Esercito Romano

This thesis is meant to detail the impact of Roman military forces located on and around the Bay of Naples from the time of Nero to the death of Domitian, as it pertains to the archaeological record. This time period, spanning around 50 years, is rich with archaeological activity in an already archaeologically rich region of Italy.
The thesis looks at both the literary and archaeological evidence found in Campania to help construct an accurate depiction of the Roman naval and land forces present on and around the bay at this time, their significance, and their tactical, even political purpose. Special attention will be given to the naval forces stationed at Cape Misenum, as the fleet carried out the bulk of military activity on the bay, and as such the military archaeological record for this area revolves around this strategic base.

In the account of the Third Samnite War (298–290 BC), Livy records a special commitment of the Samnite Linen Legion that faced the Romans at Aquilonia in 293 BC. The oath of this élite formation required discipline and sacrifice to a greater extent than the obligations of the other Samnite troops and the Roman military oath of these times. According to Livy, the Linen Legion’s soldiers swore not to flee the battlefield and to instantly kill anyone from among themselves who would try to run away. Threatening soldiers to kill them on the spot in case of desertion in the face of the enemy and issuing such an order during battle was a widespread practice in the Roman army as well as in other armies of different epochs. It appears that in the Samnite picked troops, it was the military oath itself that included the obligation to punish the 'fugientes' immediately. Strengthening military discipline and soldiers’ sworn commitments was a systemic solution aimed at enhancing combat effectiveness of the army in situations of extreme danger. Analogies can be drawn between the Samnite case and examples of Greek and Roman military oaths reinforced in the face of an invader. The peculiar clause of the Linen Legion’s oath may be seen as one of such systemic measures. The article examines the reasons for its use by the Samnites and attempts to demonstrate the credibility of this detail given by Livy.
  PL:  W dziesiątej księdze Ab urbe condita Liwiusz opisuje przysięgę samnickiego „Lnianego Legionu”, który starł się z Rzymianami pod Akwilonią w 293 r. p.n.e., podczas jednej z decydujących bitew trzeciej wojny samnickiej (298-290 p.n.e.). Żołnierze tej doborowej formacji zobowiązywali się, że nie zbiegną z pola walki, a także, że będą zapobiegać aktom tchórzostwa swych towarzyszy i natychmiast eliminować tych, którzy próbowaliby uciekać przed wrogiem. Ucieczka z pola walki – określana dziś zwykle mianem dezercji w obliczu wroga – była w armiach wszystkich czasów jednym z najcięższych i najsurowiej karanych przestępstw wojskowych. W sytuacjach, gdy mogło dojść do masowej paniki na polu bitwy, rzymscy dowódcy zwyczajowo wydawali rozkaz natychmiastowego zabijania próbujących uciekać. Podczas decydujących walk z Rzymianami o utrzymanie niezależności Samnici najprawdopodobniej posunęli się dalej i sformalizowali ten nakaz, włączając go do specjalnej przysięgi doborowych oddziałów, złożonej przed jednym z kluczowych starć. Wzmocnienie dyscypliny wojskowej następowało zwykle przed walką z potężnym, budzącym szczególny lęk wrogiem, a jednocześnie w wyjątkowo trudnych dla danej wspólnoty sytuacjach, kiedy miały się ważyć jej losy. Zastosowanie specjalnej przysięgi wojskowej przez Samnitów można zestawić z analogicznymi pod wieloma względami przykładami wzmocnienia przysięgi żołnierzy przez Greków podczas wojny z Persami i przez Rzymian w czasie wojny z  Kartaginą. Wyjątkowy punkt przysięgi Lnianego Legionu, dotyczący natychmiastowego karania uciekających z pola bitwy, nie był dotąd przedmiotem osobnych analiz. Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą wykazania wiarygodności tego szczegółu podanego przez Liwiusza.

The common idea that the curiae were divisions of the people created after the foundation of the city and strictly related to the gentes, is mostly due to the etymology cūria < *ko-wir-ia. However, the sources represent the curiae as divisions of the army, and up to Servius Tullius the meeting area of the comitia curiata was extra pomerium. These clues suggest the different etymology cūria < *koir-ia, which connects the word with a number of names of the army or of its units in the Indo-European languages ​​(*koryos: cf. Germ. Heer), and explains the theonym Quirīnus as the result of the deification of a homonymous title indicating the ‘head of the cūriae’ (*koir-yo/a-Hn-o-s). If the term cūria is not a Latin formation but can be traced back to the Indo-European past, it is likely that the institution of the curia did nor arise after the foundation of the city, but reproduced a precivic form of organisation. This leads to represent the foundation of Rome not as the result of an aggregative process of gentes, but as the establishing in an urban form of a pre-existing political entity, perhaps consisting in a league of curiae.

Since Bernays in 1861, scholars have disputed Josephus’ account in Bell. Iud. 6.252 that a Roman soldier during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE acted on ‘some supernatural impulse’ when he threw a piece of burning wood into the Temple, thus starting the fire that destroyed it. The vast majority of scholars have followed Bernays in giving more credence to the account of the Christian chronographer Sulpicius Severus, who in his Chronica reports that Titus ordered that the Temple be burned. Many a priori assumptions have come into play when examining Josephus’ narrative, which instead appears unequivocally clear, consistent and substantially trustworthy.

The Roman 'centuria' has at least three different meanings: division of the people, division of the assembly, division of the army. It is usually held that these three meanings coincided — i.e. that the people were divided into sections that were exactly reproduced in the army and the assembly — at the time of the centuriate reform, but the existence of the so-called centuria ‘niquis scivit’ shows that the centuria of the assembly was simply a polling station, not related to the other two kinds of centuria. The time when the meanings of centuria were coinciding is rather to be found during the first regal period, when the people, the army and the assembly were divided in thirty curiae of one hundred men each — that is in centuriae. This archaic structure was abandoned in the centuriate assembly and in the centuriatio of the citizens, but was retained by the legion, legally based on thirty centuriae still during the republic.

Documento che si propone di indagare i più importanti incarichi della prefettura del pretorio tra la fine del II e la prima metà del III secolo. Questo lavoro nasce come estensione e revisione del paragrafo IV.II – I compiti della prefettura nel III secolo, contenuto all'interno della tesi di laurea magistrale: «Plauziano, Timesiteo e le evoluzioni della prefettura del pretorio nel III secolo» scritta da me, Giacomo Contratto.

"The question of whether Titus ordered the burning of the Temple as Sulpicius Severus reports or whether the burning was caused by a soldier acting upon some “supernatural impulse” as Josephus relates [War 6.252] has been debated ever since Bernays in 1861 argued that the former version should be preferred. Leoni gives a very detailed history of scholarship on this question, pointing out how many a priori considerations have led to distrust Josephus. In the end he insists that Josephus’ reliability has to be judged case by case and that with regard to the burning of the Temple his account appears substantially trustworthy" (Joseph Sievers, in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 34.2 (2003), p. 228).

Lo studio dei materiali deperibili, che costituiscono una parte importante del record archeologico di qualsivoglia sito, trova delle evidenti imitazioni di carattere sia quantitativo che qualitativo. Alimenti, vestiario, vesti funebri e altre categorie di materiali possono fornire una serie di informazioni dirette sulla società che li ha prodotti ma che, sfortunatamente, hanno spesso carattere poco
rappresentativo proprio perché si tratta di rinvenimenti sporadici. In quei siti, europei e non, dove si ha la fortuna di trovare una combinazione di caratteristiche climatiche  adatte,  condizioni  del  terreno  ideali, pratiche  antropiche  inconsapevolmente  atte  alla conservazione dei resti e, perché no, una buona dose di casualità, lo studio scientifico dei reperti,
affiancato all’analisi delle fonti letterarie e iconografiche, ha prodotto pregevoli risultati per quanto riguarda in particolare l’universo delle calzature. Si sono aperte così alcune questioni degne di nota: esistono tipologie classificabili su base geografica? Si tratta di materiali che seguivano la moda e il costume, erano portatori di particolari convenzioni e significati sociali, o rispondevano semplicemente a criteri funzionali? Ed è possibile, tracciando una linea immaginaria, seguirne le evoluzioni fisionomiche attraverso il tempo?
Nella seguente trattazione, si è considerato il problema analizzando le testimonianze emerse in alcuni contesti peculiari di siti specifici; il proseguimento delle ricerche, nella maggior parte dei casi ancora in corso, sarà dunque fondamentale per una sempre maggiore comprensione di questo notevole aspetto che soltanto negli ultimi anni ha raggiunto una giusta rilevanza.

"The Romans beyond the Danube (167-180 d.C.): Marcus Aurelius imitator Augusti"
The debate about the Marcomannic wars has always focused on the provincialization of the Quadi and Marcomanni’s territory, on the almost sole basis of written sources. The recent progress in archaeological research between Lower Austria, Moravia and south-western Slovakia enables to shed new light on the Marcomannic wars: this article, using both written sources and archaeological data, aims to demonstrate that Marcus Aurelius intended to provincialize the land beyond the middle Danube and that this operation was probably preliminary to the reconquest of Germania Magna, as a programmatic imitatio Augusti.

Nel 27 a.C., Roma assunse la forma di un impero multietnico, destinato – nelle intenzioni – a includere tutto l’orbis terrarum, o almeno la sua parte “utile”. Il controllo delle truppe, prevalentemente di origine non romana, fu di cruciale importanza non solo per debellare i nemici esterni ma anche per mantenere l’ordine in questa composita formazione sociale. L’esercito svolgeva, in particolare, una preziosa opera di assimilazione dei sudditi provinciali e degli immigrati. La convivenza forzata di culture diverse sotto le insegne di Roma, la concessione della cittadinanza alla fine del servizio e il riconoscimento delle unioni di fatto poste in essere dai milites furono strumenti di integrazione sostanziale che per secoli contribuirono alla sicurezza e alla prosperità dell’Impero. La civitas e il conubium concessi agli stranieri furono privilegi particolarmente graditi, elargiti – almeno sino al II sec. d.C. – mediante l’emanazione di provvedimenti sanatori, che consentirono anche la legittimazione dell’eventuale prole.
Il libro analizza questo peculiare aspetto della politica militare romana, alla luce della documentazione disponibile (in particolare, i testi legislativi e i diplomata militari) e fornisce anche una breve analisi di alcune esperienze moderne d’integrazione degli stranieri attraverso lo svolgimento del servizio militare. L’Autore riesce così a render conto dell’attuale inclinazione a proporre suggestivi parallelismi – non sempre corretti – tra l’Occidente contemporaneo e l’antica Roma, in particolare per quanto riguarda la “grande strategia”, il rapporto con gli immigrati e il “decline and fall” dell’Impero.

In this study we aim to analyse the presence of mime actors in the
various branches of the Roman armed forces and the cohortes vigilum, using seven epigraphs that prove the presence of popular theatre in the military. These epigraphs provide us with evidence of significant worth about the staging of shows in this context and the organisation of mime companies within the Roman army as well as the cast list, the language of these performances and their purpose. At the same time, the epigraphs also raise some questions that deserve to be examined. We will look through these epigraphs in an attempt to cast new light on some topics that have been discussed previously. The result of
this analysis contrasts with the usually negative opinion of classical authors on the subject, who tend to deny or present the relationship between soldiers and theatre as something both exceptional and harmful.

Aggiornamento e revisione delle iscrizioni romane di Mutina per il sito web http://www.mutinaromana.it/it/  a cura di S. Pellegrini e G. Pellacani e realizzato da Altair4 Multimedia in occasione della mostra "Mutina Splendidissima. La città romana e la sua Eredità" (Modena, Foro Boario, 25/11/2017 - 08/04/2018).
Sezioni interessate: "Carta Archeologica" (schede nn. 1-3, 54-57, 62, 63, 74, 96, 290, 309, 326, 350, 800, 962); approfondimenti "Cittadini di Mutina nell'esercito romano", "La religiosità"  e "Artigiani e mercanti".

Il presente contributo verte sul rapporto che intercorre, all’interno delle iscrizioni dei militari, tra l’indicazione della domus o origo del personaggio e la sua ascrizione tribale, una questione che può, almeno per una certa area dell’Impero, fornire spunti di riflessione in merito all’identità dei cittadini e alla considerazione che di tale identità mostravano di avere i singoli individui.