Misplaced Pages

Laeti: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 11:08, 9 December 2007 editEraNavigator (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers19,384 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit Revision as of 11:09, 9 December 2007 edit undoEraNavigator (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers19,384 editsNo edit summaryNext edit →
Line 5: Line 5:
''Laeti'' were groups of migrants drawn from the warlike tribes that existed on the empire's borders, and which had fought the Romans intermittently for the entire duration of the empire since its foundation by ] in the first century. In the West, these tribes were primarily ], living beyond the ], or ], ] mounted nomads from the Eurasian ] that had occupied the ] facing the Roman province of ] (E. Hungary) across the ]. In the East, ''laeti'' were drawn from, among others, ] from Georgia, ], and ]. ''Laeti'' were groups of migrants drawn from the warlike tribes that existed on the empire's borders, and which had fought the Romans intermittently for the entire duration of the empire since its foundation by ] in the first century. In the West, these tribes were primarily ], living beyond the ], or ], ] mounted nomads from the Eurasian ] that had occupied the ] facing the Roman province of ] (E. Hungary) across the ]. In the East, ''laeti'' were drawn from, among others, ] from Georgia, ], and ].


Although the literary sources mention ''laeti'' only from the 4th century onwards, it is possible they existed from as early as the 2nd century: the 3rd century historian ] reports that emperor ] (ruled 161-80) granted land to groups of ], ] and ] tribespeople in the border regions of ], ], ] and ] and even in Italy itself (although Marcus Aurelius later expelled those settled in the peninsula after one group mutinied and briefly seized ], the base of the Adriatic fleet).<ref>] LXXI.11</ref> These settlers may have been the original ''laeti''. Indeed, the practice of settling communities of ''barbari'' inside the empire started under the founder-emperor ] (ruled 30BC - 14AD): during his time, a number of subgroups of German tribes from the East bank of the Rhine were transferred to the Roman-controlled West bank e.g. the ], ] and ].<ref>] ''Historiae'' IV.28</ref> In 69, the emperor ] is reported to have settled communities of ] from North Africa in the province of ] (Andalusia, Spain).<ref>Tacitus ''Historiae'' I.78</ref> Given the attestation of several auxiliary regiments with the names of these tribes in the 1st and 2nd centuries, it is likely that, just their admission to the empire was conditional on some kind ofmilitary obligations. i.e. that they were ''laeti'' in all but name. Although the literary sources mention ''laeti'' only from the 4th century onwards, it is possible they existed from as early as the 2nd century: the 3rd century historian ] reports that emperor ] (ruled 161-80) granted land to groups of ], ] and ] tribespeople in the border regions of ], ], ] and ] and even in Italy itself (although Marcus Aurelius later expelled those settled in the peninsula after one group mutinied and briefly seized ], the base of the Adriatic fleet).<ref>] LXXI.11</ref> These settlers may have been the original ''laeti''. Indeed, the practice of settling communities of ''barbari'' inside the empire started under the founder-emperor ] (ruled 30BC - 14AD): during his time, a number of subgroups of German tribes from the East bank of the Rhine were transferred to the Roman-controlled West bank e.g. the ], ] and ].<ref>] ''Historiae'' IV.28</ref> In 69, the emperor ] is reported to have settled communities of ] from North Africa in the province of ] (Andalusia, Spain).<ref>Tacitus ''Historiae'' I.78</ref> Given the attestation of several auxiliary regiments with the names of these tribes in the 1st and 2nd centuries, it is likely that, their admission to the empire was conditional on some kind of military obligations. i.e. that they were ''laeti'' in all but name.


==Organisation== ==Organisation==

Revision as of 11:09, 9 December 2007

Laeti, the plural form of laetus, is a Latin word used in the late Roman empire, from the 4th century (if not earlier) onwards, to denote communities of barbari (= foreigners, people from outside the empire) permitted to settle inside the empire on condition that they provide recruits for the Roman military. The word was derived from the Germanic languages and can be translated as "serf" or "half-free colonist". An alternative term used for laeti was gentiles (= "natives").

Origin

Laeti were groups of migrants drawn from the warlike tribes that existed on the empire's borders, and which had fought the Romans intermittently for the entire duration of the empire since its foundation by Augustus in the first century. In the West, these tribes were primarily Germans, living beyond the Rhine, or Sarmatians, Iranic mounted nomads from the Eurasian steppe that had occupied the Hungarian plain facing the Roman province of Pannonia (E. Hungary) across the Danube. In the East, laeti were drawn from, among others, Caucasian Iberians from Georgia, Armenians, and Arabs.

Although the literary sources mention laeti only from the 4th century onwards, it is possible they existed from as early as the 2nd century: the 3rd century historian Dio Cassius reports that emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-80) granted land to groups of Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges tribespeople in the border regions of Germania, Pannonia, Moesia and Dacia and even in Italy itself (although Marcus Aurelius later expelled those settled in the peninsula after one group mutinied and briefly seized Ravenna, the base of the Adriatic fleet). These settlers may have been the original laeti. Indeed, the practice of settling communities of barbari inside the empire started under the founder-emperor Augustus (ruled 30BC - 14AD): during his time, a number of subgroups of German tribes from the East bank of the Rhine were transferred to the Roman-controlled West bank e.g. the Cugerni, Mattiaci and Ubii. In 69, the emperor Otho is reported to have settled communities of Mauri from North Africa in the province of Hispania Baetica (Andalusia, Spain). Given the attestation of several auxiliary regiments with the names of these tribes in the 1st and 2nd centuries, it is likely that, their admission to the empire was conditional on some kind of military obligations. i.e. that they were laeti in all but name.

Organisation

Reproductively self-sufficient groups of laeti (i.e. including women and children) would be granted land to settle in the empire by the imperial government.. They would form distinct military cantons, which were outside the normal provincial administration: the settlements were under the control of a Roman praefectus laetorum, who would was responsible for either individual communities e.g. praefectus gentilium Sarmatarum Novariae = prefect of the Sarmatian community at Novara N Italy; or all communities of a particular tribe in a particular region e.g. praefectus gentilium Sarmatarum Calabriae at Apuliae = prefect of Sarmatians in Calabria and Apulia, regions in southern Italy. The praefectus was clearly a military officer, as he in turn reported to a magister militum praesentalis (army field marshal).

In return for their privileges of admission to the empire and land grants, the laeti were under an obligation to supply recruits to the Roman army. The treaty granting a laeti community land might specify a fixed number of recruits required each year. Alternatively, all laeti males of military age (16 years and above) may have been liable to compulsory service in the military.

Goldsworthy argues that, in the 3rd or early 4th century at least, laeti were normally drafted into existing military units, and only rarely formed their own. However, the ala I Sarmatarum and numerus Hnaufridi attested in 3rd century Britain may have been units formed of laeti. In the later 4th century appear a large number of regiments with barbarian names, especially in the East. These appear to have been regular units, and not foederati (allied warbands of barbari). Some may have been units recruited from laeti primarily, rather than from external barbarians. The praesentales armies in both East and West contained scholae (elite cavalry units) of gentiles, most likely formed of laeti.

Notitia Dignitatum

Much of our information on laeti is contained in the Notitia Dignitatum, a document drawn up at the turn of the 4th/5th centuries. The document is a list of official posts in the Roman empire, both civil and military. It must be treated with caution. Many sections are missing or contain lacunae, so the Notitia does not account for all posts and commands in existence at the time of compilation. Furthermore, the compilation of the Notitia 's two parts was separated by as mauch as 30 years c395 for the Eastern section and c425 for the West and may include deployments from as early as 379. Therefore not all posts mentioned were in existence at the same time, and not all posts that were in existence are shown.

The surviving Notitia only mentions laeti settlements in Italy and Gaul - and even the two lists extant (in Title XLII) are incomplete. But other evidence suggests that laeti settlements existed in other provinces. Furthermore, the lists clearly contain errors. The list of praefecti laetorum in Gaul contains prefects for the Lingones, Nervii and Batavi: but these tribes had been inside the empire since its inception under Augustus. By the time the Notitia was compiled, they had provided recruits for the Roman auxiliary regiments for four centuries, and had been Roman citizens for nearly 200 years. They could not, therefore, have been laeti.

Title XLII contains two lists of laeti prefects, all under the command of the magister militum praesentalis a parte peditum- supreme commander of the pedites praesentales (imperial escort infantry).

(1) a list of praefecti laetorum in Gaul:

Removing the names of the "fake laeti" mentioned above, and replacing them with "unidentified tribe", the following list results:

  • (substantial section missing)

(2) a list of praefecti gentilium Sarmatarum (prefects of Sarmatian gentiles) in Italy and Gaul. This concerns only Sarmatians (with just one mention of Taifali) in the following locations:

In ITALY:

  • Apulia et Calabria (the region today known as Puglia, the "heel" of the Italian "boot")
  • Brutii et Lucania (the regions today known as Calabria and Basilicata, southern Italy)
  • Forum Fulviense
  • Opittergum (Oderzo, Friuli, NE Italy)
  • Patavium (Padova, Veneto, NE Italy)
  • (placename missing)
  • Cremona (Cremona, Lombardia, N Italy)
  • Taurini (Torino, Piemonte, NW Italy)
  • Aquae sive Tertona (Tortona, Piemonte, NW Italy)
  • Novaria (Novara, Piemonte, NW Italy)
  • Vercellae (Vercelli, Piemonte, NW Italy)
  • Regio Samnites (Sannio, Campania, southern Italy)
  • Bononia in Aemilia (Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, N central Italy)
  • Quadratae et Eporizium (Gorizia?, Friuli, NE Italy)
  • (in Liguria) Pollentia (Pollenzo, Piemonte, NW Italy)

In GAUL:

  • Pictavi (Poitiers west central France): N.B. Taifali also mentioned here
  • a Chora Parisios usque (Paris region)
  • inter Remos et Tambianos Belgica II (Champagne region)
  • per tractum Rodunensem et Alaunorum (Rennes area? NW France) : N.B. Alauni (Alans) were probably also present here
  • Lingones (Langres, NE France)
  • Au... (name unintelligible)
  • (entire folio - two pages - missing)

(3) The Notitia also mentions (Title XXXIV) a tribunus gentis Marcomannorum under the command of the dux Pannoniae et Norici and (Title XXXV) a tribunus gentis per Raetias deputatae (tribune of natives in the Raetian provinces). These Marcomanni (a Germanic tribe whose territory roughly coincided with the modern Czech Republic and Sovakia) were probably laeti also and may be the descendants of tribespeople settled in the area in the 2nd century by Marcua Aurelius.

The Notitia thus contains 34 entries concerning laeti. But some entries relate to several settlements, not just one e.g. the Sarmatian settlements in Apulia and Calabria. Furthermore, more than two pages of entries appear to be missing. The number of settlements may thus have been in the hundreds, in the western half of the empire alone.

Impact

The Notitia lists of laeti settlements, incomplete as they are, show their considerable proliferation over the fourth century. This, together with the large numbers of military units with barbarian names, gave rise to the "barbarisation" theory of the fall of the Roman empire. This view ultimately originates from Edward Gibbon's magnum opus, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. According to this view, a critical factor in the disintegration of the western Roman empire in the 5th century was the Romans' ever-increasing reliance on barbarian recruits to man (and lead) their armies, while they themselves became soft and averse to military service. The barbarian recruits had no fundamental loyalty to Rome and repeatedly betrayed Rome's interests.

This theory is today largely discredited. There is no evidence that barbarian officers or men were any less reliable than their Roman counterparts. Instead, the evidence points to the conclusion that laeti were a crucial source of first-rate recruits to late Roman army.


Notes

  1. A. Goldsworthy Roman Warfare (2000) 215
  2. Walde, A. and Hofmann, J.B., Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bd. 1. A - L. 4. Aufl. (1965)
  3. Dio Cassius LXXI.11
  4. Tacitus Historiae IV.28
  5. Tacitus Historiae I.78
  6. Goldsworthy Roman Warfare 215
  7. Notitia Dignitatum West Title XLII
  8. A. Goldsworthy Complete Roman Army (2003) 208
  9. Goldsworthy Complete Roman Army 208
  10. www.roman-britain.org List of auxiliary units
  11. Notitia Dignitatum passim. Units of, among others, Alans, Sarmatians, Goths, Franks, Alamanni, Vandals, Caucasian Iberians, Armenians, Parthians
  12. The Medieval Sourcebook: Notitia Dignitatum
  13. D. Mattingly An imperial possession: Britain in the Roman empire (2006) 238
  14. Most likely the medieval copyists of the Notitia confused the name of a geographical region (e.g. Nerviorum - the territory of the Nervii) with the name of a laeti people. The earliest Notitia manuscript we have today is 15th-century. It is clear that during the many times it must have been copied over the eleven centuries since the original, a large number of page losses, omissions and textual errors accumulated
  15. Goldsworthy Complete Roman Army 208

External links

Category: