Integration or Disintegration? The Roman Army in the Third Century a.d.

IntegratIon or DIsIntegratIon? the roman army In the thIrD Century a.D. Lukas de Blois my issue in this paper is: what was the main trend within the roman military forces in the third century ad? Integration, or disintegration into regional entities?this paper is not about cultural integration of ethnic groups in multicultural parts of the roman empire, such as the city of rome, thriving commercial centres, and border regions to which the armies had brought people from various parts of the empire, and where multicultural military personnel lived together with indigenous groups, craftsmen from different origins, and immigrants from commercially active regions, either in canabae adjacent to castra stativa, or in garrison towns, as in the eastern parts of the empire.In variatio upon an issue raised by Frederick naerebout in another paper published in this volume, I might ask myself in what sense an army, which in the third century ad was progressively composed of ethnically and culturally different units, kept functioning as an integrated entity, or in actual practice disintegrated into rivalling, particularistic regional forces whose actual or potential competition for money and supplies constantly threatened peace and stability in the empire, particularly in times of dangerous external wars, when the need for supplies increased.the discussion should start with septimius severus.after his victories over Pescennius niger, some tribes in northern mesopotamia, and albinus in gaul, severus had to replenish the ranks of his armies, for example at the Danube frontiers, which had yielded many men to severus' field armies and his new praetorian guard.Besides he had to compensate for the many losses that niger's eastern army and albinus' British troops had sustained, and find recruits for his new legiones Parthicae I, II and III. he had to do so in a post-plague period, in which many mobile young men (soldiers!) were missing because they -as always in times of plaguehad died first and foremost, prices were rising, workers could demand higher wages, and demographic recovery at best was just taking off.1 this