The auxilia in Roman Britain and the Two Germanies from ... - TSpace

The auxilia in Roman Britain and the Two Germanies from Augustus to Caracalla: Family, Religion and ,,Romanization

by

David Benjamin Cuff

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics University of Toronto

? Copyright by David Benjamin Cuff 2010

The auxilia in Roman Britain and the Two Germanies from Augustus to Caracalla: Family, Religion and ,,Romanization

Abstract

David Benjamin Cuff Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics University of Toronto

2010

This thesis examines the cultural and social relationships cultivated by ethnically diverse auxiliary soldiers in the western Roman empire. These soldiers were enrolled in the Roman auxilia, military units that drew primarily on the non-Roman subjects of the empire for their recruits in numbers that equaled the legionaries. I argue that auxiliary soldiers could and did maintain large families, and demonstrate, from epigraphic data collected and presented in my dissertation, how foreign ethnic and religious identities were variously integrated into Roman military culture by both individual auxiliaries and the Roman state.

The history of the auxilia in Germany from the time of Augustus and in Britain from the time of Claudius is discussed, with extensive reference to epigraphic material provided in appendices to this work. Analysis of military diplomas from across the Roman empire demonstrates a significant phenomenon of auxiliary family creation that helps to contextualize the diploma data from Germania and Britannia. Research on further epigraphic evidence from Germania and Britannia demonstrates a marked diversity in religious dedications by auxiliary soldiers and further evidence for auxiliary families. From a discussion of the history of the concept of ,,Romanization and other theoretical models that can be applied to the study of the auxilia, the continued usefulness of the evolving concept of ,,Romanization to our understanding of auxiliary cultural integration is assessed. Auxiliary service is shown to have provided many non-Roman ethnic groups avenues of cultural and legal inclusion that each soldier, surely in his own way, could exploit.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to offer my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Christer Bruun for his expert and patient advice. My research and scholarly development have benefitted enormously from my participation in the Collaborative Program in Ancient History between York University and Toronto (COLPAH). At York my heartfelt thanks also go out especially to Prof. Jonathan Edmondson for agreeing to participate in my dissertation committee. My work was also read by Profs. Hugh Mason, Michel Cottier, and, in her capacity as Graduate Co-ordinator, Victoria Wohl, and I thank them all for their effort. Thanks for encouragement and help in matters academic and otherwise are also due to the Graduate Assisstant, Coral Gavrilovic, and Departmental Assisstant, Ann-Marie Matti. I am grateful for the observations of my external examiner, Prof. William Kerr. The suggestions of all who have read my work have improved it immensely and saved me from innumerable infelicities. It should hardly need to be stated that I bear responsibility for any errors remaining in the text.

I have been fortunate to have enjoyed generous financial support for my doctoral research from the Social Sciences and Humanities Resource Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. From the Department of Classics at Toronto I have also received additional support from the Bickell Fellowship and the Rene Efrain Memorial Scholarship in Roman History. The Norwood Travel Fellowship funded travel to Cologne, Germany in 2008, where I conducted research for this project as a resident scholar at the Universit?t zu K?ln, Institut f?r Altertumskunde at the kind invitation of Prof. Werner Eck.

The love and support of friends and family have sustained me throughout my postgraduate career. My parents have never wavered in their encouragement of my studies here and abroad, and to them this work is chiefly dedicated. Among my graduate colleagues at Toronto I would specifically thank Gabriela Doroftei for her friendship throughout our shared experience as doctoral students striving to become better scholars. Not the least benefit of my decision to come to Toronto has been the fortuitous event of meeting my wife Linda on a very cold Canadian winters night in 2005. Although not an academic, she has been unwavering in her support and encouragement of me throughout my doctoral research. Miluji t, moje milovan? manzelko.

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Table of Contents

Introduction (1-22)

The origins of the auxilia

I

Before the auxilia: 1st century BCE socii and the Strabo Decree

(1-4)

II

Resistance and Integration: From Arminius to the Claudian

reform and beyond (5-7)

III

The Augustan auxiliary units organization (7-12)

IV

Intercisa: a case study of an auxiliary ethnic unit (12-19)

V

General Remarks on the present work (19-22)

Chapter 1 (23-49)

Auxiliary Research and the ,,Romanization Paradigm

1.I 1.I.i

1.I.ii 1.I.iii

,,Romanization: history and theoretical debate (24-34) Interdisciplinary approaches and challenges in the 1960s (2930) ,,Resistance as a theoretical answer to ,,Romanization (30-32) Postcolonialist approaches from the 1990s to the present (3234)

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1.II

Roman army studies and the auxilia, late 19th ? mid 20th

centuries (34-47)

1.II.i

Later synthetic treatments of the auxilia by Holder and

Saddington (42-44)

1.II.ii

Recent scholarship on the auxilia (44-47)

1.III

Conclusion (47-49)

Chapter 2 (50-103)

Military Diplomas as evidence for auxiliary families and

,,Romanization

2.I 2.II

2.III 2.IV 2.IV.ii

2.V 2.VI 2.VII

Soldiers Privileges (51-56) Auxiliary diplomas from Britain and the Two Germanies: General Observations (56-58) Family (58-69) "Wives" recorded on diplomas (69-75) Observations on auxiliary wives names, as recorded on diplomas (75-77) Remarks on ethnic endogamy (77-80) Remarks on children recorded in military diplomas (80-83) Women inside and outside the forts: archaeology and epigraphy (83-85)

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