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NOTES
Severus 242f.). Shaw, ‘Bandits’ 46–9. Sünskes Thompson, Aufstände, 196–8. Minor,
Brigand 33–6. See also F. Kolb, ‘Wirtschaftliche und soziale Konflikte im Römischen
Reich des 3. Jhs. n. Chr.’, in Bonner Festgabe für Johannes Straub, Bonn 1977, (277–
95) 286f.
7 Dio’s period of two years is not precise. From the order of the fragments of his own
‘History’ events may be set in the period between the fall of Plautianus in January
205 and the British expedition of early 208; cf. below n. 56.
8 HA Sept. Sev. 18.6: latronum ubique hostis.
9 On this see above, p. 5.
10 Dio 76.10.1.
11 Bulla as a female cognomen appears in a funerary inscription from Narona (Dalmatia):
CIL III 1818, l.6: Riccia L(ucii) f(ilia) Bulla. Byllis as a slave name occurs in CIL XI
5657. CIL VI 20021, the funerary inscription of a C. Iulius Cornelius Fortunatus,
mentions (l.5) someone called Bullis. To judge from his transcription of this as
Bullas, Henze, Bullas (n. 6), appears to have assumed a Greek origin, although
there is no evidence for this.
12 On this see M.R. Alföldi in AAWM (forthcoming) – reference kindly provided
by H. Bellen. See too W.H. Gross, s.v. Bulla, KlP I, 1975, 969f.; H. Le Bonniec,
s.v. Bulla, LAW, 1965, 520, where, from Macr. Sat. 1.6.9, the bulla as an amulet
containing protective talismans is assigned Etruscan origins; it then became part of
the costume of a Roman triumphator. M. Restle, s.v. Herrschaftszeichen, RAC 14,
1988, 937–66, makes no mention of the bulla.
13 J. Straub, s.v. Commodus, RAC III, 1957, 256. A. Alföldi, Die monarchische
Repräsentation im römischen Kaiserreiche, Darmstadt 1970, 207. J. Gagé, s.v. felicitas,
RAC VII, 1969, 711–23. L. Zieske, Felicitas. Eine Wortuntersuchung, Hamburg 1972,
34–41 ( felicitas imperatoria). H. Wagenvoort, ‘Felicitas imperatoria’, in idem, Pietas.
Selected Studies in Roman Religion, Leiden 1980, 59–83. E. Wistrand, Felicitas
imperatoria, Göteborg 1987.
14 A possible objection to a close link between Bulla and Felix should not be
ignored. This is that Cassius Dio mentions the nickname ‘Felix’ only after he has
introduced Bulla (76.10.1; 76.10.4). But what he says here – prosonomasato – can
mean nothing else than ‘he also went under the name of (Felix)’, and so fails to
contradict the assumption that Bulla was indeed addressed as Bulla Felix by his
contemporaries.
15 Thus already Birley, African Emperor (n. 2), 168 (= Septimius Severus 242). Van
Campen, Latrocinium 26. Some uncertainty in respect of the plausibility of the
assonance of ‘Bulla’ und ‘Sulla’ is caused by the Greek transcription, which usually
writes Sulla with u (‘Sulla’) but Bulla with ou (‘Boulla’). However, the difference
disappears in Latin orthography, so that the identification could at least sound
reasonable to a Latin speaker.
16 On Sulla Felix: Vell. 2.27.5. App. Civ. 1.97.452. Plut. Sulla 34.2. J.P.V.D. Balsdon,
‘Sulla Felix’, JRS 41, 1951, 1–10. A. Keaveney, Sulla. The Last Republican, London
1982, 160. Linked to the ideology of the commander-in-chief and the emperor,
felicitas then became particularly associated with military success: Cic. Manil. 28,
picked up by Ammianus Marcellinus in his funeral elegy on Julian (25.4.1).
17 Dio 75.8.1.
18 I owe this point to Peter Herz, in discussion of my paper on Bulla Felix delivered
to the Research Group on Ancient Slavery at the Mainz Academy of Sciences and
Literature on 9 October 1996.
19 Dio 76.10.1–2.
20 Dio 56.43.3.
21 Dio 75.2.4. Stein, s.v. Claudius 2, RE III, 1899, 2667. P. Oliva, Pannonia and
the Onset of Crisis in the Roman Empire, Prague 1962, 124. Shaw, ‘Bandits’ 43f.
205