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Whatever happened to the Agri Decumates?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

J. G. F. Hind
J. G. F. Hind
Affiliation:
School of History, The University of Leeds
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Extract

Tacitus is the only ancient writer to give any information about the Agri Decumates, or indeed even to mention them. Thus, all that we know of them is confined to the period c.a.d. 70-98. In the Germania, dated firmly to the latter year, Tacitus tells us that the occupants of the Decumates agri could hardly count as Germans. They were rather immigrants of fairly recent origin drawn from the least substantial groups among the Gauls, who, through want, had taken up possession of this risky territory. More recently, however, a defensive line had been drawn, garrisons sent in and the area had become a pocket of imperial security and a part of the province (of Upper Germany).

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 15 , November 1984 , pp. 187 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © J. G. F. Hind 1984. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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