Rome's Greatest Defeat
Page 24
6. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 6.24.
7. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 1.31, 4.17–19; Derek Williams, Romans and Barbarians (London, 1998), p. 69.
8. Suetonius, Vitellius, 8.
9. Propertius, Elegies, 4.6.77; Horace, Odes, 4.5.25–7.
10. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 48.49.3.
11. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 4.3. For details of the foundation of Cologne, see Michael Gechter, ‘Early Roman military installations and Ubian settlements in the Lower Rhine’ in Thomas Blagg and Martin Millett (eds), The Early Roman Empire in the West (Oxford, 1990), pp. 97–102.
12. T. Kolnik, ‘Q Atilius Primus – Interprex, Centurio et Negotiator’, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae 30 (1978), 61–75.
13. Pliny, Natural History, 37.11.
14. Arrien, Périple du Pont-Euxin (Paris, 1995), pp. 7–8.
15. Josephus, The Jewish War, 3.79–84.
16. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.97.2.
17. Horace, Odes, 4.4.73–6.
18. Plutarch, Antony, 87.3; Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, 4.3.3.
19. Augustus, Res Gestae, 26.4; Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 2.67.
20. For the Drusus Ditch see Suetonius, Claudius, 1; Tacitus, Annals, 2.8.1. For Claudius’ invasion of Britain, Cassius Dio, 60.19.2. I am extremely grateful to Jona Lendering for suggesting this solution and recommending Kerst Huisman, ‘De Drususgrachten: een nieuwe hypothese’, Westerheem 44 (1995), 188-194.
21. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 54.33.1–4.
22. On the archaeological discoveries, see Siegmar von Schnurbein, ‘The organization of the fortresses in Augustan Germany’ in Richard Brewer (ed.), Roman Fortresses and their Legions (London, 2000), p. 30.
23. Heinz Günter Horn (ed.), Die Römer in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Stuttgart, 1987), p. 38; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 54.36.2.
24. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.1.2.
25. Ibid., 55.1.3. See similar account in Suetonius, Claudius, 1.1.3.
26. For the supposed mutiny, Dieter Timpe, ‘Drusus’ Umkehr an der Elbe’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 110 (1967), 290.
27. Livy, Summaries, 142; Seneca, Dialogues, 6.3.1.
28. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, 5.5.3.
29. Strabo, Geography, 5.3.8.
30. Among others, the tomb was eventually also to hold Livia, Tiberius, Germanicus’ wife Agrippina and two of her sons, Nero’s infamous wife Poppaea, and finally the Emperor Nerva.
31. For a reconstruction, see H.G. Frenz, ‘Zum Beginn des repräsentiven Steinbaus in Mogontiacum’ in Bendix Trier (ed.), Die römische Okkupation nördlich der Alpen zur Zeit des Augustus (Münster, 1991), p. 88.
32. A poem of consolation, 271–82. Although the poem is conventionally ascribed to Ovid or Albinovanus Pedo (see chapter five), most now believe that it is by neither. Nonetheless, the full text is to be found in Ovid, The Art of Love and Other Poems, tr. J.H. Mozley (London, 1929).
33. Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30.
34. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 57.10.5; Suetonius, Tiberius, 32.
35. Suetonius, Tiberius, 21.
36. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.97.4.
37. Josephus, Jewish War, 3.90. Gordon Maxwell, The Romans in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1989), pp. 100–5.
38. Suetonius and Velleius Paterculus suggest that he wanted a rest from work (Suetonius, Tiberius, 10.2; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.99.1–2). Cassius Dio (Roman History, 55.9.1–6) says that he wished to avoid a possible confrontation with Gaius and Lucius Caesar, with whom he did not get along. See also Barbara Levick, ‘Tiberius’ Retirement to Rhodes in 6 BC’, Latomus 25 (1972), 779–813.
39. Ancient references to him. Suetonius, Nero, 4; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.72.3; Tacitus, Annals, 4.44.
40. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.10a.3.
41. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.104.2.
42. Ibid., 2.104.4.
43. von Schnurbein, ‘Organization of the Fortress’, p. 30.
44. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.108.1.
45. Tacitus, Annals, 2.63.
46. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.108.2.
47. Strabo, Geography, 7.1.3; Suetonius, Augustus, 48.
48. Josef Dobias, ‘King Maroboduus as a Politician’, Klio 38 (1960), 157.
49. Tacitus, Annals, 2.46. A possible solution is that not all legions were in action at any one time.
50. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.110.3.
51. Ibid., 2.111.1; Suetonius, Tiberius, 16.1.
52. Suetonius, Tiberius, 16.2; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.31.1–2; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.112–13.
CHAPTER TWO
1. B. van Wickevoort Crommelin, ‘P. Quinctilius Varus – Das Bild des Verlierers’, Osnasbrücker Online – Beiträge zu den Altertumswissenschaften (2/1999), 1–10; C.M. Wells, The German Policy of Augustus (Oxford, 1972), p. 238; Maureen Carroll, Romans, Celts & Germans: The German Provinces of Rome (Stroud, 2001), p. 40. For the cartoon, see www.hermannsdenkmal.de.
2. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.117; Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30; Suetonius, Tiberius, 18; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.18–19.
3. Julius Caesar, The Civil War, 1.23, 2.28; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.71.2.
4. Horace, Odes, 1.18.
5. Horace, Ars poetica, 438–44. See also Odes 1.18 and 24.
6. Peter Levi, Horace: A Life (London, 1997), p. 237.
7. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 54.7.
8. Pliny, Natural History, 35.46.
9. Plutarch, Antony, 84. See also Tacitus, Annals, 4.66.
10. On Varus’ marriages, see Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford, 1986), chapter 23. For the funeral oration, see ‘Laudatio funebris des Augustus auf Agrippa’, Kölner Papyri Volume 1 (Opladen, 1976), 10, =33–8.
11. John Pollini, ‘Ahenobarbi, Appuleii and some others on the Ara Pacis’, American Journal of Archaeology 90 (1986), 459–60.
12. Derek Williams, Romans and Barbarians (London, 1998), p. 92.
13. Cicero, Pro lege Manilia, 34; Plutarch, Julius Caesar, 55; Augustus, Res Gestae, 5,15.
14. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.28.3–4.
15. Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 322.
16. Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.637–40.
17. Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.656; J.V. Hirschmann, P. Richardson, R.S. Kraemer and P.A. Mackowiak, ‘Death of an Arabian Jew’, Archives of Internal Medicine 164 (2004), 833–9.
18. Corroborated by St Matthew, 2.19.23. When the Holy Family heard that Herod was dead, they did return to Judaea, but were too scared to return to Bethlehem and instead settled in Galilee.
19. Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.648–50.
20. Ibid., 2.13.
21. It is convention rather than ancient sources that names the city Caesarea Maritima. It is a convenient way to distinguish it from Caesarea Philippi.
22. Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.410.
23. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1976), p. 106.
24. Josephus, The Jewish War, 2.70.
25. Ibid., 2.72.
26. Herwig Wolfram, Die Germanen (Munich, 2001), p. 39.
27. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.16.3; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.117.2.
28. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.120.3.
29. Ibid., 2.119.4; Horace, Epistles, 1.15. For details of epigraphic evidence, see Reinhard Wolters, ‘C. Numonius Vala und Drusus. Zur Auflösung zweier Kontermarken augusteischer Zeit’, Germania 73 (1995), 146.
30. W. Zanler, ‘Ein römische Katapultpfeilspitze der 19. Legion aus Oberammergau’, Germania 72 (1994), 587–96.
31. For the argument that Caelius’ gravestone refers to another battle, see Ute Schilling-Häfele, ‘Varus und Arminius in der Überlieferung,’ Historia 32 (1983), 126, footnote 9. For Legion XIX, Tacitus, Annals, 1.60.
32. For
a full discussion of the evidence, see L. Keppie, ‘Legiones XVII, XVIII, XIX: Exercitus omnium fortissimus’ in L. Keppie, Legions and Veterans:Roman Army Papers 1971–2000 (Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 2000), 161–5.
33. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.19.1.
34. Ibid., 56.18.3.
35. Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.117.4.
36. Tacitus, Germania, 5.
37. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.18.2; Tacitus, Annals, 1.59.
38. Discussed by Armin Becker in ‘Lahnau-Waldgirmes: eine augusteische Stadtgründung in Hessen’, Historia 52 (2003), 344–50.
39. Cicero, De lege manilia, 28.
CHAPTER THREE
1. Ptolemy, Geography, 2.11.10.
2. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 6.10.
3. Ibid., 4.1; Tacitus, Germania, 14.
4. Pliny, Natural History, 17.4. For more details see Carroll, Romans, Celts & Germans, pp. 16–17 and chapter 4.
5. A. Kreuz, ‘Becoming a Roman Farmer. Preliminary Report on the Environmental Evidence from the Romanization Project’ in Creighton and Wilson (ed.), Roman Germany, 71–98.
6. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 4.153.
7. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.1.2; Suetonius, Augustus, 21; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.6.2.
8. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 55.10a.3.
9. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.105.1.
10. Tacitus, Agricola, 21.
11. Tacitus, Germania, 42. See also Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 1.43, and Livy, Ab urbe condita, 27.4.
12. Tacitus, Annals, 13.55.
13. Malcolm Todd, The Early Germans (Oxford, 1992), p. 102.
14. Tacitus, Germania, 5; Tacitus, Annals, 2.62.
15. Tacitus, Germania, 41.
16. Dieter Timpe, Arminius-Studien (Heidelberg, 1970), p. 13.
17. See Harald von Petrikovits, ‘Arminius’, Bonner Jahrbücher 166 (1966), 175–93 and Timpe, Arminius-Studien, pp. 14–19. It is discussed in detail by D.H. Green in Language and History in the Early Germanic World (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 114ff. On ‘her-’, see also Chris Wells, ‘hin und he(h)r?’ in Blütezeit: Festschrift für L.P. Johnson (Berlin, 2000), pp. 447–79.
18. Tacitus, Annals, 2.88. It is sometimes suggested that Arminius’ twelve years in power should be dated from AD 9 and that he in fact died around AD 21. Tacitus’ motivation for having the death recorded two years early would be to make it simultaneous with that of Germanicus and at the end of a book. I remain convinced, however, that Arminius’ leadeship should be dated to AD 7.
19. Ibid., 2.10.
20. Timpe, Arminius-Studien, p. 56; Tacitus, Annals, 2.10.
21. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 54.21.4.
22. Georgia Franzius, ‘Die römischen Funde aus Kalkriese’ in Wolfgang Schlüter (ed.), Kalkriese – Römer in Osnabrücker Land (Bramsche, 1993), p. 125.
23. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.118.2; Strabo, Geography, 7.1.4.
24. Tacitus, Annals, 2.10.
25. Tacitus, Germania, 6.
26. J.B. Rives, Tacitus: Germania (Oxford, 1999), p. 137.
27. M. Orsnes, ‘The Weapon-Find in Ejsbøl Mose at Haderslev’, Acta Archaeologica 34 (1963), 232–47.
28. Tacitus, Germania, 6.
29. Ibid., 6.
30. Herwig Wolfram, Die Germanen (Munich, 2001), p. 43 makes a convincing case for Arminius’ marriage to Thusnelda taking place after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. As their son was 3 in AD 16, a marriage in AD 12/13 can be suggested.
31. Tacitus, Annals, 11.16.
32. Tacitus, Germania, 14.
33. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.18.3.
34. Tacitus, Annals, 4.72.
35. Dio Chrysostom, Discourses, 1.28; Juvenal, Satires, 16.
36. Brian Campbell, The Roman Army, 31 BC – AD 337 (London, 1994), p. 178.
37. For more detailed discussion and further examples see Stephen Dyson, ‘Native revolts in the Roman empire’, Historia 20 (1971), 239–74.
38. Tacitus, Annals, 2.88.
39. Von Petrikovits, ‘Arminius’, p. 187.
40. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.19.2.
CHAPTER FOUR
1. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.119.1.
2. For the current arguments, see Reinhard Wolters, ‘Hermeneutik des Hinterhalts: die antiken Berichte zur Varuskatastrophe und der Fundplatz von Kalkriese’, Klio 85 (2003), 131–70. The most vocal of those who disagree with Kalkriese as the site of the Teutoburg massacre is www.varusschlacht-am-harz.de, who prefer to see it at Halberstadt.
3. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.118.4.
4. Mary Sheldon, ‘Slaughter in the Forest: Roman intelligence mistakes in Germany’, Small Wars and Insurgencies 12/3 (autumn 2001), 25.
5. Tacitus, Annals, 13.55 for the Ampsivarii, 1.60 for the Chauci.
6. Pliny the Younger, Letters, 2.7.
7. Klaus Tausend, ‘Wohin wollte Varus?’, Klio 79 (1997), 375–80.
8. Josephus, The Jewish War, 3.115–26.
9. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.117.1.
10. Vindolanda Tablet 154, inventory number 88.841. See Vindolanda Tablets Online, vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk. For the ostracon, see Campbell, The Roman Army, p. 112. The Vindolanda Tablet is also reproduced on p. 113 of that book.
11. Tacitus, Annals, 1.61.
12. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 1.48; Probus, Historiae Augustae, 15.1; Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, 16.12.1ff. See, especially, Michael Hoeper and Heiko Steuer, ‘Zu germanischen “Heeresverbänden” bzw “Heerlagern” im Spiegel der Archäologie’ in Wolfgang Schlüter (ed.), Rom, Germanien und die Ausgrabungen von Kalkriese (Osnabrück, 1999), pp. 467–93.
13. Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, 4.2.4.
14. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.20.5.
15. Tacitus, Annals, 1.60.
16. Ibid., 1.64.
17. Some have suggested that these were the fallen ramparts mistaken by Germanicus for where the shattered remnants of Varus’ army had taken their final position. This is unlikely, as of course Germanicus had survivors with him.
18. Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, 16.12.
19. Susanne Wilbers-Rost, ‘Kalkriese und die Varusschlacht – Archäologische Nachweise einer militärischen auseinandersetzung zwischen Römern und Germanen’ in Philip Freeman (ed.) et al., Limes XVIII: proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan, September 2000 (Oxford, 2002), p. 517.
20. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.119.4.
21. Strabo, Geography, 7.2.3.
22. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.119.3.
23. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.21.5; Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30.
24. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.22.1–2.
25. Orosius, Historiae adversum Paganos, 5.16 in Orose, Histoires: contre les païens, ed. Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lindet (Paris, 1991); Tacitus, Annals, 13.57.
26. Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30.
27. Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, 16.2.
28. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.22.2b.
29. C.M. Wells, The German Policy of Augustus (Oxford, 1972), p. 152. The identification of Aliso with Haltern was first made by Carl Schuchhardt, ‘Das Römercastell bei Haltern an der Lippe’, Sitzungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1900), 303–16.
30. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.22.2b.
31. Frontinus, Stratagems, 2.9.4.
32. For literary accounts, see Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.22.2–4; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.120.4; Frontinus, Stratagems, 3.15.4, 4.7.8.
33. For more details see A.P. Fitzpatrick, ‘Ex Radice Britanica’, Britannia 22 (1991), 143–6.
34. For what is admittedly only a theory, albeit a particularly attractive one, see B. Galsterer, Die Graffiti auf der römischen Gefässkeramik aus Haltern (Münster, 1983), p. 30.
CHAPTER FIVE
1. Cassi
us Dio, Roman History, 56.23; Suetonius, Augustus, 23; Tiberius, 17.
2. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.120.3.
3. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.24.3–5.
4. Ovid, Tristia, 3.12.45, 4.2.33–4; Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, 1.896–905.
5. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.23.2–3; Tacitus, Annals, 2.5.
6. For the rescue of captives in AD 50, Tacitus, Annals, 12.27. For the ransoming of captives, Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.22.4. Vasile Lica examines their legal status in convincing detail in ‘Clades Variana and Postliminium’, Historia 50 (2001), 496–501.
7. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.119.5.
8. Suetonius, Tiberius, 19; Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.120–1.
9. Suetonius, Caligula, 3; Tacitus, Annals, 2.73.
10. Anthony Barrett, Caligula: The Corruption of Power (London, 1989), p. 5.
11. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.33.5. See also Tacitus, Annals, 1.11.
12. Tacitus, Annals, 1.31.
13. Jürgen Kunow, ‘Die Militärgeschichte Niedergermaniens’ in Heinz Günter Horn (ed.), Die Römer in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Stuttgart, 1987), pp. 47–9.
14. Tacitus, Annals, 1.23, 1.32.
15. Campbell, The Roman Army, p. 24.
16. Tacitus, Annals, 1.32.
17. It is a confused episode. S.J.V. Malloch, ‘The end of the Rhine mutiny in Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio’, Classical Quarterly 54 (2004), 198–210 untangles the various traditions.
18. Dieter Timpe, Der Triumph des Germanicus: Untersuchungen zu den Feldzugen der Jahre 14–16 n. Chr. in Germanien (Bonn, 1968), p. 29. Tacitus, Annals, 1.43; Cassius Dio, Roman History, 57.6.1.
19. Tacitus, Annals, 1.56.
20. Ibid., 1.57.
21. Strabo, Geography, 7.1.4.
22. Tacitus, Annals, 1.70.
23. Ibid., 1.63.
24. Ibid., 1.65.
25. Ibid., 1.66.
26. Ibid., 3.33.
27. Ibid., 2.6.
28. Ibid., 2.10.
29. Ibid., 2.15, 2.16.
30. Ibid., 2.17.
31. Ibid., 2.17.
32. Ibid., 2.21.
33. Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, 1.15. A more comprehensive text, with useful critical commentary, is Edward Courtney (ed.), The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford, 1993), pp. 315–19.