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26 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes · Roman History- The Early Empire

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Speaker 1: Section twenty six of Roman History The Early Empire by
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Speaker 1: William wolf Capes. This libroovox recording is in the public
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Speaker 1: domain recording by Pamelinagami, Chapter seventeen. The Frontiers and the Army.
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Speaker 1: The limits of the Roman world in the first century
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Speaker 1: of the Empire were well defined by natural boundaries. It
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Speaker 1: spread from the Atlantic on the west to the Euphrates
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Speaker 1: on the east. The Rhine and the Danube formed its
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Speaker 1: northern frontier, while the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa
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Speaker 1: parted it from peoples almost unknown. It had been the
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Speaker 1: special work of Augustus to provide an effective barrier against
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Speaker 1: the races of the north, and at the cost of
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Speaker 1: hard fighting, and after many dangerous campaigns, Pannonia, Noricumbe and
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Speaker 1: Mesia were finally subdued and the Roman arms were carried
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Speaker 1: to the Danube, nearer home. The tribes that held the
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Speaker 1: passes of the western Alps were crushed after obstinate resistance,
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Speaker 1: and many thousands of them sold into hopeless slavery that
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Speaker 1: the great roads leading to Gaul might be secured in Germany,
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Speaker 1: tribe after tribe had been attacked and Roman influence had
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Speaker 1: been pushed forward to the Elba, but the whole country
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Speaker 1: rose in arms to crush Verus and his legions, and
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Speaker 1: the boundary again receded to the Rhine. No attempt was
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Speaker 1: made at conquest. In the east, even Armenia was left
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Speaker 1: in seeming independence, and the captured standards of Crasses were
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Speaker 1: recovered from the Parthians, not by force but by diplomacy.
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Speaker 1: Toward the south, attempts were made to march into Ethiopia
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Speaker 1: and Arabia Felix, but heat and drought alone were enough
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Speaker 1: to baffle the intruders. Such were the frontiers finally accepted
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Speaker 1: by Augustus and recommended by him to his successors in them.
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Speaker 1: With one exception, no great change was made until the
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Speaker 1: time of Trajan. But Britain, which had been only visited
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Speaker 1: by Julius Caesar, was further attacked, explored, and finally subdued
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Speaker 1: in a series of campaigns dating specially from the times
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Speaker 1: of Claudius, Nero and Omission, and thus furnished a sort
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Speaker 1: of training school for the best generals of the early Empire.
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Speaker 1: It was part of the policy of Augustus to leave
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Speaker 1: a fringe of dependent kingdoms in the countries most recently annexed,
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Speaker 1: leaving the peoples for a while to the forms of
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Speaker 1: native rule, subject only to the payment of tribute or
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Speaker 1: supply of soldiers. Of these the monarchy of the Herods
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Speaker 1: furnished a well known example, and many others are known
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Speaker 1: in Syria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Thrace and Mauritania. But one after another,
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Speaker 1: as kings died or dynasties decayed, these little kingdoms also disappeared.
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Speaker 1: Governors were sent to administer in Roman fashion, and the
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Speaker 1: work of organizing went uniformly on. Diplomacy and intrigue also
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Speaker 1: were constantly employed. Beyond the borders, Treaties were formed with
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Speaker 1: neighboring monarchs to give an excuse for frequent meddling. Dynastic
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Speaker 1: quarrels were fomented, shelter was offered to princely refugees and
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Speaker 1: future rulers trained in Roman arts and letters. This policy
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Speaker 1: was specially employed in dealing with the chieftains of the
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Speaker 1: German clans and with the kings of the Far East,
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Speaker 1: and possible enemies were thus changed into friends or weak dependents.
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Speaker 1: The early Caesars prided themselves upon the success of their
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Speaker 1: diplomatic arts took credit for it in their speeches to
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Speaker 1: the Senate, and stamped in this way a pacific character
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Speaker 1: upon the policy of the Empire. For indeed, if we
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Speaker 1: accept the terrible crash of civil war in the year
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Speaker 1: sixty nine, the peace of the Roman world was scarcely
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Speaker 1: broken for a century. A few border forays on the
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Speaker 1: Rhine had their source in the wanton folly of weak
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Speaker 1: rulers who thought to win a little glory upon easy terms.
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Speaker 1: The Dacian war upon the Danube was left after a
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Speaker 1: few campaigns for Trajan's energy to close. The national uprisings
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Speaker 1: in Gaul were crushed with little effort, and in their
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Speaker 1: guerrilla warfare with the African Tacfarinas, the Roman generals were
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Speaker 1: only pitted against the brigand chief, who had to be
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Speaker 1: tracked and hunted like a wild beast to his lair.
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Speaker 1: Only when opposed to the desperate energy of Jewish fanatics
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Speaker 1: and the untamed tribes of Britain were they called upon
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Speaker 1: to cope with enemies who seriously tasked the resources of
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Speaker 1: generalship and discipline. For the most likely rivals of the
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Speaker 1: emperors were the leaders of their troops. Of these, the
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Speaker 1: most adventurous were recalled, often in their hour of triumph,
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Speaker 1: or warned to advance no further and must have sided
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Speaker 1: like Corbulo. Happy were the generals of olden time, for
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Speaker 1: they were allowed to go on and conquer Pacific, as
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Speaker 1: was the imperial policy of Augustus in his later years.
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Speaker 1: He had for the first time to set up a
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Speaker 1: standing army, and the forms in which he organized it
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Speaker 1: were long left undisturbed. On the Rhine, eight legions were
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Speaker 1: constantly on guard, divided between the higher and the lower provinces,
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Speaker 1: and the defense of the northern frontier was further maintained
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Speaker 1: by six more, who were stationed in Pannonia, Dalmatia and Mesia.
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Speaker 1: Four held the lines of the Euphrates, Two were needed
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Speaker 1: for the care of Egypt the Granary of Rome, while
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Speaker 1: an equal number held the rest of Africa. Three more
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Speaker 1: were kept in Spain, some of whose wilder tribes had
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Speaker 1: been but lately brought into subjection. These legions, twenty five
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Speaker 1: in all, were attended in the field by auxiliary forces
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Speaker 1: of about equal numbers, bearing the names and national character
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Speaker 1: of the races that sent their separate contingents to the field.
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Speaker 1: The chief stations for the fleets were at Misenum and
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Speaker 1: Ravenna on either coast of Italy, besides which the harbour
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Speaker 1: of the Colonia Forojuliensis Freyus, was chosen by Augustus to
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Speaker 1: receive some of the ships that fought at Actium. A
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Speaker 1: few thousand men, nine cohorts of the Prietorian Guards and
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Speaker 1: three of the Urban Watch sufficed for the police of
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Speaker 1: Rome and elsewhere. Through the whole interior of the vast dominion.
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Speaker 1: No garrisons were needed, and the tramp of armed men
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Speaker 1: was seldom heard upon the great highways that ran through
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Speaker 1: the old countries of the Empire. The legions themselves were
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Speaker 1: seldom moved from the frontiers to which they were attached,
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Speaker 1: but remained in permanent encampments, engaged in an unvarying round
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Speaker 1: of military drill. Near the cantonments settled the traders camp
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Speaker 1: found and various classes nearly connected with the soldiers, and
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Speaker 1: many an important town of later days derived its origin
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Speaker 1: and sometimes even its name, from the camp in the
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Speaker 1: close neighborhood of which it grew. The legions were recruited
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Speaker 1: from the border provinces, often from the very countries where
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Speaker 1: their camp was fixed. In time, many ties connected the
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Speaker 1: soldiers with the people amongst whom they lived. Most of
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Speaker 1: them had never even seen Rome or the emperor whom
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Speaker 1: they served. How strong an influence was exerted by the
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Speaker 1: empire on the imaginations of the peoples, and how substantial
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Speaker 1: were believed to be the benefits of union, is found
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Speaker 1: in the fact that so few efforts were seriously made
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Speaker 1: to assertain national independence and call the native soldiery to
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Speaker 1: rally round it. For the temper of the legions was,
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Speaker 1: in the main loyal and steadfast. The statues and effigies
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Speaker 1: of the ruling monarch were commonly in the camp, the
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Speaker 1: objects of unquestioning reverenarrants, and there at least caesar worship
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Speaker 1: was something of a reality and not a name. The
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Speaker 1: military traditions of each legion acquired of themselves an attractive
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Speaker 1: force over the fancy of the soldiers, and provident clubs
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Speaker 1: and guilds for social union grew up gradually among them,
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Speaker 1: as we learned from inscriptions found in Northern Africa. After
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Speaker 1: the lapse of ages. They were also encouraged to deposit
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Speaker 1: their savings in a sort of bank set up in
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Speaker 1: their quarters, the funds of which were large enough to
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Speaker 1: provide the needful means for the rising of Antonius against omission.
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Speaker 1: The camps were also the best training grounds for the
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Speaker 1: old fashioned virtues of faithfulness, straightforwardness, and hardihood, and in
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Speaker 1: them were to be found the best types of the
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Speaker 1: old Roman character, which, as moralists complained, were to be
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Speaker 1: found elsewhere. No more. If the funds of a country
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Speaker 1: town had fallen into disorder or uprightness was needed for
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Speaker 1: a special post. The curator chosen by the government was
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Speaker 1: often an old soldier who had long been tried and trusted,
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Speaker 1: and early Christian history throws incidentally a favorable light upon
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Speaker 1: the moral qualities of the Roman officer. Those qualities were
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Speaker 1: mainly formed by thoroughness of work and discipline. Besides the
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Speaker 1: mere routine of drill and all the exercises of a
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Speaker 1: soldier's trade, the earthworks and entrenchments of the camp, there
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Speaker 1: was no lack of constant labor. Their armies raised the
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Speaker 1: great highways through miles of swamp and forest, spanned the
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Speaker 1: streams with bridges, built dikes and aqueducts and baths, and
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Speaker 1: taught the border races as much of the arts of
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Speaker 1: peace as of the methods and appliances of war to
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Speaker 1: save them from the monotony of garrison life and the
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Speaker 1: temptations of unlettered leisure they had for the twenty years,
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Speaker 1: which was their minimum of service, a healthy variety of
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Speaker 1: useful work to call out their o energy and skill.
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Speaker 1: The second requisite of discipline varied more with the temper
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Speaker 1: of the general in command. It was a singular feature
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Speaker 1: of the first Caesar's habits of command that he was
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Speaker 1: careless of common rules and allowed much license to his troops,
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Speaker 1: saying that his men, perfumed as they were, could fight.
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Speaker 1: But his successors could not rely on the prestige of
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Speaker 1: genius to inspire morale nor quell their mutinous soldiers with
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Speaker 1: a word, and they drew the bands of discipline more tightly.
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Speaker 1: The greatest generals were commonly the strictest, and themselves set,
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Speaker 1: like Corbulo and Agricola, a marked example to their men.
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Speaker 1: The worst, like Vitellius in his few weeks of command
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Speaker 1: upon the Rhine, were lax and careless, and rapidly demoralized
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Speaker 1: their armies. Next to the generals, the most important influence
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Speaker 1: on the temper of the soldiers was that of the centurions,
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Speaker 1: for they might be harsh and overbearing, and sorely try
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Speaker 1: the patience of the men below them. They might be
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Speaker 1: venal and exacting, and allow some to buy discharge from
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Speaker 1: the common duties of the camp, while unfairly burdening others.
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Speaker 1: They might be quite incapable, and all their places to
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Speaker 1: favor rather than to actual merit. Twice in the course
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Speaker 1: of the period before us we have the spectacle of
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Speaker 1: a complete breakdown of military discipline, and it is instructive
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Speaker 1: to compare the facts of each. The first followed close
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Speaker 1: on the succession of Tiberius. Both on the Rhine and
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Speaker 1: in Pannonia, the soldiers were in open mutiny, incited seemingly
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Speaker 1: by the men who had most lately joined the standards
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Speaker 1: recruited from the city Populace after the fatal loss of us.
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Speaker 1: The complaints put into their mouths are those of men
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Speaker 1: who chafed at the stern drill of camp after the
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Speaker 1: pleasures of the capital, who found the strictness of the
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Speaker 1: centurions hard to bear, and look forward with despair to
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Speaker 1: twenty years of service, remembering the higher pay of the
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Speaker 1: favored prietorians and their shorter term of years. The second
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Speaker 1: was in the troublous year of sixty nine, when so
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Speaker 1: many rivals struggled for the post of honor, the armies
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Speaker 1: had to assert their liberty of choice by naming each
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Speaker 1: their emperor, and the sources of discipline were thereby disturbed,
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Speaker 1: while the drill and work of stationary quarters were suddenly
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Speaker 1: exchanged for the license and the plunder of campaigns. They
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Speaker 1: constantly broke out in mutiny against their leaders, and complained
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Speaker 1: that the centurions were harsh or cruel, and twice, when
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Speaker 1: they had made an emperor, they would not be denied
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Speaker 1: the privilege of choosing all their officers at their caprice.
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Speaker 1: But these were the rare exceptions of exciting times, and
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Speaker 1: the legions commonly were loyal, and the emperors careful of
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Speaker 1: their welfare. They rarely received, indeed, the donative which the
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Speaker 1: guards of the capital could almost extort at the accession
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Speaker 1: of a war ruler. But besides the pay, which was
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Speaker 1: in itself a great burden on the imperial revenue, a
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Speaker 1: special fund was formed in a sort of military chest,
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Speaker 1: to furnish pensions for the veterans who were discharged, and
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Speaker 1: new sources of income were devised to meet the need.
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Speaker 1: In the form of a succession duty of five percent,
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Speaker 1: and of certain tolls levied in the markets. After the
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Speaker 1: Civil Wars, it had been common to plant military colonies
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Speaker 1: and to find land for all the veterans. But it
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Speaker 1: was found in time that they were sorry settlers and
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Speaker 1: little suited to field work, and the land passed speedily
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Speaker 1: out of their hands. The system of pensions was therefore
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Speaker 1: adopted in its stead. One further privilege we hear of,
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Speaker 1: though only from the evidence of inscriptions graven on metal
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Speaker 1: tablets found in various lands. They are the certified copies
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Speaker 1: of the official document in which an honorable discharge was
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Speaker 1: granted to deserving soldiers after the full term of service.
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Speaker 1: It carried with it the full franchise to the provincials
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Speaker 1: who served as auxiliaries beside the legions, and it gave
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Speaker 1: a Roman status to the worthy, as the emperor's favor
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Speaker 1: or a master's whim did to large numbers of a
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Speaker 1: different class. And of Section twenty six