Acculturation – Romanization – Colonisation: The Role of the Army in the Roman Province of Moesia Inferior

Abstract

I. Acculturation and Romanization: general issues and particularities for Moesia InferiorWe will refrain from detailing the various definitions of acculturation. R. L. Bee (1974, 96) explains acculturation as modification within cultures resulting from contacts with alien life ways, while J. H. F. Bloemers (1989, 178) defines it as a continuous process of interaction between two or more autonomous culture systems and the resulting change. In regard to the Roman era, Romanization is an element of acculturation. D. Cherry (1998, 78) believes that model of Romanization should meet either of following three criteria. The first is the acculturation of ideas and objects embedded in the Roman culture and not acculturated up to that moment. The second is the substitution of ideas or objects embedded in the indigenous culture. The third is that it should measure the acculturation of ideas and objects across broader social range of the indigenous culture.How does acculturation manifest itself in the Roman provinces, what are its main elements - seen through literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources - and, finally, can we notice them in the case of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior? There is no specific order for these elements, as each of them is important given its characteristics. Hence, we will not insist here, for instance, on the Roman governing mode, based on the established local elite (Millett 1990; contra Cherry 1998, 81-84), on the Roman urbanism (see also Benabou 1976, 57, 76, 121); A. Woolf 1998, 118-119; Weiler 2007, 371-390; Laurence, Esmonde Cleary, Sears 2011, 55-58, 96), on the Romanization of the rural landscape (Saddington 1991, 413; David 1996, 178; G. Woolf 1998, 144-158; Petts 1998, 79-94; Linke 2006, 65-94; Brigand 2009, 7-40), on Roman religion as factor of Romanization (Fishwick 2002; 2002a; 2003. 358-365; 2004; Garriguet Mata 2001; 2003; Stone 2008, 2157-2160), or on the penetration of Roman law in the provinces (De Visscher 1963; Barbera et alii 2004, 177-308). We will present only one element regarding Romanization, which involves the discussion on colonisation and acculturation at the same time: the military presence in the provinces, with an emphasis on Moesia Inferior.There is an almost unanimous consensus that the Roman army was an element of Romanization and of acculturation. In other words, the stationing of imperial troops in the provinces contributed to the propagation of Roman customs, of the Roman lifestyle. The archaeological excavations have brought additional information to what was already known from the epigraphic sources. Bloemers (1991, 452) synthesizes the integrative role of the army as follows: 1) in the economic field, the role was expressed through mobilisation of local forces (we would add, also through polarisation of the economic centres in the provinces); 2) in demography, by recruiting soldiers; 3) in the social and political system, by organizing the borders (we would add, by integrating the veterans in the life of the provinces and by involving them in the development of cities); 4) in the infrastructure, through transportation and restocking. Though the general impression is that the Roman army had decisive role in Romanization, the reality is more nuanced. Thus, after analyzing the situation of the indigenous sites of Northumberland, L. Allason-Jones (1991, 3) concludes that, after their occupation by the Romans, these settlements augmented their small object production, but they did not develop particular taste for Roman products following the establishment of the Romans in the region. Since agriculture was not very developed and the locals did not use coinage, the natural question is what products they could have traded for food with the Romans (see also Haynes 2002, 116). The same variations are encountered in the south of the Britain (Davies 2002, 169-203). In Noricum, there are cases where the local settlements are capable of their own production of goods; following the Marcomannic Wars, the intervention of the Roman army is decisive (Mikl Curk 1991, 250). …