Greek authors as military historians

[popularis]

Hi All

I'm taking a bit of a liberty here, but I wondered if anyone could point me in the way of some reading material. I'm looking for any systematic treatment of the Roman military history in Greek authors who write on the period C1BC-C1AD, in particular, Plutarch, Appian and Dio. There's a fair bit on Polybius, of course, and the odd comment in detailed discussions of particular engagements or passages, but once I get past discussions on the development of the cohort/the army of the second century BC the major discussions seem to dry up. I wondered if anyone knew of anything more general that covered C1BC-C1AD?

Best wishes, and blue skies

Tom

[D B Campbell]

I wondered if anyone knew of anything more general that covered C1BC-C1AD?

You want Denis Saddington's The Development of the Roman Auxiliary Forces from Caesar to Vespasian (Amazon UK | Amazon US) ... if you can find it!

Saddington has spent a long career teasing out details of the Roman military from individual ancient authors (though I'm not sure he -- or anyone -- has concentrated specifically on the Greek authors you cited).

[popularis]

I wondered if anyone knew of anything more general that covered C1BC-C1AD?

You want Denis Saddington's The Development of the Roman Auxiliary Forces from Caesar to Vespasian (Amazon UK | Amazon US) ... if you can find it!

Thanks for the reply!

I'll have another look at chapter one of Auxilia 1982, I hadn't thought about that. I should add that I'm a doctoral student at Oxford (working on junior officers), so getting access to things isn't a problem. I'd also add that posting here is something of a last resort. It's not like I haven't looked, I just can't find anything, and L'Année Philogique hasn't turned anything up yet (I might be trying the wrong search terms though). I just don't want to miss a major work.

Saddington has spent a long career teasing out details of the Roman military from individual ancient authors (though I'm not sure he -- or anyone -- has concentrated specifically on the Greek authors you cited).

Hasn't he just! But I'm starting to think that, yes, there isn't much that concentrates on this directly. I'm getting good stuff from individual commentaries, but I can't find anything that's a systematic analysis. There doesn't even seem to be a literary equivalent to Devijver's 1973 "Some observations on greek terminology for the militiae equestres in the literary epigraphical and papyrological sources." (it's in the Mavors volume I), which - despite the title - is mostly epigraphic and papyrological, or adopts a similar approach to Saddington's analysis of Tacitus in ANRW 1991 (ANRW II-35.5 (1991), 3484-3555), or is a 1st century equivalent to Marsden (1973) ('Polybius as a military historian', in Fondation Hardt 20 (1973) 269-301). I write this in case it jogs anyone's memory.

Ah well, looks like I might have something to write about at least

thanks again for the reply

Tom

[D B Campbell]

I've often thought that a military study of Cassius Dio would be worthwhile, just to see what little gems might appear. Your best bet might be to look in the various commentaries, but even then ... as you suggested, you'd be better writing it yourself!

I look forward to reading the fruits of your researches, if and when.