46 Dio 54.32.2.
47 Tacitus, Historiae 4.15.
48 Lauran Toorians, “De Cananefaten in taalkundig perspectief,” in W. de Jonge, J. Bazelmans and D.H. de Jager (eds.), Forum Hadriani: Van Romeinse stad tot monument, Utrecht, 2006.
49 Tacitus, Germania 34.
50 Dio 54.32.2. The tribute levied upon the Frisii was the supply of oxhides, Tacitus, Annales 4.72.
51 Dio 54.32.2; units of Cuneus Frisiorum, being a ‘wedge formation’ of irregular cavalry, are known to have served on Hadrian’s Wall at Aballava (Burgh-by-Sands), Derventio (Papcastle, Cockermouth) and Vercovicium (Houseteads fort), and also at Vinovia (Binchester). A cohors peditata quingenaria called Cohors Frisiavonum is attested by inscriptions and discharge diplomas at several sites across northern Britain.
52 Dio 54.32.2.
53 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.2–4.
54 Strabo 7.1.3.
55 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 4.27.
56 Tacitus, Germania 34.3 uses the word temptavit which indicates a line of inquiry: C. Nicolet, Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire, Ann Arbor, 1991, p. 92.
57 Nicolet 1991, p. 87.
58 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 21.67; Tacitus, Germania 34.3; Suetonius, Claudius 1; Velleius Paterculus 2.106. The passages in the ancient writers’ accounts have sparked great debate: for a review, see Nicolet 1991, pp. 91–94, note 17.
59 Tacitus, Germania 34.3.
60 The Ems River was known to several ancient authors: Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 4.14; Tacitus, Annales 1; Pomponius Mela 3.3; Strabo 7.1; and Ptolemy 2.10 – Ptolemy’s name for it was the Amisios potamos, and in Latin Amisius fluvius. The others used the same, or Amisia, or Amasia, or Amasios.
61 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.25: “Atque nostris militibus cunctantibus, maxime propter altitudinem maris, qui X legionis aquilam gerebat, obtestatus deos, ut ea res legioni feliciter eveniret, ‘desilite’, inquit, ‘milites, nisi vultis aquilam hostibus prodere; ego certe meum rei publicae atque imperatori officium praestitero’. Hoc cum voce magna dixisset, se ex navi proiecit atque in hostes aquilam ferre coepit. Tum nostri cohortati inter se, ne tantum dedecus admitteretur, universi ex navi desiluerunt. Hos item ex proximis primi navibus cum conspexissent, subsecuti hostibus adpropinquaverunt”. This passage is one of the most memorable and evocative in all Roman military writing.
62 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.2.
63 Ludwig Fischer and Jürgen Hasse, “Perceptions of the Landscapes in the Wadden Sea Region,” in M. Vollmer, Gulberg, Maluck, Marrewijk (2001), Landscape and Cultural Heritage in the Wadden Sea Region – Project Report, Wadden Sea Ecosystem 12, chapter 3, p. 85; Germany’s Wadden Sea was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in June 2009 making the nature reserve the first one in the country to be awarded the status.
64 Dio 54.32.2.
65 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.1–2.
66 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.1–2.
67 H. Halbertsma, Terpen tussen Vlie en Eems: Een geografisch-historische Benadering, Groningen, 1963.
68 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.1–2.
69 Peter S. Wells, The Barbarians Speak, Princeton, 1999, p. 244.
70 Tacitus, Germania 35.
71 Wells 1999, p. 244; H. Jahnkun, “Siedlung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaftsordnung der germanischen Stämme in der Zeit der römischen Angriffskriege”, in H. Temporini & W. Haase (eds.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel d. neueren Forschung, Vol. II.5.1, Stuttgart, 1976, pp. 90–93.
72 Bructeri minores are mentioned by Ptolemy 2.10, as neighbours of the Sugambri.
73 Tacitus, Germania 33.
74 Strabo 7.1.3.
75 Dio 54.32.2.
76 Dio 54.32.2.
77 Dio 54.32.2.
78 Suetonius, Divus Augustus 18.2, 29.1, 29.3. On the significance of Apollo to the Romans and the ludi Apollinares, see C.W. Cook, “The Calpurnii and Roman Family History: An Analysis of the Piso Frugi Coin in the Joel Handshu Collection at the College of Charleston,” Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research at the College of Charleston 1, 2002, pp. 1–10.
79 Syme 1978, p. 60, note 2.
80 Denarius, C 383, RIC 416.
81 Suetonius, Claudius 1.1: “Is Drusus… deinde Germanici belli Oceanum septemtrionalem primus Romanorum ducum navigavit …”.
82 Augustus, Res Gestae 5.26, translated by Thomas Bushnell and reproduced with permission, 1998: “Classis mea per Oceanum ab ostio Rheni ad solis orientis regionem usque ad fines Cimbrorum navigavit, quo neque terra neque mari quisquam Romanus ante id tempus adit. Cimbrique et Charydes et Semnones et eiusdem tractus alii Germanorum populi per legatos amicitiam meam et populi Romani petierunt”.
83 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.167: “A Gadibus columnisque Herculis Hispaniae et Galliarum circuitu totus hodie navigatur occidens. septentrionalis vero oceanus maiore ex parte navigatus est, auspiciis Divi Augusti Germaniam classe circumvecta ad Cimbrorum promunturium et inde inmenso mari prospecto aut fama cognito Scythicam ad plagam et umore nimio rigentia”.
84 Tacitus, Germania 34: “Ipsum quin etiam Oceanum illa temptavimus: et superesse adhuc Herculis columnas fama vulgavit, sive adiit Hercules, seu quidquid ubique magnificum est, in claritatem eius referre consensimus. Nec defuit audentia Druso Germanico, sed obstitit Oceanus in se simul atque in Herculem inquiri. Mox nemo temptavit, sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis deorum credere quam scire”.
85 Plutarch, Alexander 332 a-b. There are numerous examples of coins showing the portrait of Alexander as Herakles.
86 Suetonius, Tiberius 7.3.
Chapter 5: Drusus the Commander
1 Livy, Periochae 140: “item Cherusci, Tencteri, Chauci aliaeque Germanorum trans Rhenum gentes subactae a Druso referuntur”. Florus 2.30.26: “Missus in eam provinciam Drusus primos domuit Vsipetes, inde Tencteros percucurrit et Catthos”. Whether a bridge was constructed across the Rhine River by the army under Drusus’ command continues to be debated: Reed 1975, pp. 315–323.
2 Dio 54.33.1.
3 Ptolemy 2.10 does not mention the Usipetes but does mention the Tencteri. The Tencteri were highly regarded by their neighbours as warriors but particularly recognised for “the excellence of their cavalry”; Tacitus, Germania 32.
4 On the Eburones and the extent of their territory and influence by mapping gold staters minted by them, see J. Heinrichs, “Zur Verwicklung Ubischer Gruppen in den Ambiorix-Aufstand d. J. 54 v. Chr.: Eburonische und ubische Münzen im Hortfund Fraire-2”, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 127, 1999, pp. 275–293.
5 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.16.
6 D.B. Campbell, “Secrets from the Soil: The Archaeology of Augustus’ Military bases,” in J. Oorthuys (ed.), AW Special Issue 1, 2009, p. 23; Wells 1972, pp. 161–162.
7 Dio 54.33.1. Wells 1972, p. 221 notes the Romans habitually crossed the Lippe somewhere between Haltern and Oberaden or Datteln/Olfen and Oberaden, which may have been the location of an ancient ford.
8 The name Sauerland may have its origins in the name of ‘Sugambrer land’. The geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus locates the Sugambri along the Rhine, south of the Frisii, and next to the Menapii: Ptolemy 2.10.
9 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.35.
10 Strabo 7.1.4.
11 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.18.
12 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.18.
13 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.35.
14 Dio 54.33.2.
15 Strabo 7.1.3.
16 Tacitus, Germania 30.
17 Tacitus, Germania 30.
18 Tacitus, Annales 1.56.
19 Tacitus, Germania 30.
20 Tacitus, Germania 30.
21 Dio 54.1–2.
22 Strabo 7.1.4.
23 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.10.
24 Tacitus, Germania 36.
25 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 42.8.
26 Dio 54.33.2–3.
27 Dio 54.33.2.
28 Obsequens, Prodigiorum 72.
29 In the ancient world swarms of honeybees were interpreted as bad omens and associated with bereavement. The Bible, for example, contains several references to bees: e.g. Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalms 118:12; Isaiah 7:19.
30 Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.9.
31 Obsequens, Prodigiorum 72; Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.18.
32 Tacitus, Germania 6.1.
33 C. Koepfer, “Arming the Warrior: Archaeological Evidence,” in J. Oorthuys (ed.), AW Special Issue 1, 2009, p. 51.
34 Tacitus, Germania 6.1. Examples of the sax from the fifth century CE have been found in Oxfordshire: Embleton 1982, p. 12. A Roman gladius and a spatha from the second century CE were found in Vimose in Denmark: P. Wilcox, Rome’s Enemies: Germans and Dacians, London, 1982, p. 14.
35 Examples of iron axe heads survive from Brandenburg and Weissenfeld: Embleton 1982, p. 22.
36 Michael P. Speidel, Ancient Germanic Warriors: Warrior Styles from Trajan’s Column to Icelandic Sagas, Abingdon, 2004, pp. 87–97.
37 Embleton 1982, p. 13.
38 Speidel 2004, pp. 131–132.
39 Speidel 2004, pp. 98–100 and pp. 129–130.
40 Tacitus, Germania 6.1.
41 Tacitus, Germania 6.2; Speidel 2004, p. 129–130.
42 Tacitus, Germania 6.2.
43 Tacitus, Germania 6.1.
44 Wilcox 1982, p. 8.
45 Wilcox 1982, p. 9.
46 Wilcox 1982, p. 16.
47 Examples are on display in the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin: Taylor 2009, p. 45.
48 Tacitus, Germania 6.3.
49 Wilcox 1982, p. 11.
50 Wilcox 1982, p. 23; M.J. Taylor, “Hit and Run: The Germanic Warrior in the First Century AD,” in J. Oorthuys (ed.), AW Special Issue 1, 2009, p. 45.
51 Tacitus, Germania 6.4.
52 Tacitus, Germania 6.1.
53 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.2.
54 Tacitus, Germania 6.3–4.
55 Tacitus, Germania 13.1–2.
56 Tacitus, Germania 6.6.
57 Tacitus, Germania 13.4.
58 Tacitus, Germania 14.1–2.
59 Tacitus, Germania 12.3.
60 Caesar uses the word magistratus: Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.23.
61 Tacitus uses the word duces for generals: Tacitus, Germania 7.1.
62 Tacitus, Germania 14.3; cf. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.23.
63 Tacitus, Germania 14.4.
64 Speidel 2004, p. 103.
65 Tacitus, Germania 6.6; Speidel 2004, p. 103.
66 Speidel 2004, p. 103, citing Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.51–52; Dio 38.49f.; Florus 1.45.13.
67 Dio 38.49f.
68 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.52.
69 Speidel 2004, pp. 110–113.
70 Tacitus, Germania 3.1.
71 The Germanic cohors I Claudia Sugambrorum Vetera gained fame for the uproar of its singing and weapons, as it engaged the Thracians in 26 CE: Tacitus, Annales 4.47.
72 Speidel 2004, p. 114–126.
73 Tacitus, Germania 7.4.
74 Speidel 2004, p. 109.
75 Tacitus, Germania 6.6.
76 Tacitus, Germania 6.6.
77 See denarius of Drusus, De Germanis: Wilcox 1982, p. 16.
78 See denarius of Drusus, De Germanis: Wilcox 1982, p. 16.
79 Tacitus, Germania 10.6.
80 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.46.1.
81 Speidel 2004, p. 57–80.
82 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.18.
83 Dio 54.33.3.
84 One researcher has argued convincingly on the basis of etymology for the site of the present town of Garbolzum on the Hellweg (Bundestraße 1). Jürgen Martin Regel’s argument is set out at http://zocher-regel.gmxhome.de/ArbaloSchlacht/12Arbalo.html#
85 Cf. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 8.8; Josephus, The Jewish War 3.6.2.
86 Dio 54.33.3.
87 E.g., Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.67.
88 Livy, Periochae 141: “Bellum aduersus transrhenanas gentes a Druso gestum refertur. In quo inter primores pugnauerunt Chumstinctus et Auectius, tribuni ex ciuitate Neruiorum”.
89 Dio 54.33.3.
90 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.18.
91 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.18.
92 Dio 54.33.5; cf. 68.19.3–4.
93 Campbell 1984, pp. 122–123.
94 Livy 27.19.4.
95 Antonio Santosuosso, Soldiers, Citizens, and The Symbols of War: From Classical Greece to Republican Rome, 500–167 BC , Boulder, 1997, p. 6 and pp. 198–199.
96 Dio 54.33.4.
97 Wells 1972, pp. 174–175.
98 Wells 1972, p. 167.
99 Evidence from the permanent structures on the site date it to 1–4 CE which is clearly later than Drusus’ campaigns; Campbell 2009, p. 24; Wells 1972, pp. 170–174.
100 Campbell 2009, p. 21.
101 Campbell 2009, p. 21; Petrikovits 1960, p. 25; Wells 1972, p. 211.
102 Campbell 2009, p. 21; Wells 1972, p. 211 reports 45 metres (147.6 feet).
103 Campbell 2009, p. 21; Wells 1972, p. 213.
104 Brian Dobson argues persuasively that the rôle of the Roman fort was not to be a “permanently manned strongpoint” but rather to provide “accommodation of the army off-duty”: “The Rôle of the Fort”, in William S. Hanson (ed.), The Army and the Frontiers of Rome, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series No.74, 2009, pp. 25–23.
105 Campbell 2009, p. 22.
106 Wells 1972, pp. 214–215.
107 Campbell 2009, p. 22.
108 Dio 54.33.5. Hans-Günther Simon, “Eroberung und Verzicht. Die römische Politik in Germanien zwische 12 v. Chr. und 16 n. Chr.,” in Dietwulf Baatz and Frtiz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.), Die Römer in Hessen, 2002, pp. 41–41.
109 Dio 54.33.4. Iulius Caesar often wintered his army in newly conquered territory: Bellum Gallicum 2.35, 3.29 and 4.38.
110 Valerius Maximus, 4.3.3: “Drusum etiam Germanicum… constitit usum ueneris intra coniugis caritatem clausum tenuisse”.
111 Dio 54.28.1–5. Dio 54.33.5; cf. 55.6.4.
112 Augustus would similarly later deny Tiberius the title Pannonicus: Suetonius, Tiberius 17.2.
113 Campbell 1984, p. 127.
114 Dio 54.33.5; Augustus, Res Gestae 1.4; see Beard 2007, p. 300–302 who interprets Augustus’ use and refusal of triumphs – even among his own family members – for political ends.
115 Dio 54.34.3.
116 Dio 54.36.2; Horace, Carmina 4.15.8; Vergil, Aeneid 7.607.
117 G. Sumi, Ceremony and Power: Performing Politics in Rome between Republic and Empire, Ann Arbor, 2005, pp. 213–214.
118 Dio 54.36.2.
119 Dio 54.36.2.
120 Dio 54.35.4; cf. Livy, Periochae 140; Seneca, Dialogi 11.15.3; Suetonius, Augustus 61.
121 Dio 54.35.4.
122 Dio 54.35.5.
123 See note 114.
124 Campbell 2009, p. 22; Wells 1972, pp. 221–222.
125 Baatz et al. 2002, p. 302 (map p. 43).
126 Campbell 2009, p. 22; Wells 1972, pp. 226–229.
127 Baatz 2002, p. 238–239 (map on p. 43); Wells 1972, p. 227.
128 Baatz 2002, p. 239 (map on p. 43, ground plan p. 239); Wells 1972, p. 227.
129 Wells 1972, p. 227.
130 Baatz 2002, p. 305 (map on p. 43).
131 Dio 54.36.3.
132 Dio 54.36.3–4.
133 Klaus Grote, Monographie: Römerlager Hedemünden.Vor 2000 Jahren: Römer an der Werra, Sydekum-Schriften zur Geschichte der Stadt Münden 34, Münden 2005: http://www.grote-archaeologie.de/roemer.html
134 The extraordinary number and range of artifacts attests to the astonishing carelessness of Roman troops who seem to have habitually dropped and left tools, arms and armour in temporary camps. These included quantities of coins, notably pocket change in the form of the Augustus/Agrippa dupondii minted in
Colonia Nemausus, but the oldest found thus far is a quinarius dating to 90–80 BCE illustrating how long coins remained in circulation.
135 Strabo 7.1.3; Velleius Paterculus 2.108.2.
136 Strabo 7.1.3.
137 Strabo 7.1.3; Velleius Paterculus 2.108.2.
138 Cicero, Oratio pro L. Murena 9–11.
139 Livy 1.10.5; Plutarch, Marcellus 8.2, 8.4; H.I. Flower, “The Tradition of the Spolia Opima: M. Claudius Marcellus and Augustus”, Classical Antiquity 19.1, 2000, p. 34.
140 Plutarch, Marcellus 8.3.
141 Livy 4.20.1–4.
142 Livy 4.20.7. The restoration was carried out not later than 32 BCE.
143 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.1–8.2.
144 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.1; Polybius 2.34; Propertius, Elegiae 5.10, 39–42.
145 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.2.
146 Propertius, Elegiae 5.10, 39–42.
147 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.3.
148 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.4.
149 Plutarch, Marcellus 7.4.
150 Plutarch, Marcellus 8.2–3.
151 Plutarch, Marcellus 8.1.
152 The coin minted by P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus in 50 BCE shows the bare head of M. Claudius Marcellus with a triskeles behind (obverse), and Marcellus veiled and togate carrying a trophy towards a tetrastyle temple (reverse): BMCRR Rome 4206–8; Crawford 439/1; Sydenham 1147; Kestner 3507–8.
153 Suetonius, Tiberius 3.2: “Drusus hostium duce Drauso comminus trucidato sibi posterisque suis cognomen inuenit”.
154 Suetonius, Claudius 1.4: “nam ex hoste super victorias opima quoque spolia captasse summoque saepius discrimine duces Germanorum tota acie insectatus”.
155 The key reference to the spolia opima is Suetonius, Claudius 1.4 cited in note 154 above. The statement is open to interpretation. The translation I cited in the text is that of Alexander Thompson of 1893. In comparison, Michael Grant’s translation, for example, in the Penguin Classics edition of 1957, is less emphatic. To resolve the matter I consulted two Latin experts. Latin scholar Bob Durrett, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, advised me by e-mail, “My reading of the passage is: ‘It is believed, moreover, that this was less for (the sake of) glory than for civil spirit (morale); for it is believed that he seized from the enemy, beyond the victories alone, the spolia opima also, (and) the leaders of the Germans, very often with the greatest (personal) distinction … having looked upon their whole battle line. (To find and single out the chieftains I wonder? – my note). Nor was he able to pretend that at some time or other he was going to restore the former condition of the State (‘republic’).’ I think that creditur tells us much: ‘It is believed that …’ The implication seems to be that he did achieve this singular feat of arms”. Similary Ginny Lindzey, Latin teacher at Dripping Springs High School, Austin, Texas, offered this translation: ‘However it is believed that he had been not less of a glorious mind than a civilian one (perhaps with the idea of seeking glory vs seeking to protect the city state?) for he had captured from the enemy beyond victories the spolia opima as well and more often …’ I conclude that Drusus the Elder was the fourth – and last – man to have been officially recognized as capturing the spolia opima.
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