Barbarians Among the Romans: The Rise of Foreign Mercenaries in the Roman Army
Abstract:
This project looks at how the growth of barbarian auxiliary units within the Roman Imperial army resulted in the growth and development of these barbarian societies, as well as the weakening of Roman military power, eventually causing the Romans to lose control of many of their territories. This project will study barbarian regiments throughout the history of the Roman empire, in order to show how they changed and developed. From the study of these regiments, this project will show that as these barbarians fought alongside the Romans, they brought home military and technological advancements, resulting in the barbarian societies becoming larger and more politically powerful. At the same time, Roman civil wars in the third century both depleted the army, and discouraged others from joining the military. The result of this was that the Romans had to rely more heavily on barbarian regiments until eventually they could no longer control them.