Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the community of the realm 441
transformations which shifted the balance of power between centre and
locality substantially in favour of the latter.
(a) The militarization of landowning élites
Defence in the later Roman empire was the province of a professional
army of several hundred thousands. It was paid for by large-scale taxation,
particularly of agricultural activity (a land-tax). The raising of these revenues
required a powerful state machine, voluminous records and a basic
willingness to pay. The state endeavoured to foster such a willingness by
stressing that tax paid for the army, and hence for security; it is generally
considered by modern scholars that most revenue was targeted in that
direction. 13 By c. 600, the landowning élites of western Europe were providing
military manpower directly, however, instead of paying for professionals
to do the job. That new landowners from the immigrant groups
(Goths, Franks, etc.) continued to fight, once settled, has never been
doubted. Wherever they survived, however, Roman landowning élites, or
rather their descendants, also came to be drawn upon for military service. 14
For Frankish Gaul, the most useful source is the writing of Gregory of
Tours. He never specifies the precise military obligation enforced by
Merovingian kings, but there certainly was one, since he reports its application
to particular individuals. 15 Much of the fighting in the sixth century
was done by forces drawn directly from civitates, and a particular story about
the war of 568 between Sigibert and Guntramn makes it clear that these
were not garrison troops but citizen militias. In this case, a military reverse
suffered by a contingent from Clermont-Ferrand caused the death of many
of the city’s leading men. And when the particular militias that Gregory
happens to mention are plotted on a map (see Fig. 17), most fall outside the
areas of substantial Frankish settlement. 16 Likewise, the main royal officers
in the cities – counts (comites, singular comes) and dukes (duces, dux) – clearly
had military as well as administrative and legal roles. The names and biographies
of many of the men holding such positions show that descendants
of Roman landowners, as well as Franks, regularly filled them. 17
In the case of Visigothic Spain, legal materials likewise demonstrate that
military obligations were applied to Roman and Goth alike. Gothic kings
13 Jones, LRE ch. 17; Elton (1996).
14 The current orthodoxy, in so far as one exists, portrays surviving Roman landowners retreating
to villas, libraries and episcopal sees: e.g. Van Dam (1985); Mathisen (1993); Heinzelmann (1976).
15 Punishments for those failing to appear: Greg. Tur. Hist. v.26; vi.12; vii.42; cf.Laws of the
Ripuarian Franks 68.1–2.
16 War of 568: Greg.Tur.Hist. iv.30. Gregory mentions citizen militias from Agen, Angoulême,
Clermont, Bayeux, Blois, Bordeaux, Bourges, Chartres, Châteaudun, Le Mans, Nantes, Orleans,
Périgueux, Poitiers, Saintes, Toulouse, Tours and Vely; cf. Bachrach (1972) 66–7.
17 Gallo-Roman dukes and patricians: e.g. Agricola, Amatus, Asclepius, Celsus, Desiderius,
Ennodius, Gedinus, Mummolus, Nicetius: on all of whom see relevant entries in PLRE iii. The military
aspect of the office of count is demonstrated by e.g. Greg. Tur. Hist. iv.30; viii.36.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008