Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

492 17. armies and society in the later roman world
emperor tried to annex its personal profits, and it was something which
required special protection on campaigns. The lucky officer could become
very wealthy, like the Isaurian Arbazacius in 404/5 or the rapacious Bessas
at Rome in 546; civilians might also benefit, as when the landowners of
Martyropolis stripped Persian corpses outside their city. 95 Captives could
be used to resettle underpopulated areas – for example, the Persian
Christians from Arzanene who were sent to Cyprus to revitalize that island.
Veteran soldiers, or groups of foreign mercenaries between bouts of activity,
could perform a similar function while helping to protect their newly
acquired lands. These would ideally be settled with wives and families to
ensure stability and commitment to the region, as with the 30,000
Armenian families that Maurice was alleged to have planned to move to
Thrace. A group of warriors without women remained volatile, as for
example the 300 followers of the Lombard Ildigisal who could quickly
abandon their settlement on imperial property when their leader was
insulted. 96
Military expenditure was also a benefit. The proximity of major concentrations
of troops has been suggested as one of the factors that contributed
to the prosperity of the Syrian countryside throughout late antiquity. 97
The creation of Dara introduced a very large sum of imperial money into
a frontier region: employment was provided to numerous local civilians
during the construction, and a large new market was created that stimulated
the agricultural development of the plain below the city, which is crossed
by a complex irrigation network. On the Tur Abdin plateau above the new
city villages flourished, with substantial new constructions under the
impact of imperial salaries and new building skills. Dara is an exceptional
case, partly for its size, partly for the survival of the physical evidence, but
fortification work at many other sites would have had proportionate effects.
It seems, contrary to earlier imperial traditions, that the army might rely on
civilian labour for military constructions, since the attempt to fortify
Mindon and the clearance of the moat at Carthage both used civilians. 98
Where troops remained stationed for any length of time, they soon
established close links with local society. Quite apart from specific lands
which were allocated to certain categories of troops, but which might be
appropriated by civilians, soldiers regularly owned property in their own
right or married people who did, as the epitaph of Flavia, wife of the
tribune who perhaps commanded the garrison at Larissa, records. 99 The
economic life of the Theodosian camel corps stationed at Nessana in the
95 Theophylact vi.7.6–8.1; Maurice, Strat. v; PLRE ii.127–8; Procop. Wars vii.17; Malalas 469.1–3.
96 Theophylact iii.15.13–15; Evagr. HE v.19; De Rebus Bellicis 5; Sebeos 20; Procop. Wars
viii.27.1–18. 97 Liebeschuetz (1972) 80.
98 Zachariah, HE vi.6; Procop. Wars i.13.2–3; iii.23.19.
99 Avramea and Feissel (1994) 361–2 no. 4.
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