ABSTRACT
The fourth chapter focuses on the sources of imperial military power, on military and administrative developments, and on the networks that supported imperial rule. Effectively exerting military power largely depended on an emperor’s authority over the armed forces, on the quality of armies and fleets, and on a sufficient quantity of soldiers. Roman armies of the third century were no longer always superior over their opponents, and began to lose battles, which undermined imperial authority. This resulted in military unrest and usurpations of imperial power. Controlling the military had to do with regular military pay, donatives, other handouts, military logistics, organizing support among the soldiers, and good actual leadership resulting in tangible victories. None of these were guaranteed in the third century AD. To improve the quality of regional military leadership and the raising of supplies emperors started to replace senatorial provincial governors by more experienced knights, a development that was accelerated after 260. Large sections of threatened frontiers were placed under the command of duces with overarching commands. The emperor Gallienus created a new imperial army, consisting of cavalry combined with infantry detachments, and tried to bind the military cadres of his new army to himself through appointing them to the rank of protector. The senators lost career opportunities and direct contact with the soldiery but gained something too: increasing influence in Rome and Italy, now that the emperors were practically always on the march elsewhere, and a chance to enrich themselves through clever marriage policies. At the local level of administration there were conflicting tendencies. Many local communities in regions that were hit by invasions helped the forces of the emperor or tried to withstand bands of plunderers, thus integrating themselves stronger in the Roman imperial system. Traditional ways to integrate local grandees, however, may have eroded. Local élites remained a mainstay of imperial government. Local notables not only did a lot of administrative work at the local level but also kept furnishing officers and centurions. The empire began to have two co-existing systems of provincial government. In threatened areas but also in other provinces praesides who combined the powers of the governors with the fiscal tasks of former procurators were appointed instead of high-status senators. In some inner provinces, however, the old system remained. The officia of the governors may already have got characteristics of provincial bureaucracies, and the administrators of imperial domains (being called caesariani) may have become more public than private personnel. In this way there was a kind of bureaucratization in the third century. It is a matter of doubt whether these developments increased the military and political power of the emperors. Supplies and taxes could now more efficiently raised but the emperors became too dependent on the armed forces and on a hard-core, largely military group of assistants and administrators. High social status and high paideia no longer coincided with the ability to exercise power in the Roman empire.
