Security in Roman Times: Rome, Italy and the Emperors

Description

Using literary, epigraphic, numismatic and iconographic sources this book investigates the safety devices that were in place for the protection of the emperor and the city of Rome in the imperial age. In the aftermath of the civil wars Augustus continued to provide for his physical safety in the same way as in the old Republic while, at the same time, overturning the taboo of armed men in the city. During the Augustan age, the division of the city into 14 regions and 265 vici was designed to establish control over the urban space. Augustus’ successors consolidated his policy but the specific roles of the various military or paramilitary forces remain a matter for debate. Drawing on the testimony of ancient authors such as Tacitus and Suetonius and on material evidence, the volume examines both the circumstances in which these forces intervened and the strategies that they adopted. It also examines the pre-Augustan, Augustan and post-Augustan sense of ‘securitas’, both as a philosophical and a political concept. The final section expands the focus from the city of Rome to the Italian peninsula where the security of the emperor as he travelled to his country residences required advance planning and implementation. Security in Roman Times- Front Cover Security in Roman Times Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of figures Preamble Acknowledgements Notes Notes on translation and bibliographical references PART I: From public order to security Chapter 1: Studies on military forces and public order in Rome and Italy from Republic to Principate: points of view Notes Chapter 2: Between Pax, Disciplina and Securitas: moving the focus Notes Chapter 3: The security of Rome and the security of the emperor: the slow development of a discourse and its transformation into a communicative instrument Cicero: prologue of a discourse Maecenas, Roman epicureanism and Lucretius: genesis of a discourse Augustus: the words of the discourse From Tiberius to Nero: the affirmation of a discursive strategy Securitas et Tutela: the adaptations of a discursive strategy The second century: from metus Temporum to securitas Temporum Notes PART II: The birth of a dispositive Introduction: Augustan criminal legislation and military reforms Persistence and innovation in Augustan criminal legislation The relationship with the soldiers and the dawn of the security plan Notes Chapter 4: The security of the Princeps in Rome: military escorts and bodyguards Notes Chapter 5: The security of the urban area and its inhabitants: civilian, paramilitary and military personnel From the late-republican turbulence to Augustus’ design Those in charge of the vici: synergy between the new protagonists of security Notes PART III: Testing a dispositive Introduction: the security of the Princeps and of urban spaces in Rome from Tiberius to the Severans Notes Chapter 6: A topography of security and dangerous places: with an episode Castra praetoria Stationes vigilum, praefectura vigilum Praefectura urbana Castra corporis custodium (?), castra equitum singularium At the gates of the city: the stationes militum Palatium Places of entertainment (theatre, amphitheatre, circus) Thermae An episode Notes Chapter 7: The urban soldiers and the city The urban cohorts in the first century Castra praetoria and castra urbana: the barracks of the Milites Urbani in Rome Public order and the military role of the urban cohorts The urban cohort in Lugdunum The urban cohort in Carthage Appendix: epigraphic evidence after 1967 Notes PART IV: Policing and security in imperial Italy Introduction: security in Italy and the role of the central government between Augustus and the Severans Notes Chapter 8: Praesidia Urbis et Italiae: Grumentum and its territory – a case study Notes Chapter 9: Praetoria and praetorians: the emperor’s travels and security (Latium Vetus) Dossier Notes Chapter 10: Emperors on the move: security in the Campanian cities and in the Albanum Domitiani (first century AD) Augustus and the Julio-Claudians between Capri and the Campanian coast Domitian and his Albanum Notes Epilogue: Securitati Caesaris totiusque Urbis Securitas: history of a concept An integrated plan Experimentation, maturation and crisis of a plan Notes Bibliography Bibliographical abbreviations Frequently cited corpora or repertories Index