This thesis examines the cultural and social relationships cultivated by ethnically diverse auxiliary soldiers in the western Roman empire. These soldiers were enrolled in the Roman auxilia, military units that drew primarily on the non-Roman subjects of the empire for their recruits in numbers that equaled the legionaries. I argue that auxiliary soldiers could and did maintain large families, and demonstrate, from epigraphic data collected and presented in my dissertation, how foreign ethnic and religious identities were variously integrated into Roman military culture by both individual auxiliaries and the Roman state. The history of the auxilia in Germany from the time of Augustus and in Britain from the time of Claudius is discussed, with extensive reference to epigraphic material provided in appendices to this work. Analysis of military diplomas from across the Roman empire demonstrates a significant phenomenon of auxiliary family creation that helps to contextualize the diploma data from Germania and Britannia. Research on further epigraphic evidence from Germania and Britannia demonstrates a marked diversity in religious dedications by auxiliary soldiers and further evidence for auxiliary families. From a discussion of the history of the concept of ‘Romanization’ and other theoretical models that can be applied to the study of the auxilia, the continued usefulness of the evolving concept of ‘Romanization’ to our understanding of auxiliary cultural integration is assessed. Auxiliary service is shown to have provided many non-Roman ethnic groups avenues of cultural and legal inclusion that each soldier, surely in his own way, could exploit.

This dissertation discusses the interaction of mythology and power in the Roman Republic and early Principate. It identifies a mythological paradigm that has not been recognized in previous scholarship ("pairs") and traces the use of this paradigm by Roman writers of the second and first centuries BCE. It argues that pair stories problematize the relationship between Roman elite ambition and the Republic's political ideals of equality and cooperation among magistrates. It further argues that these stories evolve over the course of the two centuries under discussion, from tales that are relatively optimistic about the potential of reconciling the tension between individual ambition and elite collegiality to tales that are extremely pessimistic. This evolution is tied to the political turmoil visible at Rome in this period. Several stories are identified as pair stories. The first and most well-attested is the foundation myth of the city, which is discussed at length in chapters two through six. In chapters seven and eight, the pattern is established through the analysis of Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and the men known as affectatores regni. The historical development of these tales is discussed as thoroughly as possible. The argument throughout is that narratives from second-century writers depict pairs as representatives of productive rivalry. This rivalry encourages the elite to achieve beneficial results for the city, and can be set aside for the public good. Such depictions become less prevalent by the later first century, when the pair narratives instead tend to illustrate destructive competition. This destruction must be understood in the context of its times; the third quarter of the first century BCE saw the establishment of Rome's first monarchy in centuries. It is under the Principate that the tales again become clearly different: competition disappears. Soon afterwards, so does the use of these stories as a tool to think with.

This dissertation discusses the interaction of mythology and power in the Roman Republic and early Principate. It identifies a mythological paradigm that has not been recognized in previous scholarship ("pairs") and traces the use of this paradigm by Roman writers of the second and first centuries BCE. It argues that pair stories problematize the relationship between Roman elite ambition and the Republic's political ideals of equality and cooperation among magistrates. It further argues that these stories evolve over the course of the two centuries under discussion, from tales that are relatively optimistic about the potential of reconciling the tension between individual ambition and elite collegiality to tales that are extremely pessimistic. This evolution is tied to the political turmoil visible at Rome in this period. Several stories are identified as pair stories. The first and most well-attested is the foundation myth of the city, which is discussed at length in chapters two through six. In chapters seven and eight, the pattern is established through the analysis of Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and the men known as affectatores regni. The historical development of these tales is discussed as thoroughly as possible. The argument throughout is that narratives from second-century writers depict pairs as representatives of productive rivalry. This rivalry encourages the elite to achieve beneficial results for the city, and can be set aside for the public good. Such depictions become less prevalent by the later first century, when the pair narratives instead tend to illustrate destructive competition. This destruction must be understood in the context of its times; the third quarter of the first century BCE saw the establishment of Rome's first monarchy in centuries. It is under the Principate that the tales again become clearly different: competition disappears. Soon afterwards, so does the use of these stories as a tool to think with.

This thesis examines the cultural and social relationships cultivated by ethnically diverse auxiliary soldiers in the western Roman empire. These soldiers were enrolled in the Roman auxilia, military units that drew primarily on the non-Roman subjects of the empire for their recruits in numbers that equaled the legionaries. I argue that auxiliary soldiers could and did maintain large families, and demonstrate, from epigraphic data collected and presented in my dissertation, how foreign ethnic and religious identities were variously integrated into Roman military culture by both individual auxiliaries and the Roman state. The history of the auxilia in Germany from the time of Augustus and in Britain from the time of Claudius is discussed, with extensive reference to epigraphic material provided in appendices to this work. Analysis of military diplomas from across the Roman empire demonstrates a significant phenomenon of auxiliary family creation that helps to contextualize the diploma data from Germania and Britannia. Research on further epigraphic evidence from Germania and Britannia demonstrates a marked diversity in religious dedications by auxiliary soldiers and further evidence for auxiliary families. From a discussion of the history of the concept of ‘Romanization’ and other theoretical models that can be applied to the study of the auxilia, the continued usefulness of the evolving concept of ‘Romanization’ to our understanding of auxiliary cultural integration is assessed. Auxiliary service is shown to have provided many non-Roman ethnic groups avenues of cultural and legal inclusion that each soldier, surely in his own way, could exploit.

The present study was intended as a new approach to the study of the military equipment of the Late Assyrian period which has traditionally relied upon the pictorial representations of the palace reliefs. By examining extant artifacts from the first millennium in their own right, with the reliefs merely serving to contextualize them, a truer understanding of Assyrian arms and armour can be gathered. This is necessary because the artwork only provides us with a filtered view of the real world, the reliefs are as much works of propaganda as of history. The approach taken here is to first examine the existing weapons typologically, and then to evaluate whether such weapon types appear to be accurately represented in contemporary artwork. Textual sources are also used where they can aid in the discussion. Five categories of arms and armour were studied: swords and daggers, spearpoints, shields, armour and helmets. The quality and quantity of the items in these categories varied significantly, providing for a much better representative sample of some items than others. Further questions concerning the possible ritual, rather than military, use of some of the existing artifacts were raised. However, the main conclusions reached were that the reliefs suffer not only from a propagandistic viewpoint which sometimes obscures the reality of Assyrian warfare, but that they also suffer from artistic license and spatial restraints, the difficulties in representing three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional manner, the possible unfamiliarity of the artists with changing military technology and methods of construction, and finally, our inability to understand artistic short-hand for what were commonplace objects to the contemporary viewer. These have led to misunderstanding both as to the dating and chronological changes in weaponry, and also to the tactics used by the Late Assyrian military. This study of the artifacts themselves reveals a more mundane, utilitarian, and conservative military force which shows both a basic homogeneousness throughout the empire, and the myriad tiny variables of an army on the move drawing weapons and troops from many regions.

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Ce mémoire explore le lien entre les relations politiques entretenues par l’empire romain et le royaume sassanide et la représentation que faisaient des Perses les auteurs de l’antiquité tardive. Une tradition littéraire défavorable aux orientaux est en effet perceptible tout au long de l’antiquité : les Perses, notamment, sont ainsi cruels, lâches, efféminés, paresseux et perfides. Ces topoi, dont les racines se retrouvent dès le 5e siècle avant J.-C., évoluent-ils à la fin de l’antiquité, lorsque la puissance des Sassanides rivalise avec celle des empereurs? S’appuyant sur les travaux des dernières années sur l’altérité et sur l’ethnographie antique, ce mémoire s’efforce d’autre part de mieux comprendre les Romains en eux-mêmes en faisant l’analyse de leur rapport à leurs voisins. / This dissertation is interested in the connection between romano-persian political relations and the way written sources presented the Sassanids during late antiquity. Antique tradition had indeed been quite biased towards the Orientals: Persians in particular are usually described as cruels, cowardly, effeminates, lazy, toady and treacherous. Are these topoi, noticeable from the 5th century B.C., evolving during the 4th-6th centuries A.D., when the Sassanid kingdom is causing so many problems on the eastern frontier? Using anthropological tools and up-to-date publications on alterity and ancient ethnography, this essay strives to attain a better understanding of the Romans through the study of the way they presented their neighbors.

Le héros grec Amphilochos, descendant mythique de la célèbre famille des hérosprophètes Mélampodides, était, comme son père Amphiaraos, un devin reconnu et un soldat aux aptitudes militaires formidables. Après avoir participé à la seconde expédition contre Thèbes et à la guerre de Troie, celui-ci aurait pérégriné dans bon nombre de contrées en fondant plusieurs cités situées entre l’Espagne et la Syrie. Quelque temps après sa mort brutale en combat singulier contre un autre devin nommé Mopsos, Amphilochos fut élevé au rang de divinité oraculaire à Mallos de Cilicie, une cité dont il avait été lui-même le fondateur. À l’époque romaine, Amphilochos avait acquit, en plus d’un statut ontologique supérieur, une très grande réputation dans cette région où il rendait des oracles à des pèlerins qui venaient eux-mêmes le visiter dans son antre. Cette recherche, qui vise d’une part à étudier de façon exhaustive la légende d’Amphilochos, tente surtout de déterminer, malgré un nombre restreint d’indices, les modalités de la révélation oraculaire dans le sanctuaire de Mallos de Cilicie. / The Greek hero Amphilochos, the mythical descendant of the famous family of the Melampodides hero-prophets, was, like his father Amphiaraos, a recognized soothsayer and a soldier with formidable military skills. After taking part in the second expedition against Thebes and the Trojan War, he is said to have wandered in many a land and founded several cities lying between Spain and Syria. Soon after his sudden death in a single combat with another seer named Mopsos, he was elevated to the rank of oracular divinity in Mallos of Cilicia, a city which he himself founded. During the Roman period, Amphilochos, indued with increased ontological status, got into high repute in this region where he gave oracles to the pilgrims who came and visited him by themselves in his abode. This research, which aims first to explore exhaustively the legend of Amphilochos, attempts above all to determine the terms of the oracular revelation in the sanctuary of Mallos of Cilicia, in spite of little compelling evidence.

Salvien de Marseille est un auteur incontournable pour l'histoire du Ve siècle ap. J.-C. Il s'est abondamment exprimé au sujet des Barbares, d'une façon si positive que cela ne cesse de nous étonner, au vu des invasions qui s'étaient produites dans sa Gaule natale peu avant la période où il rédigea le De gubernatione dei. Une étude attentive de ce que Salvien affirma au sujet des Barbares démontre que celui-ci utilisa souvent des topoï pour parler d'eux. Parfois aussi, il inversa ces topoï, se plaçant ainsi en opposition avec la tradition littéraire romaine. Ce mémoire s'attache à identifier ces topoï et voir comment Salvien de Marseille s'accordait ou se détachait des idées reçues sur les Barbares dans chaque cas. / Salvianus is an important author when studying fifth century history. He witnessed the barbarian invasion and destruction of his native Gaul, yet he expressed positive evaluations of the Barbarians in this treaty De gubernatione dei. A careful study of Salvianus’ analysis of these Barbarians reveals that he often used topoï when discussing them. However, contrary to Roman literary tradition, he also reversed these topoï and portrayed them in a positive light. This Master’s thesis examines and identifies these topoï, and assesses the extent to which Salvianus adhered to the Romans’ preconceived ideas on Barbarians in each case. This research will demonstrate that although he used traditional literary forms, Salvian was able to express original ideas through the manipulation of the Roman literary tradition.

La présente recherche porte sur le dieu de la guerre des Grecs anciens, Arès. La communauté historienne s’entend pour affirmer qu’Arès était un dieu de second ordre et un dieu mal aimé par les Grecs de l’époque. Les investigations des historiens du XXe siècle sont axées sur les documents littéraires et elles ne font que reformuler, dans la majorité des cas, le contenu de ceux-ci. Alors, afin de bénéficier d’un regard nouveau sur le dieu, on a étudié Arès au travers les documents épigraphiques pour corroborer ou non nos présentes connaissances. Le dieu de la guerre tel que présenté dans les écrits littéraires est-il le même que celui qui est véhiculé dans l’épigraphie de l’époque? La réponse à cette question nous permettra d’établir si nos connaissances actuelles sont valables et elle les complètera. La recherche épigraphique s’effectue en cinq étapes. D’abord, on voit si le côté militaire d’Arès était également prédominant au sein des inscriptions. Ensuite, on porte une attention particulière aux documents épigraphiques pouvant démontrer un Arès mal aimé. Le tout se poursuit avec la mise en relation du dieu et des anciens serments. Enfin, on termine avec une approche plus géographique qui nous permet de définir deux foyers importants du dieu de la guerre, soit la cité de Métropolis et l’île de Crète. À la suite de ce parcours on a déterminé que l’appréciation et l’importance que les Grecs accordaient à ce dieu n’était pas unanime. Le ressentiment des Grecs variaient selon les individus et les lieux. On a aussi été capable d’établir des faits au sujet d’Arès : son domaine d’action prédominant restait le militaire dans les inscriptions; il était un réel dieu, présent, respecté et loué; il possédait d’importants lieux de culte à Lato et Métropolis. Compte tenu d’une redéfinition notable du profil d’Arès, une révision des sources littéraires propres à Arès s’impose ainsi qu’une évaluation complète de toutes les autres sources (iconographique, archéologique, numismatique, épigraphique, etc.). / This study talks about the god of war for the ancient Greeks, Ares. The historical community asserts that Ares was a god of second order and unloved by the Greeks of this period. Investigations of historians of XXe century are focus on literary sources and they simply restate, in most cases, the content of them. To gain a new perspective on the god, Ares was studied through the epigraphic documents to corroborate or not our present knowledge. We want to know if the Ares, as presented in the literature, has been the same as that was transmitted in the ancient Greek epigraphy. The answer to this question will help us to see if our current knowledge is right and deepening it. The epigraphic research is done in five steps. First, we determine whether the military side of Ares was also predominant in the inscriptions. Then we pay a specific attention to documents that propose an unloved Ares in the epigraphy. After, we establish some links between the former oath and Ares. Finally, we close the epigraphic study with a geographic approach who allows us to determine two important sites that belong to the god of war, the city of Metropolis and the island of Crete. Through this process we were able to determine the appreciation and the importance, which the Greeks gave to this god, were not unanimous. The resentment of the Greeks varied among individuals and places. We were also able to establish some facts about Ares : his dominant sphere remained the military in the inscriptions; he was a reel god, present, respected and praised; he possessed important places of worship in Lato and Metropolis. In conclusion, we redefine Ares profile, so it would be interesting that a research reviews the literacy sources about him. Furthermore, an evaluation of all the sources (iconographic, archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic etc…) would also be appropriated.