Eager for Glory

by Philip Lindsay Powell

  12 For a discussion of childhood in Roman times, see J.P.V.D. Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome, London, 1969, pp. 91–92.

  13 Cicero, Ad Familiares (P. Silius Nerva in Bithynia) 13.64.

  14 Cicero, Ad Atticum 7.3; Ad Familiares (P. Silius Nerva in Bithynia) 13.64.

  15 Cicero, Ad Atticum 6.6.

  16 Caesar, Bellum Alexandrinum 25; Dio 42.40.

  17 Tacitus, Annales 5.1; Suetonius, Tiberius 4.3; Velleius 2.77.3.

  18 Suetonius, Tiberius 6.4.

  19 Suetonius, Tiberius 6.4.

  20 C.J. Simpson, “The Change in Praenomen of Drusus Germanicus”, Phoenix 42.2, 1988, pp. 173–175.

  21 Suetonius, Tiberius 1.2.

  22 Suetonius, Tiberius 1.2.

  23 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 72.1; for a full discussion of the acquisition of the property see Barrett 2002, Appendix 15.

  24 Dio 49.15.5; Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.3; Velleius Paterculus 2.81.3.

  25 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 73.

  26 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 72.1.

  27 Suetonius, Tiberius 1.1; Tacitus, Annales 11.23.

  28 Suetonius, Tiberius 1.2.

  29 Suetonius, Tiberius 2.1.

  30 Livy 11.29.

  31 Diodorus Siculus 23.3.

  32 Suetonius, Tiberius 1.1.

  33 Livy 27.41–51.

  34 Recreating family trees of ancient families poses several problems: see E.J. Weinrib, “The Family Connections of M. Livius Drusus Libo”, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 72, 1968, pp. 247–278.

  35 Suetonius, Tiberius 3.2.

  36 Harriett I. Flower, Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture, Oxford, 1996, pp. 7–8 and pp. 38–46 citing Polybius 6.53.4 and Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 35.6.

  37 Flower (1996, p. 2) notes that the imago was made while the man was alive, based on S.C. de Cn. Pisone patre. For a discussion of funeral rites in Roman times, see Balsdon, 1969, pp. 126–129.

  38 C.J. Bannon, The Brothers of Romulus: Fraternal Pietas in Roman Law, Literature and Society, Princeton, 1997, pp. 138–148.

  39 See Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph, Harvard, 2007, pp. 14–18.

  40 See Voins, C 81; BMCRE 401 var. (PARENT); RIC 98; CB 1199.

  41 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 33.111–2.

  42 Suetonius, Tiberius 6.4; the sculpture is cited by Beard, 2007, p. 224.

  43 Vergil, Aeneid 8.722–8, in translation by John Dryden.

  44 Dio 53.11.4–5, 53.13.1–2, 53.17.1.

  45 Dio 53.16.8, 53.18.2.

  46 Suetonius, Tiberius 9.1.

  47 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 34.3–4.

  48 Dio 50.30.2; Velleius Paterculus 2.93.2.

  49 Dio 53.27.5.

  50 Dio 53.30.3.

  51 Two elaborate examples are shown in the Pompeii AD 79 exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, 1977, item 48.

  52 Balsdon 1969, p. 120.

  53 Dio 53.28.3.

  54 Dio 53.31.3.

  55 Dio 53.30.5; Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.4.

  56 Dio 53.33.4.

  57 Dio 53.30.4–6.

  58 Aelius Donatus, Vita Vergiliana 32, citing Vergil, Aeneid 6.884.

  59 Dio 54.6.5.

  60 The citizens of Athenae (Athens), Tenos (the Cycladic island of Tinos) and Pergamon (western Turkey) erected statues and inscriptions in his name: see note 70.

  61 Meyer Reinold, “Marcus Agrippa’s Son-in-Law P. Quinctilius Varus” in Classical Philology, Volume 67.2 (1972), pp. 119-121. Seager 1972, pp. 17–18.

  62 Barrett 2002, p. 38.

  63 Aelius Donatus, Vita Vergiliana 35.

  64 For this interpretation of the phrase ‘praetorian ornaments’ see Valerie Maxfield, The Military Decorations of the Roman Army, London, 1981, p. 153.

  65 Dio 54.10.4.

  66 Dio 54.26; the number was reduced to twenty (vigintiviri) while Augustus was away from Rome between 16–13 BCE.

  67 Suetonius, Tiberius 8.

  68 Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 7.31.

  69 Suetonius, Claudius 1.2; Nikos Kokkinos, Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady, London, 1992, p. 11.

  70 An inscription in the Berlin-Brandeburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften attests to the presence of Varus in Pergamon. It was presumably erected for an act of generosity on his part to the citizens: http://www.lwl.org/varus-download/presse_imperium/Presseinformation_I_eng.pdf

  71 Suetonius, Tiberius 8.

  72 Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 7.31.

  73 Velleius Paterculus 2.97.2–3; he writes in effusive, even sycophantic, terms about Tiberius thoughout Book 2.

  74 Dio 50.26; Plutarch, Antonios 31; Kokkinos 1992, p. 11.

  75 Plutarch, Antonios 87.3; Valerius Maximus 4.3.3; see also Karin Goethert-Polaschek, Studien zur Ikonographie der Antonia Minor, Studia archaeologica, 15, L’erma di Bretschneider, Rome, 1973; Kokkinos 2002, p. 28.

  76 Kokkinos 2002, p. 11 suggests 19 or 18 BCE.

  77 Kokkinos 2002, p. 11.

  78 Carcopino 1940, p. 81.

  79 Kokkinos 2002, p. 11.

  80 Balsdon 1969, p. 66; Paoli 1963, p. 116.

  81 Kokkinos 2002, p. 11, citing Krinagoras, Anthology 6.345; cf 9.239.

  82 Carcopino 1940, pp. 81–82; Paoli 1963, pp. 116–117.

  83 Carcopino 1940, pp. 81–82; Paoli 1963, pp. 116–117.

  84 Carcopino 1940, pp. 81–82; Paoli 1963, pp. 116–117.

  85 Kokkinos 2002, p. 11, citing Krinagoras, Anthology 6.244.

  Chapter 2: Drusus the Soldier

  1 Velleius Paterculus 2.97.1.

  2 Florus 2.30.24.

  3 Florus 4.24–25.

  4 Strabo 7.1.4.

  5 Strabo 7.1.4; Augustus, Res Gestae 6.32.

  6 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.4, 4.7.

  7 Dio 54.20; Velleius Paterculus 2.92.1.

  8 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 23.1.

  9 Dio 54.20.6.

  10 Dio 54.20.6.

  11 Earlier in the year Augustus had adopted Agrippa’s sons Caius (then three years old) and Lucius (just months old) and, quite likely, they suggested he should devote time to them in Rome.

  12 Dio 54.20.6.

  13 Dio 54.20.6.

  14 Dio 54.19.4–6; Richard C. Beacham, Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome, Yale, 1999, p. 13.

  15 Dio 54.19.5–6.

  16 Dio 54.2.4.

  17 Beacham 1999, pp. 114–115.

  18 Beacham 1999, pp. 115–117; the programme of events is preserved on an inscription, CIL 6.32323, found in 1890.

  19 Beacham 1999, p. 122; S. Shadrake, The World of the Gladiator, Stroud, 2005, pp. 106–7. Dio 54.19.5–6; Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.5; Suetonius, Caligula 18.1. Ludi were held in the Circus Maximus in 13 BCE during a spectacle in which “six hundred wild beasts from Africa” were hunted and slain to celebrate Augustus’ birthday and that of Iullus, Antonius’ son who was the presiding praetor; cf. Dio 54.26.1–2.

  20 Shadrake 2005, p. 101 and pp. 112–5.

  21 Enjoying the patronage and favour of M. Antonius, T. Statilius Taurus gradually came over to Octavianus’ side following the war against Sex. Pompeius, liberating Sicilia and Africa in the process for which he was awarded a triumph in 34 BCE, then the campaign in Illyricum. At Actium he finally switched sides and helped clinch victory for Octavianus. He was dispatched to deal with the Astures, Cantabri and Vaccaei whom he defeated in 29 BCE. In 26 BCE he was made consul with Augustus. Statilius Taurus was famous for erecting the first stone amphitheatre in Rome in 29 BCE.

  22 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 44.3–4.

  23 Beacham 1999, p. 115.

  24 For a detailed description of the different types of gladiators see Shadrake 2005, pp. 127–211.

  25 Estimates are based on known contests by Georges Ville cited by Shadrake 2005, p. 95.

  26 Agrippa was away in Syria and Maecenas had fallen out of favour: Dio 54.19.6.

  27 Barrett 2002, p. 39.

  28 Dio 54.18.6.

  29
A.R. Burn, Government of the Roman Empire, London, 1952, p. 12; cf. Tiberius who had been granted the praetorian insignia in 19 BCE at the age of 23, hence Drusus was a year younger than his brother when similarly honoured and had still seen no military service.

  30 Dio 54.19.7–8.

  31 His bodyguard was the Germani Corporis Custodes: see B. Rankov, The Praetorian Guard, London, 1994, pp. 11–12.

  32 Dio 54.25.4 notes Augustus’ preference for nighttime arrivals.

  33 Dio 54.25.1: he uses the plural form in Greek for each region.

  34 As many as eight legions and almost as many auxiliary cohorts were likely still stationed there. These were Legio I, Legio II Augusta, Legio IIII Macedonica, Legio V Alaudae (operated in Asturias), Legio VI Victrix (operated in Asturias), Legio VIIII Hispana (?), Legio X Gemina (operated in Asturias), Legio XX Valeria Victrix and speculatively Legio XIV Gemina and Legio XXI Rapax; supported by the auxiliary units Ala II Gallorum, Cohors II Gallorum, Ala II Thracum Victrix Civium Romanorum, Cohors IV Thracum Aequitata, Ala Parthorum, and Ala Augusta.

  35 In 102 BCE, the Cimbri and Teutones from Denmark and northern Germany raided as far as the Italian peninsula before they were defeated by Gaius Marius at Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) and Vercellae the following year. Lindsay Powell, “The Last Clash of the Cimbri and Romans: the Battle of Vercellae, 101 BC", in AW, 6.1 (2011), pp. 27–33.

  36 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 25.4.

  37 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 25.4.

  38 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.4; 6.35; the Germans used boats and rafts (navibus ratibusatque).

  39 Hugh Elton, Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Bloomington, 1996, p. 4. Elton argues persuasively that the border of the Roman empire was an interlocking set of zones – judicial, military and political – that formed fuzzy areas rather than clear lines.

  40 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.2–29.

  41 Suetonius, Tiberius 9.1. Lollius would later slander Tiberius when he was adjutant and guardian to Augustus’ son Gaius: Suetonius, Divus Augustus 12.2–3.

  42 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.20.136ff. records their names from an inscription on the Tropaeum Alpium (La Turbie); see note 234. 43.

  43 S.P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate, Berkeley, 1999, p. 89. For examples of ancient historians’ assessments see Dio 54.9.1 and Suetonius, Divus Augustus 21.2.

  44 J.A. North, “The Development of Roman Imperialism”, JRS 71, 1981, p. 1; W. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327–70 BC , Oxford, 1979, p. 9–10 and p. 163; Cicero, De Officiis 2.45.

  45 Harris 1979, p. 105; Cicero, De Officiis 1.36 and 1.38.

  46 Livy 1.24.4–9.

  47 Harris 1979, pp. 166–175.

  48 Livy 1.32.13.

  49 Livy 1.32.13–14.

  50 C.M. Wells, The German Policy of Augustus: An Examination of the Archaeological Evidence, Oxford, 1972, p. 246; R. Wolters, Römische Eroberung und Herrschaftsorganisation in Gallien und Germanien, 1990, pp. 134–228.

  51 Vergil, Aeneid 1.278–283, translated by John Dryden: “His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono; / imperium sine fine dedi. Quin aspera Iuno, / quae mare nunc terrasque metu caelumque fatigat, / consilia in melius referet, mecumque fovebit / Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam: / sic placitum”.

  52 Florus 4.30.22: “Sed quatenus sciebat patrem suum C. Caesarem bis transvectum ponte Rhenum quaesisse bellum, in illius honorem concupierant facere provinciam; et factum erat, si barbari tam vitia nostra quam imperia ferre potuisset”.

  53 Horace, Carmina 1.35.29ff.

  54 Illyricum stretched from the River Drilon (northern Albania) to Istria (Croatia) in the west and to the River Sava (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the north. It was the location of revolts throughout Augustus’ reign – as Octavianus he had himself campaigned there in 35–33 BCE.

  55 E.S. Gruen, “The Expansion of the Empire under Augustus,” in CAH, p. 169; Dio 54.20.1; Legio VIIII Hispana could have been part of the campaign as it may have been stationed in Aquileia or Siscia.

  56 Eutropius, 7.9.1.

  57 Gruen, CAH, p. 169; Dio 54.20.1; Strabo, 4.6.8.

  58 Augustan military strategy in the region: Rainer Wiegels, “Von der Niederlage des M. Lollius bis zur Niederlage des Varus: Die roemische Germanienpolitik in der Zeit des Augustus,” in Helmuth Schneider (ed.), Feindliche Nachbarn: Rom und die Germanen, Köln, 2008, pp. 54–60. Military installations in the Alps: Wells 1972, p. 247, states Zürich – with advanced watchtowers in the Walensee – was established before 20 BCE, while Basel, Oberwinterthur and Windisch (which became the fortress of Vindonissa after 9 CE) were founded between 20 BCE and 15 BCE. On the military significance of the Alps to the Romans: Gerold Walser, Studien sur Alpengeschichte in antiker Zeit, Stuttgart, 1994, pp. 9–43. Military presence of legions: recent surface finds of lead slingshot place Legiones III, X and XII in the vicinity of Tiefencastel by the Septimer Pass, Switzerland in the first century BCE; J. Rageth, JbSGU 86 (2003), pp. 247–248; JbSGU 86 (2003), pp. 247–248; JbSGU 88 (2005), pp. 302–311.

  59 On Raetic see J.P. Mallory, In Search of Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth, London, 1989, p. 89.

  60 Dio 54.22.2: the invocation of the supernatural seems designed to mark the behaviour of the Raeti out as particularly wicked and inhuman.

  61 J.F. Drinkwater, Roman Gaul, London, 1983, p. 122.

  62 Augustus, Res Gestae 1.3.

  63 See note 34.

  64 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 21.

  65 The movement and reconstitution of the legions after Actium in 31 BCE makes identifying which units took part in Augustan campaigns with any certainty very difficult: see Jona Lendering’s excellent series of summary histories of the Roman legions at http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/legions.htm. Legio XIV Gemina moved from Aquitania or northern Italy (formerly Gallia Transpadana), and from 9 CE settled in Mogontiacum, the winter camp it shared with Legio XVI Gallica. Legio XVI Gallica had been on the Rhine since 12 BCE, possibly transferred from Aquitania or Gallia Belgica, but that is speculative. Legio XXI Rapax, speculatively moved from Hispania to Raetia, where it may have been based at Dangstetten presumably after the Raetian War in 15 BCE and Legio XIX evacuated it when relocated to the Rhine. Legio XIII Gemina, stationed in Illyricum or northern Italy, went to Raetia and Noricum in 15 BCE, thence to Iulia Aemona (Emona-Ljubljana) in Pannonia (Slovenia), but the presence of soldiers at Nijmegen in Belgica is suggested by a graffito on a sherd and on an inscription on a helmet.

  66 Evidence for Roman army camps of this period is remarkably sparse. During his campaigns Caesar occupied the oppida of the native Gallic Celts, such as at Bibracte. There may have been a camp at Mediolanum Santonum (Saintes) where evidence of a base has been found at Aulnay-de-Saintonge dated to 21 CE and abandoned by 43, or at Arlaine on an axis linking Reims, Soissions and Amiens; or speculatively at Andemantunnum (Langres) among the Lingones at the crossroads to Gesoriacum (Boulogne) at the English Channel, or Oppidum Ubiorum on the Rhine. The extensive base of Legio VIII Augusta at Mirebeau near Dijon was founded much later in Flavian times. Several bridges were constructed in the process, which would have consumed considerable numbers of men and resources. See C. Goudineau, “Gaul,” in CAH, 1996, p. 490. On Langres, see Eberhard Sauer, “The Augustan coins from Bourbonne-les-Bains (Haute-Marne): A mathematical approach to dating a coin assemblage,” Revue Numismatique, 1999, vol. 6, issue 154, p. 154 and pp. 170–171.

  67 Ramsay MacMullen, Romanization in the Time of Augustus, Yale, 2000, p. 102.

  68 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 25.

  69 Dio 54.19.6.

  70 Wells 1972, p. 66, footnote 4, suggests one candidate could have been Calpurnius Piso who might, in the event, have led one of the legions.

  71 Velleius Paterculus 2.97.2: “cura deinde atque onus Germanici belli delegata, Druso Claudio”; Eutropius 7.9.3: “hoc tamen bellum per Drusum, privignum suum, administravit”.

  72 An unproven assertion by T. Mommsen, A History of Rome
under the Emperors, London, 1996, p. 106.

  73 Walser 1994, pp. 28–29. Raymond Chevalier, Roman Roads, London, 1976, pp. 135–137, map 28; Gruen, CAH, p. 169. Hunt 1998: in 1994 the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project began research to examine Alpine Roman Roads in the Grand-St-Bernard pass between Aosta, Italy and Martigny, Switzerland, bringing together years of research in the area, published in Alpine Archaeology, 2007.

  74 Livy 21.38 states that Penninus was the name of the god to whom the local people had erected a shrine on top of the mountain.

  75 Alpes Cottiae was a Roman client-kingdom of Ligurian royalty, one of three small independent states straddling the western Alps between modern France and Italy. Its name survives in the Cottian Alps. Plutarch, Marius 19 notes the Ligurians called themselves Ambrones, which means ‘people of the water’.

  76 Livy 21.38; Polybius 34.10; Vergil, Aeneid 10.15ff.

  77 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.11: in 58 BCE, Caesar picked this as “the shortest route to Further Gaul over the Alps” departing Ocelum “the westernmost village in Nearer Gaul” and reached the Vocontii on the west bank of the Rhone in six days.

  78 On the dynasty of Cottius see C. Letta, “La dinastia dei Cozii e la romanizzazione delle Alpi occidentali”, Athenaeum 54, 1976, pp. 37–76: King Donnus, or C. Iulius Donnus, was an opportunistic Ligurian who saw his way to longevity by siding with Iulius Caesar during his wars of conquest, whose reward for picking the right side led to his grant of Roman citizen. See D.C. Braund, Rome and the Friendly King: The Character of Client Kingship, Beckenham, 1984, p. 40 who cites an inscription, CIL 5.7232, carved for his freedman and freedwoman which preserves the fact of their former master’s name.

  79 Ammianus Marcellinus 15.10, 2; Chevalier 1976, p. 49 cites one of the so-called Vicarello goblets listing the crossing as “in Alpe Cottia”. Cottius may have charged users of the road a toll just as the Salassi did when travellers passed through their country at a rate of one drachma per head, most famously Decimus Brutus who was fleeing from Mutina in 43 BCE: Strabo 4.6.7.

  80 Chevalier 1976, p. 160.

  81 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 50, states that the princeps’ first personal seal for written correspondence was a sphinx, replaced by an intaglio of Alexander the Great, and lastly by his own profile engraved by Dioscurides, which was still used by his successors.