Military command and inertia of consciousness: The Roman warlords in the face of emperor’s power

Abstract

The article discusses some aspects of the participation of the Roman nobility of the Principate period in providing the military command of the empire. This issue is being investigated in connection with the problem of the inertia of the aristocratic consciousness, which manifested itself in the desire of representatives of the Roman nobility for military glory. It is concluded that the military command in the early Roman Empire, having become an imperial prerogative, continued to be an expression of aristocratic identity. The reciprocal attitude to these searches on the part of the princeps was also largely due not only to the vitality of social practices inherited from the previous period, but also to a similar inertia of consciousness.

Keywords

• principate
• emperor’s power
• aristocracy
• roman army
• warlords
• commander’s glory
• inertia of consciousness