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

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The Roman A rmy
PROFITEERING IN THE LATE ROMAN ARMY
Much like their predecessors, Roman officers of the
late Empire were not averse to making profit for
themselves. Tales of the exploitation of the civil
population illustrate how powerless small communities
were when they were up against the military.
Requisitioning took the form of stealing under license,
and the practice of billeting soldiers on
civilians in the cities did not always benefit the citizens.
Officers, not confining their abuses to civilians,
were just as ready to exploit their own men. In the
early Empire, it is known that centurions demanded
bribes from the men to grant exemption from duties
or periods of leave, and the later officers did not
develope high principles in this respect. Claiming
the pay for men who had died was one of the easiest
tricks familiar to many another army throughout
history, where supervision could not be close
and constant. The Emperor Valens tried to corre c t
this and other abuses. He may have succeeded
temporarily but the problem arose again in the
sixth century, according to Procopius’s tales of officials
keeping the names of dead men on the rolls
even when there had been large losses in battles
(Anecdotes 24.5–6), which Jones (1964) says is indicative
of conniving between officers, off i c i a l s ,
and auditors.
According to Synesius (Letters 129) the dux Cerialis
found yet another way of claiming pay by allowing
some of his men very long periods of unpaid
leave but not entering the facts in his accounts,
thereby taking the cash for himself. Some officers
sold the rations for the troops and horses in addition
to taking the soldiers’ pay, thus leaving some
units barefoot and without clothes (Libanius, Orat
i o n s 47.31). Another off i c e r, Cerialis again, engaged
in a little illicit trading of his own. Synesius,
who clearly had no sympathy for Cerialis, describes
how he had the soldiers of the Balgritae lodged
with him. They were originally mounted archers, but
since Cerialis had sold all the horses, they were
now just archers (Letters 131).
one recruit. The laws passed by successive emperors reveal what was really happening
wh en rec ruits were to be fo u n d . For instance , Va l ens insisted that the
landowners must provide men from among their registered tenants and not try
to pass off onto the army homeless men, so that they could preserve their workforce.
The difficulty of recruiting sufficient numbers of soldiers is highlighted
by the laws reducing the lower age limit to eighteen (Cod. Th. 7.13.1) and probably
raising the upper limit to thirty-five years (Jones, 1964). The height qualification
was also lowered (Cod. Th.7.13.3), indicating that the army was willing to
compromise on a larger scale than hitherto about the quality of its recruits.
Another series of laws reveal how desperately men wished to avoid joining
the army. First of all, it was declared illegal for potential recruits to cut off their
fingers or thumbs. The repetition of such laws reveal that they were powerless to
stop the practice. Valentinian lost patience in ad 368 and passed a law (Cod. Th.
7.13.5) that con dem n ed sel f - muti l a ted dra f t - dod gers to be bu rn ed alive , t hu s
depriving himsel f of po ten tial rec ruits altoget h er. Th en com m on sense preva
i l ed wh en Th eodo s ius passed another law (Cod . T h . 7.13.10) forcing men
without thumbs to serve in the army, but if the landowners offered a mutilated