For this post, I am quoting only historical data as presented in Poul Anderson's text so it will be spotty.
Civil war followed the overthrow of Nero. There was the year of three Emperors, Galba, Otho and Vitellius, then Vespasian in the Near East. The claimants conscripted troops. A man with the Roman name of Claudius Civilis led a Batavian revolt, initially in support of Vespasian. Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor led north-eastern Gaul in support of Civilis and proclaimed their province an independent empire. A Germanic prophetess, Veleda, predicted the fall of Rome and the tribes' aim became independence. Vespasian prevailed but remained in the Near East to deal with the Jewish War of 69-70 A.D. and sent Petillius Cerialis to take control in the North. After wearing down resistance, Cerialis negotiated peace with Civilis. They spoke from opposite ends of a broken bridge over the Ijssel.
4 comments:
Note that if you became a Roman citizen in that era (which the commanders of auxiliary troops generally did, if they weren't already) you had to adopt a "trinomen" -- Lucius X-ius X-ius.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Dang, I should have thought of that, the other times I read "Star of the Sea." Also, by having auxiliaries serving far away from their native homes would help to make sure they stayed loyal to the EMPIRE first, instead of to their old tribes or clans.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: precisely. Nothing like all the civilians around you thinking of you as "a Roman" to make you start thinking of -yourself- as "a Roman".
One of the biggest differences between ancient Greece and Rome was that Rome was relatively generous with its citizenship.
For example, if a Roman freed a slave he owned, the -slave- became a 2nd-class Roman citizen, and his or her children became full citizens legally equal to any other.
By the first century of the Empire, there were lots of Senatorial and Equestrian families that had a freedman no more than a few generations back.
I can't think of a single Greek state that did that.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Interesting! I am not sure I knew ex-slaves became any kind of Roman citizen after being manumitted.
Humans being what they are, I did know some of the older patrician/plebeian aristocratic families had a snobbish disdain for arrivistes of humble/servile origins. But being rich would make many overlook that!
Ad astra! Sean
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