ABSTRACT
The Roman army and frontiers have long fascinated both scholars and the general public. The Roman imperial army of the first two centuries ad is well known, especially on the European frontiers. Impressive monuments, such as Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain, testify to the Roman desire to control and protect their frontiers. Literary sources and artifacts permit detailed reconstruction of the Roman army in the first two centuries ad. But the late Roman army (late 3rd through 6th centuries) is much less known. This same disparity also extends to the frontiers of the Empire. Some frontiers, such as Britain and the Rhineland, have witnessed extensive excavation for over a century and are thus reasonably well known, but others, such as the Empire’s eastern frontier, which stretched over 1,000 miles from the Black Sea to the Red Sea, are still largely terra incognita.
