Food Supply and Military Mutiny in the Late Roman Empire
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11883271 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A D Lee (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 277-297 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of late antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1939-6716 • E-ISSN: 1942-1273 |
| Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jla.2019.0017 |
| OpenAlex | W2996140687 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 31 |
This paper approaches the subject of food supply in late Roman warfare from the perspective of military mutiny, with a view to highlighting the political importance of effective logistics for maintenance of troop loyalty and discipline. It begins by contextualising the subject against earlier periods of Roman history, especially the Republic, when food shortage was an important contributory factor in a number of high-profile cases of military mutiny. Mutiny appears to have been less common during the Principate and the Late Empire, at least until the sixth and early seventh centuries, and when mutiny did occur, food shortage was rarely a factor. While this might seem an anti-climactic conclusion, the paper contends that it provides corroboration of the effectiveness and flexibility of army supply arrangements in the Late Empire. It discusses late Roman evidence for awareness of the dangers of food shortages for soldiers’ allegiances and emphasises how the important role of mobile field armies in the Late Empire placed particular pressures on arrangements for military food supply. The apparent lack of military mutinies arising from food shortages during the Late Empire therefore assumes greater significance than might at first seem to be the case
Ancient history · Economic history · Economic shortage · Empire · Government (linguistics · Mutiny · Political science · Politics · Principate · Roman Empire · Subject (documents · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
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Free Speech in Classical Antiquity
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Writing the Legions
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Scholae Palatinae
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The Meaning of the Terms Limes and Limitanei
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Mutiny in the Roman Army. The Republic
Macedonians and Mutiny
Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425
The Fate of Rome
On Captives under the Principate
Rome and Persia at War, 502-532
Julian the Apostate
Scholae Palatinae
The Pursuit of Power
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |