Bandits in the Roman Empire
Thomas Grünewald examines the Roman category of latrones, which covered outlaws, bandits, pirates, runaway slaves and rebels of every kind, and which Roman politicians also used as an insult for their rivals. He works through the recorded cases and argues that the label was less a description of criminality than a way of putting an enemy outside the law.
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Adrienne Mayor
The book is about a special, very broad class of enemies within the empire, people that Romans called latrones. The term refers to outlaws, bandits, robbers, pirates, criminals, fugitives from the law, runaway slaves and any other rebels against Roman authority. Some Roman politicians even began to use the term latrones metaphorically to insult and brand their political rivals as enemies of the state.
Interview · May 2010
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