Panel 9.2 – Strapped for cash: needy soldiers, reluctant authorities


Organiser/Chair:

  • Iossif Panagiotis (Université de Liège)
  • Evangeline Markou (National Hellenic Research Foundation)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

War has always been an expensive enterprise for cities and rulers as, from as early as the classical period, it has not been cheap to pay for mercenaries. The war could be seen as a "growth" machine generating money which, in a second phase, could be used to fuel the everyday exchanges and, later on, to remunerate military operations. It is a general consensus that soldiers wanted to be paid in "fresh money" but when quantifications are used to estimate the sizes of a given coinage, we come to realize that most of the issues were either limited or insufficient for sustaining an army over a longer period of time.

But armies were paid in various ways; epigraphic and literary sources offer precious hints on how coins and mercenaries were related and that the soldiers were not only paid in precious metal coinages, but also received allowances in bronze coins (opsonion and siteresion) and, of course, in kind (siteresion?). An important part of their expected benefits was booty, although this remains difficult to quantify based on the available evidence.

Despite the general consensus relating the issues of coins with military activities, little (or no) information is known on the practicalities of the payments while various questions arise: how were the resources raised by cities and rulers in order to fund their armies? who decided the salary of the army or was this part of an ad hoc negotiation? and what were the practicalities for the payment of mercenary soldiers? were they paid in large denominations of precious metal and how were those coins exchanged with smaller issues that could be used in local markets ? were they paid before or after the campaign? did they receive an advance before and the rest after the (successful) campaign ? where did they receive these payments and did the usual or "military" mints operate to cover their needs? did they receive a misthos in bronze when affected in garrison activities, as recent studies proposed? and how did the soldiers act when not engaged by an army, often far away from their motherlands? Did the issuing authorities try to keep them calm and satisfied or did they find excuses not to pay what they promised? do we have testimonies of rebellions and mutinies related to such circumstances? And how about local economies? can we trace back the impact of the military payments in local economies? and what effects the presence of an army had in the market?

These are only some of the questions that will be addressed in the proposed panel focusing on the numismatic aspects and the direct connection between coinage and army. The aim is to investigate the prolific use of the coinage for military needs through time, starting from the Classical city, moving to the Hellenistic period, and through the passage of the Roman Empire arriving to the Gallo-roman Emperors of the third century A.D.

Paper abstracts

1. Evangeline Markou (National Hellenic Research Foundation) / Panagiotis Iossif (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Introduction and Conclusions to the Panel
War has always been an expensive enterprise for cities and rulers as, from as early as the classical period, it has not been cheap to pay for mercenaries. The war could be seen as a "growth" machine generating money which, in a second phase, could be used to fuel the everyday exchanges and, later on, to remunerate military operations.
Αrmies were paid in various ways; epigraphic and literary sources offer precious hints on how coins and mercenaries were related and that the soldiers were not only paid in precious metal coinages, but also received allowances in bronze coins (opsonion and siteresion) and, of course, in kind (siteresion?).
Despite the general consensus relating the issues of coins with military activities, little (or no) information is known on the practicalities of the payments while various questions arise: how were the resources raised by cities and rulers in order to fund their armies? who decided the salary of the army or was this part of an ad hoc negotiation? and what were the practicalities for the payment of mercenary soldiers?
These are only some of the questions that will be addressed in the proposed panel focusing on the numismatic aspects and the direct connection between coinage and army. The aim is to investigate the prolific use of the coinage for military needs through time, starting from the Classical city, moving to the Hellenistic period, and through the passage of the Roman Empire arriving to the Gallo-roman Emperors of the third century A.D.

Publication ► "Introduction and Conclusions to the Panel" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

2. Sven Günther (Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations)

War Zone-markets: Mercenary-payment, Generals and Market-manipulations in the 4th century BC
During the 4th century BC, the war-business (not only) in respect of payment became gradually more professionalized on both sides, for mercenaries and generals. While the former has been studied quite well, the latter still lacks a comprehensive analysis. Particularly the questions of how the many attested generals dealt with the financing and funding of their soldiers and to what extent they created, framed and influenced, and even sometimes manipulated, the local markets at the war zone, permanent and temporary ones, have not been systematically analyzed yet. The paper will address this question by first examining the better known case of the general Timotheus (cf. Günther 2016) and will then draw attention to the other sources (numismatic evidence; Xenophon; speeches of Demosthenes and other Attic orators; Aeneas Tacticus; Ps.-Aristoteles, Oikonomika; Polyaenus etc.) for successful and unsuccessful generals, their organization of army-payment and handling of war zone-markets in the poleis of the 4th century BC before the Hellenistic period.

Further Literature
Günther, S. 2016. “Die Söldner und das liebe Geld. Überlegungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen Münzprägung, Söldnertum und Marktgeschehen im 4. Jahrhundert v.Chr.” In: B. Eckhardt and K. Martin (eds.), Eine neue Prägung. Innovationspotentiale von Münzen in der griechisch-römischen Antike. Philippika 102. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 93-108.

Publication ► "War Zone-markets: Mercenary-payment, Generals and Market-manipulations in the 4th century BC" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

3. Charlotte Van Regenmortel (University of Leicester)

Adam Smith at Taenarum? Labour Markets and Paid Military Service in the Early Hellenistic Period
From the early Hellenistic period onwards, armies increasingly consisted of paid soldiers who had voluntarily joined the campaigns in which they were employed. This shift in the nature of military musters led to the emergence of new incentive structures for military employment, of which pay was the most important. The presence of these military wage labourers forced their employers to begin to adhere to market forces. This can be seen during the Successor Wars, when Eumenes, for instance, increases the pay of his soldiers in order to combat the shortage of men (Diod. 18.61.4-5), and soldiers are often encouraged to desert in exchange for higher pay (e.g. Diod. 20.75.1); while the soldiers themselves appear to have been aware of their power over their employer, and use it to receive further compensation (e.g. Diod. 19.20.1-2).
This paper will discuss whether the presence of these military labourers during the Successor Wars indeed led to the emergence of a functioning labour market. It will do so by discussing the variations between wages within a single army, as well as across the armies, and see whether these are subject to market forces. The presence of a labour market among this large group of military professionals in the Hellenistic world would be of great importance in the study of the emergence of Hellenistic capitalism, and mean that these men had a much larger influence on Hellenistic society, than the mere redefinition of various borders.

Publication ► "'Adam Smith at Taenarum? Labour Markets and Paid Military Service in the Early Hellenistic Period" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

4. Gunnar Dumke (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

Paying for a round with squares - The Indo-Greek kings after Menander I and their coins
The Greek kingdoms of the Far East have always been regarded as a true heaven for mercenaries and it has long been realized that the imagery of Indo-Greek kings is extremely rich in military imagery. The fact that we find twenty kings in a time span of about sixty years shows in addition that we have to anticipate struggle between different families of Indo-Greek (and partly Indo-Scythic) kings.
In my recent project I undertook a die-study of these twenty kings and queens, reigning from ca. 130 – 70 BC in the regions south of the Hindu Kush mountains in a region that is equivalent to present-day southern Afghanistan, Pakistan und North-West India. Although the data does not answer all the questions raised in this panel, it will for the first time be possible to estimate the volume of the kings’ coinages and to argue if these coinages were used mainly to cover military expenses. Since I also include the bronze series in my studies, we will further have the possibility to compare the output of silver and bronze coins for these kings and try to draw further conclusions.

Publication ► "Paying for a round with squares - The Indo-Greek kings after Menander I and their coins" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

5. Stéphane Martin

Quantifying the impact of military payments on local economies: the case of Gaul in the 1st c. BC
Military operations had a strong impact of Gaul in the second half of the 1st c. BC, documented both by texts and archaeology. A number of large silver coin hoards are known from this period; they are generally interpreted as remnants of payment for Gallic soldiers. This paper will try to assess their economic significance in two ways. First by trying to quantify the necessary amount of bullion and its possible sources in the years following the Gallic wars. Second by envisaging their impact on monetary circulation, monetisation and distribution of wealth in this crucial period.

Publication ► "Quantifying the impact of military payments on local economies: the case of Gaul in the 1st c. BC" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

6. Cruces Blazquez Cerrato (University of Salamanca) / Marta Gómez Barreiro (Junta de Castilla y León)

Caesaraugusta and the Roman army: copies of PreClaudian and Claudian coinage to supply troops?
The closing of the provincial mints in the middle of the first century AD brought about noteworthy changes in the economic formulas of the Western Roman provinces. The so-called “copies” of the Roman official coin constituted a significant resource that contributed to the reduction of the coinage scarcity. The manufacture of “copies” was frequent and is well documented around the time of Claudius I in several provinces, including Hispania. However, the recent analysis of the Caesaraugusta mint (Zaragoza) has revealed the existence of coins with similar neglected manufacturing during the governments of Tiberius and Caligula, which could mark the beginning of the “copies” phenomenon that would later become generalized.
The circulation and purpose of the coins is clearly military suggesting that the coinage from Rome was insufficient and that the “copies” covered the economic needs of the troops stationed in the provinces.
Until now the existence of two Hispanic mints has generally been accepted: one in the West and one in the East, located in Tarraco. Now, however, it is believed, based on the Tiberian issues, that there is a link between Caesaraugusta and the “copies” of Claudius I. This mint played an important role in the organization of the Roman army and in meeting its needs from the beginning of its colonial life and, afterwards, it continued to manage the production and distribution of the necessary items for the northern-most military establishments.

Publication ► "Caesaraugusta and the Roman army: copies of PreClaudian and Claudian coinage to supply troops?" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

7. Fleur Kemmers (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Military pay and monetary economy in Rome´s expanding Empire
The largest part of the Roman imperial budget was needed for the regular pay, in cash, of the standing army of the Principate. But when did this start? In the middle and late Republic, culminating under Augustus, we can observe a development from an annually levied citizen army to a professional standing army, comprising citizens and auxiliaries. There is literary evidence for some sort of military pay to have started in the late fifth or fourth c. BCE, long before coined money was introduced in Rome. The earliest Roman coin production is too insignificant in scale to have contributed much to any kind of military pay. This paper aims to discuss the transition from payments largely in other forms of money than coins into payments largely made in coinage. Related are the issue of at which point military pay was disconnected to specific campaigns and became regular and of a fixed amount. Drawing on numismatic, archaeometallurgical, literary and archaeological evidence these developments and their impact on the monetary economy in Rome´s expanding empire will be addressed, mainly with a focus on the western Mediterranean.

Publication ► "Military pay and monetary economy in Rome´s expanding Empire" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS

 

8. Liesbeth Claes (Leiden University)

Circulating Legitimacy and Loyalty between Roman Emperors and their Germanic Soldiers (AD 180-285): A case study
For centuries, the Roman Empire united more than 60 million people belonging to various ethnic and social groups. Traditionally, the survival of the Empire is attributed to its professional central government, supported by the military and urban elites. Recently, scholars have started to question this traditional view by stressing the importance of the quasi-permanent dialogue that took place between emperors and the Senate, the military and the provinces, which resulted in the acceptance of imperial power.
The hypothesis of my paper is that from the end of the second century onwards effective communication with the frontier armies became a decisive element in establishing imperial legitimacy and securing loyalty among the military, in part because of their increasing prominence in politics and administration. In turn, the project assumes that soldiers reacted to these imperial messages, translating them into loyalty towards their emperor.
By the uncommon combination of evidence from coin hoards and honorary inscriptions from Germania Inferior and Superior, this paper seeks to demonstrate that those emperors who were most successful in adjusting their modes of communication to the expectations of the Rhine soldiers were more successful than their rivals in acquiring loyalty. Furthermore, it wants to show that effective communication became a key element in the strategies of those emperors who managed to reunite the Empire at the end of the prolonged crisis of the third century.

Publication ► "Circulating Legitimacy and Loyalty between Roman Emperors and their Germanic Soldiers (AD 180-285): A case study" on Propylaeum-eBOOKS