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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
129 Cobet, ‘Masada. Mythos’ (n. 127), 91f. (with bibliography). Cohen, ‘Masada’ (n. 128),
394ff.
130 Thuc. 1.22.1; on this see what is, in my opinion, the still unsurpassed commentary
of Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums 5 , Bd. IV 1, Darmstadt 1954, 250f.
131 A. van Hooff, Zelfdoding in de antieke wereld, Nijmegen 1990, 303 (references);
114ff. for the motif of desperata salus. See also Cohen, ‘Masada’ (n. 128), 386–92
(listing of and commentary on 16 cases).
132 Liv. 21.14.1f. Val. Max. 6.6 ext. 1. Valerius Maximus dates the incident post
duorum . . . Scipionum stragem, which cannot be true. For the context see J. Seibert,
Hannibal, Darmstadt 1993, 70f.
133 Cohen, ‘Masada’ (n. 128), 393, details this attitude with examples from the speech
of Eleazar.
134 Virg. Aen. 6.856f. For clementia as an expression of the power of the victor cf. M.
Treu, ‘Zur clementia Caesars’, MH 5, 1948, 197–217. E. Konik, ‘Clementia Caesaris,
als System der Unterwerfung der Besiegten’, in T. Yuge, M. Doi, eds, Forms of
Control and Subordination in Antiquity, Tokyo 1988, 226–38.
135 For Viriatus see above, pp. 45–7, for Bulla Felix below, p. 118.
136 Dio 66.6.3.
137 Jos. Bell. Iud. 1.7.5 (150).
138 Jos. Bell. Iud. 4.1.10 (79). The supposition of Cobet, ‘Masada. Mythos’ (n. 127), 91
and n. 75, that, without wishing to disparage female bravery, given the way the
ancient mind worked the only survivors of Masada could have been women, gains
strength from the observation that in Gamala there were also female survivors, who
were later able to tell of the dramatic scenes there.
139 Jos. Bell. Iud. 3.8.5 (361ff.).
140 Jos. Bell. Iud. 3.8.7 (388f.).
141 Jos. Bell. Iud. 3.8.7 (391).
142 Elias Canetti sees the operation as a piece of calculated deceit on the part of
Josephus. In Canetti’s study ‘The Survivor’ (part of the work ‘Mob and Power’,
Hamburg 1960), special attention is paid to the case of Josephus, ‘because, as far as
I know, there is no other example in world literature of a survivor’s account like
this’ (p. 24 of the separate impression of ‘Der Überlebende’, Frankfurt (Suhrkamp)
1975). According to Canetti, Josephus’ attitude is typical of ‘the deception of all
leaders’ (p. 33): ‘They speak as if they would precede their followers to death. But
what happens is that they send these off to destruction before them, in order to stay
alive a bit longer themselves.’
143 Josephus also explained and justified his basic renunciation of suicide by reference
to the consequent violation of God’s command that man had no right freely to
dispose of the life that He had given him.: Bell. Iud. 3.8.5 (369–71).
6 IMPERIAL CHALLENGERS:
BULLA FELIX AND MATERNUS
1 For Severus’ itinerary see H. Halfmann, Itinera principum. Geschichte und Typologie der
Kaiserreisen im römischen Reich (HABES, 2), Stuttgart 1986, 216ff., esp. 219.
2 A.R. Birley, The African Emperor: Septimius Severus, London 1988, 155ff. (= Septimius
Severus. The African Emperor, London 1971, 224ff., revised).
3 Dio 76.3.1ff. Herodian 3.11.1ff. Birley, African Emperor (n. 2), 161ff. (= Septimius
Severus 232ff.).
4 Dio 76.7.4ff.
5 Dio 76.7.1–3.
6 Dio 76.10. W. Henze, s.v. Bullas, RE III, 1899, 1051. Bellen, Sklavenflucht 104f.;
132f. Van Campen, Latrocinium 25–8. Birley, African Emperor (n. 2), 169 (= Septimius
204