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.
[121: Tacitus, _Ann._ ii. 64, says this expressly. Of free Thracians,
viewed from the Roman stand-point, there were at that time none;
but the Thracian mountains, and especially the Rhodope of the
Bessi, maintained even in the state of peace an attitude as regards
the princes installed by Rome, that could hardly be designated as
subjection; they acknowledged the king doubtless, but obeyed him, as
Tacitus says (_l.c._ and iv. 46, 51), only when it suited them.]
[122: We have still a Greek epigram, dedicated to Cotys by Antipater of
Thessalonica (_Anthol. Planud._ iv. 75), the same poet who celebrated
also the conqueror of the Thracians, Piso (p. 24), and a Latin epistle
in verse addressed to Cotys by Ovid (_ex Ponto_, ii. 9).]
[123: It is one of the most seriously felt blanks of the Roman imperial
history that the standing quarters of the two legions, which formed
under the Julio-Claudian emperors the garrison of Moesia, the 4th
Scythica and the 5th Macedonica (at least these were stationed there
in the year 33; _C. I. L._ iii. 1698) cannot hitherto be pointed out
with certainty. Probably they were Viminacium and Singidunum in what
was afterwards upper Moesia. Among the legion-camps of lower Moesia,
of which that of Troesmis in particular has numerous monuments to
show, none appear to be older than Hadrian's time; the remains of the
upper-Moesian are hitherto so scanty that they at least do not hinder
our carrying back their origin a century further. When the king of
Thrace in the year 18 takes arms against the Bastarnae and Scythians
(Tacitus, _Ann._ ii. 65), this could not have been put forward even as
a pretext, had lower-Moesian legionary camps been already at that time
in existence. This very narrative shows that the warlike power of this
vassal-prince was not inconsiderable, and that the setting aside of an
uncompliant king of Thrace demanded caution.]
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