Life of a roman Soldier

[Andy1984]

@MM: The US-base at Okinawa is pretty much what you're looking for. Even rapists are - at best - 'transferred' to another military base. I can't imagine these kind of things would be accepted during the EB-timeframe. You may find clues about it in sources about Bouaddica. From my own lecture (De Germania) it seems extremely unlikely any German tribe would have accepted rapists by Roman military forces, as adultery was punished quite excessivly by ritual flogging and banishment. Moreover, sexuality was ritualized heavily (despite frequent mentions of adultery between Germans by Tacitus). Women were given weapons at their very marriage, which symbolized the fate they shared with their husbands: if he died in battle, she'd either have to kill herself, or fight. I'm not saying German or other women couldn't be raped in these wars - as they quite often were - but rather that rape or sexual crimes would make peacekeeping a hard task. To me, this implies that Roman officers who didn't prevent/punish rape, adultery with married women or any other sexual crime, would have a hard time keeping the locals in check, and therefore have a strong incentive not to allow these.

kind regards,

Andy