Real Roman History23 Jul

Episode 64. The Roman Army Under the Principate

Works CitedPrimary Sources

Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 54–55. The reorganization of the army under Augustus, with Book 55, chapter 25 covering the establishment of the aerarium militare in 6 CE.
Egyptian papyri. Collected most accessibly in Robert O. Fink, Roman Military Records on Papyrus. American Philological Association, 1971. Pay records, duty rosters, personal correspondence—the only surviving documentary evidence of this volume from anywhere in the Roman world.
Josephus. Jewish War, Book 3, chapters 5 and 6. The famous Greek-language description of the Roman army of the late 60s CE, written by a former enemy commander who had real reason to understand how the army worked. The best surviving outsider's account.
Military diplomas. The bronze citizenship grants issued to discharged auxiliaries. Catalogued across the Roman Military Diplomas series and standard epigraphic corpora.
Suetonius. Life of Augustus, chapters 24–25 and 49. On Augustus's military reforms, the founding of the aerarium militare, and his attitudes toward discipline.
Tacitus. Annals, 1.16–49. The Pannonian and Rhine mutinies of 14 CE—the army from inside, complaining about pay, discipline, and conditions. The clearest narrative window on what serving in the army felt like.
The Vindolanda tablets. Published by Alan K. Bowman and J. David Thomas across multiple volumes since 1983. The most vivid evidence for daily life on a frontier post. The birthday party invitation of Claudia Severa is Tablet 291 in the standard numbering.
Vegetius. Epitoma Rei Militaris, late fourth century CE. The single most extensive surviving Roman military manual. Written long after the period of this episode and partly archaizing—Vegetius is looking back to an idealized earlier army he believed had since deteriorated—but invaluable when used with care. The Loeb edition, translated by N. P. Milner, is the standard.

Secondary Sources

Bowman, Alan K. Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and Its People. Third edition, British Museum Press, 2003. The best introduction to the Vindolanda evidence for general readers.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. The Complete Roman Army. Thames and Hudson, 2003. The standard modern treatment, and the structural reference for this episode.
Keppie, Lawrence. The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire. Revised edition, Routledge, 1998. The best account of the transition from the Republican army to the Augustan one.
Luttwak, Edward N. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976; revised edition, 2016. Influential and contested account of the political logic of the frontier system. Worth reading with a critical eye.

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