Brian W Jones The Emperor Domitian (pdf)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

below ground level, 41 metres long and 32 metres wide, the main
arch alone was 9 metres wide and 29 metres high. Strong describes it
as follows:
In scale of building, it rivals all the great monumental arches
constructed in the Roman world, and its massive severity must
have been as effective and impressive a piece of propaganda as
one could find throughout the Roman empire.49
Two incidents (possibly connected) that occurred after Agricola s
departure deserve brief mention. According to Suetonius, the
governor of Britain, Sallustius Lucullus, was executed by Domitian
for allowing a new type of lance to be named after himself (Dom.
10.3). Lucullus is an enigma. We must assign his command to the
years after Agricola (no other governor of Britain is known for the
years between 86/7 and 94/5),50 but can be no more precise than
that, since neither the year of his consulship, nor even his full name
is known unless he is to be identified with the suffect consul of 89,
P.Sallustius Blaesus.51 Various solutions have been proposed, one
being that his demise is to be connected with the hostility shown by
the general staff to Domitian s rejection of expansionist warfare in
Germany and Britain. Perhaps Lucullus had been appointed to
supervise the destruction of Inchtuthil, the withdrawal south, the
establishment of a new frontier and the elaborate pretence at
Richborough:52 opposition to what must have seemed a cowardly
policy would have been interpreted by Domitian as treason.
Connected with this reconstruction could be the unusually
generous awards (AE 1951:88) of three crowns and a silver
spearshaft granted to Gaius Julius Karus for his activities in a bellum
133
EMPEROR DOMITIAN
Brittannicum (sic).53 He almost certainly54 received his reward for
his actions in Domitian s reign, possibly some outstanding act of
loyalty towards the emperor at the time of Lucullus s treason . There
certainly are parallels for officers receiving exceptional awards for
their part in crushing conspiracies and rebellions Valerius Festus
was given decorations appropriate to a consul whilst he was still a
praetor, presumably for having Piso killed and thereby removing the
major opposition to Vespasian in Africa;55 and, in Domitian s reign,
the phrase bellum Britannicum is both ominous and significant, for
A.Bucius Lappius Maximus, who suppressed the revolt of
Saturninus, is attested as confector belli Germanici, whereas
Suetonius, avoiding the official euphemism, refers to the revolt as a
bellum civile (Dom. 6.2). Karus s tombstone (AE 1951:88) contains
other unusual features. The unit in which he served (coh. II Asturum
eq.) at the time of his memorable activities is named, but no honours
were awarded it, no title such as felix or invicta;56 even more
surprising is the omission of precisely what Karus did to have
received such lavish honours. Moreover, no wars are attested in
Britain at this time. So far, then, we have only negative evidence.
Two facts, though, can be added. The British governor s foot guards,
the pedites singulares Britanniciani,57 were around this time moved
from Britain and given separate but inferior status 58 perhaps for
remaining loyal to their governor rather than to their emperor.
Again, a diploma of 98 (CIL 16.43) contains a unit named cohors I
Fida Vardullorum civium Romanorum. The title is doubly unusual.
The cohort was one of the very few British units to receive Roman
citizenship en bloc. As well, Fida appeared not at the end of the
cohort s name, as was normal, but in the most prominent position,
where one would expect the imperial name: i.e. compare units such
as coh. I Aelia Dacorum (ILS 9150) or coh. II Flavia Brittonum
(ILS 1999).59 Perhaps it too had been loyal to Domitian.
All this evidence, positive and negative, should be considered in
the context of the military situation in Britain during Domitian s
reign after the departure of Agricola. The legionary fortress at
Inchtuthil was demolished not long after it had been built and
Roman forces in Scotland moved south. Many generals must have
resented Domitian s rejection of expansionist warfare and despised
him, the governor of Britain more than most, perhaps. Lucullus s
objections may have been reported by Karus, with appropriate
rewards and punishments following. But the connection with
Lucullus is far from inevitable;60 possibly, the bellum Britannicum
134
WAR I
should be assigned to the last years of Domitian s reign. Either
reconstruction must be regarded as speculative.
DANUBE
Domitian s sternest test was on the Danube, where he had to face
three opponents the Sarmatians (Iazyges and Roxolani) moving
ever westwards, the Suebic Germans (Marcomanni and Quadi) to
the north of Pannonia as well as the Dacians, emerging after a
century as a united group once again. Whilst the three were never
linked in solidarity through hatred for Rome or else distrust of her,
nonetheless preparations for war against the first two inevitably
involved defensive measures against the third. The problem was not
new,61 but it had reached its zenith by the last fifteen years of the
century, and Domitian was well aware of it from the beginning of
his reign.
It was not purely coincidental that, of the courtiers he summoned
to the Alban villa (Juvenal, Sat. 4), four of them had attested military
experience not in Germany or Britain, but in the Danubian area.
Pegasus (4.77) had governed Dalmatia, Rubrius Gallus (4.105) had
avenged the death of the Moesian governor Fonteius Agrippa,
slaying many of the Sarmatians (BJ 7.91 5), Cornelius Fuscus
(4.112) had been procurator of Pannonia and Pompeius (4.110), if
he was indeed M.Pompeius Silvanus Staberius Flavinus, had also
governed Dalmatia (Hist. 2.86, 3.50) during the civil war at the same
time as Fuscus was in Pannonia. As far as we know, no one else
listed by Juvenal had any military experience at all: Montanus (Sat.
4.107), if he was T.Junius Montanus, had served as military tribune
of the V Macedonica under Nero (AE 1970:500), but it, too, was
stationed in Moesia. Some of his other courtiers had also served in
the Balkans: Valerius Festus, described by Martial (1.78.10) as an
amicus of Domitian, had governed Pannonia early in Vespasian s
reign and was responsible for a considerable amount of construction
work in the area;62 Rutilius Gallicus had commanded the XV
Apollinaris early in Nero s reign when it was stationed at
Carnuntum, and held his second consulship and city prefecture
around the time of Domitian s first Danubian campaign;63 and T.
Aurelius Fulvus was legate of the III Gallica when it was sent to
Moesia during the civil war, defeating the Roxolani (Hist. 1.79), and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Odnośniki