Foreign Policy

Abstract

Abstract The Roman Empire had an army to keep out or destroy its enemies by whatever means necessary. There was no need, or even thought, of compromise. Ammianus Marcellinus’ account of a treacherous attack on a raiding band of Saxons in 370 concludes ‘and though some fair judge of these things will condemn this act as treacherous and hateful, yet on having considered the affair, he will not think it improper that a destructive band of brigands was destroyed once the opportunity was given’. This brutality was not confined to the battlefield. Earlier in the fourth century, Constantine the Great threw two Frankish kings to the beasts in the amphitheatre. Usurpers were as brutally treated, executed in public and their heads put on display. Thus in 422 Honorius celebrated his tricennalia by executing a usurper and his general in the arena at Ravenna.