The Roman Army in Lycia and Pamphylia

Abstract

A central area of research with regard to the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire concerns the military forces stationed within Rome's various provinces. For a variety of reasons, our knowledge on this matter is significantly greater for the North African and European provinces than it is for those in the east. This is immediately apparent from the three most recent reports of the tri-annual Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, which despite its formal name covers aspects of the Roman army in all of the provinces: yet of 276 papers and reports in four volumes, only 34, or 12% deal with the eastern territories, an area equal to 35% of the Roman Empire1. One of the reasons for this imbalance in research and knowledge is the lack of any systematic analysis of the epigraphic evidence for the Roman military in the eastern territories. This is especially true of the provinces within Asia Minor, although it has long been recognised that the wealth of epigraphic material found in the region might be used to rectify this lacuna2• Consequently this paper, which is intended to make a start on redressing the situation by reviewing and assessing the epigraphic evidence for the presence of Roman army units in Lycia and Pamphylia in the imperial period, that is to say between the Julio-Claudian period and the events that sparked the beginning of the so-called "Third Century Crisis" (i.e., c. AD 14-235/8). Before going any further, however, some initial remarks on the type of epigraphic resources used here might prove useful, as not all will be familiar with those used in the esoteric field of Roman military studies. This is probably especially the case when it comes to the matter of distinguishing those sources that are particularly relevant to identifying the units "in praesidia" in any one region