Velleius Paterculus, a Roman historian from the beginning of the 1st century AD, has, among other things, in his historical work Historia Romana described the Pannonian Uprising that erupted in Illyricum in the year 6 and lasted up until the year 9 AD and that he himself took part in. Despite many problems with reading his work, ranging from the circumstances of its survival over accusations that Velleius was Tiberius' propagandist to the conviction that he is not a historian worth considering, his description of the rebellion is the only contemporary account of the uprising and one of the very few that survived until today. Through careful reading and comparison with the report preserved in the works of Cassius Dio, Velleius' report gives us a lot more than just the course of the war. We follow Velleius Paterculus through the battlefields of Illyricum, find out about Illyrian peoples and basic information about their society, as well as about tensions in the Roman ruling class and, above all, how the homines novi understood their time period and reacted to Tiberius. Velleius Paterculus is obviously proud of his military service and of the Roman expansion that seems never-ending, but, above all, he is impressed with his emperor, to whom he owes his own political career. Even though Velleius' description of events reads more like a summary than a thorough report, it gives important information on the course of the war, even some that we do not find anywhere else, and because of this, his historical work is a priceless testimony of the Pannonian Uprising.
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