Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public OrderHistorians often regard the police as a modern development, and indeed, many pre-modern societies had no such institution. Most recent scholarship has claimed that Roman society relied on kinship networks or community self-regulation as a means of conflict resolution and social control. This model, according to Christopher Fuhrmann, fails to properly account for the imperial-era evidence, which argues in fact for an expansion of state-sponsored policing activities in the first three centuries of the Common Era. Drawing on a wide variety of source material-from art, archaeology, administrative documents, Egyptian papyri, laws, Jewish and Christian religious texts, and ancient narratives-Policing the Roman Empire provides a comprehensive overview of Roman imperial policing practices with chapters devoted to fugitive slave hunting, the pivotal role of Augustus, the expansion of policing under his successors, and communities lacking soldier-police that were forced to rely on self-help or civilian police. Rather than merely cataloguing references to police, this study sets policing in the broader context of Roman attitudes towards power, public order, and administration. Fuhrmann argues that a broad range of groups understood the potential value of police, from the emperors to the peasantry. Years of different police initiatives coalesced into an uneven patchwork of police institutions that were not always coordinated, effective, or upright. But the end result was a new means by which the Roman state-more ambitious than often supposed-could seek to control the lives of its subjects, as in the imperial persecutions of Christians. The first synoptic analysis of Roman policing in over a hundred years, and the first ever in English, Policing the Roman Empire will be of great interest to scholars and students of classics, history, law, and religion. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 3 |
FugitiveSlave Hunting in the Roman Empire | 21 |
Selfhelp Magisterial Authority and Civilian Policing | 45 |
Augustus and the Rhetoric of Imperial Peace | 89 |
Military Policing in Rome and Italy under Augustuss Successors | 123 |
Emperors and Provincial Order | 147 |
Provincial Governors Public Order and Policing | 171 |
DetachedService SoldierPolice | 201 |
9 Conclusion | 239 |
Differentiating Stationarii from Beneficiarii Consularis and Other DetachedService Soldiers | 249 |
Bibliography | 253 |
| 295 | |
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Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order Christopher J. Fuhrmann No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
administrative Aelius Aristides ancient Apul Apuleius Army arrest attested Augustus Augustus's authority banditry bandits BAtlas beneficiarii consularis Brélaz Caesar centurions chapter Christians cited civilian police command Commodus consularis crime cursus publicus die Räuber Dio Chrys Domitian duties edict Egyptian eirenarchs elite emperor evidence force fourth century frumentarii fugitivi Greek guard Hadrian Hauken Hist IGRR imperial inscription institutional involved Italy Jewish kollêtiônes legions letter lictors magistrates military policing Millar Nero Nippel officials outposted soldiers P.Mich P.Oxy papyri Passio petitions Pliny Pliny Ep Pliny's praetorian prefects principate probably proconsul procurators provincial governors public order public slaves punishment regionarii reign Roman Egypt Roman Empire Rome Rome's runaway slaves Saepinum second century sécurité publique senate Septimius Severus soldier-police sources stationed stratêgos Suet Suetonius Tacitus texts third century Tiberius tion Trajan Ulpian urban cohorts violence καὶ τῶν