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

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The Roman A rmy
ence; some of them had operated as frumentarii, the equivalent of an Imperial
s ec ret po l i ce , who had first appe a red in the early second cen tu ry ad . Ex act ly
how the beneficiarii gathered their information is not known. There will have
been several sources, including not just military men, but traders and civilians,
undercover agents such as the frumentarii, and embassies to and from the tribes
and states beyond the frontiers. It is likely that the Romans knew much more
about the eastern states than they did about the northern tribes, especially since
com m ercial and ambassadorial traffic was more frequ ent and bet ter established,
and the social and political geography of the east was more in tune with
Roman ideals, with roads, towns, and cities all facilitating an urban way of life.
The northern areas, on the other hand, were regarded as trackless wastes without
proper roads and cities, and the inhabitants were not urbanized (Lee, 1993).
The Romans relied on itineraries, or lists of places in their proper order along
the route, and their distances from each other, sometimes accompanied by illustrations
showing the roads in long strips, naming the major towns and cities.
These worked well in the provinces and in the east, but in the northern regions,
where settlements could be uprooted and moved on, the natives combined and
recom bi n ed in different federa ti on s , and perm a n ent towns were lack i n g, t h e
i ti n era ries were not so usef u l , s i n ce a list of tri be s , geogra phical fe a tu re s , a n d
topographical landmarks is so much more vague.
The rel a tive paucity of k n owl ed ge abo ut the nort h ern regi ons beyond the
Rhine and Danube may have been one of the motivating forces behind the ins
ti tuti on of m i l i t a ry interpreters , who are first atte s ted in the late second and
e a rly third cen tu ri e s , e s pec i a lly in the Danu be provi n ces (Au s tin and Ra n kov,
1995). One soldier called himself interpres Germanorum officii consularis (CIL
III 10505), and another was labeled interprex Sarmatarum(?) ex officio consularis
(CIL III 14349.5). Both of these men were on the staff of the governor, as were
three more interpreters attested on inscriptions, and significantly, all were based
at or near provincial capitals. The Romans pre su m a bly adopted a policy of
speaking with the tribesmen in their own languages and monitoring their opinions
(Austin and Rankov, 1995).
The third century was one of the most troublesome and dangerous periods
that Rome had ever faced, with large-scale movements of the northern peoples
and the advent of a much stronger and aggressive dynasty among the Parthians,
h en ceforth usu a lly label ed Pers i a n s . The Empire tem pora ri ly fell apart in ad
260, but when it was reunified, starting with the efforts of Aurelian and culminating
in the reforms of Diocletian, changes were put in place that affected intelligence
gathering. With the development of a centralized and highly bureaucratic
administration, the appointment of an overall official called the magister
of f i ci o ru m u n der Con s t a n tine en a bl ed the Roman govern m ent to coord i n a te
the information coming in from civil and military sources in the provinces and
especially from the frontiers. While this all-powerful individual monitored cor-