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CONCLUSION
8
CONCLUSION
The ‘common’ and the ‘noble’ bandit as
literary stock themes
Over the preceding seven chapters I have attempted to analyse all available
prosopographical material concerning latrones in order to determine who
the Romans considered to be a bandit, and why they did so. Such analysis
has enabled me to observe that, while Roman writers report run-of-the-mill
banditry only in exceptional circumstances, they make very frequent metaphorical
use of the concept. This suggests a definite purpose. Taken in
conjunction with a specific convention of Roman historiography, that ‘it is
not fitting to spin out a history with insignificant details’ (Ammianus 27.2.11:
nec historiam producere per minutias ignobiles decet), it confirms the suspicion
voiced at the start of this volume and developed as its theme: that the
Roman writers’ latro should be regarded not as a social type but as a literary
topos. In other words, the latro is a construct, a product of the imagination,
characterised by invented traits appropriate to his condition. On this basis,
my treatment of his reported appearances has sought primarily to establish
the function of the bandit figure in the literary perspective of the authors
concerned.
Having confirmed my original proposal to my own satisfaction, I believe
that it is possible to finish by presenting a range of important points. This
can be done fairly briefly, since I have anticipated my basic thinking in what
I have said in my Introduction and in remarks at the end of each chapter.
The latrones of the Roman tradition are historical personalities who, by
virtue of their social origin, represent the full spectrum of ancient society:
slaves and freemen, citizens and foreigners, soldiers and civilians, simple folk
and people of high status. No class or group dominates. The servile herdsman
who played the robber; the soldier who deserted; the native resistance
leader who found himself a guerrilla general; the Republican magistrate
who made political enemies; the imperial rival who became a usurper; the
slave who avenged his master: all could be treated as latrones. Clearly, it was
possible for people of every level to descend in the eyes of (the rest) of society
to that of the ‘bandit’. This broad conclusion is the only one to be drawn
from the fact that the term latro is applied not just to apolitical thieves and
footpads but also, and in particular, in a metaphorical sense to a wide variety
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