Limes 2018

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25. First Contacts between the Roman Military and the local people

ession organisers / Chairpersons:
Szilvia Bíró (Győr) (E-mail: szilvia.biro@hotmail.com)
Thomas Grane (Copenhagen)
Fraser Hunter (Edinburgh)
Thomas Schierl (Mannheim)

This session seeks to explore the changing nature of relationships between the Roman world and indigenous populations at the time of first contact. As an introduction we will consider the different models – based upon case studies inside and outside the Empire –; how the Roman world dealt with the groups it was meeting in a comparative perspective, and the varied nature of local responses. Main aspects shall be the followings:
• Comparative perspectives on how the Roman military reacted on arrival in a non-Roman area
• Changes in Late Iron Age settlement / settlement structure and what caused these
• Rationale for the positioning of the first Roman military sites
• The nature of early imports / exports
• The role of political or diplomatic contacts

Confirmed participants for this session:
  1. Pete Wilson: Allies, Enemies, Partners or Protagonists? Rome and the Brigantes in the First Century AD
  2. Nick Hodgson and James Bruhn: Roman frontiers create new societies in the lands beyond: a shift to pastoral farming and social re-structuring caused by the building of Hadrian’s Wall
  3. Karl Oberhofer: At the back of beyond? Actual perspectives on the lower Alpine Rhine valley regarding the first Roman contacts
  4. Balázs Komoróczy, Marek Vlach, Ján Rajtár, Claus-Michael Hüssen: The latest discoveries and research results of the Roman military presence in Middle Danube barbaricum
  5. Andrew Lawrence: Roman Contact und Impact in the Swiss Plateau (100 BC – 20 AD)
  6. Fraser Hunter: First contacts in Scotland: a review of old and new evidence
  7. Thomas Grane: Roman bronzes as a medium of diplomacy
  8. Thomas Schierl: JUST TELLING STORIES. Augustus and Central Germany: Illustrating military history or telling another story?
  9. José Manuel Costa-García: But Gaius, those locals seemed friendlier! The rationale behind the military deployment during the early stages of the Roman military presence in NW Iberia
  10. Milica Tapavički Ilić: Limes in Serbia – the early days
  11. Dragana Nikolić: Roman Conquest of the Western and Central Balkans in the Light of Recent Research
  12. Michael Erdich: Roman Imports in the long Tradition of Contacts between the Mediterranean World and Temperate Europe