Bellum Batonianum

Bellum Batonianum (Illyrian revolt)

Map of the uprising
DateCE 6–9
Location
Illyricum
Result Roman victory over Illyrian surrender in 9 AD
Territorial
changes		 Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Illyrian Tribes:
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Total: 209,000[1]
200,000 infantry
9,000 cavalry		 Total: 100,000[2]
10–15 legions
70 auxiliary cohorts
15 alae
Thracian allied cavalry
Veterans, freedmen and volunteers from Italy
Classis Pannonica[3]
Casualties and losses
over half of the army either killed or captured Heavy[4]

The Bellum Batonianum (Latin for War of the Batos) was a military conflict fought in the Roman province of Illyricum in the 1st century CE, in which an alliance of native peoples of the two regions of Illyricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia, revolted against the Romans. The rebellion began among native peoples who had been recruited as auxiliary troops for the Roman army. They were led by Bato the Daesitiate, a chieftain of the Daesitiatae in the central part of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and were later joined by the Breuci, a tribe in Pannonia led by Bato the Breucian. Many other tribes in Illyria also joined the revolt.

The Romans referred to the conflict as Bellum Batonianum ("Batonian War") after these two leaders with the same name; Velleius Paterculus called it the Pannonian and Dalmatian War because it involved both regions of Illyricum, and in English it has also been called the Great Illyrian Revolt, Pannonian–Dalmatian uprising, and Bato uprising.

The four-year war lasted from AD 6 to AD 9 and witnessed a large deployment of Roman forces in the province, with whole armies operating across the western Balkans and fighting on more than one front.[5] In AD 8, the Breuci of the Sava valley surrendered, but it took a winter blockade and another season of fighting before the surrender in Dalmatia in AD 9. The Roman historian Suetonius described the uprising as the most difficult conflict faced by Rome since the Punic Wars two centuries earlier.[6]

Bato the Breucian betrayed Pinnes which later became the Ruler of the Breucians by the Romans.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ Velleius, Hist. Rom. II, 110. Schmidt, 5.
  2. ^ "The Great Illyrian Revolt". My Albanian studies. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tiberius16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Husain, Muzaffar (14 September 2011). Concise_History_of_Islam. Balkans: Muzaffar Husain. p. 471. ISBN 9789382573470. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  5. ^ Wilkes, J. J., (1992), p. 183
  6. ^ Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Tiberius, 16, 17
  7. ^ Swan, Peter M. (2004). The Augustan Succession An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History Books 55-56 (9 B.C.-A.D. 14). Oxford University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-19-534714-2.
  8. ^ Powell, Lindsay (2013). Germanicus The Magnificent Life and Mysterious Death of Rome's Most Popular General. Pen & Sword Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-4738-2692-2.
  9. ^ Paterculus, Velleius (2004). Paterculus: The Tiberian Narrative. Cambridge University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-521-60935-7.