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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
In contrast to Viriatus the dazzling hero, the Roman commanders appear
as pallid creatures – corrupt and decadent. After years of fruitless campaigning,
the only way they could rid themselves of him was through secret
contrivance. But this policy of despair served only to crown Viriatus’ reputation
of invincibility. Viriatus’ murder served also to confirm the stock theme
of the invincibility of the ‘noble’ bandit, which (as in, for example, the story
of the fair division of booty) was taken up and developed in the many robber
romances of Roman literature. The most obvious sign of the continuation
of the Viriatus legend is what the sources say about Sertorius, making the
latter – whom Roman political circumstances made leader of Celtiberian
resistance – a true copy of Viriatus.
Quite different from Viriatus was Tacfarinas, the leader of rebellion in
North Africa, the embodiment of the despised, ‘common’ bandit, who acted
from motives unworthy of appreciation. Tacfarinas was a barbarian and,
what is more, a deserter from the Roman army, who led a guerrilla war for
booty and freedom. But these are not the only criteria that made him into a
despicable bandit. Most important in this respect was Tacitus’ deliberately
setting him, a despised enemy, up against Tiberius, a despised emperor. In
other words, Tacfarinas is an element of Tacitus’ criticism of Tiberius.
So Viriatus and Tacfarinas appear in the sources as latrones not least because
Roman writers used them to exemplify their own historiographical
thinking: Viriatus, the ‘noble’ bandit, stands as an exemplum bonum in sharp
contrast to the faithlessness of his Roman opponents. The ‘bad’ example
(exemplum malum), Tacfarinas, the ‘common’, ‘despicable’ bandit, served to
strengthen Tacitus’ condemnation of Tiberius. Thus, for the first time, we
can see that the latro, as we have him, is less a social type than a literary
topos. This conclusion will be repeated in the following chapters.
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