Writing about the life of another person is a fascinating challenge, especially one long dead and almost entirely forgotten. There were no living family relations or witnesses available to interview. However, there were several living people who knew parts of the story and others who did not but were nevertheless eager to help me tell it. I start with family and friends. My partner, mother, brother and, in particular, my friend Sonia St James (self-styled ‘muse to creative minds’) have all offered much appreciated encouragement throughout the project – they know how much this book meant to me. To my editor at Pen and Sword Books, Philip Sidnell, who responded enthusiastically to my proposal, graciously offered to take on this project, and guided it through to completion, I shall always be grateful.
I feel very privileged indeed that Graham Sumner agreed to kindly write the foreword to this, my first book. I have known Graham since I joined the Ermine Street Guard and have long admired his writings and illustrations, which reveal his deep knowledge of military matters of the Roman period.
This book tells the story of Drusus the Elder in both words and pictures. From the academic community I must thank David Potter, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin, Department of Classical Studies at The University of Michigan, for permission to use excerpts from his unpublished translation of the Tabula Siarensis; and Professor Ann Kuttner, Department of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, for permission to use insightful statements from her Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The Case of the Boscoreale Cups.
For helping me to illustrate the story, I offer my thanks to Michael V. Craton, who patiently shot digital photographs of pieces from my coin collection; Andy R. Braeunling and the members of Historische Darstellungsgruppe München e.V., for use of their photographs; Robert Brosch and the members of Chasuari, for use of their photograph; Marie-Lan Nguyen, for her photographs of Roman portrait busts; and last, but not least, Chris Haines MBE, Mike Knowles and members of The Ermine Street Guard, a registered charity in the United Kingdom – and of which I am proud to say I am a veteran member – for use of their photographs, some of which they took specially for this book.
War stories cannot be told without the aid of maps. I sincerely thank Carlos De La Rocha of Satrapa Ediciones, whose work frequently appears in Ancient Warfare magazine, for creating the superb maps of the Roman Empire and of Drusus’ campaigns.
My thanks also go to William Stavinoha, M.D. in Austin, Texas, who very graciously corroborated the plausibility of my interpretations of medical issues described in the ancient texts. For help with Latin sources I thank Dorian Borbonus, Bob Durrett, Magister Ginny Lindzey and Michael J. Taylor.
I have quoted extracts from several ancient authors’ works whose voices add greatly to the narrative. For the translations, I used: Augustus’ Res Gestae translated by Thomas Bushnell, BSG, and reproduced with permission, 1998; Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico translated by Edward Brooks in The First Six Books of the Gallic War, Chicago: The Cenn Publishing Company, 1896; Cassius Dio’s ‘PωμαϊκὴIστορία (Romaikon Istoria) translated by E. Cary based on the version by H.B. Foster in Dio’s Roman History, London: William Heinemann, 1917; Cicero’s Epistulae in The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, London: George Bell and Sons, 1905; Cicero’s Oratio pro L. Murena, IX-XI, in The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2, translated by C.D. Younge, p. 340, London: Bell, 1891; Florus’ Epitome translated by John Selby in Sallust, Florus and Velleius Paterculus, London: George Bell and Sons, 1889; Hippokrates’ Περί Aγμών (Peri Agmon) translated by Francis Adams in The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, Volume 2, London: Sydenham Society, 1849; Horace’s Carmina translated by John Conington in The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace, Translated into English Verse, London: M.A. Bell and Daldy, 1863; Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia translated by John Bostock and H.T. Riley in The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3, London: Henry Bohn, 1855; Pliny the Younger’s Epistulae Selectae translated by John Delaware Lewis in The Letters of the Younger Pliny, London: Keegan Paul, 1890; Plutarch’s OἱBίοιΠαράλληλοι (Oi Vioi Paralliloi) translated by John Langhrone and William Langhorne in Plutarch’s Lives, London: William Tegg, 1868; Seneca the Younger’s De Consolatio ad Marciam translated by John W. Basore in Moral Essays, Volume 2, London: William Heinemann, 1932; Suetonius’ De Vita Caesarum translated by Alexander Thomson in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, London: George Bell and Sons, 1893; Tacitus’ Ab Excessu Divi Augusti translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Bodribb in The Annals of Tacitus, London: MacMillan and Co., 1906; Tacitus’ De Origine et Situ Germanorum translated by R. B. Townsend in The Agricola and Germania of Tacitus, London: Methuen and Co., 1894; Tacitus’ Historiae, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Bodribb in The History of Tacitus, London: MacMillan and Co., 1876; Velleius Paterculus’ Historiae Romanae translated by John Selby in Sallust, Florus and Velleius Paterculus, London: George Bell, 1889; and Vergil’s Aeneid translated by John Dryden in 1697 in an improved edition by John Carey of The Works of Virgil Translated into English Verse, Volume 1, London: George Cowie and Co., 1819. The translated extract from Consolatio ad Liviam on page 143 comes from W. Francis H. King’s Classical Quotations: A Polyglot Manual of Historical and Literary Sayings, Noted Passages in Poetry and Prose, Phrases, Proverbs and Bons Mots, London: J. Whitaker and Sons, 1904. The quotation attributed to Pliny the Elder on page 143 comes from Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert’s Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers: A Cyclopaedia of Quotations from the Literature of All Ages, Bew York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895.