54 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Napoleon, and larger than was required in an empire that was largely at peace (Eich
2009, Bang 2013, 417–27). The solution to this paradox is that the army must have
been regularly undermanned (Bang 2013, 419–422; cf. Brunt 1971, app. 27; Scheidel
1996a, 121), and was brought up to strength only in times of active and prolonged
warfare. Also at such times special fi scal levies and indictions are likely to have been
imposed in and near the regions where the army was engaged. One of the main
arguments of Monson and Scheidel (forthcoming), an important book on the fi scal
regimes of premodern states, is that warfare – and more especially interstate confl ict,
its relative absence or presence – is a key determinant of the level of taxes and the
kind of fi scal system that is developed to collect them. In the same volume Scheidel
(forthcoming) presents the imperial regime under the Principate as an example of the
‘relaxation’ of fi scal demands in the absence of a high level of interstate or internal
competition.
See Chapter 8 Addendum for further bibliography on senators, equestrians and
decurions, that is, councillors of the cities of the empire. There were approximately
2000 autonomous cities in the empire, see Scheidel (forthcoming). Wilson’s estimate
of cities with populations of 1,000 or more inhabitants (mid- second century) comes
to 1,856; see Wilson (2011), 191, Table 7.15, in Bowman and Wilson (2011), which
contains a useful assemblage of data on urban populations under the empire. The
existence of one city hitherto known, Irni, in the Spanish province of Baetica, was
discovered when the lex Irnitana was unearthed. González (1986) is the fi rst edition
of this law, with a translation by M. Crawford. Gardner (2001) examines the
implications of the law for the acquisition of citizenship. See too the various
contributions collected in Capogrossi Colognesi and Gabba (2006). González (2008)
is a volume of papers already published concerning various legal texts from the
province of Baetica, including the lex Irnitana , which is re- edited with some
additional fragments. Wolf (2011) is a new edition of the law (with German
translation).