Bulla Felix

Bulla Felix was a legendary Italian bandit leader active around 205–207 AD,^[1] during the reign of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. He gathered a band of over 600 men, among them runaway slaves and imperial freedmen, and eluded capture for more than two years despite pursuit by a force of Roman soldiers under the command of the emperor himself.^[2]

The story of Bulla Felix is told by the Greek historian and Roman senator Cassius Dio. Dio's story has several similarities to later legends of "good" bandits: Bulla "combined the attributes of Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel (he could never be caught) with a Robin Hood-like concern for social justice."^[3] Dio describes him as "never really seen when seen, never found when found, never caught when caught."^[4] The Latin name Bulla Felix means roughly "Lucky Charm", and he is likely to be a composite or historical fiction.^[5]

^ Thomas Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality (Routledge, 2004, originally published 1999 in German), p. 208.
^ Brent D. Shaw, "Bandits in the Roman Empire," in Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 366.
^ Frank McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: A Life (Da Capo Press, 2009), p. 482.
^ Cassius Dio 77.10.2.
^ Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality, p. 111 (emphatically regarding Bulla Felix as a fiction); Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 135; Shaw, "Bandits in the Roman Empire," p. 366.

[1] Thomas Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality (Routledge, 2004, originally published 1999 in German), p. 208.

[2] Brent D. Shaw, "Bandits in the Roman Empire," in Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 366.

[3] Frank McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: A Life (Da Capo Press, 2009), p. 482.

[:3-4] Cassius Dio 77.10.2.

[5] Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality, p. 111 (emphatically regarding Bulla Felix as a fiction); Christopher J. Fuhrmann, Policing the Roman Empire: Soldiers, Administration, and Public Order (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 135; Shaw, "Bandits in the Roman Empire," p. 366.

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