The defeat at Synodium must have been a serious blow to Caesar’s plans and strength, but he continued anyway with his war against Pompey. In 45 BC, one of Caesar’s subordinates named Publius Vatinius fought several battles against the Dalmatians, but was never able to bring them to surrender. After Pompey was assassinated in Egypt, and after the last of Pompey’s loyalists were defeated, Caesar returned to Rome as the sole ruler of the republic. Straight away, he began to make preparations for two wars: one minor war in Thrace against the Getae barbarians, and a second massive war against the Parthian Empire. Since the Illyrians were on his marching route, they were afraid that Caesar would attack them as well. So they sent messengers to Rome to ask pardon for what they had done earlier, professed their friendship and offered to fight as Rome’s allies in battle. Caesar replied that the Illyrians would never be forgiven for the deaths of so many Roman soldiers, but he would grant them an official pardon if they would send an annual tribute and give peace hostages. The Illyrians agreed. Caesar sent three legions into the country, commanded by Publius Vatinius, to enforce the terms and collect the hostages and tribute. Caesar was generous, though; the amount of tribute that the Illyrians were expected to pay each year was small.66
The Dalmatians believed that their arrangement had been with Rome for as long as Julius Caesar was in charge. When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, the Dalmatians thought that with Caesar now dead, they were no longer subject to the terms of the treaty. Therefore when General Publius Vatinius requested that the Dalmatians once again pay their annual tribute, they refused. When Vatinius attempted to use force on them, the Dalmatians attacked and destroyed five legionary cohorts, approximately 2,500 men. Among those killed was the five cohorts’ commanding officer, a man of senatorial rank named Baebius (named by Stipčevič as Balbius). General Vatinius retreated with the rest of his force to Epidamnus, while the Dalmatians seized control of the city of Salona.67
Publius Vatinius was stripped of command for this embarrassing defeat, and the Senate handed command of the army over to Marcus Brutus, one of Caesar’s assassins, who was in command of the provinces of Illyricum and Macedonia. However, since Brutus and his fellow conspirators were at that moment at war against the loyalist forces of Marcus Antonius, they did not have the time, numbers or resources to engage in punitive measures against the Illyrians. It was not until 39 BC that the Romans could once again turn their attention to the persistently obdurate and troublesome Balkan tribes.68
Octavianus Fights the Illyrians
Following Julius Caesar’s murder on the Ides of March, a civil war erupted between the anti-Caesar and pro-Caesar factions. The anti-Caesars consisted of Caesar’s assassins and their supporters, notably Brutus and Cassius. The pro-Caesar side consisted of those who wanted to avenge Caesar’s death, among them Julius Caesar’s right-hand man Marcus Antonius and Caesar’s grand-nephew, who at that time was in his early 20s: Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the man who would later become Rome’s first emperor.
The war between the pro-Caesars and anti-Caesars was surprisingly short, lasting for only two years. However, during those two years much blood was shed on both sides. At last, Brutus and Cassius were crushed at the Battle of Philippi in late autumn of 42 BC. Almost all of the anti-Caesar forces had been destroyed. Marcus Antonius emerged as the hero of the hour, with Octavianus playing second fiddle to Antonius’ fame and prowess. Officially the two shared power, but it was obvious that Antonius was hamstringing his partner’s efforts to govern effectively. A series of political and social blunders served to damage Octavianus’ reputation even further with the Roman military and the Roman people. Still, the war wasn’t over yet. Although the anti-Caesar land forces had been destroyed, the anti-Caesar fleet commanded by Sextus Pompeius was still somewhere out there in the Mediterranean. Sicily was Pompeius’ centre of operations, the last place where the anti-Caesars still held some power, but Pompeius and his warships were nowhere to be found. Marcus Antonius ordered his lieutenant Octavianus to take Sicily and destroy the last surviving remnants of the anti-Caesar forces. Meanwhile, Antonius began entertaining the idea of fulfilling Julius Caesar’s dream of conquering the Parthian Empire, and he decided that it would be best to secure Egypt before pushing further inland.69
Octavianus’ task was easier said than done. His tarnished reputation led to many people joining sides with his enemy Sextus Pompeius. Octavianus couldn’t rely on Marcus Antonius for help because by now he had fallen madly in love with Cleopatra and was completely preoccupied with affairs in the east. His campaign against the Parthians got off to a very bad start: Syria and parts of Anatolia were quickly seized by the Parthians and Antonius’ forces were retreating. Octavianus was forced to use strict measures when it came to maintaining control. Grumbling soon erupted into open hostility when Lucius Antonius, Marcus Antonius’ brother, refused to recognize Octavianus’ authority and waged his own private war against him. So it was that the victorious pro-Caesar faction dissolved into fighting among themselves. Marcus Antonius considered coming to his brother’s aid, but he couldn’t leave the eastern provinces knowing that the Parthians would swallow them whole. In 40 BC, a ceasefire was declared at the southern Italian city of Brundisium. With the civil war over, at least for a while, both Octavianus and Marcus Antonius could now devote their time to other matters.70
Marcus Antonius wanted to get back to fighting the Parthians, but he was distracted by affairs in Illyria. One tribe called the Partheni (no relation to the Parthians), which dwelt near Dyrrachium, was raiding throughout the province of Macedonia and had captured the city of Salona. In 39 BC, Antonius dispatched eleven legions to put an end to the troubles there; some would think this a rather heavy-handed response. His objectives were not just to defeat the Partheni, but also other tribes that refused to recognize Rome’s authority over Illyricum. Gaius Asinius Pollio, who was known more for his poems and oratory skills, commanded part of the army and marched out from the port-city of Aquileia. His force was bound for Salona, which was still under Illyrian occupation:71
The Dalmatians for the most part lived in the forests, whence they frequently made predatory raids. Marcius the consul had already crippled them by burning Delminium, their capital; afterwards Asinius Pollio – the second greatest of Roman orators – had deprived them of their flocks, arms and territory.72
Pollio recaptured Salona and conquered the Partheni tribe. In commemoration of the event, he named his son Saloninus and, being the literary muse that he was, he used the captured loot to fund the construction of Rome’s first public library.73 Pollio’s expedition was a foreshadowing of things to come. The Romans were going to devote a great deal of attention to Illyria in the near future. Antonius had struck the first blow, but it would be Octavianus who would do most of the fighting from now on. If the Illyrians expected the same old see-saw routine of attack and counter-attack, then they seriously under-estimated what Octavianus was capable of.
In 36 BC, after two years of fighting and fiascos, Gaius Octavianus’ troops finally defeated Sextus Pompeius and took control of Sicily, thus eliminating the last stronghold of the anti-Caesar forces. Now he undertook a grand campaign against the Illyrian tribes. Unlike other commanders who attacked the tribes piecemeal, Octavianus desired to bring the entire Balkan region under Roman authority and therefore declared war on all of the Illyrians. The purpose for Octavianus’ grand war against the Illyrian tribes had more to do with politics than actual military threats. Both Octavianus and Antonius were engaged in a contest where both sides wanted to elevate their own image and degrade the other’s. Every time one accomplished something, the other tried to outdo it. So when Antonius achieved his objective in defeating the Partheni and other malcontents, Octavianus decided to do one better and conquer the entire region of Illyria, from the Adriatic to the Danube, from one end of the Balkans to the other.74
Octavianus’ war to subdue all Illyria was launched in 35 BC. According to Appianus, the war got off to a roaring
start. In just the first campaign season, Octavianus conquered eight tribes by military force. He also compelled six tribes who had previously been subdued by Rome to once again pay their annual tributes, which they had failed to do for a long time. Two other tribes voluntarily surrendered to the Romans out of fear. He completely exterminated the Meliteni tribe and the entire population of Corfu Island in response to their repeated acts of piracy, killing all of the young men and selling off the others as slaves, and destroyed the Liburnians’ navy. Then he turned his attention to the Japodes, who inhabited the eastern Alpine areas. Two of the Japode tribes surrendered at his approach and a third fled in terror, abandoning all of their settlements and surrendering soon afterwards.75
Figure 11: Marble bust of Caesar Augustus. This particular bust shows him wearing a ‘civic crown’, an award given to someone who saved the life of a Roman citizen. (Capitoline Museum, Rome. Public domain image. Wikimedia Commons)
The coastal tribes were easily subdued, but those that lived in the interior were much harder to defeat. By the end of the campaigning season of 35 BC, the rift between Octavianus and Marcus Antonius had widened to the point where things could never be fixed. According to Cassius Dio, Marcus Antonius ‘became more than ever a slave to the passion and the witchery of Cleopatra’.76 War between Rome and Egypt was now unavoidable, and Octavianus now had to deal with the situation in Africa. He couldn’t afford to be bogged down in the Balkans, so Octavianus made a hasty peace with the various tribes there, stating that any tribes not conquered by him during the war were still independent. Some of the Illyrians and Alpine tribes that had caused him a great deal of trouble got off lightly. Many of the tribes, however, probably felt that the war was concluded only due to the emergency in Egypt. Once Antonius and Cleopatra were out of the picture, Octavianus would surely return to settle unfinished business and continue his conquest of the Balkans and the Alps. The Illyrian warriors had the foresight to use the ceasefire to stockpile resources, especially large amounts of salt, preparing themselves for when hostilities recommenced.77
Octavianus went to Sicily, intending to sail to northern Africa. However, after being detained on the island due to bad weather, he gave up his plans. It was just as well because the Salassi tribe of northwestern Italy and three Illyrian tribes – the Japodes, the Liburnians and the Taurisci – took this opportunity of Octavianus’ absence to openly rebel against Roman rule. We are told that these tribes had already been treating the Romans with considerable disrespect for some time, they had stopped paying their tributes to Rome and they had periodically attacked neighbouring districts.78
When Octavianus heard about the trouble in Illyricum, he returned to the Balkans, even though he was short on manpower. He led his forces against the Japodes, and gave instructions to his subordinate commanders to have their respective forces attack certain tribes assigned to them in order to complete the war quicker; Marcus Corvinus defeated the Salassi and Gaius Vetus continued his attacks against the other Alpine tribes.79 Octavianus’ campaign into the mountains pushed the Roman military to its tactical and logistical limits. The tribes impeded the legions’ approach through the use of obstacles and occasional surprise attacks. The long dragging assault against the Japodes’ capital settlement of Metulum very nearly exhausted Octavianus’ fighting ability, and Octavianus himself was severely injured in one of the failed attempts to storm the city. Eventually, when it appeared that the Romans would gain the upper hand, the defenders of Metulum committed a mass suicide and burned down the town rather than allow it to fall to the Romans. The hardy Japodes had been defeated, but at the cost of thousands of Roman lives.80
Octavianus, having supposedly recovered from his injuries, now turned his attention to conquering the Pannonians, even though Cassius Dio protests that the Pannonians had done nothing to provoke the Romans. He morbidly and macabrely states that Octavianus’ war against the Pannonians was ‘to give his soldiers practice’81 and to supply his men with the plunder taken from them. He especially wanted to take control of the city of Segestica, their largest and most important settlement, because it would serve as an important base for staging future military campaigns in the north, especially against the Dacians of modern-day Romania who occasionally raided into Roman territory. As the Romans advanced northwards, the Pannonians abandoned their villages. At first, the Romans didn’t destroy or pillage their settlements because Octavianus wished to turn them into Roman subjects, but eventually the Pannonians stopped retreating and they began harassing the Roman column as it advanced towards Segestica. Faced with resistance, Octavianus ordered the country to be devastated and to take whatever plunder his men could find. Then the Roman legions arrived at the city. Surrounded and with no hope of aid, the Pannonians realized that they were going to lose the battle sooner or later, and they surrendered after a thirty-day siege. After Segestica surrendered to the Romans, the rest of Pannonia surrendered as well. Octavianus left one of his subordinate commanders, Fufius Geminus, in charge of holding the city with a small garrison and returned to Rome the victorious hero. He was awarded a triumph by the Senate, but he refused to accept it.82
Peace did not last. In 34 BC, Octavianus’ ally-turned-rival Marcus Antonius invaded and quickly seized the kingdom of Armenia, annexing it into the Roman Republic. Fearing that Antonius’ star was climbing too quickly, Octavianus knew that he had to do something spectacular to boost his public image, so he planned to emulate his predecessor Julius Caesar by launching an invasion of Britain. He was already advancing his men through Gaul when he received word that all of Illyria had risen in rebellion, that the legionary garrison at Segestica had come under attack by rebel forces, and Fufius Geminus, the commander that Octavianus had left in charge of Segestica, was driven out of the city. However, the report that reached Octavianus’ ears was incorrect. What actually happened was this: Chief Verzo (also called Versus) of the Dalmatians had captured the town of Promona from his enemies, the Liburnians, just as they had done almost twenty years earlier. Knowing that the Romans would retaliate, he placed 12,000 warriors within the town to defend it and smaller parties of men upon the jagged hills surrounding it. When Octavianus heard the report, he abandoned his objective of conquering Britain and hastily moved to Illyricum, ostensibly to teach the rebels a lesson and to bring this region firmly under his wing.83
Octavianus rendezvoused with his old battlefield comrade Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and together they planned their offensive. Their first objective was to take back the town of Promona. Octavianus, as usual, was precise and methodical. When the legions came near, the Roman army first seized the heights surrounding the town, and then Octavianus turned his attention towards laying siege to the town itself. Illyrian reinforcements led by a warlord named Testimos were repulsed by the Romans. Running short on men and food, Chief Verzo was forced to surrender. This opening victory enabled Octavianus to penetrate into the very centre of Dalmatian territory. Meanwhile, Testimos, the leader of the Illyrian relief party who had fortunately escaped, now took it upon himself to harass the Roman column as it advanced. However, Octavianus refused to allow himself to be lured into an unfavourable situation and his army continued on as ordered, capturing the towns of Synodium and Andetrium. When the Roman army reached the town of Setovia, they found a large Dalmatian army encamped just outside the walls. In the massive battle that followed, Octavianus was wounded in the knee by a flying sling-stone. Unable to walk, he handed over command of the army to one of his subordinates named General Titus Statilius Taurus. The Dalmatians were defeated, but they were able to retreat into the town. After resting in his tent for a few days to recover from his wound, Octavianus left for Rome in late autumn while General Taurus laid siege to Setovia. The siege lasted for almost a year. In 33 BC, Octavianus (who was now in his second consulship) left Rome and returned to Setovia to find that Taurus and his troops were still encamped around the town and had not made any progress in capturing it. Rations were dangerously low, and so too were discipline
and morale, and so Octavianus reinstituted the punishment of decimation: the systematic killing of every tenth man in a military unit. Usually, this punishment was instituted when an entire unit as a whole had shown cowardice in battle, but Octavianus used it as a punishment for desertion. Typically, the punishment for desertion was to be beaten to death by their fellow squad-mates. Unknown to the Romans, the Dalmatian defenders were now suffering from lack of food and the siege would surely be over soon. It is reported that when the rebels saw Octavianus reappear on the battlefield, they realized Rome’s dreaded resolve in seeing them crushed and they decided that the time had come to surrender.84
When Setovia fell, all of southern Illyria came firmly under Roman control. It had taken Rome nearly two centuries to get the job done. Rome imposed crushing conditions on the Illyrians to chasten their rebellious spirit: a high tribute had to be paid to Rome, they had to surrender the legionary eagles which they had captured, and they were to hand over 700 children to the Roman government to serve as peace hostages. At the end of 33 BC, Octavianus and his officers returned to Rome to bask in their battlefield glory. With Illyria subdued, he could once again turn his attentions towards the increasingly troubling matters surrounding Antonius and Cleopatra, as well as to conducting a massive public works project to restore areas of the Eternal City that had been left run down. As an example of this, General Taurus funded the construction of Rome’s first stone amphitheatre, and Octavianus himself used his war plunder to fund another public library in Rome (Pollio had founded the first), which was named, not surprisingly, the Octavian Library. In 31 BC, Antonius and Cleopatra were defeated at the epic Battle of Actium and Gaius Octavianus became Rome’s sole ruler. Four years later in January 27 BC, Octavianus handed over control of the province of Illyricum to the Roman Senate. That same month and year, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was awarded the title Augustus.85
The Great Illyrian Revolt Page 13