Note 49 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS. (continued 2)

The pungent description of the Syrian army of Trajan in Fronto (p. 206 f. Naber) agrees almost literally with that of the army of Corbulo in Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 35. “The Roman troops generally had sadly degenerated (ad ignaviam redactus) through being long disused to military service; but the most wretched of the soldiers were the Syrian, insubordinate, refractory, unpunctual at the call to arms, not to be found at their post, drunk from midday onward; unaccustomed even to carry arms and incapable of fatigue, ridding themselves of one piece of armour after another, half naked like the light troops and the archers. Besides they were so demoralised by the defeats they had suffered that they turned their backs at the first sight of the Parthians, and the trumpets were regarded by them, as it were, as giving the signal to run away.” In the contrasting description of Trajan it is said among other things: “He did not pass through the tents without closely concerning himself as to the soldiers, but showed his contempt for the Syrian luxury, and looked closely into the rough doings of the Pannonians (sed contemnere—so we must read—Syrorum munditias, introspicere Pannoniorum inscitias); so he judged of the serviceableness (ingenium) of the man according to his bearing (cultus).” In the Oriental army of Severus also the “European” and the Syrian soldiers are distinguished (Dio, lxxv. 12).