Hunting down the friends and relatives of a traitor

[bunn]

Anyone any thoughts on who's job this might be in 197AD??

Say the friend / relative has vanished from his usual haunts and is living quietly, but is not actually going into exile outside the Empire.  Would anyone come looking for him?

Comments

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

A bit earlier, self exiled senators get tracked down by the military and killed. That's at the end of Tacitus annals somewhere.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, thanks - I'll look that up. I guess the key question is how *much* military, and what sort.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I have been crackers busy at work and only just got back to this. They are praetorian guard i.e. reporting directly to the emperor and on whose behalf they are acting(in this case, Nero). Senators can't just bop off as they feel like it but need imperial permission so tabs are always kept on them. Because you want to know where the opposition are... Under Nero at least it would be suggested someone might like to go and look after their family estates in Africa/Asia and then after a while the military would turn up and either let them kill themselves or do the deed. Informers are everywhere - the Roman tax collectors for example would keep an eye out and be reporting back to gain favour and a few bob extra. I am talking about 1st century here though as I get v vague after about 124 AD...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I should have made it clearer that I wasn't demanding you drop everything and supply more info!

I went and read the bit in Tacitus that you suggested, and that led me to what seemed like a similarly relevant bit in Cassius Dio, and that was very helpful.

My traitor is not a senator himself, but a senior member of a provincial governor's staff - I think probably a broad stripe tribune or someone of that sort of level. He supported his governor's bid to become Emperor and they got defeated in battle: now the victorious Emperor is wiping out his surviving family. I think a centurion is about the right person to be leading that campaign.

EVERYONE seems to be vague once you get much after the 1st century! It's amazing how much stuff there isn't for the 2nd and early third centuries. I guess surviving/maintaining empires are less Memorable (in the 1066 sense) than expanding/developing ones.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

It's also partly to do with (lack of) sources. I wrote on early empire because there was Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio (ok in epitome but better than nothing), Pliny, Martial, Seneca, Petronius - loads of material and that was before hitting the inscriptions. It then gets so much thinner (and why that happens would be an interesting thing to explore as well). Centurion sounds good and would love to read your story in due course.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I love lack of sources. Many sources make me itch. :-D

I was never that into Romans, for I erroneously considered them too well documented. Only in recent years have I realised how delightfully minimal is the evidence for the second century onward.