The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

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The Roman A rmy
Bowman, 1983; Bowman and Thomas, 1983). A selection of these tablets have
become justly famous, such as the party invitation from the commander’s wife,
the letter inquiring about the supply of hides, and the complaint that has such a
m odern ring to it—that the roads were very bad . It is a portrayal that wo u l d
surely have been recognizable in broad general terms to other Roman soldiers
stationed in other provinces, and perhaps also to soldiers of many other periods
of history.
Epigraphic Records
Throughout the Empire, the Romans faithfully adhered to the epigraphic habit
of recording significant events on ston e , an ingra i n ed practi ce that is usef u l
to a rch aeo l ogists and historians in recon s tru cting the lives of Roman soldiers
and in the stu dy of the army as a wh o l e . Thanks to the labors of em i n en t
n i n eteen t h - cen tu ry sch o l a rs there are co ll ecti ons of L a tin and Greek inscri ptions
that are indispensable to Roman military historians, such as the vast Corpus
In scri pti o num La ti n a ru m ( C I L ) , wh i ch was begun in 1862 and com pri s e s
m a ny vo lu m e s , a rra n ged ro u gh ly by regi ons of the Roman Empire . A small er
but no less useful assemblage is H. Dessau’s collection Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
(ILS). This was begun in 1892, and the inscriptions are classified by subject,
so that all the inscriptions of military origin are grouped together under
su b h e ad i n gs . For Greek inscri pti ons with rel eva n ce to Roman history there is
the In scri ptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Perti n en tes (IGRR), begun in 1906.
These collections cover the whole Empire. Useful adjuncts to these are the collections
from individual countries, approximating to Roman provinces. Several
of these are from frontier provinces such as Roman Inscriptions in Britain (RIB),
now in several volumes covering not only inscriptions on stone but also graffiti
and other mediums. For Syria there is the Inscriptiones Latinae et Graecae Syriae
(ILGS), and for Hungary Die Römische Inschriften Ungarns (RIU). This is by no
means a com p l ete list of a ll the ava i l a ble co ll ecti ons of pri m a r y ep i gra ph i c
sources.
There is a great variety of inscriptions concerning the Roman army. Simple
military tombstones reveal much about the individual named on them, giving
information about the name of the soldier, the unit or units in which he served,
his age at death, sometimes his age at enlistment, and more rarely the cause of
death. The tombs of more important individuals often give more information
about their entire careers and can be used to document the mobility of the officers
throughout the Empire. Some men moved in successive commands from
unit to unit and from province to province. On occasion, wealthy time-served
veterans conferred great benefits on their hometowns or cities, or on the communities
where they chose to live in retirement. Their achievements were often