Roman Spies and Spies in Romernby Srdja TrifkovicrnIn the summer of 1943, as Allied forces reached Italy, U.S.rnArm)’ counterintelligence warned GIs, “You are no longer inrnKansas City, San Francisco, or Ada, Oklahoma, but in a Europeanrncountry where espionage has been second nature to thernpopulation for centuries.”rnThat “second nature” extends all the way back to early Romernand its rise — in the space of six or seven generations—from ruralrnobscurity to the ancient equivalent of benevolent globalrnhegemony. While the Roman legions were the most efficientrnand disciplined troops of the premodern age, their battles wouldrnhave been more difficult without their elaborate intelligencernnetwork. Many Romans proved to be even more adept at spyingrnon each other; by the end of the Republican era, Rome wasrna hotbed of intrigue, conspiracy, and subterfuge.rnIt all started (as Livy tells us) around 500 B.C., during thernEtruscan wars, when a brother of the consul Fabius Maximusrnwent into the Ciminian forest dressed as an Etruscan. Fluent inrnthe language of Rome’s enemies, he was able to penetrate areasrnpreviously inaccessible to Romans and to woo the local Umbriansrnto support the Roman cause. Livy describes the efforts ofrnCarthaginian agents, fluent in Latin, who were all over the Romanrnrear, equipped with secret gestures to recognize one anotherrnand who used forged documents and planted false informationrnto trap the Romans. The Romans responded with suchrnstratagems as dressing up a centurion as a slave and inflicting arncaning to give him cover.rnRome seemed a mighty monolith to the outside world afterrnCarthage was razed, but rivalry and jealousy within its rulingrnclass caused Livius Drusus’s architect to ask if he should buildrnDrusus’s house “so that it be free from public gaze, safe from allrnespionage, and that nobody could look down on it.” Knowingrnyour competitors was any public figure’s key to survival and ad-rnSrdja Trifkovic is the foreign-affairs editor for Chronicles.rnvancement in the decades preceding Augustus. This requiredrnthe creation of priate intelligence networks of friends and family,rnslaves, and paid agents of both sexes. It was not only Cicero’srnoratory and determination but his private network that saved thernRepublic from Cataline, and Pompey and Caesar used theirrnnetworks against each other in the civil war that finally broughtrnit down. But the danger that it might fall into the hands of a rivalrnfaction made Roman leaders wary of creating a centralizedrnintelligence agency.rnThat was no wa}’ to run an empire, however, and half a centuryrnlater, Augustus established postal and messenger servicern{cursus publicus), a permanent and reliable means of communicationrn—though it had its imperfections: Codes and securityrnclassification of comn^iunications were not developed until later.rnThe imperfections could be fatal: Caracalla’s commanderrnin Rome sent a message to the emperor in the field that his aidernMacrinus was plotting against him. The warning, however, wasrnsent in a sealed letter through the imperial post. The courierrnwas not informed of the importance of the message; upon receivingrnthe mail, Caraealla gave it to Macrinus to read and to reportrnif there was something of interest—thus sealing his fate.rnBy the end of the first century A.D., a full-time intelligencernand security service was in place. Drawn from the ranks of thernlegions’ quartermaster staff (the frumentarii), they also spied onrntheir superiors, the imperial bureaucracy, and the local population,rnand reported to Rome. They doubled as couriers, tax collectors,rnand state security officers. By the third century, theyrnwere spying on distant governors and generals, on humblernChristians and haughty senators alike, and eventualK’ their jobrndescription included assassination. Romans and provincialsrncould no longer speak frecK’, and abuses grew intolerable.rnDiocletian eventually replaced the frumentarii with thernblandly named agentes in rebus or “general agents.” Civilianrnhoods proved even worse than militar)’ ones, and they often col-rn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn