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Barbarian bounty-hunters


DecimusCaesar

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I was reading Tim Newark's book about the Barbarians recently and he said that the Romans, during the later Empire, would employ barbarain bounty-hunters to hunt down and kill bandits, criminals and dangerous barbarian soldiers.

He gave one example of a travelling German mercenary called Charietto who was employed by the government to rid an area of southern Gaul of looters and bandits. He said Charietto would stalk these men in the night and he would attack them when they were most vulnurebale, cuting off their heads while they were drunk or sleeping and then taking them to Roman officials for pay.

Charietto even joined forces with Julian whose job it was to clear an area of barbarians. Julian would fight them in the day, leaving them exhausted and demoralized so that Charietto and the bounty-hunters could hunt them down at night. Because of this Charietto became increasingly important and rose to high positions in the Roman army.

Charietto was finally killed by Alammani after he charged them down during a fight only to be peppered with lots of spears.

 

Does anyone else have examples of these Barbarian bounty-hunters? I read that Valens also employed bounty-hunters to hunt down barbarians for reward. Does anyone have good sources for these claims?

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