The Classical World

by Robin Lane Fox

  In this Julio-Claudian household, one ancestor was taking his genetic revenge: Mark Antony. Tiberius' dangerously popular young rival, Germanicus, was Antony's grandson; so was Claudius; Gaius was Antony's great-grandson, as was Nero too. It was a dreadful time to be a senator at Rome, when the unopposable palace guards protected, and even promoted, such people as emperors. For some thirty years senators had to compromise under a mad wastrel, a cruel and suscep­tible spastic and a vain and self-obsessed profligate. The best place to be was in a province, away from spies and informers. Young Nero's initial 'honeymoon' period owed something to the wise counsels of the philosopher Seneca, but he was then encouraged in his natural extravagance by the odious Tigellinus. 'Obscure in parentage and debauched in early life','' Tigellinus was a Sicilian by birth who capi­talized on his good looks and his breeding of racehorses. They were passions to which Nero was highly susceptible.

  Even more than Caligula, Nero is the defining patron of the Roman orgy. Many modern historians now shy away from this aspect, regard­ing it as a short-lived triviality and preferring instead to study Roman administration in the provinces and the structures, or lack of them, in the impinging of Roman power on millions of provincials' lives. But the orgies are of wider significance too. For all the stress on 'traditional values' and 'Roman morals' there were senators and upper class knights who fought unashamedly in Nero's gladiatorial shows. In 59, at public games, upper class men and woman acted on the stage, not shunning indecent scenes. Nero forbade them to wear masks, but even so, ex-consuls participated and a lady in her eighties, Aelia Catella, danced in a pantomime. The infamous river party of 64 involved noblewomen in promiscuous sex with strangers, including slaves. Restraints were overturned and alarmingly people found 'licence' all too enjoyable. The upper orders had been victimised by Claudius and were deeply scared of Nero's potential cruelty. Why hold back, when they might be killed or die leaving property to be confiscated? The next thirty years are in part the history of a moral reaction, in part the story of an older generation who were trying to put an uninhibited past behind them, knowing that others at the time had been more high principled.

  Luxury played an important role beside 'licence'. During the Julio-Claudian years luxury, as personal extravagance, continued to increase remorselessly with the progress of crafts and the prodigal rivalry of consumers. 'Spend now rather than be confiscated later' was one senatorial impulse; another was enhanced opportunity. It was not just that the volume of wine consumed by all classes at Rome rose sharply: a 'vigorous drinking-place culture' among urban communities in Italy has also been detected.10 In the Julio-Claudian era we begin to have firm evidence for senatorial landowners' involvement in vine-growing. Much more extravagantly, we have evidence for their spiral­ling pursuit of 'luxuries', especially those in limited supply. In the Roman upper class, a personal fortune might as well be spent now, as otherwise it would be left partly to the emperor on death; legacies left by childless donors would be penalized, anyway, under Augustus' moral laws. In Tiberius' reign the prices of special luxuries, whether bronzes in pseudo-Corinthian Greek style or big mullets in the fish market, were rising so sharply that there was legislation by the emperor to control them. In 22 there were fears that Tiberius would restrict spending on anything luxurious, ranging from silver plate to dinner-parties. In fact, Tiberius wrote to the Senate that he wished that such restrictions could be effective, but that the problems were insoluble. Indeed, there was so much more now to want. Romans had discovered a taste for much that was rare, including tables made from the beautiful wood of the citrus tree, native to north Africa: the trees were wiped out as they gratified it. Craftsmen had developed the complex technique of fluorspar and of cameos in which layers of precious metals were set in glass. Like modern house-prices or salaries on Wall Street, the unchecked cost of bronzes and villas, paintings and pearls were topics of conversation at the very Roman dinner­parties which flaunted them. According to the historian Tacitus, there was also discussion of the 'effeminate' dress of rich men." Female hairstyles at court were still relatively classical, but their accompani­ments did become recherche. We can compare the rather simple recipe for toothpaste of the Empress Livia with the infinitely more exotic compound of Messalina, requiring mastic gum from Chios (still used in the fine local toothpaste), salt from north Africa and powdered stag's horn, which was thought to be an aphrodisiac.

  Since the fourth century bc historians had so often cited luxury as a cause of defeat or disaster: in the 6os ad it did at last claim its first major victim, the Julio-Claudian household itself. Nero's hopeless extravagance was a direct cause of his overthrow and the ending of the family line. Justice, meanwhile, was more subtly corrupted by the emperors' habits. In the Senate, Tiberius had sat in on cases which included alleged slights to his own 'majesty': how could senators then be impartial in his brooding presence? Claudius heard far too many cases in private; he often refused to hear more than one side of the argument and simply imposed his own personal view. The underlying trend throughout was for officials, both at Rome and abroad, to hear cases and pass judgements in their own right. Appeals to authority thus developed a new range.

  As for freedom, it had had a real chance with Gaius' murder in January 41, but the failure to secure it was revealing. It was a hundred years, on a long view, since freedom had really been rooted in the Republic, since the gentlemen's agreement between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus in 59 bc. In the face of a vast Empire, an army loyal to a dynasty and a populace fearful of senatorial rule, how ever could freedom be restored by senators who had now never even known it? Nor would that sort of freedom have been workable. Rather, the survival of the underlying imperial structures during these four gro­tesque emperors is evidence of their increasing strength and necessity. When the provincial governor who led the western rising against Nero declared himself to be acting for the Senate and people, the declaration led to his recognition by the Praetorian guards at Rome and then to his being empowered by the Senate as the next emperor. What senators most hoped for was a defined area of business which the Senate, if possible, should decide, while the emperor retained a restrained, moral competence in all settings. Affability and accessibility without extrava­gance were the crucial attributes for a good emperor.

  In protest under Nero, there were senators who took a principled stand against his tyranny, partly by drawing on a veneer of ethical 'Stoic' values. Upper-class Romans were not true philosophers, but these principled ethics did at least suit the moral aspirations of new men, rising into the ruling class: they lacked the world-weary cynicism of the older intake and they wished to be principled and rather too earnest when placed in apparent honour at the centre of affairs. For other, more quizzical characters, there was always the possibility of noble and eloquent suicides, acts which were not in any way con­demned by Roman religion. Seneca the philosopher cut his veins; the engaging Petronius, 'arbiter of taste',12 compiled an exact list of Nero's sexual debaucheries with men and women and sent it to him while opening his veins and joking meanwhile with his friends. Above all, there was the example of the immensely rich senator and ex-consul, Valerius Asiaticus. By origin a Gaul, he had inherited by marriage a fine park on the Esquiline hill in Rome. 'Gaping for gardens', Claudius' wife Messalina then urged his destruction. Among all the various charges laid against him, Claudius hesitated before giving in. But he did allow Asiaticus to choose his own death. So Asiaticus exercised, dressed up and dined well. He then opened his veins, but not before he had inspected the siting of his funeral pyre. Small freedoms still remained: he ordered the pyre to be moved so that the fire would not burn his trees.13 Claudius then confiscated the park as soon as Asiaticus was dead.

  46

  Ruling the Provinces

  It is the most unjust thing of all for me to tighten up by my own edict what the two Augustuses, one the greatest of gods (Augustus), the other the greatest of emperors (Tiberius), have taken the utmost care to prevent, namely that anybody shoul
d make use of carts without payment. But since the indiscipline of certain people requires an immediate punishment, I have set up in the individual towns and villages a register of those services which I judge ought to be provided, with the intention of having it observed or, if it shall be neglected, of enforcing it not only with my own power but with the authority of the best of princes [Augustus], from whom I received written instructions concerning these matters.

  Edict of Sextus Sotidius Strabo, legate of Galatia, soon after ad 14

  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew 5.41

  Outside Italy, nonetheless, Rome's provinces are said to have viewed Augustus' new order as not unwelcome. Perceptions, as always, will have varied with social class and cultural background, but in western Asia, with the governor's encouragement, a new calendar was adopted, beginning on Augustus' birthday. From Spain to Syria, cults of emperors, both dead and alive, proliferated in varying forms. What was there to celebrate? From Augustus onwards there were certainly changes in the appointment and regulation of governors, including new procedures for trying them for extortion and (eventually) a fixed annual wage, or 'salary', for their tenure of office (the first instances of the word in this sense). Their republican predecessors had left bad memories on this score. But what counted most to the provincials was the return of peace and the ending of all the looting, money-raising and damage done abroad in the 40s and 30s during Rome's Civil Wars. Their total population is likely to have fallen sharply in all the chaos: an Empire-wide figure of 45 million has been suggested, 25 per cent below the levels reached later after a century of peace.

  This new era developed into our idea of a Roman Empire. Already under Augustus, Romans wrote of ruling 'from Ocean to Ocean': maps of this world were constructed, especially the map which Agrippa displayed publicly at Rome.1 There were still no clear ideas of frontiers, and the basic notion of empire was still not so much a terri­torial one as one of obedience to Romans' commands. By Hadrian's reign the territory under Roman command would stretch from North­umberland in Britain to the Red Sea, from the coast of modern Portu­gal to the river Euphrates. This huge territory has never been ruled by one power since. It would also shape Hadrian's career, as he spent more than half his reign touring round more than thirty of its prov­inces. There were soldiers in each of them, but not every province even had a full legion. The remarkable thing is how few officials were still being sent out to govern such a huge area.

  At the top of a province, both 'public' and 'imperial', the crucial figure was still the governor, who was usually a senator. A few underlings might assist him and he could always call on any local army-officers and troops: military architects in the local camps would also be helpful in carrying out major building projects. The governor had detailed instructions from the emperor, a practice which began with Augustus and which Augustus had probably extended already to both types of province. The governor's overriding duty was to preserve peace and quiet. After the 30s bc Rome's provinces were never seriously at risk to an outside invader until long after Hadrian's death. The greater danger was a rebellion by Rome's subjects or civil strife between or within the province's local communities. Most governors, then, were focused on judging and resolving local disputes. Like Cicero in his province, they visited their provinces yearly on an assize-tour, during which they dispensed justice and settled disputes in recognized assize-cities. Calls on their time were potentially very heavy: we happen to know that at least 1,406 petitions were prepared for submission to a governor in one town in Egypt on a single visit.2 Naturally, justice could not be done solely by one annual visitor. Local cities and communities did retain their courts in which they would try most of the civil cases. They heard criminal cases too, but usually only those without serious penalties. There were also cases heard by Roman procurators, officials who were of two different types. In imperial provinces, some of the procurators were financial officials with the duty of overseeing tax-collection. This business always provokes disputes and the procurator was likely to try such cases himself. Undesirably, he was both the prosecutor and the judge of those before him. Other procurators were the emperor's land agents: they managed lands and properties owned by the emperor in his provinces. Under Claudius, they too were confirmed in the right to try cases arising from such properties and then, near the end of his life, their judgements were made final, without the possibility of appeal.

  These alternative sources of justice did help the governors' work­load, but nonetheless governors were kept busy. On entering a prov­ince, a governor still published an edict which announced offences which he would particularly consider, but in the new age, the emperor's instructions might guide him. Above all, he alone could impose the death penalty (with very few exceptions). There was also the bother of civil cases which were referred back to him from the emperor. For communities and individuals would sometimes take a case directly off to the emperor, only to find that they were encouraged by him to approach their local governor with (or without) a particular recommendation. It was then quite hard for governors to apply the law, because many of these cases were not covered neatly by accepted rulings of Roman law, and Roman law did not apply to most of the provincials anyway. There was a real need for patience and discretion on a governor's part. After a preliminary hearing, he could send a case off for trial by a local court; he could also consult with local advisers before deciding. Under the Empire, he could attend to a case personally as 'inquisitor' and after investigating it in person, he could pass sentence on it. All sorts of twisted cases and allegations would be brought up for his decision and it was best if he was impartial: he was urged in law books to avoid becoming too friendly with his provincials. It was also best if he left his wife in Rome, as she might become too involved: governors were made liable for their wives' misbehaviour in their province.

  This travelling circuit had formed Cicero's career as a governor in the 50s bc and, as it spread, it did bring a new source of justice to many provincials' lives. Under the Empire, from Augustus onwards, there was also the new possibility of direct appeal to the emperor himself. However, there were limitations to both processes. To present a case, a petitioner had to travel in person, gain access and, if possible, speak eloquently. As ever, this sort of justice was not realistic for the poor, especially the poor in the countryside. It was also justice at the expense of local political freedom. The Roman governors monopol­ized penalties which even the Athenians' classical Empire had only controlled at second hand. Offences now included many which had been created by the very existence of the Empire in the first place. From their own experience at Rome, Rome's ruling class had become very suspicious of popular associations in a city, the 'clubs' which might conceal political purposes: we thus find a governor being told to ban local fire brigades in his province's cities ('better dead than red'3). Subjects also became liable to charges of 'treason' for supposed insults to an emperor, his statues or property. Anonymous accusations were strongly discouraged, but these sorts of charges were a direct consequence of Empire.

  So, above all, was tax. Here, Roman governors became responsible for a major Roman innovation, imposed under Augustus: the regular census of their subjects. Censuses listed individuals and property as a basis for the collection of taxes. Officials were charged with carrying them out and the details were often complex: Augustus never decreed 'that all the world should be taxed', as the Gospel of Luke puts it, but he did record his holding of separate censuses in Rome's provinces.4 Separate officials (quaestors and procurators) then took direct respon­sibility for the taxes' yearly collection. They had slaves, freedmen and the possibility of using soldiers to help them, but even so they were far less numerous than the tax-collectors of a modern state.

  It was not even that taxes were very much simpler than ours now­adays. Direct tax took two rather complicated forms, a tribute on land and one on persons. The details varied between provinces, but they could include taxes
on slaves and rented urban property and even on movable goods, including the equipment of a farm. Occasionally they were based on the produce of a farm rather than on its extent and value. There were also important indirect taxes, including har­bour-dues, and further impositions, especially for the provision of animals, supplies and labour for public transport. It is this burden to which Jesus refers in the Gospel of Matthew: 'whosoever shall go compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain', an idealistic bit of advice.

  Occasionally, exemptions from taxes might be granted (especially to cities after a natural disaster) but they certainly did not belong by right to holders of Roman citizenship. In the provinces, Roman citi­zens and their land were liable to tax like everyone else. The one privileged area was Italy, which paid indirect taxes but no tribute. Rome also benefited from a particular type of payment: grain was taken as tax from Egypt and elsewhere and was shipped directly to the city. There, it supplied the huge population, including those who were entitled to free distributions. If we ask why further tax was necessary, the main answer is the big Roman army. Taxes paid its costs, even when the tax-paying province was itself a province without legions. Such are the injustices of Empire.