a comparative study of a Roman frontier province. - Historia Antigua

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36. A few examples from the reign of Augustus illustrate the early impor-
tance of diplomacy. Suetonius, Aug, 48, described the Roman policy
of using client kings and of educating the sons of clients in Rome
(where they made useful hostages). Strabo IV, 5,3, described
Augustan treaty relations with Britain. The first prefect of Egypt,
G. Cornelius Gallus recorded his military and diplomatic encounters
with the Ethiopians (CIL 3,14147 - ILS 8995). In his Res Gestae,
26 - 31, Augustus outlined different aspects of his diplomatic policy
alongside his military achievements. For detailed analysis of Roman
battlefield tactics, see Webster 1979,221-48, Luttwak 1976,17-20,
117-25.
37. Mann 1979a, 178 implies that once unlimited expansion was abandoned,
the result was "complacency" and "apathy", not strategy. Millar 1982,
1-23, shows that the literary evidence concerning frontier policy
formation is inconclusive, but that the role of individual Emperors
was significant.
38. Germania, 37; tam diu Germania vincitur.
39. Birley 1974a, 15-19, discusses Hadrian's problems with the ex-marshals
of Trajan. Hadrian died "hated by all" (SHA, Had., 25,7). On Hadrian's
non-expansionist frontier policy, see Birley 1956,25-33; Syme 1965,243-
53.
40. Tacitus, Ann., XIV, 29.
41. Mitford 1980,1178-79; Tacitus, Ann, XV, 24-25; Hist., 1,6; Suetonius,
Nero, 19.
42. SHA, Marcus, 22,3-8; Birley 1974a, 22. Millar 1982,4-7 for further
examples.
43. Millar 1967,55; 1982,4-11 (p. 8-9 on the mandata). On official
secrecy and propaganda, Dio LIII, 19.
44. Recent analyses of the career of Agricola have noted that the pauses
in campaigning, notably in the fourth and fifth seasons, may have been
the result of the deaths of Vespasian and Titus and the necessity for
Agricola to await fresh instructions, Birley 1976c, 11-14; Dobson
1981,1-13.
45. Fabricius in Pauly-Wissowa, XIII, col. 571-671; Piganiol 1963,118-22.
46. Dilke 1971,93-94.
47. Velleius Paterculus II, 120: penetrat interius, aperit limites.
48. Frontinus, Strat., 1,3,10.
49. Often used in this sense in the Notitia Dignitatum see Van Berchem 1952.
50. Germania, 29; Agric, 41.
51. Tacitus and the militares viri were not opposed to defined frontiers or
even scientific, artificial frontiers per se. They were happy to see
them created in some areas, provided that expansionism was not entirely
rejected. Trajan's wars in the East and beyond the Danube must be
compared with his policies in Britain and Africa, where his legates
were prominent in the development of defined frontiers.
52. Luttwak 1976,74-80. The primacy of mountain and desert over rivers
was recognised by Napoleon: "De tous les obstacles qui peuvent couvrir
les fronti4res des empires, un desert pareil ä celui-ci (Sinai) en
incontestablement le plus grand. Les chaines de montagnes, comme les
Alpes, tiennent le second rang, les fleuves le troisiame. "
(Correspondence de Napoleon I, 30,1870,10).
53. Appian, Proem., 7 and Aelius Aristides, Roman Oration, summarised the
Roman feeling about empire in the mid-second century. Aristides
emphasised the civilisation of the empire (92-93) and the fact that
everything worthwhile in the world had been encompassed by the frontiers
of the empire (28). By the time that the Historia Augusta (SHA) were
composed, probably late in the fourth century, these attitudes had
been hardened by the effects of the barbarian invasions. Now, the
frontiers were seen to have been erected to separate Romans from
barbarians, SHA, Had., 11,2; 12,6. When Procopius wrote his