2019/05/01 by Stuart McCunn · 4 citations
Social Sciences · #Classical Antiquity Studies #Scholarship #History #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1017/s0009838819000399
published in The Classical Quarterly 69(1), 340-354 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2019/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
From the first century a.d. to the late third there existed a group of soldiers known as the frumentarii . Centralized in the late first century, they became an increasingly important force throughout the second century until Diocletian abolished them at the end of the third. Modern scholarship has usually seen their purpose as encompassing three roles: couriers, military police and secret police, with the last attracting the most attention.