Virtus Illyrici: alle origini di un’identità controversa

Being characterised by a high degree of centralisation in administrative structures already during the High Empire, Illyricum reached a stronger cohesive force in the second halft of the 3rd century CE, with the institution of those military supraregional commands which allowed the rise of the restitutores imperii. The new identity of the Adriatic and Danubian provinces was not based on the ethnic origins of their inhabitants, but on the awareness of the troops stationed there to be the bulwark of the empire; but, even if their virtus was continuously praised, this military background became also the basis for a denigration process, which compared the men from Illyricum with the barbarians.