Augustus at War

While performing at the lusus Troiae, he injured himself but Augustus ‘presented him with a golden necklace and allowed him and his descendants to bear the surname Torquatus’ (Suet., Div. Aug. 43.2). He was suffect consul for 6 CE, and the following year was on the Rhine as legatus in charge of Legiones I and V Alaudae under the command of his uncle, Varus (Vell. Pat. 2.120.3). In the immediate aftermath of the massacre at Teutoburg in 9 CE, he received survivors and rendered assistance (Dio 56.22.4), earning praise from Velleius Paterculus, while reporting rumours that Asprenas had misappropriated the assets of many of the fallen (Vell. Pat. 2.120.3). From 12–15 or 13–16 CE, he was proconsul of Africa (AE 1952, 232; CIL VIII, 10023; Tac., Ann. 1.53). He was a septemvir epulonum by 15 CE, perhaps as early as 5 CE (ILS 151 Tacapen/Capsam). Asprenas was married to Calpurnia, daughter of L. Calpurnius Piso, the Pontifex (ILS 927).

M. Nonius Gallus (c. 65–After 29 BCE). From the town of Aesernia in Samnium (CIL IX, 2642), it was while serving his term as governor of Gallia Comata/ Belgica in 29 BCE that Nonius Gallus subdued the Treveri (Dio 51.20.5) and was acclaimed imperator by his troops in 29 BCE (ILS 895).

C. Norbanus Flaccus (c. 85–After 17 BCE). A plebeian by birth from Etruria, Flaccus supported Iulius Caesar, and after his assassination transferred his allegiance to his heir. Praetor in 43 BCE, with Decidius Saxa and eight legions he intercepted the assassins at Philippi in 42 BCE and sent word to M. Antonius and Caesar’s heir (Dio 47.35.2–36.2). Consul for 38 BCE, he was proconsul of Hispania (36–34 BCE) and, for unspecified victories there, was awarded a triumph which he celebrated in Rome on 12 October 34 BCE (Fast. Capitol.). He was at Actium (31 BCE) and after the battle went to Asia as proconsul (Joseph., Bell. Iud. 16.171). He was at the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BCE as quindecemir sacris faciundis (CIL VI, 32323.151 = ILS 5050). He was married to a daughter of L. Cornelius Balbus (the Younger).

L. Passienus Rufus (c. 45 BCE–c. 25 CE). A novus homo, Passienus rose through the cursus publicus to become consul in 4 BCE. Later, as proconsul of Africa, perhaps in 3 CE, Rufus fought the Gaetulici (Dio 55.28.4), was acclaimed imperator (ILS 120 El-Lehs) and in 6 CE shared triumphal ornaments with Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus (Vell. Pat. 2.116.2; ILS 140). His son, a tribunus militum with Legio XII Fulminata (ILS 8966), was adopted by, and his advancement was in part due to the influence of, C. Sallustius Crispus.

M. Plautius Silvanus (c. 45 BCE–After 9 CE). A member of the plebeian branch of gens Plautia, M. Silvanus was a novus homo. He was the son of Urgulania, a close friend of Tiberius’ mother Livia, and rose up the cursus honorum in part through her influence. He was consul (2 BCE) with Augustus. He served as proconsul of Asia (4–5 CE) and then as a Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore in Galatia-Pamphylia (6 CE), where he may have taken on the Isauri in the Taurus Mountains (Dio 55.27.3). When the Great Illyrian Revolt (6–9 CE) erupted, he was called to assist and bring troops to assist Tiberius (Dio 55.34.6). In 7 CE, he marched east and joined up with A. Caecina Severus and Thracian King Roimetalkes in Moesia. On reaching Illyricum, the commanders were immediately ambushed by the insurgents, taking significant casualties (Vell. Pat. 2.112.4). Silvanus went on to defeat Bato and his Breuci warriors, before turning his attention to the other rebels and brigands (Dio 55.34.7). Tiberius then assigned one of the three army groups to Silvanus (Dio 56.12.2). He remained in the region, leading mopping up operations, earning himself ornamenta triumphalia (CIL XIV, 3605–6 = ILS 921 near Tibur), and is mentioned on the same inscription on the family tomb as septemvir epulonum. He was son-in-law of L. Apronius.

C. Poppaeus Sabinus (c. 35 BCE–After 35 CE). Perhaps from Picenum (ILS 5671, 6562 Interamnia Praetuttianorum), Sabinus was a novus homo and ‘a man of somewhat humble extraction’ (Tac., Ann. 6.39) who became consul for 9 CE. Thereafter he went to govern Moesia (12–35 CE) – and Achaea and Macedonia as well (Tac., Ann. 1.80; Dio 58.25.4) – as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore; he served in that office ‘during twenty-four years he had the charge of the most important provinces, not for any remarkable ability, but because he was equal to business and was not too great for it’ (Tac., Ann. 6.39). He enjoyed the friendship of both Augustus and Tiberius (Tac., Ann. 6.39) and, likely because of it, he died peacefully (Dio 58.25.4).

P. Quinctilius (or Quintilius) Varus (46 BCE–September? 9 CE). The man who would come to be one of only two men under Augustus to lend their names to military disasters (Tac., Ann. 1.10) was a member of the gens Quinctilia (or Quintilia), one of the oldest patrician families – but ‘a famous rather than a highborn family’ (Vell. Pat. 2.117.2) – and its members could trace their ancestry back to the legendary foundation of Rome. From Cremona, he was the son of Sex. Quinctilius Varus who was at the Battle of Philippi (October 42 BCE) on the side of Brutus and Cassius but, witnessing their defeat, arranged for his freedman to kill him rather than be captured alive. As quaestor, the impoverished young Publius accompanied Augustus and Tiberius to the East (22/20 BCE), where the citizens of Athens, Tenos (the Cycladic island of Tinos) and Pergamon erected statues and dedicated inscriptions to him for unknown acts of generosity or service. In c. 20 BCE, he married Agrippa’s daughter Vipsania Marcella Agrippina. He went to Hispania Tarraconensis or Tres Galliae as Legatus Legionis of Legio XIX, and commanded it in the Alpine War (15 BCE) under Tiberius. He is described as ‘a man of mild character and of a quiet disposition, somewhat slow in mind as he was in body, and more accustomed to the leisure of the camp than to actual service in war’ (Vell. Pat. 2.117.2). He was consul with his brother-in-law Tiberius in 13 BCE (Dio 54.25), co-organizing ludi votivi that year (CIL VI, 386 = ILS 88 Rome), perhaps on the occasion of the return of Augustus from Tres Galliae and the Hispaniae. He went to Africa as proconsul (8–7 or 7–6 BCE) and succeeded C. Sentius Saturninus to Syria (6–4 BCE) as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 17.5.2), where it is noted ‘that he was no despiser of money is demonstrated by his governorship of Syria: he entered the rich province a poor man, but left it a rich man and the province poor’ (Vell. Pat. 2.117.2). While there, he quelled the violent Judaean Revolt (4 BCE) provoked by the mismanagement of Procurator Sabinus (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 17.9.3–5, 10.1–2). Varus forgave the mass of those who had rebelled, but punished Herodes’ relations who had taken part and 2,000 were crucified for sedition (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 17.10.10). Back in Rome, he married Claudia Pulchra, a great-niece of Augustus (the fate of his first wife is not known). In 6 CE, he was appointed Legatus Augusti to Germania to drive the process of pacification and assimilation of the Germanic nations (Vell. Pat. 2.117.3). With Legiones XVII, XIIX and XIX he was ambushed at Teutoburg (9 CE) in an uprising planned and executed by Arminius and Segimerus of the Cherusci (Strabo, Geog. 7.1); he is reported to have taken his own life, and his adjutants attempted to burn the body (Vell. Pat. 2.117.3–119.3; Flor. 2.30.38; Dio 56.21). The Germans decapitated the charred corpse and Arminius sent the severed head to Marboduus, hoping to convince him to join the rebellion; instead, the Marcomannic king forwarded it to Augustus, who arranged for the dismembered body part to be buried in the family’s tomb (Vell. Pat. 2.119.5).

L. Sempronius Atratinus (73 BCE–7 CE). A Calpurnius Bestia by birth, L. Atratinus was adopted into the patrician branch of gens Sempronia. In spring 56 BCE, he brought a charge of political violence (vis) against M. Caelius Rufus, who was defended in court by M. Tullius Cicero (his speech of 4 April, Pro Caelio, survives). Atratinus was elected praetor suffectus in 41 BCE because all the previously elected praetors had retired from office following the Treaty of Brundisium. In 40 BCE, he was co-opted as augur (CIL VI, 1976 = ILS 9338.3 Rome) and later in the year he and his colleague M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus convened the Senate to introduce Herodes, who received the title of King of Iudea (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 14.381, Bell. Iud. 1.282). A supporter of M. Antonius, Atratinus was pro praetor of Achaea in 39 BCE (ILS 9461 Thessaly) and commanded part of the fleet the triumvir had lent to Caesar’s heir in his war against Sex. Pompeius in Sicily in 36 BCE (BMCRR II.501, 515). He was elected suffect consul for 34 BCE, taking up the position when M. Antonius resigned (Dio 49.39.1). During the Actian War, he switched his allegiance from Antonius to Caesar’s heir. In 23 BCE, he was appointed proconsul of Africa, a public province under the accord of 28/27 BCE, with a legion; during his term he fought an unspecified war, for which he was awarded a full triumph, celebrated on 12 October 21 BCE (Fast. Capitol.). In 40 BCE, he was elected as one of the college of augures, a position he held until his death in 7 CE. The ruins of the burial mausoleum in which Atratinus’ ashes were laid are located in Gaeta, Italy.

C. Sentius Saturninus (c. 45 BCE–After 4 CE). Son of C. Sentius Saturninus Vetulio, the early life of Caius is obscure. A novus homo, there is no evidence he completed any military service before 20 BCE. It appears he was sympathetic to the assassins of Iulius Caesar and was proscribed by the Triumvirs (43 BCE). He escaped Rome to join Sex. Pompeius in Sicily (Appian 4.45; Val. Max. 7.3.9.), and was one of several ‘illustrious men’ (Vell. Pat. 2.77.3; Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.139 cf. 5.52) who, after the signing of the Treaty of Misenum (39 BCE), left Sextus to join M. Antonius (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.139, 579) and later defected to Caesar’s heir. He was elected to the consulship in 19 BCE and served in that high office with distinction, respecting and applying the law firmly but fairly, notably exposing the corrupt practices of tax collectors. Of his year as consul, a contemporary writes, ‘Caesar was absent from the city engaged in regulating the affairs of Asia and of the orient, and in bringing to the countries of the world by his personal presence the blessings of Pax Augusta. On this occasion Sentius, chancing thus to be sole consul with Caesar absent, adopting the rigorous regime of the older consuls, pursued a general policy of old-fashioned severity and great firmness, bringing to light the fraudulent tricks of the tax-collectors, punishing their avarice, and getting the public moneys into the treasury. But it was particularly in holding the elections that he played the consul. For in the case of candidates for the quaestorship whom he thought unworthy, he forbade them to offer their names, and when they insisted upon doing so, he threatened them with the exercise of his consular authority if they came down to the Campus Martius. Egnatius, who was now at the height of popular favour, and was expecting to have his consulship follow his praetorship as his praetorship had followed his aedileship, he forbade to become a candidate, and failing in this, he swore that, even if Egnatius were elected consul by the votes of the people, he would refuse to report his election. This conduct I consider as comparable with any of the celebrated acts of the consuls of the olden days’ (Vell. Pat. 2.92.1–5). He was at the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BCE as quindecemir sacris faciundis (CIL VI, 32323.151 = ILS 5050). Saturninus later served as proconsul of Africa and, while visiting Carthago, performed certain religious rituals for the colonia (Tert., Pall. 2). Following in his father’s footsteps, he was sent to Syria as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore (9–6 BCE) and took his three sons with him as his legati; they were at the trial of Herodes’ sons Alexander and Aristobulos in Berytus in 6 BCE (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 16.277–282, 344, 367–369, and 17.24, 89; Bell. Iud. 1.27). He then went to Germania as Legatus Augusti, either for 6–3 BCE following Tiberius, or from 3–5 CE following Domitius Ahenobarbus, but certainly before Varus. There he ‘received triumphal honours, inasmuch as the Germans, through their fear of the Romans, made a truce, not merely once, but twice’ (Dio 55.28.6; cf. Vell. Pat. Pat. 2.103, 105, 109). Saturninus is described by Paterculus as an ‘excellent man’ (Vell. Pat. 2.77.3, 2.92.1). Of his character, he writes that he was ‘a man many-sided in his virtues, a man of energy and action, and of foresight, alike able to endure the duties of a soldier as he was well trained in them, but who, likewise, when his labours left room for leisure, made a liberal and elegant use of it, but with this reservation, that one would call him sumptuous and jovial rather than extravagant or indolent’ (Vell. Pat. 2.105.2). His life after 4 CE is unknown from the extant accounts.

L. Sestius Quirinalis Albinianus (c. 70–c. 10 BCE). Suffect consul for 23 BCE, Sestius may have succeeded P. Carisius as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Hispania Tarraconensis (22–19 BCE) or P. Silius Nerva (16–14 BCE). At the time of Augustus’ visit to the region he may have set up the Ara Sestianae to the new cult of Roma et Augustus near Noeta in territory of the recently conquered Callaeci (Suet., Div. Aug. 52; Tac., Ann. 4.37).

C. Silius Aulus Caecina Largus (c. 30 BCE–24 CE). Born A. Caecina Largus and adopted by P. Silius Nerva (consul 20 BCE), C. Silius was consul for 13 CE. The following year, he took up the post of Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Germania Superior in Mogontiacum, in charge of Legiones II Augusta, XIII Gemina, XIV Gemina and XVI Gallica (Tac., Ann. 1.31). Remarkably, among a dinner service found buried at an Iron Age grave in Hoby on Lolland, Denmark, were two exquisite cups (made of silver by master craftsman Chirisophos), each bearing the graffito ‘Silius’; one interpretation is that they may have been a diplomatic gift from the Roman commander to a tribal chief across the Rhine.

P. Silius Nerva (P. Silius the Younger) (c. 62–After 16 BCE). Son of P. Silius Nerva of the plebeian gens Silia, young Publius was a novus homo who rose to become consul (20 BCE) with M. Appuleius (Dio 54.7.4). He is recorded as Legatus Pro Praetore of Hispania Citerior in an inscription from Carthago Nova (CIL II.3414) dated to 19 BCE, and may have assisted M. Agrippa in Northern Spain when fighting the Astures and Cantabri (Dio 54.11.2–6). Later, he was proconsul of Illyricum. He commanded the Roman army in a successful campaign in 16 BCE in the Alps against the Cammunii and Venii (Venones) (Dio 54.20.1), the result of which was to break the will of the neighbouring Pannonii to fight and they sought terms with the Romans (Dio 54.20.2). His son was A. Licinius Nerva Silianus (Vell. Pat. 2.116.4).

P. Silius (c. 40 BCE–After 5 CE). Eldest son of nobilis P. Silius Nerva (consul 20 BCE), Publius was the brother of C. Silius (consul 13 CE). In 9 BCE, he was Tresvir Monetalis (BMCRE I 40). In 1/2 CE, he was Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Macedonia and Thrace, where Velleius Paterculus was serving as a tribunus militum (Vell. Pat. 2.101.3). He was suffect consul for 3 CE. Nothing is known of his life afterwards.

T. Statilius Taurus (c. 80–After 13 BCE). Taurus was descended from the Statilii Tauri of Lucania, the most accomplished branch of the plebeian gens Statilia to gain their success in Rome. A novus homo, he was an associate of Calvisius Sabinus (cos. 39 BCE) – a political duo Cicero described unflatteringly as a ‘Minotaur’ (Cic., Ad Fam. 12.25.1). Taurus was elected suffect consul in 37 BCE, replacing Caninius Gallus and serving with M. Agrippa as consul ordinarius. The following year, as a legatus, he commanded the fleet of ships loaned to Caesar’s heir by M. Antonius for the war against Sex. Pompeius (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.97–99, 103, 110). After Sextus fled from Sicily, Taurus took the fleet to Africa, using it to secure the province for Caesar as proconsul, for which he was awarded a triumph on 30 June 34 BCE. Thereafter he proved one of Augustus’ most loyal and trusted legati alongside M. Agrippa (Vell. Pat. Pat. 2.127.1). Of him and Agrippa, Velleius Paterculus writes, ‘in the case of these men their lack of lineage was no obstacle to their elevation to successive consulships, triumphs, and numerous priesthoods. For great tasks require great helpers, and it is important to the state that those who are necessary to her service should be given prominence in rank, and that their usefulness should be fortified by official authority’ (Vell. Pat. 2.127.1–2). Taurus was an accomplished general: he was assigned to wind down military operations conducted by Augustus and Agrippa (35–34 BCE) in Illyricum (App., Ill. 5.27); at the Battle of Actium (31 BCE), he commanded the land army while M. Agrippa fought at sea (Plut., Ant. 65.2). He was acclaimed imperator three times during his career (ILS 893 Ilici = CIL II, 3556), once in Africa, perhaps also in Illyricum, and Hispania Tarraconensis (formerly Hispania Citerior). In 30 BCE, Taurus began constructing the first purpose-built stone amphitheatre in Rome to display gladiatorial and hunting combats – which up to that time had taken place in the Forum, with wooden stands temporarily erected for spectators – in the southern part of the Campus Martius, paid for from Actian War booty (Dio 51.23, 53.18; Suet. Div. Aug. 29.5; Strabo, Geog. 5.3.8; Tac., Ann. 3.72); ‘because of this he was permitted by the people to choose one of the praetors each year’ (Dio 51.23). He went to Hispania Citerior (29 BCE) – following after Calvisius Sabinus – and defeated the Astures, Cantabri and Vaccaei in the north of the peninsula (Dio 51.20.5). On his return to Rome, he was elected consul with Augustus for 26 BCE. While Augustus and Tiberius were away in Tres Galliae (16–13), Taurus was appointed Praefectus Urbanus in charge of affairs in Rome and Italy (Dio 54.19.6) and, ‘though in advanced years, sustained it admirably’ (Tac., Ann. 6.11). He may have been one of the tresviri monetales (8 BCE) with colleagues Regulus and Pulcher (e.g. RIC I 423, C. 421) supervising the mint in Rome. Among his religious appointments, he was augur (CIL X, 409 = ILS 893a) from the 30s BCE and curio maximus (ILS 925), likely following Calvisius Sabinus in that office. He continued to serve Augustus with distinction until his death (Tac., Ann. 6.11). His son Titus became consul in 11 CE.

P. Sulpicius Quirinius (c. 45 BCE–21 CE). Born into a wealthy plebeian family (not connected with the patrician gens Sulpicia), Quirinius was raised in Lanuvium in Latium (Tac., Ann. 3.48). Nothing is known of his early career, but after rising up the cursus honorum, in 15 BCE he went to Creta et Cyrenaica as proconsul; there he successfully subjugated the Nasamones (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.23). He is described as ‘an indefatigable soldier’ (Tac., Ann. 3.48). In Cyrenaica, Quirinius battled the Marmaridae and Garamantes, nations living in the Sahara desert; he ‘[like Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus] might have returned with the title of Marmaricus, had he not been too modest in estimating his victory’ (Florus, 2.31). Having proved himself ‘by his zealous services’ (Tac., Ann. 3.48), he was elected consul for 12 BCE. Leaving Rome, he then went to Galatia-Pamphylia as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore (5–3 BCE) and assumed command of Legiones V Macedonica and VII Macedonica; with them he engaged the coalition of bandits called Homonadeis operating in Cilicia (Strabo, Geog. 14.5.24), ‘stormed some fortresses’ (Tac., Ann. 3.48) and ‘by famine and took 4,000 men prisoners, whom he settled as inhabitants in the neighbouring cities, but he left no person in the country in the prime of life’ (Strabo, Geog. 12.6.5, 24; CIL XIV, 3613 ‘Lapis Tiburtinus’ – some believe it refers to Quinctilius Varus). He received ‘the honours of a triumph’ (Tac., Ann. 3.48). He may have governed Asia, but certain proof is lacking. Trusted by Augustus, Quirinius was appointed rector, or personal ‘guide’, to his adopted son C. Caesar – along with M. Lollius (Suet., Tib. 12.2), M. Velleius Paterculus and L. Aelius Seianus – on his mission in the East. He probably met the Parthian King Phraatakes in the diplomatic conference held on an island in the Euphrates River (Vell. Pat. 2.101.1–3). Following C. Caesar’s untimely death in 4 CE, Quirinius was temporarily appointed Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore to Syria and with it command of Legiones III Gallica, VI Ferrata, X (Fretensis) and XII Fulminata until L. Volusius Saturninus arrived. At this time, following the dismissal of Herodes Archelaus, Iudaea became a district of Syria (Joseph., Ant. Iud.15.1.1). Quirinius organized a census of the new district (6–7 CE) to assess its tax base (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.1–2; CIL III, 6687; EJ 231 = ILS 2683; Luke, 2.1). The local population, led by Zadok and Theudas (Acts 5:36) and Iudas of Gamala in Galilee (Acts 5:37), rose up in protest, but Quirinius restored order quickly – although recorded in Jewish literature (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.6; Acts 5.37), it is not mentioned in surviving Roman accounts (Tac., Hist. 5.9).

L. Tarius Rufus (c. 57 BCE–After 14 CE). A novus homo, perhaps from Picenum (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 18.37; CIL V. 8112 (Este), CIL III.12010 (Zagreb)), Rufus was one of the naval commanders appointed by Agrippa during the Actian War in 31 BCE: he was ambushed in a dawn attack by Antonius’ admiral C. Sosius before the main battle, but escaped capture (Dio 50.14.1–2). From 18–16 BCE, he may have had praetorian command of Illyricum (CIL III, 2877 f.) and Macedonia (an inscription from Amphipolis (AE 1936, 18) – commemorating a bridge built by Legio X Fretensis – refers to him as pro praetor). Returning to Rome, he was appointed as suffect consul from 1 July 16 BCE, when Augustus departed for the Tres Galliae following the clades Lolliana. He was an amicus of Augustus and Tiberius and became a wealthy man.

A. Terentius Varro Murena or A. Licinius Varro Murena (c. 60–After 23 BCE?). There are several references to Varro in the extant sources: they may be the same or different individuals. In 26/25 BCE, Terentius Varro was active in the Alps engaging the Salassi (Dio 53.25.3 Suet., Div. Aug. 21.1); following his complete victory over them, the colonia of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (Aosta) was founded ‘in the place where Varro had pitched his camp’ (Strabo, Geog. 4.6.7). This – or another – Varro was legatus of Syria c. 24–23 BCE and waged war on bandits from Trachonitis who were harassing the Damascenes (Joseph., Bell. Iud. 1.398). A. Licinius Varro Murena was chosen as the consul for 23 BCE (Joseph., Bell. Iud. 1.398, Ant. Iud. 15.345; Fast. Capitol.). Licinius Varro (Dio 54.3.4) or Lucius Murena (Vell. Pat. 2.91.2, who states this individual ‘might have passed as a man of good character’) was related to Cilnius Maecenas as his brother-in-law and was implicated in a plot with Fannius Caepio (the instigator) to assassinate Augustus in 23 BCE, and summarily executed (Dio 54.3.5–6; Vell. Pat. 2.91.4).

M. Titius (c. 70–After 12 BCE). M. Titius, son of Lucius (CIL III, 7160 = CIL III, 455 = ILS 891), from plebeian gens Titia, was a nephew of L. Munatius Plancus (cos. 42 BCE). After the Ides of March assassination, he sided with the conspirators and was proscribed by the triumvirs. In 43 BCE, he joined Sex. Pompeius, built a fleet and attacked installations on the coast of Etruria. In 40 BCE, he was captured, but following the Treaty of Misenum was permitted to return to Rome (Vell. Pat., 2.77.3). By 36 BCE, he was serving on M. Antonius’ staff as quaestor in his Parthian War, where he demonstrated sounder judgment than some other more impulsive officers (Plut., Ant. 42.2–4). Sources implicate Titius in the execution of Sex. Pompeius in 35 BCE, though whether it was on the orders of Antonius or Plancus or his own decision is not clear (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.140–144; Dio, 49.18.4–5; Vell. Pat., 2.79.5; Strabo, Geog. 3.2; Orosius 6.19.2; Livy, Peri. 131; Eutropius 7.6.1). He was a pontifex, perhaps in 34 BCE (CIL IX, 5853 (Auximum)). His betrayal of Pompeius was later remembered by the audience attending a performance held at the Theatre of Pompeius, who protested his presence, despite being sponsor of the games, and chased him out of the building (Vell. Pat., 2.79.5). Disillusioned with Antonius’ and Kleopatra’s leadership, and allegedly having been insulted by the queen (Plut., Ant. 58.3), in June/July 32 BCE he defected to Imp. Caesar’s side; before the Battle of Actium, and with Statilius Taurus, he led a successful charge against M. Antonius’ cavalry (Dio 50.13.5). He was appointed suffect consul for May–October 31 BCE after the resignation of M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus. From 13/12 BCE, he was Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore for Syria. In this role Titius received four children, four grandchildren and two daughters-in-law of Frahatak (Phraates) IV, king of Parthia, as hostages (Strabo, Geog. 16.1.28). King Herodes of Iudaea interceded to settle the quarrel between Titius and Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, when he accompanied Archelaus to Antiocheia (Josephus, Ant. Iud. 16.270). Titius married Fabia Paullina, the daughter of Quintus Fabius Maximus.

M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus (64 BCE–13 CE). Born into the gens Valeria, Messalla Corvinus was either the son of M. Valerius Messalla Niger (cos. 61 BCE), or alternatively of M. Valerius Corvus. ‘A young man of distinction’ (App., Bell. Civ. 4.38), he was among the proscribed men following Iulius Caesar’s assassination (Dio 49.16.1, 50.10.1), having fled to Brutus, but his name was later scratched from the list (App., Bell. Civ. 5.113). He fought with Caesar’s heir in the war against Sex. Pompeius (App., Bell. Civ. 5.102, 103, 105, 109, 110, 112), and on his return on 13 November 36 BCE was appointed as augur (Dio 49.16.1). He fought with Imp. Caesar during the Illyrian War in 36–35 BCE (App., Ill. 9.17). He was elected consul with him for 31 BCE (Dio 50.10.1). At the end of the Alexandrian War (30 BCE), he was responsible for quietly liquidating men being trained as gladiators for victory games Antonius had planned to stage for defeating his opponent (Dio 51.7.7). Messalla held commands in the East. In the West, he suppressed a revolt in Gallia Aquitania in 27 BCE (App., Bell. Civ. 4.38), for which he was awarded a triumph on 25 September 27 BCE (Fast. Capit.). Horace infers he was a most eloquent public speaker (Horace, Ars Poetica 3.21) and he was lauded for his skill by Cicero and others years later (Seneca the Younger, Claudius 10.2; Quin., Inst. 10.1.113) – in one speech he lauded the assassin Crassus as imperator and was not attacked by Augustus for doing so (Tac., Ann. 4.34). In 2 BCE, Messalla proposed, on behalf of the Senate, that Augustus accept the title Pater Patriae, ‘Father of the Fatherland’ (Suet, Div. Aug. 58) – the honour of which Augustus was most proud. As an ex-consul, Messalla was later appointed Praefectus Urbi (Jerome, Chron. 26 BCE), whose role was ‘to overawe the slaves and that part of the population which, unless it fears a strong hand, is disorderly and reckless’ (Tac., Ann. 6.11); though the first to be appointed to the office, he quit within six days, saying ‘the power of my office shames me’ (Seneca the Younger, Claudius 10.2; cf. Tac., Ann. 6.11 and Jerome, Chron. 26 BCE). His son was M. Valerius Messala Messalinus, consul for 3 BCE; his daughter Valeria Messallina married T. Statilius Taurus; another daughter, also called Valeria, married M. Lollius.

M. Valerius Messalla Messallinus (43 BCE–c. 21 CE). Eldest son of M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus (consul 31 BCE), Messallinus was described by a contemporary as a man ‘who was even more noble in heart than in birth, and thoroughly worthy of having had Corvinus as his father’ (Vell. Pat. 2.112.1f.). In 21 BCE, he was appointed quindecimvir sacris faciundis (Tibullus, Carm. 2.5.17–18, 119–120), and attended the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BCE (CIL VI, 32323.151 = ILS 5050). He rose through the cursus honorum to be elected consul for 3 BCE, perhaps with his esteemed father’s assistance. He was Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Illyricum and assigned leadership of the army group moving north/northwest in the war planned by Tiberius against Marboduus, which was aborted when the the Great Illyrian Revolt of 6–9 CE erupted in his own province (Dio 55.29.1–2). During the Revolt, he led the Legio XX from Siscia. After a shaky start in 6 CE – in which half of Legio XX found itself surrounded by the enemy before cutting its way out (Dio 55.30.1–2) – and with additional forces brought by Tiberius (Dio 55.30.4), Messallinus led his army to victory in the final year (Vell. Pat. 2.112.1–2), perhaps earning the legion the agnomen Valeria Victrix. He was one of the commanders honoured with triumphal ornaments in 9 CE (Fast. Capitol.; Dio 56.15.3). He is also one of the eminent men mentioned by Ovid in his works (Ovid, Ep. Ex Pont. 1.7, 2.2, Tristia 4.4). His brother was M. Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messallinus (Vell. Pat. 2.112.2).

C. Vibius Postumus (c. 45 CE–After 16 CE). A novus homo from an old family of Larinum in Samnium (CIL IX, 730; Cic., Pro Cluentio 25 and 165), Vibius Postumus rose to be suffect consul in 5 CE. As governor of Illyricum (c. 6–9 CE), he saw action during the Great Illyrian Revolt, leading one of the army groups and earning triumphal ornaments for his ‘distinguished valour’ (Vell. Pat. 2.116.2; cf. Dio 56.15.3). He was proconsul of Asia for a triennium, from 12–15 CE (Apollonides, Anth. Pal. 9.280, 791; OGIS 469 Samos). C. Vibius Postumus is mentioned on an inscription as septemvir epulonum of Colonia Romulensis (AE 1966.74 Romula).

M. Vinicius or Vinucius (c. 60 BCE–After 4 CE). Son of P. Vinicius (or Vinucius), Marcus was a novus homo described by a contemporary source as ‘an illustrious man’ (Vell. Pat. 2.104.2). In 25 BCE, Vinicius ‘took vengeance upon some of the Germans (Keltv~n) because they had arrested and slain Romans who entered their country to trade with them; and thus he, too, caused the title of imperator to be bestowed upon Augustus’ (Dio 53.26.4). Suffect consul for 19 BCE, he was likely inducted into the college of quindecemviri at the same time if not before. From the following year, he may have served as proconsul in Achaea – where the colonia at Corinth named a voting tribe after him (AE 1919.2) – and was then appointed Legatus Augusti of Illyricum around 14 BCE (Flor. 2.24; ILS 8965). Seemingly unable to contain an insurrection there in 13 BCE during the Bellum Pannonicum (14–9 BCE), he appealed to Augustus, who sent M. Agrippa (Vell. Pat. 2.96.2; Dio 55.28.1–2), resulting in the suspension of hostilities. In 10 BCE, Vinicius moved north against an alliance of the Bastarnae and Daci and engaged them on the Hungarian Plain: an inscription (AE 1905.14 = ILS 8965 Frascati) records, ‘[M. Vinu]cius [patronymic], [consul], [septem]vir s[acris] f[aciundis], [legatus pro] praetore Augusti Caesaris of [Illyricum, the first?] to advance across the Danuvius River, defeated in battle and routed an army (exercitus) of Daci and Basternae, and subjugated the Cotini, Osi, [name of tribe lost] and Anartii [to the power of the Imperator A]ugustus [and of the People of Rome]’. Between 2/3 and 4 CE, he was posted to Germania (following after Domitius Ahenobarbus) as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore, where ‘an extensive war had broken out’ (Vell. Pat. 2.104.2). He proved up to the task and ‘carried on this war with success in some quarters, and in others had made a successful defence, and on this account there had been decreed to him triumphal ornaments with an honorary inscription recording his deeds’ (Vell. Pat. 2.104.2; perhaps Not. Scav. 1929, p. 31 (Cales)). Vinicius enjoyed good relations with Augustus, as a letter preserved by Suetonius records: ‘I dined, dear Tiberius, with the same company; we had besides as guests Vinicius and the elder Silius. We gambled like old men during the meal both yesterday and today; for when the dice were thrown, whoever turned up the ‘‘dog’’ or the six, put a denarius in the pool for each one of the dice, and the whole was taken by anyone who threw the ‘‘Venus’’’ (Suet., Div. Aug. 71.2). The elogium of Vinicius still survives (Insc. It. 13.2.91). The army commander turned historian Velleius Paterculus, whose father had served under M. Vinicius as praefectus equitum, dedicated his Epitome of Roman History to the grandson of the consul of 19 BCE (Vell. Pat. 2.104.3).

Sex. Vistilius (c. 40 BCE–32 CE). About his early life nothing survives. Vistilius was a praetor and close friend of Nero Claudius Drusus, who may have served with him in the Alpine and/or German Wars; after Drusus’ death in 9 BCE, Vistilius ‘transferred to his brother’s cohort’ (Tac., Ann 6.9). His sister Vistilia married Domitius Corbulo (Corbulo the Elder) around 4–1 BCE (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 7.39).

L. Volusius Saturninus (c. 60 BCE–20 CE). Son of Q. Volusius Saturninus, having served as suffect consul for 12 BCE. Lucius was selected as proconsul of Africa. He succeeded P. Sulpicius Quirinius as Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore in Syria in 4/5 CE. He was epulo at around the same time as his consulate. After the princeps’ death in 14 CE, Volusius Saturninus and his son – the augur Lucius – erected a temple to Divus Augustus. In his obituary of him, the historian Tacitus writes, ‘Volusius belonged to an old family which, nonetheless, had never advanced beyond the praetorship. He himself enriched it with the consulate, and, besides discharging the duties of the censorship in the selection of the equestrian decuries, became the first accumulator of the wealth which raised the family fortunes to such unmeasured heights’ (Tac., Ann. 3.30).

(b) Prefects (Praefaecti)

The praefecti were recruited from among the Ordo Equester or ‘Order of Knights’ who ranked below the patrician aristocracy. Originally it comprised of men granted a horse at the public expense (equites equo publico) who served alongside the infantry. After the Social War (90–88 BCE), its members ceased to be a source of civilian cavalry (turmae equitum) when it was replaced by specialist noncitizen allies and auxiliaries and turned instead to commerce, banking and the law courts to make their fortunes. To gain entry into the Ordo Equester a man had own property or assets worth in excess of HS400,000, compared to a senator at HS1,000,000 (Dio 54.26.3). However, the equites provided Augustus with a pool of talent for recruiting military officers, such as the tribuni laticlavii and praefecti alae (Vell. Pat. 2.111.3):

the emperor himself selects knights to be sent out as military tribunes (both those who are prospective senators and the others . . . ), dispatching some of them to take command of the garrisons of purely citizen-legions, and others of the foreign legions as well. In this matter he follows the custom then instituted by [Iulius] Caesar (Dio 53.15.2).

The equites were divided into six turmae of thirty men each. In 5 BCE, Augustus appointed C. Caesar as princeps iuventutis (‘the first of the youth’), ranked a sevir turmae in charge of one of the six turmae of iuniores; he was followed by L. Caesar in 2 BCE (Dio 55.9.10) and Germanicus Caesar in around 1 BCE (Ovid, Ex Pont. 2.5.41). The iuventus included both equites and the young men who were destined to have careers as senators. Any who were appointed as quaestor automatically entered the Senate and left the Ordo Equester. Equites who had served as centurions in the army could also be promoted to the Senate (Dio 52.25.7). Those remaining in the Ordo Equester continued to serve as horsemen until they reached 35, at which age they became seniores and could retire (cf. Suet., Div. Aug. 38.3), but they retained their status as equites throughout their lives. Significantly, when the corpses of C. and L. Caesar were brought back to Rome, they were accompanied by military tribunes (Dio 55.12.1), recognizing they were bringing home one of their own, even though Caius had since become a senator because of his consulship in 1 CE (ILS 107 (7, 8) = EJ 61).

In the earlier days of the Res Publica, Livy explains the principes iuventutis formed a seminarium Senatus, a ‘training school for the Senate’ and that ‘from it their consuls are chosen to be among the Fathers; from it they select their commanders (imperatores)’ (Livy, Ab Urbe Cond. 42.61.5). Augustus employed them to fill the approximately 360 senior army officer positions, about half of which became open each year to equestrians, and in a variety of other confidential posts. The title equites equo publico became a necessary qualification for a young man’s appointment as an officer in the legions or the auxilia. Having completed this preliminary military service, he could go on to become a praefectus, such as the two Praefecti Praetorii (e.g. Q. Ostorius Scapula and P. Salvius Aper); the Praefectus Aegypti (e.g. C. Aelius Gallus, succeeded by C. Petronius); and the Praefectus Iudaeorum (e.g. Coponius), reporting to the Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Syria (e.g. P. Sulpicius Quirinius) when Iudaea, Samaria, the Paralia and Galilee became a Roman province (Joseph. Bell. Iud. 2.117). The procurator who oversaw collection of tax revenues in a ‘Province of Caesar’ (e.g. Cyrenius in Iudaea, Sabinus in Syria) was also recruited from the Ordo Equester.

Augustus re-instituted the transvectio equitum – a parade having its origins in the fourth century BCE – as a ceremony held annually on 15 July (Suet, Div. Aug. 38.3). The equites paraded in full kit from the Porta Capena in the Servian Wall, through the Forum Romanum, past the Temple of Mars or of Honos et Virtus, and up to the Temple of Iupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitolium (Livy, AUC 9.46.15; Vir. Ill. 32.2). Augustus ‘would not allow an accuser to force anyone to dismount as he rode by, as was often done in the past’, and indeed:

permitted those who were conspicuous because of old age or any bodily infirmity to send on their horses in the review, and come on foot to answer to their names whenever they were summoned. Later he excused those who were over 35 years of age and did not wish to retain their horses from formally surrendering them (Suet, Div. Aug. 38.3).

At the end of the parade, religious observance was paid at their own Temple of Fortuna Equestris near the Theatre of Pompeius Magnus (Vitr., De Arch. 3.3.2) and their own gods, the Dioscuri twins Castor and Pollux, whose temple was restored in 6 CE by Tiberius in his and his younger brother’s name; it was paid for with the war spoils of the campaign in Germania (Suet., Tib. 20). During the ensuing emergency of the Great Illyrian Revolt (6–9 CE), Augustus took the unusual step of suspending the transvectio (Dio 55.31.2).

For a discussion of the equites, see Brunt (1983), Hill (1930), McCall (2002) and Wiseman (1970).

C. Aelius Gallus (c. 55 BCE–After 24 BCE). Aelius Gallus was Augustus’ second Praefectus Aegypti (26–24 BCE), replacing the disgraced C. Cornelius Gallus (Dio 53.23.5–7). Equestrian Aelius led an expedition to Arabia Felix (26/25 or 25/24 BCE) involving amphibious operations to transport troops, but which ended in disaster and the loss of much of his army to disease and hunger (RG 5.26; Pliny the Elder, Nat. His. 6. 32, 160–161; Joseph., Ant. Iud. 15.317; Dio 53.29.3–8). He may have been a personal friend of the geographer Strabo, who mentions accompanying him in Egypt down the Nile River to Syene (Strabo, Geog. 2.15.2). Aelius also failed to meet Augustus’ expectations and was recalled after just two years to be replaced by C. Petronius.

[?]. Aemilius Rectus (c. 25 BCE–After 14 CE). Rectus was Praefectus Aegypti (14 or 15 CE). He is known from a consolatory oration (Seneca, Ad Helvium 19).

M. Ambibulus (c. 40 BCE–After 12 CE). Equestrian Ambibulus succeeded Coponius as Praefectus Iudaeorum in 9 CE (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.31). No civil unrest is recorded during his time in office. He was succeeded by Annius Rufus (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.31).

[?]. Annius Rufus (c. 35 BCE–After 14 CE). Equestrian Annius Rufus succeeded M. Ambibilus as Praefectus Iudaeorum in 12 CE (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.31). No civil unrest is recorded during his time in office. He was still prefect at the time of Augustus’ death, 19 August 14 CE (Joseph. Ant. Iud. 18.2.2). He was succeeded by Valerius Gratus in 15 CE.

C. Cilnius Maecenas (29 January 70–? October 8 BCE). A wealthy equestrian from Etruria, Maecenas was an early ally of Augustus (Nic. 30); he may even have fought at Mutina, Perusia and Philippi on his side against the assassins of Iulius Caesar (Propertius 2.1, 25–30). If M. Agrippa is considered as Augustus’ righthand man, it could be said that Macecenas was his left-hand man. Maecenas was Augustus’ point man, placed in ‘charge of everything in Rome and Italy’ (Tac., Ann. 6.11.1), working diligently behind the political scenes during the years of the Second Triumvirate and Civil War (Dio 49.16.2) and helping to broker the Treaty of Brundisium with M. Antonius in 40 BCE (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.65). Maecenas uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar’s heir in 31 BC, allegedly masterminded by M. Aemilius Lepidus’ son (Vell. Pat. 2.88.3; Appian, Bell. Civ. 4.50; Dio 54.15.4; Livy, Peri. 133; Suet., Div. Aug. 19.1). Of him, Velleius Paterculus writes, ‘he was not less loved by Caesar [Augustus] than Agrippa, though he had fewer honours heaped upon him, since he lived thoroughly content with the narrow stripe of the equestrian order’ (Vell. Pat. 2.88.2). One source suggests he had an opinion about everything and could not refrain from speaking it (Suet., Div. Aug. 66.2). Nevertheless, ‘he not only made himself liked by Augustus, in spite of resisting his impulsiveness, but also pleased everybody else, and though he had the greatest influence with the emperor, so that he bestowed offices and honours upon many men, yet he did not lose his poise, but was content to remain in the Ordo Equester to the end of his life’ (Dio 53.7.4). There is an insinuation of impropriety involving his wife which caused Maeceanas to fall out of the princeps’ favour in 16 BCE (Dio 54.19.5). He became patron of an informal group of poets – among them Q. Horatius Flaccus (Horace), Sex. Propertius, P. Vergilius Maro (Vergil) and L. Varius Rufus – who lauded the new era led by Augusta and sang the praises of his legati.

[?]. Coponius (c. 40 BCE–After 6 CE). Coponius enters recorded history as equestrian Praefectus Iudaeorum of the newly created province of Iudaea (Joseph., Bell. Iud. 2.117, Ant. Iud. 18.1–2), when Herod’s son Archelaus was deposed in 6 CE. With his base in Caesarea Maritimae, Coponius reported to the Legatus Augusti Pro Praetore of Syria, P. Sulpicius Quirinius (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.2). During his term in office, the revolt led by Iudas of Gamala in Galilee broke out (Joseph., Bell. Iud. 2.117). The Temple featured a ‘door of Coponius’ (Midrash 1.3). He was succeeded in 9 CE by M. Ambibulus (Joseph., Ant. Iud. 18.31).

C. Cornelius Gallus (c. 70–26 BCE). Son of Cn. Cornelius Gallus from Forum Livii, the equestrian Gallus moved to Rome at a young age and was educated there by the same teacher who taught the poets P. Vergilius Maro (Vergil) and L. Varius Rufus. An early supporter of Caesar’s heir, and the man who accepted the surrender of L. Pinarius Scarpus and his four legions in Africa (Dio 51.5.6, 51.9.1; Orosius 2.19), he was rewarded with the post of Praefectus Aegypti (Suet., Div. Aug. 66.1). An inscription (EJ 21 = ILS 8995 (Philae)) in Latin, Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics from Aswan attests to fifteen days of battles in the Thebaid, during which Gallus claimed be retook five cities – Boresis, Koptos, Keramike, Diospolis Megali (Thebes) and Ophieon – from the Ethiopian Meroites, then led his men to the First Cataract, and received envoys of the king of Ethiopia at Philae. The Vatican Obelisk bears an inscription (AE 1964.255) from Gallus dedicating the ancient monument to Caesar and stresses his role in building the Forum Iulium on his orders. But Gallus harboured an‘ungrateful and envious spirit’ (Suet., Div. Aug. 66.2). Bizarrely, ‘he indulged in a great deal of disrespectful gossip about Augustus and was guilty of many reprehensible actions besides; for he not only set up images of himself practically everywhere in Egypt, but also inscribed upon the pyramids a list of his achievements’ (Dio 53.23.5). Stripped of his portfolio by Augustus (Dio 53.23.6), the arrogant and determined Gallus left office in disgrace; when various indictments were brought against him and he was convicted by the Senate, he committed suicide in 26 BCE (P. Oxy. 37.2820; Dio 53.23.7; Suet., Div. Aug. 66.2; Suet., Grammat. 16). Fragments of an elegiac poem neatly penned by Gallus (or a scribe) on papyrus – the earliest known manuscript of literature written in Latin – have been found at Qasr Ibrim (Primis); it may have been left there by a member of the Roman garrison in the 20s BCE.

C. Iulius Aquila (c. 30 BCE–After 11 CE). Aquila was Praefectus Aegypti (10–11 CE). He is known from an inscription from Alexandria (EE VII, 448).

M. Magius Maximus or M. Manius Maximus (c. 30 BCE–After 13 CE). Maximus was Praefectus Aegypti (12–13 CE; CIL IX, 1125) and he may have been appointed to the position twice in his career (Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus 10.74).

P. Octavius (c. 40 BCE–After 3 CE). Octavius was Praefectus Aegypti (2–3 CE).

P. Ostorius Scapula (Before 35 BCE–After 10 CE). In 2 BCE, Scapula was appointed Praefectus Praetorio, one of the two senior equestrians commanding the Cohortes Praetoriae, with P. Salvius Aper (Dio 55.10.10). He was later appointed Praefectus Aegypti (3–10 CE).

C. (or P.) Petronius (c. 75–After 20 BCE). Petronius replaced Aelius Gallus as the third Praefectus Aegypti (25/24–20 BCE). He prosecuted a war against Kandake Amanirenas of the Meroitic kingdom of Kush (22 BCE), who had led an invasion of southern Egypt, and sacked several of their towns, including its capital, Napata (Dio 54.5; Strabo, Geog. 17.53–54; RG 26). He was a friend of Herodes, sending grain to Iudaea when the kingdom was suffering famine (Joseph., Ant. 15.9.2).

P. Rubrius Barbarus (c. 50 BCE–After 12 BCE). Barbarus was Praefectus Aegypti (?–12 BCE). He is known from an inscription from Casinum (CIL X, 5169).

P. Salvius Aper (Before c. 35 BCE–After 10 CE). In 2 BCE, Aper was appointed Praefectus Praetorio, one of the two senior equestrians commanding the Cohortes Praetoriae, the other being Q. Ostorius Scapula (Dio 55.10.10).

L. Seius Strabo (c. 46 BCE–After 15 CE). Born in Volsini, Etruria, Seius Strabo was a friend of Augustus (Macrobius, Sat. 2.4.18), which may help to explain his appointment at an unknown date to Praefectus Praetorio, the post he held at the time of Augustus’ death (Tac., Ann. 1.7). Soon after, he became Praefectus Aegypti. He had one son by his first wife Aelia, L. Seius Tubero; after she died, he married Cosconia Lentuli Maligunensis Gallita, half-sister of Q. Iunius Blaesus, and by her had L. Aelius Seianus (who would become Tiberius’ Praefectus Praetorio and right-hand man).

C. Turranius (c. 45–After 4 BCE). Turranius was Praefectus Aegypti (7–4 BCE).

[?]. Valerius Ligur or P. Varius Ligur (Before c. 25 BCE–After 14 CE). Some time in 14 CE or before, Valerius Ligur may have replaced Ostorius Scapula and Salvius Aper, perhaps as sole Praefectus Praetorio: our source records only that Augustus ordered that a seat should always be available for Valerius the Ligurian whenever the two of them went together to the Senate House (Dio 66.23.2), indicating he held him in high regard. Alternatively, he may be Varius Ligur (CIL V, 7598 = PIR1 V 189, cf. 69; ILS 171 (Alba Pompeia)). Varius may have been the father of Varius Ligur (in Tac., Ann. 4.42 and 6.30).

2. Allies

Several nations, such as the tribal Batavi and Frisii or the kingdoms of Numidia, Pontus and Thracia, co-existed with the Roman Empire as allies (socii, foederati), not as subject peoples (Dio 54.9.1). Augustus ‘never failed to treat them all with consideration as integral parts of the empire’ (Suet., Div. Aug 48). Enjoying the favour of Augustus as their patronus, the allied leaders – kings in most cases, but also chiefs, potentates and magistrates (Strabo, Geog. 6.4.2 and 17.3.25) – promoted Roman interests in their realms as his clientes and were bound by treaty obligations to assist the Romans militarily with men and matériel when called upon to do so, and vice versa. As proxies, they might conduct campaigns without the Romans’ direct involvement, but only with their prior consent. Many allies sent their children to Rome to be educated alongside Augustus’ own, and he promoted marriages and friendships among them (Suet., Div. Aug 48). In return, Augustus would sponsor and represent each client king’s interests – and, should they arise, grievances – in the Senate or courts in Rome.

For a detailed discussion of these so-called client kings, see Braund (1984b).

Amyntas (c. 70–25 BCE). Son of Brogitarix, king of Galatia, Amyntas was king of Lycaonia and Galatia and several adjacent territories (Strabo, Geog, 17.3.25). An astute and confident man, he was not above assassination to acquire new lands – Antipater, a friend of Cicero (Cic., Ad Fam. 13.73; Strabo, Geog. 12.6.3, 14.5.24), was murdered to gain Derbe – or political machinations – Cappadocia and Isaura were awarded to him, ‘where he built a palace for himself’ (Strabo, Geog. 12.6.3), through courting Roman favour. He was an ally of M. Antonius and present at Actium (Plut., Ant. 61), likely with troops; however, in the days just before the battle began he switched to the side of Caesar’s heir (Plut., Ant. 63). His alliance with Augustus flourished and he minted his own coins (e.g. BMC 9, 13 and 15 bear the inscription BASILEOS AMUNTOU). On the death of Deiotarus II in c. 27 BCE, Galatia was given to Amyntas by Augustus (Strabo, Geog, 17.3.25). He was ambitious to extend his influence from his capital at Ancyra and to reduce threats to his power; to that end, he waged war against bandits from the Homonadeis nation living in the mountainous region of his kingdom (Strabo, Geog. 14.5.1): Amyntas ‘made himself master of Cremna [later established as a Roman colonia] and passed into the country of the Homonadeis, who were supposed to be the most difficult to reduce of all the tribes. He had already got into his power most of their strongholds, and had killed the tyrant himself, when he was taken prisoner by an artifice of the wife of the tyrant, whom he had killed, and was put to death by the people’ (Strabo, Geog. 12.6.5) in 25 BCE. In another version, ‘he was killed by the Cilicians in an ambush, when invading the country of the Homonadeis’ (Strabo, Geog. 12.6.3). After his death, Galatia was annexed as a Roman province under its first governor, M. Lollius (Dio 53.26.3; Eutrop., 7.10.2).

Deiotarus (II) (c. 65–c. 27 BCE). The only surviving son of tetrarch Deiotarus (I), who unswervingly supported the Romans during their wars in Asia (Plut. De Stoic. Repugn. 32), Deiotarus II succeeded his father upon his death in 40 BCE as king of Galatia. Cicero held both he and his father in high regard (Cic. Phil. 11.13). Deiotarus II was a trusted figure: in 51 BCE, while Cicero and his brother Quintus were campaigning in Cilicia, his own son and nephew remained in the care of the king (Cic., Ad Att. 5.17, 18; Phil. 11.12). After Iulius Caesar’s assassination, he was an ally of M. Antonius and present at Actium (Plut., Ant. 61), likely with troops; however, just before the battle began, he switched to the side of Caesar’s heir (Plut., Ant. 63). On the death of Deiotarus II in c. 27 BCE, Galatia was incorporated into the dominion of Amyntas (Strabo, Geog, 17.3.25).

Iuba or Iobas (Iobas, Juba II) (52/50 BCE–c. 20 CE). Son of the Berber king Iuba I of Numidia (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.7), Iuba II was a young boy when his father died in 46 BCE. He was transported by Iulius Caesar as a prisoner to Rome and displayed as a trophy in his triumph (App., Bell. Civ. 2.101; Plut., Caes. 55). Raised and educated in Italy, he became a friend of Caesar’s heir, accompanying him on campaign in the East (Dio 51.15.6); subsequently, he benefitted from the death of M. Antonius in 30 BCE and received back his father’s kingdom (Dio 51.15.6; Plut., Ant. 87; Strabo, Geog. 17.3.7). Around 25 BCE, Augustus exchanged Numidia with him for Mauretania and the possessions of Bokchus and Bogud, bringing the Gaetuli under his rule (Dio 53.26.2; Strabo, Geog. 17.3.9). Some rose up in revolt; the forces Iuba sent against them were unsuccessful in quelling the rebels, and he had to approach Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, proconsul of Africa (5–6 CE), to assist him (Flor., 2.31). His rule was characterized by a long period of peace and prosperity. His coins bear his portrait and proudly declare him REX IUBA (e.g. MAA 94 = SNG Copenhagen 593; MAA 97 = SNG Copenhagen 56; MAA 208 = SNG Copenhagen 618). He used his position to modernize his kingdom, beautifying the coastal town of Iol in the Graeco-Roman style to become its new capital city Caesareia (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.12; Eutrop., 7.10). He also used his time to write histories (including volumes on Africa, Arabia, early Rome and the lives of eminent painters), various treaties (including one on the natural world and another on grammar) and epigrams (including one about a bad actor named Leonteus); his works were highly regarded and often cited by later Roman writers (e.g. Pliny, Nat. Hist. 5.1, 6.26, 66.28, 6.30, 12.31, 25.38). In 25 BCE, he married Kleopatra Selene, daughter of Antonius and Kleopatra VII of Egypt, and had a son, Ptolemaeus (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.7). He may have married a second time after the death of Selene to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and widow of Alexander, son of Herodes of Iudaea. He died while Strabo was writing his magnum opus (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.7) and was deified (Lactant. De Fals. Relig. 1.11; Minucius Felix, 23). His kingdom passed to his son, Ptolemaeus (Strabo, Geog. 17.3.25).

M. Iulius Cottius (Cottius I) (c. 50 BCE–c. 20 CE). A nobleman of the Ligures nation living in the vicinity of Mont Cenis in the western Alps (Strabo, Geog. 4.1.5, 4.1.9, 4.6.6), Cottius was son of King Donnus (CIL V, 7232), who may have sided with C. Iulius Caesar during his Gallic War. Though the Gallic nations succumbed to direct Roman rule, Cottius secured the independence of his people (Amm. Marc., 15.10.1), ‘because he had ruled his subjects with a just government, and when admitted to alliance with the Roman state, procured eternal peace for his nation’ (Amm. Marc., 15.10.7). An inscription (AE 1904, 00173 = AE 1905, 00048 = AE 1996, 00971) connects M. Agrippa and Cottius, perhaps commemorating an official visit by Augustus’ legatus pro praetore (18–13 BCE) while he was travelling to or from Tres Galliae. Cottius became a Roman citizen with a Julian nomen genticulum and the office of praefectus, possibly renouncing his status as a king (rex), allowing him to continue to rule his mountain domain independently (Amm. Marc., 15.10.2) – the triumphal arch he completed in 9 BCE, bearing an inscription in honour of Augustus and listing his fourteen civitates (CIL V, 7231; cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. 3.24.4 mentions twelve which ‘had shown no hostility’ down to his day, and Dio 53.26.5), still stands at Susa. He constructed and maintained a highway as a short cut through the western Alps (Amm. Marc., 15.10.1–2, 8; Strabo, Geog. 4.1.3) – nowadays called the Cottian Alps – connecting Augusta Taurinorum in Italy to Brigantium, Gallia Narbonensis, via his capital at Segusio (Amm. Marc., 15.10.3); to raise revenue, he probably collected tolls from travellers, just as the Salassi did (Strabo, Geog. 4.6.7). He was succeeded by his son, M. Iulius Cottius (II).

Marboduus (Marbod) (c. 30 BCE–37 CE). The king of the Marcomanni lived his early life as a private citizen in Rome and ‘enjoyed the favour of Augustus’ (Strabo, Geog. 7.1.3). He was ‘a man of noble family, strong in body and courageous in mind, a barbarian by birth but not in intelligence, he achieved among his countrymen no mere chief’s position gained as the result of internal disorders or chance or liable to change and dependent upon the caprice of his subjects, but, conceiving in his mind the idea of a definite empire and royal power’ (Vell. Pat. 2.108.2). Around 10 BCE, Marboduus returned to his people, who were living close by the Main River; he ‘was placed in charge of the affairs of state’ and ‘took the rulership’ (Strabo, Geog. 7.1.3). He built a coalition of nations and ‘resolved to remove his own race far away from the Romans and to migrate to a place where, inasmuch as he had fled before the strength of more powerful arms, he might make his own all powerful’ (Vell. Pat. 2.108.2). He settled them further east in the region of Bohaemium (Vell. Pat. 2.109.5; Tac., Ann. 2.63). At the same time, Marboduus built up his army (70,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry), claiming it was a defensive force: ‘his policy toward Rome was to avoid provoking us by war, but at the same time to let us understand that, if he were provoked by us he had in reserve the power and the will to resist’ (Vell. Pat. 2.109.1–2). Perceived as a threat to Roman ambitions in Germania, Tiberius planned a massive multi-pronged invasion of his territory in 6 CE and assembled the men and matériel to do so (Vell. Pat. 2.108.1, 109.5). When the Great Illyrian Revolt unexpectedly broke out that year – in large part provoked by troop levies for the Marcomannic War imposed on the Breuci and Daesitiates by M. Valerius Messala Messallinus – Tiberius had to hastily negotiate a treaty with Marboduus (who refrained from joining the rebels) and withdraw (Vell. Pat. 2.110.3). Augustus later claimed the king ‘of the Marcomanni and Suebi’ was among the ‘kings who sought refuge with me as suppliants’ (RG 32.1). Hoping to sway him to his cause in uniting against the Romans after Teutoburg in 9CE, Arminius sent the head of P. Quinctilius Varus to him, but Marboduus stood by his treaty obligations and sent the body part to Augustus (Vell. Pat. 2.119.5). He remained neutral for the rest of Augustus’ principate.

Polemon Pythodoros (Polemon I) (c. 60 BCE–After 2 BCE). Polemon was son of Zenon (Zeno), the orator and a prominent aristocrat from Laodikeia (Laodicea) on the Lycus Anatolia. On account of his father’s loyalty to M. Antonius during the Parthian War (40 BCE), young Polemon was appointed king of Cilicia in 39 BCE (App., Bell. Civ. 5.75). He joined Antonius in the campaign of 36 BCE, but was taken prisoner and only gained his freedom after a ransom was paid (Dio 49.25.1–2; Plut., Ant. 38). The following year, Polemon helped Antonius to form an alliance of Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene (an ally of Parthia) with Rome, for which he was rewarded by the triumvir with the addition of Armenia Minor to his dominion (Dio 49.33.1–2, 44.3). In 31 BCE, he provided troops to Antonius for the Actian War (Plut., Ant. 61), but had also secretly established relations with the then triumvir, C. Octavius, thereafter becoming his ally. In 27 BCE, Polemon ‘was enrolled among the friends and allies of the Roman people’ (Plut., Ant. 61; Dio 53.25.1), and ‘because of his bravery and honesty, was thought worthy even of a kingdom, at first by Antonius and later by Augustus’ (Strabo, Geog. 12.8.16). Under Augustus, Polemon proved a loyal client king and prospered, expanding his kingdom to encompass the Bosporan Kingdom, Cilicia, Colchis and Pontus. In 16 BCE, M. Agrippa called upon his assistance during the revolt in the Cimerian Bosporus in which the usurper Scribonius claimed to be the legitimate successor to King Asander. Polemon arrived on the promontory but mishandled the counter-insurgency, becoming part of the problem himself and the target of public discontent (Dio 54.24.5). The rebellion was eventually quelled and that year he married Dynamis, widow of Asander, establishing himself as the sovereign of the country (Dio 54.24.6). When she died two years later, Polemon married Pythodorida of Pontus (Strabo, Geog. 12.3.29). Their children included Zenon (Zeno-Artaxias or Artaxias III, who became King of Armenia, crowned by Germanicus), M. Antonius Polemon Pythodoros – also known as Polemon II of Pontus – (Strabo, Geog. 12.3.29) and Antonia Tryphaena (who married Kotys VIII of Thrace). An inscription from 2 BCE shows he was still alive at that time (CIL II, 3524). At an unknown date, Polemon fought the nomadic Aspurgiani in the mountains of Phanagoria, only to be defeated, taken prisoner and executed (Strabo, Geog. 12.3.29). He was succeeded by his wife; she was assisted by her son, Polemon (II), who became regent over Armenia Maior (Strabo, Geog. 12.3.29).

Raiskuporis (Rhescuporis II) (c. 28 BCE–19 CE). A son of Kotys (Cotys) II, Tacitus describes Raiskuporis (Rhescuporis) II as having ‘a fierce and ambitious spirit, which could brook no partner’ (Tac., Ann. 2.64). During the Great Illyrian Revolt (a.k.a. Batonian War), Raiskuporis joined Roimetalkes (Rhoemetalces) I in coming to the aid of Tiberius and Germanicus in 7 CE (Dio 55.30.5–6) and served with some distinction. Upon the death of Roimetalkes in 12 CE, Augustus assigned the wilder western half of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace to Raiskuporis (Tac., Ann. 2.64). Initially tolerant of Kotys, he soon began to plot to oust him and forcibly annex his realm; only the threat of punishment from Augustus crimped his ambition (Tac., Ann. 2.64). As soon as news reached him of Augustus’ death, he gave full vent to it.

Roimetalkes (Rhoemetalces I) (c. 31 BCE–12 CE). Son of Kotys (Cotys) II, Roimetalkes became regent of the Sapaean kingdom of Thrace in 11 BCE when his uncle Raiskuporis (Rhescuporis) I, aided by M. Lollius (Dio 54.20.2), died in battle fighting the rebellious Thracian Bessi nation led by their warchief Vologases, a man claiming to have supernatural powers (Dio 54.34.5). He left no heir. Roimetalkes and his family had fled during the uprising and only returned to the kingdom when Augustus granted him rule of it; a subsequent rebellion in his realm (Bellum Thracicum) was put down with the assistance of L. Calpurnius Piso Caesonius and troops mobilized from Galatia-Pamphylia (Flor. 2.27; Dio 54.34.6). Roimetalkes came to the aid of Tiberius and Germanicus during the Great Illyrian Revolt (a.k.a. Batonian War) in 6 and 7 CE (Dio 55.30.5–6). His queen was Pythodoris and they had a son, Kotys VIII; his older brother was Kotys VII, and his younger brother Raiskuporis II. After his death, Augustus assigned the western half of the kingdom to Raiskuporis II, and the more prosperous eastern half to his son, Kotys VIII (Tac., Ann. 2.64).

Rolis (Roles) (late first century BCE–early first century CE). Rolis was king of the Getae nation. He helped M. Licinius Crassus capture Bastarnae at their last stand in 30 BCE in Moesia (Dio 51.24.7). Crassus came to his assistance against a rival king, Dapyx (51.26.1–2). When he visited Imp. Caesar, presumably on the occasion of Crassus’ triumph (13 August 29 BCE), he was treated as his friend and ally because of his service.

Segimerus (Segimer, Sigimer) (late first century BCE–early first century CE). Segimerus (or Segimer, or Sigimer) was a noble of the Cherusci, a Germanic nation living between the Weser and Ems Rivers, which Iulius Caesar associated with ‘outrages and raids’ (Caes., Bell. Gall. 6.10). As a young warrior, Segimerus may have been in the war band made up of alliance members raiding across the Rhine into Roman-held Belgica in 17 BCE (Flor., 2.30.24), and/or he might have fought at the ambush of Nero Claudius Drusus at Arbalo in 11 BCE (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 11.18). Probably, at the time of Tiberius’ expeditions in 8 and 7 BCE (Dio 55.8.3), the Cherusci made a treaty with the Romans. In keeping with established practice between allies (Strabo, Geog. 7.1.4), he handed over his sons, Arminius (Vell. Pat. 2.118.2) and Flavus, to the Romans as a hostages; his other son, Sesithacus (Strabo, Geog. 7.1.4), may not have been born or old enough at the time. The boys were educated in Rome and raised as members of the Ordo Equester (Vell. Pat. 2.118.2). Segimerus likely remained in Germania, while men of the Cherusci served with the Roman army ‘on private campaigns’ under Arminius (Vell. Pat. 2.118.2) and Flavus (Tac., Ann. 2.9), perhaps seeing action in Illyricum (6–9 CE). For reasons that are still not well understood, Arminius convinced his father to join him in a plot to oust the army of occupation in Germania, exploiting the trust they had earned with Quinctilius Varus (Dio 56.19.2), and to lead him and his troops to destruction at saltus Teutoburgiensis in the summer of 9 CE. The conspirators invested time in building trust with Varus. It worked. When informed by Segestes (Vell. Pat. 2.118.4) that his brother-in-law Segimerus was involved in a plot, Varus did not believe him (Dio 55.8.3). Segimerus had a brother, Inguiomerus, whose ‘influence with the Romans was longstanding’ (Tac., Ann. 1.60.1).

Sitas (late first century BCE–early first century CE). Sitas was king of the Dentheleti nation in Thracia. The blind regent was an ally of the Romans, who were obliged to assist him when he was attacked by the Bastarnae in 30 BCE (Dio 51.23.4).