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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 104: In Praise of Late Antique and Early Medieval Military Men, I: Military Men - Soldiers and Warriors

Monday 1 July 2013, 11.15-12.45

Organisers:Guido M. Berndt, Lehrstuhl für Alte Geschichte, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Laury Sarti, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Roland Steinacher, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Moderator/Chair:Stefan Esders, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Paper 104-aRoman Soldiers and Barbarian Warriors: Late Antique and Early Medieval Military Circles
(Language: English)
Roland Steinacher, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Genealogy and Prosopography, Military History, Social History
Paper 104-bSenators as Generals in Late Antiquity: The Resurrection of a Rejected Model
(Language: English)
Ralph Mathisen, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Index terms: Genealogy and Prosopography, Military History, Political Thought
Paper 104-cFrom otium to virilitas: Shifting (Elitist) Male Virtues
(Language: English)
Laury Sarti, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Military History, Political Thought
Abstract

Late Roman and Early Medieval history are characterized to a significant extent by military activities. This is one of three sessions aiming at presenting the outcome of the works of researchers recently focussing on this and related subjects, including questions of shifting identities and requirements, the functionalisms of armed hosts, the significance of violence, and the repercussions of a gradually increasing military presence in the context of the formation of post-Roman societies.

Paper -a:
Gentes were bound to Rome by treaties and duties, and in some cases war was necessary to put things right again at the periphery. The world (orbis terrarum) and Rome (orbis romanus) were seen as one. Goths, Vandals, Franks, Burgundians etc. inside the empire first were not more than barbarians under Roman rule. Whether in the provinces a different view existed or not is not totally clear. Nevertheless, both the Romans and the barbarians were part of a transforming Roman world.

Paper -b:
It long has been recognized that one of the characteristics of the Late Roman Empire was a tendency to exclude senators from military offices, such as Master of Soldiers, and track them into civilian offices, such as Praetorian Prefect, in the imperial bureaucracy. Military offices, it often has been thought, tended to be held by career soldiers, including those of barbarian descent. But a close prosopographical analysis suggests that this split between civilian and military cursus honorum was by no means as hard and fast as often has been thought. This paper will focus on senators who held military offices, and on what that might have to say about our perceptions of patterns of late Roman office holding.

Paper -c:
With the breakdown of the Roman Peace in the West the requirements society addressed to male members of the upper social strata gradually shifted away from a basically civic ideal towards more physical requirements and concepts of the ideal man. The aim of this paper is to analyse related patterns of thought and values by means of a study of contemporary terms and paradigms used to praise or rebuke secular men, and how they changed over time.