Roman Military History in the East

Much of what made Roman rule so enduring in this extremely diverse region with Rome’s great rival neighbor just beyond the empire’s borders remains unknown. Our written sources are plagued with gaps and tend only to illuminate short episodes. In particular, archaeological and epigraphic sources remain, as yet, extremely scarce. There are only very few archaeological excavations on the Euphrates investigating the Roman period. Yet, none of these specifically aim to increase our knowledge of the Roman imperial foreign and security policies, integration and frontier strategy on the Euphrates. It is, however, only by uncovering new archaeological and epigraphic sources that we can hope to further our understanding of these issues. The recent and ongoing debate amongst historians of the ancient world on the nature of Roman frontiers, strategy and the role of the Roman army in the East therefore largely relies on hypotheses and speculation until new sources further illuminate these questions.

The Mavors-Institute on Rome's Eastern Frontier

The MAVORS-Institute has therefore decided to undertake and support projects investigating Rome’s Eastern frontier. The Mavors-Institute thereby aims to fundamentally further our historical and archaeological knowledge and understanding of these issues which lay at the core of the Roman Empire’s history. Substantial results have already been achieved.

Field projects of the MAVORS-Institute currently focus on the Roman Euphrates frontier and in particular on two sites: the ancient cities and Roman military bases of Zeugma and Satala. Both were Roman military centers of primordial importance, main hubs for military actions in the East and garrison places for large numbers of Roman troops. Both places still offer vast areas of undisturbed archaeological strata, and the rare opportunity to investigate their military history throughout the entire Roman period. Together, these investigations promise fundamental new insights into countless aspects of Rome’s foreign and security policy on its Eastern frontier, as well as many other aspects of Roman military history. Archaeological field work at other sites on Rome’s eastern frontier is also being considered.

This Mavors-project has therefore been designed both to function as an umbrella for the field projects at Zeugma and at Satala, in order to better coordinate and interpret the results from those projects, as well as to put these results into their wider historical context. In order to establish this context, however, it is often necessary to undertake further investigations. Therefore, library-based research on a wide variety of historical and archaeological issues connected to Rome’s Eastern frontier is being carried out in parallel to the field work and in support thereof. Some of these investigations are intended to be published as articles or monographs in their own right, such as a forthcoming entailed study on the organization and logistics of Rome’s eastern wars. Others will be included into the publications of the results from Zeugma and Satala.