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Safety outside the villages and towns
#1
I was wondering about the safety outside the villages and towns in the Gallic provinces...

Could one ( a sales man) travel from town to town by it self? Or would he have needed an armed "bodyguard".
And what about other people, could mother and daughter go and visit a relative who lived somewhere else?

How many outlaws would wander around in between the different Celtic tribes and kingdoms...
Would they live in packs and attack baggage trains from traders or maybe rob cattle and steal from the farmers who work out in the field?

You automatically start thinking about the medieval situation, but with the tight community's in the Celtic world (and the Roman control and military activities) things might be a little different...
I am also thinking about the native American situation, where there are more friendly or more warlike tribes, that go and steal cattle from others every ones and a while... But where (I think) individuals are relatively save outside in the field and their surrounding nature... Did this happen in the Celtic world before and maybe durring the Roman "controle"?? Whe do know about the Irish epos about the great cattle stealing. but how common whas this?

So anyone an idea?
Folkert van Wijk
Celtic Auxilia, Legio II Augusta.
With a wide interrest for everything Celtic BC
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#2
Hi Folkert!
Quote:I was wondering about the safety outside the villages and towns in the Gallic provinces...
[..]
How many outlaws would wander around in between the different Celtic tribes and kingdoms...
You have me confused here.. What period are you referring to? I can imagine that ssafety differed from time to time. Whether of not regions were at war or not, more like. Or are you talking about the Roman period? Of course after the occupation had started, this would change the situation, I guess, after some time. Of course, a civil war would not be good for public safety!
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#3
My question actualy are about booth the Roman an pre Roman period so let's say from 200 BC to 100 AD.

But sinds this is a Roman forum answers considering roman law enforcement in the gallic provinces would be most likely to find here...
Folkert van Wijk
Celtic Auxilia, Legio II Augusta.
With a wide interrest for everything Celtic BC
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#4
Quote:My question actualy are about booth the Roman an pre Roman period so let's say from 200 BC to 100 AD.

But sinds this is a Roman forum answers considering roman law enforcement in the gallic provinces would be most likely to find here...

I would have mentioned the bagaudae but they are at least 150 years after your stated period. But they were prevalent in the Gallic and Spanish provinces. I'm not sure if equivalent groups existed before circa 250 A.D.. I would think travelling short distances between towns would be relatively safe. But I'm not sure if town garrisons did any kind of patrolling on the outskirts of their homes. I'd be interested to hear what others have to say on this point though, the limit of a town garrison's juristiction (only within the walls of a town, a mile or two outside its boundaries ?)

~Theo
Jaime
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#5
I would imagine that a lot could change between different areas and different times. We know that there were Roman merchants swarming all over Gaul before Caesar, because he repeatedly tells us about getting information from them. In some places, at least, I would guess that they were armed. For instance, Caesar tells us:

Quote:The reason for sending [Servius Galba with the Twelfth Legion] was that he wished to open up a route through the Alps by which traders had been accustomed to travel, but at great risk and on payment of great tolls…

Caesar, Gallic War, III, 1.

In this location I would guess that armed guards were used, at least, and I would be surprised if merchants didn’t always use armed guards.

Now on the other hand Tacitus tells us about the law of hospitality among the Germans:

Quote:…to close the door against any human being is a crime… You go next door, without an invitation, but it makes no difference; you are received with the same courtesy. Stranger or acquaintance, no one distinguishes them where the right of hospitality is concerned. It is customary to speed the parting guest with anything he fancies.

Tacitus, Germania, 21.

This sounds very similar to the guest-friendship of horizontal social mobility that pervaded much of the ancient world. Tacitus was speaking of the Germans, but it is possible that this held true in Gaul as well.
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
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