Pax militum : réunifier les armées après les guerres civiles au IVe siècle apr. J.-C.

Abstract

From the battles that ended the Tetrarchic experience to Theodosius’ last unification of the Roman world after his victory over Eugenius, the 4th century was punctuated by a series of civil wars. An inquiry into the process of peacemaking, especially into the methods used by victorious emperors in order to reunify the armies in the wake of these civil wars, shows the wide variety of fates that befell the defeated. Soldiers and officers were sometimes punished, but were also often granted amnesty and reintegrated into the victor’s army. The official discourse, insisting on the imperial clementia, thus aimed to establish – to quote Pacatus – the pax militum, by reuniting the armies into a common victory.

Keywords

• later roman army
• later roman Empire
• usurpation
• civil war
• peace
• defeat