HIST 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Diocletian, Roman Law, Indiction
1 Oct 2016
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Governing structure, societal structure, political history of the later empire. Rome was held together by interlocking structures both politically and socially. The army: the army is the largest part of the government roughly 500,000 soldiers, and many were local garrisons, only about 150,000 were available as mobile field armies. Field armies were drawn from the edges, they included people who were "barbarians" and some groups were mercenaries attached to the army or integrated into the empire. Barbarians soldiers were no less disciplined and no less effective than roman soldiers. There is also a huge logistical infrastructure to support this army. The army was supported by local communities, local people were requisitioned to carry the bags of the roman soldiers, expected to provide drivers and animals. This taking of supplies, overtime, moved from taxing the communities so the army could buy bread, by the later end the communities had to just give them the bread.
