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Assaults and murders of travellers by bandits are frequently mentioned in the sources of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century, especially in patristics. However, this risk seems to have been overemphasized by bishops and hagiographical writers for rhetorical and moral reasons, even if it caused real anxiety to travellers. Only temporary closures of communication on major roads were perceived by contemporary authors as a real concern. The perception of some cases of regional banditry, often linked to military disorder or local subsistence crises, will be discussed for Thracia in 378, the vicinity of Rome in 382-383, and of Antioch in 385-387, and the regions surrounding Isauria in 403-407. The State punctually enforced measures supposed to limit these assaults. It restricted, for example, the use of horses and weapons in Campania in 365, and enabled in 391 travellers to kill their aggressors without restriction, widening the right of self-defence. [Author]