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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
J. Winkler, ‘Lollianos and the Desperadoes’, JHS 100, 1980, (155–81) 175 and
n. 97. B. Isaac, ‘Bandits in Judaea and Arabia’, HSCPh 88, 1984, (171–205) 184.
22 Dio 76.1.3 claims, in describing wild beast fights presented on the occasion of
Septimius Severus’ decennalia, that it was now that the Roman public was given its
first sight of a corocotta, a beast native to India. According to him, it looked like a
strange mix of tiger, lion, dog and fox. This is contradicted by the author of the
Historia Augusta, who claims (HA Ant. P. 10.9) that animals of this name had
earlier been sent into the arena by Antoninus Pius; and Pliny the Elder knew the
corocotta, at least by name, describing it once as a cross between dog and wolf (Nat.
8.30) and again as one between a hyena and a lioness (Nat. 8.45). On Dio 76.1.3
see E. Cary, Dio’s Roman History, Loeb ed. vol. 9, Cambridge/London 1969, 240f.
L. Friedländer, Roman Social Life and Manners, vol. 2, London 1908, repr. New York
1965, 73.
23 According to Dio – 56.43.3 – the Princeps did not proceed against people who had
caused harm in blind fury; occasionally, he gave his trust to those who did not
deserve it.
24 Dio 76.10.3.
25 Kolb, ‘Wirtschaftliche und soziale Konflikte’ (n. 6), 287, points out, in respect of a
contemporary papyrus (P. Oxy. XII 1408, ad 210–14), ‘that such latrones found
support not only among villagers and the clientele of disreputable rural taverns,
but also among great landowners’. The papyrus concerns a decree of the Prefect of
Egypt, Baebius Iuncinus, to the strategoi of the nomes of Heptanomia and Arsinoë.
The crucial passage runs: ‘It is clear to all that it is impossible to eradicate bandits
without dealing with those who give them aid. However, if they are deprived of
their helpers, we will punish them without delay, etc.’
26 Hobsbawm, Bandits 34ff.
27 Sen. Epist. 14.9. Cf. above p. 21.
28 Cf. Kolb, ‘Wirtschaftliche und soziale Konflikte’ (n. 6), 287: ‘it was the fiscal
bureaucracy, headed by praetorian prefects perhaps already responsible for the maintenance
of the army, that classed them [sc. the followers of Bulla Felix] as a robber
band.’
29 P. Oxy. I 33 = Wilcken, Chrest. 20 col. IV 8 = H. Musurillo, Acts of the Pagan
Martyrs, Oxford 1954, 65–70; 214–20. On this see M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and
Economic History of the Roman Empire 2 , Oxford 1957, 590 n. 33. R. MacMullen, ‘The
Roman Concept Robber-Pretender’, RIDA 10, 1963, (221–5) 222.
30 HA Comm. 5.6. (Trans. Magie, Loeb)
31 Dio 74.8.4–9.4 (confiscations following the victory over Pescennius Niger); 76.7.4ff.;
Herodian 3.8.7; HA Sept. Sev. 12.1 (executions and confiscations following the
victory over Clodius Albinus). In his obituary of the emperor, Dio says that though
Severus made money every way he could, to do so he never stooped to murder
(76.16.1); cf. HA Sept. Sev. 12.2–4.
32 Dio 76.10.3.
33 ‘Handwerker’ in the Artemis edition of Otto Veh, vol. 5, p. 372. ‘Artisans’ in the
Loeb edition of E. Cary, vol. 9, p. 259.
34 Dio 63.29.2. The reference confirms that Dio was using technites in the sense
proposed. Polybius employs it for ‘actor’ at 16.21.8. Other references in H.G.
Liddell, R. Scott, H. St Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon 9 , Oxford 1940, repr. 1977,
1785 s.v. technites. On associations of technitai as clubs for actors and poets see H.
Leppin, Histrionen. Untersuchungen zur sozialen Stellung von Bühnenkünstlern im Westen
des Römischen Reiches zur Zeit der Republik und des Principats, Bonn 1992, 91ff.
35 Dio 76.15.2. (Trans. Carey, Loeb)
36 Dio 76.10.3–5.
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