05-07-2018, 07:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-22-2018, 08:08 PM by Nathan Ross.)
Just as an addendum to this, I came across a couple of quotes over the weekend which might have some bearing on troops movements and/or dispositions over this period.
Firstly, a letter from Honorius to Arcadius, dated AD404 - this is quoted by Burns in Barbarians Within the Gates... - talks of "the destruction of dying Illyricum" and the "losses to the state" there. Burns doesn't provide a reference that I can see, but I think it's probably from Palladius's Life of John Chrysostom.
Anyway, this suggests that Illyricum was in a pretty poor state in the mid 410s, and thereforefore probably did not have a large number of Roman regular troops stationed in it - certainly not the full complement listed in the ND. So what happened to the units formerly stationed there? Who knows!
Secondly, an odd little note on Orosius, Against the Pagans, book 7. This relates to the usurper Maximus, raised by Gerontius in Spain c.409:
Maximus, stripped of the purple and abandoned by the troops of Gaul, which were transferred to Africa and then recalled to Italy, is now a needy exile living among the barbarians in Spain (Maximus exutus purpura destitutusque a militibus Gallicanis, qui in Africam traiecti, deinde in Italiam reuocati sunt, nunc inter barbaros in Hispania egens exulat.)
The 'troops of Gaul' are, I would guess, the remnants of the Gallic field army, or whatever limitanei units Constantine III managed to scrape together to send into Spain with Gerontius and his son Constans. So some time between Gerontius's death in 411 and Orosius's probable writing date of 417, these Gallic troops were shipped over to Africa, and then 'recalled' to Italy!
Firstly, a letter from Honorius to Arcadius, dated AD404 - this is quoted by Burns in Barbarians Within the Gates... - talks of "the destruction of dying Illyricum" and the "losses to the state" there. Burns doesn't provide a reference that I can see, but I think it's probably from Palladius's Life of John Chrysostom.
Anyway, this suggests that Illyricum was in a pretty poor state in the mid 410s, and thereforefore probably did not have a large number of Roman regular troops stationed in it - certainly not the full complement listed in the ND. So what happened to the units formerly stationed there? Who knows!
Secondly, an odd little note on Orosius, Against the Pagans, book 7. This relates to the usurper Maximus, raised by Gerontius in Spain c.409:
Maximus, stripped of the purple and abandoned by the troops of Gaul, which were transferred to Africa and then recalled to Italy, is now a needy exile living among the barbarians in Spain (Maximus exutus purpura destitutusque a militibus Gallicanis, qui in Africam traiecti, deinde in Italiam reuocati sunt, nunc inter barbaros in Hispania egens exulat.)
The 'troops of Gaul' are, I would guess, the remnants of the Gallic field army, or whatever limitanei units Constantine III managed to scrape together to send into Spain with Gerontius and his son Constans. So some time between Gerontius's death in 411 and Orosius's probable writing date of 417, these Gallic troops were shipped over to Africa, and then 'recalled' to Italy!
Nathan Ross
