Abstract
The article deals with the issue of the attachment of the Roman army to the plots in the 3rd–4th centuries AD that is directly related to the assessment of its mobility and combat effi ciency. The analysis of historical and legal sources makes it possible to reject the thesis of the militia nature of military service because of the Severus’ reforms. The Duces limitanei, specifi ed in Severus Alexander’s biography expose the anachronism of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, and therefore cast doubt on the information of giving land to the soldiers.
The lots attributed to the legions (prata legionis) were used mainly as pastures and for the construction of fortifi cations. The source of the existence of a legionnaire’s family was veterans’ military settlements that occurred near the territory of the legion.
The land ownership by legionnaires and warriors of auxiliary forces dated back only to the beginning of the 4th century AD, and even then the soldiers could not cultivate their plots during the active service. This referred to both the fi eld (comitatenses) and the border (limitanei or riparienses) forces.
The first evidence of the cultivation of the land by the soldiers date back only to the beginning of the 5th century AD. In the meantime, the practice of the giving the plot to veterans disappeared, which can be attributed to the terminative attachment of the soldiers to the land, although they were still paid a poor emolument.
Thus, it is necessary to reconsider the viewpoint on the Roman army of the 2nd – 4th centuries AD as a kind of an organization of military settlers, half-peasants and half-soldiers. The peasantization process commenced only in the 5th century AD, and was fully manifested in the parts of limitanei, located along the borders of the Empire.
Keywords
The Late Roman Empire, army, combat capability, sedentariness, prata legionis, comitatenses, limitanei
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