Fœdus

fœdus , means " alliance" in Latin.

The fœdus is a treaty passed between the Roman Empire and a city or foreign people, which then take the statute of federate city or " federate People ". The word fœdus drift of the Latin word fides , which indicates the bona fide, word given, extremely strong concept in the ancient Rome. The fœdus is an important instrument of the Roman diplomacy, especially during the conquest of Italy by the republican period, and the last centuries of the Roman Empire.

The fœdus under the Republic

As of the monarchy, the Etruscan kings who reign on Rome pass the first treaties, as with Gabies ( fœdus Gabinum , quoted by Denys d' Halicarnasse).

After the period of the Latin League (493-388 av. J.C.), during which Rome is only one nondominating member of the league of the Latin cities, the Sénat of the young Roman Republic prefers to conclude from the bilateral fœdi with the close cities. Each agreement between Rome and another Latin or Italian city makes it possible Rome to be generally placed in dominant position, unlike the Latin League. This agreement is generally a pact of mutual assistance, according to the principle “my enemies are your enemies, my friends are your friends”. The federate city remains autonomous and free of its internal management, Rome ensures its protection against the external aggressions, n the other hand it provides in the event of Roman war of the auxiliary Troupes or the provisioning.

This system had an effect of snowball supporting the establishment of the Roman domination on Italy: each treaty increased the potential of mobilizable manpower by Rome and extended the geographical perimeter of the allied cities ( socii ) or Civites Foederatii, occasion of new conflicts or new alliances with their neighbors. When Rome was committed in hard conflicts, like the Guerres samnites, the Guerre of Pyrrhus in Italy, and especially the Second Punic War, the support of the allied cities enabled him to quickly reconstitute its military forces after each defeat.

The system of the fœdus extended out of Italy at the end of the Second Punic War, always by bilateral agreements, as with Gadès in Hispanie, Pergame, the Greek cities of the Achaean Ligue. The effect of snowball still played: the threats exerted on these last cities brought in a quasi automatic way the Roman intervention against the Royaume of Macedonia, the kingdom of Syria, then the Pontus, with new extensions and the formation of a Roman Empire, which according to the historian Ferdinand Lot was “a federation of cities, grouped around most powerful of them, Rome”.

Principle of the fœdus in the late Roman Empire

The foedus is not established any more with one city-state as under the Republic, but with a tribe or barbarian people. It authorizes the installation of these barbarian people on the territory under Roman domination, with the following conditions:

the federate people settles independently, with its own laws and its leaders.
the federate people is not subjected to the Roman law, nor with the Roman tax
the Romans who remain on the territory of federate depend on the Roman law.
the Roman Empire can recruit soldiers at the federate one, against remuneration. These soldiers fight with their armament and their chief, and not a Roman armament or officers.

Additional clauses can guarantee a supply of the people federated by the local Roman authorities.

One notes the advantages which car barbarian people of this statute of federate. One far from the installation by small groups or of enrôlement forced barbarians overcome like Auxiliaires, is enrôlement practiced when Rome was strong. In practice, a fœdus almost always notes a power struggle in favor of the barbarians, devotes their occupation in fact on lost Roman territories, and just makes it possible the Roman Empire to obtain a peace for a few combative years and some troops as long as they were well paid.

Moreover, the barbarians person to person had a vision of the treaties like an engagement more than like an agreement with an abstraction such as the Roman Empire. They thus regarded the treaty as null and void with the disappearance of the emperor or his family.

Some fœdus with the cruel people

In 374: passed between the Alamans and Valentinien Ier, it installs them in the west of the Rhine. This treaty was violated each time the close Roman troops were dismantled
Into 332, passed with the Visigoths, in the north of the Danube, and Constantin Ier, extinguished into 364 with the death of Julien, last relative of Constantin.
In 382: passed between the Visigoths and Théodose Ier, to fix them in Messiah after several years of devastation of Balkans. The treaty will be respected until the death of Théodose into 395.
Into 418, the Visigoths are installed like federate in Aquitaine. N the other hand, they will carry out operations of pacification in Spain on behalf of the Empire.
In 435, with the Vandals of Genséric in Africa, which thus spares a pause before its attack of Carthage into 439.
Into 442, Genséric obtains new a fœdus, legitimating its conquests: but the Kingdom vandal, recognized by Rome, will not be it by Byzance.

See too

Fœdus | federate People | Federate francs | Lètes

Sources

Small Paul, general History of the Roman Empire , Threshold, 1974,

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