Neronia XI

Just as the Imperial form of government was not conceived all in one go, so the soldier of the High Empire did not emerge fully armed from the mind of Augustus. Yet most existing studies on soldiery focus on the High Empire as a whole and so give pride of place to the richer and more varied documentation from the Flavian and Antonine periods. This bias overshadows some of the specific features of the early Imperial period and any continuity to be found with the Late Republic. In centring its time frame exclusively on the Julio-Claudian period, the present symposium avoids postulating a sudden break as from the time of Augustus. Furthermore, study of the soldiery has often been confined to institutional or material aspects, with insufficient attention being paid to their behaviour or outlook on life. Yet, the main originality of this period is that, with development of epigraphy and military iconography, the Roman soldier talking about himself and speaking for himself for the first time. This documentation was later supplemented by soldiers’ letters, preserved on papyrus or ostraka. This period also had the advantage of being covered by numerous historians, some of whom were contemporaries with direct experience of warfare, such as Velleius Paterculus and Flavius Josephus. This soldiery was also known to Livy and influenced his description of the legionaries of Republican Rome. Between the battle of Actium and the death of Claudius, a garrison was gradually established in the Urbs and little by little a model for relations between emperor and soldiery emerged. The emperor’s power was based on his military victories and the soldiers’ open support for him. The question is whether or not Nero departed from this model. In fact, the debate focuses mainly on the emperor’s involvement in managing the many conflicts that marked his time.