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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Latrocinium. On late antique latrones cf. also L. Callegari, Ricerche sul brigantaggio in
Ammiano Marcellino, Padua diss. (Istituto di Storia Antica 1978/79) (not available to
me). A. Giardina, ‘Banditi e Santi: Un aspetto del folklore Gallico tra Tarda Antichità
e Medioevo’, Athenaeum 61, 1983, 374–89. H. Heinen, ‘Von Räubern und Barbaren
in den Alpträumen des Ausonius (Ephemeris 8, 14–15, ed. Peiper)’, in M. van
Uytfanghe, R. Demeulenaere, eds, Aevum inter utrumque. Mélanges offerts à G. Sanders,
The Hague 1991, 227–36.
8 Pohl, Piraterie. Cf. now also St Tramonti, Hostis communis omnium. La pirateria e la fine
della repubblica romana (145–33 AC), Ferrara 1994.
9 Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, vol. VII, Leipzig 1934, 1014–17, s.v. latro.
10 For the etymology see Varro, LL 7.52:
latrones dicti ab latere, qui circum latera erant regi atque ad latera habebant
ferrum, quos postea a stipatione stipatores appellarunt atque qui conducebantur:
ea enim merces graece dicitur latron. Ab eo veteres poetae nonnumquam milites
appellant latrones, quod item et milites cum ferro aut quod latent ad insidias
faciendas.
Fest. p. 105 Lindsay: Latrones antiqui eos dicebant, qui conducti militabant, apo tes
latreias. Serv. Aen. 12.7: latronis insidiatoris, a latendo; sed modo venatoris. Et est graecum:
nam latreuein dicunt obsequi et servire mercede, unde latrones vocantur conducti milites. On
this cf. the entry for latro in: A. Walde, J.B. Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches
Wörterbuch, Bd. I, Heidelberg 1982 5 , 771f.; A. Ernout, A. Meillet, Dictionnaire
étymologique de la langue latine, Paris 1985, 343f.; R. Maltby, A Lexicon of Ancient
Latin Etymologies, Leeds 1991, 329f. G. Steinmayr, ‘Sviluppi semantici della base
latro’, AMAV 1955/56, 151–63, esp. 155. A. Milan, ‘Ricerche sul latrocinium in
Livio I: Latro nelle fonti preaugustee’, AIV 138, 1979–80, 171–97. Shaw, ‘Bandits’
24–8. D. Timpe, ‘Das Kriegsmonopol des römischen Staates’, in W. Eder, ed., Staat
und Staatlichkeit in der frühen römischen Republik, Stuttgart 1990, (368–87) 372 n. 10.
11 For a full catalogue of references, in particular in Plautus and Ennius, see Milan,
‘Ricerche’ (n. 10), 17ff.
12 E.g., Diod. 5.11.1, on Carthaginian troops in Sicily.
13 Polyb. 1.7.1ff.; Diod. 21.16.; App., Samn. 9.2.; Plut., Pyrrh. 23.1ff.; Dio frg. 40.8.
G. Tagliamonte, I figli di Marte. Mobilità, mercenari e mercenariato italici in Magna
Graecia e Sicilia, Rome 1994. Cf. also L.P. Marinovic, Le mercenariat grec au IV e siècle
avant notre ère et la crise de la polis, Paris 1988.
14 Shaw, ‘Bandits’ 28: ‘private men of violence’.
15 Dio 55.28.1–3. (Trans. Cary, Loeb)
16 Amm. 26.1.1:
et similia plurima praeceptis historiae dissonantia discurrere per negotiorum
celsitudines assuetae, non humilium minutias indagare causarum, quas si scitari
voluerit quispiam, individua illa corpuscula volitantia per inane, atomos, ut nos
appellamus, numerari posse sperabit.
(Trans. Rolfe, Loeb) Cf. Amm. 27.2.11: nec historiam producere per minutias ignobiles
decet; 31.5.10: rerum summitates. Tac., Hist. 2.50.2. HA, Quadr. tyr. 12.6. Lucian,
Hist. Conscr. 28.
17 Lucian, Alex. 2. Stein, s.v. Tillorobus, RE VI A, 1937, 1041. Van Hooff, ‘Ancient
Robbers’ 121. Lucian, in his sketch on Alexander, the ‘false prophet’, mentions that
his contemporary, Arrian, had written a biography of the bandit Tillorobos. This
piece has not come down to us, and there is no mention of it in the extant works of
Arrian. Why Arrian should have chosen to write on such a theme and what line he
took in developing it are unknown. As to when Tillorobos flourished, some clues
may be available in Arrian’s own dates: it is reasonably probable that both men
belonged to the same or similar generations, which takes us to the mid-second
century. The honouring of a bandit with an account of his (mis-)deeds was rare in
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