Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

western collapse 299
army: military forces were external to society, and fought for the control of
a passive population. 41 In Italy the situation only began to change during
the protracted wars of reconquest: in 546/7 a powerful local landowner,
Tullianus, enrolled Lucanian peasants, whom he commanded in the
defence of their province – though they were reinforced by the presence
of 300 Antae. 42
By contrast, in Frankish Gaul, and perhaps too in Visigothic Spain,
though evidence is lacking there, the founders of post-Roman kingdoms
managed to combine the strengths of the war-band with the military
potential of the surviving Roman population: in these areas constant insecurity
had stimulated local military initiatives in ways that had not been necessary
in Italy or Africa. The resulting Roman–tribal blend may have
contributed to the greater stability of the Frankish and Visigothic states,
which were better able to survive military defeat, incompetent leadership
or a dynastic minority. In Gaul both Frankish chiefs, who will have included
a number of non-Franks assimilated into the war-band, and Gallo-Roman
magnates gave oaths of allegiance to their king and organized their localities
to provide troops on demand, so that the Merovingian kingdom was
protected by a combination of strong local loyalties and duties to the
central power. Clovis and his Merovingian successors managed to exploit
the resources and public institutions of their part of the Roman world
more effectively than any other tribal leader. 43 Their armies were, however,
very different animals from their Roman predecessors: there was no standing
army, the component units were territorially based, and allocation of
land rather than disbursement of pay was the mechanism for attracting
service. These changes entailed, or reflected, complementary changes in
the nature of the state.
In the west the empire’s military institutions failed to survive the tribal
challenge. Distinctions between limitanei and comitatenses became irrelevant
when frontier conditions prevailed throughout all provinces; the authority
of the centre evaporated together with its ability to provide pay and organize
supplies, while military force was provided either by the tribal warbands
whose federate status became increasingly nominal or by local
leaders with the capacity to marshal the military potential of their particular
region. If Merovingian Gaul represents the successful realignment of
Roman military structures around a new provincial leader, the fate of
Noricum Ripense in the 460s and 470s as revealed in the Life of St
Severinus illustrates the processes of Roman decline. Here the frontier
population struggled to exist in the face of constant tribal raiding. Town
walls only provided temporary protection since there were few troops to
41 Wickham (1981) 25.
42 Procop. Wars vii.22; Brown, Gentlemen and Officers 78 for other examples of this development.
43 James (1982) ch. 5.
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