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

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5: 1
66. On Byzantine frontier policy in Africa, see now Pringle 1981,51-170
(an admirable survey of army organisation, strategy and style of
fortifications). In both Africa and the Eastern provinces, Byzantine
strategy was based on defence-in-depth using fortified towns,
settlements and fortresses and an elastic response from large, mobile
field armies.
67. Dyson-1971,267-74; 1974,277-83; 1975,138-75, deal with the negative
response (that is, revolt). Warmington 1974,291-96, urges the recogni-
tion of the variability of response. For an example of Roman and native
interaction from Roman Britain, see Breeze 1982,56-58,128-30.
68. See above, Chapters 3 and 4 and, below, chapter 6.
69. As happened in Britain, when Boudica led the Iceni in revolt or much
earlier in Pannonia and Illyricum in A. D. 6-9.
70. Younger Pliny, Letters IV, 9 and V. 20 deal with the trial of officials
for corruption and extortion and these cases were fairly typical of the
legal processes (and punishments) by which provincials could get redress
by judicial means. Nevertheless, individuals did occasionally provoke
revolts by their rapacity, as happened in Britain in A. D. 60-61 on account
of the procurator, Decianus Catus (Tacitus, Ann, XIV, 31-32)
Some minor official abuses are described in Tacitus, Agri c., 19.
71. This decision was taken on the advice of Catus' successor as procurator,
Iulius Classicianus, Ann, XIV, 38.
72. The process of pacification and Romanisation is well described by
Tacitus again, Agric. 21: namque ut homines dispersi ac rudes, eoque
in bella faciles, quieti et otio per voluptates adsuescerent, hortari
privatim, adiuvare publice ut templa fora domas exstruerunt ...
lam
vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire. For both
individuals and tribes the rewards for acquiescence could be great,
vide the privileged position of the Hermunduri on the Danube (Tacitus,
Germania 41), Cottius in the Alps under Augustus (CIL 5.7231 - ILS
94) and Cogidubnus in Britain (Tacitus, Agric., 14).
73. See, for example, the interesting series of papers edited by Bohannon
and Plog 1967. A recent paper by Bartel (1980,11-26) examines problems
of Roman imperialism and colonialism in terms of the methodologies of
the modern frontier
anthropologist.
74. Inter alia. I have made particular use of Oliver 1979,13-23 (European
colonialism in West Africa); Kirk 1979,39-55 (British Northwest
frontier in India); Gellner and Micaud 1972 (on Morocco); Martel 1965
and Trousset 1981 (for the French military occupation of southern
Tunisia). Abun-Nasr 1975 and Knapp 1977 have proved indispensable as
summary accounts of European colonisation and decolonisation in North
west Africa as a whole. Finally, I have learned a great deal through
conversations with Dr. W. Warrell-Bowring (of Sandhurst) about
European colonial government in East Africa.
75. The most recent theories on the population of Roman Britain are
summarised in Salway 1981,542-52. The other figures are from Oliver
1979,17-18. Dr. Bowring informs me that in one area of Tanganyika
where he was on the colonial staff, there were only 11 policemen and
no soldiers to control a native population of 400,000. In this
instance, as in countless others, military security was secured by
tactful diplomacy, indirect rule through traditional tribal leaders
and unimpeachable
justice.
76. Cagnat 1913,104-05. At the height of the Algerian war of Independence,
France had over 120,000 troops in Algeria, Abu-Nasr 1975,330.
77. Wells 1972, summarises the German evidence: Webster 1970,179-97;
Frere 1978,78-111, are already outdated as summaries of the British
deployment. Jones 1975,8-67, is a useful survey of the archaeological
evidence for early forts and fortresses (discoveries up to 1975).