508 Ursula Rothe
asked by Transrhenane Germans to help them fight the Romans, and they respond
very carefully:
The very first chance of freedom that presented itself we seized with more eagerness than
caution, that we might unite ourselves with you and the other Germans, our kinsmen by
blood....All strangers from Italy or the provinces that may have been in our territory have
either perished in the war, or have fled to their own homes. As for those who in former days
settled here, and have been united to us by marriage, and as for their offspring, this is their
native land. We cannot think you so unjust as to wish that we should slay our parents, our
brothers, and our children....(Tacitus,Historiae4.65, trans. Church/Brodribb)While Tacitus’ account cannot, of course, be taken at face value, especially given his
own preoccupation with German ethnicity, the indicators for cultural identity in Roman
Cologne, discussed in the preceding text, suggest that it may contain a grain of truth:
despite their different origins, and strange mixture of cultural elements, the people of
Cologne appear to have seen themselves first and foremost not as Ubii or Romans, but
as an integrated whole:Agrippinenses. Again, it was the imposition of a Roman structure
that engendered a new identity, but this time the structure was the city.
A Counter Example: Pannonia
This chapter has attempted to show how ethnic identities could be fundamentally trans-
formed as a result of structural impositions and changes implemented by the Romans.
This was, however, not automatically the case, nor did similar impulses produce the
same results. In northern Pannonia, for example, we find all of the institutions that
were so decisive in the preceding cases—the Roman army, an integrated economy, and
Roman-style cities—but very different ethnic developments.
Northern Pannonia experienced an extraordinary level of immigration in the form
of troops and merchants from all over the empire. Particularly interesting is the large
community of people from Rome’s easternmost provinces: Syrian auxiliary units were
stationed atIntercisa(Dunaújváros),Ulcisia Castra(Szentendre), andArrabona(Gyor), ̋
and were unusual for continuing to recruit from their homelands. Danubian legions often
accompanied emperors on campaigns in the East and may have returned with new eastern
members. However, it is especially the influx of civilians from the east that is so excep-
tional. They made a strong mark in the region’s epigraphy and are found among the
municipal decurions (e.g.,Brigetio: CIL 3, 4312; AE 1923, 0058); one even donated
the amphitheater atCarnuntum(e.g., CIL 3, 14359.2).
The military element was also very strong in northern Pannonia. With four legionary
garrisons and countless auxiliary camps, most of the inhabitants of this frontier zone will
have had some connection with the military in terms either of trade or recruitment of
family members. Auxiliary units were already recruiting local men in the first centuryAD
and so were the legions from Hadrian onward. Nonetheless, unlike the case of the Batavi,
here we have no evidence for the army having a fundamental effect on ethnic identities in
the first two centuriesAD. This changed in the mid-third century, when the Pannonian
“Illyrian” legions began to play a central role in imperial politics, developing in Late
Antiquity into what Dénes Gabler has termed the “Soldateska Illyricums” (“rabble of
Illyrian Soldiers”) (Gabler 2003: 393).
From the first to the third centuryAD, northern Pannonia was, in other words, a truly
multicultural place, characterized by native tribal groupings, a high level of militarization,