Blood of the Provinces The Roman Auxila and the Making of Provincial Society from Augustus to the Severans

by Haynes, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780199655342
• ISBN10: 0199655340
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-11-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Blood of the Provinces is the first fully comprehensive study of the largest part of the Roman army, the auxilia. This non-citizen force constituted more than half of Rome's celebrated armies and was often the military presence in some of its territories. Diverse in origins, character, and culture, they played an essential role in building the empire, sustaining the unequal peace celebrated as the pax Romana, and enacting the emperor's writ.

Drawing upon the latest historical and archaeological research to examine recruitment, belief, daily routine, language, tactics, and dress, this volume offers an examination of the Empire and its soldiers in a radical new way. Blood of the Provinces demonstrates how the Roman state addressed a crucial and enduring challenge both on and off the battlefield--retaining control of the miscellaneous auxiliaries upon whom its very existence depended. Crucially, this was not simply achieved by pay and punishment, but also by a very particular set of cultural attributes that characterized provincial society under the Roman Empire. Focusing on the soldiers themselves, and encompassing the disparate military communities of which they were a part, it offers a vital source of information on how individuals and communities were incorporated into provincial society under the Empire, and how the character of that society evolved as a result.

Author Biography

Ian Haynes is Professor of Archaeology at Newcastle University. He has worked on Roman sites in Britain, Italy, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic, and is currently project director of excavations at Maryport, Cumbria. Professor Haynes was formerly chair of the archaeology committee of the Roman Society and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a trustee of both the Clayton Trust and the Vindolanda Trust.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
List of figures
List of tables
1. Introduction Blood of the Provinces
Section 1: The Auxilia and the Structures of Imperial Power
2. The formative years: from the Late Republic to the Death of Tiberius
3. Together under the name of Romans : The auxilia from Claudius to Trajan
4. A New Provincialism: Hadrian and the Antonine Revolutions
5. Shifting Fortunes: The auxilia under the Severans
Section 2: The Human Resource: The Recruitment of the auxilia and its Consequences
6. The Captive Body: Individual Recruitment
7. Geopolitics: How Rome selectively exploited the manpower of the provinces
8. Recruitment and the limits of localism
9. Ethnic exceptionalism? Examining special recruitment practices
Section 3: A Home from Rome: Daily Life in the auxilia
10. Military Service and the Urban Experience
11. Incorporation through routine: the power of everyday life
Section 4: Through the Eyes of Believers: Religion, Ritual Activity and Cult Practice
12. Sacred space and sacred time in the iauxiliar
13. Centralising cult
14. Distinct cult communities within the auxilia
Section 5: Arms and the Men: Equipment, Tactics and Identity
15. Armoury of the Bricoleur? The disparate origins of auxiliary equipment
16. Status, competition and military adornment
17. Between Roman and Barbarian: Auxiliary soldiers on the Battlefield
18. Disarming ethnicity? Ethnic fighting traditions in the alae and cohortes
Sectiion 6: Pen and Sword: Communication and Cultural Transformation
19. The Spoken Word
20. The Written Word
Section 7: Auxiliary Veterans and the Making of Provincial Society
21. Veterani and other veterans
22. Conclusion: Embodying Rome
Bibliography
Index