Comradeship Relations in the Roman Army during the 1st-3rd Centuries AD. A Study through the Legio III Augusta

Abstract

The professionalisation of the army under Augustus had important consequences for the troops, since from then on, enlistment implied the temporary loss of certain rights. The suspension of the ius conubium must be taken into account for its negative effects on the capacity to socialise of the soldiers, who were often distanced from their families and the civic community. The relationships that these men established among themselves to try to alleviate their situation constitute the subject of this study, which focuses on the African provinces of the pars Occidentalis and uses as its main source the epigraphy that corresponds to the legio III Augusta. Its results can be summarised as follows: on the one hand, a better understanding of the terms and formulas that were used to reflect the existence of ties and, on the other hand, a more comprehensive vision of the phenomena of socialisation within the troop.