ARBIND KUMAR BLOG

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-31)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR ELAGABALUS

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, popularly known as ELAGABALUS, was a ROMAN EMPEROR who ruled the empire from 16 May 218 AD to 13 March 222 AD. Born as VARIUS AVITUS BASSIANUS in 204 AD in EMESA, SYRIA, then part of the ROMAN EMPIRE, was son of SEXTUS VARIUS MARCELLUS (legal) & CARACALLA (claimed biological) and JULIA SOAEMIAS BASSIANA. His short reign was notorious for religious controversy and alleged sexual debauchery. According to CASSIUS DIO, ELAGABALUS married four women including a Vestal Virgin (a priestess of Vesta) JULIA AQUILEIA SEVERA. In addition to that, he had lavishing favours on male courtiers as lovers.* Ultimately, he prostituted himself in taverns and brothels.** To CASSIUS DIO, ELAGABALUS came to be called “woman, lady, empress” after marrying with HEIROCLES.*** His  behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the SENATE and the common people alike.That’s why, at 18 years of his age he was assassinated and replaced by his cousin SEVERUS ALEXANDER on 13 Match 222 AD. Surprisingly, the assassination plot against ELAGABALUS was devised by JULIA MAESA (his grandmother, who helped to put him on throne after the assassination of MACRINUS) and carried out by the Praetorian Guard. ELAGABALUS developed a posthumous reputation for extreme eccentricity, decadence, zealotry, and sexual promiscuity. EDWARD GIBBON, a BRITISH historian, has written about ELAGABALUS “[he] abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury.”****

*SCOTT, op. cit. pp-129-130 & 135-137.

**CHAMPANILE, DOMITILLA; CARLA-UHINK, FILIPPO; FACELLA, MARGHERITE, eds. (2017) : “TransAntiquity: Cross Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World”, Abingdon-on-Themes, Routledge, p-113. 

***CASSIUS, DIO : “LXXX 14.4”, Roman History, p-465.

****GIBBON, EDWARD : “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, Chapter VI.

THE HOLY SUN GOD EL-GABAL

Since the reign of SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, Sun-Worship had increased throughout the empire.* By the end of 220 AD, ELAGABALUS instated ELAGABAL (an ARAB-ROMAN Sun God) as the chief deity of the ROMAN Pantheon. He was then entitled in LATIN: “sacerdos amplissimus dei invicti Soli Elagabali, pontifex maximus” which means “highest priest of the unconquered god, the Sun Elgabal, supreme pontiff”** Now feelings among ROMANS arose that a foreign god was being honoured above JUPITER, and its chief was the ROMAN EMPEROR ELAGABALUS. It had shocked many ROMANS.*** He aroused further discontent when he married the Vestal Virgin AQUILEIA SEVERA, Vesta’s high priestess. He claimed that out of this marriage would produce “godlike children”.**** This was a flagrant breach of the ROMAN law and tradition. As per the ROMAN law, many Vestals found to have been engaged in sexual intercourse were to be buried alive.***** A lavish temple called the ELAGABALIUM was built on the east face of  the PALATINE Hill just to house ELAGABAL.****** HERODIAN (a minor ROMAN civil servant who wrote a colourful history of GREEK) has written “this stone is worshipped as though it was sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting pieces and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a rough picture of the sun, because this is how they see them.”*******

*HALSBERGHE, GASTON H. (1972) : “The Cult of Sol Invictus”, Leiden: Brill,  p-36.

**KIENAST, (1990) : “Elgabal”, Darmstadt, Germany, pp-165-170.

***ICKS, MARTIJN (2011) : “The Crimes of  Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor” London: I. B. Tauris, pp-14-15.

****Ibid, p-62.

*****Encyclopedia Britannica : “Vestal Virgins”.

******ICKS, Ibid, p-54.

*******Ibid, p-89.

FALL FROM POWER

ELAGABALUS alienated the ROMAN SENATE and Praetorian Guard through his religious provocation. * When his grandmother JULIA MAESA realised that the popular support for the Emperor was waning, she decided to replace the Emperor and his mother, who had encouraged his religious practices. Alternatively, she decided to install her another daughter JULIA AVITA MAMAEA’S daughter’s 15-year old son SEVERUS ALEXANDER as heir.** So, ALEXANDER was given the title of  CAESAR.*** Possibly on 26 June 221 AD, he was elevated to CAESAR. ALEXANDER shared the Consulship with the Emperor on 1 july 222 AD.**** Praetorian Guard preferred his cousin to Emperor ELAGABALUS.***** ELAGABALUS ordered attempts on ALEXANDER’S life, but failed. A riot ensued. So, Praetorian Guard demanded to see ELAGABALUS and ALEXANDER in the Praetorian camp.****** On 13 March 222 AD, the Emperor complied and presented with his cousin along with his own mother, JULIA SOAEMIAS, in public. On their arrival, the soldiers started cheering ALEXANDER while ignoring ELAGABALUS.The Emperor ordered the summary arrest and execution of anyone who had taken part in this display of insubordination.******* In response, members of the Praetorian Guard attacked ELAGABALUS and his mother.The Emperor with his mother attempted to flee. But invain. Both were killed. Following his assassination, many associates of ELAGABALUS were killed or disposed. His lover, HEIROCLES was also executed.********

*ICKS, Ibid, pp-83, 88-89.

**BOWMAN, ALAN ; CAMERON,AVERIL ; & GARNSEY, PETER eds. (2005) : “The Cambridge Ancient History”, Vol-12, (The Crisis of the Empire, AD 193-337), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p-22.

***Ibid.

****BOWMAN, Ibid, p-22.

*****ICKS, Ibid, p-74.

******Ibid, p-78.

*******Ibid, pp-77-79.

********Ibid, p-78.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-30)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR MACRINUS

MARCUS OPELLIUS MACRINUS was a ROMAN EMPEROR who reigned the ROMAN EMPIRE jointly with his son DIADUMENIANUS from 11 April 217 AD to 8 June 2018 AD. Born in CAESAREA (CHERCHELL), ALGERIA, in the ROMAN province of MAURETANIA CAESARIENSIS to an equestrian family of the BERBER tribe. He was the first ROMAN EMPEROR who was not from a SENATORIAL class. He was also the first Emperor who never visited ROME during his reign. Before becoming the Emperor, he served under the ROMAN EMPEROR CARACALLA as a Praetorian Prefect. He later conspired against CARACALLA. And got him murdered. Then MACRINUS proclaimed himself the Emperor of ROME on 11 April 217 AD. Subsequently, the weak SENATE confirmed his position. Since his predecessor had left the ROME’S coffers empty and empire with war against several Kingdoms like PARTHIA, ARMENIA, and DACIA, MACRINUS had to enact reform to restore economic and diplomatic stability in ROME. While his diplomatic actions brought about peace with each of the warring Kingdom, his fiscal reform generated  unrest in the ROMAN military.

MACRINUS REIGN  

The ROMAN SENATE approved MACRINUS’ accession to the throne of the ROMAN EMPIRE due to two reasons : 1. For the removal of CARACALLA ; and 2. For having received the loyalty of the army.* The SENATORS were less concerned by MACRINUS’ MAURETANIAN ancestry. Their opinion to him was reduced by his decisions to appoint to high offices men who were of similarly undistinguished background.** However, his equestrian background and not being from a SENATORIAL family were looked down upon widely in ROME.*** Despite that, it was the Emperor MACRINUS who had settled a peace deal with the PARTHIANS after fighting an indecisive battle in NISIBIS in 217 AD.**** In return for peace, MACRINUS was forced to pay a large indemnity to the PARTHIAN King ARTABANUS IV.***** Then he turned his attention towards ARMENIA.****** He settled a peace treaty with rebelling ARMENIANS. And he annulled the wrong decision taken by his predecessor, CARACALLA, who had  imprisoned the ARMENIAN Governor KHOSROV I and his family members including his mother and put in charge of a new ROMAN Governor, by returning the crown and loot to KHOSROV’S son and successor TIRIDATES II and releasing his mother from prison and by restoring  ARMENIA to its status as a client kingdom of ROME.******* On the other hand, MACRINUS made peace with DACIANS by releasing hostages. So far as fiscal reforms were concerned, although he allowed the enlisted soldiers to retain  their higher payment, yet he reduced the pay of new recruits to the level which had been set by SEVERUS.# At last MACRINUS revalued the ROMAN Currency by increasing the silver purity and weight of the denarius from 50.78% to 57. 85%.##

*GIBBON, EDWARD (1776) : “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, Vol-1, p-163.

**GOLDSWORTHY, ADRIAN (2009) : “How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower”, New Haven, Yale University Press, p-75.

***GIBBON, Ibid, p-163.

****SCOTT, ANDREW (2008) : “Change and Discontinuity Within the Severen Dynasty: The Case of Macrinus”, Rutgers, p-76.

*****Ibid, pp-118-119.

******Ibid, p-113.

*******Ibid.

#Ibid, pp-127-128.

##Ibid, pp-130-131.

DOWNFALL & EXECUTION OF MACRINUS

MACRINUS realised that his life was in danger. Realising so, he decided to remain in ANTIOCH upon a course of action.* On the other hand, JULIA MAESA had retired to her home town of EMESA with an immense fortune. She took her children JULIA SOAEMIAS and JULIA MAMAEA, and grandchildren including ELAGABALUS with her to EMESA.** ELAGABALUS, ages 14, became the chief priest of PHOENICIAN Sun-Deity El Gabal in EMESA.*** Soldiers from Legio III Gallica stationed at the nearby camp of RAPHANEA often visited at the Temple and see ELAGABALUS for priestly rituals. JULIA MAESA took advantage of this. She suggested to the soldiers that ELAGABALUS was indeed the illegitimate son of Emperor CARACALLA.**** Knowing that, Legio III Gallica proclaimed ELAGABALUS as the ROMAN EMPEROR at RAPHANEA itself on 16 May.***** Having heard so, MACRINUS travelled to APAMEA and conferred the title of AUGUSTUS upon his son DIADUMENIANUS and made him co-emperor.****** He saw a danger ahead. A force under ELAGABALUS’ tutor GANNYS marched on ANTIOCH. He engaged MACRINUS’ army on 8 June 218 AD near the village of IMMAE. At the Battle of ANTIOCH, MACRINUS deserted the field and returned to ANTIOCH.# As the fight erupted in the city as well, he was then forced to flee from ANTIOCH. As the new ruler of the ROMAN EMPIRE, ELAGABALUS himself subsequently entered ANTIOCH. Then MACRINUS moved towards ROME, but captured while on the way.The heads of MACRINUS and his son DIADUMENIANUS were cut. But when his son DIADUMENIANUS died, he was only 10 years old.## And heads of both were sent to ELAGABALUS as a trophy. ###

*GIBBON, Ibid, p-169.

**Ibid, p-182.

***Ibid.

****Ibid.

*****GOLDSWORTHY, Ibid, p-78.

******VAGI, DAVID (2000) : “Coinage and History of the Roman Empire, 82 BC-480 AD”, Taylor & Francis, pp-289-290.

#GRANVILLE, DOWNEY (1961) : “History of Antioch in Syria: From Seleucus to the Arab Conquest”, literary Licensing,  pp-248-250.

##VAGI, Ibid.

###BUNSON, MATHEW (2014) : “Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire”, Infobase Publishing, p–173.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

Note : Late publication is highly regretted.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-29)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR CARACALLA (SERIES-2)

CARACALLA’S PROVINCIAL TOUR

In spring 214 AD, CARACALLA departed for the eastern provinces. He travelled to the DANUBIAN provinces and the ANATOLIAN provinces of ASIA and BITHYNIA ( this was the ROMAN province on the Black Sea coast of ANATOLIA).* He spent the winter of 214-215 AD in NICOMEDIA (an Ancient GREEK city, but now located in TURKEY). On 4 April 2015 AD, he was in ANTIOCH on the ORONTES (a long river in West ASIA).** By December 215 AD, he went to ALEXANDRIA at the NILE Delta, where he stayed until 2016. When the local inhabitants of ALEXANDRIA knew that the ROMAN EMPEROR had killed his brother & co-emperor GETA, they produced a satire mocking that.*** But a tyrant CARACALLA responded to this insult by slaughtering the leading citizens who had assembled before the city to greet his arrival in December 215 AD. Later he also set his troops against ALEXANDRIA for several days of looting and plunder.**** In spring 216 AD, he returned to ANTIOCH to lead his ROMAN army against the PARTHIANS.*****

*KIENAST, DIETMAR (2017) : “Caracalla”, Darmstadt: Wisssenschaftliche Buchgesellchaft, pp-156-161. [Note: This book is in the German Language, But its English translation is available]

**Ibid.

***MORGAN, ROBERT (2016) : “History of the Coptic Orthodox People and the Church of Egypt”, FriesenPress, p-31.

****DUNSTAN, op. cit. p-406.

*****KIENAST, Ibid.

PARTHIAN WAR OF CARACALLA

The PARTHIAN WAR of CARACALLA was an unsuccessful compaign of the ROMAN EMPIRE under CARACALLA. He invaded the PARTHIAN Kingdom in 216 AD. Using an abortive wedding proposal to the PARTHIAN King ARTABANUS’ daughter as a casus belli (an act used to justify the war), his forces carried out compaign of massacres in the northern regions of the PARTHIAN EMPIRE before withdrawing to ASIA Minor (a Peninsula of the West ASIA), where he was assasinated in 217 AD. After the death of CARACALLA, at the Battle of NISIBIS, fought in the summer of 217 AD between the armies of the ROMAN EMPIRE under the new Emperor MACRINUS and the PARTHIAN King ARTABANUS IV which lasted for three days, and ended with a bloody PARTHIAN victory. Now the successor of CARACALLA had to pay the PARTHIANS a huge sum of war reparations. Moreover, the ROMAN EMPEROR had now to abandon the invasion of MESOPOTAMIA.

ASSASSINATION OF CARACALLA

On 8 April 2017, a 29-year-old CARACALLA was travelling to visit a temple of the moon god SIN (the MESOPOTAMIAN god representing the moon). While on the road from EDESSA to CARRHAE, he stopped briefly to urinate. A ROMAN soldier, whose name was JUSTIN MARTIALIS, approached near him while he was still urinating. He stabbed Emperor CARACALLA.* A SCYTHIAN bodyguard of CARACALLA killed MARTIALIES with his lance immediately. In the mean time, two Praetorian tribunes rushed to the Emperor. People present there thought that they were going to the Emperor to rescue him. But they completed the assassination.** It is said that MARTIALIS had been incensed by CARACALLA’S refusal to grant him the position of centurion (a type of officer in the ROMAN army). And the Praetorian Prefect MACRINUS saw the opportunity to use MARTIALIS to end CARACALLA’S reign.***  That’s why, immediately after the death of CARACALLA, MARTIALIS was killed as well.**** When CARACALLA was assasinated, his mother JULIA DOMMA was in ANTIOCH. She was sorting out correspondence, so that when CARACALLA returned, he would not be overburdened with duties.***** Three days after the death of CARACALLA, MACRINUS declared himself the Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE with the support of the ROMAN army.******

*GOLDSWORTHY, op. cit, p-74.

**CASSIUS, DIO 79 (78), 5, 2-5.

***DUNSTAN, op. cit, pp-406-407.

****GOLDSWORTHY, Ibid.

*****Ibid, p-76.

******Ibid, p-75.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-28)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR CARACALLA (SERIES-1)

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, popularly known as CARACALLA, was a ROMAN EMPEROR, who reigned over the ROMAN EMPIRE from 28 January 198 AD to 8 April 217 AD. Born as LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS  BASSIANUS in LUGDUNUM, GAUL on 8 April 188 AD, he was the co-rulers with his father SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS and his brother GETA from 198 AD to 211 AD and 209 AD to 211 AD respectively. He was a member of SEVERAN DYNASTY, founded by SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, which ruled the ROMAN EMPIRE from 193 AD to 235 AD. SEVERUS’ two sons CARACALLA and GETA ruled briefly after his death. But soon was GETA murdered by Praetorian Guard, loyal to 23-year old CARACALLA. And thus, CARACALLA became the sole ruler of the empire in 211 AD. It is said that CARACALLA had ordered the assassination himself. GETA was assasinated on 26 December 211 AD at a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother. CARACALLA then persecuted and executed most of GETA’S supporters and ordered a damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) pronounced by the ROMAN SENATE against his brother’s memory.* His mother JULIA DOMMA was from an ARABIAN family of a priest.** His rule featured turbulence and instability due to some internal and external reasons.The external turbulence was caused because GERMANIC people had invaded during his period.

*GOLDSWORTHY, ADRIAN (2009) : “How Rome fell: death of a superpower”, New Haven, Yale University Press, pp-70-71.

**SHAHID, IRFAN (1984) : “Rome and the Arabs, Georgetown, Washington DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, p-33.

CARACALLA AS A SOLE EMPEROR

After the death of SEVERUS and GETA in 211 AD, CARACALLA became the sole Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE. He issued an edict in 212 AD known as Constitutio Antoniniana (Constitution of ANTONINUS), whereby he declared that all free inhabitants in the ROMAN EMPIRE were to be given full ROMAN citizenship, except the dediticii ➖people who had become subject to ROME through surrender in the war, and free slaves.* At the time of AUGUSTUS in 14 AD, only 4% to 7% people in the ROMAN EMPIRE were ROMAN citizens. CASSIUS DIO has maintained that one purpose for CARACALLA issuing the edict was the desire to increase state revenue. As the financial position of ROME at that time was not so good due to heavy rise in salary of the military personnel.** Moreover, ROMAN provinces were also benefited from this edict because they were now able to think of themselves as equal partners to the ROMANS in the empire.*** Another purpose of issuing the edict was to appease the gods who had delivered CARACALLA from conspiracy.**** The conspiracy in question was in response to CARACALLA’S murder of GETA and the subsquent murder of his followers. Apart from that, another purpose of issuing the edict for granting the citizenship might have been simply a logical outcome of ROME’S continued expansion of citizenship  rights.*****

*HEKSTER, OLIVIER & ZAIR, NICHOLAS (2008) : “Debates and Documents in Ancient History: Rome and its Empire”,  EUP, p-47.

**Ibid, pp-47-48.

***DUNSTAN, WILLIAM (2011) : “Ancient Rome, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, p-406.

****HEKSTER & ZAIR, Ibid, p-48.

*****Ibid, pp-49-50.

ALAMANNIC WAR

In 213 AD, CARACALLA left ROME, never to return.* He went to GERMAN Frontier to deal with ALAMANNI (a confederation of  GERMANIC tribes), who had broken through the limes (a term used for the GERMANIC border defence) in RAETIA (a province of the ROMAN EMPIRE).** During the compaign of 113 AD to 114 AD, CARACALLA successfully defeated some of the GERMANIC tribes. He also settled the problems of some of them with diplomacy. In this way, CARACALLA strengthened the frontier fortifications of RAETIA and GERMANIC Superior.They were collectively known as the AGRI DECUMATES. It was done in such way, so that it was able to withstand any further barbarian invasions for another twenty years.

*DUNSTAN, Ibid, p-406.

**Ibid.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

Note : Late publication of the BLOG is highly regretted.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-27)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (SERIES-3)

MILITARY REFORMS OF SEVERUS

In 193 AD itself, SEVERUS discharged the Praetorian Guard, which had murdered Emperor PERTINAX and auctioned the ROMAN EMPIRE to DIDIUS JULIANUS. He replaced the old guard with ten new cohorts from his DANUBIAN Legions.** Around 197 AD, when be became a full-fledged Emperor, he increased the number of legions from 30 to 33. He introduced new legions➖I, II and III Pathica.*** He garrioned Legio II Pathica at ALBANUM, only 20 KM from ROME.**** He gave his soldiers a thousand sesterces each and raised the annual wage for a soldier in legions from 300 to 400 denarii.***** SEVERUS was the first Emperor who stationed some of the imperial army in ITALY itself. It was due to his realisation that ROME needed a military central reserve with the capability to be sent anywhere.******

*CASSIUS DIO, “Roman History”, LXXV 1, 1.2.

**ADKINS, LESLEY ; ROY A. ADKINS (2014): “Handbook of life in Ancient Rome”, Infobase Publishing, p-68.

***WATSON, GEORGE RONALD : “The Roman Soldiers”, p-23.

****ADKINS, Ibid.

*****HARI, KENNETH W. : “Coinage in Roman Economy, 300 BC to 700 AD”, p-216.

******GRANT, MICHAEL (1978) : “History of Rome”, New York, Charles Scriber’s Son, p-358.

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

Faced with internal dissidence and external threats, SEVERUS felt the need to promote religious harmony by promoting Syncretism.* SEVERUS continued TRAJAN’S policy that CHRISTIANS were only punished if they refused to worship the Emperor and the gods, but they were not to be sought out.** Therefore, persecution was inconsistent, local and sporadic. However, it is said that SEVERUS possibly issued an edict that punished conversion to JUDAISM and CHRISTIANITY.*** A number of persecutions of CHRISTIANS occurred in the ROMAN EMPIRE during his reign. Early CHURCH historian EUSEBIUS described SEVERUS as a persecutor.**** However, the CHRISTIAN apologist TERTULLIAN has stated that SEVERUS was well disposed towards CHRISTIANS, as he had employed a CHRISTIAN as his personal physician. Moreover, he had personally intervened to save several high-born CHRISTIANS known to him from the mob.***** On the other hand, some of the historians are of the opinion that EUSEBIUS’ description of SEVERUS as a persecutor of CHRISTIANS likely be derived from the fact that numerous persecutions occurred during his reign, including those known in the ROMAN Martyrology as the martyrs of MADAUROUS, CHARALAMBOS and PERPETUA and FELICITY in ROMAN-ruled AFRICA. But these were probably  the result of local persecutions rather than empire-wide actions or decrees issued by the ROMAN EMPEROR SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.

*GONZALEZ, JUSTO L. (2010) : “The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation” V-I New York, Harper Collins, pp-97-98.

**Ibid, p-97.

***TABBERNEE, WILLIAM (2007) : “Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: ECCLESIASTICAL and Imperial Reactions to Montanism (Supplements to Vigillae Christianae), Leiden: Brill, pp-182-183.

****EUSEBIUS, : “Historia Ecclesiastica”, VI. I. I.

*****TABBERNEE, Ibid, p-184.

ROMAN INVASION OF CALEDONIA (208-2011)

The ROMAN invasion of CALEDONIA was launched in 2008 by the ROMAN EMPEROR SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.The immediate cause of invasion was a massive increase in raids and attacks on ROMAN BRITAIN.This was possible because in 195 AD, CLODIUS ALBINUS, the very ROMAN Governor of BRITANNIA had led most of the BRITISH legions in GUAL during his revolt against SEVERUS.This had left HARDIAN’S Wall unmanned. It made CALEDONIANS (SCOTLAND’S ruler) to raid into BRITAIN.* Due to increased cooperation among northern tribes, CALEDONIANS were able to gather more men for these raids than before.** In 2008 AD, SEVERUS arrived in the ROMAN province of BRITANNIA with 40,000 men.*** He marched north to HARDIAN’S Wall. He initiated a massive rebuilding project there. Now whole wall was made up of stones. Previously, the western portion had been mostly turf and  timber. After starting the project, SEVERUS matched north and occupied all the land between HADRIAN’S Wall and the ANTONINE Wall. In 209 AD, SEVERUS led his army into north highlands. But he suffered heavy casualties. He suffered heavy casualties due to the guerilla tactics used by CALEDONIANS.**** Now SEVERUS had changed his tactics. Holding down all the territory he could by the reoccupation of many of AGRICOLA’S old forts. He now started devastating all the territory he could. Resultantly, many of the tribes tried to reach peace agreement with SEVERUS because fear of extinction through  ROMAN genocide. But peace talk failed. In early 210 AD, SEVERUS’ son CARACALLA led a punitive expedition north of ANTONINE Wall with intention to kill one and all he came across. In this way, plan was to occupy all of CALEDONIA. In 210 AD, SEVERUS became ill. And he went to YORK to rest and recover. But he kept getting worse until 4 February 211 AD when he died.

*FRASER, JAMES (19 January 2009) : “From Caledonia to Pictland Scotland to 795”, Edinburgh University Press, p-15.

**KEITH, GOLDSWORTHY, ADRIAN (2010) : “How Roman fell death of a superpower”, CNIN, p-67.

***DAVID, MATTINGLY (2014) : “An imperial possession: britain in the roman empire, 54 bc -ad 409”, Penguin Books, p-1p-123.

****DUNSTAN, WILLIAM E. (2002) : “Ancient Rome”, Rowman Littlefield Publishers, p-210.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-26)

THE YEAR OF FIVE EMPERORS (SERIES-2)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (SERIES-1)

LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS was a ROMAN EMPEROR who reigned from 9 April 193 AD to 4 February 211 AD. He was born in LEPTIS MAGNA, LIBYA in the ROMAN province of AFRICA on 11 April 145 AD. LIBYCO-PUNNIC descent from his father’s side and ROMANO-ITALIAN on his mother’s side, SEVERUS was the son of PUBILIUS SEPTIMIUS GETA and FULVIA PIA.* The 12-century BYZANTINE poet JOHN TZETZES described SEVERUS as LIBYAN by race.** He came from a wealthy family of equestrian rank. He was a native PUNIC speaker. But he had also learnt LATIN and GREEK languages.To CASSIUS DIO, as a boy SEVERUS was keen for more education than he actually received. According to ANTHONY R. BIRLEY, presumably SEVERUS got education in oratory.That’s why, at the age of 17, he gave his first public speech.*** He sought public career in ROME in around 162 AD. At the recommendation of his cousin GAIUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, the ROMAN EMPEROR, MARCUS AURELIUS, granted him entry into the SENATORIAL ranks. During this period, he was the State Attorney (Advocatus fisci). According to the Historia Augusta, he was proscuted for adultery during this time. But the case was ultimately dismissed. But in 169 AD, SEVERUS reached the required age to become a quaestor. So, he journeyed back to ROME. On 5 December 169 AD, he was officially enrolled in the ROMAN SENATE.**** When his cousin GAIUS was appointed proconsul of the ROMAN province of AFRICA, he chose to SEVERUS as one of his two ligati pro praetore (a high ranking military officer in the ROMAN army). After the end of his term, SEVERUS returned to ROME. He took up the office as tribune of the plebs. It was the senior legislative position, with distinction of being the candidatus of the Emperor.*****

*BIRLEY, op. cit. p-1.

**Ibid.

***Ibid, pp-34-35.

****Ibid, p-46.

*****Ibid, p-52.

RISE TO POWER

In 191 AD, SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS was appointed as governor of PANNONIA SUPERIOR by the ROMAN EMPEROR COMMODUS.# COMMODUS was assasinated the following year. PERTINAX was acclaimed Emperor, But was also assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in 193 AD. On 9 April 193 AD, in response to the murder of PERTINAX, SEVERUS’S legion XIV Gemina acclaimed him Emperor at CARNUNTUM.## PERTINAX’S successor DIDIUS JULIANUS, a dishonoured Emperor by public, had bought Emperorship in auction. But he was condemned to death by the SENATE and killed only 66 days after his ascension to the throne.### SEVERUS took possession of ROME without any opposition. He executed PERTINAX’S murderers and dismissed the rest of the Praetorian Guard. He filled its ranks with royal troops from his own legions.#### We all have already read in our last blog how NIGER of SYRIA and ALBINUS of BRITANNIA were defeated and killed respectively in 194 AD and 197 AD by SEVERUS. Now the entire ROMAN EMPIRE was under his full control by that time.

#BUNSON, MATTHEW (2002) : “Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire”, Roma, Newton & Compton, p-300.

##BIRLEY, Ibid, p-97.

###CASSIUS DIO, “Roman History”, Epitome of Book LXXIV.

####Ibid.

WAR WITH PARTHIA

In early 197 AD, SEVERUS left ROME and sailed to the east. He probably landed at the port of AEGEAE in CILICIA, a region of Southern ANATOLIA. He gathered his army and crossed the EUPHRATES river.* ABGAR IX, titular king of OSROENE (an ancient kingdom of Upper MESOPOTAMIA), but in actual sense only the ruler of EDESSA (an ancient city in Upper MESOPOTAMIA) since the annexation of the kingdom by the ROMAN EMPIRE, handed over his children as hostages and assisted SEVERUS’ expedition by providing archers.** King KHOSROV I of ARMENIA also sent hostages, money and gifts. SEVERUS travelled on to NISIBIS (a district of MARDIN province of TURKEY). But his General JULIUS LAETUS had prevented from falling into PARTHIAN hands. Afterwards SEVERUS returned to SYRIA. He now made a more ambitious plan.The following year he led another campaign against PARTHIAN EMPIRE. His legions sacked the PARTHIAN royal city of CTESIPHON and he annexed the northern half of MESOPOTAMIA to the empire.*** SEVERUS took the title of Parthicus Maximus. However, he was unable to capture the fortress of HATRA. But SEVERUS expanded the Limes Arabicus (a desert frontier of the ROMAN EMPIRE) by building new fortifications in the ARABIAN Desert from BAISE to DUMATHA.****

*In Historia Augusta, “Life of Septimius Serevus”, 16.1.

**BIRLEY, Ibid, p-129.

***Ibid, p-153.

****Ibid, p-134.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

Note: Late publication is highly regretted.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-25)

THE YEAR OF FIVE EMPERORS (SERIES-1)

PERTINAX

The political unrest began in the ROMAN EMPIRE with the murder of Emperor COMMODUS at the end of the year 192 AD. Since most of the nobles had been murdered in the New Year’s Eve massacre, PERTINAX was one of the few high-ranking officials left to become the new Emperor. So, after the death of the Emperor COMMODUS, PERTINAX, then an urban prefect, was taken to the Praetorian camp and named as Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.* But he remained the Emperor only for the first three (87 days) months in 193 AD. Immediately after his ascension to the throne, the Praetorian Guard aroused opposition when he attempted to initiate reforms, arising due to the empire’s crumbling financial situation. But he was accused of denying them their honorarium. Moreover, he was blamed for the complicit in the assassination of Emperor COMMODUS and the murder of COMMODUS’S associate CLEANDER. Then they plotted his assassination plan. When PERTINAX refused to pay their donativum (a gift of money by ROMAN EMPERORS to the soldiers of  the ROMAN Legions or Praetorian Guard) due to the worst financial condition of the empire, he was confronted by Praetorians on this matter. He proved ineffective of negotiating peace with them and was ultomately killed on 28 March 193 AD by them, at the age of 66. After PERTINAX’S death the Praetorian Guard notoriously auctioned the throne to the highest bidder. One DIDIUS JULIANUS purchased the throne and became the Emperor of the the ROMAN EMPIRE, who reigned from 28 March to 2 June 193 AD.

*CAMPBELL, BRIAN (2005) : “The Severan dynasty”, In Alan K. Bowman; Peter Garnsey & Averil Cameron (eds), “The Cambridge Ancient History XII: The Crisis of Empire, A. D. 193-337” (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p-1.

DIDIUS JULIANUS

MARCUS DIDIUS JULIANUS, having purchased the title of Emperor after winning the bid for 25,000 sesterces over his competitor, SULPICIANUS, who only promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldiers. But DIDIUS JULIANUS, who was ready to give 25,000 sesterces to each and every Praetorian Guard after becoming the Emperor, reigned the ROMAN EMPIRE only for 66 days from 28 March to 2 June 193 AD. Born on 29 January 133 AD in MEDIOLANUM, ITALY, DIDIUS JULIANUS was the son of QUINTUS PETRONIUS  DIDIUS SEREVUS and AEMILIA CLARA. Upon his ascension to the throne, he immediately reversed PERTINAX’S monetary reforms by devaluing the ROMAN Currency. PERTINAX had the silver content of the denarius to 87%, whereas DIDIUS JULIANUS ordered that it should be reduced to 75%. He became deeply unpopular Emperor among public, not because he reduced the silver content in the denarius, but because public considered him as “robber and parricide”.* It is said that once, a mob even obstructed his progress to the Capitol by pelting him with large stones.** When the news of public anger spread across the ROMAN EMPIRE, three influential generals➖PESCENNIUS NIGER in SYRIA, SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS in PANNONIA, and CLODIUS  ALBINUS in BRITAIN rebelled.They refused to obey JULIANUS’ authority as Emperor. Instead each declared himself Emperor.*** On the other hand, JULIANUS declared SEVERUS as public enemy, declaring him the most dangerous foe.**** He sent SENATORS a message to persuade SEVERUS’ legionaries to abandon him.***** But SENATORS denied to do so. Then JULIANUS tried to negotiate with SEREVUS. But failed. SEREVUS started marching to ROME.The remnants of Praetorian Guard received pardons from SEVERUS in exchange for surrendering the actual murders of PERTINAX. After seizing the ringleaders and killing them. Knowing that the SENATOR, MARCUS SILIUS MESSALA, was in command of the location, where murder of PERTINAX took place. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS accused MESSALA of murdering PERTINAX and used his influence to convene and order the SENATE to install the SENATOR DIDIUS JULIANUS as Emperor. So, SEVERUS called for the death of DIDIUS JULIANUS and ordered the execution of MESSALA.The SENATE passed a motion proclaiming SEVERUS as Emperor, and sentenced JULIANUS to death.****** 60 years old JULANIU was killed in the palace by soldiers on 2 June 193 AD, after merely 66 days of his reign over the ROMAN EMPIRE.*******

*CASSIUS DIO, Ixxiv, 13.3.

**Historia Augusta, Didius Julianus, 4.2, 4.4.

***CASSIUS DIO, Ixxiv, 14.3-4.

****Historia Augusta, Ibid, 5.3.

*****Ibid, Septimius Serevus, 5.5.

******CASSIUS DIO, Ibid, 17.4.

*******Ibid, 17.5.

PESCENNIUS NIGER

NIGER was the Governor of the ROMAN province of SYRIA. When he knew how infamous was DIDIUS JULIANUS among the public, he declared himself Emperor in rivalry with SEREVUS.* With allies in the eastern part of the empire, he gathered an army and fought SEREVUS throughout the empire for two long years. However, in 194 AD, he eventually lost the civil war during a Battle near the city of ISSUS.**

*RAHMAN, ABDUR (2001) : “The African Emperor? The Life, Career, and Rise to Power of Septimius Serevus”, (M. A. Thesis), University of Wales Lampeter.

**BIRLEY, ARTHUR R. (1999) : “Septimius Serevus: The African Emperor”, New York, Routledge, pp-89-128.

CLODIUS ALBINUS

CLODIUS ALBINUS came into contention for the imperial office in 193 AD itself. When he was asked to become Emperor after the death of COMMODUS, he rejected the proposal. However, he eventually gained the title of CAESAR as second to SEREVUS. He was ruling the ROMAN EMPIRE when SEREVUS was on the compaign against NIGER. SEREVUS and ALBINUS were considered enemy at the time. But they made an agreement later on, whereby ALBINUS got administrative power and the title of CAESAR. He controlled BRITAIN and as per the agreement he was given GUAL and SPAIN. However, to some historians, the agreement was fully under control of SEVERUS, who retained the ultimate imperial power.*** In this way, ALBINUS continued as CAESAR for three long years before a civil war broke out between the two. But after the Battle of LUGDUNUM in 197 AD, SEVERUS became the sole Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE, as ALBINUS was killed in the said battle.****

***VAN SICKLE, C. E. (1928) : “Legal Status of Clodius Albinus, 193-196“, Classical Philosophy, 23 (2), University of Chicago Press: 123-127.

****BIRLEY, Ibid.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

Note : Late publication is highly regretted.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-24)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR COMMODUS

Son of the ROMAN EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS, COMMODUS, first served as nominal co-emperor under his father and then became Emperor after the death of his father in 180 AD and ruled the ROMAN EMPIRE from 177 AD to 192 AD. His reign marked as the end of PAX ROMANA (a golden age of peace and prisoerity). LUCIUS AELIUS AURELIUS COMMODUS was born 31 August 161 AD in LANUVIUM near ROME.* COMMODUS received education from a multitude of teachers like ONESICRATES, ANTISTIUS, CAPELLA, TITUS AIUS SANCTUS, and PITHOLAUS. MARCUS AURELIUS was the first emperor since VESPASIAN to have a legitimate biological son COMMODUS, despite the fact that he himself was an adoptive Emperor. COMMODUS was the first emperor “born in the purple”, meaning during his father’s reign.** MARCUS AURELIUS bestowed the title of Imperator on COMMODUS on 27 November 176 AD.*** COMMODUS was first mentioned as AUGUSTUS (Emperor) on 17 June 177 AD. On 23 December 176 AD, the two Imperators celebrated joint triumph on 1 January 177 AD. In this way, COMMODUS became consul for the first time at the age of 15, despite the fact that the minimum age for consulship that time was around 30.**** He subsequently married BRUTTIA CRISPINA before accompanying his father the DANUBEAN Front once more in 178 AD. And when MARCUS AURELIUS died there in 180 AD, the 18-year-old COMMODUS became the Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.

*HISTORIA AUGUSTA ➖ “Life of Commodus” [Note : “Historia Augusta” is a late ROMAN collection of Biographies of the ROMAN EMPERORS, written in the Latin Language, but its translation in English is available]

**Marcel Van Ackeren (2012) : “A Companion to Marcus Aurelius”, John Wiley & Sons, p-234.

***HISTORIA AUGUSTA, 2.4

****Ibid, 22.12.

COMMODUS AS THE ROMAN EMPEROR

COMMODUS’S rule was comparatively peaceful in military sense. But due to arbitrary and capricious behavior of the Emperor himself brought political strife in the empire. He devalued the ROMAN currency after ascension to the throne. He reduced the weight of the denarius (the standard ROMAN silver coin) from 96 per ROMAN pound to 105 ROMAN pound. He also reduced the silver purity from 79% to 76%. Resultantly, silver weight dropped from 2.57 grams to 2.34 grams. But in 186 AD, he further reduced the purity of silver weight to 74% and 2.22 grams respectively. Such reduction of the denarius was the largest since the empire’s first devaluation during the NERO’S reign. In the view of CASSIUS DIO, his ascension to the throne of the ROMAN EMPIRE marked the descent “from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust”.* Despite all the notoriety, COMMODUS’S reign was not well chronicled.The principal literary sources available today are HERODIAN (a minor ROMAN civil servant who wrote a colourful history in the GREEK language title “History of Empire From Marcus onwards” in eight books covering the years 180 AD to 238 AD), CASSIUS DIO (who was a contemporary SENATOR of COMMODUS) and, of course, the Historia Augusta (a reasonably good contemporary sources). But it is a fact that COMMODUS, unlike his predecessors, had little interest in in the business of administration.This resulted in a series of conspiracies and attempted coups. So, he was compelled to look into the affairs of the state and administration, but in a dectatorial manner. Although the SENATORIAL order came to hate and fear him, yet he remained popular with the army and common people during much of his reign. However, during this period ROME’S economy declined considerably.The worst part of his reign was that he sold SENATE seats, army commands, governorships, and suffect consulships (thd two highest elected public officials), to the highest bidder. Resultantly, unrest rose throughout his empire, with large number of army deserted, causing trouble in GUAL and GERMANY. And worst thing was ROME was afflicted by good shortage. During 191 AD, the city of ROME was extensively damaged by a fire that raged for several days destroying many public buildings including the Temple of Pax and Temple of Vesta.

*DIO, CASSIUS, “Roman History”, Epitome of Book LXXII (72.36.4), Loeb edition, translated by E. Cary.

ASSASSINATION OF COMMODUS (192 AD)

In November 192 AD, COMMODUS held Plebeian Games. In that game he shot hundreds of animals with arrows and javelins every morning. He fought as gladiator at afternoon, winning all fights. In December, he announced his intention to inaugurate the year 193 AD as both consul and gladiator on 1 January. A ROMAN athelete, probably a wrestler, NARCISSUS assassinated COMMODUS on 31 December 192 AD. He died at the age of only 31. In this way, the NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty ended and he was succeeded by PERTINAX. Upon the death of COMMODUS, the ROMAN SENATE declared him a public enemy. Statues of COMMODUS were demolished everywhere. His body was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. CASSIUS DIO, a first hand witness, has described him, “not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature”.*

*DIO, CASSIUS, Ibid, 73.1.2, Loeb edition.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED…………….…

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-23)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS (SERIES-2)

ROMAN-PARTHIAN WAR (161 AD to 166 AD)

Called the PARTHIAN War of LUCIUS, the ROMAN-PARTHIAN War, was fought between the ROMAN and the PARTHIAN EMPIRES over ARMENIA and Upper MESOPOTAMIA. It started in 161 AD and ended in 166 AD after the ROMANS made successful compaign into Lower MESOPOTAMIA and MEDIA (northwestern IRAN).They also sacked the PARTHIAN’S capital CTESIPHON (an ancient city in modern IRAQ). Over the winter 161-62 AD, a rebellion was brewing in SYRIA. So, it was decided that LUCIUS, who was stronger and healthier than MARCUS, should direct the PARTHIAN War in person.The ROMAN SENATE gave its assent. LUCIUS VERUS left ROME in the summer of 162 AD to take ship from BRUNDISIUM (a city in the region of APULIA in Southern ITALY). MARCUS followed him as far as CAPUA (a city in the Southern ITALY). LUCIUS VERUS continued eastward via CORINTH and ATHENS. With him were many musicians and singers, as if a royal progress.* He spent most of the compaign in ANTIOCH (a city located in northern SYRIA at the site of modern ANTAKYA, TURKEY).** He took up a mistress named PANTHEA (a “low-born girl friend) from SMYRNA (an ancient GREEK city).*** She was a woman of perfect beauty. She was quite polite, caring, and humble. She sang the lyre perfectly and spoke clear Lonic GREEK, spiced with Attic wit.**** She made LUCIUS shave his beard for her. Critics opined that LUCIUS had a luxurious lifestyle.***** During this period in early 164 AD and in the middle of war, he also solemnised his marriage with MARCUS’ daughter LUCILLA. Legion I Minervia, commanded by M. CLAUDIUS FRONTO jointly with V Macedonica commanded by P. MARTIUS VERUS, served under MARCUS STATIUS PRISCUS in ARMENIA captured the ARMENIAN capital city of ARTAXATA in 163 AD.****** At the end of the year, VERUS took the title of Armeniacus, despite having never seen combat. When LUCIUS was held Imperator, MARCUS didn’t hesitate to take the title of Imperator II with him. Occupied ARMENIA was reconstructed on the ROMAN terms. In 164 AD, its capital ARTAXATA was replaced by a new GREEK city KAINE Polis. It should be noted here that the PARTHIANS had occupied ARMENIA in the past and put their own governor there.

*BIRLEY, “Marcus Aurelius”, op. cit. 126.

**Ibid, 129.

***Ibid.

****Ibid.

*****Ibid.

******BIRLEY, “Hadrian to the Antonines”, 162.

THE MACOMANNIC WARS

The MARCOMANNIC Wars were a series of wars fought for fourteen years between 166 AD to 180 AD. These wars pitted the ROMAN EMPIRE principally against the GERMANIC MARCOMANNI and QUADI and SARMATIAN LAZYGEG. Apart from them, there were related conflicts with other GERMANIC, SARMATIAN and GOTHIC people along both sides of the whole length of the ROMAN EMPIRE’S northeastern EUROPEAN border, the river DANUBE.The struggle against the GERMANS and SARMATIANS occupied the major part of the reign of MARCUS AURELIUS. Despite the compaign against them, MARCUS started writing his philosophical work Meditations.

THE FIRST MARCOMANNIC WAR

In 169 AD, MARCUS AURELIUS, accompanied by his son-in-law CLAUDIUS POMPEIANUS, resumed the compaign, which had been stopped in the late 60s AD. By that time LUCIUS VERUS had died in January 169 AD due to a fatal stroke, while en route to AQUILEIA. More serious threat came from MARCOMANNI in the west. Led by King BALLOMAR, after forming a coalition of GERMANIC tribes, crossed DANUBE river and defeated a ROMAN force of 20,000 soldiers near CARNUNTUM in the Battle of CARNUNTUM. MARCUS might have intended to consolidated the region by forming two new provinces➖ MARCOMANNIA and SARMATIA (incorporating mider CZECH Republic and SLOVAKIA). However, these plans were interrupted by the rebellion of AVIDIUS CASSIUS, the Governor of SYRIA, who declared himself as the Emperor.* MARCUS marched east with his army and after suppressing the revolt he returned to ROME ➖ the first time in nearly eight years. On 23 December 176 AD, he and his son COMMODUS celebrated a joit triumph of victories over GERMANS and SARMATIANS. Modelled after TRAJAN’S COLUMN, the COLUMN of MARCUS AURELIUS was erected in ROME in commemoration of the compaigns.

*JEHNE & TEJRAL (2001) : “Markomannenkrieg”,  p-312.

THE SECOND MARCOMANNIC WAR

The hostilities resumed in the following year, despite victories of MARCUS in 176 AD. In 177 AD, the QUADI rebelled. Soon after joined the MARCOMANNIA in the rebels with QUADI. MARCUS AURELIUS once again marched north to launch a second compaign. He arrived at CARNUNTUM in August 178 AD and led the ROMAN forces. He and his forces targeted first the MARCOMANNI and then QUADI between 179 AD and 180 AD.The ROMAN forces under MARCUS VALERIUS MAXIMIANUS defeated the QUADI.When the servivors retreated much deeper into GERAMANI MAGNA, where the Praetorian Prefect, PUBLIUS TARRUTENIUS PATERNUS, secured another major victory. However, on 17 March 180 AD, MARCUS AURELIUS died at VINDOBONA (modern VIENNA). After his death, his son and successor, COMMODUS, showed little interest in continuing the compaign. Ignoring the advice of counsel of his generals, COMMODUS negotiated peace with the MARCOMANNI and QUADI. He returned to ROME and celebrated victory on 22 October 180 AD.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT.

TO BE CONTINUED………..……..

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-22)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS (SERIES-1)

A stoic philosopher, MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS was the ROMAN EMPEROR, who reigned over the ROMAN EMPIRE from 7 March 161 AD to 17 March 180 AD. He was the member of the NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty, the last ruler of the Five Good Emperors and the last Emperor of the Pax Romana (Golden Age of the ROMAN EMPIRE). It was an age of relatively peace, calm, and stability for the ROMAN EMPIRE lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. MARCUS AURELIUS was the son of the praetor MARCUS ANNIUS VERUS and his wife DOMITIA CALVILLA. He was born on 26 April 121 AD in ROME. Through marriage he was related to TRAJAN and HADRIAN. His father died when he was only three. And he was raised by his mother and parental grandfather.The ROMAN EMPEROR ANTONINUS adopted MARCUS and LUCIUS, the son of AELIUS. MARCUS studied GREEK and LATIN under the tutors such as HERODES ATTICUS (an ATHENIAN rhetorician) and MARCUS CORNELIUS FRONTO (a ROMAN grammarian, rhetorician, and advocate). And MARCUS AURELIUS married to ANTONINUS’S daughter FAUSTINA the Younger in 145 AD. After Emperor ANTONINUS died in 161 AD, MARCUS AURELIUS acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother, who took the regnal name LUCIUS AURELIUS VERUS.

ACCESSION OF MARCUS AURELIUS AND LUCIUS VERUS

After ANTONINUS’S death in 161 AD, MARCUS was the sole ruler of the empire. The SENATE would soon grant him the name AUGUSTUS and the title imperator. He would soon be formally elected the chief priest of the official cults, i.e. pontifex maximus. MARCUS, with his philosophical life, found imperial office unappealing, a genuine horror imperii. As stoic, however, had made the choice clear to him that it was his duty.Thus, although the ROMAN SENATE planned to confirm MARCUS alone, he refused to take office unless LUCIUS received equal powers. Ultimately, the SENATE had accepted his plea by granting LUCIUS the imperium and the title AUGUSTUS. It was for the first time that ROME was ruled by two Emperors.* BIRLEY, while quoting the biographer of MARCUS, has written, “Verus obeyed Marcus […..] as a lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the emperor.”** Immediately after SENATE’S confirmation, both the Emperors proceeded to the Castra Praetoria, the very camp of Praetorian Guard. MARCUS allowed LUCIUS to address the assembled troops. LUCIUS promised the troops a special donativum.*** It was twice the size of those past. 20,000 sesterces per capita, with more to officers. After getting equipment to several years’ pay, troops swore an oth to protect the Emperors.**** But upon his succession, MARCUS devalued the ROMAN currency. He decreased the purity of silver of the denarius from 83.5% to 79%. ANTONINUS’S body, like HINDUS of INDIA, cremated on a pyre  at the Campus Martius (a publicly owned area of ancient ROME about two square kilometres in extent). And MARCUS and LUCIUS nominated their father for deification. SENATE didn’t oppose the Emperors’ wishes.

*BIRLEY, op. cit. “Marcus Aurelius”, p-117.

**Ibid, pp-117, 278.

***Ibid, pp-117-188.

****Ibid.

MARCUS’ EARLY RULE

Immediately after accession to the throne, MARCUS’ eleven-year-old daughter, ANNIA LUCILLA, was married to betrothed to LUCIUS despite the fact that the latter in relation was the former’s niece.* During the marriage ceremony, it was announced that poor children would be supported by the state, along the lines of earlier imperial foundations.** As a result, MARCUS and LUCIUS became popular among the ROMAN people.The Emperors permitted free speech. During this period, MARCUS replaced a number of major officials. His teacher of childhood FRONTO called on MARCUS alone, without inviting LUCIUS.*** FRONTO wrote about MARCUS , “There was then an outstanding natural ability in you; there is now perfected excellence.There was then a crop of growing corn; there is now a ripe, gathered harvest.What I am hoping for then, I have now. The hope has become a reality.**** In spring 162, river TIBER overflowed its banks, which flooded ROME. It drowned many animals, leaving the city in famine. During this period, the Emperors provided the ITALIAN communities out of ROMAN granaries.***** Thus, the earliest days of MARCUS’S reign were happiest. He was beloved by the common people of ROME. He was an excellent Emperor. MARCUS had displayed rhetorical skill in his speech to the SENATE after an earthquake at CYZICUS (an ancient GREEK town).

*BIRLEY, Ibid.

**Ibid.

***Ibid, p-120.

****Ibid, p-119.

*****Ibid, p-278.

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS AVAILABLE.

TO BE CONTINUED……….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-21)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR ANTONINUS PIUS

The fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty and fourth of the the sixth adoptive Emperors, ANTONINUS PIUS reigned the ROMAN EMPIRE from 11 July 138 AD to 7 March 161. Adoptive son of TITUS AURELIUS FUVUS (natural) & HADRIAN (adoptive) and ARRIA (natural) & VIBIA SABINA (adoptive), ANTONINUS was born on 19 September 86 AD in LANUVIUM (ITALIA) as TITUS AURELIUS FULVUS BOIONIUS ANTONINUS held various offices during the reign of Emperor HADRIAN. He, being from a SENATORIAL family, married HADRIAN’S niece FAUSTINA and HADRIAN adopted him as son and successor before his death. ANTONINUS acquired the cognomen Pius after his succession to the throne. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the empire, as there was no major revolts, no military incursions during this time. ANTONINUS was an effective administrator. He left a large surplus in the treasury for his successor. He expanded free water access to drinking water throughout the ROMAN EMPIRE. He encouraged legal conformity. And he facilitated enfranchisement of freed slaves.

ANTONINUS AS EMPEROR

One of his first act as emperor was to persuade the SENATE to grant divine honours to HADRIAN. Purpose was of two folds➖ 1. He would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at SENATE meetings ; and 2. He had served those men that HADRIAN, during his period of illness of health, had condemned to death.* Immediately after HADRIAN’S death ANTONINUS approached  MARCUS and requested him that his marriage arrangements be amended ➖ MARCUS’S betrothal to CELONIA FABIA be annulled, and he would be betrothed to FAUSTINA, ANTONINUS’S daughter instead. MARCUS consented to ANTONINUS’S proposal.** ANTONINUS built temples, theatres, and mausoleums during his reign. He promoted the arts and sciences. Moreover, he bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. Epigraphical and prosopographical research has revealed that ANTONINUS’S imperial ruling team centered around closely knit SENATORIAL families. According to the GERMAN-born FRENCH historian HANS-GEORG PFLAUM, prosopographical research of ANTONINUS’S ruling team allow us to grasp the deeply conservative character of ruling senatorial caste.

*BURY, J. B. (1893) : “A History of the Roman Empire from its foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius, Harper, p-523.

**BIRLEY, ANTHONY (2000) : “Marcus Aurelius”, Routledge, pp-53-54.

LACK OF WAR

No records of any war during the reign of ANTONINUS. His reign was the most peaceful in the entire history of Principate.* It should be brought into notice to our readers that ANTONINUS was the last ROMAN EMPEROR recognized by the INDIAN Kingdoms, especially the KUSHAN EMPIRE.** While quoting AURELIUS VICTOR as saying, Raoul McLaughlin writes, “The Indians, the Bacterians, and the Hyrcanians all sent ambassadors to Antoninus. They had all heard about the spirit of justice held by the great emperor, justice that was heightened by his handsome and grave countenance, and his slim and vigorous figure.”***

*BURY, Ibid, p-525.

**McLaughlin, Raoul (2010) : “Rome and the Distant East: Trade Route to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China”, A&C Black, p-131.

***Ibid.

ECONOMY & ADMINISTRATION

Under ANTONINUS’S reign many bridges, roads, and aqueducts had been continued or repaired. Despite that the Emperor still managed to leave behind a sizable public treasury of around 2.7 billion sesterces. And fact is that ROME would not witness another Emperor leaving his successor with a surplus for a long time. Alas, such situation continued for long! But treasury was depleted almost immediately after ANTONINUS’S reign due to ANTONINE Plague (a prolonged and destructive epidemic), which was brought back by soldiers after the PARTHIAN victory.*

*ALLEN, TIMOTHY F. H. ; HOEKSTRA, THOMAS W. ; JOSEPH A. (2012) : “Supply-Side Sustainability”, Columbia University Press, pp-105-106.

LEGAL REFORMS

ANTONINUS portrayed himself as as a magistrate of the res publica. He was credited with splitting the imperial treasury. This splitting had to do with the division of imperial properties into two parts. Firstly, the fiscus (the treasury of the ROMAN EMPIRE) was the properties of the “Crown” transmitted to his successor in office. Secondly, the res privata, the private properties tried to the personal maintenance of the Emperor and his family. It was something like a Privy Purse.That’s why, when his wife FAUSTINA complained about his stinginess, ANTONINUS replied ➖ “we have gained an empire [and] lost even what we had before”.*

*The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 11: The High Empire, AD 70-192″, (2009), Cambridge University Press, p-150.

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TO BE CONTINUED……….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-20)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR HADRIAN (SERIES-2)

HADRIAN’S WALL

HADRIAN’S WALL was a former fortification of ROMAN province of BRITANNIA. It began in 122 AD in the reign of the ROMAN Emperor HADRIAN. Running from WALLSEND on the river TYNE in the east to BOWNESS-on-SOLWAY in the west, now northern ENGLAND, it had a stone wall with large ditches in front and behind. It stretched across the whole width of the Island. Soldiers were garrisoned long the line of the wall. Small fortlets and turrets (watch towers) were also constructed there.* Apart from wall’s defensive military role, its gates were used as custom posts.** The longest ROMAN archeological feature in BRITAIN, HADRIAN’S WALL total length was 73 miles or 117.5 kilometers.*** HART-DAVIS ADAM’S in The Independent further writes, “The Roman Emperor Hadrian, who came to the throne in AD117, claimed that the gods had instructed him to “keep intact the Empire”, so he planned a massive wall to defend its boundary against the unruly tribes beyond. Building was carried out by Roman legionaries; they began while he was visiting Britannia AD122 and finished within six years.”**** Now it is regarded as a BRITISH cultural icon and it is BRITAIN’S major ancient tourist attractions. BBC News on 17 March 2010 has stated that “More than 2,5000 people see Hadrian’s Wall lit up”.*****

*LOBEL, JARRETT (2017) : “The Wall at the End of the Empire”, Archeology, 70 (3): 26-35.

**”Obituary: Brian Dobson”, The Daily Telegraph, London, 21 September 2012.

***HART-DAVIS, ADAM (23 June, 2011) : “Hardian’s Wall: A horde of ancient treasures make for compelling new Cambrian Exhibition”, The Independent, (a BRITISH online newspaper).

****Ibid.

*****BBC News (17 March 2010).

HADRIAN’S VISIT TO MAURITANIA & PARTHIA

MAURITANIA is the LATIN name for a region in the ancient MEDITERRANEAN MAGHREB in the northwest of MOROCCO. In the 1st century AD, the ROMAN EMPEROR CLAUDIUS had divided the ROMAN province of MAURETANIA into MAURETANIA CAESARIENSIS and MAURETANIA TRINGITANA along the line of the MALUCHA (MALUYA) river, about 60 km west of modern ORAN (a major coastal city in the northwest of ALGERIA). HADRIAN crossed the MEDITERRANEAN in 123 AD. He personally led a minor compaign against local rebels there.* The visit was cut short by reports of war preparations by PARTHIA. HADRIAN quickly headed eastwards. While on the way to PARTHIA, he visited CYRENE (an ancient GREEK colony and ROMAN city near present-day SHAHHAT in the northeastern LIBYA in north AFRICA), where he personally funded the training of young men from well-bred families for ROMAN military. Earlier, he had also invested for restoration of public buildings destroyed during TRAJANIC-JEWISH Revolt.** ANTHONY BIRLEY has described this kind of  investment as “characteristic of Hadrian”.*** When HADRIAN arrived at the EUPHRATES, he personally negotiated a settlement with the PARTHIAN King OSROES I. He inspected the ROMAN defences there, and then set off westwards, along the Black sea coast.**** He spent winter in NICOMEDIA (an ancient GREEK city located in what is now called TURKEY) of the old BITHINIA region. As NICOMEDIA had been hit by an earthquake a few months before his stay there, HADRIAN provided fund for its rebuilding. And later he was acclaimed as restorer of the province.***** Then possibly he visited CLAUDIOPOLIS (an ancient city in BITHINIA) and saw beautiful ANTINOUS there. He was a boy of about 20 or so. To some historians, he was only 13 to 14 years old boy at that time.****** A young man of humble birth, who became HADRIAN’S lover later on.

*LAMBERT, ROYSTON (1997) : “Beloved & God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinoius”, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, History, pp-41-42.

**BIRLEY, ANTHONY, op. cit., pp-151-152, 176-180.

***Ibid.

****Ibid, pp-153-165.

*****Ibid, pp-157-158.

******Ibid.

HADRIAN’S TRAVEL TO GREECE

HADRIAN arrived in GREECE during the autumn of 124 AD. He participated there in the ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES (initiations held every year for the cult of DEMETER and PERSEPHONE based at the PANHELLENIC Sanctuary of ELEUSIS in ancient GREECE). One should know that he had particular commitment to ATHENS because it was the ATHENS which had previously granted him citizenship and an archonate.* At the request of the ATHENIANS, he revised their Constitution. He added a new phyle (tribe) into it.That tribe was known after his name ‘HADRIAN’.** But he refused to intervene in the local dispute between producer of olive oil and the ATHENIAN Assembly and Council, which has imposed production quota on oil producers. Despite that, he granted an imperial subsidy for ATHENIAN grain supply. Apart from that, HADRIAN created two foundations (trusts) to fund ATHENS’ public games, festivals and compensation. Such initiative was very encouraging. Under the provision, if no citizen proved wealthy or willing enough to sponsor as a GYMNASIARCH or AGONOTHETES, these trusts would organize such games or festivals or competitions. ATHENS was given two nymphaea (a monument consecrated to Nymphs, especially those of springs in ancient GREECE and ROME). One brought water from Mount Parnes to ATHENIA Agora via a complex system of aqueduct tunnels and reservoirs. It was constructed over several years.*** “Thirty Agoras” featured in Homeric Epic. At the same year during the winter, HADRIAN toured to the PELOPONNESE. PAUSANIAS (a GREEK traveler and geographer, famous for his work “Description of Greece”) had described tenples built by HADRIAN there. His statue in heroic nudity was erected there by its citizens in thanks to their “restore”. HADRIAN also restored MANTINEA’S Temple of POSEIDON HIPPIOS**** (one of the twelve Olympians in ancient GREEK religion and mythology) to restore the city’s original and classical name.

*KOUREMENOS, ANNA (2022) : “The Province of Achaea in the 2nd century CE: The Past Present, London, Routledge.

**BIRLEY, Ibid, pp-175-177.

***Ibid, pp-182-184.

****Ibid, 177-180.

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TOBE CONTINUED………………………………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-19)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR HADRIAN (SERIES-1)

PUBLIUS AELIUS HADRIANUS, popularly known as HADRIAN, was a ROMAN EMPERO who reigned over the ROMAN EMPIRE from 11 August 117 AD to10 July 138 AD. He was born on 24 January 76 AD in ITALICA, located at present-day as ANDALUSIAN province in SEVILLE of southern SPAIN. His gen Aelia had come from the town of HADRIA in Central ITALY. That’s why he was lovingly called HADRIAN. He was the third king of the NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty. His father’s name was PUBLIUS AELIUS HADRINUS AFER, a SENATOR of Praetorian rank and his mother was DOMITIA PAULINA, the daughter of a well-known SENATORIAL family based in CADIZ.* His only sibling was his elder sister, AELIA DOMITIA PAULINA. His wet nurse was the slaveGERMANA, whom he later freed. HADRIAN’S parents died in 86 AD. He and his sister became wards of TRAJAN and his Praetorian Prefect, PUBLIUS ACILIUS ATTIANUS.** When he was 14, TRAJAN called him to ROME and arranged his further education needed for a young ROMAN aristocrat of that time. HADRIAN married VIBIA SABINA, the grandniece of the ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN. And TRAJAN’S wife POMPEIA PLOTINA later became instrumental in the making HADRIAN as the successor of TRAJAN. Soon after his own succession, HADRIAN had four leading SENATORS put to death for the cause that they would be threat for his reign in future. He preferred to invest in development of stable, defensible border, and the unification of the ROMAN EMPIRE’S disparate people and subjects than the expansionist policy that was adopted by his predecessor, TRAJAN. He became a promoter of  philhellenism (a prominent intellectual movement which promoted GREEK culture).

*ROYSTON, LAMBERT : “Beloved And God”, pp-31-32.

**Ibid.

HADRIAN AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

According to Historia Augusta, HADRIAN informed the SENATE of his accession to the throne in a letter as a fiat accompli with this explanation, “the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor.”* As result, the SENATE endorsed the acclamation, and the new Emperor rewarded the Legions’ loyalty with customary bonus. Various public ceremonies were organized on the behalf of HADRIAN. People celebrated his “divine election” by all the gods. HADRIAN remained in the east for a while, suppressing the JEWISH Revolt that had broken out during the period of TRAJAN. Then he moved on to quell disturbances in the DANUBE frontier. Meanwhile, his most trusted aid the Praetorian Prefect, ATTIANUS, of ROME informed him of a conspiracy being hatched up by LUSIUS QUIETUS and three other leading SENATORS namely, LUCIUS PUBLILUS CELSUS, AULUS CORNELIUS PALMA FRONTONIANUS and GAIUS AVIDIUS NIGRINUS.** There were no public trial for all the four.They were tried in absentia, hunted down and killed.*** Later ATTIANUS was rewarded with SENATORIAL status and Consular rank for a great initiative without any instruction of the Emperor. But in 120 AD, he was pensioned off or secretly executed due to his suspected ambition. However, HADRIAN assured the SENATE that henceforth their ancient right to prosecute and judge their own would be respected.

*Historia Augusta, “Life of Hadrian”, 6.2

**ELIZABETH SPELLER (a poet and author, born in Oxford and spent a period of life in Italy).

***Ibid.

HADRIAN A TRAVELING EMPEROR

In 125 AD, HADRIAN appointed QUINTUS MARCIUS TURBO as his Praetorian Prefect.* TURBO was his close friend. He was a leading figure of a equestrian order. Moreover, a court judge and prosecutor. So, HADRIAN had full faith in him. Now, he decided to travel and travel only, unlike his predecessors. He spent more than half of his reign outside ITALY, whereas previous emperors  had, for the most part, relied on their imperial representatives around the empire. But HADRIAN wished to see the affairs of the empire himself. By his own eyes. On the other hand, previous emperors had often left ROME for long period, but mostly to go to war.They used to return ROME once conflict was settled. HADRIAN sought to include provincials in a Commonwealth of civilized people and a HELLENIC culture under the ROMAN supervison. He supported the creation of municipia for provincial towns. He wished semi- autonomous urban communities to rely with their own customs and laws than the the Constitution imposed from ROME. A cosmopolitan intent is evident in the coins issued by HADRIAN in his later reign, showing the emperor “raising up” personifications of various provinces. All this didn’t go with the ROMAN traditionalists. In the Historia Augusta, HADRIAN has been described as “a little too nuch Greek”, too cosmopolitan for a ROMAN emperor.**

*BIRLEY, ANTHONY “Restless Emperor”, p-91. (Note: Birley was a British ancient historian, archeologist and academic).

**GOLDHILL, SIMON (2006) : “Being Greek Under Rome : The Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire”, Cambridge University Press, p-12.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-18)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN (SERIES-2)

MILITARY COMPAIGNS OF TRAJAN

TRAJAN’S DACIAN WARS

During the reign of TRAJAN, two military compaigns were fought between the ROMAN EMPIRE and the DACIAN king DECEBALUS.The conflicts stemmed from repeated DACIAN incursions into the ROMAN province of MOETIA. TRAJAN’S first DACIAN WAR began in 101 AD.The ROMANS won a series of victories, including at TAPAE and ADAMCLISI. ROMANS were about to reach DACIAN capital, SARMIZEGETUSA, king DECEBALUS sought for peace.The treaty forced him to surrender territory and engineers provided by DOMITIAN. But within a few years DECEBALUS broke the agreement. He started rebuilding his forces, stirring neighbouring tribes and raiding ROMAN territories. In 105 AD, TRAJAN launched the Second DACIAN WAR.This time he crossed on the great stone bridge at DROBETA, designed by APOLLODORUS. ROMAN Legions advanced north and destroyed DACIAN fortresses, eventually besieging SARMIZEGETUSA, the very capital of DACIA.The ROMANS cut its water supply. And the city fell in 106 AD. DECEBALUS fled away, but later committed suicide to avoid capture.The ROMAN forces seized the entire treasure of DACIA. And ROME annexed part of DACIA as a new province.

NEBATAEAN ANNEXATION

The last ruler of the NEBATAEAN Kingdom was RABBEL II SOTER, who died in 106 AD. After the death of the King, ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN practically faced no resistance and conquered the Kingdom on 22 March 106 AD. It became the ROMAN province of ARABIA PETRAEA (Modern JORDAN) with BOSRA as its capital.

TRAJAN’S PARTHIAN COMPAIGN

In 114 AD, TRAJAN invaded ARMENIA. He annexed it as a ROMAN province by killing its ruler PARTHAMASIRIS (a PARTHIAN prince who served as a ROMAN client king of ARMENIA), whom the PARTHIAN King OSROES I had placed on the ARMENIAN throne. In 115 AD, the ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN overran northern MESOPOTAMIA and annexed it to ROME as well. It was done so to cut off PARTHIANS help to ARMENIA from south.The ROMANS then captured PARTHIAN’S capital, CTESIPHON, before they could sail downriver to the PERSIAN GULF. But a serious problem erupted that time before TRAJAN. A major JEWISH Revolt broke out in the ROMAN territory. It was so severe that it eroded ROMAN military resources. So, TRAJAN failed to take HATRA (an ancient city in Upper MESOPOTAMIA). On the other hand, PARTHIAN forces attacked key ROMAN positions. ROMAN garrisons at SELEUCIA, NISIBIS and EDESSA were evicted by the local populances. At last, TRAJAN subdued the rebels in MESOPOTAMIA. He installed there a PARTHIAN prince, PARTHAMASPATES, as a client ruler and withdrew to SYRIA. And TRAJAN died in 117 AD before he could renew the war.

DIASPORA REVOLT

Sometimes called the Second JEWISH-ROMAN War, a series of uprisings launched by JEWISH DIASPORA communities in the several eastern provinces of the ROMAN EMPIRE during the final year of TRAJAN’S reign.The uprisings broke out almost simultaneously in EGYPT, CYRENAICA, and CYPRUS. MACIUS TURBO, one of TRAJAN’S top Generals, was dispatched to supress the uprisings in EGYPT and CYRENAICA. Meanwhile, General LUCIUS QUIETUS quelled the rebellion in MESOPOTAMIA. He was subsequently appointed as the Governor of JUDAEA.The DIASPORA uprisings were likely suppressed before autumn 117 AD, just prior to TRAJAN’S death. However, some unrest might have persisted into the winter of 117-118.The DIASPORA REVOLT caused the devastation of JEWISH communities in EGYPT, CYRENAICA, and CYPRUS. Damage to buildings, temples and roads were seen in these regions everywhere. A festival celebrating victory over JEWS was still being observed eighty years later in the EGYPTIAN city of OXYRHYNCHUS.Thirteen years after the DIASPORA REVOLT, the successor of TRAJAN, the ROMAN EMPEROR HARDRIAN re-founded JERUSALEM as a ROMAN colony. And in response, the JEWS of JUDAEA launched the catastrophic BAR KOKHBA REVOLT. It was the last and most devastating of thee major JEWISH rebellions against the ROMAN EMPIRE.

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TO BE CONTINUED……….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-17)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN (SERIES-1)

Born as MARCUS ULPIUS TRAIANUS, TRAJAN was the ROMAN EMPEROR from 28 January 98 AD to 9 August 117 AD. He was the second of the Five Good Emperors out of seven of the NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty, who ruled from 96 AD to 192 AD. All the seven were as follows : 1. NERVA (96 AD to 98 AD) ; 2. TRAJAN (98 AD to 117 AD) ; 3. HADRIAN (117 AD to 138 AD) ; 4. ANTONINUS PIUS (138 AD to 161 AD) ; 5. MARCUS AURELIUS (161 AD to 180 AD) ; 6. LUCIUS VERUS (161 AD to 169 AD) ; and 7. COMMODUS (177 AD to 192 AD).The first five of these are popularly known as the “First Five Good Emperors” of the ROMAN EMPIRE. TRAJAN, one of them, was born on 18 September 53 AD in the ROMAN province of HISPANIA BAETICA (one of the three ROMAN provinces created in HISPANIA).* At the time of the birth of TRAJAN, it was a small town, without baths, theatre and amphitheater.** It is unknown whether TRAJAN’S ancestors were ROMAN citizens or not. TRAJAN’S parental grandfather ULPIUS married a TRAIA (an obscure Plebian family in ancient ROME). Their son, TRAJAN’S namesake and father MARCUS ULPIUS TRAIANUS, was born at ITALICA during the reign of TIBERIUS. Later he became a prominent SENATOR and General. He commanded the Legion X Fretensis under VESPASIAN in the First JEWISH-ROMAN War.*** TRAJAN’S mother was MARCIA, who was a ROMAN noblewoman of gen MERCIA and a sister-in- law of TITUS.**** Moreover, TRAJAN owned some lands called Figlinae Marcianae in AMERIA (a town located in Central ITALY), located near TUDER and REATE (the home of FLAVIAN DYNASTY) and believed to be the home of his mother’s family.

*SYME, RONALD  (1980) : “Trajan”, Oxford University Press, pp-30-44. [This book was first published in 1958].

**SYME, RONALD (1964) : “Hadrian and Italica”, The Journal of Roman Studies, p-144.

***STOBEL, KARL (2010) : “Emperor Trajan: An epch of world history”, Regensburg: F Pustet,  . p-40. [Note:➖ originally in German Language].

****Ibid, p-41.

RISE TO POWER

Emperor NERVA was quite unpopular with the army. His Praetorian Prefect, CASPERIUS AELIANUS, had forced him to execute killers of Emperor DOMITIAN.* At that time, NERVA needed the army’s support to avoid being ousted. He accomplished it in the summer of 97 AD by naming TRAJAN his adoptive son and successor. He claimed that his decision was due to TRAJAN’S outstanding contribution to the military service.** As a Governor of Upper GERMANY (GERMANIA Superior) during the reign of NERVA, TRAJAN received the prestigious tiltle of GERMANICUS for his skillful rule of the volatile province. When Emperor NERVA died on 27 or 28 January 98 AD, TRAJAN succeeded to the role of Emperor without any outward adverse incident. He, then, never run towards ROME, but preferred to make a lengthy inspection of the RHINE and DANUBE frontiers. Due to his military background, he understood the importance of strengthening empire’s frontiers first. His vision for future conquests required the improvement of surveillance networks, defences and transport along the DANUBE.*** Prior to his frontier tours, TRAJAN ordered Praetorian Prefect, AELIANUS, to attend him in GERMANY, where he was apparently executed forthwith and now his vacant post was filled up with ATTIUS SUBURANUS.**** Therefore, TRAJAN’S accession to the throne of the ROMAN EMPIRE was virtually not a peaceful succession, but more after a successful coup.

*ALSTON, RICHARD (2014) : “Aspects of Roman History 31 BC-117 AD”, Abingdon, Routledge, p-261.

**BENNETT, JULIAN (2001) : “Trajan Optimus Princeps”, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp-45-46.

***JACKSON, NICHOLAS (2022) : “Trajan: Rome’s Last Conqueror” (1st ed.) UK: GreenHill Books, ch-5.

****BENNETT, Ibid, p-52.

TRAJAN AS AN EMPEROR

TRAJAN now entered ROME in 99 AD. On his entry in ROME, he granted the PLEBS a direct gift of money.The traditional donative to the troops, however, reduced to half.* Despite strain relations with the SENATE for long, TRAJAN was the first emperor who was of the firm opinion that that good relations must be made with the SENATE. So, he was able to start building a consensus around him in the SENATE.** In this way, one can say that TRAJAN had showed REPUBLICAN character of his rule. In a speech at the inauguration of the third consulship on 1 January 1000 AD, TRAJAN urged the SENATE to share the care-taking of the empire with him.*** But TRAJAN in an actual term didn’t share power with the SENATE. However, he was so popular among his peers that the ROMAN SENATE bestowed upon him the honorific of optimus, that implied the best.**** It appeared through coins from 105 AD onwards.***** This title had mostly to do with TRAJAN’S role as benefactor ➖ such as in the case of his returning confiscated property. Although the epithet Optimus Princeps had already been used since the late REPUBLIC, yet TRAJAN was the only one officially honoured by the title.****** DIO CHRYSOSTOM (a GREEK orator, philopher, and historian), possibly an official friend of the Emperor, saw TRAJAN as the defender of the status quo.*******

*ALSTON, RICHARD (2014) : “Aspects of Roman History 31 BC-117 AD”, Abingdon, Routledge, pp-200-206.

**REES, ROSER (2012) : “Latin Panegyric”, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p-198.

***Ibid, p-121.

****HENDERSON, BERNARD W. (1927) : “Five Roman Emperors”, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

*****SALMON, EDWARD TOGO (2004) :

******HEKSTER, OLIVER & OTHERS (2022) : “The Fame of Trajan: A Late Antique Invention”, Klio (a Journal’s name), 104 (2): 693-749.

*******VEYNE, PAUL (2005) : “L’Empire Greco-Romain” [Note: Though written in the French, yet its English translation is available], Paris, Seuil, p-241.

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TO BE CONTINUED………………..

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-16)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR NERVA

MARCUS COCCEIUS NERVA was a ROMAN EMPEROR from 18 September 96 AD to 27 January 98 AD. Born on 8 November 30 AD in NARNI (ITALY) became Emperor when he was 66 years old. He served under NERO and FLAVIAN DYNASTY rulers. As a loyalist to FLAVIANS, he attained consulships in 71 AD and 90 AD during the reign of VESPASIAN and DOMITIAN, respectively. When DOMITIAN was assasinated on 18 September 96 AD, NERVA was declared Emperor by the ROMAN SENATE. During his reign, he vowed to restore liberties which had been curtailed during the autocratic government of DOMITIAN. However, NERVA’S brief reign was marred by financial crisis and his inability to assert his authority over the ROMAN army. A revolt by the Praetorian Guard in October 97 AD forced him to adopt an heir. And his heir’s name was TRAJAN, who was a young and popular general. After barely fifteen months in office, NERVA died of natural causes on 27 January 98 AD. Upon his death he was succeeded by TRAJAN and deified by his successor. Ancient ROMAN historians considered NERVA as a wise and moderate Emperor. His regime should also be remembered for peaceful transition of power. After his death, NERVA-ANTONINE Dynasty was founded. Five good Emperors emerged during this period out of the total seven Emperors of this dynasty.

NERVA’S IMPERIAL SERVICES

Not much is recorded about his early life in the ROMAN history, yet it was certainly known that NERVA was a praetor-elect in 65 AD. Like his ancestors, he moved in imperial circles as a skilled diplomate and strategist.* As an advisor to the ROMAN EMPEROR NERO, he successfully helped detect and expose the Pisonian conspiracy (a conspiracy of GAIUS CALPURNIUS PISO reflected the growing discontent against NERO) in 65 AD. For that, he received trimphal honors ➖ which was usually reserved for military victories.To MARTIAL, a great contemporary poet, NERO hailed him as the “Tibullus of our time”.** It also appears that VESPASIAN befriended NERVA during his time as an imperial advisor. He had also requested him to watch over his younger son DOMITIAN, when he departed for the JEWISH WAR in 67 AD.*** He was rewarded with a consulship in 71 AD, during VESPASIAN’S reign. It made him one of the few non-FAVIANS to be honoured in this way by VESPASIAN.**** Again DOMITIAN shared the Consulship with NERVA.This honour suggested NERVA had played a part in uncovering various conspiracies like that of the Pisonian conspiracy during NERO. Realising his background of a super cop, DOMITIAN selected NERVA his colleague, so that stability and status quo of the regime could be maintained and revolt could be suppressed and the empire could return to order.*****

*GRAINGER (2003), op. cit., p-29.

**MURISON (2003), p-148.

***Ibid, p-149.

****Ibid, p-150.

*****Ibid.

NERVA AS AN EMPEROR OF ROME

The Fasti Ostienses (a calander of ROMAN magistrate) has recorded that on the same day of the assassination of DOMITIAN on 18 September 96 AD, the ROMAN SENATE proclaimed MARCUS COCCEIUS NERVA as the Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.****** It was at the first time that the ROMAN SENATE has independently chosen an Emperor. NERVA was old and childless. Since not involved in the assassination of DOMITIAN, he was also acceptable to the DOMITIANIC faction.# But NERVA lacked widespread support of the empire. Following the accession of NERVA, the ROMAN SENATE passed damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory). Moreover, the Palace of DOMITIAN on the PALATINE Hill, also known as FLAVIAN House, was declared the “House of People”. NERVA himself took up residence at VESPASIAN’S former villa in the Garden of Sallust. ## On 1 January 98 AD, at the start of his fourth consulship, NERVA suffered a stroke during a private audience. Shortly thereafter he was struck by a fever and died at his villa in the Garden of Sallust on 27 January 98 AD. He was later deified by the ROMAN SENATE.

******MURISON, Ibid, p-153.

#Ibid, p-151.

##PLINY the Younger, “Panegyricus” 47.4.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-15)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR DOMITIAN (SERIES-2)

After accession to the throne of the ROMAN EMPIRE on 14 September 81 AD, DOMITIAN quickly dispensed with the Republican facade his father VESPASIAN and his brother TITUS had maintained during their reign.* By moving centre of government to the imperial court, he openly rendered the SENATE’S power obsolete.** To PLINY the Younger, DOMITIAN believed that the ROMAN EMPIRE should be ruled as a divine monarchy with himself as the benevolent despot at its head.*** To usher in the new era, his plan was to look at on ambitious economic, military, and cultural programs. His intention was to restore the empire to the splendour it had been under the Emperor AUGUSTUS.**** Despite these grand designs, DOMITIAN was quite determined to govern the empire conscientiously and scrupulously. Edicts were issued governing the smallest details of every day life and law. Taxation and Public Morals were strictly enforced.***** To SUETONIUS, the imperial bureaucracy never ran more efficiently than under DOMITIAN.****** Moreover, he maintained low corruption among provincial governors and elected officials. But under his absolute rule, SENATE was insignificant. Those SENATORS he deemed unworthy of were expelled from the SENATE. Unlike his father VESPASIAN or his his brother TITUS, who followed family members for appointment so far as the public offices were concerned, DOMITIAN preferred men of quality.*******

*JONES, BRIAN W. (1992), op. cit., p-22.

**JONES, BRIAN W. (1994) : “DOMITIAN AND THE COURT”, the Article published in the Italian Journal, Pallas, Presses Universitaires du Midi, p-331.

***BRUNT, P. A. (1979) : The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 69, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, Cambridge University Press, p-173.

****JONES (1992), Ibid, p-72.

*****Ibid, p-107.

******SUETONIUS, “Life of Domitian” 8.

*******JONES, Ibid, p-164.

ACHIEVEMENTS DURING DOMITIAN’S REIGN

BUILDING PROGRAM

The civil war of 69 AD and the fire in 80 AD have caused a massive damage to the city of ROME. So, DOMITIAN’S building program was launched. About fifty structures were erected, restored or completed. Amoung most important were STADIUM of DOMITIAN and ODEON of DOMITIAN. The most important building he restored was the Temple of JUPITER OPTIMUM MAXIMUS on the CAPITOLINE Hill.

PALACES & VILLAS

Villa of DOMITIAN was built on the ALBAN Hills about 20 KM outside ROME. In ROME itself DOMITIAN built the sumptuous Palace of DOMITIAN on the PALATINE Hill. Seven other Villas and Palaces, linked with DOMITIAN, were at TUSCULUM, ANTIUM, SABAUDIA, VICARELLO, CAIETA, TERRACINA and BAIAE.

ECONOMY

Upon his accession, DOMITIAN revalued the ROMAN Currency dramatically. He increased the silver purity of the denarius (the standard ROMAN siver coin) from 90% to 98%, while actual weight increased from 2.87grams to 3.26 grams. A financial crisis in 85 AD forced a devaluation of the silver purity and weight to 93.5% and 3.04 grams respectively.* However, the new values were still higher than the levels that VESPASIAN and TITUS had maintained during their reigns. To BRIAN W. JONES, DOMITIAN’S annual income was more than 1.2 billion sestertii (an ancient ROMAN coin), out of which one-third was presumably spent on the ROMAN army.**

*JONES, Ibid, p-75.

**Ibid, p-3.

MILITARY COMPAIGNS

DOMITIAN rejected the idea of expansionist warfare, as his reign were generally defensive in nature.*** He constructed a vast network of roads, forts and watchtowers along the RHINE river to defend the empire.**** However, several important wars were fought by DOMITIAN in GAUL against the CHATTI, and across the DANUBE river frontier against the SUEBI, the SARMATIANS and the DACIANS. Under the command of GNAEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA, BRITAIN was conquered. He expanded the ROMAN EMPIRE as far as CALEDONIA (SCOTLAND). In 82 AD, DOMITIAN founded a new legion, legio I Minervia to fight against the CHATTI.***** The rock inscription near BOYUKDASH mountain in the present-day AZERBAIJAN shows the easternmost evidence of ROMAN military presence.******

***JONES, Ibid, p-127.

****Ibid, p-131.

*****Ibid, p-130.

******MILLAR, FERGUS (2002) : “Rome, the Greek World and the East : The Roman Republic and the Augustan revolution”, UNC Press Books, p-51.

DOMITIAN’S ASSASSINATION

DOMITIAN was assasinated on 18 September 96 AD in a conspiracy by court officials.* According to SUETONIUS, a number of omens had foretold DOMITIAN’S death.The Emperor believed that his death would be at midday, for an auspice he had received. As a result, he was always restless around that time. On the day of the assassination, DOMITIAN was destressed and repeatedly asked a servant to tell him what time it was. Himself one of the plotters, the servant lied to the Emperor, telling him that it was already late in the afternoon.** This made the Emperor relaxed. He went to his desk to sign some decrees. STEPHANUS the culprit, who had been feigning an injury to his arm for several days and wearing a bandage to allow him to carry a concealed dagger suddenly appeared➖ writes SUETONIUS, “….. he pretended that he had discovered a plot, and was for that reason granted an audience: whereupon, as the amazed Domitian persued a document he had handed him, Staphanus stabed him in the groin.The wounded Emperor put up a fight, but succumbed to seven further stabs, his assailants being a subaltern named Clodinus, Parthenius’s freedman Maximus, Satur, a head-chamberlain and one of the imperial gladiators.”*** During the attack, STEPHANUS and DOMITIAN had struggled on the floor. DIO CASSIUS writes that STEPHANUS was killed when those who were not part of the assassination rushed upon him.**** On the other hand, DOMITIAN’S body was carried away on a common bier and unceremoniously cremated by his nurse PHYLLIS. As foretold, his death came at midday.***** He was only 44 years old at the time of his death. However, his ashes were carried to the FLAVIAN Temple and mingled them with those of his niece, JULLIA.

*SUETONIUS, “Life of Domitian” 17.

**GRAINGER, JOHN D. (2003), pp-1-3.

***SUETONIUS, “Life of Domitian” 17.

****CASSIUS, DIO : “Roman History, Vol. 8, Book 67, Loeb, p-357.

******JONES, Ibid, p-38.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-14)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR DOMITIAN (SERIES -1)

DOMITIAN was the last Emperor of the FLAVIAN DYNASTY, who ruled the ROMAN EMPIRE for 15 years from 14 September 81 AD to 18 September 96 AD. After the death of his elder brother TITUS, DOMITIAN was declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard. His 15-year reign was the longest since TIBERIUS. Born as TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITANUS on 24 October 51 AD in ROME and the younger son of VESPASIAN, DOMITIAN strengthened the ROMAN economy by revaluing the ROMAN coinage, expanding the border defences of the empire, and initiating a massive building program to restore the damaged city of ROME. During his reign, wars were fought in BRITAIN, where his famous general  AGRICOLA made a significant gains in his attempt to conquer CALEDONIA (SCOTLAND). DOMITIAN’S government, thus, exhibited strong authoritarian characteristics. Religious, cultural, and military propaganda fostered a cult of personality. And by nominating himself as perpetual censor, he sought to control public and private morals. As a matter of fact, DOMITIAN was the most popular with the people and the army. But he was considered a tyrant by the members of the ROMAN SENATE. A historian like BRIAN W. JONES has described DOMITIAN, as “a ruthless and efficient autocrat”.* Thus, his authoritarian style of ruling put him at sharp odds with the ROMAN SENATE, whose power he drastically curtailed. In 96 AD, when he was assasinated by court officials, DOMITIAN was succeeded by his advisor NERVA when aged almost 66 and remained a ROMAN EMPEROR from 96 AD to 98 AD.

*JONES, BRIAN W. (1992) : “The Emperor Domitian”, London, Routledge, p. i.

EMPEROR DOMITIAN & EMPRESS DOMITIA

In 70 AD, VESPASIAN tried to arrange a dynastic marriage between his youngest son, DOMITIAN, and the daughter of TITUS, JULIA FLAVIA*, but DOMITIAN was adamant in his love for DOMITIA LONGINA (the youngest daughter of the general and consul GNAEUS DOMITIUS CORBULO, who divorced her first husband, LUCIUS AELIUS LAMIA PLAUTIUS AELIANUS, to marry DOMITIAN in 71 AD). Despite its initial recklessness, the alliance was very prestigious for both families.The new marriage not only re-established ties to SENATORIAL opposition, but also served the broader FLAVIAN propaganda of the time, which sought to diminish political success of VESPASIAN under NERO. Instead, connections to CLAUDIUS and BRITANNICUS were more emphasized, and NERO’S victims, or those otherwise disadvantaged by him was rehabilitated.** In 80 AD, a child was born to DOMITIAN and DOMITIA, who, however, died in childhood in 83 AD. Shortly following his ascension as Emperor, the marriage appeared to have a significant crisis in 83 AD, for unknown reason. DOMITIAN briefly exiled DOMITIA. But soon recalled her, either out of love or due to rumours that he was carrying on a relationship with his niece JULIA FLAVIA.*** So by 84 AD, DOMITIA had returned to the palace,**** where she lived comfortably for the rest of her life without any such incident known to public.***** Although little is known about DOMITIA’S activities as empress, yet, according to SUETONIUS, she used to accompany her husband Emperor DOMITIAN to amphitheater. It is also unknown whether DOMITIAN had other children from her, but he never married again. BRIAN W. JONES writes that despite allegations by ROMAN sources, the marriage between DOMITIAN and DOMITIA appears to have been happy.******

*JONES, Ibid, p-33.

**Ibid, p-34.

***Ibid, p-39.

****VARNER (1995), op. cit., p-200.

*****JONES, Ibid, pp-34-35.

******Ibid, p-35.

DOMITIAN’S YOUTH, CHARACTER & PERSONALITY

In his youth, DOMITIAN received honour, but no responsibility. His adolescence was spent in the absence of his near relatives.* During JEWISH-ROMAN Wars, he was likely taken under the care of his uncle, TITUS FLAVIUS SABINUS II, at the time of serving as city prefect of ROME. He received the education of a young man from the privileged SENATORIAL class, studying rhetoric and literature. SUETONIUS has described him as a learned and educated adolescent, with elegant conversation.** Among his first published works were poetry, as well as writings on law and administration.***Regarding DOMITIAN’S personality, SUETONIUS has written, “He was tall of structure, with a modest expression and a high colour. His eyes were large, but his sight was somewhat dim. He was handsome and graceful too, especially when a young man, and indeed in his whole body with exception of his feet, the toes of which were somewhat cramped. In later life he had the further disfigurement of baldness, a protruding belly, and spindling legs, though the latter had become thin from a long illnesses.”**** However, DOMITIAN was allegedly extremely sensitive regarding his baldness. So, he used to wear wigs later in his life, writes MORGAN.*****

*JONES, Ibid, p-13.

**SUETONIUS, “Life of Domitian” 20.

***JONES, Ibid.

****SUETONIUS, Ibid, 18.

*****MORGAN (1997), op. cit., p-214.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-13)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR TITUS

A member of the FLAVIAN DYNASTY, TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS succeeded his father VESPASIAN, who ruled over the ROMAN EMPIRE from 24 June 79 AD to 13 September 81 AD. Born on 30 December 39 AD in ROME, ITALY, as the eldest son of VESPASIAN and DOMITILLA the Elder, he had one younger sister, called DOMITILLA the Younger and one younger brother, TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITANUS or popularly known as DOMITAN. Before becoming Emperor, TITUS was a renowned military commander. In 70 AD, under the guidance of his father, TITUS besieged and captured JERUSALEM and destroyed the city and SOLOMON’S Temple.To commemorate his victory, he was awarded with the Arch of Titus, still standing and located on VIA SACRA, ROME, just south east of the ROMAN FORUM. It was constructed in 81 AD. Moreover, JUDAEA CAPTA COINAGE was also issued after JUDAEA victory. During his father’s reign, he served as the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. He gained notoriety for carrying on controversial relationship with the JEWISH queen BERENICE (a member of HERODIAN dynasty that ruled the ROMAN province of JUDAEA between 39 BC and 92 AD). Despite that, SUETONIUS and other contemporary historians consider TITUS a good Emperor. He would be remembered for completing the COLOSSEUM; best known for his generosity in relieving the suffering caused by two disasters➖1. The eruption of mount VESUVIUS in 79 AD ; and 2. A fire in ROME in 80 AD. After nearly two years in office, TITUS died of a fever on 13 September 81 AD. He was deified by the ROMAN SENATE. And he was succeeded by his younger brother DOMITIAN.

THE FIRST JEWISH-ROMAN WAR & TITUS

Also known as the War of Destruction, the First JEWISH-ROMAN War was the first of three major rebellions against the ROMAN EMPIRE, fought between 66 AD to 73/74 AD. It was fought in the province of JUDAEA and resulted in the destruction of JERUSALEM, the JEWISH Temple, mass displacement, land appropriation, and the dissolution of the JEWISH Polity. According to JOSEPHUS, 1.1 million died in JERUSALEM and 100,000 in GALILEE.* Apart from that 97,000 individuals were enslaved.** JUDAEA, once an independent kingdom under HASMONEANS (a JEWISH ruling dynasty during the HELLENISTIC times), fell to the ROMAN REPUBLIC in the first century BC➖initially as a client kingdom and then as a directly ruled province.The story of war goes back to 66 AD, when NERO was ruling ROME. Unrest flared when a local GREEK sacrificed a bird at the entrance of a CAESAREA (the capital of ROMAN JUDAEA, SYRIA, PALAESTINA and PALAESTINA Prima, successively) Synagogue.Tension escalated when the Governor GESSIUS FLORUS looted the temple’s treasury and massacred the innocent residents of JERUSALEM. An uprising sparked during which rebels killed the ROMAN garrison. But pro-ROMAN officials escaped because they fled away. To quell the unrest, the Governor of SYRIA, CESTIUS GALLUS, invaded JUDAEA, but he was defeated at BETHORON (the town is also mentioned in the BIBLE as Lower and Uper BETHORON). In 67 AD, VESPASIAN was sent to suppress the revolt. As rebels and refusees fled to JERUSALEM, the present government was overthrown. After VESPASIAN subdued most of the province, the chaos following the death of NERO, led legions to proclaim him Emperor of ROME. So he departed for ROME. Then his son TITUS led the Siege of JERUSALEM, which fell in summer in 70 AD.

*The Jewish War, VI, 9.3.

**SCHWARTZ, SETH (2014b) : “The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad”, Cambridge University Press, pp-85-86.

THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

During the first century century AD, JERUSALEM was a prosperous city. It was a political and religious centre of JEWS’ life of JUDAEA and the diaspora.The Siege of JERUSALEM in 70 AD was the decisive event of the First JEWISH Revolt against the ROMAN EMPIRE. ROMAN forces led by TITUS besieged JERUSALEM, the JEWISH capital and the main stronghold of the Revolt. In winter 69-70 AD, TITUS led four ROMAN Legions (the ROMAN largest military unit) and Auxiliary forces, numbering, at least, 48, 200 soldiers, back into JUDAEA. By spring, this army encircled JERUSALEM, whose population has swollen with refugees and Passover pilgrims. Inside the city, the rival factions led by JOHN of GISCHALA, SIMON bar GIORA and ELEAZAR ben SIMON fought each other, destroying the city’s food supplies and weakened its defenses. However, the factions eventually united and mounted fierce resistance against the ROMAN forces. But the ROMANS breached the walls and drove the defenders into the Temple precincts. In the month of July/August, the ROMANS captured the Temple Mount (a hill in the Old City of JERUSALEM that is home to Islamic compound know as Al-Aqsa, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of Rock. The site was the site of two successive Temples in JERUSALEM, and it has been venerated as a holi site for thousand of years, including in JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY and ISLAM) and destroyed the Second Temple (a sacred JEWISH House of worship that stood from 516 BC until destroyed by the ROMAN EMPIRE in 70 AD) ➖an event commemorated annually in JUDAISM on Tisha B’Av (an annual ta’anit in Rubbinic JUDAISM). The rest of JERUSALEM fell in the following weeks. The ROMANS systematically and mercilessly demolished most of the city. TITUS and his father VESPASIAN, in a later year, celebrated their victory with a triumph in ROME, parading Temple spoils➖including Temple menorah (a seven branched candelabrum that is described in the book of Exodus in the HEBREW BIBLE) ➖alongside hundreds of captives, who later on made slaves. In commemoration of victory monuments such as Arch of Titus was constructed and Judaea capta coinage was issued.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE ( SERIES-13)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR VESPASIAN (SERIES-2)

VESPASIAN’S ARRIVAL IN ROME

In mid-70 AD VESPASIAN arrived in ROME from EGYPT. In January 70 AD, an uprising occurred in GAUL and GERMANY. It was known as the second BATAVIAN Rebellion. VESPASIAN was still in EGYPT when protests erupted in ALEXANDRIA over his new tax policies and grain shipments were held up. VESPASIAN eventually restored order and grain shipments to ROME resumed.* In addition to the uprising in EGYPT, unrest and civil war continued in the rest of the ROMAN EMPIRE in 70 AD. JUDEA had been rebelling since 66 AD. TITUS, the son of VESPASIAN, subdued the rebellion with the capture of JERUSALEM and destruction of the JEWISH Temple in 70 AD itself. Later, the JEWISH Temple of LEONTOPOLIS (an ancient city of EGYPT) and was sacked in 73 AD.** On arrival of VESPASIAN in ROME, he immediately embarked on a series of efforts to stay in power by suppressing all the revolts. He offered gifts to many in military and much of the public.*** Soldiers loyal to his predecessor, VITELLIUS, were either dismissed or punished.**** He also reconstructed the SENATORIAL and Equestrian orders. By this, he removed his enemies and added his allies.***** Moreover, regional autonomy of GREEK provinces was repealed.****** To consolidate his empire and his rule, amount of propaganda was increased. A component of the propaganda was the theology of victory (also referred as Jovian theology or divine right to rule), which legitimized right to rule through successful conquest.# Moreover, a Temple of Peace was constructed in the FORUM which helped in getting stability not only in ROME but in the entire empire.##

*CASSIUS DIO, “Roman History”, LXV. 2.

**RITNER, ROBERT K., op. cit. Ibid.

***CASSIUS DIO, Ibid, LXVI. 10.

****SUETONIUS, “The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Vespasian”, 8.

*****Ibid, 9

******Ibid, Philostratus II, Life of Apollonius 5.41.

#PORTER, STANLEY E. ; PITTS, ANDREW W. (2018) : “Christian Orgins and the Enlightenment of the Early Jesus Movement”, Leiden: Brill, p-303.

##SUETONIUS, “Life of Vespasian”, 9.

CONSTRUCTION & CONSPIRACIES

A mystery thy name is much of the VESPASIAN’S reign between 71 AD to 79 AD. Several new buildings were constructed in ROME during his period. Despite that he survived several conspiracy against himself. After the civil war, he was the first emperor who helped rebuild ROME. He helped build the Temple of Peace and the best Temple of Claudius to deified the Emperor CLAUDIUS.* In 75 AD, he erected a colossal statue of APOLLO. He dedicated a stage of theatre of MARCELLUS. He began construction of COLOSSEUM, using funds from the spoil of the JEWISH Temple after the siege of JERUSALEM in 70 AD, as we know, which had led the first JEWISH Revolt against the ROMAN EMPIRE and which was quelled by his son TITUS. SUETONIUS has claimed that VESPASIAN was met with “constant conspiracies” against him.** One of them was EPRIUS MARCELLUS (a ROMAN SENATOR) and AULUS CAECINA (a ROMAN General), who attempted to kill VESPASIAN, but nobody knew why they wanted to do so.

*SUETONIUS, Ibid, Life of Vespasian 9.

**SUETONIUS, “Vespasian”, 25.

THE DEATH OF VESPASIAN

In his nineth consulship had a slight illness in CAMPANIA (a region in ITALY). It compelled him to return to ROME at once. He left for AQUAE CUTILIAE (an ancient ROMAN site) and country around REATE (a town and comune LAZIO (Central ITALY), where he used to stay during every summer. But his illness worsened. He developed severe diarrhoea. Feeling of death overwhelming him, to SUETONIUS, VESPASIAN joked, “Vae, puto deus fio”, meaning by “Dear me, I think I’m becoming a god”. SUETONIUS writes, “Taken on a sudden with such an attack of diarrhoea that he all but swooned, he said : “An emperor out to die standing”, and while he was struggling to get in his feet, he died in the arms of those who tried to help him, on the ninth day before the Kalends of July [June 23], at the age of sixty-nine years, seven months, seven days.”* And in this way, Emperor VESPASIAN died on 23 June 79 AD. He was succeeded by his son TITUS.

SUETONIUS, “Life of Vespasian”, 24.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-12)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR VESPASIAN (SERIES -1)

“An Emperor out to die standing”➖said the ROMAN EMPEROR VESPASIAN at the time of his death. While he was struggling to stand on his feet, he died in the arms of those who were trying to help him, and he died at the age of sixty-nine years, seven months and seven days.* He died on 23 June 79 AD at AQUAE CUTILIAE due to acute diarrhoea. VESPASIAN was the ROMAN EMPEROR from 1 July 69 AD to 23 June 79 AD and established the rule of FLAVIAN DYNASTY, ending the reign of the “Year of the Four Emperors”. The FLAVIAN DYNASTY ruled over the ROMAN EMPIRE for next 27 years. Born in a village north-east of ROME called FALACRINAE, ITALY as TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS (popularly known as VESPASIAN)  on 17 November 9 AD. His father’s name was TITUS FLAVIUS SABINUS (a ROMAN eques) and his mother VESPASIA POLLA also came from an equestrian family at NURSIA, whose father rose to the rank of prefect of the camp and her brother later became SENATOR. VESPASIAN’S father SEBINUS was a ROMAN moneylender, debt collector, and tax collector.** VESPASIAN was educated in the countryside, in COSA (an ancient ROMAN city near the present ANSEDONIA in southwestern TUSCANY, ITALY). There he remained under the guidance of his parental grandmother.*** After VITELLIUS, he was the second Emperor from an equestrian family and first Emperor who rose in his lifetime into the SENATORIAL rank as the first member of his family to do so.

*SUETONIUS, op. cit., Chapter -24.

**MORGAN (2006), op. cit., pp-170-173.

***SUETONIUS, Ibid, Vespasian, p-2.

VESPASIAN AS AN EMPEROR OF ROME

VESPASIAN was declared emperor by the ROMAN SENATE on 21 December 69 AD through a passage of the Lex de imperio Vespasiani (an Ancient ROMAN law particularly preserved on bronze tablet), when he was in EGYPT.The EGYPTIANS had declared him emperor later in the summer next year. He was the the first emperor since AUGUSTUS to appear in EGYPT.* While there, he visited the Temple of SERAPIS (a Greci-Egyptian god). He reportedly experienced a vision there, and he performed healing miracles.** Moreover, he was hailed like pharaoh (in Egyptology the ROMAN EMPERORS in their capacity as the ruler of EGYPT). He was proclaimed the son of the creator-deity AMUN (an ancient EGYPTIAN and BERBER deity who appears as member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad) in the style of ancient pharaohs as an incarnation of SERAPIS in the manner of the PTOLEMIES.*** In the short-term, administration of the empire was given to MUCIANUS (a ROMAN General, Statesman and Writer), who was aided by VESPASIAN’S son, DOMITIAN.

*RITNER, ROBERT K. (1998) : “Egypt under Roman rule: the legacy of ancient Egypt” in Petry Carl F. (ed.) “Islamic Egypt 649-1517” Vol. 1 (1 ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp-1-33.

**Ibid.

***Ibid.

PECUNIA NON OLET

VESPASIAN was still in EGYPT. MUCIANUS and VESPASIAN’S son DOMITIAN started off VESPASIAN’S rule with tax reform, so that empire’s finances could be restored. Both rulers renewed old taxes and instituted new ones.They increased the tributes of the provinces.They started to keep a watchful eye upon the treasury officials. Even when VESPASIAN returned to ROME in mid-70 AD, MUCIANUS pressed him to collect as many taxes as possible.* There is a LATIN proverb➖ “Pecunia non olet”, meaning by “Money doesn’t stink”. NERO in the 1st century AD, had introduced a urine tax on public toilet under the name of vectigal urinae. However, the tax was removed after a while. But when VESPASIAN returned to ROME in mid-70 AD, he again reimposed this tax. DIO CASSIUS and SUETONIUS have written, “When [Vespasia’s] son TITUS blamed him for even laying a tax upon urine, he applied to his nose a piece of money he received in the first instalment, and asked him if it stink. And he replied no, ‘And yet’, said he, ‘it is derived from urine”. Since then, this phrase ➖“Pecunia non olet” has been used to whitewash dubious or illegal origin of money.**

*CASSIUS DIO, “Roman History”, LXV, 2.

**HeritageDaily (4 May 2016) : “The Romans created a tax on urine”, HeritageDaily Archeological News.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-11)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR VITELLIUS

In a year of civil war in the ROMAN EMPIRE, known as the Year of the Four Emperor, AULUS VITELLIUS ruled the empire for eight months from 19 April to 20 December 69 AD. Upon his succession, VITELLIUS added the honorific title GERMANICUS to his name instead of CAESAR. Like his predecessor OTHO, he attempted to rally public support to his cause by honouring and imitating NERO, because NERO was quite popular in the ROME EMPIRE by that time. AULUS VITELLIUS was born on 24 September 15 AD in NUCERIA ALFATERNA, CAMPANIA. He was the son of LUCIUS VITELLIUS. He was a noble companion of TIBERIUS. Then befriended CALIGULA. He was elected consul in 48 AD. He served as Proconsular Governor of AFRICA in 60 AD. GALBA had appointed him army commander of GERMANIA Inferior in 68 AD. GALBA was assasinated by OTHO, and VITELLIUS then faced OTHO in battle. He defeated OTHO in the Battle of BEDRIACUM. After that he was made the Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE by the ROMAN SENATE. But his claim to the throne was challanged by legions stationed in the eastern provinces. They claimed VESPASIAN as their emperor instead.

VITELLIUS AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

SUETONIUS has written that VITELLIUS starved his own mother to death just to fulfill a prophecy by a Chattian seeress (an alleged GERMANIC seeress of the Chattian tribe) who had blessed him that he would rule longer if his mother died first. Alternatively, his mother asked for poison to commit suicide. Her request he granted willingly.* He has further remarked that VITELLIUS’ besetting sins were luxury and cruelty.** Despite his short reign he made two important government contributions which outlasted him. In his book “Histories”, TACITUS has described them as follows : 1. VITELLIUS ended the practice of centurions selling furloughs and exemption of duty to their men ; 2. He also expanded the offices of the imperial administration beyond the imperial pool of freedmen, allowing those of the Equities to take up positions in the imperial civil service. He also banned astrologers from ROME and ITALY on 1 October 69 AD. VITELLIUS continued OTHO’S policies in regard to NERO’S memory, as NERO was most popular among lower classes of the ROMAN EMPIRE.*** To SUETONIUS, VITELLIUS was an obese glutton, using emetics so as to be able to indulge in banquets four times a day. When he was invited on a feast of his brother LUCIUS, writes SUETONIUS, “….. at which it is said, there were served up to no less than two thousand choice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himself outdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had been made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called “The Shield of Minerva”. In this dish there were tossed up together the livers of pike, the brain of pheasants and peacocks, with tongues of flamingos, and entrails of lampreys, which has been brought in ships of war as far as from Parthia and Spanish Straits.”**** EDWARD GIBBON in his book 📚“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” has written“the beastly Vitellius” among “the unworthy successor of Augustus” adding in a footnote, “Vitellius consumed in mere eating at least six millions of our money, in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog; but it is substituting for a coarse word a very fine image.”*****

*SUETONIUS, “Vitellius”, Chapter-14.

**Ibid.

***VARNER, ERIC (2017) : “Nero  Memory in Flavian Rome”, In Bartsch, Shadi; Freudenberg, Kirik; Littlewood, Cedric (eds), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Nero, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp-238-258.

****SUETONIUS, Ibid, Chapter-13.

*****GIBBON, EDWARD (2013) : “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, The Modern Library, p-79.

ABDICATION & DEATH

TACITUS’S Histories state that VITELLIUS awaited VESPASIAN’S army at MEVANIA [a town and comune in central part of the ITALIAN province of PERUGIA (UMBRIA) in the flood plain of the TOPINO river]. In July 69 AD, VITELLIUS had already learned that the armies of the eastern provinces proclaimed a rival Emperor and their commander was TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS. On the entrance of the VESPASIAN’S troops into ROME, VITELLIUS’S supporters (mostly civilians) organized heavy resistance. It resulted in a brutal battle in the streets of ROME. Entrenched on city’s buildings, they threw stones, javelins, and tiles on VESPASIAN’S soldiers. Consequently, they suffered heavy casualties in the urban fighting. CASSIUS DIO has written that at least 50,000 people died in the Battle for ROME.* Large parts of the city were destroyed. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was also destroyed.** VITELLIUS was virtually dragged out of the hiding-place, that was his door-keeper’s lodge. He was driven to the fatal and infamous GEMONIAN STAIRS (a flight of steps located in the ancient city of ROME, famous in the ROMAN history as a place of execution), and there struck down by the VESPASIAN’S supporters. VITELLIUS’S last words were “Yet I was once your emperor”. According to CASSIUS DIO, VITELLIUS was beheaded and his head paraded around ROME and his wife attended to his burial. His brother and son were also killed. And words of SUETONIUS, at last, are very interesting “….. He was in fact abnormally tall, with a face usually flushed from hard drinking, a huge belly, and one thigh crippled from being struck once by a four-horse chariot, when he was on Gaius as he was driving.”***

*KELLY, BENJAMIN (2007) : “Riot Control and Imperial Ideology in the Roman Empire”, Phoenix, 61 (1/2), Toronto, University of Toronto Press, Classical Association of Canada, pp-169, 171.

**VARNER, ERIC (2017), op. cit. p-250.

***SUETONIUS, Ibid, Chapter -17.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-10)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR OTHO

MACUS SALVIUS OTHO ruled the ROMAN EMPIRE for three months only, from 15 January to 16 April 69 AD. He was the second Emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors (four Emperors➖GALBA, OTHO, VITELLIUS, and VESPASIAN➖ ruled the ROMAN EMPIRE in between the shift from the JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTY to the FLAVIAN DYNASTY). Born on 28 April 32 AD in a noble ESTUSCAN family of LUCIUS SALVIUS OTHO & ALBIA TERENTIA, was initially a friend and courtier of the young Emperor NERO. His grandfather MARCUS was a SENATOR. And Emperor CLAUDIUS granted Patrician status to his father LUCIUS SALVIUS OTHO.* SUETONIUS, about OTHO in his book “The Lives of the Caesars”, has written, “He is said to have been of moderate height, splay-footed and bandy-legged, but almost famine in his person. He had the hair of his body plucked out, and because of the thinness of his locks wore a wig so carefully fashioned and fitted to his head, that no one suspected it. Moreover, they say that he used to shave everyday and smear his face with moist bread, beginning the practice with the appearance of the first down, so never to have a beard.” JUVENAL, a ROMAN poet, who wrote the Satires, has ridiculed OTHO of male Homosexuality, who used to look at himself in the mirror before going into battle.** GREENHALGH has written that “he was dedicated to luxury and pleasure to a degree remarkable even in a ROMAN.” And NERO, who had forced OTHO to divorce his wife POPPAEA SABINA, so that he himself could married her, and OTHO was exiled to the province of LUSITANIA in 58 AD by appointing him to be its Governor.***

*GREENHALGH, opp. cit., pp-33-35.

**”JUVENAL | ROMAN POET”, Encyclopedia Britannica.

***GREENHALGH, Ibid.

REIGN & DECLINE

GALBA was killed by the Praetorians on 15 January 69 AD. His death was followed by the deaths of VINIUS and PISO. Their heads were placed on poles. And OTHO was proclaimed Emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.* NERO’S statues were again set up. His freedmen and household officers reinstalled. Young castrated boy SPORUS, whom NERO took in for marriage, had intimated with OTHO.** Now most of the people of ROME acclaimed him as “Nero-Otho”, despite the fact that OTHO didn’t appear to like the title.*** Upon becoming Emperor, OTHO realised that it was much easier to overthrow an Emperor than to rule as one. In the policy matter he had to consult GALBA’S private correspondence. Now he also realised that the extent of the revolution in GERMANIA, where several legions had declared for VITELLIUS were already advancing upon ITALY.**** VITELLIUS forces under AULUS CAECINA ALIENUS and FABIUS VALENS crossed the ALPS into northern ITALY.***** In response, OTHO dispatched forces from PANNONIA and DALMATIA to counter the forces of VITELLIUS. On 14 April 69 AD, a decisive engagement occurred at the Battle of BEDRIACUM.****** Despite earlier success for the forces of OTHO, the Battle ended in a decisive defeate for the forces of OTHO.*******The Praetorian Guards, constituting the core of the OTHO’S army, performed poorly and flew before engaging in close combat.******** Following the defeat, OTHO’S remaining forces retreated to their camp at BEDRIACUM. OTHO chose to end the civil war rather than subject the ROMAN people to further bloodshed.#

*GREENHALGH, Ibid, pp-30,37, 45, 47-50.

**CHAMPLIN, EDWARD (2005) : “Nero”, Harvard University Press, pp-147-148.

***TACITUS, “Histories”, 1.78.

****Ibid, 1.70-90.

*****Ibid, 2.11-26.

******PLUTARCH, “Life of Otho”, Parallel Lives, 11-14.

*******Ibid, 12.

********Ibid, 12.6.

#Ibid, 15.

OTHO’S DEATH

One day after the Battle on 16 April 69 AD, OTHO committed suicide by stabbing himself in his heart with a dagger which he had concealed under his pillow. His dying words were he could , “die more honourably than he could reign.”* His death ended the war and cleared the path for VITELLIUS. OTHO had reigned three months. His ashes were placed within a modest monument and funeral was  celebrated at once as he had wished. A plain tomb was erected in his honour at BRIXELLUM, with the inscription “Diis Manibus Narci Othonis”. Just as he had come to power, many ROMANS learned to respect OTHO in his death. Few could believe that a renowned former companion of NERO had chosen such an honourable end. To TACITUS, some of the soldiers committed suicide beside his funeral pyre “because they loved their emperor and wished to share his glory.”** The ROMAN poet MARTIAL had expressed his words of admiration for ORTH’S choice to spare the empire from civil war through scarifying himself ➖ “Although the goddess of civil warfare was still in doubt,

And soft Otho had perhaps still a chance of winning,

He renounced fighting that would have cost much blood,

And with sure hand pierced right through his breast.

By all means let Cato in his life be greater than Caesar himself ;

In his death was he greater than OTHO.”***

*PLUTARCH, Ibid, 17.

**TACITUS.

***MARTIAL, EPIGRAMS, VI. 32.

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TO BE CONTINUED………………

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-9)

THE ROMAN EMPEROR GALBA

He ruled ROME only for seven months from 8 June 68 to 15 January 69. His name was SERVIUS SULPICIUS GALBA. Following the death of NERO, he became the sixth Emperor of ROME, but he was not from the JULIO-CLAUDIUS DYNASTY. He was the member of a distinguished noble family. One of the ancestors of GALBA had been consul in 200 BC. Another of his ancestors was consul in 144 BC. GALBA’S grandfather was a historian. He prided himself on his descent from his great-grandfather CATULUS. According to a historian like SUETONIUS, he fabricated a genealogy of parental descent from the god JUPITER and maternal descent  from the legendary PASIPHAE (the daughter of HELIOS, the queen of CRETE), the wife of MINOS (a king of CRETE).* His father’s name was GAIUS SULPICIUS GALBA. And his mother was MUMMIA ACHAICA. But he was adopted by his father’s second wife LIVIA OCELLINA. It is said that GALBA was distantly related to LIVIA (the wife of AUGUSTUS).** He had much respect for her. And in turn by whom he advanced much in his career. On the other hand LIVIA had left him fifty million sesterces. However, Emperor TIBERIUS had cheated GALBA by reducing the amount to five hundred thousand sesterces and never ever paid to GALBA the reduced amount.*** GALBA was born near TERRACINA on 24 December 3 BC. His elder brother GAIUS had fled from ROME and later committed suicide, because the then Emperor of ROME, TIBERIUS, would not allow him to control a ROMAN province. LIVIA OCELLINA became the second wife of GALBA’S father. OCELLINA adopted GALBA and he took the name “LUCIUS LIVIUS OCELLA SULPICIUS GALBA”. GALBA preferred males over females in terms of sexual attraction.**** To SUETONIUS, GALBA “preferred full-grown, strong men”.***** Nevertheless, he married a woman, whose name was AEMILIA LEPIDA and had two sons. But AEMILIA and her sons died during the reign of CLAUDIUS. And GALBA would remain a widower for the rest of his life.******

*MORGAN, GWYN (2006) : “69 A. D. : The Year of Four Emperor”, New York, Oxford University Press, pp-31-32.

**SUETONIUS, Chapter 23, (Life of Galba).

***Ibid, chaper-3.

****GREENHALGH, P. A. L. (1975) : “The Year of the Four Emperors”, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p-11.

*****SUETONIUS, 22.

******MORGAN, Ibid, p-32.

PUBLIC SERVICE

GALBA became Praetor in about 30 AD. Then he was appointed as Governor of AQUITANIA for about a year. He became consul in 33 AD. In 39 AD, Emperor CALIGULA learned about a plot against himself. GAETULICUS, the general of GERMANAI Superior, was the main figure in that conspiracy. Hearing  about that plot, CALIGULA immediately installed GALBA on the post held by GAETULICUS.* On the other hand, SUETONIUS was of the opinion  that GALBA had run alongside CALIGULA’S chariot for twenty miles,** that’s why he got this favour. As a commander, GALBA gained a reputation as a disciplinarian.*** After the assassination of the Emperor CALIGULA in 41 AD, GALBA was advised to take the throne, but he denied, and remained loyal to CALIGULA’S successor CLAUDIUS also. Possibly in 49 AD, he retired during the reign of CLAUDIUS. But he was recalled by the ROMAN Emperor NERO in 59 AD to govern HISPANIA.**** On the death anniversary of AGRIPPINA the Younger in 68 AD, when VINDEX revolted against the tax policy of NERO, GALBA extended hands towards VINDEX of GAUL, rejecting the title  “General of Caesar” in favour of “General of The Senate and Prople of Rome”. He was supported by the imperial official TIGELLINUS (a Prefect of the ROMAN imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard). When NYMPHIDIUS announced to the Praetorian Guard that NERO had fled away to EGYPT at midnight of 8 June, ROMAN SENATE proclaimed GALBA as the Emperor of ROME.

*MORGAN, Ibid. pp-33-34.

**SUETONIUS, Ibid, Chapter -6.

***GREENHALGH, Ibid, p-15.

****MORGAN, Ibid.

GALBA AS EMPEROR OF ROME

GALBA reigned ROME from 8 June 68 AD to 15 January 69 AD. Upon becoming Emperor, he was faced by the rebellion of NYMPHIDIUS SABINUS, who had his own aspirations for the imperial throne. However, SABINUS was killed by the Praetorian Guards before he could take over the throne of ROME. A number of GALBA’S troops were killed in fighting in an attack by a legion that had been organized by NERO, while the former was arriving to ROME with the LUSITANIAN Governor MARCUS SALVIUS OTHO.* GALBA, who was suffering from a chronic disease gout, by the time he came to the throne.** But he came under the influence of the corrupt group of the royal officials, when he became the Emperor of ROME.  On their advise, GALBA seized the property of ROMAN citizens. He dismissed GERMANIC bodyguards. He denied to pay Praetorians and other soldiers who fought against VINDEX.These actions of GALBA ultimately caused him to become unpopular.***

*DONAHUE, JOHN (7 August 1999) : “Galba”, De Imperatoribus Romanis.

**GREENHALGH, Ibid, p-11.

***DONAHUE, Ibid.

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TO BE CONTINUED……………….

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (SERIES-8)

NERO (SERIES-3)

DECLINE OF NERO

Before the death of his mother AGRIPPINA, NERO’S reign had been going well. To BARRETT, NERO’S “conduct became far more egregious” after the death of his mother.* NERO’S decline began as early as 55 AD with the murder of his stepbrother BRITANNICUS. He had lost all sense of right and wrong. He was only listening to flattery with total credulity. And from about 60 AD, NERO started building a new palace, called the DOMUS TRANSITORIA, which was later replaced by DOMUS AUREA (Golden House) after the Great Fire of ROME in 64 AD. In 62 AD, NERO’S advisor BURRUS (a Prefect of the Praetorian Guard) died.** On the very same year, NERO called for first treason trial against ANTISTIUS SOSIANUS.*** When he killed his staunch rivals, CORNELIUS SULLA and RUBELLIUS PLATUS, his relations with the ROMAN SENATE deteriorated considerably. After BURRUS’ death, NERO appointed two new Praetorian Prefects➖ FAENIUS RUFUS and OFONIUS TIGELLINUS. On the other hand, SENECA was forced to retire.**** According to TACITUS, NERO divorced OCTAVIA on the ground of infertility, and banished her.***** When OCTAVIA’S exile was protested by public, NERO accused her of adultery with ANICETUS, and later she was executed.****** To TACITUS, NERO was said to have married with PYTHAGORAS, a freedman in a public ceremony in 64 AD during a ROMAN festival called the SATURNALIA, celebrated on 17 December as per JULIAN calander in honour of the god SATURN, in which the Emperor took a role of bride.# NERO was said to have kicked POPPAEA to death in 65 AD, before she could give birth to her second child. In 66 AD, he funded a lavish expedition to AFRICA just to find a hoard of buried god, left behind by the legendary queen DIDO (the legendary founder and first queen of the PHOENICIAN city-state of CARTHAGE). In in 67 AD, NERO married a young boy called SPORUS who resembled his wife, POPPAEA, and whom he castrated first and then married during his tour to GREECE. Historians are of the opinion that he solemnized this marriage out of regret for his killing of POPPAEA. ##

*BARRETT, ANTHONY A. (2010) : “Nero”, in Gagarin, Michael (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome.

**Ibid.

***TACITUS, “Annals”, XIV. 48.

****SCULLARD, H. H. (2011) : “From the Gracchi to Nero: a history of Rome 133 BC to 68 AD”, London, Routledge, p-26.

*****TACITUS, Ibid, 60.

******TACITUS, Ibid, 64.

#TACITUS, Annals, 15.35.

##SUETONIUS (2016) : “Nero”, in Kadter, Robert A. “Studies on the Text of Suetonius”, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

NERO’S DEATH AND REVOLT OF VINDEX & GALBA 

The Governor of GAIUS JULIUS VINDEX of GALLIA LUGDUNENSIS (a part of the Ancient ROMAN EMPIRE, now in FRANCE) revolted against NERO’S tax policies in March 68 AD. NERO assigned the task to the Governor of GERMANANIA to put down the rebellion of VINDEX.* VINDEX called upon SERVIUS SULPICIUS GALBA, the Governor of HISPANIA TARRACONENSIS (one of the three ROMAN provinces of HISPANIA) to join the rebellion and declared himself an Emperor.** In May 68 AD itself, VINDEX was defeated in the Battle of VESONTIO and later committed suicide*** Then GALBA came on front. His supporters increased tremendously, despite his being declared a “public enemy”.**** The Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, GAIUS NYMPHIDIUS SABINUS, also became supporter of GALBA, ceding his allegiance to the Emperor.***** NERO now became nervous. He fled ROME with this intention that he would first go to the port of OSTIA, and from there to one of the still-loyal easten provinces. Then he decided to flee to PATHIA to beg mercy from GALBA for his past excess. But, ultimately he returned to ROME and spent the evening in the palace. After sleeping, when he awoke he called the palace guards. But they were not present there. Perhaps they had left the palace.Then he called a Gladiator (an armed combatant) with a sword to kill him. But no one appeared. He cried loud, “Have I neither friend or foe?” He ran out so fastly that it appeared that he would throw himself in the river TIBER.****** Returning, NERO sought a place where he could hide himself and collect his thoughts. An imperial freedman PHAON, offered his villa about  6.4 KM outside the city of ROME. Travelling in disguise, NERO had left with him only four freedmen. They were ➖ EPAPHRODITUS, PHAON, NEOPHYTUS, and SPORUS. They all reached the villa. Whereupon NERO ordered them to dig a grave for him. At the same time, NERO learned that he had been declared by the ROMAN SENATE a “public enemy”. He heard the sound of approaching horsemen. He committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat with a dagger, with the help of his private secretary, EPAPHRODITUS.******* When one of the horsemen entered the villa, he saw NERO was dying. He attempted to stop the bleeding, but failed. His last words were “Too late! This is fidelity.”******** He died on 9 June 68 AD, at the anniversary of the death of his first wife CLAUDIA OCTAVIA. Bypassing the past ROMAN tradition of cremation like HINDUS, he was buried in the Mausoleum of the DOMITII AHENOBARBI.*********

*CASSIUS DEO, 63.24. [Note➖CASSIUS DEO was a ROMAN historian and senator of maternal GREEK origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of Ancient ROME]

**PLUTARCH GALBA (1923) [c. 100 AD] : “Life of  Galba 5”, Parallel Lives (a series of 48 Biographies of famous men written in GREEK by the Greco-Roman Philosopher, Historian, ans APOLLONIAN Priest, PLUTARCH in 100 AD & translated by Bernadotte Perrin).

***CASSIUS, Ibid.

****PLUTARCH, Ibid.

*****Ibid.

******SUETONIUS, Ibid.

*******Ibid.

********Ibid.

Ibid, 50.

AFTER NERO

Two ancient historians of ROME ➖ SUETONIUS and CASSIUS DIO, have written that the people of ROME celebrated the death of NERO.* But a contemporary historian like TACITUS wrote that NERO’S death was welcomed only by SENATORS, nobility and upper class people of ROME, but the lower class, slaves, frequenters of the arena and the theatre people were upset with the news.** Members of the military were said to have mixed feelings.*** Now NERO’S name was erased from some of the monuments. However, many portraits of NERO were reworked to represent other figured. According to ERIC R. VARNER, over 50 such images survived, under a practice known in LATIN language as “damnatio memoriae” (a modern LATIN phrase meaning “condemnation of memory ” or “damnation of memory”, indicating that person is to be excluded from official accounts). Many damaged portraits of NERO with hammer blows directed to his face have been found in many provinces of the then ROMAN EMPIRE. Three such portraits have recently been identified from the UNITED KINGDOM.****

*SUETONIUS, “Nero”,  57.

**TACITUS, “Histories”, 1.4.

***Ibid, 1.5.

****RUSSELL, MILES & MANLEY HARRY (2013) : “Finding Nero: shining a new light on Romano-British sculpture”, Internet Archeology (32).

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TO BE CONTINUED………………