Papers by Michael Alexander Speidel
The Classical Review, 2014
La parole est aux militaires Commander, dialoguer, désobéir dans l'armée romaine. Textes rassemblés et édités par Dan DANA, Patrice FAURE, Sophie HULOT et Cathrine Wolff, 255-264., 2024
Roman provincial governors held a comprehensive imperium, which – unlike modern conceptions – did... more Roman provincial governors held a comprehensive imperium, which – unlike modern conceptions – did not separate military and civilian responsibilities. Rather, their imperium gave them the power to command both in the civilian and in the military sphere, and both in war and in peace. His imperium, therefore, defined a Roman governor just as much as a general as it made him a judge or an administrator. What this meant for his routine activities and responsibilities during his governorship (rarely discussed in scholarly literature on Roman governors' duties) is at the core of this paper.
R. Raja / E.H. Seland (eds.), Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the 3rd Century Crisis - Zooming in and Scaling up from the Evidence, 33-50, 2025
The Roman army was not left unaffected by the transforming dynamisms of the third century CE. New... more The Roman army was not left unaffected by the transforming dynamisms of the third century CE. New types of units and new ranks emerged to face new kinds of threats and civil wars. New types of officers began to lead Roman units. Local forces and foreign irregulars contributed heavily to Rome’s efforts to maintain and restore the territorial integrity of the Empire and to repulse foreign invaders. Although the Roman army suffered significant losses on the battle fields and experienced epidemics and famines, it nevertheless averted Rome’s military collapse and thus was a major factor for the survival of the empire in these years. Many of the changes that affected the army in the third century had their roots in the previous century. Yet, the dearth of contemporary sources and new terminology frequently obscures whether continuity or change are at play. Still, given the importance that is usually attributed to the army for the Empire’s existence, the many critical challenges the exercitus Romanus had to overcome in the third century CE no doubt justifies the conclusion that the Roman empire as a complex system experienced a true, general, and profound crisis.
Ancient Arabia. Investigating and mapping Ancient Arabia. Online , 2024
This entry explores the military, political, diplomatic and commercial relations between the Roma... more This entry explores the military, political, diplomatic and commercial relations between the Roman Empire and the Arabian Peninsula.
The Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, ch 16, 277-294., 2025
Only a few decades after Rome took over the remains of the Seleucid kingdom and established 'prov... more Only a few decades after Rome took over the remains of the Seleucid kingdom and established 'provincia Syria' in 64 BC, Augustus entrusted the Syrian governor with over 40,000 soldiers (which was, at times, nearly a quarter of the entire Roman army) and put him in charge of all of Rome's affairs in the East, including the neighboring allied kingdoms. Wars and rebellions after the middle of the first century AD exposed the weaknesses of the system and led to the establishment of smaller, independent commands. Syria's proximity to Rome's greatest rival, the Iranian empires of the Parthians and Sassanids, conferred special significance on the 'exercitus Syriacus'. Yet, wars in the East usually required additional troops from other parts of the empire. Garrisons, recruitment, and veteran settlement thus impacted Syria's local societies, economies, and landscape in manifold ways. This chapter traces these developments.
Fabian, Lara et al. (Eds.): Economies of the Edge: Frontier Zone Processes at Regional, Imperial, and Global Scales (300 BCE – 300 CE). Heidelberg, 81–99., 2025
This paper deals with the individual stages the Arabian Peninsula went through on its way to its ... more This paper deals with the individual stages the Arabian Peninsula went through on its way to its integration into the Roman world.
Tyche 38, 167 – 172, 2023
This contribution offers a new reading of a small altar from the Roman baths at Aquae Helveticae ... more This contribution offers a new reading of a small altar from the Roman baths at Aquae Helveticae (mod. Baden, Switzerland), set up in the second century by a librator of the 22. legion which was stationed in Mogontiacum (Mainz) (not, as previously thought, by a soldier of the 21. legion from nearby Vindonissa in the first century).
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 230, 234-242, 2024
The new reading and interpretation of a recently published military diploma containing a hitherto... more The new reading and interpretation of a recently published military diploma containing a hitherto unknown type of text offers an addition to the fasti of Roman Syria and sheds new light on Trajan's large-scale military dispositions between the two stages of his Parthian war.
A. Kolb and M. A. Speidel (eds.), A new era of epigraphy: 40 years of Epigraphic database Clauss/Slaby New inscriptions, new readings, new interpretations of Roman inscriptions., 2025
This paper comments on the hitherto overlooked circumstances that led to the award by two Roman e... more This paper comments on the hitherto overlooked circumstances that led to the award by two Roman emperors in Southern Mesopotamia of military decorations for the legionary horseman Q. Titurnius Quartio. The occasion was the celebration of the victoria Parthica maxima of Septimius Severus in Seleuceia Babylonia on 28. January 198, and of Caracalla's elevation to the rank of Augustus.
Journal of Late Antiquity 17.1, 94-116, 2024
The column monument in Istanbul’s Gülhane Park, commonly known by its colloquial name “column of ... more The column monument in Istanbul’s Gülhane Park, commonly known by its colloquial name “column of the Goths,” bears a well-known inscription on its pedestal which states that this monument was dedicated to Fortuna Redux on the occasion of a Roman victory over the Goths. The monument, however, has not attracted much scholarly attention, probably because no consensus has yet been reached regarding its date. An inspection of the inscription in Gülhane Park and a fresh analysis of its text suggest that the emperor Constantine erected the “column of the Goths” in the context of the formal dedication of his new capital in 330 as a memorial for his victory over the Goths in 328 or 329. The monument highlights Constantinople’s extraordinary political nature as more than just another imperial residence in the style of the tetrarchy. It bears witness to the emperor’s efforts to give Constantinople the status of a second Rome as well as his determination, above all else, to establish his city as the home of triumphant victories. Moreover, the monument’s dedication to Fortuna Redux, is another token of Constantine’s at least partially ambiguous religious policy, which allowed traditional symbols to be visible in his new capital of Constantinople.
L'épigraphie au XXIe siècle. Actes du XVIe congrès international d'épigraphie grecque et latine bordeaux, 29 août-02 septembre 2022. Edited by P. Fröhlich and M. Navarro Caballero , 2024
In the first part I discuss the many reasons why it does not make sense to establish a new epigra... more In the first part I discuss the many reasons why it does not make sense to establish a new epigraphic category named “inscriptions des frontières” in the same way that previously such categories as "milestones", "military diplomas", or "carmina epigraphica" were established. Inscriptions from the frontier regions are the objects of study rather than an epigraphic category. In the second part, Livio Zerbini discusses epigraphic finds from the Danube provinces.
Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 51, 2021
The names of two individuals have recently been read in an inscription on a plumb-bob found in Co... more The names of two individuals have recently been read in an inscription on a plumb-bob found in Cologne: the commander of a centuria, and a mensor. Based on the name of the centurion, a Jewish origin was inferred for the mensor. This interpretation is untenable because, as far as currently known, Jews did not serve in the Roman army during the first three centuries. But a new reading reveals that in fact only one person is named in the inscription, a Maenius Leubo, who commanded the centuria which owned the plumb-bob. The cognomen of the centurion points to his Gallo-Germanic origin.
W. Eck, F. Santangelo, K. Vössing (eds.), Emperor, Army, and Society, Studies in Roman Imperial History for Anthony R. Birley, Bonn., 2022
This contribution discusses the date and the circumstances of the official beginning of Caracalla... more This contribution discusses the date and the circumstances of the official beginning of Caracalla's Parthian war, his alleged Alexandermania and local reactions to the emperor's style and appearance.
EDCS-Journal Open Peer-Reviewed Online Journal on the basis of EDCS Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby, 2023
Did the Roman legions entertain spy posts on the Tigris river (and other far away locations beyon... more Did the Roman legions entertain spy posts on the Tigris river (and other far away locations beyond provincial territory)? A Latin inscription that has been claimed to prove such a practice cannot be taken as reliable evidence and may perhaps never even have existed.
A. Mullen (ed.), Social Factors in the Latinization of the Roman West. Oxford University Press., 2023
Although this chapter, contrary to some recently expressed views, accepts that Latin was the offi... more Although this chapter, contrary to some recently expressed views, accepts that Latin was the official language of the Roman army, it challenges the common view that soldiers and veterans were key vectors of linguistic change in the provinces of the Roman Empire. The argument is based mainly on the demographic realities in the provinces, in which, numerically, soldiers and veterans made up far too small a proportion of the population to have had a notable impact on the spreading of Latin into non-Latin-speaking communities. Moreover, at the level of the rank and file, service in the army required only a basic knowledge of Latin. Non-native speakers of Latin therefore needed to acquire advanced levels of the language of the Romans only if they intended to advance to higher ranks. Finally, a significant number of auxiliary veterans returned to their former homes after discharge and used their native tongue when communicating with the local population. Hence, such veterans hardly contributed to the diffusion of Latin in the provinces. The Roman army, therefore, does not emerge as a major agent in the spreading of Latin in the Western provinces.
M. Dana (ed), La correspondance privée dans la Méditerranée antique : sociétés en miroir, 2023
The immense importance which letters played in the Roman army has as yet, perhaps, not been fully... more The immense importance which letters played in the Roman army has as yet, perhaps, not been fully appreciated, as no full study of all of the extant material currently exists. The present contribution discusses a variety of examples of Roman soldiers’ letters to highlight a few major characteristics that set them apart from their modern counterparts and that made them the single most important means – next to the weaponry – to secure the Roman army’s survival and success. Without letters, official and private, the Roman army simply could not have functioned. Remarkably, however, the surviving letters of Roman soldiers provide only very limited insight into the experience of combat and war in the Roman army.
Heródoto: Revista do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre a Antiguidade Clássica e suas Conexões Afro-asiáticas, 2019
This paper discusses various aspects of the transmission of information between the two great emp... more This paper discusses various aspects of the transmission of information between the two great empires of ancient China and Rome.
Inschriften Edieren und Kommentieren, 99-113, 2022
This essay (in German) provides a short overview of the different types of wax-coated wooden writ... more This essay (in German) provides a short overview of the different types of wax-coated wooden writing-tablets and their wide-spread use for innumerable purposes the Roman World. It also describes the methods used (and difficulties encountered) when trying to decipher and edit the remains of the texts these tablets once contained (including the story of a disappeared ox).
ZPE, 2021
This paper presents recent finds as well as revised readings of stamped tiles from the Roman fort... more This paper presents recent finds as well as revised readings of stamped tiles from the Roman fortress of Apsaros in modern Georgia.
ECONOMIA E FRONTIERA NELL'IMPERO ROM ANO - Collana di studi e testi per la storia economica, sociale e amministrativa del mondo antico diretta da Elio Lo Cascio , 2021
As a consequence of Trajan’s military occupation of Nabataea in 106 CE, the former Late Hellenist... more As a consequence of Trajan’s military occupation of Nabataea in 106 CE, the former Late Hellenistic kingdom was turned into a Roman province and received a permanent garrison of Roman troops. Archaeological and epigraphic finds from recent years shed new light on the economic and military developments which occurred as a consequence of the Roman provincialisation as well as Rome’s military and economic interests in the frontier zones of the kingdom of Nabataea and provincia Arabia.
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Papers by Michael Alexander Speidel