The history of the final century of the Roman Republic cannot be told without the story of veterans and land expropriation. Following the military reforms of Marius in 107 bce, soldiers were much more attached to their commanders. This meant that at the conclusion of their time of service, these soldiers, now bona fide client armies, were expecting their commanders to provide a hefty retirement bonus for them, preferably in the form of land. Available farmland in Italy by this point, however, was in short supply. As anywhere else in world history, after all, fertile land did not just sit idle and ownerless. And so, the practice of land expropriation – confiscating land from individuals in order to reallocate it to veterans – was born. Or, rather, as W. Broadhead terms it, a second phase of Roman colonisation was born (Broadhead, ‘Colonization, Land Distribution, and Veteran Settlement’, in: P. Erdkamp [ed.], A Companion to the Roman Army [2007]).
The above story has been well documented (e.g. L. Keppie [1984]), but as M. shows in this innovative book, this practice is not just ancient history. Through an investigation of the parallels between land expropriation for distribution to veterans in both ancient Rome and his own homeland of contemporary Zimbabwe, M. shows the value of comparative studies in shedding new light on difficult topics in ancient and modern history alike. In this case, some of that value comes, in particular, from bringing veterans’ own voices and perspectives to the fore – a type of evidence that we do not possess from the Roman Republic. In the process, M. navigates such challenging topics as the place of veterans in society, and the nuanced views of masculinity and male power in a society that glorifies certain types of violence while condemning others.
M. rightly allots a significant amount of space up front to explaining his methodology and premises. Rightly foreseeing criticism of the worth of his comparative approach, he explains: ‘Concerns might be raised that African and ancient Roman particularities could be lost in a comparison of Africa and Rome, as there exists the risk of merging of African masculinities with those of ancient Rome. Yet what I have discovered … is that there is something similar to ancient Roman masculinity in Africa’ (p. xv). And so, ‘seeing a recognition of patterns that emerge within the two societies’, M. is open that his cultural background and intimate knowledge of his own society is a key strength for this study: ‘Since I use my own social location, first and foremost as a Black African, and then as a Roman historian, the nature of the questions that I ask can be meaningfully addressed by a transcultural-comparative analysis of historical phenomena’ (p. xvi).
The book's argument, divided into eight chapters, opens with three chapters of stage setting. While, perhaps, this level of theoretical background may normally be seen as excessive, it is essential for this study – or so I found to be the case for myself, as a military historian of the ancient world, but with no knowledge of modern Zimbabwe. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth methodological overview of the book's approach, showing M.'s mastery not only of military history and theories of violence, but also theories of gender, necessary for considering the issues of masculinity that the study encompasses. Chapter 2 then provides key historical background for both societies involved in the study, with special attention to the cultural and historical differences between them, especially as these differences inform the definition of the term ‘veteran’ and the function of veterans in both societies. Concluding the more theoretical background portion of the book, Chapter 3 examines in detail the perceptions of masculinity and honour in both societies. We see, in particular, that, while war was essential in both Rome and Zimbabwe in endowing a man with a sense of heroic masculinity, ‘after the end of wars in which they fought, war veterans still felt unmanly as long as they did not own a piece of land or a means of livelihood’ (pp. 91–2).
The four chapters that follow form the ‘meat’ of the book's argument. Chapter 4 examines the violence of veterans, as they struggle to transition from their state as active soldiers, committing justified acts of violence in wartime, to their tendency to violence afterwards, even in peacetime. As M. notes, references to ‘madness’ of war abound in the Roman historical sources when they describe veterans. Parallels to similar madness can be seen in the acts of Zimbabwe's guerrilla fighters, who experienced significant trauma during the wars of independence in the 1960s and 1970s. That trauma, in turn, led to a desire to dominate other people and land, even in times of peace.
Chapter 5 turns to the relationships of veterans to each other and to their commanders, and the changes that these relationships undergo from times of war to times of peace. M. sees a clear dependence on the commanders on the part of the veterans when it comes to acquiring material rewards, whether those be pay or land. At the same time, bonds of friendship with fellow veterans and the commander continue to be integral for constructions of healthy masculinity for veterans in times of peace.
Chapter 6 considers the physical bodies of veterans and the stories these bodies tell, especially through their frequent scars. Such traces of past violence that veterans bear on their bodies, testify to their continued danger to self and others. Veterans and their exaggerated martial masculinity are forever a potentially destructive force for the society in which they live. Building on these themes, Chapter 7 considers the role of veterans in politics, especially as those pertain to uses of land. Commanders, M. notes, in both Rome and Zimbabwe have sometimes mobilised their client veterans’ destructive potential for their own political aims.
In the brief concluding Chapter 8 M. expresses a confidence that I share, that ‘such comparison also allows us to see how such remote societies may speak to the realities of today, and help shed light on many present-day phenomena’ (p. 195). The book's premise, but especially this conclusion, reminded me of Jonathan Shay's now classic Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2003).
M.'s book, interweaving ancient Roman primary sources with interviews of veterans from modern Zimbabwe, shows that the interpersonal and economic elements of war and its aftermath are remarkably timeless for veterans from both societies. While there are invariably key differences between societies, whether those that exist in the same time period or those separated by thousands of years, the similarities outweigh those differences and point forward to further value of comparative studies to come. It is studies like this present book that provide the path forward to more groundbreaking research in the field of military history of all societies and periods. Indeed, such work is already in progress. In particular, Kelly Nguyen's groundbreaking comparative work on ancient Rome and modern Vietnam readily comes to mind, and I look forward to seeing more.
