Rowdy+Soldiers

C// lL // 3. 12336 =//AJ// 139, inscription, Scaptopara, Thrace, AD 238 (extract)

To Emperor Caesar Marcus Antonius Gordian Pius Fortunate Augustus, petition from the villagers of Scaptopara and of Griseia ... We live and have our property in the village mentioned above which is exposed to harm because it has the advantage of hot springs and is located between two of the army camps which are in your (province of) Thrace. Previously, as long as the inhabitants remained undisturbed and __free__ from oppression, they reliably paid their tribute and met their other obligations. .But when at times some persons started to become insolent and to use force, then the village started to decline. A famous festival is held two miles from our village, and those persons who stay there for fifteen days for the festival do not remain in the vicinity of the festival itself, but leave it and come down on our village, forcing us to provide them with hospitality and purvey many other items for their enjoyment without __payment__. In addition to these persons, soldiers too, who have been dispatched somewhere else, leave their proper routes and come to us, and similarly intimidate us into furnishing them with hospitality and provisions, and pay __no money__. Moreover, the governors of the province and indeed your procurators, are regular visitors here to use the hot springs. We unceasingly receive those in authority, as we are required to do, but being unable. to put up with the others, we have repeatedly approached the governors of Thrace, who in accordance with the letters of the divine emperors, have ordered that we are to remain undisturbed. For we made clear that we could no longer put up with it but intended to leave our ancestral homes because of the violence of those who. descend on us ...

Trans: Campbell, Brian. // The Roman Army: A Sourcebook // (Routledge 1994).

How long has Thrace been a province of Rome and what is there relationship with Rome? are they Roman citizens?

Who is this Emperor?

Who are the governors they have been discussing?

Are Romans somewhat required to provide for soldiers and visitors?

This document gives us a very interesting look into the life in a province of Rome. Thrace was a province located in the region between the Adriatic, Black, and Aegean Seas. This included modern day Greece, Bulgaria and parts of Turkey. []

This province was annexed by Rome during the first century BC and eventually became a province in 46 CE under the emperor Claudius I. We can see the pride of the people of Thrace in their province and their village. They place importance on the use of their hot springs and they know that these springs are desirable and somewhat of a tourist attraction. However, the attitude of the governors of Thrace seem to be less proud than these citizens, or perhaps that they just have little power. The indication that the governors of Thrace have already been informed of this issue and have not managed to quell the problem shows the little power that these governors and provincial officials have over the Roman Army. Also, since I have yet to determine who exactly these governors were, I must assume that these officials were not of high importance in this matter. [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracians#Roman_rule]

The use of petitions to the emperor was one way to show that residents of this Roman province saw the Emperor as their ruler and the highest power they could turn to in order to better their situation. Another interesting point about a petition straight to the Emperor is that Rome was somewhat unique in that its citizens and communities, or even individuals within the Empire could communicate directly with the Emperor and even get responses to many of their requests and communications. While this makes the emperor very accessible to the people, it also forces him to remove himself from behind his administrative wall and become accountable for the requests of his empire.

Another interesting note about this petition is that is discusses that this problem has gone through the governors to several divine emperors. This brought up the question of how many emperors past had known about the problem and how long the problem had been in occurrence. By looking at a timeline of Roman emperors, the first thing you will see about this year in the Roman Empire is that there were six emperors. ([]) The emperor that is currently being addressed is the last of the six emperors to reign during the year of 238 CE. He can be known as Gordian III and is the grandson and son of two of the previous rulers of that year, Gordian I and II.

In terms of the petition of this community, there are a few interesting points to be addressed. The community is complaining of an abuse of their space and hospitality by Romans from other communities. According to the Roman system of angarela or vehiculatio, Roman provincial subjects were obliged to accommodate Roman travelers and provide them lodging and transportation. ([] ) This was already a problematic system and angered communities in many Roman provinces. However in terms of the Roman Soldiers, there was no system that required provincial residents to accommodate these soldiers without pay. In fact, it was common of the Roman army to buy or trade for their supplies from the towns and markets nearest their base in these Roman provinces. ([|http://www.scribd.com/tandrax218/d/58915718/15-SOLDIERS-AND-CIVILIANS#page=173] ) Therefore, we can determine that these soldiers were behaving in a manner that was outside the standards of the Roman army. Since these soldiers were in fact in the wrong, there generally would have been some sort of punishment that these soldiers would sustain. One remaining question from this petition is whether or not there was any punishment carried out or even whether or not these soldiers discontinued this “rowdy” behavior.

links to other insightful articles: This document gives us a very different view of the Roman Army than the standard militaristic view. In the articles Scipio's Siege of New Carthage and Caesar as Military Commander we can see how the Roman Army operated while in battle and while under the command of a competent commander. This view of the Roman army is very valuable to see how the Roman army truly operated as a military unit, instead of occupants of a fort town. Also in terms of civilian life, the article about an Injured Slave shows us what other types of issues that may be brought up to the emperor. We can see the struggles in the daily life of a Roman.

By Maggie Dewar Works Cited "Blagoevgrad." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

Campbell, Brian. //SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS for The Roman Army, 31 BC - AD 337//. //Scribd//. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

Hekster, Olivier, and Erika Manders. "Identities of Emperor and Empire in the Third Century AD. Some Considerations More." //Identities of Emperor and Empire in the Third Century AD. Some Considerations (Olivier Hekster)//. Academia.edu, Mar. 2009. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

"Thrace (region, Europe)." //Encyclopedia Britannica Online//. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

"Thrace." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

"Thracians." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

"Timeline of Roman Emperors." //Roman Colosseum//. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. .

__Job__ well done, Maggie. The information from your research is pretty thorough and the links to other articles is clever. The only suggestion I would make would be maybe the organization could be arranged differently.- Kyle Short

- I like that you listed your sources with your response to the document because it allows readers to directly go to where you found the information and understand the conclusions that you came to. I agree with Kyle that your wiki page could use a little more organization; if you simply added subtitles to each sections and made them bold that would help. My only other suggestion would be that it would be nice to see links to other people or places within the document to provide background information for those who know nothing about Rome. Kortney Lee

maggie, very nice start. your links are super helpful. maybe another thing you could talk about is how many baths are in Thrace? but i like that you found a problem in Roman society and how they knew it was a problem. very neat.