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INTRODUCTION
A further peculiarity which needs to be considered in respect of methodology
concerns the second type of information referred to above, the often
somewhat dubious evidence of ancient writers. In philosophy, history and
other works of literature (including novels), observations and opinions concerning
brigands and their way of life fulfilled a specific function. I see this
function in the wider context of the general opinion-forming intent of
Roman writers. 29 It consists, I would say, in the wish to draw the attention
of those who read their texts, i.e., members of the current social and political
elite, to grievances for which they were responsible. These were largely
grievances about the living conditions of the lower social classes. This is
illustrated by an episode recorded in connection with the bandit Bulla Felix
(dealt with in Chapter 6). Bulla’s 600 strong robber-band had for years
terrorised Italy under Septimius Severus. Amongst other things, Bulla is
supposed to have managed to capture one of the hit men (a centurion) sent
to kill him. According to Cassius Dio:
Later [Bulla] assumed the dress of a magistrate, ascended the tribunal,
and having summoned the centurion, caused part of his head to
be shaved, and then said: ‘Carry this message to your masters: “Feed
your slaves, so that they might not return to brigandage!” 30
Elaborately constructed narratives such as this raise the question of their
historicity. We should, however, be prepared to accept that in such cases
historical veracity was not uppermost in the writer’s mind. As stated earlier,
this type of bandit story was intended as a sort of ‘photographic negative’ of
what really happened in society. Bulla’s wearing of official clothing, his
sitting on a tribunal, and his dealing with the centurion as a messenger from
a hostile power made his robber band look something like an organised
community and allowed his company to project itself as an alternative state.
That the Bulla of legend warned the representative of the civil power to feed
slaves sufficiently to prevent them from having to become bandits is the
essence of the whole story: an hortatory exemplum serving as a wake-up call to
the Roman ruling class. Texts like this were not, therefore, particularly
concerned with banditry as such. Rather, they conveyed romantically transformed
images of robber bands, carrying messages for their readers.
4 State of research
Older publications on latrones, down to the 1960s, were seldom more than
antiquarian assemblages of material. However, they deserve credit for opening
up the sources for later research, which has aimed at a more conceptual
approach to the topic. The same may be said of analogous entries in encyclopaedias
of Ancient History and summary reviews, such as those of Ludwig
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