INTRODUCTION

An old, yet still topical theme of discussion within Roman archaeology is the army's role as Kulturträger and mediator in the diffusion of Roman cultural forms among indigenous groups in the frontier provinces. For the areas north of the Alps, most studies emphasise the critical role of the army in this dissemination. In his recent book on Roman Britain, however, David Mattingly seeks to qualify the army's importance in this regard. He stresses the ‘essentially self-serving use of material culture within the army, which to a large extent developed a separate version of Roman identity, distinguishing soldiers from civilians rather than uniting them’. He points to the marginal impact of Roman military culture on indigenous rural populations in the heavily militarised zones of west and north Britain. He bases his conclusion in part on the studies by Simon James and Ian Haynes, who analyse the Roman army as a community with a strongly developed sense of its own identity.

A major focus in this discussion is the intermediary role of veterans in the spread of Roman cultural forms. Veterans constitute a key group because of their ability to bridge the gap between the military and civilian worlds. Although numerous studies have elaborated on this theme, they have tended to focus rather narrowly on legionary veterans. They have done so for pragmatic reasons – legionary veterans are much better represented in the epigraphic record than their auxiliary counterparts – but also because of the belief that it was legionary veterans who were the bearers and transmitters of Roman culture, certainly in the early imperial era, and who are therefore most deserving of our attention.

Auxiliary veterans are a much neglected group in the study of romanisation processes in the Rhineland frontier zone. They merit greater attention because of their dual potential role as transcultural mediators, not only between the military and civilian spheres, but also between Romans and indigenous rural populations.