| The inhabitants of the Roman Empire drew on a variety of methods to enforce laws, encourage public order, and promote state control. While the empire lacked any institution fully comparable to modern police forces, this dissertation examines several groups of men who were armed and organized by the state, whose duties involved keeping order among civilians. The first synoptic study of Roman-era police forces in over a century, "Keeping the Peace" examines policing on four different levels (civilian, imperial, gubernatorial, military detached service), situating each in the context of public order and state control. The diverse sources relevant to these themes (including historical narratives, inscriptions, papyri, Judeo-Christian writings, rhetorical literature, and novels) reveal an increase in police institutions, which were created and expanded in response to persistent security challenges during the first three centuries of the imperial era.; Chapter 1 addresses policing carried out by civilians, covering a wide variety of policing arrangements. In most areas outside of Egypt and Asia Minor, evidence of fully developed civilian police institutions is scant. Local magistrates, assisted by their attendants and public slaves, emerge as a significant factor in local order, but their policing powers were limited. The subsequent four chapters all touch on the marked increase of policing on the part of soldiers. Chapter 2 investigates the symbolic and real importance of the emperor in keeping public order, and his use of soldiers under his direct command to do so. Here we see that Augustus' rule crucially shaped the expectation that emperors should provide stability and security. Chapter 3 deals with provincial governors and the soldiers they had at their disposal for policing tasks. Governors possessed the necessary scope and authority to effect orderly conditions, but had to surmount the complexities of local politics. Chapter 4 examines the out-posting of soldiers in administrative and security posts, and its largely negative effects on civilians. Although these different levels of policing in the Roman Empire were typically uncoordinated, the final chapter (Chapter 5) reveals the exceptional amount of police cooperation which Roman officials devoted to the recovery of runaway slaves. |
