Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

482 17. armies and society in the later roman world
the countryside affected patterns of settlement, by encouraging people to
move from the vulnerable lowland sites and return to more defensible,
often pre-Roman, hill-top sites, or to attach themselves to the protection
of a local patron, the landowner who would soon become warlord. 46
Towns and cities showed interest in retaining control of ‘their’ troops.
The classic case here is Asemus, a small town just south of the Danube
frontier which had a strong tradition of self-help: in the 440s the locals protected
themselves against Attila’s Huns, while in 592 under the leadership
of their bishop they barricaded the city against Maurice’s brother Peter
when he attempted to enrol the impressive local garrison in his field army.
The consequences of the loss of a garrison are illustrated by the fate of
Topirus, where the Slavs killed the professional defenders after luring them
outside the walls and then overcame the resistance, however fierce, of the
local civilians; at Thessalonica in 586 the gravity of the Avar attack was
heightened by the absence of the praetorian prefect with his troops on a
mission to southern Greece. 47 The desire to control troops locally lies
behind one of pope Gregory’s quarrels with Maurice. The emperor had
used Gregory as a channel for transferring money for the pay of the soldiers
at Rome, but he was then extremely vexed when Gregory personally
distributed the cash, since this would imply that the pope was now paymaster
and so affect the soldiers’ sense of priorities; Gregory’s recurrent complaints
about the lack of a garrison at Rome and the different interests of
the exarch at Ravenna are directly relevant to this dispute. 48
A similar process had probably been under way in the west during the
fifth century. Here there is an apparent discrepancy between the paucity of
Roman troops available for combating major threats, such as Attila’s invasion
in 451, when the bulk of Aetius’ army comprised federates and allied
Visigoths, and the existence of local Roman units whose continuing
efficacy is indicated by accounts of their actions in the sixth century. In the
Burgundian kingdom there appears to have been a fusion of Gallo-Roman
and German military elements, which permitted this area to support a
standing army that was commanded by patricii, often Gallo-Romans; this
may have originated in an essential similarity between Gallo-Roman and
German aristocrats, men who possessed personal military followings, but
the structure was sufficiently stable to survive the elimination of
Burgundian leadership, since Merovingian rulers continued the pre-existing
arrangements for organization and command. 49
In the main parts of the Merovingian world there is a noticeable military
division between the north-east (Austrasia) and the south and west
(Neustria and Aquitaine): in the latter, local levies, usually based on towns
46 Wightman (1985) 246–50; Casey (1993) 266–7;cf.ch.18 (Wood), p. 511 below.
47 Priscus fr. 9.3.39–80; Theophylact vii.3; Procop. Wars vii.38.9–23; Miracula S. Dem. i.128.
48 Greg. Reg. v.30, 34, 36, 38–9. 49 Bachrach (1972) 23, 41; cf. Bachrach (1993) 58.
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