Maxfield Valerie A. The Military Decorations of the Roman Army

University of California Press, 1992. — 304 p.The growth and stability of the Roman world depended, to a large degree, on the continuing success of its armies. Emperors could rise and fall through the intervention of the military, by whom new territories were conquered, an extensive empire acquired, its frontiers guarded and external enemies repulsed. The remarkable success which the Roman army enjoyed over a lengthy period can be ascribed to its superior training, organization and equipment but also, as contemporary writers observed, to its discipline, to the importance which was attached to the judicious use of reward and punishment. No shirker, no coward, would go unpunished; no soldier who showed conspicuous gallantry would go unrewarded. It is the positive side of this treatment, the incentives to valour, which this book seeks to explore, tracing the development of formal military decorations, dona militaria (literally, military gifts) from their first appearance in the early Republic through to their. final manifestations in the Byzantine empire in the sixth century.