Eager for Glory

by Philip Lindsay Powell

  Legio XIX under Varus’ command stayed initially at Döttenbichl near Oberammergau, set among the dramatic Ammergau Alps, to secure the newly conquered region.301 At the site of the camp the iron-tipped bolt from a catapult stamped with the number of the legion (fig. 2) was found during excavations in 1992 and 1993.302 When the military leadership determined the threat level had sufficiently subsided, all or part of Legio XIX later moved to a new fortress 320 kilometres away in Dangstetten close by the Rhine River among the rolling hills of Baden-Württemberg, where it could control the strategically important Great St. Bernard or Upper Rhine Passes to Italy. The fact of its presence here has come down to us because of the clumsiness of a lumentarius, a soldier or slave responsible for baggage and the animals that carried it. Named Privatus he dropped a circular lead tag, just 3.6 centimetres (1.4 inches) in diameter, on which was scratched in handwriting the man’s name and details.303 It tells us he was assigned to the legion’s First Cohort and in Varus’ employ.

  Raetia eventually became a province in the imperial system under an equestrian praefectus.304 Located 150 kilometres north of Döttenbichl, Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) was founded as the market town of the province, among whose founding pioneers were, no doubt, men retiring from the legions who had just subjugated the territory for Rome. Thirty-three years later the geographer Strabo wrote in celebration of the people of Raetia for consistently paying their taxes and for their gold mines, which were securely under Roman control.305 Raeticum, a wine made from grapes grown on the foothills of the Alps near Verona, was known to be superior to that produced in several Italian areas and was Augustus’ favourite tipple.306 Recognising the importance of its strategic location, Augustus transferred money from his own funds to the state treasury (aerarium) for the specific purpose of refurbishing roads, building new bridges and erecting milestones throughout the region of the Alps – all the better to expedite the movement of troops, merchants, census takers and tax collectors.307

  For the moment there was time to savour the victory. In September or October of that year, Drusus returned to Lugdunum where Antonia and her child were waiting to welcome him. The previous year, on 24 May, she had given birth to a son named Nero Claudius Drusus (Stemma Drusorum no. 13).308 Also there to welcome him were Augustus and Livia. Amidst the joy of the family reunion, the princeps had some important news for his youngest stepson. There had been a change of plan. Drusus would not be going back to Rome any time soon. His brother Tiberius would be returning to the city to continue with his political career. Drusus the Elder would now be taking over from his brother as the princeps’ legatus Augusti pro praetore of the Tres Galliae.

  Chapter 3

  Drusus the Builder

  14–13 BCE

  A Provincial Life

  When he arrived in late 15 BCE to assume the governorship, Drusus found himself in charge of a region undergoing transformation – economic, political, social and military. C. Iulius Caesar had famously observed “all Gallia is divided into three parts”.1Despite four decades of Roman occupation Caesar would have still recognised the region Drusus now governed. To the west of Roman Provincia on the Mediterranean coast approximately encompassed by the Garonne River (Garumna) to the north and the Pyrennees to the south, was Aquitania, which was home to the Tarbelli nation. In the far north running the length of the English Channel as far as the Rhine River and bordered by the Marne River (Matrona) to the south was Belgica, so named because of the community of Belgae nations comprising the Ambiani, Remi and Tungri that inhabited it. The largest region occupying the central plain, and extending to the Atlantic Sea in the west and the Rhine River as far as its source in the Alps, was variously called Celtica or Gallia Comata – a title meaning ‘Long Haired Gaul’, and no doubt coined by some witty Roman soldier with his short back and sides on encountering his Gallic opponents for the first time. It encompassed the great tribes of the Aedui, Aremorica, Arverni, Pictones, Sequani, Teveri and Veneti. Celtica dwarfed its neighbours and it may have been on this most recent trip that Augustus saw an opportunity to reorganize the provincial borders encompassing the sixty-four Gallic tribes.2Under the reorganisation he reassigned tribes from Gallia Comata to its neighbours so that it became roughly equal in size with them, and renamed it the new province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Its southern border henceforth roughly followed the course of the Loire River (Liger) while its northern traced the Seine River (Sequana). Aquitania and Belgica were similarly enlarged. Together these administrative entities became known collectively as the Tres Provinciae Galliae – the Three Gallic Provinces.3Under the same reorganisation Provincia was expanded by annexing land from Celtica and renamed Narbonensis but unlike the Tres Galliae Narbonensis was a province governed by a proconsul appointed by the Senate.4Iulius Caesar had established coloniae at Arelate (Arles), Baeterrae (Béziers), Forum Iulii (Fréjus) and Narbo (Narbonne).5In these cities veterans set up new businesses as bar owners, craftsmen or shopkeepers. Retired soldiers were granted pockets of land to farm as part of their honorable discharge (honesta missio), which would have had to have been confiscated from native farmers. The aboriginal communities in the region were considered to be lesser Latin settlements but the leading members of those societies, and quite possibly their free-born retinues, became Roman citizens. The cities flourished. By the time of Augustus’ visit, these cities and towns were already approaching the sophistication of those in the eastern provinces and provided a benchmark of what could be achieved across the region.

  The character of the provinces of Tres Galliae was markedly different from Narbonensis. The process of assimilation of native communities through urbanization, observance of Roman law and religious practice, taxation of income and wealth – what modern historians call ‘Romanisation’ – had begun much later and the investments made much less. The native people seem to have been left to largely remain in, or live close to, their traditional oppida. The strategy pursued under Caesar seems to have been formulated with military defence in mind rather than with an intention of developing the area into a Roman economic territory.6Caesar established just three coloniae in Gallia Comata at Iulia Equistris (Nyon), Lugdunum (Lyons) and Raurica (Augst) each strategically located at the most likely invasion routes into Provincia and Italia (Gallia Cisalpina, Gallia Transalpina) from the Rhine. With Augustus, that strategy changed. He saw the economic and political potential of Tres Galliae and was keen to expedite the process of Romanisation there. Drusus’ role was to continue and expand that great civilising project.

  The View from the Governor’s Palace

  Drusus, Antonia and young Nero Claudius Drusus and their household slaves now took up residence at the praetorium in Lugdunum. Augustus and Livia were already installed there when they arrived. The building has been identified and excavated in modern Lyon.7It stood on the highest point of the granite acropolis of Fourvière formed by the confluence of the rivers Rhône (Rhodanus) and Saône (Arar) and over which it had spectacular views bathed in the rays of the rising sun each morning (plate 20). It was a palatial building measuring 37 metres (121.4 feet) by 61 metres (200.1 feet) with a symmetrically axial ground plan reminiscent of military praetoria.8It included two internal partially covered atria with peristyles, and featured mosaic floors and baths, hinting at the highly cultured sensibilities of its architect, M. Vipsanius Agrippa, when he commissioned the building as governor.9It was certainly a home away from home for the imperial family.

  The city itself had been founded as a colonia in 43 BCE by one of Iulius Caesar’s legates, L. Munatius Plancus. He was in fact appointed Gaul’s first governor and chose the location for his capital.10The city initially took the grand name of Colonia Copia Felix Munatia Lugdunum, which stressed its good fortune and abundance – and its founder’s family. Laid out in the grid-iron street plan so beloved of Roman surveyors (map 4), it boasted a forum measuring 140 metres (459.3 feet) by 61 metres (200.1 feet) – as large as the one at Alésia and Augusta Raurica (a city also founded by Plancus)
– which dates to Augustus’ time. It may have been Augustus who commissioned the building of a theatre directly in front of the praetorium. Modest in scale, nevertheless no expense was spared on its construction and the stone was towed upriver from Glanum 250 kilometres (155.3 miles) away.11The first four rows, which were wide and shallow, were sufficient to place the chairs of 200 very important guests in comfort. The curtain slot of the scaena frons was discovered during excavations, which has enabled archaeologists to reconstruct its operation precisely. At the start of a performance, the curtain supported by fifteen uprights dropped into shafts by means of counterweights, while another set of counterweights wound the fabric around drums located in the base of the slot. The curtain was unwound and raised at the end of the show.12It provided a venue for showcasing Greek and Roman dramas, comic and tragic, to the élites of the newly Romanising population.

  As legatus Augusti pro praetore, Drusus had several explicit duties to perform. Firstly, the local Gallic aristocracies were to be encouraged to build self-sustaining urban communities.13Secondly, the security of the region should be ensured and paid for by taxes on the local population enjoying Roman protection. Third and lastly, the interests of resident Roman citizens were to be promoted and supported in the provinces. The word provincia originally meant ‘appointment’ or ‘task’ and outside of Rome it was applied to the ‘sphere of action’ of magistrates.14As Augustus’ handpicked delegate Drusus was empowered with the princeps’ personal legal authority (imperium) to make decisions and carry them out in his name but within the law. His job was made easier – or arguably more difficult – by the fact that Augustus was still in the region. Though also visiting the Iberian territories, Augustus’ reason for remaining in the Tres Galliae while Drusus was his appointed legate is not clear. Perhaps Augustus felt he needed to play a higher-profile rôle in governing, overseeing his clients in the western provinces in the manner of a patronus; or perhaps he felt he could mentor Drusus and impart his experience and insights to the young man who showed promise; or perhaps he was already engrossed in the details of developing a campaign plan for Germania Magna, a task he faced having to do alone since he did not have easy access to Agrippa. What is clear is that he decided to stay for the next 18 months.

  There is no record of Drusus’ first hundred days in office. Nevertheless we know of several important programmes that were under way by the time he arrived or were initiated under his governorship. One of these was the completion of the conquest of the Alps. Remarkably, one small corner still held out against the Romans. This was a small mountainous tract of land below Alpes Cottiae that ran down to the shores of the Mediterranean, located on the eastern side of Narbonensis and on the western side of Italia. Resisting Roman arms was the indomitable nation of Comati, ‘the long haired’, which was a tribe of the Ligures.15They could not be permitted to remain independent under the new regional order imposed by Rome. Nothing is recorded of the ensuing military campaign, nor who led it. It could conceivably have been Drusus as he had command of the largest military force in the area, and Tiberius had already returned to Rome, but all that can be said with certainty is that by the end of 14 BCE these hard workers and tough fighters had been “reduced to slavery”.16Rather than waste their proven combat skills the Romans founded two auxiliary cohorts of Ligurians and promptly deployed them away from their homeland.17The entire sweep of mountains of the Alpine range were now under Roman control. Three new provinces were created – Alpes Cottiae (capital Segusio), Alpes Graiae (capital Segusio) and Alpes Maritimae (capital Cemelenum). They were not part of the Tres Galliae but their boundaries with his own jurisdiction meant Drusus would nevertheless have watched them with interest.

  The presence of so many high status Romans in Tres Galliae was a clear indication of the importance Augustus ascribed to the region in the internal policy of the empire. A dramatic manifestation of this was the opening of a mint (moneta) in Lugdunum. It is believed to have been operational from 15 BCE and was striking gold and silver coins from the outset.18It quickly became the only location in the West to produce the aureus or ‘golden denarius’ and Augustus may have actually intended the mint in Tres Galliae to stop the Senate from meddling in the production of high value coins.19Yet it also produced the small change in copper (aes) and bright yellow brass (orichalcum) that facilitated the burgeoning markets in traded goods across the region.20Every coin was made by hand by placing a flan of metal in a two-part die, and striking it with a hammer. It was a slow and labour-intensive process. Significantly, the mint was located between the mines in the Iberian Peninsula and Gaul, which produced the precious metals, and the troops stationed there and across Tres Galliae, Raetia and Noricum who needed regular payment.21Since coins had to be physically transported to the army in its winter camps three times a year, the location of the mint at Lugdunum solved the logistical challenges of safely moving great quantities of gold and silver pieces from Rome by taking the centre of production closer to the points of distribution. Ensuring the mint was secure and the die were kept striking was now Drusus’ responsibility.

  Developing an Urban Society

  The process of bringing the Gallic élite into a cohesive urban-based society ruled by Roman laws – what we nowadays call ‘nation building’ – was underway but only gained real momentum under Augustus. Beyond Lugdunum, Agrippa, or one of his deputies, had founded the marketplaces of the Terevri at Treverorum (Trier) and the Ubii at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne).22Augustus actively fostered the development of these and other new urban communities in the three provinces through direct patronage.23But buildings alone did not make Roman civilisation: hearts and minds had to be won too.24Each of the sixty Gallic nations had been formed into self-governing communities or civitates which occupied the geographical territories of the pre-conquest era tribes.25In its most developed form, such a community government was a miniature version of the system in Rome with minor magistracies, such as quaestors and aediles, supervised by two senior magistrates (duoviri) who ran the administration and the courts, and advised by a town council or senate (ordo).26The ordo was made up of local worthies (honesti) whose membership of the body was qualified by wealth and property limits since they were expected to pay for certain expenses out of their own purses as a responsibilty of holding office.27In some communities, the traditional Gallic magistracies continued, such as the vergobret among the Lexovii and Santones, a position which may have been the equivalent of a Roman praetor.28

  Augustus adopted a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to driving regional economic and political development.29He actively promoted certain regional capitals, lavishing largesse on them, awarded them privileges and Roman citizenships and even lent them the prestige of his own name, such as the marketplace of the Aedui at Augustodunum Aedorum (Autun), the Raurici at Augusta Raurica (Augst) and the Treveri at Augusta Treverorum (Trier). Others singled out for recognition included Augustomagus (Senlis), Augustonemetum (Clermont-Ferrand), Augustobona (Troyes) and Augustoritum (Limoges).30These centres were means to encouraging adoption of the Roman way among the élites of the indigenous peoples through civic rivalry and competition for prestige and the attention of the imperial family.31After all, competition among Rome’s élites had never done it any harm. By Drusus’ time the old Gallic aristocracies who had fought Iulius Caesar were very old men or long dead and their sons were now the new leaders of their communities. Many enjoyed hereditary positions and wealth or power by mediating between the Roman authorities and the mass of tribal commoners.32Writing of the Gauls’ British cousins some forty years after the conquest of their island Tacitus noted how quickly they had adopted the Latin language and were keen to wear the toga.33They were oblivious, he said, to the fact that they had succumbed to the comforts of the bath and dining room, which they called ‘culture’ (humanitas), whereas in reality “it was but a part of their servitude”.34It was this life of ease that Tacitus also blamed for the Gallic people becoming passive.35But this was surely the point? In build
ing a commonwealth of nations, Augustus had to create a complaisant population. Tacitus’s observations of the behaviour of the Gauls in the first century CE was a measure of how successfully the princeps and his governors, including Drusus, had implemented the policy.

  The provinces Drusus inherited from his brother were works-in-progress. Beyond the colonia of Lugdunum and the civitates of Augustodunum Aedorum, Augusta Raurica and Augusta Treverorum, urban development was patchy. Many of the towns laid out by the Roman army’s surveyors (mensores, agrimensores, gromatici), such as at Andemantunnum (Langeres), Bagacum (Bavai), Burdigala (Bordeaux), Divodurum (Metz), Lutetia (Paris), Mediolanum Santonum (Saintes) and Samarobriva (Amiens), were sparsely populated and had the atmosphere of Wild West frontier towns of nineteenth century America with a few wooden buildings, mostly comprising the premises of tradesmen along the main roads, but whole neighbouring blocks (insulae) eerily empty of any property.36There was a large element of ‘build it and they will come’ in establishing new Roman provinces.

  Drusus even left his imprint on some of these towns in a surprisingly direct way. Surveyors of the Tres Galliae began to use a new measurement: the pes Drusianus – the ‘Drusus foot’.37This curious fact is recorded in Hyginus Gromaticus’ treatise which taught surveyors living in the first century CE the technical skills required to measure boundaries of land lots by using boundary markers in Roman and foreign units of measurement. In it he remarks that the pes Drusianus was used “in Germania among the Tungri” as the preferred unit for measuring length.38He defined it as a standard Roman foot (pes Monetalis) plus a sescunciam, an additional one-and-a-half inches.39Depending on the definition of the pes Monetalis, modern scholars estimate the length of the pes Drusianus at between 326.5–338.9 millimetres (13.25–13.75 inches).40Why the need for a new measure? Hyginus does not record the reason, but it seems unlikely that it was actually based on Drusus’ own foot.41The street grid of Samarobriva was apparently laid out using the new measure of length.42In Tres Galliae, Drusus truly left his mark.