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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
difficult to accept that such slaves, gladiators and ‘bandits’, in the second
half of their period of enlistment and with not too long to go before their
discharge, were a cause of trouble in the army – that ‘all that they waited for
was to escape the constraints of army-service’. 122 This view depends on little
more than the ominous combination of three social groupings each bearing
an emotive label. It would certainly be mistaken to see in them the core of
Maternus’ movement.
Maternus might well have unleashed a wave of desertion, but this need
not have been his intention. Given the threat of draconian penalties, even if
he had advertised his activities it is unreasonable to suppose troops deserting
en masse on trivial grounds or purely out of greed for booty. The relaxation
in discipline in Commodus’ army 123 may well have been an accompanying
factor of the rebellion, but scarcely its major cause. The Marcommanic wars
of the preceding reign had put extraordinary pressure on the Roman forces
and on the civil populations of the provinces involved, especially in the
region of the upper Rhine and upper Danube. The ‘Life’ of Commodus
mentions internal unrest in Dacia, Pannonia and Britain. 124 Archaeological
finds (about which more below) suggest destruction in various parts of Gaul.
On the basis of these indications, few as they are, historians have already felt
able to speculate that Maternus’ rebellion took place against a background of
social distress in the western provinces. 125
With his band of deserters Maternus undertook bandit raids, increased his
wealth and strength in this way, and proceeded to attack villages, farmsteads
and, later, even entire towns. 126 This tale of small beginnings leading to
wider and more daring operations shows that Herodian’s narrative follows
the pattern of many stereotyped reports of uprisings established since the
Republic. The start of the first Sicilian slave war under Eunous and Athenion,
that of Spartacus’ rebellion, 127 and the rise of John of Gischala’s Zealot
band 128 are all described in very similar terms. Through their employment
of this routine device, the narratives concerned reveal that what they say is
no more than a conventional repetition of a literary stock theme, meant to
conceal an author’s ignorance or the absence of spectacular happenings.
As time went by, continues Herodian, Maternus attracted a considerable
number of recruits by promising them rich pickings. The focus on booty as
the sole (specified) motive for joining Maternus’ band from the start throws
into doubt whether those involved in the revolt – or, at least, a few of them
– had any higher purposes. At the same time, the same is indicated by the
claim that they were all common criminals. 129 Blanket accusations of lust for
booty and the enrolment of felons are well known as recurring motifs in
Tacitus’ accounts of ‘bandits’. Such Tacitean clichés link Maternus closely
to Tacfarinas, leader of resistance in North Africa under Tiberius, 130 and
Gannascus the pirate, a deserter in the reign of Claudius. 131 In addition, all
three represent the typical three-stage progression, from base motives, of
soldier-to deserter-to bandit. Gannascus of the Canninefates had served the
126