These Men Were Quite Honorabe It Seems..

[omoplata]

I have recently finished reading a book that is a collection of Cicero's letters and some of his other works. At the moment, I am reading Anthony Blond's "The private lives of Roman Emperors". In the first book, Cicero recounts an occasion where an enemy soldier defects and offers to poison his commander in return for a good chunk of gold from the Romans. Although the Romans feel confident that the soldier can deliver on his promise, they refuse as they consider this an unjust tactic and a dishonorable victory.

 

The second episode that paints a similar picture of the Roman military is from Mr. Blond's book. Caesar, during his Western European campaign, accepts two leaders of the German tribes he is at war with and then imprisons them. He next goes on to slaughter the headless armies. This tactic is severely disapproved in the Senate -despite having led to victory- and Caesar has to work hard to justify his actions.

 

These accounts were rather surprising to me, as they do not sit well with the ruthless image of the Roman army I had in my head. Are these exceptions or rather the rule, you think? Were Romans always so particular about how they won their battles? How do you reconcile such honorable methods of fighting with the backstabbing so rampant within the Roman political arena?

 

Thanks to all

[caldrail]

The trouble with any system that accentuates honour is that not everyone lives up to that standard. The most obvious example of that is a little earlier than Cicero's time, but very illustrative of Roman chicanery.

 

A chap called Servius Sulpicius Galba (not the later emperor of the same name, but a praetor sent to put down a spanish revolt) was campaigning against the Lusitanio. Eager to bring the warfare to a conclusion, he sent messages to the spansish tribes that if they too were tired of the fighting and wanted peace, all they need do is turn up at any of three nominated camps, surrender their weapons, no hard feelings, and an allotment of land will be theirs for the trouble.

 

Something like 30,000 turned up and did as the Romans suggested. Immediately Galba had a third of them slaughtered and the rest carried off in chains to Rome. Galba was immediately hauled in front of the horrified senators with a view to prosecution to what we would now call 'war crimes'. The wiley Galba however told his children he was going to be killed and had them paraded in the Senate, and the sight of two children bawling their eyes out swung the result. Galba walked away, abeit with a stain on his career.

Edited January 23, 2011 by caldrail