Scholars have for years debated the actual location of the canal but the whereabouts of the structure continues to elude them.151A long held theory is the River IJssel was the course of the Drusus Canal. Recently found inscriptions (one is a dedication of the praefectus of Cohors I civium Romanorum equitata, the other is a tombstone of M. Manlius, a legionary of Legio I) identify structures called moles at Carvium, modern day Herwen, a small town near Arnhem, where remains of a Roman fort have been found at Meinerswijk.152The most recent geological survey to date the Gelderse IJsell, however, concluded it was several hundred years later than the first century BCE Roman structure and so it could not be the route of the Drusus Canal.153An alternative theory advances that a channel was dug between the Oude Rijn and Vecht – using moles to redirect the flow of the Rhine – providing a direct passage into the Zuiderzee, while the installation was guarded by the garrison at the nearby fort at Vechten, which is presumed to be the location of Fectio.154Adding complexity to the debate, Suetonius’ account infers there was more than one canal since he uses the plural form of the Latin word, fossae.155Based on this reading a recently articulated theory postulates that a second canal was dug at the northwestern shore of Lacus Flevo to provide an opening (ostium) directly into the Wadden Sea at Vlie, and thus allow shipping to avoid the treacherous North Sea en route to Germania. Evidence suggests that Lacus Flevo was originally landlocked and the open end of the lake did not exist until 1163, when the sea broke through and changed freshwater Lake Flevo into briney Zuiderzee.156The landscape of the The Netherlands may have changed just too much in the last two millennia to make possible a certain identification of the location of the fossa Drusiana (or fossae Drusianae) and reveal how its structures worked. Until better evidence is found, the Drusus Canal – or system of canals – remains an enigma. What can be said with certainty is that it was considered important enough in Roman times to be maintained as late as the third century CE when the nearby fort at Fectio is known from inscriptions to have still been in service as a naval base.157Traces of a fort have been found by archaeologists sited right next to the course of the old River Vecht.158Great rafts of timbers held together with a frame of planking around the edges to form a solid wall were uncovered which have been interpreted as a landing stage. However, this is one of several possible interpretations.159
One thing is for certain, however: the backbreaking work of digging the canal fell to the regular legionaries of the Rhine army. Digging was part of everyday routine for a legionary. He knew that at the end of every route march a ditch, rampart and palisade had to be constructed before he could kip down for the night sub papilio. The ever-flexible legionary was part soldier, part engineer and part construction worker able to turn his hand to most building projects. Equipped with the iron dolabra (a versatile axe with a flat wedge-shaped blade on one side and a narrower blade or spike on the other), the ligo (a spade-like entrenching tool), a corbis (a basket of willow, reed or split oak), a saw and a length of rope or leather thong or chain, the legionary had all the tools he needed to cut the Batavian sod, remove the earth beneath and erect any wooden structures the praefectus castrorum might require.160Marius’ mules had become Drusus’ navvies.
In the two years since his appointment as governor, Drusus had applied himself with enthusiasm to the many tasks that came with the position. The three Gallic provinces were at peace, many of their cities and townships were developing into viable communities and the preparations for the invasion of Germania were well under way. His time in Tres Galliae was not all business, however. His family was growing – some time in 13 BCE Antonia delivered her next child, this time a daughter named Claudia Livia Iulia (Stemma Drusorum no. 14), better known as Livilla, ‘little Livia’.161In the official residence at Lugdunum, Drusus, Augustus and their wives had time for leisure. The contents of a letter from Augustus to Tiberius survives that preserves a cameo moment of the First Family at play during the Quinquatria, the five day festival of Minerva held 20–25 March:
We had, my dear Tiberius, a pleasant time of it during the festival of Minerva: for we played [the tali] every day, and kept the gaming board warm. Your brother uttered many exclamations at a desperate run of ill-fortune; but recovering by degrees, and unexpectedly, he in the end lost not much. I lost 20,000 sesterces for my part; but then I was profusely generous in my play, as I commonly am.162
It is a rare and fascinating glimpse into the young man’s character. He plays with passion and takes bold gambles, but when faced with losing the game outright he applies himself with perseverance to claw back his losses, and all in good humour. These are traits of a confident and mature individual. In Drusus, Augustus had found his “safe commander”.163After three years away, Augustus was finally satisfied that the Tres Galliae were in good hands and that his commander of the Rhine army was capable of carrying out the mission. Early in 13 BCE he departed for Rome. There fecund River Tiber had overflowed its banks and flooded parts of the city and Tiberius – who had now had a son whom he named after his brother (better known to history as Drusus the Younger or Drusus Minor, Stemma Drusorum no. 16) – had been elected consul with P. Quinctilius Varus.164
Chapter 4
Drusus the Explorer
12 BCE
A Conspiracy Exposed
Drusus was now governing Tres Galliae without Augustus looking over his shoulder. From his base at the Praetorium in Lugdunum the three provinces seemed to be at peace – but appearances were deceptive. The seeming calm belied in some segments of the population a deep current of resentment for wounds inflicted during Caesar’s campaigns in the 50s BCE and the continuing Roman occupation. In some proud Gallic aristocrats the wound had not healed and it would still twinge now and then. Yet each time they had risen in revolt, the Romans had quashed them.1Perhaps the rate of progress may have been too fast for some tribal aristocracies?2For them the census which was now under way may have been one intrusion too many.3With Augustus back in Rome leaving as his deputy a young man only 26-years old, and the legions now deployed along the Rhine, some Gallic tribal leaders saw an opportunity to assert their independence and foment rebellion.4
It was not long, however, before Drusus uncovered the plot. How he came to find out about it is not recorded, but as the governor of the Tres Galliae, Drusus had a sizeable official staff (officium), which included military messengers, clerks and specialists.5In charge was a senior centurion (princeps praetorii) to whom reported two or three cornicularii or office managers who were themselves recruited from the centurionate. He would have as many as sixty beneficiarii so-named because they had been given a special mission considered a benefit by a tribune or prefect.6They were often located at road stations (mansiones) and staging posts (mutationes) at regular points along the highway network to oversee collection of taxes and control road traffic.7One of these has been studied at Liberchies, Belgium (Geminiacum) and another at Billig, Germany.8The more senior staff might have assistants (adiutores).9To carry out the work of the administration there were accountants (librarii) and clerks responsible for documentation (exacti).10Commentarienses were associated with offices having legal duties and were largely non-military. Among the specialists, the frumentarii were responsible for administering the military grain supply (frumentum), and, on account of their need to travel to ensure the supply routes, may have doubled as a courier service – a role that would later see them become an imperial secret service.11Speculatores were escorts or bodyguards and scouts.12Quaestionarii were skilled at the grim techniques for extracting information under torture.13In each of Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica and Gallia Lugdunensis, Drusus’ legates in turn had their own officia though on a smaller scale.14Additionally guarding the imperial mint in Lugdunum was the 1,000-strong paramilitary Cohors Urbanus, which acted as a police force. Augustus had established the force only the previous year in Rome, with another possibly in Carthage.15Combined these organisations provided Drusus with an extensive intelligence gathering operation across th
e region.
As with all good police work, they would need members of the public to come forward with information. There were likely to have been Gauls who had been approached by the conspirators and who, on account of their pro-Roman inclination or sense of loyalty to Drusus, had felt obliged to relay the information to the governor’s staff. In Gallo-Roman society, which was built on granting favours and fulfilling obligations, demonstrating loyalty (fides) to one’s patron (patronus) could advance an ambitious man’s cause. Receiving the information Drusus acted quickly. Dio writes,
Drusus therefore seized the subject territory ahead of them, sending for the foremost men in it on the pretext of the festival, which they celebrate even now around the altar of Augustus at Lugdunum.16
The inference is that the festival – probably that of Lughnasa – was a regular event, but it is likely that the work on building the new sanctuary was not yet complete in 12 BCE.17Drusus may have called the meeting on the pretence of discussing progress at the sacred site, or possibly to use the occasion to formally break ground, both of which would have merited the attendance of the Gallic chiefs. The request from Drusus was a clever ruse to expose the conspirators. To turn down the personal invitation of the legatus augusti pro praetore would be a serious lapse of etiquette and raise suspicions. Any chiefs that did not attend the meeting could be inferred to be worth interviewing as possibly being directly implicated in the plot or at least to be sympathitic to the cause. In any case, as a precaution, he sent in troops to the tribal areas under suspicion to secure them. There is some evidence that martial law was enforced in some areas of Tres Galliae under local commissioners (praefecti).18
Meanwhile, across the Rhine, Maelo, warlord of the Sugambri nation, also saw a chance to make life difficult for his young Roman adversary since “the Sugambri and their allies had resorted to war, owing to the absence of Augustus and the fact that Gauls were restive under their slavery”.19Whether the Germanic tribes were working in consort with the Gauls is not known, but it cannot be entirely ruled out. Shrewdly Drusus’ strategy was to let the Sugambri, Tencteri and Usipetes make the first move. Soon enough the news arrived. “He waited for the Germans to cross the Rhine,” says Dio, “and then repulsed them”.20With troops stationed along the length of the lower Rhine, news of a crossing could be quickly relayed by road and a force rallied where it was needed to intercept the invader. The course of the counter attack is also recorded:
Next he crossed over to the country of the Usipetes, passing along the very island of the Batavians, and from there marched along the river to the Sugambri territory, where he devastated much country.21
When faced with a direct attack, the usual response of the Sugambri was to retreat into the protective cover of the forests.22The sacrifice was costly. Having abandoned their homes and farms, the Romans razed them to the ground at will.
With the Germans of the Rhineland neutralized, Drusus could now give the order for the main advance. The Bellum Germanicum had begun in earnest.
Amphibious Military Assault
The campaign season for the Romans typically ran from spring to late summer, which gave them a window of six months of fine weather before returning to their winter camps. Some time in April or May 12 BCE, the expeditionary force set off on its mission (map 6). The chosen point of embarkation was Batavodurum. Twenty-seven years later, Roman forces would assemble at this same point. Tacitus writes that,
the island of the Batavi was the appointed rendezvous because of its easy landing-places, and its convenience for receiving the army and carrying the war across the river. For the Rhine after flowing continuously in a single channel or encircling merely insignificant islands, divides itself, so to say, where the Batavian territory begins, into two rivers, retaining its name and the rapidity of its course in the stream which washes Germania, till it mingles with the ocean. On the Gallic bank, its flow is broader and gentler; it is called by an altered name, the Vahalis, by the inhabitants of its shore. Soon that name too is changed for the Mosa River, through whose vast mouth it empties itself into the same ocean.23
There is no evidence of a bridge across the Waal River at this time. To ferry men of the Roman army across to their destination, the newly constructed fleet would now be pressed into action.
The choice of an invasion of the western shore of Germania Magna for the first phase of operations called for the construction of a large fleet to move the men and matériel as close as possible to the theatre of war. “By embarking on the sea,” writes Tacitus,
invasion would be easy for them, and a surprise to the enemy, while a campaign too would be more quickly begun, the legions and supplies would be brought up simultaneously and the cavalry with their horses would arrive, in good condition by the river-mouths and channel at the heart of Germania.24
Much as the Romans did not like naval warfare as their preferred mode of combat, they nevertheless were competent sailors and marines and had used ships to great effect when they needed to throughout their history. They also recognised the need for different configurations of vessels depending on their cargoes. No description of Drusus’ navy survives, however, there is an account in Tacitus’ Annales of the kinds of ships constructed for the German campaign of 15 CE that departed from Batavodurum:
It seemed a thousand vessels were required, and they were speedily constructed some of small draught with a narrow stem and stern and a broad centre, that they might bear the waves more easily; some flat-bottomed, that they might ground without being injured; several, furnished with a rudder at each end, so that by a sudden shifting of the oars they might be run into shore either way. Many were covered in with decks, on which engines for missiles might be conveyed, and were also fit for the carrying of horses or supplies, and being equipped with sails as well as rapidly moved by oars, they assumed, through the enthusiasm of our soldiers, an imposing and formidable aspect.25
Additionally, surviving on Trajan’s Column in Rome is a visual depiction of a Roman invasion fleet being loaded, at sail and being unloaded (plate 21). Several scenes show the types of vessels deployed during the First and Second Dacian Wars (101–102 CE and 105–106 CE respectively) carrying men, animals and equipment along the Danube River (Danuvius), which closely resemble Tacitus’ description.26
There is the small cargo ship with its high bulwarks and wide bow, providing storage space for folded and bound leather tents or lashed barrels. This vessel is steered by two lateral steering-oars. The helmsman (gubernator) sits on a platform elevated high, protected by a railing, so that he has a clear view above the heads of the oarsmen (remeces), of whom there was just one row on each side. In this craft, the oars rest on the top of the bulwarks. It was this type of ship that was used to build a pontoon bridge, by anchoring several side by side from one river bank to the other and laying planks over the sides to form a roadway, and railings along the length on both sides.27
The transporter for horses and mules, a “tubby barge” or “pig” as it has been called, has different design features.28To create sufficient room for the animals and their handlers there is no bank of oars. Powering and steering the ship is achieved by the rowers each using their oars in tandem in the manner of Venetian gondola boatmen today. The bow of the ship is flatter and inclined downwards so that the ship can be manoeuvred on to a riverbank or beach. The animals are loaded onto the ship and disembarked from the front. The boat may have been large enough to carry one turma of 30 horses. Remains of a flat-bottomed, keel-less, iron-fastened ship made of oak were found at Blackfriars, London in 1962.29It was 17 metres (55 feet) long and instead of a keel had two planks running the full 11 metres (37 feet) of the hull, and a beam of 6 metres (20 feet). As a waterproof filler and sealant, the seams of the planks were caulked using a paste made of wood shavings and pitch.30It was capable of carrying up to 100 tons of cargo.
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