0000000000907412
AUTHOR
Robert Connal
showing 2 related works from this author
Rational Mutiny in the Year of Four Emperors
2013
Roman writers tended to see the mutinies accompanying the civil wars of AD 69 -70 as evidence of the unreliability and even the downright insanity of the troops involved. Those troops were frequently critical of their leaders, suspicious of their officers, and dangerous to soldiers and civilians alike; but this is not quite the whole story. Much of their supposed insanity is explicable in terms of struggles – admittedly not always wise - over goals on which the men involved were not always able to agree. Though some of their suspicions were wrong-headed and might be disastrous in their consequences, others were well founded and the resulting actions could be restrained and reasonable. Much …
Velleius Paterculus: The Soldier and the Senator
2013
Velleius Paterculus spent many years as soldier and senator before writing his brief history in honor of Marcus Vinicius. In this paper, I suggest that his history reveals tensions between the public attitudes of Velleius the senator and the opposing convictions of Velleius the former soldier. While the senator dutifully praises the peace brought about by Augustus and Tiberius, the soldier continues to distrust peace, and to consider war the proper business of a Roman. This leads Velleius to undermine his praise of Augustan and Tiberian virtues, when he finds them inappropriate to actual or potential foreign enemies. peerReviewed