Bato's War: The Great Illyrian Revolt and the Limits of Roman Power - Paperback
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In the spring of 6 AD, Rome stood at the height of its power - poised to extend its frontier to the Elbe, master of the Mediterranean world, seemingly invincible. Then Illyricum erupted.
The Great Illyrian Revolt, known to the Romans as the Bellum Batonianum, was the most dangerous provincial uprising the early Roman Empire ever faced. Led by two rebel commanders who shared a name - Bato the Daesitiate and Bato the Breucian - trained in Roman military methods and fighting in terrain that neutralized Rome's numerical superiority, the revolt held out for four years against ten Roman legions. It forced Augustus to abandon the greatest military campaign of his reign, emptied the imperial treasury, and, through the chain of consequences it set in motion, helped fix the limits of the Roman world at the Rhine and Danube forever.
Bato's War reconstructs this forgotten war in full - the guerrilla campaigns in the Bosnian karst, the famine strategy that broke the northern coalition, the fire at Arduba, and the exchange at Andetrium where the rebel leader Bato gave Roman civilization one of its most penetrating self-critiques: you sent wolves to guard your flocks, not shepherds.
A story of empire, resistance, and the price of power.
Ciarán Bunting grew up in County Clare on the western edge of Ireland, raised on stories of ancient peoples who held their ground against larger powers and lost beautifully. He has spent more than two decades researching the military and political history of the Roman frontier world, with a particular interest in the perspectives of the provinces rather than the capital - the story of the governed rather than the governors. When not writing, he walks the Atlantic coast and argues about the relative merits of Tiberius and Germanicus with anyone who will engage.
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