Alaric - 'Roman Officer'?

[Nathan Ross]

L. Sprague de Camp

Now there's an author I haven't read for a very long time!

That also makes me wonder how much of this debate is new.

Sure, it's a pretty old one. But like all the best controversies, the changes of fashion and emphasis can produce some interesting new ideas.

there are lots of letters to Stalin complaining about abuses...

I'm sure there were! But in Stalin's day there were other forms of law and justice in the world - better ones, most people would argue. Can we say the same about the Roman era?

If we compare Roman law - even the harsh and punitive late Roman law of the Theodosian Code - with something like the Burgundian Code, with its crude monetary valuations of hierarchical human lives and chunks of human bodies, and its emphasis on regulating blood feuds above all else, I don't really think that end of Roman rule can have led to any upsurge of freedom in society at large. It's still the rich guys with the swords lording it over everyone else.

When civilians talk about professional Roman soldiers... they tell us again and again that they are scared of being beaten or robbed by them.

And such, sadly, has been the case throughout most of history. We tend to hear more about the abuses of professional soldiers as there was usually some structure of command or government above them to which one could complain... It would presumably not have been much use sending a letter of complaint to the local warband leader about the behaviour of his men, even if he could have read it! (Edit - I've just realised that this consideration did not stop St Patrick from writing just such a letter to the soldiers of Coroticus...)

Meanwhile, I liked this piece about the difficulties of administering justice in the post-Roman Egypt of the Ummayads. Presumably it's based on original papyrus records - I don't know if Part 2 is going to appear soon.