Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt: A Social History by Richard Alston

Review by: Bernhard Palme

The Journal of Military History, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), pp. 767-769
Published by: Society for Military History
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 Book Reviews

bines Tactical and Grand Tactical perspectives" (p. 60). And one would hope
that, fashion aside, the editors would not truly wish-to see a dissociation of
the study of military history on the one hand from political history on the
other, which could only work to the detriment of both fields; indeed, the ini-
tial paper by Rich is a testament to how closely these two arenas of human
action are related. Generally speaking, the editors and their fellow contrib-
utors have succeeded admirably in combining traditional scholarship in the
field with fresh and innovative approaches to the old-but still grand- sub-
ject of the Second Punic War.

G. K. Tipps University of South Florida, Tampa

Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt: A Social History. By RichardAlston.

London and New York:Routledge, 1995. Maps. Tables. Illustrations. Notes.
Bibliography.Index. Pp. viii, 263. $59.95.
This book is the largest comprehensive study of the Roman army in
Egypt since the standard work of J. Lesquier, L'armee romaine de l'Egypte
(Cairo, 1918). The starting point is Egypt's submission to Roman rule (30
BC), the conventional terminal date is the accession of Diocletian (AD 284).
Alston's book is not intended to be a history of the Roman army in
Egypt. His major theme is the relationship between soldier and civilian in an
individual province of the empire. Egypt makes a suitable case study
because it is only in this province that the papyrological evidence enables us
to draw a fairly detailed picture of the everyday activities of soldiers, the
everyday transactions of veterans and the interaction of the military with
the Egyptian population. Papyri give us an opportunity to escape the macro-
political level of aristocratic historiography and to observe the soldiery at the
level of the simple village.
After describing the geographical and demographic conditions of Egypt
and sketching the organization of the imperial legions and auxiliary forces,
Alston approaches his theme from different directions. He estimates the
strength of the garrison as varying between 21,000 in the Augustan era and
12,000 in the third century AD (pp. 23-31). As this number is far less than
1 percent of the whole population, it is a priori difficult to believe that such
a small group could have significant influence on Egyptian society. In the fol-
lowing chapters, Alston examines recruitment and veteran settlement (pp.
39-52) as well as the legal status of soldiers and veterans (pp. 53-68). In the
later second century, local recruitment involved the military deeper in
provincial life. Although there were some preferred areas of veteran settle-
ment, like the Fayum, veterans did not form a caste. The Egyptian evidence
shows soldiers as landowners, linked to their families while still in service,
and partly even dependent on their relatives for a sufficent supply of food.

MILITARY HISTORY * 767

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Book Reviews

Veterans enjoyed privileges like exemption from compulsory service, but

sometimes had difficulty in getting them recognized by the civil authorities.
A key section is the model study of Karanis (pp. 117-42), a typical
Fayum village, where papyri (mostly private letters written in Greek) attest
to large numbers of veteran settlers from all over Egypt, although they are
not archaeologically detectable in this scientifically excavated site. Alston
selects seven well-attested soldier/veteran families to investigate their social,
economic, religious, and military background. The results prove clearly that
these families had social relationships both with other military persons and
with Egyptians. Together with observations on the army's economic impact
on the province (pp. 102-16), the evidence from Karanissuggests that on the
village scale veterans were only slightly wealthier than most villagers. They
were neither economically nor numerically a dominant element of the pop-
ulation, nor did they have major influence on the culture of the village. On
a larger scale, the same is true for the whole province. Placing various theo-
ries and known figures in a concrete context, Alston achieves some aston-
ishing results: legionaries and auxiliaries received the same payment; there
is no evidence of rewards upon retirement; the army was neither a damag-
ing burden, nor did it bring economic benefits. Other conclusions confirm
well known arguments: soldiers enjoyed a reasonable standard of living; ser-
vice in the army was attractive; accumulation of savings ensured the veter-
ans a safe existence.
Another area of concern is the question of what soldiers actually did (pp.
69-101). In addition to taking part in most of the military expeditions in the
Orient, occasionally internal unrest, like the Jewish revolt and the Bukoloi
rebels, caused serious problems. One major task was the security of the
desert routes from the Nile valley to the Red Sea, important for trade with
India. District centurions stationed throughout the country were powerful
key figures in Rome's attempts to maintain order in the province. An epi-
logue describes the transformation of the Roman army in the fourth century
(pp. 143-55). Finally, Alston offers a comparison of these results with some
evidence from other provinces (pp. 156-62). Similarities can be detected
mainly in policing activities and the role of centurions in local societies.
These similarities suggest that Alston's picture of the Roman army in Egypt
may-mutatis mutandis-be valid for other provinces as well, and could
further our understanding of the role of the army in other parts of the
empire.
Two useful appendixes present much of the material that forms the basis
of the analyses: the first lists all units attested in Egypt, the second provides
a brief discussion of the extant archaeological remains of the military insti-
tutions in Roman Egypt-remarkably enough the first attempt in this field.
An extensive bibliography (pp. 241-58) and an index facilitate access to this
clearly written and well-structured book. Alston masters a large subject, pre-
sented in occasionally extensive notes, with sound scholarship. Although
attention is focused on Egypt, the author's ability to connect his model with
general problems of Roman military history will make this book essential

768 * THE JOURNAL OF

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 Book Reviews

reading for everybody interested in Graeco-Roman Egypt, or the army, or

the social history of the Roman world in general.

Bernhard Palme Vienna, Austria

Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425. By Hugh Elton. New York:

Oxford, 1996. Figures. Tables. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 312.
$72.00.
Elton's book on late antique warfare forms a welcome addition to a field
which has recently seen a renaissance of interest. It should be read in con-
junction with Thomas S. Burns, Barbarians within the Gates of Rome
(1994), to which it is supplementary, not repetitive. While Burns focuses on
barbarian leadership within the Roman army and imperial military policy
toward barbarians in general, Elton's book concentrates on the army itself
and its relationship with its barbarian foes. Although military failures, such
as civil wars, defeat on the battlefield, and poor leadership decisions, played
a role in the ultimate fall of the Roman Empire, Elton concludes that "this
failure was not caused by structural weaknesses in the army itself" (p. 268).
He absolves the Roman army from blame for the empire's collapse by con-
tending that during the period studied it did not undergo any significant
change in personnel, equipment, or tactics. In doing so, he counters received
opinion in a number of areas.
Elton downplays differences among barbarian groups in respect to their
societal structure, customs, and military tactics and equipment and argues
that, at the same time, the various groups could be hostile to one another,
providing Romans with the opportunity to "divide and conquer." He also
contends that, although outwardly the Roman army may have appeared
more barbarian,nevertheless, over the period concerned barbariannumbers
within the army remained proportionately the same, the leadership never
exceeded one-third barbarian, and, once enlisted, barbarian soldiers
remained overwhelmingly loyal. He denies, therefore, that the army can be
shown to have been "barbarized"in any significant way.
Elton also holds that infantry continued to dominate over cavalry in the
makeup of Roman forces, that equipment underwent only slight modifica-
tion, and that tactics against barbarians changed little, if any, during this
period. On the strategic level, he asserts that there was no defense-in-depth,
no grand strategy to defend the empire. The army reacted as needed, fought
primarily in small units, and, in general, functioned as it had in past times.
In all of these contentions, Elton marshals literary and archaeological evi-
dence in support of his positions, for which he argues strongly, if not always
convincingly.
Well-writtenand amply documented, the work will appeal to scholar and
advanced student alike. The layman, however, may find the frequent use of

MILITARY HISTORY * 769

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