The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1Mommsen, Theodor
History
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1
Mommsen, Theodor
Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
But the Thracian nation by no means shared the Roman leanings of the
ruling house, and the government gradually became convinced in Thrace
as in Palestine that the tottering vassal-throne, only maintained by
constant interference of the protecting power, was of use neither
for them nor for the country, and that the introduction of direct
administration was in every respect to be preferred. The emperor
Tiberius made use of the quarrels that arose in the Thracian royal
house to send to Thrace in the year 19 a Roman governor, Titus
Trebellenus Rufus, under cover of exercising guardianship over the
princes that were minors. Yet this occupation was not accomplished
without resistance, ineffectual doubtless, but serious on the part
of the people, who, particularly in the mountain-valleys, troubled
themselves little about the rulers appointed by Rome, and whose
forces, led by their family-chiefs, hardly felt themselves to be
soldiers of the king, and still less soldiers of Rome. The sending of
Trebellenus called forth in the year 21 a rising, in which not merely
did the most noted Thracian tribes take part, but which threatened to
assume greater proportions; messengers of the insurgents went over
the Haemus to enkindle the national war in Moesia, and perhaps still
further. Meanwhile the Moesian legions appeared in right time to
relieve Philippopolis, which the insurgents besieged, and to suppress
the movement. But, when some years later (25) the Roman government
ordered levies in Thrace, the men refused to serve beyond the bounds
of their own country. When no regard was paid to this refusal, the
whole mountains rose and a struggle of despair ensued, in which
the insurgents, constrained at length by hunger and thirst, threw
themselves in great part on the swords of the enemy or on their own,
and preferred to renounce life rather than their time-honoured freedom.
The direct government continued in the form of exercising wardship in
Thrace up to the death of Tiberius; and, if the emperor Gaius at the
commencement of his reign gave back the rule to the Thracian friend of
his youth just as to the Jewish, a few years after, in the year 46,
the government of Claudius definitely put an end to it. This final
annexation of the kingdom, and conversion of it into a Roman province,
also encountered an equally hopeless and equally obstinate resistance.
But with the introduction of direct administration the resistance
was broken. The governor, at first of equestrian, and from Trajan's
time of senatorial, rank, never had a legion; the garrison sent into
the country, though it was not stronger than 2000 men, along with a
small squadron stationed at Perinthus, was sufficient, in connection
with the precautionary measures otherwise taken by the government, to
keep down the Thracians. The laying out of military roads was begun
immediately after the annexation; we find that the buildings requisite
in the state of the country for the accommodation of travellers at
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