Chapter 16
Augustus and the Caesars – Plots, Perverts, and Paranoia
In This Chapter
How Augustus created his own unique version of the Republic
Why Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero nearly destroyed the Empire
How the Empire came to have four new rulers in one year
Vespasian’s restoration of the Empire
How the Flavians made the Empire stronger
After the Battle of Actium in 31 BC (refer to Chapter 15), the government of the Republic was in tatters. Men like Marius, Sulla, and Caesar had destroyed the prestige and power of the Senate and Rome’s nobility. Rome had grown too powerful, had too many possessions, and needed powerful leadership, yet the rulers of the previous century had pursued their own ambitions and, far from creating stability, had undermined the stability of the Roman world. One thing was certain, no-one wanted to go back to a monarchy.
One of the most famous books written by a Roman historian is the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. Starting with the life of Julius Caesar, it continues with biographies of the first 11 emperors up to AD 96. The first five emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero) were members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which means they were all linked by family connections to Julius Caesar and Tiberius’s father, Tiberius Claudius Nero. The next three (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius) were short-lived emperors of the civil war of AD 68–69, and were followed by the three emperors of the Flavian dynasty: Vespasian and his sons, Titus, and Domitian. The rule of the 11 emperors covers one of the most dramatic and decisive periods in Roman history.
Augustus (aka Octavian) and His Powers
Octavian arrived in Rome from Egypt in 29 BC absolutely unchallenged. His enemies were all dead. He controlled the whole Roman army. He had seized Egypt’s riches. What’s more, so much time had passed that no-one could remember the Republic working properly. Octavian could have become a power-crazed megalomaniac tyrant, but he didn’t – and that’s one of the most remarkable things about his rule.
Restoring the Republic
Octavian had a dilemma. If he gave up command of the army or shared it with anyone else, then he risked a return to more civil war. If he held onto his control, then he was flying in the face of the Republican tradition of outlawing permanent political power in the hands of one man. And he knew what had happened to Caesar.
Octavian had to find a solution. He returned to Rome, was elected Consul, and set to work. He also:
Restored the institutions of the Republic, but under his direction, giving him complete control of the army and foreign policy
Discharged some of his troops, gave them land, and cancelled anything illegal he’d done in the preceding years of war
Placed day-to-day government of non-military affairs under the control of senators and the equestrians
Got rid of unsuitable senators and came up with a list of qualifications for entry to the Senate: military service, personal qualities, and financial standing
During these first few years, Octavian ruled in a strictly unofficial way, biding his time and working out the best things to do. He got away with it because of his personal prestige and because everyone was exhausted by the chaos. He also had two extremely important friends who helped him:
Maecenas: Gaius Maecenas (died 8 BC) was an equestrian and had been at the Battle of Philippi with Octavian. In 40 BC, Maecenas negotiated the settlement with Antony at Brundisium. Maecenas was often left in control of Rome during the 30s BC. His relationship with Octavian cooled in later years, because Maecenas’s wife became Octavian’s mistress; however, he still left his old friend Octavian all his property in his will. Maecenas was a great patron of poets and writers, and it’s thanks to him that the influential propaganda poetry of Virgil and Horace praised Octavian’s rule.
Agrippa: Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (64–13 BC) came to Rome with Octavian when Octavian claimed his inheritance after Caesar’s death. Agrippa was a brilliant soldier and naval tactician, responsible for most of Octavian’s military successes. Not only did Agrippa manage Italy together with Maecenas, but Agrippa was also given control of the East and later solved problems in Gaul as well. He spent lavishly on public building projects in Rome. Agrippa married Octavian’s daughter Julia. Down that line, the Emperors Caligula (AD 37–41) and Nero (AD 54–68) were descended from both Agrippa and Octavian. The most remarkable thing about Agrippa is that, despite being so able, he always put Octavian’s career first.
Octavian’s wife Livia (58 BC–AD 29) was another important person in Octavian’s life. His first wife, Scribonia, was Julia’s mother, but Octavian divorced Scribonia in 39 BC, claiming he couldn’t get on with her. In 38 BC, Octavian married Livia, wife of a Pompeian supporter called Tiberius Claudius Nero, in order to cement political ties with potential opponents. Octavian even got Livia to divorce her own husband to marry him. Octavian adopted Livia’s son Tiberius as his heir, but Octavian and Livia had no children of their own.
The Emperor who wasn’t an Emperor
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Octavian was re-elected Consul annually until 23 BC. He was given control of the provinces of Spain, Gaul, and Syria with the power of imperium (refer to Chapter 3 for the significance of this title) and was allowed to assign the imperium to his representatives (known as legati – from which we get our word ‘delegate’) in those provinces. Octavian also held Egypt as his own property. Governors of other Roman provinces (proconsuls; see Chapter 3) were appointed by the Senate. The Senate became a law court.
Becoming Augustus
To let things settle down, Augustus left Rome for nearly three years to attend to Gaul, and campaign in Spain. Soon after returning to Rome in 23 BC, Augustus fell seriously ill, and the year went from bad to worse. Augustus’s nephew and intended heir Marcellus died, leaving his wife Julia (Augustus’s daughter) a widow. Augustus briefly made Agrippa his successor in place of Marcellus. Agrippa divorced his second wife and married Augustus’s daughter Julia to ensure the line of succession from Augustus. But Agrippa’s early death in 13 BC, and the deaths of Agrippa’s sons by Julia, ruined Augustus’s plans (see the section ‘A son, a son! My kingdom for a son!’, later in this chapter).
Defender of the people – Populares methods for an Optimate
Augustus made some clever moves. He gave up the consulship after 23 BC for the time being (he held it twice more, in 5 BC and 2 BC). In return, the Senate each year made Augustus Tribune of the Plebs for the rest of his life. He was now firmly established as the representative of the people, with the power to summon the Senate, propose legislation, and veto any laws that he thought not in the people’s interest. Augustus also had the right to nominate candidates to magistracies, and the imperium over his provinces was renewed. Being a noble, Augustus belonged to the Optimates, but by acting as the defender of the people he had adopted Populares ways of operating (refer to Chapter 14 for the distinction between Optimates and Populares). Augustus’s position made him popular with the people, though in reality the plebs had even less power than they had ever had.
Augustus’s political genius
With patience, tact, and diplomacy, Augustus had made himself an elected official of the state, subject to the law, with powers given to him by the Senate and the people. What is remarkable is that the principles of the Roman Republic had been upheld, while at the same time, Augustus, with the approval of the Senate and the people, held all the offices of state in his own hands.
Imagine if the President of the United States was also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the leading member of the majority party in both the Senate and the House of Representatives – with everyone accepting that the Constitution of the United States was still functioning legally. You get the picture. Augustus’s rule worked because he didn’t abuse his exceptional powers. Unfortunately, not all of Augustus’s successors were as trustworthy.
Augustus: The radical conservative
Augustus was a true conservative. He made changes, but at the same time Augustus wanted the people to believe he was keeping to the old ways.
Augustus used his powers to encourage all sorts of traditional values, such as encouraging men to wear togas. He passed laws against adultery and bribery, and men and women who failed to marry were barred from receiving inheritances, even though this was unpopular. Augustus’s conservatism even went as far as being reluctant to give citizenship to non-Latins, and he placed a limit on the freeing of slaves.
Augustus enhanced the Roman religion by increasing the number of priests and reviving old rites. Augustus also:
Built and restored temples
Revived the night-time Saecular Games, for young people
Made himself Pontifex Maximus (‘Chief Priest’) in 12 BC
Revived in 11 BC the office of flamen dialis, ‘priest of Jupiter’ (from Diespiter ‘Day father’, another name for Jupiter)
How the Aeneid survived
When the poet Virgil died, he left instructions that the Aeneid, his great poem about the foundation of Rome, which foretold the coming of Augustus, be burned. Augustus, knowing the propaganda value of the Aeneid, ignored Virgil’s will. Thereafter, generations of Roman schoolchildren memorised passages from the Aeneid as part of their reading and writing instruction, and quotations from Virgil’s epic poem entered everyday speech, much as William Shakespeare’s work has influenced modern English. Manuscripts of the Aeneid survived and were copied by early Christian monks in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. Preserved in monasteries, these copies formed the basis of some of the first printed editions in the fifteenth century. Today, the Aeneid is widely available in its original Latin and numerous other languages around the world.
Coinage
Augustus knew the importance of coinage as a way of publicising his regime. Until Caesar’s time, coinage had mostly only portrayed gods. Augustus issued hundreds of different types of coins, many with his likeness and featuring various appropriate virtues and subjects. There was the comet type – featuring Augustus’s head on one side and the comet that appeared after Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC on the other. Another coin issued was the ‘For preserving the citizens’ type – with the legend Ob Cives Servatos. Augustus’s coins circulated throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. It was the first major advertising campaign in history.
Finding it brick and leaving it marble
Augustus understood perfectly the importance of a public image. Although he had been a good-looking young man, he wasn’t especially tall. He was said to be spotty, had various birthmarks, a limp, and suffered from bladder stones and a variety of serious illnesses. Rome had suffered, too, and needed a thorough restyling.
The ever youthful Augustus
Statues of Augustus portray him as a handsome, imposing, and vigorous warrior. Like all the greatest heroes, Augustus never aged. By the end of his reign, in his late 70s, no statue or coin had ever shown him as an old man. It was a trick that rulers often used. Queen Victoria (1837–1901) issued coins for the first 50 years of her reign, with the same youthful portrait, until advancing age and photography made it impossible for her to get away with it. Augustus was luckier. Most people in the Roman Empire had never seen him, so he was eternally youthful in their imaginations.
Rebuilding Rome
Like Augustus, Rome needed updating. Augustus spent a huge amount of money on improving the city. He increased the number of officials looking after public buildings and services. This meant hiring large numbers of equestrians to take charge of the many jobs in finance and administration, as well as using freedmen and slaves to do the routine administrative and clerical work. Augustus created what could be called a civil service. Rome was the Washington DC or Whitehall of its day.
Augustus’s proudest boast was that he had found Rome a city built of brick and left it made of marble. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but Augustus was responsible, with Agrippa, for constructing a number of magnificent public buildings that can still be seen today. Augustus and Agrippa also introduced a sort of combination fire brigade and police force (Vigiles), and put on more public entertainments than ever before. You can find details of what Augustus and Agrippa achieved in Chapter 6.
Sorting out the borders
Rome’s wealth and prestige depended on the existence of the Empire, which provided the money and resources for turning Rome into a fabled city of marble and the proof of Rome’s superiority as a military, political, religious, and moral power. So keeping it in order was a vital part of Augustus’s work.
Taxing business
Augustus had to pay out large sums of money to his veterans but had huge reserves from legacies and money he’d confiscated in the provinces, especially Egypt. Taxation was another source of income, but here Augustus had to tread carefully. Antony, Brutus, and Cassius had overdone taxation to fund their wars, and look where they ended up.
Administrative reform was essential. Because of this, Augustus ordered a census (the same census written about in the New Testament at the time of the birth of Christ in Judaea). Augustus introduced a land tax (tributum soli) and a poll or property tax (tributum capitis); however, Italy and Roman citizens were exempt from the land tax and probably the poll tax. Taxes were also imposed on goods at borders, based on a percentage of the value of goods. Augustus set up a fund for retired soldiers, giving soldiers a lump sum, and he paid for it by imposing sales taxes and death duties. In his own imperial provinces, Augustus appointed equestrians as procurators (financial managers) to look after his personal property (as his province of Egypt was governed by an equestrian; see Chapter 3 for the role of procurators).
Colonies
In Italy, Augustus set up 28 Roman colonies alone, like Turin, and provided each one with public buildings, rights, and constitutions, really making them into mini-Romes. Cities like these could now provide new recruits to Rome’s senators and equestrians. Roads were rebuilt and repaired to maintain communications with Rome. A police force was created to deal with bandits who infested the countryside. The net result was that Rome and Italy became really two halves of the same being.
The frontiers
Augustus was determined to make the Empire’s frontiers strong and secure. He had no plans to conquer more territory, because Rome already had the wealthy (and conquerable) places under her control. Not only that, he also knew that if he gave a man an army and told him to conquer somewhere, then that man had all the resources he needed to challenge Augustus.
Egypt’s southern borders were made safe in 22 BC after war with the Ethiopians. Fighting in Arabia gave the Romans commercial access to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and Augustus was rewarded for his involvement in the area by visits from Indian ambassadors. In Asia Minor, eastern mountain robbers were beaten off and colonies established.
North-western Europe
North-western Europe was a different problem. In 19 BC in Spain, Agrippa finally defeated the mountainous tribes, founded colonies, and set up a permanent garrison in Spain. Gaul remained peaceful, but unlike Greece and Asia, Gaul needed to be equipped with all the trappings of a Roman province, which meant creating administrative districts, building roads, and constructing public buildings. Gaul had become so settled that Augustus established a mint at Lugdunum (Lyons) in 15 BC, which became the main source of silver and gold coins for the next half century.
Britain still lay beyond the borders of the Roman world, but Augustus interfered in tribal politics to make sure pro-Roman rulers were in charge by subsidising them. Two British rulers even dashed to Rome for help from him in their dynastic feuds.
Augustus had much more trouble with Germany and the Rhine. German tribes constantly harried the Rhine frontier. Augustus authorised an invasion beyond the Rhine to push the frontier back farther. A series of wars began against the German tribes in 12 BC, led by Augustus’s stepson, Drusus the Elder. Drusus died in 9 BC and his brother Tiberius continued the wars. By AD 5, Germany was largely under Roman control, but there was a long way to go before the area could be called a Roman province.
The disaster of AD 9
It’s beginning to read as if Augustus was a one-stop brilliant success story. He wasn’t. Frontier control went spectacularly wrong in the year AD 9. Augustus sent out a Governor called Publius Quinctilius Varus to Germany. Varus was tactless and high-handed. He tried to impose taxation and Roman jurisdiction. Varus’s actions led to a revolt by a chieftain called Arminius, who had actually been fighting in the Roman army and even been made an equestrian.
Arminius fell back into the forests, and like a fool, Varus followed him right into the trap. Deep in the Teutoburg Forest, Arminius pounced on Varus and wiped out three legions (the XVII, XVIII, and XIX) in one fell swoop. Augustus was devastated but had to make instant preparations against riots in Rome and allies defecting.
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In AD 14, an army of revenge was sent out under Tiberius, led by his nephew Germanicus, who found the forest littered with the remains of Varus’s army; the soldiers had been massacred, and some were tortured to death. Germanicus pacified the region, as well as recovering the standards of the lost legions. But that was the end of any attempt to push the frontier beyond the Rhine.
A son, a son! My kingdom for a son!
Augustus was plagued by the problem of choosing an heir. Augustus’s only child, by his first wife Scribonia, was Julia. Julia’s first husband Marcellus had died in 23 BC, leaving no children. Augustus was left with three grandsons by Julia’s second husband, Agrippa: Gaius, Lucius, and Agrippa Postumus – but they were all too young to be named as Augustus’s heir.
Tiberius, Augustus’s stepson by Livia, was the only male choice left. Augustus adopted Tiberius and forced Tiberius to divorce his wife Vipsania and marry Julia. Tiberius was furious because he loved his wife and cleared off to Rhodes for seven years; Tiberius had absolutely no desire to succeed Augustus.
Gaius and Lucius died in AD 2 and AD 4, and Agrippa Postumus was banished by Augustus for his bad behaviour. Augustus also banished Julia and her daughter, also called Julia, because of their immoral way of life. That left Tiberius as Augustus’s only possible heir.
In AD 4, Tiberius adopted his nephew Germanicus, and the next year Germanicus married Augustus’s granddaughter Agrippina, the sister of Gaius, Lucius, and Agrippa Postumus, and the banished Julia the Younger. Tiberius did inherit the Roman Empire, but the rest of the plan didn’t quite work out (see ‘Tiberius – part good, part bad, part pervert’).
The deeds of a lifetime: The Res Gestae
As well as his will, instructions for his funeral, and a statement on the condition of the Empire, Augustus left a summary of his lifetime achievements, called the Res Gestae.
In the Res Gestae, Augustus proudly listed all the things he had done. These included:
The wars he had fought to ‘restore liberty to the Republic’
His reform of the Senate
The honours and triumphs given to him
The gifts he had made to the people
The temples and other buildings he had constructed
The funding of public entertainments
His settlement of the provinces
Augustus was bragging, but he was also telling the truth. No other document like the Res Gestae exists, which is as it should be, because no other Roman emperor like Augustus ever lived.
Augustus’s death
Augustus died peacefully at the age of 75 on 19 August AD 14. Not many of Augustus’s successors enjoyed such a long life or were lucky enough to have a peaceful death.
Augustus is phenomenally important in Roman history because, almost single-handedly, he created a political system that lasted. Augustus was widely worshipped after his death, both publicly and privately. His successors tried to live up to him. From now on, the reigning emperor would be known as the Imperator Augustus; later on, an emperor’s successor would be known as the Caesar. The most difficult thing Augustus tried to do was to establish a secure line of succession – but that was beyond even his control!
Augustus’s Dynasty: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero (AD 14–68)
Augustus was followed by four Emperors who all belonged to the Julio-Claudian dynasty: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The last three, like Augustus, were all descended from Julius Caesar’s sister Julia (that’s the Julio- bit), while Tiberius was brought in by adoption when Augustus married his mother Livia. Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero were also descended from Tiberius’s father Tiberius Claudius Nero (the last three via Tiberius’s brother Drusus, making the Claudian bit).
Whatever their pedigree, if you believe the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, the four emperors were nothing but megalomaniacs and perverts. Up to a point, Tacitus and Suetonius were right, although they weren’t altogether fair. Tiberius and Claudius had their excesses but were actually quite good rulers. Even Caligula and Nero had their better moments. But the bad things the four emperors did angered people, and many wanted to see the old style Republic restored – not just Augustus’s version of it.
Tiberius – part good, part bad, part pervert (AD 14–37)
Tiberius never wanted to be Emperor. He resented having to divorce his wife Vipsania in 12 BC and marry Augustus’s ghastly daughter Julia (later exiled for immoral behaviour). Tiberius spent a large part of Augustus’s reign knowing perfectly well that Augustus would have preferred the succession to pass to Augustus’s own grandsons, Gaius and Lucius, who had died young.
Augustus had groomed Tiberius for the succession by allowing him to share some of his own jobs. While he was alive, Augustus made Tiberius a tribune and also gave him the imperium. Tiberius won for himself a great military reputation, thanks to recovering, in 19 BC, the standards lost by Crassus to the Parthians back in 53 BC (refer to Chapter 14) and for his leadership of the campaign in Germany after the disaster of AD 9 (refer to the section ‘The disaster of AD 9’). Because of this, no-one opposed Tiberius’s succession.
Tiberius abroad
Tiberius, who was 56 when he became Emperor, had always had a great sense of duty. He was determined to continue Augustus’s reconstruction of the Roman Empire and followed Augustus’s plan to keep the Roman Empire within its existing boundaries. That meant holding back his popular nephew (and heir) Germanicus (d. AD 19) from trying to conquer more of Germany, although Tiberius gloried in Germanicus’s magnificent triumph in AD 17.
Tiberius was smart. He named Commagene and Cappadocia in the East as new provinces when the client kings died, and continued Augustus’s policy of Romanisation of the provinces by constructing new public buildings and roads. When a massive earthquake with an epicentre close to Sardis wrecked many of the cities of Asia, Tiberius sent relief and issued coins commemorating his generosity.
Piso and Germanicus
Tiberius made Cnaeus Calpurnius Piso Governor of Syria to keep an eye on Germanicus. Piso had a reputation for ferocity and insubordination. Before he died, Germanicus claimed he had been poisoned by Piso. Germanicus was extremely popular, and his death was greeted with despair by the Roman people. Before long, stories started to circulate that Tiberius and Piso had conspired to murder Germanicus, because Tiberius didn’t like anyone else being too popular, and because Germanicus had been planning to restore the Republic. Tiberius had enemies within his own family, namely Germanicus’s wife Agrippina. The stories were a gift to her, because she planned that her own sons, and not Germanicus, should succeed Tiberius. Piso later committed suicide.
Home rule
Tiberius was really quite modest in his public image. He refused to call himself Imperator, was consul only three times during his reign, and increased the Senate’s powers. Tiberius saved cash by not putting on public entertainments. Imperial mines were taken over by imperial equestrian procurators (Roman financial agents) rather than being run by private individuals, and he made soldiers stay on after they should have retired. The changes weren’t popular, but they did save money. The economies meant that Tiberius was able to cut taxes. When Tiberius died, he left a large surplus, even though he had provided relief for natural disasters and let people off their debts.
Flies in the ointment
Although Tiberius made some sound political moves, he lacked tact and was highly suspicious. That made his relationship with the Senate difficult. Worse, Tiberius became far too dependent on Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the Prefect commanding the Praetorian Guard in Rome (refer to Chapter 5 for the role of the Praetorian Guard). Sejanus was a man on the make who fancied himself as the next emperor. Tiberius became a recluse, preferring his villa on Capri to Rome, which meant he took his eye off the ball.
The rise and fall of Sejanus
In AD 19, Germanicus died in Syria where he had been campaigning. Augustus’s scheme for Germanicus to become emperor after Tiberius had been foiled. Next in line was Tiberius’s own son, Drusus the Younger. In AD 23, Drusus died, murdered by Sejanus. Tiberius, trusting Sejanus entirely, was totally unaware of his treachery. Sejanus encouraged Tiberius to stay on Capri so that he could fill the army and administration with his own men. In AD 31, Tiberius’s sister-in-law, Antonia, informed Tiberius about Sejanus’s disloyalty and his murder of Drusus.
Tiberius brought down Sejanus with a masterpiece of subterfuge and revenge. Tiberius appointed a soldier called Macro, then Prefect of Rome’s fire brigade (Vigiles) to be the praetorian prefect, and got the Praetorian Guard over to his side with an offer of cash. Tiberius then sent a long letter from Capri to be read in the Senate. Sejanus listened eagerly, thinking he was to be made a Tribune. The letter started well for Sejanus, praising his virtues and achievements, but ending with Tiberius denouncing Sejanus as a traitor. Within hours, Sejanus, his family, and supporters, were all viciously killed by a mob.
Family paranoia
Tiberius’s suspicious nature wrecked family relations. After Drusus’s death, Tiberius had accepted his nephew Germanicus’s eldest sons, Nero and Drusus, by his wife Agrippina (Augustus’s granddaughter), as his heirs. Tiberius later became convinced that Nero and Drusus were conspiring with Sejanus. Tiberius had Agrippina banished and her sons killed.
Paranoia was one of Tiberius’s weaknesses and made him the prey of political opportunists. Tiberius believed what he was told and used delatores (informers) to build up evidence against anyone said to have spoken or acted against him. The delatores stood to get 25 per cent of the property of anyone they informed against who was successfully convicted of treason (maiestas). Naturally, there was a huge incentive to inform on anyone, and the richer the better.
Tiberius expires
Tiberius died on 16 March AD 37 on his way back to Capri after an abortive attempt to visit Rome. Stories were put about that Tiberius had been murdered. It was said that his great-nephew Caligula had poisoned him and that the praetorian prefect Macro (whom Tiberius had used to put down Sejanus) had suffocated Tiberius to show his loyalty to Caligula.
Caligula was made emperor, despite Tiberius’s plans that his own grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, would succeed him.
Making your horse a consul is a bad idea: Caligula (AD 37–41)
Caligula, who succeeded Tiberius, was Germanicus and Agrippina’s third son. His father’s immense popularity helped him a great deal. But Caligula was a very different man.
Tiberius stories
Thanks mainly to the historian Suetonius have so many stories about Tiberius’s paranoia and debauchery been preserved. Tiberius’s victims, half-dead from torture, were supposedly flung off a cliff on Capri where a naval unit waited below to beat them to death if, by chance, they’d survived. Tiberius had young people called spintriae perform perverted sexual acts for him. But it was Tacitus who painted a devastating portrait of Tiberius as a crazed recluse. The truth is that both historians had a hidden agenda. Suetonius and Tacitus were Senators and had seen the Senate’s power dwindle as the emperors ruled. Tacitus used Tiberius’s hang ups as a way of getting at an emperor much closer to his own time: Domitian (AD 81–96). (More on Domitian at the end of this chapter.) Tiberius did become a recluse and was paranoid, but is now known to have been a competent ruler.
Caligula was hailed on his way to Rome as if he was a superstar. As Germanicus’s son, Caligula was welcomed with open arms as emperor in Rome, especially because people hoped the money-saving and paranoia of Tiberius’s reign would be cleared out. They were, but were replaced with something far worse: murderous megalomania. Unlike Augustus or Tiberius, Caligula had absolutely no suitable qualifications to be an emperor. He had no experience of the Republic’s institutions, no military reputation, no idea of tact and diplomacy, and no idea how to get along with the Senate.
Despite Caligula’s lack of experience, he started off well and made himself popular, by
Reducing taxes
Bringing back men exiled by Tiberius
Throwing out any outstanding legal cases
Banishing sexual perverts
Allowing freedom of speech
Reviving elections
Paying out Tiberius’s legacies
Finishing public building works
Governing conscientiously
Caligula put on endless expensive public entertainments and paid the Praetorian Guard generously. Caligula then fell ill. When he recovered, he was a changed man. Caligula turned into a tyrant and a lunatic. His expenditure became more reckless and, despite imposing a wide range of new taxes, he managed to squander Tiberius’s huge cash reserves within a year. Caligula rapidly descended into madness and did the following:
Declared himself a god: Caligula posed as an absolute monarch, declaring one day ‘Let there be one Lord, one King!’ After their deaths, Julius Caesar and Augustus had been elevated to the status of gods (Tiberius, not surprisingly, wasn’t given that status). In reality, being named as a god was a political gesture, and for Caesar and Augustus, it was a way of acknowledging their great achievements as emperors. Caligula, however, decided he already was a god. He planned to replace statues of other gods with a bust of himself, set up a priestly cult to ‘Caligula’, and spent the day ‘talking’ to Jupiter.
Purged the Senate: Caligula slated the Senate for supporting Sejanus (refer to ‘The rise and fall of Sejanus’, earlier in the chapter). Men were executed without trial, including Macro, and Caligula brought back the use of the delatores (informers; refer to ‘Tiberius – part good, part bad, part pervert’).
Acted the hypocrite: He cursed the equestrians for being obsessed with the theatre and the arena – which, frankly, was a cheek because he was a fanatical supporter of the Green faction at the chariot-racing circus himself. He had the neighbourhood silenced so that his favourite horse, Incitatus, would not be disturbed before a race. Apparently, he even toyed with the idea of making Incitatus a consul, though it’s unknown if this actually happened.
Was fanatically cruel: Caligula’s cruelties never stopped. He flung men of rank into the mines or the circus, and had a playwright burnt alive because the writer had dared to put an indelicate joke into one of his own plays. One of Caligula’s most famous remarks was ‘I wish the Roman people had a single neck’ – meaning that Caligula would be able to execute the Roman population in one go.
Made a complete fiasco of foreign policy: Caligula had a client king called Ptolemy (grandson of Antony and Cleopatra) of Mauretania in North Africa murdered for turning up in Rome wearing a purple cloak (that smacked of imperial rivalry). Caligula provoked Mauretania and Judaea to the point of rebellion. On the way to visit a rural shrine, Caligula got it into his head to invade Germany and, while there, gave the chief centurions the sack.
Adminius, a British warrior prince, fled to Caligula for help. Caligula then announced proudly that he had conquered Britain. Next, Caligula sent his troops to the shores of the North Sea and told the men to collect sea shells as spoils of war.
Plotted against his family: Caligula declared his mother Agrippina was the offspring of an incestuous relationship between Augustus and Augustus’s daughter Julia. Caligula had his grandmother Antonia poisoned and his cousin Tiberius Gemellus (Tiberius’s grandson) murdered.
Indulged in incest: Caligula had incestuous relationships with his sisters Drusilla, Julia, and Agrippina (the younger). He even issued a coin portraying himself on one side and his sisters on the other. Caligula carried on with Drusilla, Julia, and Agrippina despite the fact that he was married to Caesonia and had a daughter by her.
There was no way Caligula was going to die peacefully in his own bed. He’d signed his own death warrant, several dozen times! A plot implicating two of his sisters was uncovered, but another was organised involving senators, imperial freedmen, and the Praetorian Guard. On his way to a public performance on 24 January AD 41, Caligula was set upon and hacked to death, despite being protected by his German bodyguards who killed some of the conspirators.
The dribbling old halfwit done good: Claudius (AD 41–54)
Caligula, of course, had made no plans for the succession. Neither had his murderers, whose only concern was to get rid of a dangerous madman. (They also killed Caesonia and Caligula’s daughter.)
The Senate spotted its chance and decided it was the time to throw away Augustus’s principate and restore the ‘good old days’ of the Roman Republic. They’d forgotten, however, that for the last 150 years, the Senate had had to do whatever the generals and the army had told them to do. And that’s what happened now.
In the plots against his family, Caligula left his uncle Claudius, Tiberius’s nephew, unharmed. Claudius had a reputation as the family idiot because he dribbled, stammered, and had a limp. Caligula thought he was a joke, but Claudius was highly intelligent. Augustus knew that Claudius was clever and made sure that Claudius had an education. But Claudius was never allowed to gain experience as a soldier or administrator, because his physical handicaps would have been bad for Augustus’s image.
Claudius was found by the Praetorian Guard hiding behind a curtain when Caligula was murdered. The Guard wrong-footed the Senate by declaring the 50-year-old Claudius their new Emperor and champion. Claudius, being a historian, was smart enough to realise that the only power that mattered was military power. If Claudius had said no to being emperor, he would probably have been killed. Claudius accepted the job and promised the Praetorian Guard a handsome sum of money in return for their support.
The making of a man: Conquering Britain
Rome’s secret of success was adapting to new circumstances while clinging on to tradition, and Claudius knew this. He also knew that his personal reputation was a handicap: Claudius had to prove himself as a leader and as a conqueror. He started off by settling the war in Mauretania, made Mauretania into two new provinces, and created a client kingdom to stabilise Judaea. Claudius also added Lycia and Thrace to the Empire.
Claudius’s greatest opportunity came in AD 43 when a British tribal chieftain called Verica fled to him for help. Britain, like most parts of the world ruled by tribes, suffered from endless petty dynastic and territorial disputes. The disputes weren’t of much importance to Rome, but Britain was important, because of its valuable mineral resources.
Claudius mounted a major military expedition to Britain, led by the general Aulus Plautius. Caligula had left some of the preparations to invade Britain in place from his abortive effort a few years earlier. Claudius was able to take advantage of Caligula’s arrangements. Julius Caesar had failed to hold on to Britain, and now Claudius was given the chance to outdo the greatest Roman of them all.
To begin with, the invasion of Britain went remarkably well. Plautius advanced inland and then sent to Rome for the Emperor. Claudius marched at the head of his army to the great tribal capital of Camulodunum (Colchester), returning to Rome after 16 days. Claudius put on a triumph, erecting arches and issuing coins to commemorate his mighty achievement. The war in Britain continued on and off for more than a century, but Claudius had achieved his goal. He was now a fully-fledged Roman emperor who had proved himself as a victorious commander. To celebrate, he named his son Britannicus.
Running the Roman Empire
In AD 48, Claudius encouraged the senators to admit leading Gauls to the Senate, a liberal gesture on Claudius’s part, which gave provincials more power. Part of Claudius’s original speech announcing this survives on a bronze plaque in Lyons. Claudius was also keen that the Senate felt free to express its own views, rather than just agreeing with imperial decisions.
Claudius built a large new harbour for the port at Ostia to improve the grain supply to Rome, and he reformed the grain supply’s administration (see Chapter 7 for information on the importance of the grain supply). He also built a new aqueduct and handed out gifts to the people.
Claudius revived Roman religious customs, discouraged emperor worship, and generally tolerated foreign cults, but only if they didn’t directly challenge Roman power. Jews were allowed to worship freely, but Claudius ordered that the Druids in Gaul be wiped out.
The Druids
The Druids were a priestly caste in Gaul and Britain. The word druid comes from the Greek for an oak tree: δρυς, pronounced drys. Groves of oak trees with mistletoe were sacred to the Druids. The Druids controlled tribal religion, law, and politics, enforced with human sacrifices, which disgusted the Romans. The Druids hugely resented the Romans for denting their power. In Britain, Druids continued to lead resistance to the Roman invasion until AD 60 (see the later sidebar ‘The Boudican War’).
Claudius’s shortcomings
Apart from his physical handicaps, Claudius had an unpredictable temper. Sometimes he was careful and considerate, at other times thoughtless and impatient, which led to hasty judgements in the Senate. Claudius relied on his wives and freedmen for advice, which made the senators and equestrians distrustful and resentful.
Claudius’s Chief Secretary Narcissus, Chief Assistant Pallas, and Examiner of Petitions Callistus were all freedmen and the most senior men in Claudius’s government. Narcissus, Pallas, and Callistus wielded unprecedented influence, sold offices and privileges, and made themselves wealthy over and above the gifts they received from Claudius.
Senators and equestrians themselves hadn’t been above such practices in the past. The use of freedmen and slaves was simply more efficient, and Claudius’s dependence on a personal bureaucracy was probably better for the Empire.
Claudius’s wives
Claudius had four wives (not at the same time), but it was numbers three and four who annoyed the Senate, more even than Claudius’s freedmen. His third and fourth wives, Valeria Messalina and Caligula’s sister Agrippina (Claudius’s niece), both played on Claudius’s fears of conspiracies. Suetonius said that thanks to Messalina and Agrippina’s denunciations, 35 senators and 300 equestrians were executed.
Messalina, mother of Claudius’s son Britannicus, was a bigamist and a nymphomaniac. Claudius had Messalina executed in AD 48 when he discovered she had secretly married another man, Gaius Silius. Disgusted and disappointed, he was determined not to marry again, but there’s no fool like an old fool, and he fell for his niece Agrippina (Caligula’s sister).
Agrippina ensnared Claudius easily. Claudius had the law changed to make it legal to marry his niece. Agrippina wanted her son Lucius by Cnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus to become Emperor (he did: as Nero). Agrippina persuaded Claudius to adopt Lucius, which placed him second in line to the throne after Britannicus. Lucius’s name was changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus.
The end of Claudius
Nero, still too young to succeed as emperor, fell increasingly under Agrippina’s control. In AD 54, when Nero was nearly 17 (five years older than Britannicus), by a lucky chance, Claudius died. The story at the time was that Claudius had been murdered, but this was not proved. The smart money was on Agrippina, who was said to have served him up a plate of poisoned mushrooms.
Claudius’s death was kept quiet until Agrippina could arrange for Nero’s smooth succession. The reign of Nero, probably the most notorious in Roman history, was about to begin.
Where mother went wrong: Nero (AD 54–68)
Nero was a melodramatic, ridiculous, and posturing egomaniac who had unlimited faith in his own creative, artistic, and sporting skills. In Suetonius’s words, Nero was obsessed with a ‘craze for popularity’. Still only in his mid-teens, Nero had been handed the whole Roman world and its resources with which to indulge himself. At that point in his life, he was still, by most standards, pretty normal. He had spent his childhood honing his interest in horses, sport, art, music, and painting.
The Boudican War
The Boudican War in Britain was no sideshow. The war nearly cost Rome a province; if Rome had lost, the Empire’s prestige would have been permanently destroyed.
The client king of the Iceni in Britain, Prasutagus, died around AD 59. Prasutagus left half his kingdom to Nero in the hope the tribe would be left in peace, but Roman administrators moved in to ransack Iceni territory. Boudica, Prasutagus’s wife, was famously flogged and her daughters raped. The Iceni, taking advantage of the governor’s absence (he had taken a large chunk of the Roman army on a campaign to wipe out the Druids on the island of Anglesey, off the Welsh coast), rose in rebellion and were soon joined by some of their neighbours.
Although the Iceni had serious grievances, there’s no doubt that many of the rebels were more interested in loot and plunder. Three Roman cities (Colchester, London, and St Albans) were burned to the ground and their inhabitants massacred. The Roman army in Britain suffered defeats until the governor, Gaius Suetonius Paullinus, forced the rebels into a pitched battle and destroyed them. In the aftermath, the Roman army moved more troops into Iceni territory and punished the rebellious tribes.
The Iceni rebellion was a devastating blow to Rome, and news of it was kept as quiet as possible to stop other provinces rebelling. No victory coins were issued. Nero had already thought about abandoning the war in Britain because of the cost, but decided it would have been an insult to Claudius and his victories in Britain. The Iceni rebellion made it impossible for Rome to withdraw from Britain. For more about Boudica, see Chapter 25.
Nero’s reign in a nutshell
During the early years of Nero’s reign, the Roman Empire carried on much as it had under Claudius. The efficient new bureaucracy continued to work. In the East, the general Cnaeus Domitius Corbulo conquered Armenia and installed a client king. In Britain, the war of conquest was steadily proceeding north and west with the ultimate target being the destruction of the Druid stronghold on Anglesey, off the north-west coast of Wales. But as Nero’s reign wore on, his lack of ability led to instability in Rome and the provinces.
As the Roman poet Juvenal once said, ‘no-one ever reached the depths of depravity all at once’. It took Nero a few years, but he got there alright. Towards the end of his reign, things got really out of control. The advisors who had held Nero in check – his praetorian prefect Burrus and his tutor Lucius Annaeus Seneca – were no longer around. (Burrus had died in AD 62 and Seneca retired.) Nero fell into a life of depravity and wild extravagance and abandoned any attempt to govern the Empire.
Nero’s reign had many memorable moments. Here are some of the highlights (or lowlights):
Clearing the way: In AD 55, Agrippina poisoned Claudius’s son Britannicus, to wipe out the chance of a rival faction.
Nero killed his mother Agrippina: He was driven to distraction by her constant interference. Nero wasn’t the only one who hated Agrippina; Seneca and Burrus both resented her power and influence. Much as he loved his mother, Nero threw Agrippina out of the palace. Nero couldn’t take any more when Agrippina interfered over his mistress, Poppaea. He decided to have Agrippina killed. (Seneca put it about that Agrippina was plotting to kill Nero, to stop Nero from getting any bad publicity.) But Nero didn’t find the task of getting rid of Agrippina easy:
• Nero tried poisoning Agrippina, but he was foiled because Agrippina had all the necessary antidotes.
• Nero planned to have ceiling panels dropped on Agrippina while she slept, but his wicked scheme got about before he could arrange the ‘accident’.
• Anicetus suggested that Nero build a collapsible boat for Agrippina so that she would drown. When Agrippina came to see Nero, she went home in the boat, but when the boat fell apart Agrippina saved her life by swimming home.
• Nero gave up and sent Anicetus and some other thugs round to beat Agrippina to death, which they did.
Rebellions in the provinces: AD 60 and AD 61 were terrible years for Rome. In Britain, a rebellion led by Boudica, ruler of the Iceni tribe, devastated the new Roman province and was put down with great difficulty (see the sidebar, ‘The Boudican War’ for details). In Armenia, in AD 62, a Roman army was defeated and forced to surrender. Armenia was only brought to heel by sending in the general Corbulo with a new and much bigger army.
Nero sent out an expedition of Praetorian Guards under a tribune to Africa in AD 61, because he was planning an attack on Ethiopia. It took the soldiers around 1,000 miles beyond the Roman frontier in Egypt – probably the furthest the Roman army ever reached – but because all they found was desert, the idea of an invasion was abandoned. Given what had happened in Britain, perhaps it was just as well.
Nero killed his wife Octavia and seduced Poppaea: Nero divorced and murdered his wife Octavia and then married his mistress Poppaea (who died in AD 65). Poppaea was the wife of Nero’s friend, Marcus Salvius Otho, who had helped Nero kill Agrippina. Not surprisingly, Nero and Otho fell out, and Nero sent Otho to govern Lusitania in Spain. Otho took his revenge by becoming emperor after Nero’s death, (explained in the section ‘A man of many enemies: Otho’, later in this chapter).
Great Fire of Rome: In AD 64, a catastrophic fire destroyed a large part of Rome, and, as the famous story goes, ‘Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned’. The disaster was a heaven-sent opportunity for Nero to regain public support and esteem by funding the rebuilding of Rome and helping out the homeless. Nero did give some help in organising repair work, but he was more interested in helping himself to a huge chunk of the land (120 acres) to build himself a palace, known as the Domus Aurea (‘Golden House’). People seethed with resentment, believing that Nero started the Great Fire in order to fund his new palace. Nero, with the help of the new praetorian prefect Othonius Tigellinus, responded by putting about a rumour that it was the Christians who were responsible for the fire, and Nero organised a hasty round of persecutions to prove the story.
Quo Vadis (1951) is all about a general called Marcus Vinicius, who returning home to Rome, falls in love with a Christian girl called Lygia. Vinicius gets Nero to give Lygia to him, but when Nero starts persecuting Christians after the fire in Rome, Vinicius has to rescue Lygia and her family. Peter Ustinov as Nero is particularly memorable.
Nero tried people for treason on the smallest pretence: In AD 66, a philosopher called Publius Paetus Thrasea was tried and executed for treason for mildly criticising Nero. Others, like Nero’s old tutor Seneca, who had been implicated in a plot against Nero, were told to commit suicide. As time went on, Nero suspected anyone and everyone. He executed his General Corbulo, as well as other military commanders. The executions were a bad move on Nero’s part. Nero had killed off men of real power and influence. Now powerful men had to choose between execution or rebellion; they chose rebellion.
Nero took a holiday in Greece at the wrong time: Nero, ignoring all the signs of a conspiracy against him, took a vast entourage to Greece, after declaring the whole province to be free. From AD 67 to 68, Nero had a great time in Greece taking part in games he was always allowed to win, and giving musical performances to captive audiences who were literally locked in the theatre. While Nero was enjoying himself, a famine broke out in Rome because grain ships bringing corn to Rome were being diverted to take the grain to Greece instead.
Nero’s coins
Not much coinage was struck by Claudius after AD 41, and the shortage continued into Nero’s reign. But in AD 64, Nero ordered a massive new issue of coins to be struck, employing the finest engravers available. The new coins, especially the large brass sestertii (34 millimetres wide), carried dramatically realistic portraits of Nero. He was shown in his late bloated and preening years, complete with designer hairstyle and stubble, bull-neck, and double-chin. In the Renaissance, scholars wondered at the coins, which so brilliantly reflect the personality of Nero described by Suetonius and Tacitus.
By the late 60s Nero’s reign was falling apart. To pay for foreign wars, Nero had to lower the bullion content of silver coinage. Then Nero had to send Titus Flavius Vespasianus to Judea with a huge army to suppress a rebellion. Unwittingly, by giving Vespasian the command of an army, Nero had given Vespasian the power to bring Nero down and the means of becoming Emperor himself.
Domus Aurea
Nero’s Domus Aurea (‘Golden House’) sprawled across a large part of central Rome. Nero employed two architects, Severus and Celerus, to design his new residence, and building was in progress from soon after Rome’s Great Fire in AD 64, until Nero’s death in AD 68. The Domus Aurea had an artificial lake, parks, and forests, as well as an array of buildings that included covered passages connecting the complex to the palaces of Augustus and Tiberius. Although some of the Domus Aurea was destroyed after Nero’s death, a fair-sized part was later buried to provide the site for baths built by Trajan (AD 98–117) and has survived. It can still be seen today, complete with wall-plaster and ceilings.
The rebellions start
Out on the Rhine frontier, the Roman army had a reputation for being mutinous: The troops were sick of waiting for their pay or retirement papers. Nero let their pay get even more behind, and as they had no personal loyalty to him, it would only take a spark to start a mutiny. In AD 68, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gaius Julius Vindex, led a rebellion against Nero. Vindex was the descendent of Gallic tribal chieftains, and although he had been ‘Romanised’, the legions on the Rhine saw Vindex as a Gallic rebel and destroyed the rebellion.
After Vindex had been put down, the victorious soldiers were keen to march on Rome and make their own commander, Lucius Verginius Rufus, emperor. Rufus said no to the soldiers, but news of the plan reached Rome, and the Praetorian Guard’s new commander Nymphidius Sabinus told the Guard that the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis in Spain, Servius Sulpicius Galba, was prepared to give the Praetorian Guard a large cash reward to make him emperor. The Guard promptly sided with Galba.
Nero panicked. He tried to get an escape fleet organised, but no-one would help him. Next, he considered surrendering to Galba; then he thought about making a speech in the Forum begging for forgiveness and asking for the governorship of Egypt instead of being emperor. But Nero realised he would be lynched before he got as far as the Forum. Nero was left with just a few trusty servants; one of them, called Epaphroditus, in the summer of AD 68, helped Nero commit suicide.
The Year of the Four Emperors (AD 68–69)
Too old and too tight: Galba (AD 68–69)
Galba was chosen by the Senate to replace Nero. Galba came from an old Republican family, was 71 years old, and suffered from gout. He seemed to have all the right qualifications but started out completely on the wrong foot:
He made himself look like a tyrant by executing Nero’s supporters.
His strict economies annoyed the mob, especially the army, which had been hoping for a large payment in return for their loyalty.
He removed Lucius Verginius Rufinus from his command on the Rhine, infuriating the troops, and sent in two new commanders (Flaccus and Vitellius – more of them shortly) who were unable to control the troops.
He upset the former Governor of Lusitiania, Marcus Salvius Otho, who had supported him, by making a young and untried man called Lucius Piso Licinianus the new commander on the Rhine.
The army on the Rhine swore allegiance to Vitellius, but Otho, whose hopes of being adopted by Galba as his successor had been dashed by Piso’s promotion, seized his chance to become emperor.
A man of many enemies: Otho (AD 69)
Otho had himself declared emperor on 15 January AD 69 simply by offering the Praetorian Guard a large sum of money. Galba and Piso were promptly murdered.
Otho, like Galba, had a bad start. Having been one of Nero’s closest friends, Otho wasn’t trusted, and with the powerful Rhine armies supporting Vitellius, civil war looked unavoidable. Vitellius’s forces divided into two and set out across the Alps for Italy. Vitellius’s troops met Otho’s army at Cremona, and thanks to the help of Batavian auxiliaries, Otho’s army was defeated. Otho’s troops surrendered to Vitellius, and Otho, after a reign of just three months, committed suicide. The Senate immediately declared Vitellius emperor.
Greedy Vitellius
Vitellius was said to have spent time with Tiberius’s spintriae (young people who performed sexual perversions; refer to the earlier sidebar ‘Tiberius stories’) on Capri. Vitellius had been popular with Caligula because he liked chariot driving and with Claudius because he liked playing dice. But Vitellius is remembered most for his greed. Vitellius used to invite himself to people’s houses for dinner, forcing his hosts to spend a fortune on food, nearly ruining them. Vitellius even helped himself to food intended for religious sacrifice, and he designed a gigantic dish called the ‘Shield of Minerva the Protectress’ that included food from every part of the Empire.
The gluttonous emperor: Vitellius (AD 69)
Not a lot is known about Vitellius’s family background. Vitellius’s uncle, Quintus, had been involved in Sejanus’s conspiracy against Tiberius (refer to the earlier section ‘The rise and fall of Sejanus’). Vitellius’s father Lucius had been close to Caligula, even worshipping him as a god. Lucius had also taken care of the Empire while Claudius was campaigning in Britain in AD 43.
Vitellius had been a competent provincial governor, but he had no experience on the battlefield and had relied entirely on his troops in the campaign against Otho at Cremona. After defeating Otho, Vitellius dismissed most of the Praetorian Guard as a punishment for killing Galba. Leading a triumphant march to Rome, Vitellius stopped at the battlefield at Betriacum near Cremona and, drinking plenty of wine to overcome the stench of corpses, made the tactless comment that only the smell of a dead fellow citizen was sweeter than the smell of a dead enemy.
Vitellius appointed unsuitable advisors, including an insolent thief of a freedman called Asiaticus. He also had men tortured and executed on the slightest pretext. Vitellius was on the way out soon after he got in.
The Revolt of Civilis
Gaius Julius Civilis was a Batavian tribal chieftain who had served in the Roman army and earned Roman citizenship. Antonius Primus asked Civilis to create a diversion and prevent Vitellius’s troops slowing down the pro-Vespasian forces in Italy. Civilis decided to pretend to be pro-Vespasian, in order to fight a war of liberation. Various border tribes joined Civilis and, amazingly, Roman troops at Neuss. Civilis’s army managed to defeat a legion, and Civilis even started striking Roman-type coinage to pay his troops. But when Vespasian sent a Roman army to put down the revolt, Civilis gave up, and no-one knows what happened to him.
The rise of Vespasian
Out East, Vespasian, with his son Titus, had been fighting a major war against the Jews in Judaea. Unlike Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, Vespasian was a trained and successful soldier and was smart enough to wait for the right moment to make a bid to be emperor.
When Vitellius had been emperor for eight months, Vespasian’s army in the East declared Vespasian as emperor, making him the fourth emperor in the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’. Vespasian also had the support of legions in the Danube area. Vespasian’s army, commanded by Antonius Primus, set out for Italy and defeated Vitellius’s forces at Cremona, almost at the same place where Vitellius’s forces had defeated Otho earlier in the year. Cremona was sacked and governors across the western provinces went over to Vespasian.
Vitellius made a deal with Vespasian’s brother Sabinus, who was in command of what was left of the Praetorian Guard, that he would abdicate. Vitellius’s troops, however, refused to let him give up. Vitellius drove Sabinus and his supporters into the Capitol, lynching them and burning down the Temple of Jupiter. When the Danube troops who supported Vespasian reached Rome, Vitellius tried to escape in disguise, but was soon caught, tortured, and flung into the river Tiber.
Starting Well and Finishing Badly – the Flavians (AD 69–96)
The Year of the Four Emperors had changed everything for the Roman Empire. Not only was it clear that an emperor could be made outside Rome, but it was also clear that being emperor was open to people who were not from ancient aristocratic families. Vespasian (full name Titus Flavius Vespasianus) and his sons Titus and Domitian would rule as the Flavian dynasty.
Mr Down-to-earth: Vespasian AD 69–79)
Vespasian (full name Titus Flavius Vespasianus), and his sons Titus and Domitian, ruled as the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian’s family were equestrians from the Sabine town of Reate (modern Rieti), but Vespasian and his brother gained promotion to senatorial status. His father was a tax collector and banker, with a reputation for honesty. Vespasian won fame as a brilliant soldier during the invasion of Britain in AD 43 and later in Africa, and then in Judaea under Nero. Nero banished Vespasian for walking out of (or falling asleep during) one of Nero’s recitals. But luckily for Vespasian, Nero recalled him because of his military abilities, and he was sent to Judaea with Titus and a large army to put down the Jewish revolt.
Vespasian was a practical man. He had no great vision like Augustus, but he was tireless, straightforward, and blissfully free of delusions of grandeur. Thanks to Vespasian, the office of emperor survived the war of AD 68–69 instead of being abandoned.
When in Rome
Vespasian no longer relied on freedmen to do the clerical work as Claudius and Nero had done. He retained a few freedmen, but their duties were given to equestrians. Because of Nero’s excessive spending, Vespasian had to raise taxes and invent new ones, and take back estates former emperors had given to their friends. Vespasian, though, wasn’t above dubious practices; to raise cash, he sold offices and, for a price, acquitted men being prosecuted.
Vespasian had the loyalty of the army and escaped having to make extra payments to the soldiers for their support. He managed to offset opposition to his rule by organising a programme of public building, including the building of the Colosseum, Rome’s famous amphitheatre, and also allowing anyone to build on sites in Rome left vacant by fire or ruin.
In the provinces
Administration of the provinces became easier when Vespasian brought in the post of legatus iuridicus (the judicial legate). Judicial legates were posted to certain provinces where they could take care of legal cases while the governor-proper had other things to worry about, such as in Britain, for example, where the governor was still busy conquering the west and north of the country. The settled part of Britain was recovering from the devastation of the Boudican revolt. Public buildings were being constructed, and the Britons were encouraged to adopt the Roman way of life.
Elsewhere, Vespasian brought in new provinces by taking away their liberty; for example, revoking Nero’s grant of freedom to Greece meant that Greece was obliged to pay taxes to Rome.
Vespasian’s heirs
Vespasian believed in omens. He was committed to establishing a Flavian dynasty and believed he had been given all the right signs. Vespasian told the Senate that only his sons Titus and Domitian would succeed him as Emperor. When Vespasian died on 23 June AD 79, the succession was clear-cut, something that had not happened since Augustus died in AD 14, 65 years earlier.
Vespasian was the first emperor to use Imperator as a title, rather than as part of his name. Legends on Vespasian’s coins start ‘Imperator . . .’. The fiction that Augustus had ‘restored’ the Republic was giving way to the hard fact that the real power now belonged to the emperor.
The much-loved Titus (AD 79–81)
Titus, Vespasian’s son, was a popular young man; he had been a childhood playmate of Claudius’s son Britannicus. Titus was good at almost everything, from warfare to music, and he had an exceptional memory. He had fought with his father in the Jewish revolt and then came to Rome, where he served a fellow official of his father’s who was consul and tribune. But Titus wasn’t perfect and could be arrogant. He had a reputation for murdering anyone he suspected of conspiracy and had a taste for all-night revels. Titus was infatuated with a Judaean Queen called Berenice and brought her back to Rome; he might have married her if it had not been for Vespasian’s death.
As Titus was so clearly his father’s designated heir, the succession went smoothly. Titus got rid of disreputable friends, gave up misbehaving for good, and sent Berenice, the Judean Queen, home. Titus quickly developed a reputation for fair dealing, confirmed any favours done by previous emperors rather than overturning them as previous emperors usually did, and avoided helping himself to people’s estates. Titus had the delatores (informers) publicly humiliated and sent out of Rome. He also continued Vespasian’s building projects and completed the Colosseum, which he opened with a spectacular cycle of public games and entertainments.
Dealing with disasters
A sudden death
Titus had made himself very popular by his generous response to the disasters, and his unexpected death caused widespread mourning. On a journey into Sabine territory, in the late summer of AD 81, Titus caught a fever and died on 13 September, leaving a daughter called Julia Titi.
Judaea and Masada
Judaea was a nightmare province, seething with resentment at Roman control. Titus was left to finish off the war that had broken out in AD 66 under Nero. This war involved fighting for every last yard until the temple and citadel in Jerusalem were destroyed. Judean rebels held out against Rome until AD 73, in the Judean hilltop fortress of Masada. An army of 7,000 legionaries beseiged the fortress for six months, until the people inside set the fortress on fire and then committed suicide. To this day, the siege works used by the Roman army are still visible at Masada, including a huge ramp that was built up one side to gain access. The conquered Judeans became Roman slaves and Jews around the Empire were taxed to pay for the new Temple of Jupiter in Rome.
Flavian propaganda
Titus, or one of his officials, had a brainwave. A whole series of coin types issued by previous emperors was revived and issued in large numbers. It wasn’t a new idea, but no-one had done it on this scale before. The old coins were copied but had a legend added to them saying ‘the emperor Titus restored this coin’. The new coin was a clever way of showing how the Flavian dynasty represented continuity. Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Galba were included (Galba being there to show you didn’t have to be a Julio-Claudian to be emperor: pretty important for the Flavians), as well as imperial family members and associates like Germanicus (Tiberius’s nephew) and Agrippa (nominated by Augustus as his heir). But Caligula, Nero, Otho, and Vitellius weren’t represented – they had been classed as imperial outcasts; no-one in their right mind was going to celebrate their reigns.
Paranoid fly-killer: Domitian (AD 81–96)
Domitian, Vespasian’s other son, was everything Titus was not. Domitian had spent much of Titus’s reign plotting his brother’s downfall. Once, when Titus fell ill, Domitian ordered Titus to be left for dead. Titus left no sons, and as Domitian had been named by Vespasian as his heir, there was no opposition to Domitian becoming emperor.
Vespasian and Titus had kept Domitian under control by letting Domitian serve as consul, but Vespasian and Titus didn’t allow Domitian the command of an army in case Domitian attracted a following. With Vespasian and Titus gone, Domitian had a free rein. Domitian showed all the signs of a cruel and despotic ruler. He boasted that he was the one who had placed Vespasian and Titus on the throne. He had people executed or banished on the slightest pretext; Sallustius Lucullus, the governor of Britain, for example, designed a new type of spear, but Lucullus stupidly named it after himself rather than after Domitian. As a punishment, Domitian had Lucullus executed. When Domitian became emperor, it was said that he spent his spare time stabbing flies.
Domitian as ruler
Domitian, for all his defects, was a surprisingly competent emperor. He maintained a popular programme of public entertainments and gifts, insisted on proper Roman dress amongst spectators, and encouraged the cult of his favourite goddess, Minerva. He had public buildings repaired and built new ones, but committed a public-relations crime by putting his own name on the restored buildings instead of the names of the emperors who had originally built them.
Meanwhile, on the frontiers
Domitian had money problems because of excessive public spending, and his solution was to cut back on the army and military expeditions. In AD 87, he abandoned a long-standing campaign to conquer northern Britain, including Scotland. The reality was that securing Britain’s far north wasn’t going to make Rome any safer, but holding the German frontier would. The Rhine-Danube frontier had never been secure in the areas where the two rivers rise, because both rivers turn southwards to their sources, leaving a large gap between them. This created a sharp ‘V’ in the Roman frontier, which the Chatti tribe took advantage of. Domitian’s answer was to push the frontier northwards and create a network of fortifications, which made the frontier in Germany secure for generations.
After strengthening the borders in Germany, Domitian’s troops were ready to go to war against the Dacians. The Dacians’ chieftain Decebalus was determined to make himself an empire out of Roman territory. Domitian wasn’t able to deal with Decebalus because he was distracted by a Roman general who had picked the same time to rebel. Domitian set a precedent by paying Decebalus a large subsidy to keep the peace. (See Chapter 17 for the more about the Dacians.)
Damnatio Memoriae
Domitian was convinced that he was surrounded by enemies. Despite his achievements, he was widely loathed. Domitian acted like a despot and was far too keen on the trappings of the job. He liked it when poets called him ‘Master and God’. Domitian had an ongoing affair with his niece, Julia Titi, and a taste for prostitutes, which might explain why his wife Domitia (daughter of the general Corbulo, discussed in the earlier section ‘Where mother went wrong: Nero’) seems to have been one of the main players in his assassination. He dreamed that Minerva (his favourite goddess) had told him she could no longer protect him. On 18 September AD 96, Domitian was murdered.
Domitian’s death caused mixed reactions. Most people didn’t care. The soldiers, however, were furious; Domitian had increased soldiers’ pay by a third, and now it was likely that they would lose the increase. The Senate was delighted to get the news of Domitian’s death, so delighted, in fact, that they ordered statues of Domitian be torn down and Domitian’s name chiselled off every inscription in the Empire that named him. This was a Roman punishment known as damnatio memoriae, ‘the damnation of (his) memory’ – simply a way of wiping someone from the record.