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

turies ad. It is full of practical advice, such as the importance of collecting sufficient
fodder for the horses in advance, in case of blockade or retreat, and how to
keep water fresh by constantly running it from one vessel into another. Maurice
recommended storing water in large earthenware jars, pierced at the bottom so
that the water could run into another jar and then be poured back into the first
ja r. He also recom m en ded watering the horses by bu cket if the on ly ava i l a bl e
stream was small and narrow, in order to avoid congestion and fouling of the
su pp ly—a practi ce that pre su pposes that the troops con cern ed had en o u gh
time on their hands for this labor-intensive method. Maurice was also very emphatic
about the need for constant training, particularly for horse archers, who
should be born in the saddle and be able to shoot rapidly to the front, the rear,
the right, and the left. He preferred sustained rapid arrow fire to perfect aim, no
doubt for the psychological effects.
Law Codes
I n t r o d u c t i o n 31
The collections of laws that were produced in the Byzantine period have a great
deal of rel eva n ce to the Roman army. In the fifth cen tu ry, the Cod ex T h e od
o s i a nu s was com p i l ed from a va ri ety of e a rl i er laws and en actm ents (Pharr,
1 9 5 2 ) , and in the first half of the sixth cen tu ry, Di gest of Ju s tinian was issu ed
covering a very broad range of subjects (Watson, 1998) and collating not just
laws but also legal opinions with a bearing on application of the laws. The material
in these compilations was by no means restricted to the later Roman period,
since several sections of the codes date from the first and second centuries, parti
c u l a rly in the Di gest of Ju s ti n i a n , wh ere the useful habit was adopted of a ttri
buting the legal op i n i ons to their ori ginal aut h or, so that the ch ron o l ogi c a l
context and their long-term relevance can be evaluated.
In a military con tex t , one of the most com m on ly qu o ted passages from the
Di ge s t is that of the secon d - cen tu ry military of f i cer and law yer, Ta rru n tenus Paternu
s , a l tern a tively Ta rruten iu s , or more likely Ta rut ti enu s . He may be the same
Pa ternus who is men ti on ed by Dio in more than one passage , f i rst as ab ep i s tu l i s
La ti n i s ( s ec ret a ry for Latin corre s pon den ce) to Ma rcus Au rel iu s , t h enin an indepen
dent military command in ad 179 perhaps as Praetorian Prefect , f i n a lly exec
uted by Com m odu s . Ta rut ti enus wro te a military manual now known on ly by
its ti t l e , De Re Mi l i t a ri or Mi l i t a ri u m , but the Di ge s t a t tri butes to him a list of i mmu
n e s in the Roman army, or those specialists who were exc u s ed fati g u e s . Th e
list provi des a revealing insight into Roman military ad m i n i s tra ti on .
An o t h er com p i l a ti on of l aws with mu ch more direct va lue for the Rom a n
army is the book attributed to Ruffus, whose real identity is unknown, but it is
speculated that he may have been Sextus Ruffus (or Rufius) Festus, who was a
provincial govern or under the Emperor Va l en tinian II, who rei gn ed from ad