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the maintenance of order 477
soldiers could do in the long term to impose order on a reluctant population
in a megalopolis, a problem not confined to antiquity. 22
Maintaining provincial law and order has been seen as a primary function,
along with external conquest, of the whole Roman military machine. 23
Any special event might require the despatch of troops to maintain control:
when Symeon Stylites died on his column in 459 the people of Antioch
demanded his body to act as a talisman against earthquakes, and the comes
Orientis Ardabur had to send a guard of Gothic soldiers to ensure that the
body was not torn apart by relic-hunters between Qalat Seman and the
city. 24
Even in the more urbanized east there were areas that remained on the
edges of imperial authority in the fifth century, the most notorious being
Isauria, a traditional area where altitude conferred immunity from unwelcome
official demands. 25 Here the involvement of the bellicose mountaineers
in central imperial politics between the 440s and the 490s – namely,
during the career of Tarasicodissa-Zeno – stimulated closer links with
empire-wide developments, symbolized by the construction of the lavish
churches at Alahan. But when centralist ambitions were thwarted, regional
rebellion flared. In 484 Zeno’s attempt to dominate Illus led to four years
of fighting. Illus attracted the support of Leontius, the Isaurian magister
militum per Thraciam, whom Zeno had sent against him, and of client satraps
of Armenia; he had Leontius proclaimed emperor, but Zeno’s generals
managed to isolate the rebels in the fort of Papyrius; the transfer of the
property of Illus’ relatives to the cities of Isauria will have helped to undermine
his local support. The failure of the Isaurians to secure the throne in
491 caused renewed fighting: Anastasius had Zeno’s brother Longinus relegated
to Egypt, but two other unrelated Isaurians, Longinus of Cardala
and Longinus of Selinus, sustained a revolt in Isauria until 498, relying on
weapons and money stored there by Zeno. Anastasius eventually reasserted
imperial control, and the transfer thereafter of Isaurians to Thrace
imposed order, or at least ensured that problems remained sufficiently local
to escape notice. 26
The Tzani and the Samaritans were other upland peoples reluctant to
accept imperial authority. The Tzani were only fully subjected to Roman
control in 528/9, but a brief revolt in 558 required the intervention of
troops from the Roman army in Lazica. Order was restored by Theodore,
himself a Tzan by birth, whose military career illustrates the overall success
of Justinian’s policy of incorporating this people. 27 In Samaria the primary
function of troops was the suppression of religious strife. The Samaritans,
22 Bagnall, Egypt 164. 23 Isaac, Limits of Empire ch. 1–2. 24 Malalas 369.10–16.
25 For fourth-century troubles here, see Matthews (1989) 355–67.
26 PLRE ii s.v. Illus 1, Leontius 17, Zenon 7, Longinus 3 and 4.
27 Procop. Buildings iii.6; Agathias, Hist. v.1–2; PLRE iii s.v. Theodorus 21.
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