The article deals with the problem of betrayal in the army of the early Roman Empire (1st to early 3d century A.D.). Analyzing the facts of betrayal and treachery in the Roman imperial army, as well as the various interpretations of these military offences in legal sources, the author seeks to demonstrate the interrelation of traditional stipulations of law and ideological conceptions of betrayal with the realities of professional army. The available sources do not allow for a comprehensive evaluation of the phenomenon of betrayal among Roman military. Most of the information about the deserters and traitors is provided by the legal sources, and due to the very nature of such sources it is difficult to judge with certainty about the extent of betrayal in the Roman Imperial Army. Narratives of the Imperial age give relatively few episodes and details about Roman troops crossing over to the enemy. However, the very scarcity of such evidence suggests that transfugium was not of any mass scale. It is not unlikely that the system of legal norms concerning traitors was rather effective to stimulate loyalty to the military oath. These norms, in their nature and content, date back to the practices and customs of the Republican period. The emphasis in their ideological justification was placed on the loyalty to military duty and discipline, rather than on personal loyalty to the emperor. This means that the idea of service to the state ( res publica Romana ) remained one of the foundations of the Roman military tradi- tions in the age of the Empire.
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