Blood of the Provinces

Abstract

The auxilia provided more than half the manpower in Rome's provincial armies. This book demonstrates how, both on the battlefield and off, the Roman state addressed a crucial and enduring challenge, retaining control of the miscellaneous auxiliaries upon whom its very existence depended. Crucially, this was not simply achieved by pay and punishment, but also by a very particular set of cultural attributes that characterized provincial society under the Roman Empire. To understand better these attributes, this book opens with a broad chronological survey which examines the development of the auxilia against the evolving structures of imperial power. Beginning with the origins of the imperial auxilia under the late Republic, the survey culminates in the mid third century AD, by which time most key distinctions between auxiliary soldiers and legionary troops had been substantially eroded. The volume continues with an analysis of archaeological and historical sources for the recruitment, cults, routines, patterns of speech and written communication, tactics and dress of auxiliaries, and the broader military communities of which they were a part. In each instance, local variation and grassroots developments are set alongside broader imperial patterns.

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