Relativism and the frontiers of empire: critical perspectives on Roman soldiers, communities and military landscapes

Open access

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

I was startled and pleased to realize upon receiving Relativism and the Frontiers of Empire to learn that the book is dedicated to Professor Simon James, with whom I studied at the University of Leicester more than a decade ago.[1] Startled, because that this wonderful collection is themed around James’ work is not indicated anywhere within the book’s marketing material or on Archaeopress’s website; pleased, because the connection to James draws together an otherwise disparate assortment of scholarship from his colleagues, collaborators, and friends. The book consists of twenty-one chapters organized into five thematic sections, as well as Anna Walas and Andrew Birley’s introduction, which situates the book in terms of relativism, decolonization, and frontier studies. As a thematic collection, appropriate to James’ own scholarship, the subject matter and geographic reach of the papers stretch broadly across the Roman Empire, though unsurprisingly there is a strong emphasis on Roman Britain and Roman Syria, where James has worked extensively. However, other geographic areas which appear include North Africa, Italy, and the Middle East. Though not explicitly described as a Festschrift, the book is broadly themed on James’ scholarly interests and many (though not all) of the included essays respond directly to his work. The book also includes a three-page dedication to James and his scholarship, as well as a bibliography of his publications. For considerations of space, this review will unfortunately not be able to address every paper in detail, but will instead take into account the scope of the volume and of each section.

Walas and Birley’s introduction offers a historiography of cultural relativist approaches to archaeological theory, which they describe as “allows opening to a range of post-colonial, positional and relational approaches that rely on contextualising frontiers within their cultural frameworks and recognising the significance of the standpoint of the scholar in the production of knowledge” (1). This historiography explores the use of cultural relativism in studies of the Roman frontiers, which as they rightfully point out is “often subsumed under the term ‘provincial archaeology’, which assumes a relation to Rome and its position as the point of reference” (1). As is evident from the book’s subtitle, the focus within the book is primarily on military communities and landscapes, both long-time subjects of James’ research and a dominant characteristic in Roman frontier studies.  Walas and Birley set out their goal in the volume as offering challenges to “traditional approaches to frontiers” as well as celebrating James’ scholarship (4).

Part 1, “Roman Frontiers Repositioned,” is the longest of the book’s five sections, containing six chapters that range from highly theoretical and historiographic to focused case studies. Essays by David Mattingly, Andrew Gardner, and Rebecca Jones all offer critiques and comparisons of Roman frontier studies and its place not only within the wider historiography of frontier studies in general, but within popular discourse, leading Mattingly to suggest a reevaluation of teaching and public engagement vis-à-vis the Roman Empire in his provocatively titled “The Demise of Roman Frontier Studies?” (19). In contrast, Anna Walas and Ian Haynes both provide case studies of specific sites. Walas’ essay takes on the reuse of a Roman legionary base in Algeria by the French Foreign Legion and the intersection of modern French and ancient Roman imperialism, imagined pasts, and colonial and postcolonial discourses in North Africa. Haynes’ chapter offers a rare (for this volume) look at the Roman core with a discussion of the Castra Nova and how both its military and civilian inhabitants might have interacted with the city of Rome. Finally (though it actually falls in the middle of the section), José Cristóbal Carvajal López’s “The Frontiers of the Concept: Are Romanization and Islamization Comparable?” takes a non-Romanist look at ideas of the “-izations,” looking at the history of the controversial Romanization paradigm in order to compare and contrast it with scholarly ideas of Islamization, or the expansion of Islam. While this is an interesting chapter, it feels somewhat discrepant within the book, as its intended audience is largely fellow scholars in Islamic studies, rather than Romanists.

Parts 2, 3, and 4 all contain four essays each. Part 1, “De-Colonial Approaches to Relations on Rome’s Frontiers,” includes four essays by Andy Merrills, Michel Reddé, Fraser Hunter, and Elizabeth Greene which range from Justinian’s campaigns during the Vandal War, the unique maritime frontier of the Red Sea, the distribution and dating of beaded torcs and other ornamental traditions in Roman Britain, and the evidence of ethnic identity amongst auxiliary forces in Roman Britain. This is a broad range of subject matter, including the only Late Antique contribution in the book in Merrills’ study of Justinian’s religious goals during the Byzantine invasion of North Africa in the 6^th century CE; this is also the only contribution that engages primarily with textual sources, rather than archaeological ones. Nevertheless, all four contributions provide a wide array of approaches to specific frontier interactions between Roman military forces and the other inhabitants of these regions, not all of whom were indigenous, as Greene’s chapter on auxiliary identity at Vindolanda points out.

The four essays in Part 3, “Relativist Deconstructions of Imperial Culture,” tackle questions of frontier life in a greater imperial context. Three of the four essays deal with visual representations from northern Britain and Dura-Europos, while the fourth takes a decidedly more bottom-up (or perhaps even “bottom-down”) approach in looking at sanitation in Roman forts in Britain. These four essays are joined together by their approach to the everyday in the shadow of more well-known and well-studied aspects of imperial life along the frontiers; Lindsay Allason-Jones looks at the evidence for mixed populations in funerary sculpture and inscriptions at the fort at Old Carlisle, while David Breeze, Christof Flügel, and Erk Graafstal dig into the representation of a suovetaurilia scene on the Bridgeness Distance Slab and its implications for the construction of the Antonine Wall. Lucinda Dirven, moving to the opposite end of the empire and James’ long-time work in Dura-Europos, explores the Iarhibol Dipinto (itself a topic of James’ scholarship) as a material object whose context and form changed drastically over time, rather than as a static piece of artwork (139).

Part 4, “Cultural Relativism and Belonging on the Frontiers,” J.A. Baird, Carol van Driel-Murray, Penelope Allison, and Adam Rogers engage with ideas of frontier and military communities, another topic upon which James has previously written.[2] The first two essays, by Baird and van Driel-Murray, take Dura-Europos as their focus, while the latter two essays by James’ colleagues at the University of Leicester look at Britain. I was particularly struck by van Driel-Murray’s essay on the demographics of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum, in which she breaks down the age profile of the cohort in 219 CE and its implications for unit cohesion and social community. Similarly, Allison looks at fabric and vessel types found in military forts in Britain in order to offer a revisionary view of eating, drinking, and a lack of uniformity amongst mixed populations. Rogers’ essay explores the way that indigenous populations were dehumanized in the frontier zone around Hadrian’s Wall, not only by the restriction of movement caused by the construction itself, but also in the ways that landscape features, materials, and people themselves were altered, created, or depicted in various contexts.

The final section of this volume, “Relativism and Cultures of Violence,” is also the shortest, with only three essays. M.C. Bishop, in the delightfully titled “Which Side Does Sir Dress?”, tackles the question of which side Roman soldiers wore their swords on, looking at numerous artistic depictions from across the empire to argue that there was not a strict right hip position prior to the 2^nd century CE and that in fact the process may have been complex and cultural. Meyer’s and Birley’s two essays both explore conflict and violence amongst the military and civilian communities on the frontiers. Birley focuses on Vindolanda, exploring cases of interpersonal violence amongst the military community as well as against the civilian community, while Meyer takes a broader approach to miliary and civilian interaction along the northern frontier, with a heavy emphasis on Vindolanda due to the nature of the evidence. Meyer also looks at a small amount of comparable evidence from elsewhere in the empire, showing that these interactions were not unique to Britain (209).

This book does not include an epilogue, but instead concludes with a bibliography of Simon James’ scholarship. While the contents of this volume are diverse in their approaches to the Roman world, they do occasionally feel at odds with the title of the book and its section titles. Many of the essays are not substantially interested in relativism (only one essay outside the introduction even uses the term), and as a result some of the section organization has the effect of feeling somewhat forced and a few of the essays seem out of place, as with Esmonde Cleary’s sanitation chapter. One thing that should be noted about the contributors to this volume is that they are overwhelmingly European and predominantly British; only two are based outside of Europe. While this is unsurprising given the general demographics of Roman frontier studies, it does lend a somewhat biased perspective to the volume, as does the focus on Britain and Dura-Europos, while other frontier zones in the Roman Empire are only briefly touched on in individual essays. Since the book is lavishly illustrated, with numerous maps, charts, and images in both black and white and full color, it would also benefit from a table of figures, either for the book as a whole or for each essay. There are also some inconsistencies in spelling between essays, such as “Romanization/Romanisation”.

Overall, this is a strong, if occasionally somewhat fragmented, collection of essays about life on or related to the Roman frontiers. Scholars interested in the frontiers, postcolonial approaches to Roman imperialism, and military communities will all find something which appeals to them in this volume, which also serves as a fitting and worthwhile tribute to Simon James’ long career. Readers who are familiar with James’ scholarship will particularly benefit from those contributions that directly engage with his work, though all essays in this volume also stand alone for those who are less acquainted with him. While I would not recommend this book to readers who are completely new to frontier studies, for those that are already engaged in the field, Relativism and the Frontiers of Empire provides a fascinating assortment of scholarship that should incite much conversation.

Authors and titles

1. Relativism and the Other in the Study of Rome’s Frontiers, Anna Walas and Andrew Birley

Part 1: Roman Frontiers Repositioned

2. The Demise of Roman Frontier Studies?, David J. Mattingly
3. Frontiers and the Roman Empire: A Comparative Perspective, Andrew Gardner
4. From French Conquest to Algerian Independence: French Foreign Legion and the Roman Legionary Base at Lambaesis, Anna Walas
5. The Frontiers of the Concept: Are Romanization and Islamization Comparable?, José Cristóbal Carvajal López
6. Reflections on ‘Writing the Legions’: Roman Military Scholarship, Rebecca H. Jones
7. Visualising Roman Military Bases in Cities: The Challenge of Rome’s Castra Nova, Ian Haynes

Part 2: De-Colonial Approaches to Relations on Rome’s Frontiers

8. Speak Softly and Carry a Big Cross: Diplomacy, Evangelism and Ignorance on Justinian’s African Frontier, Andy Merrills
9. The Malevolent Spirit of the Red Sea, Michel Reddé
10. Torcs Transformed: A Fresh Look at Late Iron Age and Romano-British Beaded Torcs, Fraser Hunter
11. Expressions of Cultural Affiliation Reflecting the Dynamic Creation of Roman Auxiliary Communities, Elizabeth M. Greene

Part 3: Relativist Deconstructions of Imperial Culture

12. Sculpture from Old Carlisle, Cumbria, and What It Tells Us about Life in the Hinterland of Hadrian’s Wall, Lindsay Allason-Jones
13. Setting the Frame: Further Thoughts on the Suovetaurilia Scene on the Bridgeness Distance Slab, David J. Breeze, Christof Flügel and Erik P. Graafstal
14. Tracing the Life of a Dipinto: A Revision of the Iarhibol Dipinto from the Military Clerical Office in Dura-Europos, Lucinda Dirven
15. Effluvia of Empire: Sanitation and the Roman Army, Simon Esmonde Cleary

Part 4: Cultural Relativism and Belonging on the Frontiers

16. The Roman Military on the Syrian Euphrates: Small Finds in Roman Global Worlds, J.A. Baird
17. The Men of Dura-Europos: A Demographic Profile of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum, Carol van Driel-Murray
18. Ceramics and Social Practice on Roman Military Sites, Penelope Allison
19. Frontiers and Dehumanisation: Mobility, Materiality and Religious Activity in Frontier Zones, Adam Rogers

Part 5: Relativism and Cultures of Violence

20. Which Side Does Sir Dress?, M.C. Bishop
21. Differentiation and Conflict on the Northern Frontier, Alexander Meyer
22. The Enemy You Know: Evidence for Complex Relationships and Interpersonal Conflict on the Northern Frontier of Roman Britain, Andrew Birley

Notes

[1] Full disclosure: I was not aware that this book was dedicated to Professor James when I requested it. Professor James supervised my M.A. dissertation at the University of Leicester in 2013.

[2] For example, Simon James, “The ‘Romanness of the soldiers’: barbarized periphery or imperial core?’ in Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, eds. Lisa R. Brody and Gail L. Hoffman (McMullen Museum of Art, 2014), 91-107.