ndividual. Even so, the subject almost baffles exposition. The reader who is repelled by a close concatenation of proper na

t is not necessary to praise political success or to idealize the men who win wealth and honours through civil war. The h

emies and even the memory of his earlier days, Augustus the Princeps, who was born in the year of Cicero’s consulate, lived

nerous in oblivion, regards with indulgence both the political orator who fomented civil war to save the Republic and the m

o fomented civil war to save the Republic and the military adventurer who betrayed and proscribed his ally. The reason for

assus was in the habit of observing that nobody should be called rich who was not able to maintain an army on his income. 2

. The financiers were strong enough to ruin any politician or general who sought to secure fair treatment for provincials o

ts of reform or of personal ambition became a mark of the politicians who arrogated to themselves the name of populares oft

nister and fraudulent, no better than their rivals, the men in power, who naturally invoked the specious and venerable auth

beian nobility in the Marian faction were the Junii and the Domitii,6 who became firm supporters of the new order. 6 Note

re important by far is that enigmatic faction soon to be led by a man who never became consul. Its origins lie at the very

. The youngest Clodia was the wife of L. Licinius Lucullus (cos. 74), who divorced her, making shocking allegations (Plutar

uth of the river Danube. A little apart stands M. Licinius Crassus, who commanded NotesPage=>021 1 See, above all,

4 L. Licinius Lucullus (cos. 74) and his brother Marcus (cos. 73), who was adopted by a M. Terentius Varro, cf. P-W XIII

evious paths and finally to dangerous elevations. Such were the men who directed in war and peace the government after Su

the consulate in his turn. 2 His aunt was the wife of Marius. Caesar, who took Cinna’s daughter in marriage, defied Sulla w

t sought to avert the penalty of death. It was the excellent consul who carried out the sentence of the NotesPage=>0

er Aemilii nor Claudii were quite to be trusted. The elusive Crassus, who had supported Catilina as far as his candidature

was aimed at the People’s general. 2 Among the ambitious politicians who had publicly spoken for the Lex Manilia were Cice

7, 3; Pliny, NH 9, 171. 2 For example, M. Atius Balbus from Aricia, who married Caesar’s sister Julia (Suetonius, Divus A

us (Varro, RR 2, 1, 2), the leading authority on goats (ib. 2, 3, 1), who had been a legate of Pompeius in the war against

Italy, and thereby put a double-edged weapon in the hand of Crassus, who disliked them both. 4 Nor was Pompeius’ consul ef

military man L. Afranius. The other place was won by Metellus Celer, who , to get support from Pompeius, stifled for the mo

comfort in political defeat. 4 Cato went too far. When the knights who farmed the taxes of Asia requested a rebate from

other than Brutus, adopted by his maternal uncle Q. Servilius Caepio ( who died in 67 B.C.) and bearing, as his official nam

. Crassus, was married by now to Cornelia, daughter of that P. Scipio who , adopted by Metellus Pius, became Q. Metellus Sci

vourite of the Optimates, T. Annius Milo, a brutal and vicious person who had married Fausta, the dissolute daughter of Sul

lic peace, especially Milo, to the dismay and grief of the Optimates, who strove in vain to save him. 7 Measures were passe

is support, when consul and proconsul, of the domination of Pompeius, who now, for supreme power, seemed likely to throw ov

ion. 3 More spectacular the eclipse of the plebeian Claudii Marcelli, who emulated the Scipiones in their great age: obscur

essitudinibus habuisse potiora. ’ 2 Namely Metellus Pius (cos. 80), who died in 64, Creticus (69) c. 54, L. Metellus(68)

. 54. 3 L. Cornelius Scipio Asiagenus (cos. 83), a Marian partisan, who was proscribed and escaped to Massilia, where he

was his only defence against the party that had attacked a proconsul who was fighting the wars of the Republic in the East

led the earlier career and inordinate ambition of the Sullan partisan who had first NotesPage=>050 1 Suetonius, Divu

that secret enemies would soon direct that deadly weapon against one who had used it with such dexterity in the past and w

eapon against one who had used it with such dexterity in the past and who more recently claimed to be asserting the rights

disappointed the rapacity or the idealism of certain of his partisans who had hoped for an assault upon the moneyed classes

Civil War. 1 Not everybody was as outspoken or as radical as Caelius, who passed from words to deeds and perished in an arm

exploited in two ways. The avenging of Caesar fell to his adopted son who assumed the title of Divi filius as consecration

e to time to enhance the contrast between the unscrupulous adventurer who destroyed the Free NotesPage=>053 1 Ad fam

PageBook=>054 State in his ambition and the modest magistrate who restored the Republic. In its treatment of Caesar

56 1 His imperious and arrogant temper was noted by contemporaries, who recalled his behaviour towards certain of the pri

and aloof, seemed to embody that ideal of character, admired by those who did not care to imitate. His was not a simple per

is own disloyalty: he composed a pamphlet in honour of the Republican who died true to his principles and to his class. The

with Servilia, public and notorious. Above all, to Brutus as to Cato, who stood by the ancient ideals, it seemed that Caesa

gt;059 Brutus and his allies might invoke philosophy or an ancestor who had liberated Rome from the Tarquinii, the first

RA, 257 ff. Ch. V THE CAESARIAN PARTY PageBook=>061 CAESAR, who took his stand on honour and prestige, asserted t

hip might be invoked in excuse. Hence one of the Marcelli, the consul who had placed a sword in the hand of Pompeius, mindf

Pompeians; likewise L. Marcius Philippus, the prudent son of a father who had passed unscathed through the faction-wars of

unscathed through the faction-wars of Marius and Sulla. 3 A consular who could stand neutral without the imputation of lac

ith Ap. Pulcher. 4 Both were spirited and eloquent, especially Curio, who had already, despite his youth, won rank by vigou

ors chose Caesar, but young nobiles at that, kinsmen of the consulars who supported Pompeius and of Cato’s partisans. 2 C

ly thirty years before. The memory of Sulla was loathed even by those who stood by the order he had established. Pompeius’

coup d’état, Pompeius had only one censor on his side, Ap. Claudius, who strove to expel Curio from the Senate. His collea

Caesarian C. Sallustius Crispus, a young man from the Sabine country who had plunged into politics, a tribune conspicuous

ere revived and strengthened in the generation of Caesar by Servilia, who worked steadily to restore the dignity and power

nce person and family. The NotesPage=>069 1 Q. Fabius Maximus, who died in his consulate (45 B.C.). 2 Cicero would

d enlightened Postumus lent large sums of money to the King of Egypt, who , unable to repay his benefactor in hard cash, did

s as it was soon to be called), there was a chieftain of the Vocontii who had led the cavalry of his tribe for Pompeius aga

so have inherited the Spanish connexion of his old associate Crassus, who had once raised a private army in the Peninsula.

iumph of the young Pompeius. But in Africa the adventurer P. Sittius, who had built up a kingdom for himself, was mindful o

ther was called Cn. Cornelius (ILS 8995), and may be a Gallic notable who got the citizenship from a Cn. Cornelius Lentulus

77 and estates were characters as diverse as Servilia and P. Sulla1 who had acquired an evil name for his acquisitions th

ship found him building, a sign of opulence and display. 2 Senators who had been adherents of the proconsul, distinguishe

f freed slaves, less raw and alien perhaps than some of the intruders who derived from remote and backward parts of Italy t

eius 2, 51, 3. Balbus was quaestor in Hispania Ulterior under Pollio, who reports, among other enormities, that he had a Ro

Antonius and the obscure M. Cispius, a man of character and principle who had been condemned on a charge of corruption. 3 C

he brothers Caepasii, ‘ignoti homines et repentini small-town orators who became quaestors (Cicero, Brutus 242), C. Billien

e quaestors (Cicero, Brutus 242), C. Billienus, ‘homo per se magnus’, who was nearly elected consul c. 105–100 (ib. 175), L

k=>082 relegated by the consul Gabinius, and the great Rabirius, who inherited the generous virtues and unimpaired for

thers carried his lineage back to Attius Tullus, a king of the Volsci who had fought against Rome. 3 Yet there was no lac

ly indicates the village of origin of the Claudii. 5 For a Claudius who ‘Italiam per clientelas occupare temptavit’ (prob

they did their best, producing that Brutus, himself of Tarquin blood, who expelled the tyrants and became the first consul

ruscan. 7 NotesPage=>085 1 Pliny, NH 7, 136 (a Tusculan consul who deserted and became consul at Rome in the same ye

). The origin of the Caecilii Metelli is not known. Caeculus, the god who founded Praeneste, is said to have been their anc

up hope. An amnesty in the form of an offer of the citizenship to any who laid down their arms within sixty days may have w

aecenas from Arretium is named among the strong and steadfast knights who offered public opposition to M. Livius Drusus; 4

ition to M. Livius Drusus; 4 and L. Visidius was one of the partisans who watched over the life of Cicero when Catilina, th

of the centurions in Bell. Afr. 54, 5. PageBook=>090 proconsul who , like him, had crushed the Gauls, the traditional

ius or to Balbus he did not gratify the expectations of Rabirius; and who at this time had ever heard of Salvidienus Rufus,

evade detection, certain of the marshals, adherents of long standing who had fought in Gaul, conspired to assassinate thei

the Capitol. Their coup had been countered by the Caesarian leaders, who , in negotiation with them, adopted a firm and eve

e of the debate, at once thwarting the proposal of Ti. Claudius Nero, who demanded special honours for the tyrannicides. Ye

among the authors of disorder was a certain Herophilus (or Amatius), who sought to pass himself off as a grandson of C. Ma

edy: for the rest, the aged, the timid and the untrustworthy. Cicero, who had lent his eloquence to all political causes in

onths of Caesar’s life, artfully fomented by his enemies; and Caesar, who had taken up arms in defence of the rights of the

valrous soldier was no match in statecraft for the astute politicians who undermined his predominance, stole his partisans,

ry Petronius, an excellent proconsul of Bithynia (Ann. 16, 18), Otho, who governed Lusitania with integrity (ib. 13, 46) an

cum virtutibus’. PageBook=>106 secured for Brutus and Cassius ( who were praetors) a dispensation to remain away from

sonably secure. At home the one menace was assassination. Republicans who cursed the melancholy incompleteness of the glori

n the consular marshals evaded undue prominence, Fufius and Caninius, who had been legates of Caesar in Gaul and elsewhere,

n legates of Caesar in Gaul and elsewhere, and Cn. Domitius Calvinus, who had fought in Thessaly, Pontus and Africa. There

e with an escort of veterans, much to the disquiet of the Liberators, who wrote to him in vain protestation. 2 Hirtius too

Brutus and Cassius were there, also the faithful Favonius and Cicero, who was mercilessly snubbed by Servilia when he embar

g of the Senate announced for August 1st; it may also have been known who was to take the lead, namely the respected consul

o ĸαί тἀ тῆς δυνασт∊ίας ἔ⍴γα έγίγν∊тo. The motives of the politicians who supported Octavianus are thus reproduced: έ⌽ίλoυν

ived at Rome. Servilia promised to pass on her information to Cicero, who was jubilant ‘videtur enim res publica ius suum r

In haste Antonius proposed a vote complimentary to his ally Lepidus ( who had brought Sex. Pompeius to terms) and carried t

tionary in origin, attracting all the enemies of society old soldiers who had dissipated gratuities and farms, fraudulent f

nvestors, among them some of the wealthiest bankers of Rome. Atticus, who refused to finance the war-chest of the Liberator

and bandits, sinister, fraudulent and murderous Domitius the Apulian who poisoned his nephew, Annius Cimber, freedman’s so

Plancus Bursa the incendiary, the histrionic Caesennius Lento, Nucula who had written pantomimes, the Spaniard Decidius Sax

manded the legio Martia for Octavianus at Mutina (Ad fam. 10, 33, 4): who impelled the legion to desert Antonius is not rec

ong his generals and they are not an impressive company. 1 Senators who had come safely through civil war or who owed ran

essive company. 1 Senators who had come safely through civil war or who owed rank and fortune to one revolution were not

mpathy, if not support, from some of the more respectable Caesarians, who were alienated by the pretensions of Antonius, al

le Cicero stood out as the head and front of the group of politicians who intended to employ the Caesarian adventurer to de

verse and unjust to rail and carp at an aspirant to political honours who , after espousing various popular causes and suppo

was intimidated by the bloodthirsty threats of the absent Pompeians, who would deal with neutrals as with enemies. Spain m

till not beyond hope: to save it, what better champion than a patriot who boasted never to have been a party politician? As

not Antonius only, but the neutrals. Cicero was not the only consular who professed to be defending the highest good of the

nce of Cicero could not prevail over the doubts and misgivings of men who knew his character and NotesPage=>146 1 BC

o him no harm. 9 Nor was it Caesar’s enemies but his beloved soldiery who devised the appropriate songs of licence at Caesa

e: but it might be hard to resist the deceitful assertions of a party who claimed to be the champions of liberty and the la

emity of civil war. Among Caesar’s allies Pollio was not the only one who followed the friend but cursed the cause. The con

si posset aliqua ratione perduci ad sanitatem. ’ PageBook=>159 who led them: salutary compulsion from the army would

d of all the wars the victor proclaimed that he had killed no citizen who had asked for mercy:1 his clemency was published

perhaps he indulged in mild parody of that smooth exemplar. Plancus, who had served as Caesar’s legate in the Gallic and i

ches and letters protesting love of peace and loyalty to the Republic who did not? But Plancus, it is clear, was coolly wai

cos. suff. 45) and the two consuls of 53, M. Valerius Messalla Rufus, who lived on obscure and unrecorded (he was augur for

ate had granted before now imperiutm and the charge of a war to a man who had held no public office. But there were limits.

urther, a distinguished knight and an excellent patriot, L. Visidius, who had watched over Cicero’s safety during his consu

rst or second day of February the envoys returned, lacking Sulpicius, who had perished on the arduous journey, and announci

forced to disown their compromising ally. It was Calenus and no other who proposed a motion declaring Dolabella a public en

ally fought at Mutina (Ad fam. 10, 30, 1). It was Q. Terentius Culleo who joined Antonius instead of opposing his invasion

lack of principle. They had no quarrel with Antonius; it was not they who had built up a novel and aggressive faction, mobi

careerist, but the Stoic Favonius, the friend of Cato and of Brutus, who pronounced civil war to be the worst of evils, wo

ped to the West. Men blamed the slowness and indecision of D. Brutus; who , for his part, advocated the summoning of Marcus

ir faces the relatives of Caesar (presumably Philippus and Marcellus) who appeared to be supporting the ambition of Octavia

utus refused to concur in the hounding down of the family of Lepidus, who had married his own half-sister. Family ties had

my friends’, the young man observed. 1 But even now there were some who did not lose hope. In the evening came a rumour t

ul along with Q. Pedius, an obscure relative of unimpeachable repute, who did not survive the honour by many months. The ne

. Canidius Crassus and Rufrenus were fervent Antonians; 1 M. Silanus, who had carried his messages to Antonius, soon fell a

the private rights of citizenship no disproportionate revenge for men who had been declared public enemies. Rome shivered

iumvirate according to the Pact of Bononia. There were many men alive who remembered Sulla. Often enough before now proscri

estates were no doubt invented or enhanced by many astute individuals who owed security, if not enrichment, to the Caesaria

4 On this, cf. especially M. A. Levi, Ottaviano Capoparte 1, 229 ff. who perhaps emphasizes too much the impersonal charac

n a famous lawsuit. 7 Namely L. Quinctius, of unascertained origin, who perished at sea (Appian, BC 4, 27, 114). 8 Pro

ilies, such as the Aelii Lamiae from Formiae or the Vinicii of Cales, who are not known to have been proscribed, either enj

peius, noted for his fish-ponds. 4 Statius, the octogenarian Samnite, who survived the Bellum Italicum and became a Roman s

a Roman senator, now perished for his wealth; 5 so did M. Fidustius, who had been proscribed by Sulla, and the notorious C

r to the Liberators, curtailed their own survival. 4 Few men indeed who already belonged to the Senate before the outbrea

. XIII, part 1); and perhaps Q. Marcius Crispus, if he be the Marcius who also was cos. suff. in that year. Nothing is know

ninius Gallus, T. Peducaeus, M. Herennius the Picene and L. Vinicius, who have left no record of service to the rulers of R

m the ancient colony of Norba, P-W xvii, 926. Canidius may be the man who was with Cato in Cyprus in 57 B.C. (Plutarch, Cat

ius is unknown: but observe the Roman knight from Picenum, Q. Sosius, who attempted to set fire to the public archives (Cic

f action. From the beginning, the faction of Octavianus invited those who had nothing to lose from war and adventure, among

e across the Adriatic under C. Norbanus Flaccus and L. Decidius Saxa, who marched along the Via Egnatia across Macedonia, p

there was delay. Octavianus turned aside to deal with Sex. Pompeius, who by now had won possession of all Sicily, sending

k swept over the Caesarian lines and captured the camp of Octavianus, who was not there. A certain mystery envelops his mov

Ionian Sea intercepted and destroyed the fleet of Domitius Calvinus, who was conveying two legions to Dyrrhachium. 3 It wa

nothing but a contest of despots over the corpse of liberty. The men who fell at Philippi fought for a principle, a tradit

t no help. He was actively hindered by the other consul, L. Antonius, who , aided by the faithful and imperious Fulvia, the

his confidential agent, Caecina of Volaterrae, and L. Cocceius Nerva, who was a personal friend of Antonius, on an urgent m

in the hope of effecting a junction with the generals of his brother who held all the Gallic provinces. Octavianus, with

tion was precarious. He had already recalled his marshal Salvidienus, who was marching to Spain with six legions to take ch

ears, been carried out, perhaps owing to the recalcitrance of Pollio, who had adopted an ambiguous and threatening attitude

ing north-eastwards with Agrippa, he confronted Pollio and Ventidius, who , undecided and at variance, refused battle and re

. 3 Further, he composed poems of traditional obscenity about Pollio, who evaded the challenge with a pointed sneer at the

The remainder were put to death among them Ti. Cannutius, the tribune who had presented Caesar’s heir before the people whe

Perusia, with the exception, it is said, of one man, an astute person who in Rome had secured for himself a seat upon the j

d resource in a confused war against T. Sextius, the former governor, who had remained in the province, was at last overcom

icily and gave pledge of his sentiments by taking to wife Scribonia,4 who was the sister of that Libo whose daughter Sex. P

Glaphyra,4 succumbed with good will but did not surrender. The Queen, who was able to demonstrate her loyalty to the Caesar

BC 5, 52, 217): they brought with them Julia, the mother of Antonius, who had fled to Sicily. Ti. Claudius Nero and his wif

antiquity with confidence instal a younger son of Pollio, Saloninus, who duly smiled at birth and conveniently perished al

n their new alliance, Antonius revealed the treachery of Salvidienus; who was arraigned for high treason before the Senate

essalla, Bibulus and others transferred their allegiance to Antonius, who , though a Caesarian, was one of themselves, a sol

istocrats would have disdained to associate with the young adventurer who had made his way by treachery and who, by the vir

ciate with the young adventurer who had made his way by treachery and who , by the virtue of the name of Caesar, won the sup

d by Pacorus, the King’s son, and by the renegade Roman, Q. Labienus, who styled himself Tarthicus imperator’,4 the horseme

tulation of Samosata. Ventidius departed, and in November the Picene, who had been led a captive by Pompeius Strabo fifty-o

already being hampered by the claims and acts of his young colleague, who , as in his revolutionary début, had everything to

help of Antonius, sending Maecenas on a mission to Greece. Antonius, who wished to have his hands free of western entangle

y had been driven or duped. Ahenobarbus kept away from Sex. Pompeius, who gave guarantee neither of victory nor even of per

r Saturninus is the Sentius Saturninus Vetulo, one of the proscribed, who , along with Libo conducted Julia, the mother of A

his son, C. Sentius Saturninus (cos. 19 B.C.), a better-known person ( who is clearly referred to by Velleius, 2, 77, 3). Th

he tribune Livius Drusus),2 she married a kinsman, Ti. Claudius Nero, who had fought for Caesar against Pompeius, for L. An

of the year. 5 One of the suffect consuls was L. Marcius Philippus, who had probably followed the discreet and ambiguous

he moment Antonius was loyal to the Caesarian alliance; but Antonius, who came to Brundisium but departed again without a c

egions in Messana, offered to surrender. Lepidus, overriding Agrippa, who was present, accepted the capitulation in his own

cribed Marian consul, be accorded this rank: Norbanus was the general who along with Saxa opened the operations against the

fell at Mutina for the Republic or for Octavianus. 3 Sex. Peducaeus, who had served under Caesar in the Civil Wars, was on

for the first time among his generals or active associates seven men who had held or were very soon to hold the consulate,

isan of Antonius. 5 L. Cornificius (cos. 35) was the astute careerist who undertook to prosecute the absent Brutus under

Lepidus went with Caesar’s heir from hatred of his triumviral uncle ( who had proscribed his father) or from a motive of

S 925), in which latter function he was probably succeeded by Taurus, who was also augur (ILS 893a). Taurus held ‘complura

mage, and literature meant more to him than war and politics; Sosius ( who triumphed in 34) constructed a temple to Apollo;

and from Cicero alike. The young men of promise, C. Licinius Calvus, who stood in the forefront of political speakers, and

ommend itself to mystical inclinations. How far Atticus and Balbus, who still lived on without public signs of their exis

time of Sulla come again; in a larger sphere, the epoch of the kings who inherited the empire of Alexander. To discern whi

it of the least pretentious of contemporary writers, Cornelius Nepos, who compiled brief historical biographies designed fo

d a school of Roman poets had disappeared almost to a man. Lucretius, who turned into epic verse the precepts of Epicurus,

alerius Cato, the instructor of young poets, nor M. Furius Bibaculus, who wrote epigrams, elegies and an epic, were probabl

apidly. Young Propertius came too late. The consular Pollio, however, who had ties with the new poets, survived to write ve

he north after Philippi; and Pollio is the earliest patron of Virgil, who was the son of an owner of property from the town

cus was the son of a wealthy freedman from Venusia, a city of Apulia, who believed in the value of education and was willin

s still to be found in the higher ranks of the Senate a number of men who had come to maturity in years when Rome yet displ

cia, had disappeared, mainly for the benefit of Amyntas the Galatian, who received a vast domain, embracing Galatia, Pisidi

aesar and won a kingdom for his reward; 2 and Antipater the Idumaean, who had lent help to Gabinius and to Caesar, governed

enobarbus had been governor of Bithynia since the Pact of Brundisium: who was his successor in that province, and who held

e the Pact of Brundisium: who was his successor in that province, and who held Macedonia with the command of Antonius’ Balk

r and a legate of Plancus in Gaul. 5 Other diplomats were Q. Dellius, who deserted Dola-bella and Cassius in turn, and the

us in turn, and the elegant C. Fonteius Capito, a friend of Antonius, who journeyed from Rome to the conference of Tarentum

ntonius had trained Sosius, the conqueror of Jerusalem, and Canidius, who had marched on Pompeius’ path to the Caucasus. 7

ng the Antonians were M. Licinius Crassus, M. Octavius and a Metellus who defies close identification. 6 The total of nob

sar true son of the Dictator and ruler in conjunction with Cleopatra, who was to be ‘Queen of Kings’ over the eastern depen

e abode there as consort of Egypt’s Queen, the father of her children who were crowned kings and queens, his dual role as R

rent, not only to Antonius, but to other contemporaries for Antonius, who , more honest, still employed the name, again offe

38). CN. Pompeius was the son of Q. Pompeius rufus (tr. pl. 52 B.C.), who was the offspring of the marriage between the son

arty of Antonius should be Roman, not regal. Not so Munatius Plancus, who set himself to win the favour of Cleopatra, prono

s hated the Queen and was averse from war. Yet it was not Ahenobarbus who ran away, but Plancus. Accompanied by his nephew

dynast. Such at least was the plea and profession. The local gentry, who controlled the policy of the towns, could create

riends and partisans. It would be a brave man, or a very foolish one, who asserted the cause of liberty anywhere in the vic

the East, was in himself no menace to the Empire, but a future ruler who could hope to hold it together. But Antonius vict

probably received some kind of assurance. PageBook=>291 Those who were not deceived by the artifices of Octavianus

2 The author was a son of the relegated Lepidus: his wife, Servilia, who had once been betrothed to Octavianus, bravely fo

: he even claimed that after his victory he spared all Roman citizens who asked to be spared. 4 dementia became one of his

ing given in marriage to Juba, the prince of the Numidian royal stock who became King of Mauretania. Such was the fate of

to her stability than did any foreign enemy. After Actium, the victor who had seduced in turn the armies of all his adversa

ind him. Treachery destroys both the credit and the confidence of any who deal in that commodity. No ruler could have faith

ceded since Actium to other proconsuls, and to one commander at least who was perhaps not a proconsul and was certainly not

and ambitious, succumbed to imprudence or the calumny of his enemies, who no doubt were numerous. Octavianus disowned him,

e son of Octavianus’ half-sister, followed Taurus in Spain. Messalla, who triumphed from Gaul on September 25th, 27 B.C., w

ty. Crassus was a noble, from a great house, the grandson of a dynast who had taken rank with Pompeius and Caesar; in milit

d Caesar; in military glory he was a sudden rival to the new Romulus, who tried to engross and concentrate on his own perso

ity of the State, that was due to the ruinous ambition of politicians who sought power illegally and held it for glory and

elucidated by Premerstein (Vom Werden und Wesen des Prinzipats, 227), who demonstrates that after 27 B.C. the consulate was

equired was not the ambitious and perfidious dynast but that Pompeius who had fallen as Caesar’s enemy, as a champion of th

ostly and sanctified Cato were not the only victims of the Civil Wars who could be called up and enlisted in the service of

great patriot. ’2 But any official cult of Cicero was an irony to men who recalled in their own experience—it was not long

ance. Well might he say, when asked his verdict on Cato, that anybody who does not wish the present dispensation to be alte

tatus auctor’. 2 He called it the Optimus status’ himself: the writer who has transmitted these unexceptionable observation

to, however, was not merely ‘ferox’ but ‘atrox’. 4 His nephew Brutus, who proclaimed a firm determination to fight to the e

Names might change: Augustus was none the less a revolutionary leader who won supreme power through civil war. All that he

they are praetorian in a majority. That was to be expected. Consulars who had governed vast provinces as proconsuls, who ha

be expected. Consulars who had governed vast provinces as proconsuls, who had fought wars under their own auspices and had

pe of a triumph. 3 The wars of Augustus were waged in the main by men who reached the consulate under the new order. The

5 B.C. (PIR2, A 71); L. Sempronius Atratinus and L. Cornelius Balbus, who triumphed in 21 and 19 B.C. respectively (CIL 12,

ountaineers rose again and again. In Ulterior the brutal P. Carisius, who continued in command, was a match for them. 6 P

ostensibly prophetic, in an Ode addressed to Licinius (2, 10, 9 ff.) who is probably Murena. 3 Dio 53, 24, 2. 4 Ib. 54

cius; and a new generation of nobiles was growing up, the sons of men who had fallen in the last struggle of the Republic,

lius Gallus and P. Petronius, were dim figures compared with the poet who had commanded armies in the wars of the Revolutio

lf in the island of Lesbos, a pleasant resort and well chosen for one who wished to keep watch over the Balkans as well as

eader and political successor of Caesar the Dictator, and Octavianus, who was his heir in name and blood. The sentiments

oman loathed the effeminate and sinister descendant of Etruscan kings who flaunted in public the luxury and the vices in wh

biguous charms of the actor Bathyllus; 1 he despised the vile epicure who sought to introduce a novel delicacy to the banqu

itas beyond all others, he could invite to a share in his rule allies who would not be rivals. It was hardly to be expect

.C Some made quick repentance, joining the company of those renegades who rose to high office, Crassus, Titius and M. Juniu

eritate lectus. ’ 3 C. Sosius was among the XVviri sacris faciundis who supervised the celebration of the Secular Games i

now revivified the economy of Italy. The speculators and the bankers who supported with their funds, willing or constraine

uestrian order, that is to say, for knights (including senators’ sons who had not yet held the quaestorship). Ex-centurions

n, had a son of equestrian rank, T. Flavius Sabinus the tax gatherer, who was the father of a Roman Emperor. 3 By the time

his type. Note also P. Considius (BG 1, 21, 3), a centurion or knight who had served in the armies of Sulla and of Crassus.

d before he devoted himself to the study of rhetoric. Pompeius Macer, who was the son of the Mytilenean historian, was proc

aef. | fabr. II, pro leg. II.’ Cf. also ILS 2707, the inscr. of a man who was ‘trib. mil. leg. x geminae | in Hispania anni

ht of giving his daughter Julia in marriage to the knight Proculeius, who was commended by a blameless character and a heal

ith a name of this type is Sex. Vitulasius Nepos, cos. suff. A.D. 78, who probably comes from the land of the vestini (ILS

d Valgius) there are in all the years 15 B.C. A.D. 3 very few consuls who are not of consular families. The mere six novi h

ius Lamia (cos. A.D. 3) was highly respectable, the grandson of a man who had been ‘equestris ordinis princeps’. Nothing de

ly by such as take the rule of the People as their ideal. The Romans, who distrusted democracy, were able to thwart the exe

: ‘manent posteri eorum. ’ 2 Junius Gallio, a speaker of some note, who adopted one of the three sons of Seneca the Elder

k upon his earlier supporters the plebs, the veterans and the knights who had won the War of Actium. In the crisis of 23 B.

e brutal among the grosser anomalies, men designated to the consulate who had never been senators, such as Balbus the Elder

the Fasti of the years following are to be discovered the aristocrats who rallied to the Principate, receiving the consulat

le might be a mere form, but it could not be abolished by a statesman who claimed to have restored the Free State. That was

thy which was held to be right and proper, a debt repaid to ancestors who had deserved well of the Roman People. 6 Yet ther

that conferred the consulate upon C. Valgius Rufus, an erudite person who wrote poems and composed a treatise on the scienc

m mentiri clarorum imagines erat aliquis virtutum amor. ’ 4 Nobiles who miss the consulate are, for example, Cornelius Su

rn. To receive Julia, Tiberius was compelled to divorce his Vipsania, who fell to Gallus, Pollio’s ambitious son. What wo

by her two marriages: from the first, C. Marcellus and two Marcellas, who soon became available for matrimonial alliances,

e Princeps had seized all the prerogatives of the nobility. The youth who had invested his patrimony for the good of the St

lege that celebrated the Secular Games; 5 and it was C. Ateius Capito who then interpreted the Sibylline oracle no doubt to

fore long the more important of his provinces were held by consulars, who are the principal ministers of state and therefor

Sallustius Crispus. The great minister also adopted his friend’s son, who became in time the husband of two princesses of t

Aelia Galla, the daughter, it may be presumed, of that Aelius Gallus who was the second Prefect of Egypt,6 and who was sub

umed, of that Aelius Gallus who was the second Prefect of Egypt,6 and who was subsequently to adopt the son of Seius Strabo

and in the East,1 found successors in the New State; and the freedmen who managed the private finances and political machin

ial rank for M. Salvius Otho, the consulate for M. Plautius Silvanus, who was the son of her intimate friend Urgulania. 4

t Narcissus that he owed the command of a legion. 3 The four emperors who followed Nero in the space of a single year were

consul, it is true; but the authority of Agrippa, Maecenas and Livia, who ruled Rome in secret, knew no name or definition

ous years. 3 So it was Tiberius, as legate of Illyricum, not Agrippa, who subdued the Pannonians and Dalmatians (12-9 B.C

nobiles can hardly be said to fare any better. 3 To the military men who served the dynasty and the State, Augustus and hi

rritories and armies of his provincia through his legati pro praetore who , for reasons various and cumulative, were almost

When Pompeius got for Caesar the Gallic command he gave him Labienus, who must have had previous experience. 2 Another Pomp

anish wars and against Mithridates. 3 He was one of the three legates who governed Spain for Pompeius. Of the others, the o

itary reasons: elderly novi homines were safe. Lollius and Quirinius, who won the consulate by ‘militaris industria’, subse

n of the political danger. But Agrippa departed in 13 B.C. M. Titius, who possessed a long experience of the East from his

f. 5 Dio 54, 34, 6, cf. Anth. Pal. 6, 241. 6 Orosius (6, 21, 22), who assigns to him an Alpine war, and Suetonius (De r

elogium from Tibur (ILS 918). This inscr. records the career of a man who was legate of Augustus in a province the name of

uleius (cos. 29 B.C.); 2 the next legate was L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who marched across Germany from the Danube to the Elb

lorus 2, 28 f.; Tacitus, Ann. 4, 44), cf. now E. Groag, PIK2, C 1379, who demonstrates that he is the consul of 14 B.C., no

B.C.–A.D. 6. PageBook=>401 As for the Rhine, it is not certain who followed Tiberius in 6 B.C.1 Before long, however

arge of other roads radiating from Rome, fell to some of his generals who had recently celebrated triumphs both Messalla an

any years. They were Plancus and Paullus Aemilius Lepidus, colleagues who proved discordant with each other and perhaps rec

city of marble. 3 The observation was true in every sense. Augustus, who waived the name of Romulus, could justly claim to

lass of provincial magnates recall by their gentilicia the proconsuls who gave them the franchise; the newer Roman, however

ost ground. When life ebbed along with power, the descendant of kings who had led to battle the legions of Etruria surrende

soldier. Next in power and next in crime was C. Sallustius Crispus, who inherited the name, the wealth and the luxurious

nas had suppressed the conspiracy of young Lepidus: it was Sallustius who procured the removal of Agrippa Postumus. 1 Histo

ships of the imperial provinces. But it was a freedman called Licinus who assessed and exploited for Augustus the resources

. esp. T. Frank, JRS XXIII (1933), 143 ff. 8 The freedman Polybius, who wrote out a part of Augustus’ will (Suetonius, Di

f Augustus’ will (Suetonius, Divus Aug. 101, 1) is perhaps the person who turns up as a studiis and a libellis under Claudi

e matters Augustus required expert advisers. As time went on, knights who had served in the provinces as procurators became

g committee enabled the Princeps to keep in touch with the Senate but who decided the business to be brought before that co

ve played his part along with the diplomatic Plancus. It was Messalla who twenty-five years later introduced the decree of

ph. Ep. VIII, p. 317, probably of 21 B.C., mentions a Cn. Dom[itius], who can hardly be anybody else. On this, and on other

ate Calvinus’ colleague in the consulate, M. Valerius Messalla Rufus, who wrote on augury, may still have been alive. Messa

s averted by a veiled coup d’état on the part of certain military men who constrained Nerva to adopt and designate as his s

His career was ended, his life precarious. Of that, none could doubt who studied dynastic politics and the working of huma

n, M. Annaeus Lucanus from Corduba. Among the nobiles were magnates who stood close to Augustus in the inner circle of th

ight never return. On her own side of the family she lacked relatives who might be built up into a faction. 2 To be sure, t

onius, Galba 4, 1), was a distant relative. Likewise Livia Medullina, who died on her wedding day (Suetonius, Divus Claudiu

consular Marcellus is Aeserninus (22 B.C.), a person of no great note who had been a partisan of Caesar the Dictator. As fo

l connexions, such as that mild-mannered person P. Quinctilius Varus, who were not so deeply committed to the court faction

Pompeius; 1 and there were now descendants of Pompeius and Scribonia, who intermarried with certain Livii, kinsfolk of Tibe

btle and eloquent Ti. Sem-pronius Gracchus,4 an Ap. Claudius Pulcher, who may have been the son or grandson of the consul o

hand of Livia might have been suspected, bearing heavily on the Julii who supplanted her son. But no ancient testimony make

came to Samos with due submission to pay his respects to the kinsman who had supplanted him; he returned again to his retr

ed to studious neglect of the head of the Claudian house. 5 Tiberius, who honoured, if ever a Republican noble did, the sac

ate function of guiding C. Caesar succeeded P. Sulpicius Quirinius, who had paid assiduous court to the exile of Rhodes w

f Lanuvium was accorded a public funeral on the instance of Tiberius, who took occasion to remind the Senate of Quirinius’

139). 3 Above, p. 418, n. 2. Cf. E. Hohl, Klio xxx (1937), 337 ff., who argues that the conspiracy of L. Aemilius Paullus

ng the power to the Claudii only. He was constrained to adopt a youth who perpetuated the descent of the municipal Octavii,

perhaps, and more solid achievement than is indicated by a historian who omits Ahenobarbus and is as cool about the servic

, were dead, others discredited, others displaced. Astute politicians who had not committed themselves too deeply were quic

history for his loyalty to Tiberius perhaps the son of that Lucilius who was the friend of Brutus and of Antonius. 1 Tiber

cessor, though only for a year, was L. Aelius Lamia, a lively old man who enjoyed high social distinction although the firs

a, with one legion, was governed by the proconsul L. Nonius Asprenas, who was succeeded in that office by L. Aelius Lamia.

ugust 19th, A.D. 14, the Princeps died at Nola in Campania. Tiberius, who had set out for Illyricum, was recalled by urgent

ged the personnel, but not the character, of government. The same men who had won the wars of the Revolution now controlled

d revolution, enamoured of ease after trouble, and the newly enriched who aped the extravagances of the aristocracy without

The Secular Games were therefore held in 17 B.C. Q. Horatius Flaccus, who composed the hymn, extolled, along with peace and

dom exemplars of the domestic virtues of the Roman matron the Claudia who domum servavit, lanam fecit. 7 PageNotes. 444

in marriage. The emancipation of women had its reaction upon the men, who , instead of a partner from their own class, prefe

perhaps ex-magistrates). 2 The municipia, or rather the local dynasts who controlled them, were sufficiently aware of the q

as the virile peasant soldier, rusticorum mascula militum proles, who had stained the seas red with Carthaginian blood,

litum proles, who had stained the seas red with Carthaginian blood, who had shattered Pyrrhus, Antiochus and Hannibal. 5

ortem ducibus’; also the lists of names in Odes 1, 12 (with a Scaurus who hardly belongs there) and in Virgil, Aen. 6, 824

a contemporary historian, cf. the Sabine Sp. Ligustinus (Livy 42, 34) who inherited from his father one iugerum of land and

lord. It was observed with malicious glee that neither of the consuls who gave their names to the Lex Papia Poppaea had wif

eation conscious or unconscious of patriotic historians or publicists who adapted to Roman language Greek theories about pr

aly, for it included the descendants of Italian colonists and natives who had received the Roman citizenship equally Roman

paragons will be set the figure of the earliest Narbonensian senator who attained prominence in Rome, Cn. Domitius Afer, o

itedius (ib. 85); Bruttedius (3, 66). Note also the orator Murredius, who dragged in obscene jokes (Seneca, Controv. 1, 2,

public liberty; but it does not follow that the poets and historians who lent their talent to the glorification of the new

ed and confused. There was patriotic recollection of the great Marius who had saved Italy from the German invader, there wa

had saved Italy from the German invader, there was devotion to Caesar who had championed the communities of Italia Transpad

ll the realities of reconciliation, there must still have been Romans who were a little shocked at hearing the army of the

14. 6 Ib. 4, 1, 127 ff. 7 Aelia Galla, wife of Postumus (3, 12), who is presumably C. Propertius Postumus (ILS 914). T

erature, a composite or rather an imaginary figure. The poet himself, who had married three times, was not unhappy in his l

ves could be commended Augustus set up a monument in honour of a girl who had produced five children at one birth. 5 For re

tae, from Aeneas and Romulus in the beginning down to recent worthies who had held triumphs or received the ornamenta trium

would come in due course, from merit and for service, as to Hercules, who had made the world habitable for mankind, and to

the Civil Wars he had put to death no citizen of his enemies’ armies who had asked that his life be spared. 3 The claim wa

3 The claim was impudent: it is refuted by one of his own historians who , praising the ‘lenitas ducis’ after Actium, excla

ncy in the last emergency, if believed, would reveal one man at least who was killed though begging for life. 5 It was a co

cause in politics. 2 As he had been among the earliest of the nobiles who fought at Philippi to pass from Antonius to Octav

s it might appear, but is rather a subtle compliment. It was Messalla who proposed in the Senate, with moving and patriotic

by Pollio and rescued through the personal intervention of Augustus, who came to the court and sat there. 2 He did not nee

and allies: he was able to preserve from justice a certain Castricius who had given him information about the conspiracy of

ubstance and treatment appropriate to the writing of history. Pollio, who came from a poor and infertile region of Italy, k

l. Thus did Augustus have his revenge, imitating the Greek Timagenes, who , quarrelling with his patron and falling from fav

emned and publicly burned. That did not matter, said Cassius Severus, who had them all by heart. 7 But Cassius did not go u

, his mother a baker’s daughter turned prostitute. 1 It was Cassius who defined for all time the character and capacity o

gainst the State. Not all emperors, however, were succeeded by rulers who had an interest in the deification of their own p

t scandals is matched by his depreciation of the generals of Augustus who encroached upon Tiberius’ monopoly of military gl

. Next to Virgil he names among epic poets the grandiloquent Rabirius who had written about the War of Actium. 1 Government

leum passed to another branch of the patrician Cornelii, the Lentuli, who had also decided for Pompeius against Caesar, but

d a man of infamous life,5 fit partner for Quirinius’ Aemilia Lepida, who bore him a son with whom the family ended. M. Hor

ld look back through the annals of the family to that Appius Claudius who had promoted the aristocratic reform programme of

nce under the Principate. M. Junius Silanus, grandson of the renegade who became consul in 25 B.C., married Aemilia Lepida,

led the ‘golden sheep’, down to Junia Calvina, ‘festivissima puella’, who survived until the last year of the Emperor Vespa

andson, the ambitious proconsul of Macedonia, perpetuated the Licinii who merged, by adoption after another generation, wit

their ally Seianus, was shattered by the ruin of Lentulus Gaetulicus, who was suppressed for alleged conspiracy against Cal

the reign of Claudius. Pollio was survived by only one son, Gallus, who came to a miserable end. But Gallus propagated th

e of Nerva married Rubellia Bassa, daughter of that Rubellius Blandus who was the husband of Julia the granddaughter of Tib

he descendants or the peers of colonial magnates or of native dynasts who received the citizenship from proconsuls of the l

tional rule, Augustus employed not a single nobilis among the legates who commanded the armies in his provincia, and only t

ders of the Rhine legions. Under Caligula, after Lentulus Gaetulicus, who conspired with M. Aemilius Lepidus and was suppre

bertas. Of the authentic champions of that ideal, Brutus and Cassius, who had fought against Caesar’s heir at Philippi, cou

ppus (ib., 1917/8, ι f.: Corinth). This Balbillus is probably the man who was Prefect of Egypt in A.D. 55 (cf. A. Stein, PI

he action has begun. Like Sallustius and Pollio, the senator Tacitus, who admired Republican virtue but believed in ordered

escribed as ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Aristocracy’. Lucan, who narrated recent and authentic history in epic ver

f other classes in society. It is precisely the sons of Roman knights who have handed down the most typical and most malici

the effort either to arraign or to rehabilitate the robust careerists who helped to found the monarchy. Like violence, guil

a memoir to be published after Plancus’ death; 3 and it was Messalla who coined as a title for Dellius the phrase ‘desulto

urion, may have been sincere in his principles:3 but the Roman knight who filled his house with the statues of Republican h

nd complain that his own theme was dull and narrow. But the historian who had experienced one civil war in his own lifetime

cal dissensions of the last age of the Republic. Few were the nobiles who passed unscathed through these trials, from cauti

r a time to Lollia Paullina, and the venerable L. Volusius Saturninus who survived all the perils of the Julio- Claudian ag

tile and ostentatious opposition of certain candidates for martyrdom, who might be admired for Republican independence of s

Earth and Sea. Sailors from Alexandria paid public observance to him who was the author of their lives, liberty and prospe

. When he was dead, Augustus would receive the honours of the Founder who was also Aeneas and Romulus, and, like Divus Juli

Cocceius of the Fasti Biondiani (ib., p. 65). 38 B.C. The Cornelius who was cos. suff. in this year acquires a praenomen,

Cornelius Scipio (for whom cf. 35 B.C.). It is not certain, however, who he was. 36 B.C. The suffecti are revealed, L. N

atulus to the Domitii cf. Münzer, RA, 286 f.; on Q. Servilius Caepio, who adopted Servilia’s son Brutus, cf. ib. 333 ff.