227 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 25.
228 Diodorus Siculus 5.29.4.
229 Diodorus Siculus 5.29.5.
230 Dio 54.22.3.
231 Wells 1972, p. 62, unequivocally proposes Drusus split his forces and used both passes.
232 Gruen, CAH, p. 170; W. Czysz et al., Römer in Bayern, Düsseldorf, 2005, pp. 528–532: the course of the later via Claudia Augusta opened in 50 CE tends to confirm the route: it connected Altinum (Altino) on the Adriatic coast and the broad valley of the Padus (River Po) to Tridentum, running northwards following the Athesis (Adige or Etsch River) up to Pons Drusi, the “bridge of Drusus” (modern Bolzano), continuing on towards Maia (near Meran), and crossing over the Reschen Pass. From the pass it descended through the valleys of the Inn River and the Lech, and over the Fern Pass to Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), with an extension to Summuntorum, a town on the Danube near Donauwörth.
233 The Romans did not build a road through the Brenner Pass until the second century CE: it went through the Pustertal, crossed the Brenner and descended from there to Veldidena (Wilten), where it crossed the Inn River and then the Zirler Berg towards Partenkirchen, finally arriving at Augusta Vindelicorum.
234 The Venostes are listed among the 46 Alpine nations conquered by the Romans on the Tropaeum Alpium (La Turbie), Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 3.133ff.
235 Chevalier 1976, p. 137. Pons Drusi is mentioned in the fourth century itinerary known as the Tabula Peutingeriana or Peutinger Table.
236 Approximately 240 kilometres; a Roman milia equates to 1,478 metres.
237 Polybius 34.10.
238 For the hazard posed to transport by narrow passes, see Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.6.
239 P. Erdkamp, “War and State Formation in the Roman Republic,” in CRA, 2007, p. 104.
240 J.P. Roth, The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 BC – AD 235), Boston, 1999, p. 284. Examples of the carrus with eight-spoke wheels are depicted on Trajan’s Column in scenes XXXVIII and XLIX.
241 Erdkamp, CRA, 2007, p. 103.
242 P. Herz, “Finances and Costs of the Roman Army,” in CRA, p. 317.
243 P. Kehne, “War- and Peacetime Logistics: Supplying Imperial Armies in East and West,” in CRA, p. 328.
244 At 410 kilometres (250 miles) in length, the Adige is the second longest river in Italy, after the Po at 652 kilometres (405 miles).
245 Florus 2.22: he seems disinclined to see it as a desperate last act of defiance in the defence of their homeland, but it may also be a Roman stereotype of the barbarian intended to portray the Raeti as uncivilised savages.
246 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 49.3, mentions that the princeps established posting stations with carts or wagons (vehicula) to replace young men (iuvenes) as relay runners, who not only delivered the messages but could find themselves interrogated about their contents. The remains of a coaching inn were found 28 kilometers southwest of Biberwier at Strad near Tarrenz, Austria in 1997 along the route of the via Claudia Augusta: http://www.fwf.ac.at/de/abstracts/abstract.asp?L=D&PROJ=P21342
247 Dio 54.22.3.
248 Dio 54.22.3.
249 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.1.
250 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.1.
251 A luggage label with his name scratched on it was found at Dangstetten, http://www.lwl.org/varus-download/presse_imperium/Pressinformation_VII_EN.pdf
252 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.6.
253 Wells 1972, p. 67.
254 Strabo 4.3.3 mentions that part of the territory in which the Raeti and Vindelici lived was marshland and near a lake that fed the Rhine.
255 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.2.
256 Dio 54.22.3.
257 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.2.
258 Dio 54.22.4 simply mentions that Tiberius crossed “the lake” without specifying which one: the footnote in the Heinemann/Loeb translation on p. 339 identifies this lake as Lacus Venetus (Lake Garda), which was first recorded by Pomponius Mela around 43 CEin his De Chorographia. The identification with this lake puts the site of the battle back in the vicinity of Tridentum. However, other commentators associate Dio’s location with Bodensee (Lake Constance to the English), but equally if he had been following the course of the River Rhône from Lugdunum it would have taken him to Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is the largest natural freshwater lake in Western Europe at 582km2. All that can safely be said is that the ancient sources are too obscure to make a definite identification of the lake in question.
259 Livy, Periochae 138.
260 Strabo 4.6.8.
261 Dio 54.22.5.
262 Walser 1994, pp. 35–43. Alpinorum: Cohors I Alpinorum Peditata, Cohors I Alpinorum Equitata, Cohors II Alpina, Cohors II Alpinorum Equitata. Raetorum: Cohors Raetorum, Cohors I Raetorum, Cohors II Raetorum, Cohors II Raetorum c. R., Cohors IV Raetorum Equitata, Cohors V Raetorum, Cohors VI Raetorum and Cohors VII Raetorum Equitata c.R.
263 Strabo 4.6.8.
264 Strabo 4.6.8: he also mentions among the tribal group the Estiones and Brigantii.
265 Strabo 4.6.8.
266 Wolff, CAH, 1996, p. 537; Strabo 4.6.8: Strabo uses the word poleis by which he is likely referring to fortified hilltops, the Latin for which is oppidum. The capital of the Brigantii was Brigantium, of the Estiones was Cambodunum and of the Licatii was Damasia. Manching had already been abandoned by the time of the Norican War: Wells 1972, pp. 72–74.
267 Strabo 4.6.8: Strabo classifies the Genauni as Illyrici not Raeti.
268 Peter Inker, Caesar’s Gallic Triumph: Alesia 52 BC , Barnsley, 2008, pp. 47–115.
269 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.67–89.
270 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.73.
271 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.18–31.
272 Tracey Rihill, The Catapult, Yardley, 2007, pp. 176–196.
273 Rihill 2007, p. 215, fig. 9.10 shows Scene LXVI on Trajan’s Column which shows two legionaries operating a catapult in a timber ‘gun emplacement’. Trajan’s Column scene XL shows a cart-mounted catapult.
274 Suetonius, Vespasian 4.1–2.
275 The section of vertebrae with an iron bolt lodged in them is on display in the archaeology gallery of the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, England.
276 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.2, “multis urbium et castellorum oppugnationibus”.
277 Horace, Carmina 4.14.34–38: Alexandria fell to Octavianus in 30 CE. Denis Feeny, Caesar’s Calender: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History, Berkeley, 2007, p. 159 notes Horace uses the expression “quod die” and ties it to the concept of ‘sacred time’ (1 Sextilis – the month was later renamed after Augustus).
278 Cunliffe 1997, pp. 217–218.
279 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.53.
280 Gerhard Herm, The Celts: The People Who Came Out of the Darkness, New York, 1977, p. 199.
281 Ferrum Noricum is mentioned in Horace, Carmina 1.16.9, Ovid, Metamorphoses 14,712, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 34.145 and Strabo, Geography, 5.1.8. G. Alföldy, Noricum, London, 1974, pp. 113–116 et passim.
282 Cunliffe 1997, p. 218: the remains of Virunum lie in Zollfeld in the Austrian state of Carinthia.
283 Barry W. Cunliffe, Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe, Oxford, 1994, pp. 426–427; Alföldy 1974, pp. 62–77.
284 Presumably through their kin the Carni and Taurisci who lived in the vicinity of the Roman city: Polybius 34.10; Strabo 4.6.9.
285 Florus 2.22.
286 Strabo 4.6.8: he notes they were still pacified at the time he was writing his Geography, 33 years later; Livy, Periochae 138.
287 Augustus, Res Gestae 5.26 translated by Thomas Bushnell, 1998 with permission; see also Suetonius, Divus Augustus 21.
288 Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor, 1988, pp. 225–226. Gold aureus: RIC 164a, C. 132, BMCRE 443. Silver denarius: RIC 165b, C. 135, BMCRE 448. The branches look almost like branches from pine trees, which would be appropriate for the Alps.
289 Zanker 1988, pp. 183–192.
290 Zanke
r 1988, pp. 223–225.
291 Everitt 2006, p. 202.
292 Denarius: RIC 52, 171a, C. 144.
293 Ovid, Tristia 3.1.46.
294 For Drusus and Tiberius as examples of Roman heroes, see Anne Rogerson, University of Cambridge Heroes Today: Creating a Champion with Horace (Odes 4.4), presented at the 135th Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association (APA) in San Francisco, California, January 3, 2004.
295 Ronald Syme, History in Ovid, Oxford, 1978, p. 154.
296 Horace, Carmina 4.14.1–13 in translation by John Conington: “Quae cura patrum quaeue Quiritium / plenis honorum muneribus tuas, / Auguste, uirtutes in aeuum / per titulos memoresque fastus / aeternet, o qua sol habitabilis / inlustrat oras maxime principum? / quem legis expertes Latinae / Vindelici didicere nuper / quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo / Drusus Genaunos, inplacidum genus, / Breunosque uelocis et arces / Alpibus impositas tremendis / deiecit acer plus uice simplici”.
297 Horace, Carmina 4.4.73–76 in translation by John Conington: “Nil Claudiae non perficient manus, / quas et benigno numine Iuppiter / defendit et curae sagaces / expediunt per acuta belli” – compare Horace’s lofty praise to Theodor Mommsen’s derision, 1996, p. 109.
298 Wells 1972, p. 67.
299 Wells 1972, pp. 57–58 and pp. 74–89; Rüger, CAH, map 9, pp. 518–519 and map 10, p. 536.
300 Wells 1972, pp. 78–79 and note 4: the assertion that Legio XXI was based at Regina Castra (Regensburg), ‘fortress by the River Regen’, seems wrong for this time. Castra Regina was built in 179 CE for Legio III Italica during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
301 Czysz et al. 2005, pp. 490–491.
302 Catapult bolt: W. Zanier, “Eine römische Katapultpfeilspitze der 19. Legion aus Oberammergau: Neues zum Alpenfeldzug des Drusus im Jahr 15 v. Chr.,” Germania 72, 1994, pp. 587–596. The Döttenbichl site, dated to 15 BCE, produced over 300 Roman weapons including two daggers as well as native weapons, personal effects and tools: Peter S. Wells, The Barbarians Speak, Princeton, 1999, p. 69.
303 Wulf Rüskamp, “Das Geheimnis einer Bleischeibe,” Badische Zeitung 3 May 2008; http://www.lwl.org/varus-download/presse_imperium/Pressinformation_VII_EN.pdf
304 Gruen, CAH, p. 170; Walser 1994, pp. 30–31.
305 Strabo 4.6.9 and 4.6.12.
306 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 77; Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 14.67; Vergil, Georgicon 2.95–96. Valpolicella comes from this region today. On the unique qualities of raeticum see Andrew Dalby, Empires of Pleasure, London, 2000, p. 90.
307 Chevalier 1976, p. 137.
308 The date is generally accepted as 24 May16 BCE based on Germanicus’ death occurring at 34 years of age as stated in Suetonius, Claudius, 1.6 (though some argue for 15 BCE, for example, Seager, 1972, p. xv). On the physical location of wives of male members of the imperial household while on campaign see Anthony A. Barrett, “Augustus and the Governor’s Wives” in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie Vol. 149, 2006, pp. 129–147.
Chapter 3: Drusus the Builder
1 Caesar, Bellum Galllicum 1.1: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres”. He excluded from his definition of Gallia the administrative region along the Mediterranean coast the Romans referred to simply as Provincia, meaning ‘the Province’. Even as Caesar was engaged in a war of conquest, this region had already been under Roman control for more than seventy-five years (Drinkwater 1983, p. 5). Its acquisition had not been a conscious act by the Roman state. Instead, Rome had come to the aid of the Greek city-state (poleis) of Massilia (Marseilles) in 154 BCE when the inhabitants struggled to maintain their rule over the Celto-Ligurian peoples as they witnessed their neighbouring cities of Antipolis and Nicea under siege (Polybius 33.6–10). Twenty-nine years later the Massilians called on the Romans again, this time to beat their fiercest enemy the Salluvii. Following their defeat, the Romans established a permanent military base at Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) from which they launched campaigns to quell the sources of trouble. Through these actions, Rome secured a swathe of land from the Pyrenees to the Rhône and up through the Rhône Valley as far as Lake Geneva. A city of retired Roman troops (colonia) was established in the region at Narbo Martius (Narbonne) in 118 BCE. Connecting it to Italy and Roman Spain was a new highway, the via Domitia (Strabo 4.6.3).
2 Strabo 4.1.1; Tacitus, Annales 3.44 – the date is uncertain with many historians favouring 27 BCE, for example, see Drinkwater 1983, pp. 20–21 and Woolf 1998, p. 39. I favour the period 16–13 BCE, citing Suetonius, Tiberius 9.1 showing that the region beyond Provincia was called Gallia Comata when Tiberius served as governor in 16–15 BCE.
3 CIL 13.1680, Vol. I.2, 318, Pl. LXVIIIa, cited in D. Fishwick 2003, p. 200.
4 From 22 BCE: Dio 54.4.10.
5 Colonia derives from the Latin colere, to cultivate, reflecting one of the first acts of new inhabitants of a colony which was to till the land, cf. T.W. Potter, Roman Italy, 1987, p. 68.
6 Drinkwater 1983, p. 19.
7 A. Desbat, Lugdunum: Naissance d’une Capitale: Dossier de Presse, 2005, p. 5. On the physical location of wives of male members of the imperial household while on campaign see Anthony A. Barrett “Augustus and the Governor’s Wives” in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, Vol. 149 (2006), pp. 129–147.
8 Desbat 2005, p. 5.
9 Strabo 4.6.11.
10 Paul MacKendrik, Roman France, London, 1971, p. 64; MacMullen 2000, pp. 93–95.
11 MacKendrik 1971, p. 67.
12 MacKendrik 1971, p. 67.
13 A.K. Bowman, “Provincial Administration and Taxation,” in CAH, 1996, pp. 344–345.
14 Andrew Lintott, Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration, London, 1993, p. 22.
15 Dio 54.24.3.
16 Dio 54.24.3; Cicero, De Lege Agraria 2.95: “Ligures duri atque agrestes”.
17 Walser 1994, pp. 35–43. Cohors I Ligurum and Cohors II Ligurum.
18 P. Brunn, “Coins and the Roman Imperial Government,” in G.M. Paul et al. (eds.), Togo Salomon Papers II, Ann Arbor, p. 24 cites the example of RIC 1, 25; C.H.V. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, New York, 1978, pp. 65–66.
19 Brunn 1999, p. 24: copper aes and bronze dupondius coins continued to be minted in Rome.
20 Michael Grant, Roman History from Coins, Cambridge, 1958, p. 79.
21 H. Mattingly, Roman Coins: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire, London, 1960, pp. 104–105.
22 Edith Mary Wightman, Roman Trier and the Treveri, New York, 1971, p. 36.
23 Wolff 1998, p. 39.
24 Bowman, CAH, 1996, p. 549; Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 488.
25 Goudineau 1996, p. 488; Strabo 4.3.2 mentions the 60 nations of Tres Galliae comprised of 25 in Lugdunensis, 18 in Belgica and 17 in Aquitania. Tacitus mentions sixty-four tribes at the time of the revolt of 21 CE (Tacitus, Annales 3.44) but this may include four civitates that were later part of the Roman province of Germania Superior.
26 On the paucity of evidence for these magistracies in the Gallic civitates, see Drinkwater 1983, p. 108.
27 E.W. Haley, Baetica Felix, Austin 2003, p. 112.
28 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, pp. 498–499; Wightman 1971, p. 37.
29 Dio 54.25.1.
30 Dio 54.25.1; Drinkwater 1983, pp. 228–230; Wolff 1998, p. 121.
31 Tacitus, Annales 1.11.7.
32 Wolff 1998, p. 33.
33 Tacitus, Agricola 21.
34 Tacitus, Agricola 21.
35 Tacitus, Agricola 11.
36 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 497: on the limitations of Augustus’ policy of urban development see C. Goudineau and A. Rebourg, Les villes Augustéennes de Gaule, Autun, 1985.
37 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 495.
38 Hyginus, De Condicionibus Agrorum, 11: “Item dicitur in Germania in Tungris pes Drusianus, qui habet monetalem pedem et sescunciam”. The tribal area of the Tungri referred to by Hyginus had its vicus at Atuatuca, modern Tongres/Tongeren – see W. Vanvinceknroye, Tongeren: Romeinse Stad, Tiel
t, 1985, pp. 33–36, with street plan of the early settlement as fig. 12 on p. 36.
39 Livy 6.20.13 says the pes Monetalis got its name from the fact that the physical standard measure was housed in the Temple of Iuno Moneta, which was also the mint.
40 C.J. Bridger, “The Pes Monetalis and Pes Drusianus in Xanten,” Britannia 15 (1984), pp. 85–98; Britannia 13 (1982), pp. 315–320; O.A.W. Dilke, “The Roman Surveyors”, Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Oct., 1962), pp. 170–180.
41 A man’s foot measuring 13.25–13.75 inches would be the equivalent of a shoe size US 18–19/UK 17.5–18.5 or larger. According to Guinness World Records the largest feet ever measured were those of Robert Pershing Wadlow (1918–1940) of Alton, Illinois, whose shoe size was 37AA (18.5 inches long).
42 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 495; R. P. Duncan-Jones, “Length-Units in Roman Town Planning: The Pes Monetalis and the Pes Drusianus,” Britannia 11, 1980, pp. 127–133.
43 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 497.
44 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 497.
45 Goudineau, CAH, 1996, p. 496; Wolff 1998, p. 120.
46 Dio 54.21.2–8: Licinus is also spelled Licinius in some Roman sources.
47 Drinkwater 1983, p. 97.
48 Drinkwater 1983, p. 21.
49 Dio 54.25.1.
50 Augustus, Res Gestae 2.8; Livy, Periochae 134.
51 Tacitus, Annales 1.31, 2.6.
52 Ulpian, Digest 50.15.4 cited as example 63 in B. Levick, Government of the Roman Empire: A Source Book, Beckenham, 1985, pp. 72–74.
53 The best known example of a census is that recorded in the Gospel of St Luke, 2.1–6: see discussion by H. Braunert, “Der römische Provinzialzensus und der Schätzungsbericht des Lukas-Evangeliums,” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 6, 1957, pp. 192–214.
54 ILS 1514 cited in Mommsen 1996, p. 291, note 495.
55 Dio 54.25.1.
56 Suetonius, Claudius 1.4: “fuisse autem creditur non minus gloriosi quam civilis animi”.
57 Suetonius, Claudius 1.4: “nec dissimulasse umquam pristinum se rei publica statum, quandoque posset, restituturum”; cf. Tacitus, Annales 2.97.
58 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.30.4; Lintott 1993, p. 40–41.
59 Bowman, CAH, 1996, p. 348.
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