Sources mentioned in “Criminalizing Conquered Peoples” (Bertinoro 2024)

  • Curtius Rufus’ (first century CE) Scythian character’s speech before Alexander: “As for you, you proudly claim that you come in pursuit of bandits (latrones). However, to all the peoples (omnium gentium) you have visited, you are the bandit (latro)! You have taken Lydia, you have seized Syria, you hold Persia, you have the Baktrians in your power, and you have aimed at India. Now you are stretching out your greedy and insatiable hands for our flocks. . . No matter how far you surpass others in power and bravery, the fact remains that no one is willing to tolerate a foreign master.” Trans. John Yardley, Quintus Curtius Rufus: The History of Alexander (New York, NY: Penguin, 1984), 168-169, adapted.
  • Diodoros, Library 27.3 (mid-first century BCE): “The Cretans began to engage in piracy (πειρατεύειν), and plundered (ἐλῄστευον) a number of vessels [in the late third century BCE]. Because the merchants were also disheartened, the Rhodians, thinking that these wrong-doings (τἀδικήματα) would affect them as well, declared war on the Cretans.”
  • SIG3 581 (ca. 200 BCE): “If pirates establish bases in Crete and the Rhodians wage war at sea against the pirates or those who provide shelter or assistance to them, the Hierapytnians shall take part in the operations by land and by sea with all possible strength at their own expense.” Trans. M.M. Austin, The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman Conquest, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: CUP, 2006), 213-216 (no. 113).
  • Roman law (ca. 100 BCE, in IKnidos 31, column 3, lines 28-37): “The Roman people will take care that the citizens of Rome, the allies, the Latins, and those among foreign peoples who have friendship with the Roman people may be able to sail in safety, and for this purpose and according to this statute they have made Cilicia a praetorian province.”
  • Ulpian in Digest 49.15.24 (ca. 200 CE): “The ‘enemies’ (hostes) are those on whom the Roman people has publicly declared war (bellum), or who themselves declare war on the Roman people. Others are termed ‘bandits’ (latrunculi) or ‘brigands’ (praedones).”
  • Strabo, Geography 7.5.12: “Then come the peoples who live in the neighbourhood of the Haimos mountain and those who live at its base and extend as far as the Pontos: I mean the Korallians, the Bessians, and some of the Medians and Dantheletians. Now these peoples are all bandits. But the Bessians, who inhabit most of the Haimos mountain, are even called bandits by the bandits (lēstai). The Bessians live in huts and lead a wretched life.” Trans. H.L. Jones, Strabo (Cambridge, MA: HUP, 1917-28), adapted.
  • CIL III 3385 = RIU VI 1426 from Matrica in the province of Pannonia Inferior (180-185 CE): Emperor Commodus “fortified the whole river bank with fortifications constructed from the ground, and also with garrisons stationed at advantageous places against the clandestine crossings by bandits (latrunculi; diminutive of latrones).” More epigraphic evidence gathered and translated at this link.
  • Grave of Atilius Tertius = Inscriptiones Aquileiae 861 (ca. 170 CE): “For Lucius Atilius Saturninus, freedman of Lucius, forty year old native of Flavia Scarbantia, killed by intruding bandits. Atilius Tertius his brother and Statius Onesimus his friend set this up. Clodia Tertia has freely provided him a place.”
  • Rabbi Simon (mid-third century CE) in Leviticus Rabbah 13.5: “Just as the swine when reclining puts forth its hooves as if to say ‘See that I am clean,’ so too does the empire of Edom [Rome] boast as it commits violence and robbery under the guise of establishing a judicial tribunal.” Trans. Israelstam.