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
and thatthegovernor cannothope to put an end to their supporters, actions without at thisbase. In thewordsofthelaw,"without striking themthe banditcannotlong remainhidden".31The law is at once of statepowerand itsexercise.Implicit in itsterms is the revelatory mechanism was expectedto repress principal by whichthegovernor thatof betrayal. ofthebandit's banditry, Whywas thecollaboration so urgently supporters soughtand requiredby thestate?Surelynot just because popular supportformeda screenbetweenthe bandit and thelocal instruments ofstaterepression.32 In theRomanempire these instruments, in theirmodernformof a deep and effective infrastructure of police power (local gendarmeries, solid networks of investigative did not exist.Of coursetherewere agencies)simply local patrolmen and, under variousnames, men employedin the taskof maintaining a sortof civicorderin townsand villages.Most, like the irenarchs(peace officers) and phylakes (guardsmen)are attestedin the more developed urbanized regionsof the eastern empire.But thereis hardlyany evidence,even in thesewell-documentedinstances oflocal police,of anyintegral connection between themand the armedforceof the centralstate,or of anypermanent ofthem In thewestern organization bythestate.33 empire municipalitiesalso had their stationes (guards,posts)and viatores (road patrols) to controltownrowdyism, but theyhardlyrepresented the sortof effective forcea governor could use in the repression of banditsin the countryside.34 To judge fromCicero's advice to his brother, dependenceon theselocal civic patrolswas not an advisablecourse
31 Dig. 48.I3.4.2 emphasizesthe same point, namelythat banditswere usually triedextraordinem. 32 As Hobsbawm,Bandits,pp. 48 ff.contends. 33 The bestevidencefor theprovince of Asia where anydirectlinkagecomesfrom the governor in the appointment involvedhimself of irenarchs; each citysenta list of tencandidatesfrom whichhe choseone (Aristides, Orations, 50.72 f., K). For the generalsituation,see A. H. M. Jones,The GreekCity,2nd edn. (Oxford, 1940; repr. 1971), pp. 2II-I3: "What is today consideredthe most elementary dutyof of law and order,seems,from themaintenance theabsenceofreference government, to it, to have been almost ignoredby Hellenisticcities"; see pp. 212 ff. for his comments on theappearanceof irenarchs in thesecondcentury A.D., menappointed to pursuebandits,alongwithdiogmitai "hunters",and his nn. by Roman governors 2 (nightguards), see also A. H. M. Jones, TheCriminal 3 (paraphylakes), 4 (irenarchs); Courts ed. J. A. Crook(Oxford,1974),p. i 6. oftheRomanRepublicand Principate, in On irenarchs and their ofAntoninus Pius, cf.Dig. 48.3.6. . powersin Asia thereign 34 See O. Hirschfeld, "Die Sicherheitspolizei imromischen Kaiserzeit", SitzungsberichtederAkademiederWissenschaften, Klasse (1891), Berlin,Philologisch-Historische = ch. in his Kleine pp. 845-77 (Berlin, 1913), pp. 576-612,at pp. 859 39 Schriften and pp. 866 (= 598) ff.forstationarii. Cf. C. Lecrivain, (= 591) ff.forthe provinces in Dictionnaire etromaines, des antiquites iv (1913), pp. 1469 f. "Stationarii", grecques For examples,see CIL x, 2468, line 16 (A.D. 168-72,Saepinum,Italy); F. F. Abbott in theRomanEmpire(Princeton, and A. C. Johnson, MunicipalAdministration 1926; were also employed repr. New York, 1968), no. I44, line 9 (Aphrodisias).Viatores to haul personsbefore see AulusGellius, Attic municipal magistrates; Nights, 13.12.6; Vatinius, Cicero, On Old Age, i6.56; Against 9.12; Livy 2.56.13, 3.56.5; Justinian, Institutes ofLaw, 4.6; Dig. 5.1.8.2.
R8Ffpvv AVG'PIVSwSARM>E ~ * 7,IM . n0547ff LO P IPA MN _ PW 1:'^ .T ''.--"[i~i~~~~-]PPX-IOS FSf AOPPORTVNAEEADCLAN
OPPOsSnM ,. tlOVMSW T SrTSOPPOITIS 0)

IL A
fromIntercisa,Pannonia (centralHungary,on the Danube) marking the site of Inscription over places subject"to clandestine Commodusto providesurveillance by bandits"(ad forays Latinarum, iii, 3385. Inscriptionum
PAST AND PRESENT
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If need be he should rely to be followedby a provincial governor. on the services of vigilantes and semi-professional killers (diogmitai) in the region.35 alreadyin the employof landowners - thatis, thosein whichthere oftheempire The armedprovinces unitsof the army- did, in this sense, were stationedsubstantial have betterpolicing. For if we must seek any equivalentat all to modernpolice in theempirethereis no doubtwheretheyare to be of the Roman armyis found.The usual impetusamonghistorians of to see its soldiersas dedicated to conquest and to the battling oras peaceableadministrators, builders external that, enemies;either The whole roleof the armyas an internal and farmers. police force ofsubjects in works one of themostneglected in theempireremains examination of the dayEven a cursory devotedto the institution. in the multitude of garrisons of soldiersstationed to-dayactivities of provincesis more than but in the interior noton the frontiers Wherever and thiscritical to demonstrate sufficient policefunction. is availablerelevant to thisinterwhenever adequate documentation withthevastmajority oftheinhabitants in contact nalroleofthearmy of the empire (for example, the papyri of Egypt, the Christian as investigators, soldiers acts)we find functioning everywhere martyr executioners and jailers.36 So Roman torturers, enforcers, policemen, of the have recourse could in the armed empire provinces governors offered other thanthat to a sourceofforce bylocalcivicauthorities to the armyitself. theycould go directly thedimorphic lead to another, These simpleobservations namely central and localpower between nature oftheconfrontation authority had a in the Roman empire. On the one hand this confrontation bolder "face-to-face" aspect than in most modernsocieties:there a disguise. the need nor the means to maintain was simplyneither lacked The ironicotherside of theequationwas thatthestateitself to serveas an effective police force centrally organized anycoherent rule of an empire.The statewas to its military civic counterpart or on directuse either on local self-help concomitantly dependent
(Oxford,I972), pp. 6-7), wherea posse Martyrs Musurillo,TheActsof theChristian led against bandits is commandedby an irenarch.See also Cagnat, of diogmitai iv, 886 (Ceretapae),an epitaphof one pertinentes, graecaead resromanas Inscriptiones Aurelius "Eirenaios" (the "man of peace") who "killed many bandits" in Lycia, in would seem to be a memorialfor just such a hiredkiller. Hence the diogmitai and enforcers and professional type lay somewherebetweena posse of vigilantes - as such theywere veryclose to the banditsthemselves as a category; regulators hereafter Historiae see Life ofMarcus(Scriptores SHA), 21.2.7-8. Augustae; 36 See the important article by G. Lopuszanski, "La police romaine et les xx (1951), pp. 5-46; detailson the local police units chretiens", classique, L'antiquite und die of the armycan be foundin A. von Domaszewski,"Die Beneficiarposten Geschichte undKunst, xxi(I 902), Westdeutsche romischen Strassennetze", Zeitschriftfuir xxii Hermes, Provinzialmilizen", pp. I68-2I , and in T. Mommsen,"Die romischen vi (Berlin, 910o), pp. I45-55. Schriften, (1887), pp. 457-558 = Gesammelte of Polycarp(see H. is the accountof the martyrdom o0(Aezani). Most instructive
35
Orientis see Dittenberger, For diogmitai, selectae, 511, line graecaeinscriptiones
I9
of the army. Apart fromthe occasional recourseto special army outbreaks of banditry, commandsin the case of seriouslarge-scale of unarmed all evidence points to the conclusionthat governors local supporttheycould provinceswere at the mercyof whatever of outlaws.The phenomenon of banditry, in the repression muster one ofthecritically weakarticulations therefore, places in highrelief of the ancient state. The Roman governorhad to rely on local suchas municipalities, tomaintain and corporate individuals entities, order.Manylawsin thecodes,as wellas foundation charters regional thatit is the responsibility of the issued to municipalities, specify town to capture and to hand over bandits operatingin its rural to the courtof the provincial There are many territory governor.37 of whichI shall cite knowninstancesof thisbehaviourin practice, Commoduspublicly onlyone here.In theyearA.D. I90 theemperor counciland people of the townof Bubon thankedthe magistrates, in north-western withwhichtheyhad Lycia forthezeal and energy hunted down, attacked and defeatedlocal bandits, takingsome and killingothers.38 But not onlylegallyrecognized prisoner governmental unitslike municipalities were accordedsuch rights. The laws also stressthatit is thedutyof private individuals to detect,to In the pursuitof pursue and to betraybanditsto local authorities. theprivate individual thisobligation was authorized to use force, to in injureand even to kill such men. And theywerealso exempted, normallaws on iniuria and homicide.39 Such a carte doingthis,from of thepositiveuse of violentforcefrom blanche transfer thestateto in individuals was unusual Roman law. It went farbeyond private thenormalconcession ofusing by moststatesto individuals granted reasonableforceto protectthemselves when attacked.The Roman state clearlyregardedthis grantof "public vengeance"(as it was and was manifestly politelyphrased) as exceptional, uneasyabout this reversalof statepower. Still, the practicewas justified in the name of the "commonpeace".40 This odd legaltreatment ofmencalledbandits, a specialtreatment
37CJ 1.55.6-7 (A.D. 405), 8.40.I3 (A.D. 238-40); cf. The Lex coloniaegenetivae Iuliae, 103 (see E. G. Hardy, Roman Laws and Charters (Oxford, I912), pp. 478 = Fontesiurisromani 2nd edn., i, no. 2I, p. 191). antejustiani, 38F. Schindler, "Die Inschriften von Bubon (Nordlykien)", Osterreichische AkademiederWissenschaften, Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, Philosophisch-Historische cclxxviii.3 of self-defence. 40 CJ 3.27.2 (A.D. 403), "militiae ius sibi sciant pro quiete communi exercendae indultum"("let themilitary realizethattheright ofinflicting publicaeultionis public vengeanceis grantedthemforthe sake of commonpeace") = Codex Theodosianus legibus fuit" ("[he] was subject to the laws on accountof public vengeance"); CJ ultionem"("we therefore allow you to 27.1.1, "vestramigiturvobis permittimus inflict yourown vengeance"); cf. Sententiae Pauli, 5.23.8.
(hereafter CTh) 7.18.I4; CJ 9.2.II (A.D. 292), "ob ultionem publicam obnoxius (Vienna, 1972), no. 2, pp. 11-23. 39 Cy 3.27. I-2 (A.D. 391 and 403), 9. 6.3 (A.D. 265); cf. Dig. 9.2.7, on regular rules
20
PAST AND PRESENT
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to whichthestatewas compelledby itsvery set nature, immediately - as did their themapartfrom criminals The ordinary punishment. trialand punishment of bandits,as withmostcommoncriminals in was a summary affair on the provincial society, entirely dependent decision and power (coercitio) of the magistrate (in the arbitrary case of most seriouscrimes,the governor himself).Procedurewas non-existent. It consisted ofwhatever traditional the norms virtually chose to exercisein a directhearing of thecase, a hearing governor thatwas set entirely outsidenormaltrialprocedureforupper-class personsas establishedin the cityof Rome (hence its titleof extra Penalties also setbandits thecommon criminal ordinem).41 apartfrom bothin the degreeof punishment and in theelement of defendant, in the laws insiston the powerof the deterrence. Many provisions to interrogate the banditon the governor's appointedlegal officers as the torture him to norm) (with accepted before dispatching spot In no case, adds thelaw, are anyof the thegovernor forsentencing. courtesies extendedto othercriminal such as defendants, normally respiteforsacred or public holidays,to be allowed to such men.42 courttheexpectation was of summary At thegovernor's and savage membersof the upper class believed that judgement.43 Certainly latrones deserved the worst type of death sentence.44 The law themostbrutalof thedeathpenalties summa sanctioned (the supplito the beasts, burningalive, and crucifixion) as cia - throwing savageriesthat were necessary"to set a public example".45Cruas a punishment forbandits,goingback had a long history cifixion oftheRomanRepublic.Its specialinstitution wellintotheearly years withthe dual and interrelated is connected as a formal punishment in southern and banditry, threats of servilerebellion especially Italy knowncase of "throwing to the beasts" as a and Sicily. The first on a Sicilianbanditin the was the deathinflicted legal punishment associatedwith Crimes that were habitually reignof Augustus.46 incurredthe (for example, cattle rustling)automatically banditry to the condemnation most savage penalties (capital punishment, werealways vocation, mines),and bandits,by theveryfactof their The punishofsuchpunishments.47 and deserving considered guilty mentof banditswas clearly viewedas a form of stateretribution and
41 theclearest J.Crook,Law andLifeofRome(London, 1967), pp. 268-75,remains and simplestexplanation. 42 For example,Dig. 48.3.6.1; cf. CTh 9.35.7 (A.D. 408). 43 Petronius, 91. Satyricon, 44 For of a governor engagedin 7; comparethe remarks example,Seneca, Letters, of a bandit,as observedby the sophistPolemo in Philostratus, the routinetorture Lives of theSophists, 541. 45 Dig. 48.I9.16.I0. 46 On Sicilianbrigandage accountofthedeathof Selouros"the and his eyewitness at Rome, see Strabo6.2.6 (C 273). showin the forum son of Aetna" in a gladiatorial
47 Dig. 48.19.11.2.
BANDITS
IN THE
ROMAN EMPIRE
2I
Well-known banditswereto be executedand their public terrorism. bodies impaled on forkedstakesin the same place wheretheyhad theircrimesso thatthe mere sightwould deterothers committed similar acts. It is thispublicity ofpunishment, from also performing deathto beastsin thegreat in thethrowing ofbanditsto their evident thatmarksthemas men apart.48 arenasof public entertainment, The whole networkof detection,pursuitand punishment just of the ancient outlinedreveals one of the peculiar characteristics to the definition of a farwider statethatled, almostautomatically, state:the rangeof personsas banditsthanin themodernabsolutist of the framework stunted of law dealingwith development severely force.A critical use ofviolent was aspectofthisshortfall illegitimate betweenciviland criminal the lack of clear differentiation law and, given this problem,the extentto which "criminallaw" was at all enforceoperablein theabsenceof adequate policing, investigative, The mentand prosecuting restriction of "crimiagencies.49 general nal" actionsto a civilmode of "breachofcontract" meantthatthere or indeedan inability was alwaysa hesitancy to cope withactsagainst in general within thescopeoflegal"crimes".Men committing society suchviolent actsalmostimmediately became"outlaws"becausethey had to be dealt with beyond the limitsof criminallaw and by instruments of collective statepowerrather thanby individual civil action- thatis, by provincial commanders and governors, military unitsof thearmy, or by thetransfer ofthispowerto private individIf no privateindividualcould bringa uals and local corporations. court action, by defaultit had to be broughtby the state; that directconfrontation thatthedefendant mustbe a logically suggested subverter of thewhole social order,a bandit.The problem was one of state definition, betweenthose acts againstthe state that were "out-law" (thatis, againstthe community but outsidethe scope of its law) and thosewhichconstituted major acts of violenceagainst the whole stateas such (thatis, wars). This is precisely the way in whichthe Roman statereacted. "Enemies (hostes) are those who have declaredwar on us or on whom we have declared war; all the rest are bandits(latrones) or states theDigest in a section on thedefinition plunderers (praedones)", ofwordsas issuedby thestate(De verborum in thiscase significatione, But the definition latrones).50 itself,and the problem,could have
49 This lack of differentiation is evident in every so-called "law code" from withtheSumero-Babylonian that ofHammurapi. antiquity, beginning ones,including and its Sanctions:On 'Criminal'Law in the See, especially, J. Renger,"Wrongdoing Old BabylonianPeriod", in J. M. Sasson (ed.), The Treatment in the of Criminals Ancient Near East (Leiden, 1977), pp. 65-77, together withthe remarks of Crook, Law and Life ofRome,pp. I62-8, 268-70, on Roman law. 50 Dig. 50.I6.II8.
48 Ibid., 48.I9.28.IO,
48.I9.28.I5.
22
PAST AND PRESENT
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51 ed il "Ancorasulla captivitas Ibid., 49.15.24; fora discussion,see L. Amirante, in Studi in onoredi Pietrode Francisci, 4 vols. (Milan, I956), i, pp. postliminium", 5I7-44. 52 Dig. 49.I5.I9.2. 53 Ibid., 28.I.I3.pr.
arisenin other, moreconcrete, circumstances. if What,forinstance, a Roman citizen,a fully memberof the state,were to pass fledged in the courseof violentactionor seizurefrom one world(the state) intoanother What would his statusbe after (the non-state)? having crossedthatfrontier? As has alreadybeen observedin our remarks on the definition of war (bellumor bellumiustum) therewas no problemwhen a real enemyor stateof war existedsince the prior condition of the combatants stateshad been met. beingrecognized In this case the capturedcitizen lost his citizenship (status) and becametheproperty ofthecaptor.To effect there-entry ofprisoners of war into Roman society,therefore, the law recognized a formal institution calledpostliminium oftheboundary orthresh(a recrossing old, the limen)whereina person who had lost his citizenship by normalsociety and reactivate his lost capturein war could re-enter status.The juristUlpian, however,declaredthatanyonecaptured as banditsdid notlose his citizenstatusand so by personsdefined had no need of postliminium since "those men alone are enemies against whom the Roman state has declared war, or who have declaredwar againstthe Roman people; all the restare themselves called banditsor plunderers"(that is, precisely the words of the Digestquoted above).51Banditsand pirateshad no "state" recognition(as did theParthians and Germans, saysUlpian) and so all men still freeand retainedall their capturedby themwere technically as Roman citizens.52 and privileges For example,such men rights whileprisoners could draft a last will and testament (as indeedthey in well have wished to do those and it would circumstances) may valid.53 still be perfectly of outlawsby the Roman state All these facetsof the treatment about the formalpositionof signal somethingrathersignificant bandits in the perspectiveof the archaic state. First, and most view of the stateitselfsuch even in the technical-legal important, as common menwerenever seensimply criminals. There existedquite of them that in a penumbral definitions bandits placed separate the scope of thelaw (criminal and betweenpersonswithin category and enemiesofthestate.Theywere,quite civil,largely overlapping) "out-law".Hence itwas notonlythedowntrodden peasants literally, as common who refusedto place such men in the same category thisidentification. Romanlaw criminals. The statetoo desistedfrom of this view. It denies to banditsall legal rights in generalreflects The retained defendants. citizens,even thosenormally by criminal with the label of bandit did not have normal person stigmatized
23
a marriage was declaredto be null access to courtsforjudgements, was discovered and void if one of the partners to be a latro, and so on.54 That is to say, the bandit was a non-person, a judgement notjustin thelaw butalso in upper-class reflected in general thought where arelumpedtogether bandits withtheother outcastes ofGraecoRoman society:slaves and the insane.55 We maynow return to theproblem alludedto at thebeginning of this article: the labelling of persons we would considerpolitical enemiesas latrones, and of full-scale warsas latrocinium. The factis thatonce banditshad been defined as men who stoodin a peculiar relation to thestate,thelabel latro was availableto be pastedon any "de-stated"person. It became a powerful in itself, used metaphor to cast doubt on hostilepersons,principally deliberately political enemies.As a weaponofaccusation it appearsfully developedin the of Cicero and Sallust in the late Republic, cominginto writings intenseusage duringtimesof politicalstressand upparticularly heavalin thecentral state.Its deployment in Cicero,forexample,is concentrated in theyears63 (forCatiline),56 (forClodius),and after 49 duringthe civil wars (for Dolabella, Marcus Antonius,Julius Caesar and even Octavianus).56 Thereafter it was entrenched as part of politicalvocabularyand was commonly reverted to in timesof central statecrisis(thatis in A.D. 68-9, 192-3and in thewholeofthe mid-third after century 238) to brandpoliticalenemies,particularly those who were competitors for local power and for the imperial throne.57 At the other end of this continuum,states themselves wereperceivedas emerging from an "anti-state" chaos of primitive banditry.So, for example, Rome was foundedby Romulus and chieftains ofbanditgangs.58 Hence anyconfrontaRemus,shepherd tionbetweendifferent levels of potential statepowercould be cast intothelanguageof brigandage. In thelifeof Jesus,theprotagonist
54 Ibid., 5.I.6I.pr.-i; CJ 5.I7.8.2-3; cf. T. Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht (Leipzig, 1899; repr. Graz, 1955), p. 312, n.I. 55 See, for On the example,Cicero, Orator, 3.18.65. That he also includesenemies shows thatthe Stoics, of whomhe is speaking,cast theirnet a little (hostes) merely more widely. 56 See, forexample,Catiline: Against Catiline, 1.13.21, I0.27; 2.7.16; For Milo, 17, 21.55; Clodius: To Atticus, 4.3.3; To Quintus, 2.I.3, 2.2.3; Caesar: To Atticus, Caesar's assassins: To his 7.I8.I2, I4.IO.I-2; Friends, I0.24.3; Dolabella: To his Friends, 12.14.1, I2.15.2-7, I2.25b.6; To Brutus, 14.9.2, 16.1; Antoniusand/or To his io.6. 0. I4. Lepidus: Friends,Io.5.3, ; I, 4; I0.23.3, I2.2.2, I2.25b.6; Philippics, 3.7.I6, I4.3.8. 57 See the R. "The Roman Concept Robber-Pretender", MacMullen, study by Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquite, 3rd ser., x (1963), pp. 22I-5. 58 Livy 1.4.9, I.5.3; cf. Eutropius I.I-3; comparetheage of Theseus in Plutarch, Life of Theseus, 6.4, Io.2, and earlyGreece as portrayed by Thucydides(nn. 64-5 communities below),and otherearlyMediterranean (n. 93 below). It is an old theme; cf. the legendof Sargonof Akkad in the Semitictradition: Ancient J. B. Pritchard, Near EasternTexts(Princeton,1974), p. 19. It was laterdevelopedsystematically by Ibn Khaldfinin his Muqaddimah.
24
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attacks thecentre offormal theTemple, Jewish powerand authority, as "a bandits' hideout".59And, in his arrestin the Garden of himself as an anti-bandit, but also as a Gethsemane, Jesusportrays man wrongly identified as a brigandby his arresters: "Do you take me fora bandit,sinceyouhavecomewithswords and clubsto arrest me?". The theme continuesin the scene of his execution,as is in the epigraphto thisessay.60 reflected To sumup theargument thusfar:whatever their absolute numbers in theRoman small)banditswerea common (probably phenomenon and presented thestatewitha specific ofintegration. empire problem Theiractionsand mereexistence are correlated withthevery definitionand exerciseof statepowerin a waythatis reflected notonlyin acts,but also in themetaphoric legaland otherempirical vocabulary in whichstatepowerwas expressed. But theseobservations stillleave untouched. Who becamea bandit?And thecoreofthephenomenon of social violencearise?And what why?How did thispeculiarform of social and political is its significance as a mechanism definition in archaic states? ofbanditsin a society Sincethepresence dependsto a largeextent on recognition (in both sensesof theword) thereoughtto be some out in the historicalpoint at which this recognition precipitates fora newlyperceived formof a vocabulary,a novel terminology provokesa briefexcursusinto the phenomenon.This hypothesis fromthose To avoid priorand just criticism world of etymology. of I who share a historian's scepticism purelylinguistic argument, conclusions statenow thatI do notwishto makeanyhistorical hinge in vacuo;they are onlycogent in so far on thefollowing observations historical other observations. One as they are substantiated by might B.C. perhapslate sixth,century begin by notingthat by the fifth, and lestes to refer wereemploying theterms Greekcity-states lesteia to piracyand brigandage.But if thesesame wordsare tracedback we findthattheyhave no such intoearlierperiodsof Greeksociety another sense at all. They merely or specific signify way pejorative and economicgoods (by plundering of acquiring ofmakinga living, with the whole of that societyand raiding)that was coterminous from it. as something could not be defined whichtherefore separate "War" and "brigandage"appear as one indivisible thingalong the and wereonlylaterto be differentiated of meaning, same spectrum linked That thisprocesswas notnecessarily process.61 bya historical
Mark 11.17, Luke 19.46, Matthew21.13; cf. Jeremiah 7.II. see also Mark 15.27, Mark I4.48, Luke 22.52, Matthew 26.55; on theexecution, of the Bar-Abbas with the and Matthew implications episodein Mark I5.7 27.38 44, and JohnI8.40. 61 The terms connected(forexample,in Homer) lestes and lesteiawere originally with leis, -idos meaning "booty" or "spoils" or raidingand warfare(see Iliad,
59
60
or statist ofwordshas no pejorative one who collectsbooty.But thisfamily meaning, A See R. J. Cunliffe, distinction. of a bandit/state bears no denotation and certainly
(cont. on p. 25)
9.138 = 280, I .677, I2.7,
-erosis one who is a despoiler, 18.327). Therefore a leister,
25
is shownbythesimple solelyto thefirst appearanceofclassstructure factthat classes were alreadypresentin these societiesbeforethe adventof banditry itself.62 It mayindeedbe linkedto theintensificaof powerin theseearly tionof class as an elementin the networks but a further sufficient social formations, cause is required. This sufficient elementis surelythe growing differentiation and rise of an autonomousentitythat we designate"the state". The in theGreekworld, renewed however, appearanceofa statestructure did not immediately removeall tracesof earlierattitudes to raiding in enumerating the various "modes of and plundering.Aristotle, livelihood"by whichmen produce the substanceof theirlife,and whichlay at the basis of the Greekstate(polis),givesthe following fivepure types:pastoralnomadism,hunting, and banditry, fishing And Thucydides,thoughhe disapproves of banditry agriculture.63 ofthepolis,notesthatthere from theperspective weremanycontemforwhombrigandage Greekcommunities was stilla perfectly porary
Lexiconof theHomeric Dialect (London, 1924; repr.Norman,Okla., I963), p. 249; and forfullreferences, see H. Ebeling, Lexiconhomericum (Hildesheim,1963), pp. ofthisethosevenin theperiodoffulldevelopment ofthe 985-6. On thecontinuation polis, see A. H. Jackson,"Plunderingin War and other Depredationsin Greek Historyfrom800 B.C. to 146 B.C." (Univ. of CambridgePh.D. Thesis, 1969), and his essay,"Privateers in theAncient GreekWorld", in M. R. D. Foot (ed.), Warand (London, 1973), pp. 241-53. Society 62 the work. He Hobsbawm, Bandits, pp. 18-19, a theme repeatedthroughout admitsthatin societies mostcharacterized and conflict, modern byclass division postindustrial is virtually non-existent. This observation is thenfitted into ones, banditry his overallthesisby categorizing as a "primitive" form of social actionthat banditry gives way to "more advanced" forms(forexample,the strike)as societydevelops. He appealsto a number ofindependent factors involved in modernization (a combinationofeconomic moreefficient and publicadministradevelopment, communications, These factors, tion) as reasonsforthe disappearanceof banditry. however,do not seem to stemfromthe conception of class and, in any event,the centrality of class to his explanation is surelyopen to question.Although western have anthropologists fora longtimeignored thepossibility ofclass structure in so-calledprimitive societies much recentresearch has (placingmostof theiremphasison kinshiporganization), C. Meillassoux, begunto questionthissingle-minded See, for interpretation. example, et capitaux(Paris, 1975), trans.as Maidens,Meal and Money(CamFemmes, greniers Marxist toEconbridge,1981); D. Seddon (ed.), Relations ofProduction: Approaches omic Anthropology en (London, 1978); M. Godelier, Horizon, trajetsmarxistes in MarxistAnthropology (Paris, 1973), trans. R. Brain as Perspectives anthropologie Marxiandefinition ofclassmustrequire thatclasses I977). Anytechnical (Cambridge, existedin earliersocieties,and indeed thattheymustextendback intoprehistory to a pointwherethestudy ofmanand his socialbehaviour production) (including merges withsociobiology. For the archaicphases of Greekand Roman history therecan be no doubt; see, forexample,M. I. Finley,The World ofOdysseus, 4th edn. (London, 1978), ch. 3. The only question thatremains,then,is the role of class relativeto - in thiscase, above all, the state.The presenceof class otherforms of social force in itselfoffers no clear explanationof the historical conditionsin which banditry a definition appearsand thendisappears;hence Hobsbawm is compelledto offer of torn from historical situation.But it cannot merelybe a timeless banditry any that bandits fromcommon criminals.One would rather "perception" separates concludethatbanditry was createdby theprocessualgenesisofthestateand thatthe truereasonforits finaldemisein our worldis the finalvictory of thestateas a form of totaldomination. 63 = Aristotle, Politics, I256a-b I.8.6-8.
(n. 6i cont.)
26
PAST AND PRESENT
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honourableoccupation.64 Plato is, predictably, more critical.He classifies as a subtype ofthehunting mode,butcastigates brigandage it as thebad typeofhunting as opposedto thepursuit offour-footed animalson horseback, theonly"good" type.65 The riseof thestate in theRomanworldeffected a similar butone changein vocabulary, is moredifficult totracebecauseofthelackofgoodcontemporary that sourcesofsufficiently Latin above,theprincipal earlydate. As stated termforbanditwas latroand forbanditry latrocinium. These words are based on a *LATR root and are derivedfroma whole family of wordsin Greekofsimilar earlier in date. The striking origin, though factabout all theseearlierGreekterms(forexample,latris, latreia, to earlyfourth B.C. in their theseventh centuries latreuo) usage from is thattheyhave no apparent connection withbanditsat all. Latreia, of a hiredlabourer, forexample,is a noun meaning"the condition the performance of servicesor dutiesforanother man". It has the of "workingforsomeoneforcompensation" and hence denotation of labour obligations".But it also has a connotation "performing a stigmaof inferiority incurredby the very social subservience, meansnot only of the labour duties. The verb latreuo performance to "to be subordinate to workforhire but also to be in servitude, The questionnowmustbe: howand why someoneelse's dictates".66 of termswith did the conceptionof latroemergefromthismatrix ofwage/market, and connotations duty/obligation, hire/employment of inferiority and superiority? social relations either stilldid notrefer earliest In their usage in Latin theseterms to military but rather labouror service to banditsor to brigandage, the importance of this development givenforpay. To understand thatto servein thearmyof a Greekpolis one mustalso understand A man's ability to serve bothas a dutyand a privilege. was regarded his statusas a citizen.The determined ofit largely and thevaluation for "lost citizen soldier mightoccasionallyreceive compensation subsistence"but rarelyin the formof a wage forhis labour; that and would broachthe ideologicalfirst would be sociallydegrading was sharedabout of thepolis.67 Much the same attitude principles of Rome in the the soldierin the armyof the primitive city-state (compareour earlyRepublic. Sometimeshe receiveda stipendium
64 of late sixthand earlyfifth-century ThucydidesI.5 ff.In the stateperspective a piraticalor brigandassociationforthe purpose of plunderwas Athens,forming des NOMOI: Die Fragmente still "legal"; see E. Ruschenbusch,SOLONOS apparently Gesetzewerkes Solonischen (Wiesbaden, 1966), p. 98, F76a = Dig. 47.22.4. 65 ofpiracy and banditry valuation amongsome Plato,Laws, 7.823d. For a positive withthepolis,cf. ThucydidesI.5 ff. Greekcommunities contemporary 66 G. Steinmayr, in Greciae in Roma", Attie della base latro "Sviluppi semantici di Verona(1955-6), pp. I5I-63. dell'Academia memorie 67 See Liddell and Scott, GreekLexicon,p. Io32, s.w.; Lampe, Greek Patristic of "wage", see E. Will, "Notes sur Lexicon,pp. 793-4, s.vv.; forthe significance a ClairePreaux (Brussels,1975), pp. 426-38. MISTHOS", in Le monde grec:hommages
27
forlostsubsistence, but nota wage. Both "stipend") to compensate in the classical Greek polis and in the earlyRoman Republic the soldierwho foughtfor pay (that is, a mercenary) reprofessional to the social world of the state, stigmatized mained an outsider fora wagein thequintessential by thefactthathe laboured precisely thecitizen.The contrast rolenormally held by theultimate insider, in thecenturies after circa400 betweenthetwobecameeven starker a profound B.C. when the polis experienced politicalcrisisand the social forcesin soldierand the piratebecame dominant mercenary that all the earliest the Greek world. Hence it is not fortuitous in Latin, whichare contemporary references to latro withthisthirdHellenisticworld (for example, in the plays and second-century of Plautus and Terence, who wroteunder the directinfluence of Hellenistic models),mean"hiredman" in theprecisesenseof"hired a gun". The pointis thatlatrohad now come to mean, generally, "hiredmanofviolence"who,as a mercenary, conducted hiscontractual labour under the umbrellaof stateauthority.68 and as an outsider whohad no idealattachment As a wagelabourer to thecommunity thatused him,themercenary was doublydespised as a socialinferior. These precisehistorical circumstances, therefore, of men of violencewho wereconnected createda typology to a state and yetwho stoodoutsideits community. The historical processby whichtheterm latro thencame to signify the"non-contractual" cases aloneis now easyenoughto understand, sincein itsdevelopment the Romanstatefollowed a pattern from thatoftheGreek quite distinct polis - not just in the way in which it achieved unchallenged domination over all surrounding but also in politicalcommunities, its controlof the whole fieldof legitimate violence.To understand theimportance of thesedevelopments we mustfirst the recapitulate of the latro-mercenary: he was a man who principalcharacteristics factors ofviolence,legitima"belonged" to a statevia themediating and beingan outsider tothecommuntion,receiving payfor fighting, ity of the state that employedhim. But the Roman state in its moved first to the formation of a permanent full-time development citizenarmyand finally, in the late Republicand earlyempire,to a full-time of citizenship was professional armywhere the criterion reducedto a mechanical Both thefactors of thebulk of formality.69 theforce and itsprofessionalism tendedto ruleout common recourse
68 See Glare, OxfordLatin Dictionary, s.vv.; Thesaurus linguaelatinae,vii, pp. a Isidorus,Etymologicum magnum, 10.I59, offers IoI5.I, IOI7.II, s.vv.; in antiquity falseetymology fromlatere("to hide"). 69 On the processof the of a professional development armyand its demands,see P. A. Brunt,Italian Manpower,225 B.C.-A.D. 14 (Oxford, I971), pp. 405 f.; E. and theAllies,trans.P. J. Cuff(Oxford,I976), Gabba, Republican Rome, theArmy chs. I-2; and, above all, K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, vol. i, Sociological Studiesin RomanHistory (Cambridge,1978), ch. I, pp. 25-37.
28
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
to mercenaries who wereneveran integral partoftheRomansystem of stateviolence.In factthenew professional Romansoldierlargely of themercenary: he was a usurpedtwo of themajorcharacteristics man who fought forpay underthelegitimizing aegis of a state.But as a mileshe was an insiderto the community. That leftthe only other characteristics ofthemercenary, thoseofbeingan outsider and of personalviolence.Thus the word latrowas left,by a processof to define thistypeof man alone. The paid professional elimination, soldierswho now constituted the core of the Roman imperial army werein a real sense the "mercenaries". Latrowas now a pejorative termleftto designate men of violencewho wereoutsiders to private but who were still linked to it by some of thefactors on the society thathad includedmercenaries. Hence theywere originalspectrum nevertotaloutsiders or "enemies". Thus there are twoendsofthespectrum thatapplyto theproblem of banditry: statemen of violenceand private men of violence.Let us beginwiththeformer. In a statethearmy and individual soldiers are themostnaked and directinstruments of legitimate force.Each soldierhas theexercise of lethalforce at his fingertips. The problem is: when is this forcebeing used legitimately? state Superficially soldiersdo not seem to perform different work frommercenaries became and, as statedabove, as the Romanempiregrewits soldiers moreand morelikepaid professionals and less and less liketheideal of the selfless peasantsoldierof theearlyRepublic. Everyindexwe have of soldiers'ambitionsin the late Republic and earlyempire of betterment of theircontractual termsof pointsin the direction serviceincluding,above all, pay.70Increasingly, there therefore, of the statethatseparated was littleexceptthe sanction therolesof or latro.At theotherend of the "regularsoldier"and "mercenary" resorted spectrum any private personwho had access to, or actually of force was a bandit. In this instruments case too state to, potential But perhapsit would be best to sanctionmade all the difference. the crossed beginwiththeobvious case - thatof men who directly from thinline of legitimacy, beingsoldiersto beingbandits.There
70 On the whole, the themeof "land and army"in the laterRepublic has been an emphasison theputative rewards forsoldiersand/or approachedwithtoo narrow their supposeddemandforland in theprecisesenseofland to be used by themselves in The entirestoryof land settlement as peasant farmers. by state organizations - one ofdeliberate control ofviolent hypothesis arguesfora quite different antiquity in settled menbyfixing them Plutarch, communities; see, for LifeofPompey, example, For thelaterRomanempire,see G. E. M. de veterans. 28.3-4: he was notrewarding GreekWorld in theAncient Ste. Croix, The Class Struggle (London, 1981), appendix accounts,see P. A. Brunt,"The Armyand the 3, pp. 509-I8. For some traditional Land in the Roman Revolution",Jl. Roman Studies,lii (1962), pp. 69-85; E. S. of theRoman Gruen,"The Plebs and the Army",ch. 9 in his The Last Generation Republic(Berkeley,1974), pp. 387-404.
29
For example,Cicero, On the Agrarian Law, 2.27 (7I). The countervailing in soldiers' complaints in Tacitus, pressuresare reflected settlement of surplus Annals,I.I7, 31, 35, 46, and in Augustus'policyof large-scale military manpower;see his Res gestae,3 and 28. 73 CJ 12.46.3 (A.D. 353); cf. CTh 7.20.7.
71 72
to twoof are varioustypecases, but analysisherewill be restricted and deserters. the most common- veterans into First, the case of the veterans.The reasonsfortheirflight brigandageare easy to discern.They were men who had spent a ofviolencein theservice as professionals oftheRomanstate. lifetime thebonusesand savings had accumulated But whenthey retired they foran alternative were sometimes insufficient way of life. Even if (oftentheydid not,or whentheydid the theyreceiveda land grant land was ofpoorquality)thequestionthenarose:howwilling would soldiersbe to become peasantfarmers at the end of their life-long workinglife? One can only note, in an analogous case, Cicero's if crass,assessment of Rullus' land bill in 63 B.C. It would realistic, not succeed in its aim of agrarian Ciceroclaimed,even ifit reform, did pass, because the urban mob no longerknew how to farmor indeed even desired to returnto the land.71 For some veterans, there musthave been a strong notto retire but therefore, temptation to continuepractising theirlife-long skills, only now outside the aegis of state sanction. One must suspect that the numberswere small (the armywas willing,it seems, to keep men under colours after retirement Pressures of this age) but it is a recurrent pattern. exacerbatedin the aftermath of large-scale typewere considerably and demobilization recruitment (for example,afterperiodsof extendedcivilconflict).72 When soldiersdid seek to retire theoptions lifewiththesame rewards, open to themof a continued perquisites and privileges theyhad previously enjoyedwere few. Indeed, the law codes envisage only two alternatives: the cultivation of land and the investment of moneyin "honourableand honest"business aboutveterans enterprise. They saynothing continuing employment as men of violencein the privatehire of landlords,in whichrole to abuse and preyupon defenceless commoners theycould continue as theyhad formerly done. These same laws, however,note with to become bandits"because of disgustthatsome soldierspreferred laziness" (neglegentia vitae).73 A relatedand probably morecommonphenomenon is thatofmen the armyto take up a life of banditry. Oftenthereis a deserting the causes forthisbehaviourfromthose problemof distinguishing one of its most common contexts- the flight to local hedging in resistance to Roman rule, especially in the immediate leadership aftermath of Roman conquest. In the lattersituationwe find a constant movement of local men of violenceand local leadership in and out of thecadresof theauxiliary forces employed by theRoman
30
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER 105
But even regular was harshforthefoot-soldier armyservice army.74 and needs to be viewed as a careerwhichmightor mightnot be - a contextthatcertainly worththe rewardsin a given situation service with one stressing replacedtheold Republicanethosofcitizen of armed labour. The bad conditions the professionalism included not only the normal duties, dangersand discipline,but also an entrenched by systemof bribes, exactions,and brutal treatment was the "enforced An even biggerproblem,however, superiors.75 ofmenfrom thecoveroflegality oflargenumbers desertion" by the ofstatepower.Anyperiodofcrisisin thecentral boundaries shifting to problemsof legitimate stateled immediately supplyand governOne reaction local solutions. ance in whichlocal communities sought was the creationof autonomousregionalarmiesand commanders claimsto centralist Since taxesand thathad competing legitimacy. tended other requisitionsthat supportedthe centralgovernment to be highlylocalized both in theircollectionand redistribution, thatwas at of serviceand supplywas virtually everything legitimacy stake. In the case whereone of these local potentates managedto ofsoldiers and whole as emperor, his supremacy assert largenumbers became Whole of army illegitimate. immediately regions requisition and as deserters, thenbandits, classified unitscould findthemselves Unlesssuch sourcesof pay and provision. so cut offfrom legitimate the soldierswere willingto become civiliansand recyclethrough social system,theywere compelled to a life of brigandage.The process can be observedon a large scale duringany periodof socalled "civil war" in the Roman state,but the plain factis thatit all the timeand in everyregion.76 was happeningin miniature of the creation illustration an excellent offer Soldiers,therefore, within ofauthority ofthedefinition frontiers ofbandits bytheshifting could also be found"outside" the thestateitself. Bandits,however, is considered, ifa secondfactor statestructure namelythepractical limits at which the state could actually enforceits self-defined mandatein geopoliticalterms.A good example of this source of controlof the centralstate over whole is the imperfect banditry were surrounded which by its forcesbut which regions geographic The were otherwiseinadequatelypenetratedby its institutions. weremostly statedomination reasonsforthisincomplete technologiof the terrainto controlby the primitive cal: the recalcitrance at the disposal of the archaicstate. of communication instruments markedby the a weak form took two main forms: This disjunction
74 On the recruitment unitsof in theauxiliary ethnicrecruits of rebelleadersfrom the Roman armyin the immediate period,see Dyson, "Native Revolt post-conquest in the Roman Empire". Patterns 75 See, forexample,Tacitus, Annals, 1.46, and n. 72 above. 76 See MacMullen, "Roman ConceptRobber-Pretender", who,whiledocumenting of another the concept,revealsthe reality process.
31
of highlandlords and theireconomicnetworks, partialintegration the between markedby an almosttotalseparation form and a strong of disjunction was foundthroughout twoworlds.The weakerform wheregeographical in mountainous theempire,especially highlands isolation was compounded by the presence of a well-developed as, forexample,in southern pastoralism economyof transhumant Hobsbawmis surely right Italy,Sicilyand Sardinia.In thiscontext whichmakesthem ofpeasantfarmers to claimthatitis thevery fixity in thatanytypeof movement so eminently exploitable.His corollary and of itself congenialto banditry provokesan elementof freedom It is thisfactor of is more than adequatelyattestedin antiquity.77 in regions of diminished state thatis critically movement important control.In additionto pastoralnomads,highlandshepherds representeda social group thatwas integrated sociallyand economically and yetwhich,becauseofitspeculiar intothewiderimperial system mostpoliticalconstraints.78 was freedfrom economicorganization, Hence the equation "shepherdequals bandit" comes close to being one thatis trueforall antiquity.79 Indeed, the verytypeof social communities enthatcharacterized highlandshepherd organization the drivingforcebehind threeor fourof abled themto constitute in all ancienthistory.80 documented the largestslave uprisings attributed to shepherd-bandits is that The crimemostfrequently It was so inextricably associatedwithbandits of rustling (abigeatus). but as a more thatit was not regardedas commontheft (furtum) therefore incurred themostsevere typeofcrime.Rustling aggravated Hadriandecreedto theprovincial councilof penalties.The emperor Baetica (southern Spain, where the problem was endemic) that to the mines or executionwas the normalpenalty. condemnation But therewere problemswithsuch an absolutesystem of penalties had wide linkswithpartsof society that sincethebanditsobviously were consideredlegitimate.Such links bound them to the local in whoseemployment and wealthy werefound.Consethey powerful quently the law was compelled to recognizethis wider nexus of landowners power networksthat encompassedbandit-shepherds, in a regional market in animalsand private and receivers protection.
77 Hobsbawm,Bandits,pp. 30 ff.On movement as one of the threeor fourbasic of "freedom"in theancient constituent elements world,see theparamone agreements fromDelphi: W. L. Westermann, "Between Slaveryand Freedom", Amer.Hist.
Rev., 1 (1945), pp. 213-27.
78 For the of highlandpastoralist into organization groups,and theirintegration the villa economyof powerful see the description in Varro,On Agricullandowners, ture,1.2.I2-I8, 1.23 ff. 79Both in law (forexample,CJ 9.2.II, "id est pastorum "that is, latronumve", of shepherds or brigands")or in thegeneralliterature of roles (cf. theironicreversal in Fronto,To MarcusCaesar, 2.12; Naber, p. 35: Loeb, by the shepherds suggested i, pp. I50-3). 80 See theaccountin Livy 29.29.8-10 for therebellion of I85 B.C. and theliterature cited in n. IIo below forthe Sicilian revolts.
32
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I 05
81 Dig. - ten assessment of penalties 47.14.2.; see 47.I4. .pr.-3forquantitative or moresheep,fourto fivepigs,one horseor cow stolenwouldmeanabigeatus rather thanfurtum. On abigeatus in general,see Comparison of theLaws ofMoses and the Romans, ii "On rustling",2 (= Sententiae Pauli, 5.20, 3.2), 3, 7.5 (on regional variations in penalties), 8 (= Dig. 47. 4. I-4); cf.Hartman, "Abigeatus",RE i (1894), col. 97. 82 CTh 9.30.I (A.D. 364) and 9.30.4 (A.D. 365). On thisand the otherlaws cited nella below, see the two studies by F. M. de Robertis,"Prosperitae banditismo duranteil basso impero",in M. Paone (ed.), Studidi Puglia e nell'Italiameridionale storia di Giuseppe in onore Chiarelli,7 vols. (Galatina, 1972-80),i, pp. 197pugliese e lottaal banditismo in alcunecostituzione dell'Ususequorum 232, and "Interdizione del basso impero",Studia et documenta et iuris,xl (1974), pp. 67-98. historiae 83 CTh 9.30.2. (A.D. 364) in additionto the sourcescitedin n. 8I above. 84 Ibid., 9.3I.I (A.D. 409). 85 See the studies dans la litterature latinede la finde by P. Jal,"Hostis(publicus) la Republique", Revue des etudes lxv (1963), pp. 53-79; "Bellumcivile. . . anciennes, fin externum Rome la bellum dans la de de la Republique et au debut de l'empire", Les etudes xxx (1962), pp. 257-67, 384-90; "Le 'soldat' des guerres civiles classiques, Rome fin et au la de la a debut de l'empire",Pallas, xi (1962-4), pp. a Republique d Rome: et and La morale On the civile etude litteraire 7-27; (Paris, 1963). latter, guerre see the critiqueby P. Pouthier,"La guerrecivile a Rome: aux confins de l'histoire et la litterature", Annales.E.S.C., xx (1965), pp. 1216-21.
Both soldiersand armiesin the veryheartof the system of state power, and the peripheraland incompletely integrated highland illustrate theinability of thearchaicstateadequately to pastoralists, define itsself-defined mandate ofauthority. The problem ofdefining the limitsof civil strife was anothersevere difficulty that always troubledthe Roman state,especiallyduringperiodsof civilwar.85
bandits.84
An exception thenhad to be made in thecase of thosereceivers who werenone otherthanmembers of thelandowning elite. If culpable middlemen were of highersocial status(honestiores) theywereonly to be relegated loss of theirstatus (a lesserformof exile) or suffer and/or property.81 But attempts to controlhighlandbrigandage by theseand other means brought no finallong-term solution.By the fourth and fifth A.D. thecentral centuries was driven to desperate measgovernment ures in Italyitself in an attempt to controlshepherd banditsin the southernregionsof the peninsula: Lucania, Picenum, Samnium, at thecentral natural ofthe Apulia and Calabria. It struck advantage - theirfreedom of movement.Specifically the governshepherds mentsoughtto denytheuse of horsesto them.All persons"except senators and high-ranking administrators ofprovinofficials, imperial decurions and others service under ces,veterans, performing imperial of horses.82 arms" were denied the use or ownership Collaboration with landowners is explicitly recognizedas part of this systemof since the domini are specifically warnedagainst highlandbanditry providing horses to potential bandits, in this case their own of an almostcongenital shepherds.83 Finally,in recognition dispositionto banditry in thesehighland warned all persons, zones,thestate offunwanted children on includingthe wealthy, againstsloughing in the certainty thattheytoo would be raisedas future shepherds,
33
thatbrokeout in 49 B.C. with conflict The long periodof intra-state the break betweenCaesar and Pompeius Magnus, and which did not end until eighteenyears later at Actium,is one such period in banditactivity. increase The extreme characterized bya noticeable of the central led of the state not only to authority precariousness in the and to its quasi-institutionalization of brigandage, outbreaks oftheempire,but also to rampant accusations ofbanditry heartland at opponents whoseclaimsto political and piracy directed legitimacy In 36 B.C., sometimeafter intodoubt.86 Octaviwereto be brought anus had assertedhis supremacyover one such opponentin the the "pirate" SextusPompeius,therewere western Mediterranean, at will withinItalyitself: stillarmedgroupsof banditsoperating
Suetonius adds detail,confirming thatthetype Augustus'biographer behaviourthathad been createdby thecivil of violentuncontrolled continued unabatedintotimes ofpeace and order.Many warssimply highlymobile men of violence (grassatores) paraded about openly armedwithswords"on theexcuse", saysSuetonius,"of self-protection". These armed bands were both entrepreneurial and tied by to local menofpower.Theywentaboutseizing linksof dependency without bothslavesand freemenand throwing discrimination them into the slave prisons(ergastula) of wealthylandlords.88 Augustus in threeways. First, he soughtto controlthis typeof brigandage detachments of the at strategic placed police army(stationes) points intothecases of throughout Italy.Then he conducted investigations men who were being held in the slave prisonsof Italianlandlords. And lastlyhe took severemeasuresagainstall illegalassociations or gatherings(collegia). This successful case ofstaterepression was directed at twoseparate levels- at theusurpation of thepowerand authority of thecentral
86 Augustus,Res gestae,25.I ("mare pacavi a praedonibus");cf. Velleius Paterculus, 2.73.2; T. Rice-Holmes,The Architect of theRomanEmpire(Oxford,1928), pp. Io6-I6. 87 civilium liberquintus, ed. E. Appian, Civil War, 5.132; see Appiani bellorum Gabba (Florence, I970), pp. 218-22; forC. CalvisiusSabinus, who bore the titleof (cf. n. 26 above), see CIL, i, 2nd edn., I860 = ILS 2488 = Inscriptiones praefectus latinaeliberae reipublicae,500 (Amiternum) and Broughton, Roman Magistrates ofthe Republic,2 vols. (New York, 1952-60),ii, p. 401. 88 refers to a formal Suetonius, LifeofAugustus, 32; Dio 49.43.5 (33 B.C.) probably to such men fortheirlatrocinium, amnesty granted thoughDio says thatforsome it amountedto a licence to continuetheirinvolvement withbrigandage.
This seemed to be the end of the civil chaos. Octavianuswas now twenty-eight yearsold. Cities joined in naminghim among theirguardiangods. At this time withbrigands wereopenlyinfested whoseactionsweremore Italyand Rome itself like those of barefacedplunderersthan those of commonthieves.Sabinus was chosen by Octavianusto bringthe situation undercontrol;he executedmanyof one year,re-established conditions ofabsolute thebanditshe capturedand, within to tradition, thepractice ofnightlaw and order.Atthattime,according and system whichis stillin force.Octavianuselicitedgreatastonishment guardsoriginated by an end to this social evil withsuch unparalleled speed.87 putting
34
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
stateby baroniallordsand at theprevention of any sortof assembly thatmightbecome subversive in nature.The two approacheswere connectedin thatsuch "gatherings" integrally (thatis, the bandit were in the service of the local who both gangs) clearly powerful used and protected them.But it is mostunlikely thatthesemeasures succeededas dramatically as laterlaudatory writers would have us believe. In fact,Augustus' successorTiberius had to continueto the systemof stationes to controlfurther outbreaksof strengthen bandit activity.89 The point of the literary accounts reportedby Appian concerning Augustus' success againstthe banditsin Italy - factualand ideological. whilehe was stillOctavianusis twofold as the Octavianus,like Pompeius Magnus beforehim,is portrayed anti-bandit. As in thecase ofPompeiusthisportrait two emphasizes themes. First, the distance betweenthe legitimate ruler and the bandit.The rulerhimself does not deignto chase and suppressthe he delegatesthe task to subordinates who carry out bandit; rather, theinferior taskofpolicing for their master. Butthesecond,opposite, characteristic of the accountis thatthe gloryof theirachievement reflects directlyon the ruler. As with Pompeius' suppressionof in 67-6 B.C., Augustus' controlof pirates in the Mediterranean thatit brigandsin Italy is achieved so quicklyand so completely evokesgasps of astonishment and admiration.90 Duringanyperiodofupheavalsuchas civilwarthewholeprocess floweddownwards thepoliticalsystem whereby legitimacy through to be invested in thehandsof by a processof statedefinition, finally In periodsoftheneartotal theindividual soldier,could be reversed. it could theoretically be reversed collapse of centralstateauthority all the way back up the system.In practicethe reversal could be and consciouslyby the state in cases where it made deliberately to men whomit would otherwise have defined extendedlegitimacy as outlaws. "Maecenas' advice" to the emperor Augustus(actually a programme Dio CassiusaboutA.D. 215) composedby thehistorian was to enroll men in the Roman armywho were of the greatest men and who were mostin need of a livelihood, physicalstrength be mostlikelyto turnto a lifeofbrigandage.91 who wouldotherwise actual adviceof a utopianhistorian; It was not just thehypothetical of theso-calledauxiliin theprovinces, especially armyrecruitment by much this mode of ary units, seems to have been determined choice. And some emperorsare actually said to have recruited
89 Suetonius, Life of Tiberius,37.I; see Strabo 4.6.6 (C 204) on Augustus' used to crushAlpine banditry. of stationes and road-building programme 90 See Plutarch, 24-29, 30.1, and the workscitedin n. 14 above; Life ofPompey, his flockfrom compare the image of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd", protecting
91 Dio 57.27.4; cf. the remarks and Volunteering by P. A. Brunt,"Conscription i (1974), pp. 94-5. in the Roman ImperialArmy",Scriptaclassicaisraelica,
bandits: John I0.I,
7-II.
35
oftheir status. from banditgangsby a wholesalerecognition soldiers Thus Marcus Aurelius is reportedto have turnedthe banditsof Dalmatia and Dardania into regularsoldiersin the Roman army.92 of thethreat of local menof This processinvolvedtheabsorption themwithinthe violenceby the simpleexpedientof incorporating of the state.In a sense it was a pattern thatwas alreadyto be forces communities and found in relationsbetweenlocal Mediterranean violent elements in the state therefore is them; process peripheral onlya regionalone writlarge. It was not one limitedto Rome, nor indeed to the troubledtimesof themiddleempire.Massinissa,one African"kings" to appear in the Maghribduringthe of the first (circa 225-I50 B.C.) was reputed periodofRome's warswithCarthage to have foundedone of the first indigenousstatesin northAfrica. of him, forhaving He was also renowned,in ideologicalportraits But soldiers. into bandits earlier, regular duringhis riseto changed Massinissahimself as a wanderportrayed power,Roman historians turnedto ing bandit.In thisperiodtheysay thattheCarthaginians anotherAfrican"king" named Syphax to hunt Massinissa down. fora trueking Syphax,however,claimed thatit was unbecoming like himself to pursuea mere"bandit" like Massinissa.Instead,he Examplesof thistypecould delegatedthe task to a subordinate.93 to be multipliedmany times over; theyare more than sufficient in ancientMediterranean a pattern thatwas not demonstrate society of the Roman state. just a peculiarity an ebb and flow ofstate-defined The pattern suggests powerin the which automatically ancient Mediterranean created, in the very processof definition, groupsof men called bandits.In thisebb and flowtherewas a constantcrossingof boundariesprovoked,above of expandingstatesinto local societies,with all, by the intrusion attendant social disruption, above all on the land.94But it was a toperipheral was notrestricted Mediterranean communiprocessthat tiescaughtup in thethroes of stateincorporation; it was happening all the timeto the mostpowerful statein thatworld,theempireof Rome. During the metamorphosis of Roman statestructure in the
92 (SHA), 21.2.7; see A. M6csy,"LatronesDardaniae",Actaantiqua LifeofMarcus Academiaescientiarum xvi (1968), pp. 351-4; cf. A. M6csy, Gesellschaft hungaricae, und Romanisation in derromischen ProvinzMoesia Superior (Amsterdam, 1970), pp. 194-8; in Marcus' reign,probablyin connectionwith this policy, a special army was sentintothissameregion to deal withbandits:H.-G. Pflaum, commander "Deux carrieres equestresde Lambese et de Zana (Diana Veteranorum)", Libyca,iii, (1955), Moesiae inferioris eodemin tempore p. I35 f., "aucto salarioadeptusprocurationem et at detrahendam vexillationibus Briseorum latronum manumin confinio praeposito misso.. ." ("havingreceived theprocuraMacedon[iae]etThrac[iae]ab Imp[eratore] of Lower Moesia at an increasedsalaryand at the same timeput in command torship of troopsdrawnfromthe legionsand sent by the emperorto dislodgethe band of Briseanbrigandson the bordersof Macedonia and Thrace ..."). 93 Livy 29.3I.I2; cf. 29.32.II-I2.
94
See Dyson,"Native Revolt Patterns in theRoman Empire".
36
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
mid-third A.D. when thepowerand authority of thecentral century statecame most into question,local men of powerwho otherwise would have been stigmatized as banditsusurped aspects of state and imagery ofstrength, power(for example,theideology protection, and dispensation of justice)and gradually enteredthe beneficence, realmof formal stateauthority. Indeed the lines of power mightbe so reversed thatthe bandit would become emperor of Rome. Considerthecareerof one of the ephemeralrulersof Rome in the period, Maximinus("Little Big Man") the Thracian:
In his earlyyouthhe was a shepherd, a youngman withan impressive and noble locals from attacks. appearance;laterhe wenton raidswithbanditsand protected in the cavalry.He was He thenenteredthe Roman armyand servedhis stipendia was conspicuousforhis large body size, outshoneall othersoldiersin bravery, wild in manners, but handsomein his manliness, harsh,arrogant, contemptuous, a man of justice.95 nevertheless
In othercircumstances in the mid-third a Godfather, he century of Rome. Contrast his careerwiththatoftwoother becameemperor risen bandits: Tacfarinasin northAfricain the A.D. 2os and the in Livyas: expastore exvenatore summarized riseis succinctly venator, duxfactus a hunter, moxiusti latro, ("fromshepherd quoqueexercitus fromhuntera bandit,and thensoon the generalof a real army"). Almostthesamecareerstagesareoutlined byTacitusfortheAfrican Tacfarinas: firsta shepherd,then a soldier, then a bandit-chief bandit, then the general of a real army.96The only difference is thattheRomanstate between thesemenand Maximinus effectively of themas banditsand nevercontemmaintained its categorization of the state,much less plated absorbingthemwithinthe structure were them simplyrepressed. emperor.They making in There is yetanotherstrandin the outbreakof banditactivity Italy alluded to by Appian in his account of its repressionby Octavianus: the ambiguouspositionof banditsbetweenthe local stateon theother.It is on theone hand and thecentral community thatbanditswho operateeitheron a now an accepted observation or foran extendedperiodof timemusthave one of two large-scale bases of supportoutsidetheirgang: eitherlocal communalsupport the latter). If or the covert support of the powerful(preferably radiusofthebandit is thebase, thentheoperational popularsupport to the local regionwherethe banditsare known, gang is restricted and the people. In most ancient and wheretheyknow the terrain hunteddown,one and moderncases wherebanditsare successfully of a of the major causes of theirfinaldemise is the abandonment Almost choice or either every compulsion. base, by by regional
96
Spanish strongman Viriathus in the I40s and I30s B.C. The latter's
95 Life ofMaximinus (SHA), 2. I.
Livy, Periochae,52; Tacitus, Annals,2.52.
37
theexistence of at leastone Roman legal texton thesubjectassumes of thesetwo bases of support.In the case of veterans and deserters thiswas a naturalconsequenceof theirbackground the since,from mostarmyrecruiting and posting was local in earlysecondcentury, character. toowouldhabitually in thesameregion Shepherds operate in whichthey labouredon a day-to-day basis. The government knew thisnaturallocal supportby a two-pronged thatit had to neutralize attack: on the kinship links bandits maintainedand on broader connections. It was expected that innocent community persons might be harmedin military operations againstbandits,but commanders were cautionedagainstindiscriminate use of force;thiswas to be avoided at all costs since it would only further alienatethe local populace fromthe centralgovernment.97 Otheraspects of this continuouslinkagewith "straight"society can also be seen in smallerscale in thedailyoperation of thebandit A form of contact referred in to oursources gangs. specific frequently is thereceptator ("receiver")as he was called in Latin, our "fence". In several thegeneral instructions issuedtoprovincial laws,including are seen to represent a widertypeofcollaborgovernors, receptatores ation with bandits that was criticalto the continuedsuccessful operationof bandit gangs. They must especiallybe hunteddown because, as one law phrasesit:
are the veryworsttypeof men,sincewithout themno man would be Receptatores able to remainhidden. Thus receivers are punished(withthe same penalties)as thebanditsthemselves. All thosepersonswho could haveapprehended thebandits but who let them escape, havingreceivedmoneyor part of the loot, are to be treated as in thissame category.98
That is to say, the law assumes thatthe receiver and otherlatent were as culpable as the bandit himselfand therefore supporters deservedthe same punishment. But therewere real problems with this injunction.There were many (more) laws in which it was were none otherthan the wealthy and recognizedthatreceptatores in local society.The laws on rustling mentioned powerful above, for example, had to specifythat receiverswere to be punished "in accordancewiththeirsocial rank": by exile fromItalyfora period of ten yearsor some otherless aggravated formof punishment.99 Then again, blood relatives also had to be treatedmore leniently, of kinshipin Roman law and society, since giventhe counterclaims itwas expectedthatthey wouldbe compelled"by nature"to support banditswho were relatives of theirs.100 The wide rangeof thesenormalcontacts withlocal society meant
= CTh 9.29.2.3 (A.D. 383-91). Dig. 47.16.1; cf. Sententiae Pauli, 5.3.4; CTh 7.1.1 (A.D. 323); on receptatores, see 0. Eger, "Receptator",RE i.2 (1914), col. 354; G. Humbertand C. Lecrivain, des antiquites et romaines, iv.2 (I908), p. 815. "Receptator",in Dictionnaire grecques 99 See Dig. 47.14.3.3 (an epistula of Trajan); cf. n. 8I above.
98
97 CJ 9.39.2.3
100 Dig. 47.16.2.
38
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
thatbanditsposed no ordinary of law and ordersinceboth problem and landlords often saw bandits as something peasants quitedifferent from commoncriminals. Even so, thebanditappearsin our texts as a most vulnerableand dependentman. Ultimately banditshad to findone of two solutionsother than death: eithersome formof withpeasant societyfromwhichtheyhad sprungor reintegration some form of co-operation withthepolitically The whole powerful. of evidence from the Roman empirepowerfully that range suggests the latterprocesswas the dominant one and thatit constituted the core relationship of banditsto politicalsociety.101 Laws repeatedly refer to banditswho operatewiththecovert(or even overt)support of landlordsand powerful municipalmen. One law warnsthatthe centralstatemusthave some typeof extra-communal, disinterested force at itsdisposalin order"to abolishtheprotection ofthepowerful over armed criminals and bandits".'02Another law, a generalone directedagainst "anyone who knowingly receivesbanditsor who to hand themover to the courts",mentions hesitates punishments thatare both corporaland punitiveof wealth.Whichof the two is to be imposedis at thediscretion of theRomanmagistrate based on social status.This clearly his assessment of thedefendant's suggests or personsof high social rank(of towndecurionor thathonestiores in bandits.103The pattern is evident status)weresupporting higher and theiragents severalotherlaws thatcautionlandlords(domini) on their bandits and estate against harbouring managers (procuratores) to violent men.104 their landsand extending protection (patrocinium) of men who were Corollarylaws mentionthe patronalprotection in much the same potentialbandits(forexample,armydeserters) 105 was no simpleone sincelandowners The problem circumstances. to thosewhich at their have forces disposalthatweresuperior might of the And it was not officials state. could be marshalled by regional
101The element of banditsseemsto be emphasized of co-optation inadequately by Hobsbawm, Bandits, pp. 9I ff., where he tends to stress the opposite process with in the to terms whereas to come bandits), (landowners pagesimmediately having the his evidenceseemsto support and in ch. 7, "Banditsand Revolution", following the banditwas almost Peasant and the that "The of Brigand", interpretation Blok, drawn in suchrelationships and was therefore theweakerofthetwoparties invariably from historical This much, at least, emerges of patronaldomination. into networks underwhicha banditoperatedare analyseswherethe fulldetailsof the conditions of Social Limitations articleby L. Lewin, "The Oligarchical known;see thebrilliant in Brazil: The Case of the'Good' ThiefAntonioSilvino",Past and Present, Banditry no. 82 (Feb. I979), pp. 116-46. 102 CTh 1.29.8 (A.D. 392); on thispatronal of outlawsby the powerful protection The Concept "Patrocinium: in late Roman societyin the west, see T. B. Andersen, and Dependence in the Later Roman Empireand the Early of PersonalProtection to Middle Ages" (Fordham Univ. Ph.D. Thesis, 1974), ch. 4, withfullreference de Zulueta and Harmand. earlierworkby Martroye,
103 CTh 9.29.1 (A.D. 374). 104 cf.CTh
9.29.2 (A.D. 383-91), i.55.6, and Dig. 48.I9.27.2. CJ 9.39.2 (A.D. 45I); 105 See CTh 7.I8.7 (A.D. 383), 7.I8.10 (A.D. 400), 7.I8.I4 and 7.18.I5 (A.D. 406).
39
limitedto the period of our best information on the phenomenon (the legal codes of the fourthcenturyand later). The laws are of information from otherliterary substantiated sources by a stream thissortof actiontakenby landlords thatdetailprecisely and their Italyof theRepublicto Gaul of the agentsfromSicilyand southern later empire.106 Boththelandlords at one end ofthespectrum and local communitiesat theotherindicatethelocation of banditry in imperial society. It lay in the interstices between local army commanders, town landowners and their officials ofthestate,and the decurions, agents, It was thegreatutility of generalpopulace of townand countryside. to all thesesocial groupsthatproducedvarying of banditry degrees of it by a wide rangeof personsin the regionalsocieties toleration thatconstituted the empire.A classic exampleof thisprocesson a scale is the limited toleration of piracy grand by theRomanstatefor a periodof about a century (circaI60s-60sB.C.) in thewholeregion of theeastern In theaftermath Mediterranean. of thedestruction of in the area, and the severecurtailthe major Hellenistickingdoms ment of the power of the remaining minorstates,Rome simply withdrew, powervacuum.Piracyblossomedto leavingan enormous fillthe gap. Some of the majorpirategroupsrose to the powerand 107 Toleration size of smallstates. was extendedto thepirates partly because it was usefulfortheRoman stateto do so. The pirates were a disruptive force in theeastern Mediterranean and actedas a natural checkon thepossibleresurgence ofHellenistic states.Theyprovided the desiredeffect of a permanent stateof lawlessness, a perpetual forRoman military intervention in theregion.Another justification notunforeseen was theemergence ofthepirates perhaps consequence as large-scale of slavesforthelatifundist ofwealthy estates suppliers Romans and Italians in southernItaly and Sicily. In most cases the slaves were obtained in violentraids and massivekidnapping conducted who preyed on thefree operations by thepirates citizenry ofthevictimized and largely defenceless Hellenistic communities.108 becameso big thatthey Onlywhenthepirates actually beganto pose a threat to the Roman stateitself did the rulingorderactively seek
For Gaul, see Ausonius,Letters, 14.22-27; forSicily,see n. IIo below. Ancient Plutarch, Life ofPompey, 24 f.; Strabo,I4.5.I f. Omerod,Piracyin the World, pp. 233 f., givessome of the details;cf. Broughton, Magistrates oftheRoman Republic,ii, p. 146 (67 B.C.). 108 Strabo,I4.3.I f. (C 664); see E. Mar6ti,"Der Sklavenmarkt aufDelos und die Piraterie", Helikon,ix-x (1969-70), pp. 24-42; E. Mar6ti,"Die Rolle der Seerauber in der Zeit der Mithradatischen storiche ed economiche in memoria Kriege", in Ricerche di CorradoBarbagallo, 3 vols. (Naples, 1970), i, pp. 481-93. As the complaintof King Nicomedes of Bithyniamakes clear (Diodorus Siculus 36.3) the kidnapping ofthepirates weredevastating thegeneral operations populaceofat leastsomeregions in the east. It mightalso be notedthatthe piratesweresaid to act in open collusion withthepublicanior the local "freeenterprise" agentsof the Roman state.
106 107
40
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
theirrepression. But whenthisdecisionwas takenthere wereother factors wars of annexation in (forexample,a new seriesof foreign the east, new sourcesof slaves, the politicalaspirations of Roman 109 of piracyan attractive big men) thatmade the repression option. In sectors of Roman society not directly thestate,in representing the nexus of large-scale one can also perceivethe privateinterests, sameprocessofthedeliberate creation ofbanditry bythelandowning classes. In Sicilyin the decades preceding the I40s B.C. Romanand Italian landowners established theirslave-shepherds in consciously thepractice ofbanditry as a form ofeconomic Freelance self-help.110 allowed the raidingand pillaging,encouragedby the landowner, dominus to escape onerousburdensconnected withthe surveillance of distantly bands of his slave-shepherds and maintenance roaming at theexpenseofunprotected dwellers who became villageand farm the object of widespreadbandit attacks.Consequently Sicily was reduced to an island infestedwith slave-shepherd brigandswho theland "like bands of soldiers".The wanderedat will throughout ofa Romanprovince intochaotic violence collapseofthelocal society of the centralstate. But therewas an was hardlyto the interest of the largelandowners unreconciled conflict betweenthe interests of theirslave (in the unbridleddomanialpowerand directcontrol in law and order.Protests and the state'sinterest work-forces) by tide about thisrising to theRomangovernor the Sicilianprovincials hesitatedto enforcethe of violence were in vain. The governors because mandateof the stateand to repressbrigandage principally to bear on themby the landowners.111 of the pressurebrought within Given all these factsabout this formof weak disjunction within the Roman stateand the place of banditry it, we maybegin rebelsifwe consider the to questiontheroleof banditsas primitive in which were violence social of the structural they engaged.It form
109 See H. "Poseidonios on Problemsof the Roman Empire", Jl. Strasburger, RomanStudies,Iv (1965), pp. 40-53. 110See Diodorus Siculus34-35.2.25f. and thestudy byM. Capozza, "II brigantagVeneto di scienze, della primarivoltaservilesiciliana",Attidell'Istituto gio nelle fonti ed arti,cxxxiii(1974-5), pp. 27-40. The problemof the obvious connection lettere is very and banditry, of social violence,slaverevolts betweenthetwoforms complex. wereinvolvedin bandit-type There is no doubt thatthe slave-shepherds actions,but themfullyas "bandits" as long as theireconomicand to classify it seems difficult who owned themas slaves. So long as that legal statusremainedtied to a dominus and theywere bound by the master-slave bond remainedoperational, nexus, they as slaves, not as bandits.There must be a break in this must be viewedprimarily forthe full banditto emerge.The problemis thatslavefundamental relationship werealways and employment, of theirexistence by the actual conditions shepherds, linkswiththeir their ofthatbreak.As longas theycontinued on theborderline living theirstatusremainedambiguous.When theyactuallybrokeinto owner,therefore, it was qua slavesrather themaster-slave relationship) (thatis, severing open rebellion or ratherbehaviour,would than as "bandits", and indeed the latterrelationship, hardlyhave any meaning. 11 Diodorus Siculus 24-25.2-3.
41
forjudgingtheir to use thisas thecriterion seemsbetter place in the whole of the politicaleconomy,ratherthan the isolatedactionsof to judgebothin terms individual bandits,fortheseare mostdifficult of intentand meaningbehind the actions.Whereasit is truethat and thehousesand villasof thewealthy banditsare foundattacking accountsof their and fictional bothin historical activities, powerful, of these the real problemis to assess the value of usingthemention in isolationas a measureof the bandits' social motivation. targets attacks on accretions of directsomeoftheir Banditswould naturally to wealthin a mode similar,at least on some planes of behaviour, evidenceofdeathsat thehands The epigraphical commoncriminals. thatincludedpersonalslaves of banditsindicatesa rangeof victims soldiersand householdmanagers, and freedmen officers, municipal mother and a six-year-old child a whole family includinga father, killed causa ornamentorum ("on account of theirfinery").Edifices and storehouses attackedincludepublic granaries (horrea), temples, houses.112 Indeed,whowas and was notattacked tombsand ordinary maywell have dependedmoreon the sortof "local arrangements" raiders certain alludedto in an accountoftheMaratocupreni whereby this case merchants and whereas were soldiers) exempt(in targets and villasof the rich).113Thus it does otherswerenot (storehouses of attackson centres ofwealthare to be taken not seem thatreports - especiallywhen the of social protest as suchas touchstones in thenovelists activities of banditsso vividly mix portrayed raiding such targetstogetherwith the killing and pillagingof ordinary commoners as part of the same process. The latterpicturemore matchesour moredetailedhistorical accountssuch as convincingly in RepublicanSicilyand the large-scale slave-shepherd brigandage the kidnapping-slaving operationsof the pirates,both of which ofinnocent involved commonpeopleas their victims. largenumbers The process of the expansion and contraction of state power, in its internal interstices social however,not only leftconsiderable but also sizeable spaces outsideof it: the "strong"form structure, of disjunction to above. That is to say,one can conceiveof referred theRomanempire as consisting oftwoentities. One might be labelled - thatnetwork "Roman society" ofsocialrelations soldiers, binding traders and a hostofothers into landlords, peasants,administrators, a singlesocial system.The second entity is the politicalsystem the state,and the limitsat which it set its authority. Yet the two entitiesnever fullycoincided or, expressed differently, "Roman definedby the "Roman society" never filledout all the territory
112 See CIL viii, 15881 = ILS 5505 (Sicca Veneria,Africa);CJ 4.65.I (A.D. 213), 6.38.I (A.D. 213), 9.I9.3 (A.D. 349); Josephus, JewishWar, 2.264-5, 652-4, and the evidenceon deathscited in n. 25 above. epigraphical 113 Ammianus 28.2. I I; cf.Josephus,Jewish Marcellinus War,2.228-31; Antiquities, 20.113-17;
and n. 119 below.
42
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER I05
state". There was a gap or "space" betweenthetwoin precisecases wheresocialgroupswhichthestateheld to be incorporated werenot in any sense an integral partof Roman society.This "strong"form as statedabove, resulted mostoften from ofdisjunction, geopolitical itsnetworks factors thestatefrom thatinhibited effectively extending overwholeregions. The abandonment and control ofcommunication of whole geographicalzones led to the developmentof several thestate andthese"bandits". between different modesofrelationship thelabelling In historical one finds of thisor thatpeople as terms eventhough "bandits"- thatis, as notbeingpartofRomansociety In the theywere claimedto be underRoman politicaldomination. historyof the empire almost everypeople except the long-term Romans themselves defined)were so designated. (most narrowly They were seen as personswho ought, ideally,to be withinthe and and yetwho remained orbitof Roman statecontrol obstinately outsideit.114Culturalgroups,such as the Boukoloiof rebelliously ofEgypt, remained and thedeltaswamplands thedesert borderlands In enclaveswithinthe Roman state.115 "barbaricentities",foreign with its relations to institutionalize large part the state attempted effective thesebandits.Because oftheir powerto remain beyondthe reach of the state forlong periodsof timetheyachieveda sortof Basicallythesebanditsare the quasi-statestatusforthemselves.116 form a characteristic "Haiduk" type,so-namedby Hobsbawmafter found in the Balkans under Ottoman rule.117Perhaps the bestin the Roman case of this typeof banditry documented long-term zone in south-eastern empireis thatfoundin Isauria. This highland
114 A as mustsuffice long, so the following completelist would be exhaustingly of the evidence.Aetolians(Cicero,On theState,3.9.I5; Livy 34.24.1an indication 2.36.162), Bessi (Strabo 7.5.I2), Bruttii(Livy 5), Arabs (Pliny, Natural History,
Chatti(Tacitus, Annals, 12.27.3), Coralli (Strabo 7.5.I2), Cretans(Cicero, On the State, 3.9.15), Iberians (Diodorus Siculus 5.34.6-7), Illergetes(Livy 28.32.8-12), MarcellinusI7.I3.27), Isaurians(see n. 118 below), Illyrians (Livy I0.23, Ammianus Istri (Livy I0.23), Liburnians (Livy I0.23), Ligurians(Livy 40.27.6, 38.49.7-8), Marcellinus Medes (Strabo7.5.12), Mysi(Strabo7.5.12), Quadi (Ammianus 16.10.20, I7.I2.2), Samnites(Livy 7.30.I2), Sardinians(Tacitus, Annals, 2.85; Varro, On Marcellinus 16.10.20, 17.I2.2), Scordisci (Ammianus 1.16.2), Sarmatians Agriculture, Thracians(Livy 38.46.6, 38.49.7-8). If (Strabo 7.5.12), Spaniards(Strabo 7.5.I2), pressed, the list would include, at one period or another,everypeople in the Mediterranean, includingthe Latins and Etruscans,otherthanthe Romans themet dissidence is P. Briant," 'Brigandage', selves. The beststudyof the phenomenon et hellenistique", ii (1976), ancienne, Dialoguesd'histoire conqueteen Asie achemenide
115 For a discussionand the sources,see the scintillating articleby J. Winkler, "Lollianus and the Desperadoes", Jl. HellenicStudies,c (1980), pp. 155-81,at pp. studyis required. 175 f. A fullup-to-date 116 An interesting case studyis presented by H. F. Lutz, "The AllegedRobbers' Pubns. in Semitic Guild in AncientEgypt", Univ. of California Philol., x.7 (1937), of such relations instituted by the pp. 231-41,of whatseems to be the formalization state. 117 See Hobsbawm,Bandits,ch. 5, pp. 70-82.
26.40.17-18,
28.13.7-9,
28.22.3,
29.6.2),
Celtiberians (Diodorus Siculus 5.34.6-7),
pp. 163-258.
43
a period Anatoliaremaineda regionof permanent dissidence,from intotheempirein thesecond its nominalincorporation even before of the B.C. down to the period of the finaldisintegration century A.D. It is clear thatin all westernempirein the late fifth century of such zones neverregard themselves thesecases theinhabitants as as personshavinga negotiated but rather with relationship brigands, thecentral statewhichgave riseto ritualistic customs of respect and treatment on eitherside.118 However,verylargebanditgangsthat wereable to operateforlong periodswithin theempireitself could, to the given the appropriateconjunctureof forces,approximate "Haiduk" typein their institutionalization oftheir ownpower.Such were the largebanditgangsin Judaeain the middledecades of the first of the late empire, A.D., the Saturianiand Subafrenses century and theMaratocupreni raidersof northern Syria.119 werealwaysinherent threats Hence there to legitimate powerfrom the bottom to the top of Roman state and society,a structural weaknessprovokednot only by the feebleinstruments of central but also interests at the level of power, by conflicting private The veryprocessoftheexpansion and contraction ofthe ownership. stateitself the problem.In story and legendthese onlyexacerbated conflicts are symbolized of authority as scenes of contactbetween theholders oflegitimacy and thosewho threatened their claim.Thus the usurperemperorSeptimiusSeverus,who used the springboard of a local coupd'etatin the east to gain the throne in A.D. 193, had to maintain his pretentions to legitimate rule. He portrayed himself as "an enemy to banditseverywhere".120Andyetwhilestillgovernor of Syriaand aboutto prepare his usurpation ofpowerthere occurred eventsthatboth portended and questionedhis future:
A certainbanditnamed Claudius who was overrunning Judaeaand Syriaand was hunted down by Severus came to him one day disguisedas a being vigorously tribune escort.He salutedand kissedSeverus military accompanied bya cavalry 12 but the trickwas not foundout thennor was Claudius ever caughtlater.
118On Isauria,see J. Rouge, "l'Histoire Augusteet l'Isaurieau IVe siecle", Revue des etudesanciennes, lxviii (1966), pp. 282-315; R. Syme, "Isauria", ch. 9 in his Ammianus and theHistoria Augusta(Oxford,1968), pp. 43-52; on the earlierperiod, see Diodorus Siculus I8.22, withthe sourceslistedin Broughton, Magistrates of the
Roman Republic, i, 568, 572, 576, and ii, pp. 87, 90, 94, 99, I05; Strabo 12.6.1
see Ammianus Marcellinus 7.I9.I-3, A.D. 399); and forthe Maratocupreni, 28.2.11 and N. SantosYanguas,"Algunosproblemas socialesen Asia Menoren la segunda ff., mitaddel sigloIV d.c.: Isauriosy Maratocuprenos", vii (I977), pp. Hispaniaantiqua, 351-78, fora different interpretation. 120 Life ofSeverus hostis"("an enemyto bandits (SHA), i8.6, "ubique latronibus everywhere"). 121 Dio 75.2.4 (195).
14.2.I-20, 14.8.I, 19.I3.I-2, 27.9.6-7, 28.2.1I-I4, and Zosimus, The New History, 69, 4.20.1, and 5.25, with CTh 9.35.7. 119 See Hobsbawm,Bandits,pp. i8 f. and compareJosephus, JewishWar,2.228and Subafrenses, see CTh 35, 253; Antiquities, 20.5, 113-14, and 161; fortheSaturiani
ch. 6, "The 568) and the generalaccountin Ormerod,Piracyin theAncient World, Pirates of Cilicia", pp. 190-247; for the later empire,see AmmianusMarcellinus
(C
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I05 44 On theotherhand such contact be represented as might theatrically a normalization a mutualrecognition ofrelations, ofauthority. Thus inthereign ofAugustus at thetime ofhisSpanishcampaigns (perhaps in the mid-2osB.C.) the historian Dio reports that: in Spain withwhomAugustus who flourished therewas a banditnamedCaracotta was at first a millionsesterces to the man who would so enragedthathe offered capturehim alive. But later,when the banditcame over to Augustusof his own made him richer accord,the emperornot onlydid him no harm,but actually by the amountof the reward.122
This piece ofanecdotalhistory as empirical fact. begs substantiation Probably there was no more involved than the buyingoff of a but powerful local baron.The pointof thestory is that troublesome in whichthe it illustrates the ebb and flowof powerand authority oftheRomanemperor banditrecognized thesuperior who, standing in making richer a million his erstwhile sesterces, byprecisely enemy statusrequirement of a effectively grantedhim part of the formal Roman senator. of bothpopularand materials The anecdotaland oral (mythical) of the about the culture that accrete bandit,since they figure high ofthereality ofthephenomenon bothto an assessment are so central demand of popularand eliteperceptions, element and to thecritical and explanation.Bandit tales are especially historical appreciation of theupperclasses,above all the in the popularliterature frequent novelsof AchillesTatius, Heliodorosand Apuleius.The fascinating deserve much ofpopularimagination offer and pictures they insights 123 within thescopeofthisarticle. thancan be giventhem fuller study is the The one aspect of themwhichcannotbe ignored,however, all thetensions The bandittalesreflect questionof theirhistoricity. of theirauthorsand the traditions betweenthe literate upper-class deobvious oral popular milieu fromwhich theywere ultimately mirror rived. There can be no doubt that the storiesthemselves ofthebandit,but our to an ideal figure attached popularaspirations enquirymust press the linkagebetweenthis popular desirefora To do thisI proposeto turn and empirical of protest reality. figure fromthe novel to an analogous type of storyembedded in two and Bulla Felix recounted, Maternus thelegendsof Julius histories: of Herodianand Dio Cassius. in the histories respectively, in the JuliusMaternus,Herodian tellsus, was a soldierserving
Dio 56.43.3. in of theTales of Banditry See P. A. Mackay,"KLEPETIKA [sic]:The Tradition and Rome,2nd ser., x (I963), pp. 147-52,and, above all, Winkler, Apuleius",Greece accountsin the "Lollianus and the Desperadoes", citingearlierwork.The principal novelists are: Apuleius,Metamorphoses, 3.27-4.23, 6.25-7.1o; Heliodoros,Ethiopian 3.9 f. These novels are a Story,1.1-33; Achilles Tatius, Leucippeand Cleitophon, of bandits,their on popularperceptions ofinformation storehouse veritable motives, of brigandgangs,banditbehaviourand values, and of attack,the structure targets by the state. But theyare so richin thissortof detailthattheydemand repression whichI do intendto undertake. separatetreatment,
122 123
45
A.D. In theearlyI8os he deserted daring and, as a man of notorious
in Gaul in themidto latedecadesofthesecondcentury Romanarmy othermen to join and success in his new lifeas a bandit,attracted thatMaternus"collected Herodianreports himin his operations.124 raidson farms abouthimand beganmaking a largebandofcriminals" a Once he had accumulated and villagesin the Gallic countryside. number a to able recruit he was these from loot larger forays large each man a richshareof thebooty.At of "criminals"by promising with levelofviolenceassociated someunspecified pointin thisrising him and his Maternus'actionsthe Roman stateno longerregarded men as bandits, but declared them to be "public enemies". The on its attacks,but now on largertargets: Maternusgang continued sizeable villages and towns, breakinginto prisons and releasing of theirguilt" says Herodian. The men held in them,"regardless all Gaul and Spain. Even largecitieswere "madness"beganto afflict besieged. Commodusin When news of the outbreakreachedthe emperor to thegovernors letters intoa rageand sentthreatening Rome he flew themto and ordering of the provinces accusingthemof negligence mounta major campaignagainstthe bandits. It cannotbe purely concernedwere none that the three Roman governors fortuitous each to confront otherthan the threemen who were subsequently theassassination throne fortheimperial otherin a contest following of Commodus: PescenniusNiger in Aquitania,Clodius Albinusin Belgica, and SeptimiusSeverus in Lugdunensis.On balance, this themeoftheMaternus thecentral seemsto suggest connection story as told by Herodian: it is a statist morality playin whichthebandit a reversal albeitwith theemperor confronts (thestate), (theanti-state) of roles. The point is drivenhome by an unexpectedtwistin the legendin whichMaternussuddenlydecides to abandonhis base in Gaul and to strikeinto the heartof the empire,into Italy and to turns almost thatthestory at thisjuncture It is precisely Rome itself. with dramatic and is suffused and into symbolic myth completely on the throne acts. Maternusis said to have plottedto put himself in the place of Commodus. The mannerin which he hoped to was by meansofa devious Commodus'legitimacy directly challenge a trickster. He and his men devised one but a d'etat, by plot, coup in theHilaria, a Roman wereto enterRome disguisedas celebrants mardi grasheld at thetimeofthevernalequinox.125 At a givensignal he and his men were to rush the emperorand cut him down. But Maternuswas betrayed by one of his men beforethe plot matured;
f. 2 vols. ed. and trans.C. R. Whittaker, For detailson theHilaria, see Herodian, Cybeleand Attis:The (Loeb, London, 1969-70),i, p. 65, n. I; M. J. Vermaseren, Mythand theCult (London, I977), pp. II9 f.
125
124 Herodian 1.10
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a legitimate betrayed, says Herodian, because his men "preferred emperorto a robbertyrant".Beforethe actual day of the festival Maternuswas supposedlyarrestedand executed,as were all his followers. offered During theHilaria the people of Rome dutifully thanksforthe safety and well-being of the emperor. The Maternus ofthehistorically elements legendcontains possible and the ideologically and necessary.The two streamsintermingle thewholestory. The earlier detailsthat mergeto form partcontains are credibleas empirical eventsand whichseem to be substantiated data, thoughthe widespreadviolencein Gaul and by independent not all caused Spain in the late i8os and early I9os was assuredly is almost by one man and his gang.126 The latterhalfof the story dismissableas empiricalfact. It is most unlikelythat completely abandonedhis home base Maternus,if he ever existed,voluntarily in Gaul. Rather,theculmination ofthelegendis a wholly ideological scenario,thoughone markedby some credibledetailsof banditlife But thesebelievable detailsare part (forexample,thefinalbetrayal). of any historical novella. They do not make the eventshistorical fact; they merelyreflectcommon knowledgeshared by Roman for example, that latrones were habituallycaught by authority, The climacticscene centredon theHilaria highlights the betrayal. inversion ofnormallinesofauthority, withemphasis on thereversal ofnormalidentity: could becometyrants and bandits, and emperors into genuinerulers. the lattercould metamorphose When Septimius of Syria,finally Severus,thengovernor emerged victoriousfromthe internecine armed conflict of the early I9os the assassinationof Commodus to become emperorof following Rome, therearose anotherbig bandit,thistimein Italyitself.His name was Bulla Felix ("the Lucky"). Bulla ultimately headed a band ofmorethansixhundred and for men, plundered Italy a period in of morethantwo yearsunderthe verynose of the new emperor he the first decade of his reign(just beforeA.D. 205).127 Although himself was pursuedby manysoldiers,withthe emperor directing operations,Bulla "was never seen when seen, never foundwhen found,nevercaughtwhencaught",a piece of singular good fortune to Bulla's intelligence which the historianDio attributes (in the who on everyone C.I.A. sense). Bulla somehow acquiredinformation in southern Italy,knewhow manythey put intoportat Brundisium were,and their portage.Of mostpersonswhomhe robbedand took he confiscated only part of theirwealthand let themgo prisoner, and otherskilledpersonsfora longer free.But he detainedartisans
126 G. clxxi (1971), pp. 367Bonner Jahrbucher, Alfoldy,"Bellum desertorum", 76, reviewsthe evidence;cf. Herodian 1.10.I-3 (Loeb, pp. 6I-3). 127
Dio
77-Io
f.
47
and thenletthemgo witha parting time,made use oftheir expertise, gift. is set within As withthe Maternuslegend,the Bulla Felix story the contextof a challengeto the formalauthority of the emperor down of the banditpersonally. who is said to manage the hunting and capture; The bandithas a ghost-like abilityto escape detection he is a figure thatcannotbe graspedby unjustauthority. Paralleling Maternus'"Robin Hood" deeds are Bulla's actionsas a dispenser of justiceand as a social leveller.Added to theseare standard vignettes of daringand disguise.One such story involvesthe rescueof some of Bulla's men who had been capturedand imprisoned. They were about to be condemnedto death in the arena at the claws of wild beasts. Bulla disguisedhimself as a regionalimperialofficial, went totheprison and declaredthat he neededsomestrong mentoperform hard manual labour for him. The banditswere released into his to the legendBulla carriedthe artof deception custody.According one stepfurther. Whilein disguisehe approached theRomanmiltary officer who had been assignedthetaskof "exterminating" his gang. Bulla told theofficer thathe knewwhereBulla could be found(not a lie) and said thathe wouldbetray Bulla ifonlythecenturion would followhim to the bandit's hideout. The gullibleofficer swallowed the bait and advanced into a wooded thicketwhere Bulla's men took him prisoner.Back in Bulla's camp thereensued a promptly dramain whichBulla reversed thenormallines piece of serio-comic of authority. He donned the official robes of a Roman magistrate, climbedontoa tribunal and summoned thecenturion, withhis head his "court". Bulla thendelivered his sentence: shaven,before "Carry thismessageback to yourmasters: let themfeedtheirslavesso that theymightnot be compelledto turnto a lifeof banditry". The emperorSeverus,when informed of theseactions,was livid withrage,mainly, itis said,at thethought that whilehissubordinates were winningfull-scale battlesforhim elsewhere in the empirehe himself was impotent againsta merebanditin Italy. The emperor thensummoneda higher-ranking a military whom officer, tribune, he chargedwith the task of bringing Bulla in alive or facingthe consequences.The tribune, havinglearnedthatBulla was intimate with anotherman's wife, persuaded her to help the authorities withtheirenquiries(with,of course,a promiseof immunity from The result, in itsprocess,was thebetrayal prosecution.). predictable of Bulla and his arrestwhile asleep in his bandit'scave. The problemthesebandittalespose forthehistorian shouldnow be manifest: theirstructural natureas ideologicaltheatre. The fact that theyare full of credible detail does not allay the overriding concernwe must have about the reason fortheircomposition and disperpetuation by upper-classwriters.One should not entirely
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I05 48 thearmy, credit ofdesertion from attacks on thewealthy and reports justice, and, finally, capture by powerful,acts of redistributive betrayal.But thereare too manyotherpurelyideologicalelements in "the facts" to make the storiesdependablein theirentirety as offer and clear however, history. They do, unambiguous empirical so emphasizedby Hobsbawm: that intothe veryconnection insight of popular (and elite) perceptions. Taking the storiesof Maternus in this continuities and Bulla Felix, we mightnote the following perception. as the oppositetypeto the (just) First,the banditis represented powerin society. emperor.He is the ultimatelocus of illegitimate in context of the Thus the big banditoften (and frequently appears aftermath of power by a new in the immediate of) the usurpation is alwayssuspect.The latter mustprove whose legitimacy emperor Or thebandit and nota meretyrannus. to be a bonus himself imperator has reached emperor pointwherethereigning mayappearat a critical as in the case of Commoduswho had become a crisisof legitimacy, to the chargeof in his conductas to be susceptible so unimperial form constructed alternative The banditis less a positively tyranny. shouldbe. He is of powerthanhe is a symbolof whatthe emperor an imperator "manque". He is then placed in directconfrontation withlegitimate central Bulla, Maternus) power(Claudius,Caracotta, must findsome resolution.In the case of strong and the conflict the emperoris never said to pursue the bandit centralauthority the agencyof his legates he does so vicariously through personally: and appointees. of takes place withinidioms and metaphors The confrontation is bestedby a banditwho does nothave direct power.The emperor of forcethatthe statedoes. So the access to the sortof machinery banditmustdefeatthe emperor by evasion,deceitand disguise,in both of whichare counterposed shortby cunningand intelligence, use of force.Images of violenceand to the tyrant's heavy-handed and of manliness metaphors mergewithpsycho-sexual intelligence feels acts who The representatives impothrough sterility. emperor thematter to bring unableto exploitthepowerat his command tent, with the is contrasted to a conclusion. The emperor'simpotency reverses of arrest final scene The and bandit'spersonal virility. power in or by formal theselines of power,either recognition, by betrayal obtrude. sexual identity whichelementsof doubtful the lines of legitimate The bandit is capable of reversing power - a themethat true to that justice by himself is, provide directly, in the captureand trial in the Bulla story mostgraphically emerges head shaven,appearsas a "slave" The centurion, of the centurion. who receivesBulla's sentence: "Carry this message back to your to whomthe masters. . ." in the double sense of politicalmasters
49
whose interests he serves. centurionis subject and slave-owners "Feed your slaves so that they do not have to turn to a life of banditry".That is ironicin the lightof whatwe have alreadysaid in about the collusionbetweenlandlordsand theirslave-shepherds Yet itis notan entirely thevery regionin whichBulla was operating. a carbon-copy case.128 And Hobsbawmreports incredible injunction. in the Americas, Genovese, in his studyof Maroon communities details an almost vebatimversionof the warning.'29The point, thevery Bulla actuallydid or did not utter is not whether however, aboutthetalesthemselves; is a moralambiguity words,butthatthere concerns. theyservethe purposesof both popularand upper-class in even the smallest The dominanttheme in them, as reflected is less thatofrebellion ofthemsuchas Bulla's injunction, component of societyto fitan and remodelling and oppositionthan of reform its dominant class structure. But ideal pattern alreadyimparted by it seems unclearwhether any real banditsactuallyespoused even a reformist much less a more limited and traditional programme, one.'30 revolutionary ofthisarticle we maynow return In thelightofthewholeanalysis ofthegenesis concerns: thenature ofbanditry, to someofitsoriginal of banditry as a form of social behaviour, definition the structural and rebellion.Banditry has been shown and the questionof protest invery historical circumstances necessitohavebeengenerated precise the state, and the imperfect tatinga specificpolitical structure, of this same structure. existsonly in these Banditry development connection withthephenomenon of conditions and has no necessary class whichbothprecedestheappearanceof banditry and continues to existlong after itself has disappearedas a characteristic banditry form ofsocialviolence.It is thatpeculiarspaceleft bytheincomplete dominationof archaic states that allows for the existenceof an in relation interstitial to, and in groupof men who mustbe defined
under their control so that tothelabourers would nothavetoresort givebread they to a lifeofbanditry. 129 See E. Genovese, in War and Peace", ch. 2 in his From "Black Maroons Rebellion to Revolution: Slave Revolts in theMaking Modern Afro-American of the whois pursuing himthat theplantation owners tofeed their slaves so captain ought that would notbe compelled torunaway andswell thenumbers ofthemaroon they inthejungles communities ofSurinam. Thewarning hadboth a practical from aspect theviewpoint and a moral ofthemaroon onefrom theaspect oftheslaveleader, Bullatoomayhavereflected both concerns. owning society. 130 See Hobsbawm, he emphasizes that ifbandits have Bandits, pp. 26 f.,where at all itis a wholly ofsocial action traditionalist any"programme" one,a restoration ofconditions ofthe two factors that turn this bandit mythical past.He specifies might intotruerevolutionary action: and a connection with activity symbolic leadership millenarianism. Bothdeserve closer for theancient neither world, scrutiny though factor seems to haveproduced with the anyrevolutionary linkage banditry with oftheslaverebellions. possible exception
World(Baton Rouge, I979), pp. 5I-8I, at p. 56. A maroonleader tellsthe British
128
to Hobsbawm,Bandits,p. 55: Vardelliin Apulia in the I86os orderedbailiffs
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PAST AND PRESENT
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of thisspace thatallows to, thestate.It is theavailability opposition thesemen to be defined as outlawsor banditsin contradistinction to commoncriminals. That some men enterthisspace consciously in rejectionor abandonmentof state societyis largelyimmaterial. That individualacts of injusticeand oppressionmay indeed have compelledsome men to leave "state space" forthisotherworldis, These factors do not in themselves again, not terribly significant. or that is there the of brigandage. explainwhy space phenomenon The numberof the poor and oppressedwho have been the victims ofindividual acts of injustice and who have sought is countrevenge fewofthesebecomebandits? less. The questionis: whydo onlyvery The merefactof theirvictimization and responseis not a sufficient explanation. The explanation mustlie in the structural aspect of determinate A studyof the structure social and politicalformations. seems itself to reveal that it is not one particularly well suited to rebellionor or secession. The interstices resistance- at best of withdrawal are determined themselves and powerofa stateand by thepresence itssocial classes. These spaces fallinto two broad categories: those whichare mainly external to thestateand itssociety and withwhich it had a negotiatedrelationship (for example, Isauria) and those withthe stateand its social systems. whichwere integrated In the the "opting out", if it had ever actuallytakenplace, was former, ofoppresand did not form rejection partofthein-society complete of co-optation was overwhelming. sion. In the lattercase the factor by a numberof Only in exceptionalcases of over-determination factors,as for example in Judaea of the early first conjunctural of the thirdcentury, and Gaul in the Danubian frontiers century, would the actual formof the space the fourth and fifth centuries, from one typeto theother, thebandit mutate itself thereby allowing But in in the space to develop his power freeof stateconstraints. of popular protest. these cases the bandit never becomes a figure theThracian,a manwho he is a risenbanditlikeMaximinus Rather, who in and mimics achievesstate-like everypossiblewaythe power of statepowerall about him. structure existing That the type of the social bandit existed in popular belief, is beyond doubt. All the literary and communication imagination filtration oftheperiod,in spiteoftheir and oralcompositions through this popular desire. clearlyreflect production, upper-classliterary to show,thetypeis embeddedin thisliterature As we haveattempted of popularbeliefor forthe derivative not because it is mindlessly but because the image of the bandit sake of public entertainment, was a useful one that could be exploitedin contrasting just and unjust ideals of power withinthe rulingclass itself.But barely theunjustruler beneaththisuse of thebanditas a foilto thetyrant,
5I
and the unfair imageof fearsomely compelling judge, is a powerful dimensions generatedby people who desiredthatsome such man wanteda saviourfrom thepresent could be found.They desperately a man who could of powerin whichtheywereenmeshed, networks rescue them fromtheiroppressionand who could providefor a just social order,a paradise. And theremayindeedhave genuinely been, as Hobsbawm contends,a fewmen whose actionsaccorded withthe popularmodel, or discreteand occasionalacts by bandits But thereis no evidencethattheydefine thatfitthiscategory. the of The itself. whatever small importance phenomenon exceedingly of banditswho acted like thisis thatof a further model proportion or imaginative ideal. It is thisidea thatwas a social protest, albeita one. As forthe banditsthemselves, rather the argument primitive tends to indicatethat theycould not have been social rebelsand, moreimportant, thatthephenomenon ofbanditry perse is nota type of politicalanachoresis, of social protest.Rather,it is a form leading from overan unbroken itssmallest to itsfinal beginnings, trajectory, of anotherstatepatterned form:the formation on an existing type. due trial,Bulla was thrown to the beastsin a public Later, after arena to be torn limb fromlimb, one of those summasupplicia reservedforoutlaws. His band of six hundredis reported to have soonafterwards, so muchdid itdependon hisauthority disintegrated alone. The legend,however,containsone finalact involving Bulla just beforehis execution,probablyas an epilogueto his trial.Like therestoftheaccountit is ideological, and itsimportance lies there, not in empiricalfact,whichit probablyis not.13'When Bulla was before theemperor's man,one ofthebetter brought right-hand legal minds of the time, the praetorian prefect Papinian, the following
131 seem to have takenthe story as straight fact.But it obviously Many historians an idea related reflects to thedistribution ofpowerand to socialstratification. Consider thefollowing in Augustine oftheepigraph to thisarticle, (a continuation story Cityof and truerejoinder whichwas givenbya captured God, 4.4): "For it was a witty pirate to Alexander the Great.The kingasked theman, 'What is youridea in infesting the sea?'. The pirateretorted, withuninhibited 'The sameas yours in infesting insolence, the earth!Because I do it witha tinyship I'm called a pirate;because you have a did not,of course,originate with greatnavy,you'recalled an emperor'". The story He probably tookit from Cicerowho reported it in his On the Augustine. State,3.14, and whoprobably his Greeksource,either gotitin turnfrom PolybiosorPoseidonios, - that thelatter. Hence theBulla vignette is a variation on a common theme probably of popularinsistence on a just orderand just rulership thatwas pickedup by the classes fortheirown purposes.An analogous"scene" concerning theemperor ruling Hadrianreflects thesameconcern(Dio 59.6.3): "When theemperor was on a journey a womanapproachedhimand asked forhis attention. Hadrianrepliedthathe was too 'Then stopbeingemperor'". busyand had no time- to whichthewomanretorted, The story was at first as a interpreted genuineepisode (see F. Millar,"Emperorsat lvii(1967), p. 9) until itwas brought tothewriter's attention Work",Jl.RomanStudies, thatthesamestory was toldtwiceelsewhere ofPhilipII and ofDemetrios byPlutarch, and bySerenos ofAntipater: Poliorketes, Plutarch, Moralia,179C-D; LifeofDemetrios, in theRomanWorld, 42.7; Stobaios,Florilegium, 2.13.48; see F. Millar,TheEmperor
31 B.C.-A.D. 337 (London, I977), P. 3.
52
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verbal exchangetook place: Papinian turnedto Bulla and asked, "Why did you becomea bandit?". Bulla, lookingback at Papinian, retorted, prefect?". "Why did you become praetorian Obviouslyit was a generalsortof questionthatmanyof the commonpeople of of banditry. thecontext the empirehad on theirminds,and within That bit of dialogue,whether mythor not, embodiesthe problem - and to which to investigate facedand whichI haveattempted they theremustbe some answerifonlywe can facethequestionsput by withhonesty and candour. the banditand the prefect D. Shaw Alberta Brent University ofLethbridge,

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The Past and Present Society

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE*

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

PAST AND PRESENT

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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9.138 = 280, I .677, I2.7,

-erosis one who is a despoiler, 18.327). Therefore a leister,

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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Rev., 1 (1945), pp. 213-27.

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bandits: John I0.I,

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

See Dyson,"Native Revolt Patterns in theRoman Empire".

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95 Life ofMaximinus (SHA), 2. I.

Livy, Periochae,52; Tacitus, Annals,2.52.

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

100 Dig. 47.16.2.

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and n. 119 below.

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Celtiberians (Diodorus Siculus 5.34.6-7),

BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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A.D. In theearlyI8os he deserted daring and, as a man of notorious

124 Herodian 1.10

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to Hobsbawm,Bandits,p. 55: Vardelliin Apulia in the I86os orderedbailiffs

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31 B.C.-A.D. 337 (London, I977), P. 3.

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