Running Social Relations:Roman Soldiers And Domestic Lives In Dalmatia(1^st–3^rd C.AD)

My dissertation investigates how the Roman soldiers in the 1^st–3^rd century AD represented their social contacts and the establishment of networks within their domestic lives in the province of Dalmatia.To solve this question,a dataset of 155 inscriptions is discussed statistically in the first chapter:around one-third of them are employed for the examination in the following chapters,which first concern a basic survey of the mentioned women,children,family structures,and some legal problems（Chapter 2）.Then the dissertation deals with the social relations developed during the soldiers’domestic lives（Chapter 3）.The introduction of frame and framing theory in the last chapter is a worthwhile experiment to combine those epigraphic sources with one methodological approach to discover the contexts,and I shall show that the soldiers（or their friends and relatives）have deliberately framed the inscriptions in specific ways and conveyed their processed messages to target their specific audiences.The examination of inscriptions proves that social contacts with the people outside the army camps were common among the soldiers,who mostly lived in camps during their service time before the final permission of cohabitation outside by the emperor Septimius Severus.The social network built by the soldiers in their domestic lives is confirmed through many impressive inscriptions presented in the third chapter.At least three points helped soldiers earn benefits and advantages throughout the lives:the assistance of their parents or other paternal relatives,the influence of their uxorial（or of concubine）partners and their respective networks,and the compulsory help from their freedpersons（which group demands further examination）.However,frames and framing theory also expose the reliability and unreliability of the epigraphical sources.Although inscriptions help us reveal different sides of the Roman soldiers’domestic lives and how they constructed and maintained their social circles,more important is their deliberate representation on the monuments,mostly were tombstones.With the examination of soldiers’thoughts as reflected by their“last voices”in the inscriptions,this dissertation proves the benefit and advantage of employing the approach of frames and framing theory to achieve the goal,while distinguishing between history as what actually happened and what is represented in the inscriptions and other sources is still an ongoing discussion.