Dev's Questions

Augustus: Managing an Empire Part 2

2010-09-03T02:31:00.000-07:00

During roughly the same timeframe as the previous article, adjustments of some magnitude were happening in the family of Augustus. There were consequences for its members and also for Rome. Julia, the daughter of Augustus had married Agrippa in 21 BC and had two sons: Gaius, born in 20 BC and Lucius in 17 BC. Augustus and Livia didn't have any male children, so upon the arrival of Lucius, Augustus adopted them both--"an heir and a spare." After this they were known as Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar. The situation was reminiscent of Julia acting as nothing more than an incubator for the offspring of two fathers.

This was an obvious move to secure the chances of an Augustan dynasty. This move also seemed at the time to leave Livia's sons, Tiberius and Drusus, of the running permanently. It was largely thought at the time that Livia would do just about anything to advance her sons' standing. However, there is no historical evidence to suggest she ever did anything impudent in this regard. The sheer fact that Livia remained in high favor and regard by Augustus throughout his life would seem to support this--rumours of stepmother-like doings not withstanding.
Whatever Livia, Tiberius, and Drusus thought privately, the lives they led left no room for complaint. Tiberius, aged 25 and Drusus, aged 21, had already shown talent and ambition and were well rewarded fo it. Augustus arranged for both his stepsons to be able to hold office before the minium ag and he trusted them with multiple challenging duties. Tiberius was known as somewhat dour and withdrawn, but Drusus was overwhelmingly popular and outgoing.
Undated letters of Augustus speak of affection for them both. Both Tiberius and Drusus had an aptitude for military life and leadership--qualities that Augustus expanded upon and exploited.
Events in Gaul soon caused or supplied the pretext to begin the imperial grand strategy. Germanic tribes had won a battle over Marcus Lollius in 17 BC in Gaul. Although the battle wasn't essential, and was even redressed, a legionary standard had been lost. But, out of all proportion, Augustus acted as if this attack was an extreme emergency. He left for Gaul immediately and brought Tiberius with him.
However, upon arrival, there wasn't anything for him to do. Marcus Lollius, a corrupt, status-seeking man who was also a favorite of Augustus, was already preparing a military strike. In addition, when the tribes learned Augustus himself was coming to Gaul, they vanished into their own territory. Still, Augustus would stay in Gaul for three years. Why?
There are not enough historical records left to us to answer definitively. One rumor circulating at the time in Rome was that he left the capitol to cultivate an affair with Marcenas' wife Terrentia. This is possible but would be strange, because it is most probable that Livia traveled with her husband on this campaign as she did on his other jaunts around the empire.
There was news of a plot against Augustus while he was in Gaul. The plot implicated a grandson of Pompey the Great, and a young man named Gnaeus (possibly Lucius) Cornelius Cinna. Cassius Dio wrote that Augustus spent many sleepless nights trying to decide if he should execute the young men or not. Apparently Livia convinced him that he should show clemency to quiet his critics and dissuade future machinations against him.
It is most probable that Augustus spent this time planning future military campaigns. Aggression began in 16 or 17 BC when the governor of Illyricum launched an assault against two Alpine tribes. After this, in 15 BC, Tiberius and Drusus commanded a two-pronged maneuver into what would become the modern Switzerland, Lichtenstein, western Austria, and southern Bavaria. Drusus and Lucius must have achieved an overwhelming victory, for their goals were met in one summer campaign. The following year, Roman forces annexed the maritime Alps. Thus the province of Raetia was born.
One of the ways that the peace was kept here, was that Tberius and Drusus deported thousands of men of fighting age from the area. Although the humanity of this move can obviously be argued--there was a definite
"method to their madness." When Roman armies achieved victory over 'barbarian" tribes it was most often with an overwhelming amount of force. However, there were always enough men left to hide and then proceed to launch future guerilla attacks. So when the geographer Strabo visited the area a generation later, he reported a "state of tranquility," --it was likely the "tranquility" of being barren.
During the time he was in Gaul, Augustus also reorganized the army by demobilizing a great number of men whose period of service was up and settled them in Gaul and Spain. As these men were rewarded fo their years of service, there would probably have a recruitment campaign to make up for the retired men. The length of a legionary's duty was extended to sixteen years and to twelve years for a member of the Praetorian Guard. It was alos during Augustus' time spent in Gaul that the mint in Lugdunum (modern Lyon) appears to have begun operating as a major mint issuing both gold and silver coins to pay legions in campaigns in Gaul and Germany.
"Not only had stage one of the military strategy been swiftly and brilliantly completed, but in the process stage two had been launched. This was because Raetia's northern border was the river Danube, and a little additional fighting led to the acquisition of the neighboring territory of Noricum to the east (roughly the rest of Austria). Noricum abutted Pannonia, whose tribesmen had been defeated in Octavian's Illyrian wars; although the Pannonians had been neither conquered nor occupied, for the time being they were quiet." Anthony Everitt, Augustus, p,266.
Moesia, on Pannonia's eastern border had already been conquered--although another generation (perhaps a little more) passed before it was deemed beneficial to make it a formal province. Pannonia was still very much an issue. In fact, control of Pannonia was still tenuous at best in 14 AD-the year Augustus died. The three Pannonian legions were headquartered to the south-west of the province; fairly close to the border of Italy. There were auxiliary detachments in the forts of Aquincum (Budapest) and Arrabona on the Danube, however, the first legionary camp was set-up at Carnuntum, just about the time Augustus left this mortal coil--14-15 AD.
It was not until the wars of Domitian (r. 81-96 AD), that the Pannonian Danube frontier was strengthened. To do this, client kingdoms were once again relied upon just as they had been on the Rhine. The Suebi had taken control of the area north of the upper Danube, when the Marcomannic king, Maroboduus, sought exile in Rome in 19 AD. The Romans installed a king over the Suebi who lasted until 50 AD, and his successors still showed allegiance to Rome in 69-70 AD. The legions were also stationed well south of the Danube in Moesia; but here the first legionary camp on the Danube, installed in 15 AD, was followed by three others in the middle of the century.

However, the things that Drusus and Tiberius had achieved were real and permanent. Augustus was very happy with his adopted sons and commissioned a huge celebratory monument, the Tropaeum Alpium (Treaty of the Alps) to distinguish this accomplishment. This monument was a great stone edifice, fifty feet tall, and supported a wide circular tower that was surrouned by columns and had a large stepped roof. A statue of Augustus would probably have been placed at the apex--looking out over his conquered territory like a god surveying his mortal charges from on high. The remains of this monument can be viewed at La Turbie, near Monaco, still remarkable after the passage of more than 20 centuries. More here . The image is of the remains of the Tropaeum Alpium. The research resources I used for this article were Anthony Everitt's, Augustus, 2006 and Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbours, 1967. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Augustus: Managing an Empire Part 1

2010-08-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

In his official autobiography, Res Gestae, Augustus pridefully stated: "I englarged the territory of all provinces of the Roman People on whose borders were people who were not yet subject to our imperium. This line of thinking does not quite gibe with what he said after returning to Rome from his negotiations with King Frahata of Parthia in the east in 20 BC., which was that he had no intentions of adding to Rome's provinces. Augustus declared "the existing number was exactly sufficient," also writing his judgment of this to the Senate.
We can see that the statement made in his autobiography is much closer to the truth. For Augustus was truly an aggressive imperialist and expanded Rome's imperium more than any other ruler in a comaparable timeframe in all of Rome's previous history.
And the Roman people gave their blessing to this imperial expansion--even expected it. It is true that Republican law had made it illegal for the Senate to declare war without a provocation. Also Rome had secured much of its eastern empire without totally meaning to do so, such was the case in 133 BC, when the king of Pergamum died and willed his entire kingdom to Rome. The conviction that Rome had an imperial destiny was fixed in the minds of the Roman people, much like "Manifest Destiny" in the United States and British imperialism 2,000 years later. Indeed, empire was one of the methods that the Augustan regime legitimized its existence in the Roman mind.
The reign of Augustus was actually the last great age of Roman expansion. Slightly before he died, Augustus left his successor (and stepson) Tiberius the advice not to expand the frontiers of the empire. After Augustus there were only two major military campaigns that led to permanent acquisitions. These were Britain in 43 AD under Claudius and Dacia in 105-106 AD under Trajan. Trajan's other conquests in Armenia, Mesopotamia and south to the Persian Gulf in the campaigns of 113-117 AD were falling apart before his death, and were formally renounced after his death. However, a new province--Mesopotamia (again) was finally brought into the orbit of Rome after the Parthian wars of Marcus Aurelius' co-emperor, Lucius Verus, in 162-166 AD and of Septimius Severus in 194-198.
"But even the relativlely peaceful period up to the 220s was filled with constant change and development in the disposition and function of the army, and the nature of the frontiers. At the beginning of the period indeed it could hardly be said that recognizable frontiers existed. In the West there were still three legions in the interior of Spain, finally conquered only in 26-19 BC. Legionary camps were grouped along the Rhine, but no permanent forts had yet been established beyond it. The land between the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube was not yet occupied, while the first legionary camp on the Danube itself-Carnuntum in Pannonia-was established only in about AD 15; on the lower Danube towards the Black Sea, Roman control was still episodic in the early years of Tiberius." Fergus Millar, The Roman Empire and its neighours, p.104.
As far as the idea of Roman frontiers is concerned, this brings to to mind how very blurry and indefinite those frontiers must have seemed at the time. There was no accurate navigational equipment at the time, and most explorers (who were usually merchants and traders) didn't quest very far from the Meditteranean.
The Romans thought that all of the world's landmass was contained in a semi-circular disk made up of only Asia and Europe. They thought the island of Britannia to be at the northwestern edge of this disk and that the whole landmass of the world was completely encompassed by a vast sea--Oceanus. As the Roman Empire already took such a great portion of the land, they believed was all that was there, it must have been greatly enticing for Roman rulers to believe that they would one day be the masters of it all.
The first world maps that we know of came from fifth-century Athens. The Romans, with their imperial obligations valued the importance of cartography. Julius Caesar had commissioned a world-map that most likely was a part of a triumphal monument he had constructed on the Capitoline Hill. Augustus wanted a more refined and detailed map, so he commissioned his indispensible deputy, Agrippa, to make the orbis terrarum or "globe of the earth." This depicted hundreds of cities linked together by Rome's marvelous network or roads. It was fashioned from reports by Roman governors, generals and travelers. The result that emerged from this was a largely recognizable picture. However, the distances between places and the shapes of them became less accurate the further they were from Rome.
The most important job of the orbis terrarum was to assist military commanders, imperial governors and administrators. It was also an impressive synbol of Roman power. The map was displayed--either by painting or engraving--on the wall of the Porticus Vipsania, a collonade erected by Agrippa's sister as a permanent public display. Papyrus or parchment copies of the orbis terrarum were also made for travelers.
It would appear that a well-defined "program" was also mapped out in the years after Actium by Augustus and Agrippa. The two spent many years abroad putting down revolts, inspecting (and reforming if necessary) local administrations, and superseding these tasks, consolidating and expanding the empire. Augustus was in Gaul and Spain from 27 - 24 BC, in Greece and Asia between 22 and 19 BC, and again in Gaul from 16 to 13 BC. Agrippa went east from 23 to 21 BC and Gaul and Spain in 20 to 19 BC. During this time the eastern provinces and client kingdoms were reorganized, and the frontier of Egypt was expanded southwards; contact with the Ethiopians resulting from this. Gaul and Spain were pacified, and negotiations with the Parthians were successfully concluded.
The orbis terrarum revealed three problems that had yet to be vanquished. 1) With the Alps being controlled by a group of untamed tribes, it was impossible to reach the eastern provinces by land around the top of the Italian peninsula. 2) Macedonia's frontier was hard to defend and ill-defined. 3) The Germanic tribes were putting up constant challenges along the river Rhine which formed the Gallic frontier from the North Sea to the Alps from the western side.
The best solution to these problems would be to gain control of the Alps and then proceed north and create a defensible frontier lined with legions along the river Danube. By doing this Italy and Macedonia would be protected from direct assault from buffer provinces in the north.
There was a problematic area if the Rhine and Danube rivers were to indicate the empire's permanent boundary. A salient was created by the heads of the two rivers at the apex, where modern Basel, Switzerland is. Germanic tribes hostile to Rome could use the salient to run interior lines, allowing them a huge military advantage. Thus the final procedure of the plan would be to invade Germany and create a new frontier at the river Elbe. This would take care of the salient and form a border that would be a roughly straight line between the North Sea and the Black Sea. There was an added advantage to this plan because the annexed territory would protect Gaul from eastern invaders. The well-thought out completeness and the interdependent elements of this three part plan would suggest that it was the brainchild of the steadfast, loyal Agrippa--the man solely responsible for winning all of Augustus' wars for him.

The link here will explain the image--I tried to find what some scholars think the actual orbis terrarum may have looked like and will continue searching. I think I have enough time to do one more article here on my new "schedule"--hopefully it will be here in a two or three days. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! The research materials I used for this article are Anthony Everitt's Augustus published in 2006 and Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbours published in 1967.

Augustus: Life at Court

2010-08-15T00:37:00.000-07:00

Now that we are going back to Augustus I would like to post some information from Anthony Everitt's Augustus (p.256), that give a little more insight into his character and what life at his household and court was like: "The princeps took a friendly interest in professional entertainers of all kinds and got to know some of them personally. However, there were limits of propriety on which he insisted; he banned gladitorial contests sine missione, that is where a defeated fighter could not be reprieved and so had to be killed by his opponent. Augustus wanted to see bravery, but disliked pointless bloodshed. He also severely punished actors and other stage performers for licentious behavior. Women were not allowed to watch athletic contests (competitors did not wear clothes), and Augustus banned them from sitting alongside men at other entertainments; they were banished to the back rows."

In these articles about our powerful subject-Augustus-it has been stated before that he tried to project a public image of virtue, diligence, enterprise, thrift, modesty, and clemency. However, there are very few (if any) public personaes that strong rulers have promulgated that transmit the whole truth, and Augustus is in this group. Outside of Rome and the public eye, Augustus and his family lived a luxurious-even extravagant lifestyle.
There is a rocky island called Pandateria in ancient times (modern Ventotene) around 30 miles west of Naples, where Augustus built a grand palace, the site of which is currently being excavated. There is a huge building with many rooms here that previously housed servants, slaves, and guards. From here, the ground curves and narrows into a small valley, where fountains would have gurgled sumptuously among a colonnaded portico with plenty of seats that would have created a delightful sylvan area for family and guests to engage in conversation. The main house stood on a rocky promontory, where it overlooked steep cliffs. This massive, horseshoe shaped building would have had a beautiful central garden area. A breathtaking vista of sea and sky would have been offered by a viewing platform at the very tip of the promontory.
Among the magnificent splendour, Augustus could play host to his guests-all of them wealthy and powerful-but some of far more agreeable temperment than others-even disreputable folk-thus the need for privacy away from the prying eyes and chatting mouths of Rome's citizenry. Men like his strong, loyal, and capable general and friend, Agrippa, or the sybaritic but civilized Maecenas wouldn't have had any of what we would think of as "image" problems these days with Rome's populace. The same could not be said of a man such as Publius Vedius Pollio, the son of a wealthy freeman. Vedius had tanks where he kept giant eels. He also had the very evil and unpleasant habit of putting slaves in these tanks who had made him angry-the eels had been trained to become maneaters.
Augustus was the dinner guest of Vedius one evening when a slave broke a valuable crystal goblet at dinner. The enraged Vedius ordered the hapless young man thrown to the eels. Falling to his knees before Augustus, the boy begged for his life. Augustus then tried to reason with Vedius to have mercy on the slave. Vedius ignored Augustus, which in turn made the sole ruler of the Roman Empire angry. Augustus told Vedius: "Bring all your other drinking vessels like this one, or any others of value that you possess for me to use." Once this was done, Augustus ordered every last one to be smashed. This put Vedius in his place as he certainly couldn't order Augustus thrown to the eels! The slave-boy was pardoned from what would have been a gruesome fate.

Augustus publicly endorsed strict private morals, and history shows yet another fascinating aspect of this multi-faceted man. Going from the records from his time, Augustus apparently had a diverse and strong sexual drive. Ovid wrote that his house "though refulgent with portraits

of antique heroes, also contains, somewhere,

a little picture depicting the various sexual positions
A friend and slave dealer, Toranius, is said to have aided the emperor in his sexual conquests and would have women stripped of their clothes so Augustus could inspect them and choose among them. As an elderly man Augustus is said "still to have harbored a passion for deflowering girls, who were collected for him from every quarter, even by his wife!"
The cena or main meal of the day started about 3 in the afternoon for most Romans. This was so much more than our lunch or average dinner hour of modern times. The cena wasn't only for family and guests were often invited. Many various clubs and societies held regular feasts. The patrician class invited one another to an annual cena. Augustus and Livia would have their cena after a regimen of excercise and a bath.
The triclinium was a dining room with three communal couches covered by mattresses, arranged along three sides of a room with a table in the middle. This is the area where dinner parties were held, and for larger functions the same layout was repeated. Reclining to eat a meal was a highly-valued luxury, and up to three diners per couch lay alongside one another, with their heads nearest the table and their left elbows propped on cushions. Women would sit on chairs but by the time of Augutus it was becoming popular for them to recline with the men. Children would sit on stools in front of their fathers' places if they were allowed to be present.
Augustus held extravagant dinner parties and great care was taken with the guests social standing and providing a good variety of personalities at these meals. However, the Emperor himself was often not interested in eating and would arrive late and leave early-and of course no displeasure was expressed about his habit!
The meal would begin with the gustatio tasting, during which appetizers were served. These could be anything from pickled fruit, vegetables, cabbage in vinegar, heavily spiced concoctions such as nettles, sorrel, cider, and snails, clams, and small fish. A favorite delicacy was stuffed and roast dormice. A wine-and-honey mixture accompanied the gustatio. The main course would be a variety of meat dishes-anything from wild boar, turbot, chicken, sow's udders, and pork (50 different ways of preparing pork were known). The Romans added a sauce called garum or liquamen to almost everything. This was made from slowly decomposed mackerel intestines (yummy;-). The closest modern sauce to garum (alhtough still quite different) would be Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Dessert would be honey-soaked cakes, fruit and nuts.
Of course, wine was served with the meal, but heavy drinking would commence only when the meal was over. The Romans took this part of the evening quite seriously too. A roll of the dice would determine the rex bibendi ("king of what is to be drunk"). The rex bibendi was put in charge of mixing the wine and coming up with the number of toasts which everyone had to drink.
Augustus was a superb host and many times brightened his guests' evening with performances by story-tellers, circus acts, musicians, and actors. He also had the ability to make his guests feel individually valued and was able to engage with the shyest of them.
One publicly proclaimed virtue that Augustus did follow through with in his private and public life was hard work. Most Romans went to bed early but their ruler would still be found attending to matters of state. He would retreat to his study and dictate letters to secretaries, read dispatches and give advice or orders to be followed. Finally, by 11 p.m. he would retire but as a light sleeper woke up 3 or 4 times during the night; sleeping a maximum of 7 hours. Many times he found it hard to go to sleep again and would send for readers or story-tellers until he was able to drift off.

To anyone who reads or follows this blog- I apologize for such a lengthy interim between posts here! I am putting myself on a kind of schedule for the things I enjoy and like to blog about. For this blog and My Favorite Monsters, hopefully there won't be any more long periods between articles--two to three weeks at a very maximum--and hopefully much less. I am also going to work on my fiction writing on this schedule so I also hope to start posting at Beyond the Baryon Wall when I have a complete story written. The research credit for this article goes to Anthony Everitt's Augustus, in the "Life At Court" chapter (pp 245-260). The image at top is of the Arch of Constantine. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Imperial Finance & Coinage Part Four

2010-04-09T21:51:00.001-07:00

On pages 240-242 in Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbors we are going far beyond in time from Augustus-"The Empire and the Third Century Crisis" is the name of the chapter. I thought it would be good to end this short series with some more information that might be helpful later too:

"The direct effects of the invasions were naturally very different in different areas. In Gaul, and to some degree in Spain and in Raetia on the upper Danube, there is widespread evidence of the contraction and fortification of cities. How profound a change this brought in the patterns of social life can as yet be only guessed. It is certainly the case that the life of the cultured Gallo-Roman aristocracy of the late Empire was spent on their estates rather than in towns. But in Britain too, which suffered no invasions in our period, the fourth century seems to have seen stagnation, perhaps decline, in the towns, but a development of luxurious villas.

Repeated invasions also came to the Danubian area and central Europe, reaching down to Macedonia, Greece and Asia Minor. Sasanian invasions, and briefly the power of Palmyra, reached to central Asia Minor and the coast of Syria. These must have caused great destruction and loss of life; we also know of prisoners carried off to Mesopotamia by the Persians. We can date the beginning of fortified villas in the Danubian lands to this period, and have scattered evidence of destruction; but only at Athens is such evidence detailed and systemic. Once again we have little clear evidence of the direct effects of the invasions. They may not have been lasting; Antioch was taken by the Persians in 256 and 260, and burned-and in the fourth century, as we know from a wealth of evidence, was one of the greatest and most flourishing cities in the Greek world.

In Egypt and Africa there were border struggles, prolonged in Africa, but no actual invasions. The civil war of 238 in Africa and the suppression of a pretender in Alexandria about 272 may have had, at least temporarily, more serious effects.

Though the direct effects of the invasions and civil wars can only rarely be assessed satisfactorily in the present state of our evidence, we can take it that they accelerated, though may not have caused, some other changes in the workings of the State and its relations with the population. The first and most clearly traceable of these was the debasement of the coinage and inflation of prices. The two chief coins were the silver denarius and the gold aureus, w0rth twenty-five denarii. Debasement affected mainly the denarius, which was reduced to 75% silver undrer Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and 50% under Severus (193-211); after Caracalla (211-17) had issued a denarius of one and a half times the previous size, presumed to have been worth two earlier denarii, the silver content sank rapidly, reaching 5% in the middle of the third century. Aurelian (270-5) issued two series of silver-plated copper coins, whose value are still much disputed. Meanwhile, the bronze sestertius (four to a denarius) continued both to be issued and to be used as a common means of expressing prices and other sums until the 270s, and then disappeaed in the face of the inflation of prices. The inflation itself can be shown by the fact that the price of corn (expressed now in the debased denarii) was some 200 times higher in 301 than it had been in the first century.

It cannot, however, be pretended that we understand yet the details of the coinage system, especially in the period 270-300, or even essential elements of the background such as how the Imperial or city mints obtained their bullion. There are also indications that there was confusion and complexity at the same time; a Carian inscription of 209-11 lays down penalties for the illegal changing of money; a papyrus of 260 orders money-changers in Egypt to stop refusing Imperial coins; another of about 300, is a letter from an official in Egypt to a subordinate ordering him to spend all the official 'Italian money' at once, as the Emperors are about to halve its value.

We cannot yet state the causes of the progressive debasement and inflation. But it in its turn must have been a factor in converting the demands of the State on its subjects from cash to goods and services in kind. The basic pay in cash of the troops in fact, though raised successively, was not raised enough to keep pace with inflation, and in the late fourth century disappeared in favour of other forms of payment."

The next articles for awhile will be going back to Augustus and his era- this series went on a bit longer than I thought it would. I think if I do another short series before finishing up with Augustus it will be shorter. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Imperial Finance & Coinage Part Three

2010-04-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

On page 73 Millar goes on to say: "In other words the type of Imperial activity we know about is essentially that in response to the needs or conflicts of individuals of individuals communities. It cannot be denied, indeed, that such activity took up a large part of the Emperor's working life; this type of work will be discussed in the last part of this chapter...Tiberius, as a demonstration of his Republican attitude, allowed the Senate to debate about revenues, public works, the recruitment and dismissal of soldiers, military commands and letters to client kings. The implication must be that these things were normally decided by the Emperor, presumably with his friends. What evidence have we about decision-making on such matters?

The best evidence of a debate about finance is the occasion in 58 when the people complained of the exactions of the publicani; Nero, it is stated, thought of abolishing the indirect taxes altogether, but was dissuaded by his advisers, who said that the Empire would collapse if they were abolished-and the people would go on to ask for the abolition of tribute also. The Emperor's friends apart, however, there was the freedman's 'in charge of accounts' a rationibus supseded at the end of the first century by an eques (his subordinates however remained freedman.). Some of these subordinates had purely domestic functions; a rationalis mentioned by Galen had the job of supplying from the Imperial stores the herbs which Galen mixed daily for the antidote taken by Marcus Aurelius (161-180). As for the functions of the rationibus himself, Augustus left in 14 a general statement of the finances of the Empire, adding the names of slaves and freedmen from whom more details could be obtained. He, Tiberius (until he left Rome in 26) and Gaius also published public accounts, but later Emperors did not. The accounts themselves presumably continued to be kept; but our only evidence is the passage of Statius mentioned earlier in which he described in poetic terms the functions of the dead a rationibus, 'Now we entrusted to him alone the control of the Imperial wealth (a list of revenues follows)... quickly he calculates what the Roman arms beneath every sky demand, how much the tribes (the people of Rome) and the temples, how much the lofty aqueducts, the fortresses by the courts or the far-flung roads require...'

To be continued....

Imperial Finance & Coinage Part Two

2010-04-02T01:15:00.001-07:00

Going back to Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbors about the empire's treasury, minting and coinage: "The letters S.C. may indicate that the separate issues were decided on by the Senate and produced by the monetales; but there is no evidence for the activity of the monetales apart from the appearance of the title on inscriptions.
Nor is there any evidence from the first century for officials of the Imperial mint at Rome. Under Trajan (98-117), however, a Procurator of the Mint appears; and from 115 we have some dedications by the workers there-officinatores (?), signatores (die-cutters?), suppostores (setters?), malleatores (srikers?)-all of them Imperial freedmen, aided by Imperial slaves. Under Aurelian (270-5) the mint workers in Rome were numerous enough to stage a serious revolt whose suppression acquired thousands of soldiers. In the Greek provinces, apart from the local city mints striking bronze and copper coinage, there were provincial and some city mints striking silver coins on standards different than those of Rome coinage. These mints are more or less regarded as 'Imperial'; though nothing whatsoever is known about them except the coins themselves.
The question of who decided the frequency of issues, the standard of the coins (the silver coins especially show a steady debasement from Nero on, ending in complete collapse in the second half of the third century), or the type and legends to be put on them is totally obscure. The last point is particularly tantalizing, since the Imperial coinage carried propaganda for the Emperors in a vast variety of forms-representations of Imperial constructions (like the harbour at Ostia), largesses of victories-or slogans like AETERNITAS or PROVIDENTIA. Much of the history of the Empire can be seen reflected in the coins. Yet we are ignorant not only of who decided what should be portrayed, but to whom the new coins were issued and under what circumstances (in donations to the army and congiaria to the Roman people?). The point is important, for coins remained in circulation for a very long time after their issue: 64 percent of the coins buried in hoards during the Flavian period (66-96) had been minted before 27 B.C. Hoards show similarly that coins in circulation in the Antonine period (138-80) averaged about fifty years from the date of issue. Our only clue to the sources of decisions is two lines of a consolatory poem by Statius on the death in the 90s of a former Imperial freedman a rationibus (in charge of accounts); among his duties was to decide how much metal 'should be struck in the fire of the Italian (Roman) Mint.'
That apart, we have two references in the historian Cassius Dio to Imperial coinage; in one he says (as the coin hoards abundantly confirm) that Trajan called in old coins and issued new ones; in the other he says that his own contemporary Caracalla (211-17) gave debased coins to his subjects, but good ones to the barbarians across the frontier-whom by this time Rome was buying off. In neither case does he say anything of the processes of decision. More details about the Imperial coinage and its collapse in the third century will come in the final chapterl for the moment the coinage must serve as an example of how little we know of many aspects of the Imperial system.
When we come to the actual activities of the Emperor, his advisers and assistants, the same warning must apply. In a famous passage Cassius Dio explains that, while in the history of the Republic-the truth could be arrived at because affairs were subjected to public debate, different accounts of historians could be compared and public records checked, in Imperial history it was not so: 'After this time most things began to be done secretly and by hidden meansl and if anything is made public it is disbelieved, since it cannot be checked. For it is suspected that everything is said and done by the wish of the Emperors and those who have influence with them. As a result many rumours spread about things which never happened, many things which happened are unknown, and nearly all public versions of the events are different from reality.'

To be continued......

Imperial Finance & Coinage Part One

2010-03-31T01:13:00.001-07:00

I should have been doing this all along by now-but better late than never! I would like to do articles (hopefully I can keep them between 1-3 posts long) about different areas of every aspect of Roman life. This article or set of articles is about the already mentioned treasury or Aerarium, coinage and minting in Imperial Rome. I got lucky when I found Fergus Millar's 1967 book The Roman Empire and its neighbors, for one dollar on sale at the library. The following information comes from pages 69-73 and 241-2 in this book:

"The very faint traces of evidence available can best be considered along with two branches of the 'central administration' (the term an exaggeration), the treasury (Aerarium) in Rome, and the mints in Rome, and the provinces. The study of the Aerarium suffers from the disadvantage already mentioned, the total lack of evidence about the transport of funds to and from it. The Aerarium itself, however, is fairly well known. It was the temple of Saturn on the side of the Capitol hill, which had served since the early Republic as the depository for the treasure, including coin, and documents of the State. Among the documents were financial ones, State contracts and the accounts deposited by provincial governors on leaving their province; provincial governors also 'reported' their apparitores, comites and others to the Aerarium, thus putting them on the list for pay, and (it seems) continued to do so even in the third century. But the officials of the Aerarium-quaestors in the Republic and then, after various changes, Prefects of ex-praetorian rank, chosen by the Emperor-never used these documents to make up general accounts or a budget for the State. Their functions were limited to keeping the cash and documents to making payments on the authority of the Senate or the Emperor, and the same judicial activities, which they were acquired to do in the Empire, over the recovery of debts. They did not administer or plan the finance of the Empire. The Aerarium is a prime example of the survival in the Empire-to the mid-fourth century, in fact-of the primitive and now inadequate insititutions of the city-state. To meet the deficiencies five separate commissions of senators were set up in the course of the first century, with the task of calling in revenue or limiting expenditure; none of them is recorded as having done anything. The management of State finance was left-in so far as it was managed at all-to the Emperor and his assistants.

In spite of the immense volume of evidence provided by the many thousands of coins surviving from the Empire, very little is known about the mints themselves and even less of the processes of decision which governed their output. Here too there was a surviving Republican element, the tresviri monetales (moneyers)-three of the posts in the most junior senatorial, or rather pre-senatorial rank, the Vigintivirate. These posts are attested until the mid-third century. Among the bronze and copper coins produced in Rome and circulating mainly in Italy and the West (bronze and copper coins produced locally in the Western provinces disappear by the middle of the first century) the majority are marked S.C. senatus consulte- 'by decision of the Senate'). The types on the coins, however, are very similar to those of Imperial coins-which include all silver-produced in Lyon until Caligula (37-41) and thereafter at Rome."

To be continued.....

Augustus Ascendant Part 14

2010-03-23T20:11:00.001-07:00

The Temple of Saturn housed Rome's public treasury, the Aerarium, which two praetors were in charge of. History doesn't leave us any detailed information in the form of exchequer receipts from customs, duties, taxes and tribute payments from client rulers. Most historians think it is unlikely that enormous amounts of money circulated to and from Rome. This is because each province had its own treasury out of which would be paid local military and administrative fees, out of which would be paid local military and administrative fees, which would have left many of them without a large surplus to send to Rome.

The major drain on the empire's resources was the army, of course, without which, there would have been no empire! Rome had 28 legions and an equal number of auxiliary units to keep the empire together. For so extensive an empire this was barely enough. The fiscal burden of keeping this force functioning was enormous. A sodier's basic wage was 900 sesterces a year- this meant a total expenditure of 140 million sesterces per annum for these men. However, this didn't come close to the total cost of keeping the military machine going. There were large differences in the pay a soldier received for example: cavalrymen made more than ordinary infantrymen; and officers from centurions-on up to the legionary commanders (legates) who earned a very high wage. Then came the expenses for military equipment, the empire's fleets and the elite Praetorian Guard in Rome.

From Augustus on pages 233-234: "Augustus was enormously rich. His wealth came from his inheritance from Julius Caesar, from legacies (it was the done thing to remember the princeps with a generous bequest), the profits of the proscriptions and the civil war, and large estates in various parts of the empire. In his official memoir, he notes with satisfaction that he spent 600 million sesterces on land bought in Italy for his veterans and 260 million sesterces elsewhere. In lieu of farms, some demobilized soldiers received money grants, totalling 400 million sesterces."

"In addition to these phenomenally large sums of money, the princeps often topped up the Aerarium from his own pocket when it ran low of funds. In practice, it was difficult to distinguish between the treasury and the privy purse."

The different ways that Augustus maintained power and reformed the way the government operated were not very controversial during his time, nor were they seen as revolutionary by most, when viewed separately. A completely different picture develops when seen completely after the course of 2,000 + years. Four major developments that showed how far Augustus had revolutionized Roman government and the way Roman power was excercised were: 1) By quickening communications across the empire, boosting his judicial authority and streamlining the legislative and decision-making process, Augustus was drawing ever more power unto himself. 2) The Senate joined with Augustus in the decline of its actual power because Augustus increased the Senate's duties and prestige. By creating his design for imperial administration, Augustus didn't just create high-status and well-paying jobs, he also improved the quality of governance. The Senate was more than happy also to have the importance of the common citizens decline. 3) The citizens of Rome themselves happily acquiesced (most of them it would seem anyway) in their own dimuition in the eyes of the state. Once they had experienced life in Augustus' efficient, new and improved autocracy they didn't have any desire whatsoever to go back to the less wealthy and inefficient Republic. 4) Augustus Caesar planted the seeds of a growing public bureaucracy and increasingly used nonpolitician freedmen and slaves to carry out the mundane business of running a huge empire.

From Augustus on page 234: "Romans distinguished between imperium, power, and auctoritas, authority. It was evidence of the remarkable success of the Augustan system that the princeps was able to command obedience simply through his authority, and was very seldom obliged to draw on the brute power at his disposal."

Augustus Ascendant Part 13

2010-02-11T23:21:00.001-08:00

In the Republic, any citizen found guilty of a crime had the right to appeal directly to the people. Now in Augstus' "restored Republic" only he could overturn a sentence of death. Provacatio ad populum became appellatio ad Caesarem-an appeal to Caesar. Augustus-who was nothing if not efficient-although perhaps his honesty in many areas left something to be desired- tried many things to improve the efficiency and honesty of imperial administration. With the ever indispensable Agrippa's help, Augustus ushered in an era of uniform and tranquil governance throughout the empire.

In Africa, the Gallic and Spanish provinces some of the luxuries of Roman civilization were introduced (aqueducts, theaters and the like). Regular censuses were performed to ensure a fair assessment or provincial taxation, and tax collection as a whole was made more equitable. Augustus "borrowed" Egnatius Rufus' concept of maintaining a troop of 600 slave firefighters in Rome itself, and in 6 AD, this was expanded into seven cohorts of firemen, with each cohort protecting two of the fourteen districts that Augustus had divided the city into. Three cohortes urbanae or urban cohorts were formed to police Rome also.

In Augustus on page 231, Anthony Everitt goes into other ways Augustus sought to improve imperial administration: "Augustus did not interfere in the local government of Italy. He left its four hundred or so towns and cities to manage their own affairs as they had always done, except in two respects. He divided the peninsula into eleven departments for the purpose of the census of citizens and the registration of public land. And, more important, he recognized the need for speedy communications. He tried to persuade senators to invest some of the spoils of successful military campaigns in improving and extending the Italian road network. When that failed, he himself took over the cura viarum, the responsibility for roads, and made large ddonations from his own pocket for road construction."

Regular relay stations were set up across Italy. Chariots and horses were made available by local officials and people using the service paid a fixed fee for it. As this network became more sophisticated, an experienced military man called the praefectus vehicularum, was put in charge of it. Over time the relay stations provided an extensive network that improved communications in all of Italy and the provinces to the north. Augustus and Agrippa had followed the example of distinguished men from the era of the Republic, who were expected to spend large amounts of money on public works. Both men invested a great deal of their personal wealth in new public buildings and upgrades in the city. Eventually new senatorial commissions were set up in such a way that they oversaw the upkeep of roads- the curatores viarum and public buildings and temples- the curatores locorum publicum.

From Augustus on page 232: "Augustus introduced greater order into the day-to-day management of the empire than had existed in the past. In the abscence of a professional civil service, officeholders with imperium in the Republic, such as consuls and praetors, used to govern from their town houses in Rome and used slaves and servants, family and friends to expedite business. Augustus governed in the same way, but on a much larger scale. He employed a growing army of slaves and freedmen to undertake the routine tasks of administration."

Augustus, however, didn't believe that it was politically acceptable fro people like slaves and freedmen to be the official standard-bearers of the new order. He laid down a roadmap for a governmental service for men of Rome's upper classes. In this way, young men of the senatorial class who showed talent could spend their whole careers as public administrators who were reimbursed quite well for their services. After these men had completed military service, and still in their late teens, they could secure minor posts as vigintiviri, which literally means "twenty men." A typical career path for these men would be working for a year in the mint; supervising the cleaning and upkeep of Roman streets, managing prisons and executions, and judging cases that involved slavery or freedom. From these lower positions they would go on to serve as tribunes of the people-except of course if they were members of the patrician class- or aediles. After this, they could run for one of the twelve praetorships. After serving as praetor they could go on to govern a minor province or command a legion. The always coveted office of the consulship awaited the most ambitious and successful, after which one could go on to govern one of the major provinces or one of the curatorships in Rome.

Augustus on pages 232-233: "The Senate only produced senior administrators, and the princeps also looked for assistance in less important jobs from the equites. Whether they were senators or equites able men became professional servants of the state, receiving a salary and living out long and interesting careers. The fact that Augustus twice enacted bribery laws, in 18 B.C. and 8 B.C., not only illustrates his commitment to clean government, but also suggests that his efforts may have met some resistance. Inch by inch, though, prototypes of the institutions that we take for granted in a modern state were beginning to emerge. The amateurish and corrupt mechanisms of the Republic were gradually replaced by something resembling an honest state bureaucracy."

I still have a lot of information to post and hope to be online here and there to do it. I haven't been so caught up in awhile. If I were a better typist I could keep going-but my hands and fingers are saying forget it! All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 12

2010-02-11T22:27:00.001-08:00

From Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 229: "Augustus was a reformer who liked to move at a snail's pace. In many aspects of his administration, change and innovation proceeded step by step over many years.

Time and again, he did his best to improve the functioning of the Senate, which, together with the people, remained the legal source of authority in the state. Rather than appoint more censors, the princeps decided in 18 B.C. to use his new consular authority to act as censor himself (as he and Agrippa had done in 28 B.C.) and review the membership of the Senate. He raised the minimum wealth of a senator from 400,000 sesterces to 1 million sesterces, a substantial sum of money. This set a significant distance between the senatorial and the equestrian orders, and helped to create a distinct senatorial class. Birth as well as property became a qualification. In the days of the Republic only senators could lay claim to senatorial status, but from now on sons of senators acquired the status as of right, while others were obliged to apply for it.
As the princeps had discovered ten years previously, cleansing the Senate of its reprobates wasa tricky and unpopular excercise. His dream was to reduce it to three hundred members, which would make it a much more effective legislative body. He devised an ingenious scheme, which was intended to achieve his objective with the least possible blame attaching to him.
He selected thirty senators, each of whom was there to choose a further five. Each group of five would be choose one of its number by lot, who would become a senator. This man would repeat the process, which was to continue until three hundred senators had been found. The scheme being too clever by half, various malpractices developed, the proceedings ground to a confused halt, and Augustus was obliged to take over the selection himself. He ended up by creating a Senate of six hundred members and seriously annoying a large number of people. In compensation, he gave various privileges to those who had been expelled. They were allowed to stand for election to the various offices of state; in due course. Most of them returned to the Senate."

Augustus had thought out his "revisions" to the Senate in the most miniscule detail- and after all of this it was almost a completely wasted effort. Augustus did continue to accord the Senate with great repsect and dignity, and also sought out its advice. Augustus even encouraged senators to speak their minds- and some took him up on it. Most senators, however, didn't live up to Augustus' expectations of them, and in 17 BC fines for nonattendance were increased and quorums were established for particular varieties of interests. Augustus also took steps to expedite decision-making sometime between 27 and 18 BC.

Going back to Augustus on page 230: "...He set up a senatorial standing committee, which consisted of himself; one or both consuls, one each from the quaestors, aediles, and praetors, and fifteen other senators chosen by lot. Some members changed every six months and the whole committee once a year, except for the princeps. Its task was to prepare business for full sessions of the Senate."

It should be noted that the standing committee idea also didn't work well. This may have been exactly what Augustus had planned. Between the high number (for an executive decision making body) of 21 and the quick turnover in members it is no wonder the group floundered. This left Augustus and a small informal group of advisers-called the amici Caesaris, "Caesar's friends," to "guide" debate in the Senate. We can only imagine that will of this scheming and maneuvering by Augustus, that the senators-and indeed any officeholders, must have been quite confused at times as just to what their job really was and how to do it!

I will again lean on Anthony Everitt and Augustus to explain more fully on page 230: "The Senate's powers remained advisory in principle, and bills were still laid before popular assemblies for approval. However, its decrees or senatus consulta were increasingly regarded as binding, especially when specifically supported or initiated by the princeps.

Both the Senate and the princeps acquired new legal powers. The old republican courts of law, the iudicia publica, remained in being, presided over by praetors. But cases of treason or otherwise high high political importance could be brought to one of two new courts, the princeps in council or the consuls in the Senate, against which there was no appeal. The ever growing number of citizens made it impractical to remit all criminal prosecutions to Rome, so proconsuls were given the authority to carry out judicial functions."

I hope to post again here soon - as I have a lot of information ready. Thanks for anyone commenting or following this blog. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 11

2010-02-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

It was obvious that Augustus needed to adjust the constitutional settlement to make the public attitude more tranquil. Prior to 19 BC, he had paid a lot of attention to Rome's provinces. Now that he was back he turned to domestic issues. At this time the public mood was still quite hostile to the Senate. There were also other issues with his rule that had to be looked at. Augustus' titles of tribunicia potestas and imperium consulae didn't give him any imperium specific to Italy. Because of this, he didn't have the authority to command troops on Italian soil. This situation was awkward because of the formation of the cohortes praetoriae the Praetorian Guards. After Julius Caesar was dispatched by the Senate both Mark Antony and Octavian decided to protect themselves with large bodyguards. Once Octavian had his final victory over Antony at Actium he kept the cohorts intact in order to act as a peacetime security force. There were nine of them in all (for a total of about 5,400 men at the most) stationed in and around Rome. Augustus wanted to have formal recognition of these men and also have them put under a loyal commander.

The next issue was that Augustus didn't have the official first place to preside over senatorial business. It was the consul who had the privilege to either speak or propose legislation. This could cause a problem because of Augustus' determination to make it seem that the Republic was still functioning. This was not only cumbersome but could also cause difficulty if the senators didn't know what Augustus' desires were at the beginning of a debate.

In Augustus on page 228: "So in 19 B.C. some form of consular imperium was conferred on the princeps although he did not actually have to hold consular office (following the same principle as with tribunicia potestas). The ancient sources disagree on, and are unclear about, the precise nature of this authority or the term for which it was awarded. It may be that Augustus' proconsular imperium, granted for ten-year periods and renewed, was simply extended to include Rome and Italy. A certain vagueness at the time may have suited all sides. Whatever form it was couched in, though, this new power completed Augustus' political mastery of the state."

Augustus made another intelligent decision by restoring the office of consul to its former glory. This office had become "cheapened" during the triumvirate. The triumvirs (of which Augustus was one at the time) developed a new policy where a consul would serve only a part of their term and would many times be replaced by "suffect" consuls. This was a great way to reward a man's loyalty to the triumvirate but needless to say-demeaned the office and angered many nobiles. The civil wars and proscription had already devastated the nobility and the ones who were left were very happy to have the consulship (which they considered a birthright) restored to them. They were also very thankful to Augustus for undertaking efforts to restore their ancient dignitas.

However, it can't be stated enough how "cosmetic" in nature all of Augustus' efforts were. The Roman citizens still elected officeholders-BUT these officeholders were nominated or preapproved by Augustus. Indeed, from here on out, the role that Roman citizens had in politics lessened each year. However, I think we should ask ourselves here- and I think this question is particularly relevant to any Americans reading this who are deeply saddened by the various assaults on our Constitution over the last 30 to 4o years -whose fault was it really that led to the loss of political freedoms in ancient Rome?

Was this the fault of the scheming, manipulative Augustus? (Of course the Republic fell before him -but could have been restored up to a certain point if enough people cared I think). Or was it the fault of the mass of Roman citizenry, who it seems, after the carnage of the civil wars were more than happy with "security" rather than "liberty"-especially as Augustus was such a great make-up artist and didn't waste any chance to try to cover up what he was doing at every turn? Thanks again to Jon, Autumnforest, human being and anyone who has commented here before! All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 10

2010-01-30T06:33:00.001-08:00

A person of great importance enters into our story here around this time. While Agrippa was subduing the last remnants of resistance to Rome in the west, Augustus was busying himself with the boundaries and rulers of the client kingdoms of the east, along the empire's eastern frontier. His final aim was to have some sort of answer to the Parthian "problem." Augustus decided to use a two-pronged approach with King Frahata of Parthia-one diplomatic, one military or "carrot and stick" diplomacy in other words.

The diplomatic approach fell into Augustus' lap. A pretender to the Parthian throne had kidnapped one of King Frahata's sons and made off to Rome with him. Augustus sent the boy back to his father, thus making the first overture, on the condition that Parthia returned any surviving prisoners of war and the Roman standards lost by Crassus and Antony. While he was attempting to make this deal with King Frahata, a military expedition was formed against the strategically important kingdom of Armenia.

Augustus wanted to depose the anti-Roman King Ardashes and replace him with a client king. If Rome could achieve this and Armenia became a satellite of the empire, the Parthians would have a contentious northern border added to other unfriendly neighbors. Tiberius, aged 22 years and Augustus' stepson was the general he chose to lead his legions against the Armenians in 20 BC. Tiberius was powerfully built and above average height. His body was not only well proportioned but he also had a handsome face with penetrating eyes. Tiberius had long hair at the back of his skull and neck, which was a habit of the Claudian clan.

Tiberius didn't take to religion at all, but he did have faith in astrology, and the motions of the stars and planets in the heavens led him to believe the world was ruled by fate. Tiberius shared the same horror of thunder as Augustus. He would put a laurel wreath on his head when the skies threatened, which Romans believed made them safe from lightning. Tiberius was a scholarly/philisophical type and admired Greek and Latin literature. He adored ancient myths and legends. Tiberius truly sought out and liked to be in the company of professors of Greek literature. He took great pleasure in asking these men arcane and unanswerable questions: such as "Who was Hecuba Queen of Troy's mother?," "What song did the Sirens sing?" "By what name was Achilles called when he was disguised as a girl?"

Tiberius had an elaborate sytle of speaking that was hindered by so many affectations that his spontaneous speeches were thought to be much better than the ones he had prepared.

Turning again to Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 226: Augustus arranged for Tiberius to enter public life in his late teens; the young man undertook high-profile prosecutions and special commissions, among the latter, the crucial task of reorganizing Rome's grain supply. He acquitted himself well. The princeps was pleased, for he was keen for Tiberius and his brother, the eighteen-year-old Drusus, to share the burden of government. They were to be the packhorses of the regime, for the princeps had not given up his dynastic ambitions. In 20 B.C., Agrippa's union with Julia produced a boy, Gaius. If he survived the multiple potentially lethal ailments of infancy, he could become the heir to the empire, and on this occasion Augustus' old school friend would be hardly likely to object."

Tiberius' first major assignment turned out to be quite easy-for the Armenians deposed and killed Ardashes before the Romans arrived! Tiberius put the crown on the head of the new king ( a pro-Roman exile) himself.

With the takeover of Armenia by a pro-Roman king, King Frahata decided it was much better for him to be at peace with the Romans, and he returned the standards and prisoners. Of course the Roman public would have liked to see the Parthians taken to task militarily, but Augustus, ever the deliberate and forward planning politician had won a great diplomatic victory.

The relationship between the two empires went from absolutely frosty to a level between detente and entente and stayed that way for quite awhile. Augustus gilded the lily just a bit about this event in the official account of his life: "I compelled the Parthians to restore the spoils and the standards of three Roman legions to me and to ask as suppliants the friendship of the Roman people."

Once again unsettling news came from Rome. Now that both Agrippa and Augustus were away the public left one of the consulship seats open in 19 BC and wanted Augustus to take the post. Egnatius Rufus, a man described as "better qualified to be a gladiator than a Senator," volunteered to fill the post himself. When Rufus had served as aedile in 21 BC, he became very popular by creating Rome's first fire service, and payed for it with his own money using 600 slaves. He had been elected praetor the following year. In the eyes of Roman law this was illegal because the rules called for an interim of years between successive elective posts. Rufus's bid for the office was blocked. However, this wasn't the last of the story. It is not known if there is a kernel of truth to this but he was arrested and prosecuted for conspiring to assassinate Augustus. Egnatius Rufus was convicted of this crime and executed.

In Augustus on page 227: Whether there was any truth in this is unknown, but it would not be surprising if the authorities decided to eliminate a great nuisance by inventing a capital charge. Augustus put an end to further agitation and speculation by nominating a second consul for the year.

Thanks once again to anyone following or commenting on this blog. I will try to keep up with this as best I can. I am trying to get over some bad fatigue now and am trying to work on a couple of other projects when I am not tired-but I am trying to make time for everything. All the best to anybody stopping by! The image is a gold aureus picturing Tiberius as emperor on the obverse and his mother, Livia on the reverse.

Augustus Ascendant Part 9

2010-01-20T16:13:00.001-08:00

The years 23-17 BC are interesting to study because they show the "ways and means" of how Augustus intended to rule the empire he controlled. His control of the empire would probably seem very awkward to a modern dictator. Rome of course, knew inststantly, pretty much, of what was going on and how he intended to rule. But the Roman Empire was so enormous in extent, how could Augustus put his "stamp" over the whole immense territory?

Obviously there was no such thing as fast communication in those days. All hell could be breaking out in one area of the empire and it could be weeks-at the very least-before Rome knew anything about it. Augustus intended to mold the empire to his liking as much as he could. Even though travel was slow and often dangerous Augustus spent years away from Rome-with Agrippa's help. Sometimes one man would take the place of the other in whatever area they were in-and the other would watch over the political situation in Rome.

For years after Actium (31 BC) the eastern provinces had a much greater say in their own governance than other areas. In 25 BC, Galatia (in central Anatolia) was made a province of Rome. Augustus sent Agrippa east in 23 BC. There are no historical records left that tell us exactly what his mission was. Agrippa made the island of Samos his headquarters. Conceivably, Agrippa could have been sent to gather intelligence on the Parthians. Augustus didn't want to make war with the Parthians again but he did want to negotiate the return of the army standards that Crassus lost in 53 BC, and also those lost by Mark Antony in 36 BC.

Augustus wanted to achieve a stable peace-a detente or even an entente with the Parthians. It was a time to consolidate the empire and not resume holtilities with a formidable foe. Around this time, Augustus was either going to join Agrippa or take over for him. But he was prevented from doing this-not only because the plague of the previous year continued to rage through Italy, until the point farmers stopped working their fields and food shortages developed-but the river Tiber also overflowed and flooded the city! This started an even greater cascade of problems when the people of Rome demanded that Augustus assume dictatorial powers to deal with the problem-they even threatened to burn down the Senate House (with the Senators inside) if this didn't happen.

Now another event had happened that showed how precarious Augustus' role in the state he had created was. If the princeps did what the mob demanded, the whole fiction of the "restored Republic" would be blown right open. It would also ruin his relations with the Senate into the future, as they of course would see it as a return to the days of Julius Caesar. Once again Augustus showed his tremendous skill at coming up with a different solution that didn't please everybody 100% but was enough.

Augustus swore before the mob that he would rather be stabbed to death than be made dictator. He did have himself made commissioner of the grain supply and quickly put an end to the food shortages. Augustus also arranged for the yearly appointment of two former praetors to oversee the distribution of grain in the future.

Finally, in the autumn of 22 BC, Augustus left for a restful trip to the east, probably in the company of Livia. But no more than they made their first stop in Sicily, that news of yet more unrest in Rome reached them. It seems that the Roman people were determined to have an absolute leader at this time in their history, as opposed to the pride of being free in the past. They had elected only one consul this year, hoping that Augustus would fill the seat of the vacancy. He refused to do this, but he did have Agrippa return to Rome to restore order. In 21 BC, after his return to the Capitol, Agrippa married Augustus' daughter, the 18-year-old Julia. Agrippa must have felt very secure in his power and position indeed, for he did so despite her father's abscence!

Then Agrippa was off yet again for more military campaigning. He went to Gaul, Spain and Aquitania and other places. Then he went to northern Spain and began once again to try to bring to heel the same tribes that Augustus hadn't been entirely successful in pacifying. Agrippa was victorious at this in 19 BC, as he had been so successful in his generalship in other tasks.

I hope to post again here pretty soon. I have been having some connection problems so hopefully this will sort itself out like it did before. Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone following or commenting here! The image is of a theater in Merida, Spain promoted by Agrippa and built between 16 to 15 BC. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Extra note-the information for this post came (once again) from Anthony Everitt's excellent Augustus pages 221 to 225. I found a treasure of a book -Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its Neighbours from 1966. I would like to start using information from this book in between the Augustus information because it so beautifully explains the background functioning of Rome's government and how different posts and departments of government changed over the years. The Millar book I had picked up for a whopping dollar at a library sale. It is too bad I hadn't looked through it earlier for this blog-but am so glad I finally did. Due to the economy-libraries, yard sales, discount book stores and the like have some incredible prices on books. I picked up a first edition (like new) of David McCullough's John Adams for 3 dollars and fifty cents. In a way it is sad-I seem to notice that the history books are usually the "cheapest" -I assume this is because people (especially in the United States) are not interested in historical subjects. I am just writing this to let people know you might find some incredible deals out there for books right now.

Augustus Ascendant Part 8

2010-01-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

Both men had to think about a variety of possibilities where the future was concerned. If Augustus died in a few years Agrippa could take over. He did not have the popularity with the ruling class that Augustus did because of his humble birth and sharp tongue, but his extreme competence and leadership capabilities mad up for that. If both men lived for another 15 to 20 years, Marcellus could take over if he showed enough skill learning how to govern in the meantime. They also had an "insurance policy" due to Livia's two intelligent sons: Tiberius and the 15 year old Drusus, would also be trained in public adminsitration.

No matter what maneuvers were taking place behind the scenes the professional relationship between Augustus and Agrippa appeared to be very strong. In 19 BC, the two men's powers were renewed, but this time Agrippa was granted the tribuncia potestas that Augustus held.

Then, catastrophe struck in Augustus' unusually charmed life. Marcellus became ill and died in the autumn of 23 BC before his games were over. He was only 21 years old. The physician, Musa, treated him with the same regimen used on Augustus during his illness, but this time it didn't work. Augustus delivered the eulogy at his funeral. His body was placed in the great circular family mausoleum that was then under construction. Marcellus' gravestone and that of his mother (Octavia) survive to this day. Julius Caesar himself had laid the foundation for a new theater on the far side of the Capitoline Hill from the Forum. This theater was named the Theater of Marcellus in his honor ( a portion of its outside wall can still be seen.)

Poor Octavia never recovered from this blow. The formerly good-natured, sweet and maternal woman began to hate all mothers-especially Livia, whose son Tiberius would now inherit all that should have belonged to Marcellus. She refused to have a portrait of her son and would not let anyone mention his name in her prescence. In essence, Octavia became a recluse and was in mourning the rest of her life. However, she did attend a special reading by the poet Virgil of extracts from his new epic about the foundation of Rome, the Aeneid.

From Augustus on page 220: "Its here in the Trojan prince, Aeneas; the poem tells the story of his escape from the sack of Troy and his arrival at Latium, where he rules over a kingdom this is the precursor of Rome. At one point in the narrative, Aeneas visits the underworld, where he meets not only the great dead but also the shades of the unborn. He notices a good-looking but downcast youth, and asks who he is. The phantom of Aeneas' dead father tells him that it is the future Marcellus:"

Fate shall allow the earth one glimpse of this young man-

One glimpse, no more...Alas, poor youth! If only you could escape from your harsh fate!

Marcellus you shall be. Give me armfuls of lilies.

That I may scatter their shining blooms and shower these gifts

At least up the dear sould, all to no purpose though

Such kindness be.

The "Fate" line in the above poem should not be spaced that way- I don't know what happens -this has occured more than once. I will try to figure it out-please read the poem "as one" in other words. To continue with the quote from Augustus on page 220: "Virgil's style of recitation was "sweet and strangely seductive" when he reached the line "Tu Marcellus/eris," "Marcellus you shall be," Octavia is said to have fainted, and was revived only with some difficulty."

By far the most likely explanation of the death of Marcellus is that he was one of many Romans killed in the wave of the epidemic that swept the city. Rumors appeared that Livia had poisoned him because she wanted Tiberius to succeed Augustus. This wasn't a well-planned move If-it was true. For now Augustus arranged for his daughter, Julia, Marcellus' widow, to marry Agrippa. Octavia's daughter, Marcella, was the principle victim because of this dynastic plan, for she had to divorce Agrippa to allow her first cousin to be able to marry him. As Anthony Everitt points out in Augustus on page 221: "In the regime's innermost circles, no room was left for sentiment, and the Julian family's women were disposed of according to the political imperative of the hour. Apparently the princeps took the decision on the advice of Maecenas, who told him him, "You have mad him [Agrippa] so powerful that he must either become your son-in-law, or be killed."

Livia was never to live down her reputation as a murderous stepmother. As suggested before, this is probably completely untrue and unfair. In fairy tales, the ancient world already had the expectation that stepmothers were unkind. The Romans also had a very exaggerated fear of death by poisoning, and this undoubtedly added to the rumors against Livia. Poison panics often coincided with plagues. Food poisoning was also well documented in ancient Rome. Years after the death of Marcellus, a close friend of Augustus, Nonius Asprenas, gave a party after which one hundred and thirty people died! This was most like from food poisoning, but Asprenas was charged with murder and taken to court. However, he was acquitted after Augustus showed his support for him. Livia had to bear the vicious gossip and slanders in silence.

Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone who has ever commented on this blog or follows it! I hope to post again here fairly soon-it feels like I am starting to get a cold/flu -so hopefully I can fight this. The image is a painting (and damn me -I wrote down the painter-and timeframe it was painted in-but of course can't find it-does anybody know? If I can find it I will come back and give credit-when will I learn?) The painting is an artist's rendering of Octavia fainting at Virgil's poetry reading at the mention of her son's (Marcellus) name. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 7

2010-01-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

There was two ways he decided to deal with this using his unusually canny political insight. Augustus had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, or the protection from physical violence given to a tribune of the people for some years. Augustus decided that he would now appropriate tribunicia potestas in perpetutity. In other words, he would have the powers and protection of a tribune without actually holding the office. These powers were great. Tribunes attended meetings of the Senate and were entitled to introduce laws for approval by the people. In addition a tribune could veto any officeholder's decisions, including those of their fellow tribunes.

For the second way that Augustus decided to make sure he had a firm grip on his imperium, I will quote from Augustus on page 217: Augustus recognized that tribunicia potestas, together with his enormous provincia, gave him almost all the authority he needed to govern without hindrance. He dated his "reign" from when it was awarded, on July 1 23 B.C., and added the potestas to his long list of titles. However, a couple of gaps needed to be filled. Proconsuls, or provincial governors, lost their imperium when they crossed the pomerium-the sacred boundary of Rome-and entered the city. That would mean that when he was in the city the princeps would only have the status of a private citizen. Thanks to his prestige, or auctoritas, his wishes would usually be obeyed, but on occasion there might be some awkwardness. So the Senate voted that Augustus' proconsular imperium should not lapse when he was inside the city walls.

The Marcus Primus debacle had put Augustus in an embarrassing position. In theory, he had absolutely no right to interfere with the governors of senatorial provinces. Now this would also be changed. Augustus was given a general and overriding proconsular authority-imperium maius "greater power." This gave him the right to intervene in any area of the empire at any time. Augustus was a savvy enough politician to excercise this power with caution-once again trying to make it appear that the tradition of a Roman governor holding sway during his term of office still held true.

The reforms of 23 BC cemented Augustus' power-but Agrippa was the man who really hit the jackpot during this period. Agrippa was already considered indispensable and was given imperium proconsulare. This act probably gave him greater power to deal with things as he saw fit in the eastern provinces, which is where Augustus sent him in the autumn of 23 BC. Effectively, Agrippa was now the empire's co-regent.

There isn't enough information left to us to be completely positive, but the rise of Agrippa during this time might have been engineered by the ruling class to check Augustus' power. Perhaps they let him know that he was not to consider the state as his personal property. At the same time-if this is indeed what occurred-Agrippa's ever greater importance insured that a smooth transition of power would take place if Augustus were once again to contract a possibly fatal illness.

Going again to Augustus on page 218: It has even been speculated in modern times that what had taken place was a "secret coup d' etat" in which Agrippa and Livia joined forces. There is hardly anything to back this up-except that Tiberius, Livia's eldest son, was betrothed, perhaps already married, to Agrippa's daughter, Vipsania. This could be interpreted as a sign that the two most important people in Augustus' life felt the need to jointly protect themselves against the dynastically domineering princeps. It also appears that Octavia and Livia did not get on, and that the latter was irritated by the former's promotion of Marcellus. Equally, though, Augustus and his canny wife could have seen the value of neutralizing the prickly Agrippa by making him a member of the family.

However, there are yet other views that Agrippa's departure to the east was a sort of exile-either self-imposed or ordered by Augustus, because Agrippa was offended by Augustus' preferential treatment of Marcellus or that Augustus ordered him away because he realized Marcellus was jealous of the delivery of the seal to Agrippa.

On page 219 of Augustus: It is not necessary to see these two accounts-co-regency and "exile" -as mutually exclusive. Augustus and Agrippa were grown-up politicians. Both of them (and perhaps especially the latter) held a somber commitment to the public interest, not to mention the advantage of their governing party (which they saw as much the same thing). It is possible that they agreed not only about Agrippa's promotion, but also on the desirability of a tactful withdrawal to allow Marcellus to emerge onto the public stage without Agrippa's overshadowing prescence.

I had wanted to post just a bit more in this article tonight-but fatigue and massive typos are telling me to stop now! Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone else who has commented here or follows this blog! Hopefully this massive fatigue is just a phase that will pass. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 6

2010-01-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Marcellus was off and running in his pre-planned destiny right after this happened. The Senate voted special honors for him; he was given the senior ranking of praetor for special occasions. He also got permission to stand for the consulship ten whole years before the (already reduced age by Augustus) of thirty-seven! Marcellus was also counted as a former quaestor (the most junior elective post) without ever serving as one. Practically, this meant that he would be able to serve as an aedile in 23 BC. This post was very important in regards to the future that was being planned for him, in that he would have a chance to impress the average citizen of Rome because he would be in charge of the city's public entertainment for the year. By this time in Roman history, the citizens expected the most grandiose displays imaginable. The more stunning the performances, the more they showed their gratitude at the ballot box, so Augustus supplied his nephew with an unparalled budget to work with.

Augustus had been absent from Rome for three years when he came back in 24 BC. Upon arriving home, he was still in weak physical condition and not at all sure he would live. Augustus had an almost immediate disappointment in regards to the political settlement he thought he had brought to Rome. Here again from Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 214 is what happened: "In late 24 or early 23 B.C., Marcus Primus, the governor of Macedonia, one of the Senate's provinces, was taken to court for having gone to war without permission with a friendly Thracian tribe. It was a serious offense for a proconsul to take an army outside his province."

"Among Primus' defenders was one of the consuls for 23 B.C., Aulus Terentius Varro Murena, a trusted and senior follower of the princeps. He was Maecenas' brother-in-law, and the poets Virgil and Horace were his friends (he had lent the party of poets his house at the resort of Formiae on their journey from Rome to Brundisium in 39 B.C.). He seems to have been a dashing, impatient sort of fellow and Horace took it upon himself to offer an ode of advice."

The loftiest pines, when the wind blows,
Are shaken hardest; tall towers drop
With the worst crash...

"Primus' defense was that he had been ordered to launch a campaign by both the princeps and Marcellus. This was most embarrassing, for in theory Augustus only held authority in his own provincia. Of his own accord he attended the court where the trial was being held. The praetor, or presiding judge, asked him if he had given the man orders to make war and he replied that he had not."

The consul and defender of Primus-Murena, then made some disparaging remarks towards Augustus, and asked him: "What are you doing here, and who asked you to come?" "The public interest," was Augustus' only reply. Primus was found guilty (to no one's surprise) and most likely sent into exile. What must be noted here is that most observers of the situation probably did indeed think it improbable that he would have claimed to have carried out orders "from above" so to speak-unless this is what really happened. This incident showed clearly that the res publica restituta, the "restored Republic," was simply propaganda.

Again I would like to go to Augustus on page 215 for what happened next: "The Primus affair led to the formation of a little-understood conspiracy against Augustus. The leader was a young republican called Fannius Caepio. Apparently, the consul Murena was implicated, although Dio thought the charge might be false, "since he was notoriously rough-tongued and headstrong in his manner of address towards all alike." The plot was uncovered and the accused men condemned to death in abstentia. In constitutional theory, the execution of a serving consul was a contradiction in terms, for the Republic's chief executive had supreme authority; if he broke the law, charges could only be brought against him after his term of office had expired. Once again, the libertarian pretensions of the regime were exposed."

"What the aims of the plotters were and how they were revealed cannot be recovered. Perhaps there was no conspiracy at all-or, rather, the princeps organized a setup. But why? We cannot tell. If it was a serious attempt to overthrow the new order, it was evidence that the settlement of 27 B.C. was not working."

There is an interesting aside to the story of the Caepio conspiracy that certainly seems to lend credence to the notion that there was indeed a conspiracy. Maecenas told his wife Terentia about the affair-a state secret. Well Murena just happened to be Terentia's brother! Apparently she did the sisterly thing and told her brother he was in trouble. In a short time, Augustus found out about what I am sure a fellow like him would have considered a betrayal. However, betrayal or not, Maecenas and Augustus' relationship was not destroyed completely--but Maecenas was kicked out of the inner circle of people around Augustus.

Marcellus in his new job as aedile was a huge success at staging Rome's games in 23 BC, but all wasn't well during this year. Rome was hit by some unknown plague-it could have been smallpox, bubonic plague, typhoid or Scarlet fever. These types of plagues and epidemics were fairly frequent happenings in a crowded and dirty city such as Rome. Augustus once again became ill and this time his prognosis looked very bad indeed. At this time had someone told him he would live another thirty-seven years, he probably would have laughed in their face. Thinking he was at death's door he realized he had to act very quickly if there were to be any hope of saving the regime and his plans for Rome. From Augustus on page 216: "He gathered around his bedside the officers of state and leading senators and equites. He spoke to them on matters of public policy and handed his fellow consul, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the breviarium imperii, a book that recorded the empire's financial and military resources. "

"Many were expecting the princeps to bequeath his authority to Marcellus, whom he had only too evidently been grooming. But this had been a long-term plan, and the boy was too young and inexperienced to hold supreme power now. Agrippa would have little trouble deposing him once Augustus was dead. Bowing to this reality, the dying man handed Agrippa the symbol of his authority: his signet ring bearing the head of Alexander the Great."

However to everyone's astonishment-least of all his own perhaps-Augustus recovered. His physician, Antonius Musa, had spun the medical treatment at the time for a man with Augustus' symptoms a perfect 180 degrees. Musa stopped using all of the heat related treatments he had been using on Augustus when it was apparent they weren't working and switched to a regimen of cold baths and potions. This radical change of treatment worked. Anthony Everitt in Augustus points out that the malady afflicting Augustus and Rome at large that year-to a devastating degree may have been typhoid fever as cold packs were a well-known treatment for the disease even into the early 20th century.

Augustus was aware that his plans for dynastic succession were unpopular. He even brought his will to the Senate to read aloud to prove that he had no such plans. But the Senate refused to let him do this as a show of confidence in his leadership. But he knew the political settlement of 27 BC would need to be amended. He resigned as consul on the first of July and proclaimed he would no longer be a candidate for this office. This was a smart move and showed to the Senate and People of Rome 3 things: 1). That he didn't intend to emulate Julius Caesar by keeping a permanent hold on any office. 2). The office of consul used up a great deal of time on routine and ceremonial matters. 3). By not continuing to hold the office, he was letting other members of the ruling class attain it, once again making them feel like they had a real say in Roman politics. However, now Augustus needed to come up with a way to make up for this lost power. He knew he was walking a tightrope between constitutional improprieties that the ruling class might not stand for-and also that he must be careful to not give up any powers that would make him vulnerable.

The image is a beautiful example of a gold coin showing Augustus as Caesar. Once again I appreciate very much anyone commenting or following this blog! I hope to post again here pretty soon. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 5

2010-01-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Augustus was an extremely adroit politician and his new regime was a great coup that had wide support. He was careful not to push his luck too far and tactfully left Rome for almost three years to give the new constitutional arrangements time to take hold without seeming forced. Augustus continued to be elected consul, but left administration to hsi consular colleagues, among them the essential Agrippa.

During this time, Augustus' huge new province needed some looking after. Gaul had fallen into disarray during Rome's civil wars and Augustus brought it firmly back under control. Once he established order and conducted a census, he went to Spain. Spain presented a much harder egg to crack. The native tribes in the northern of the two Spanish provinces had never been completely conquered.

The Astures (whence the modern Asturias) and the Cantabri (in the region of modern Bilbao and Santander) tribes in particular were putting up an effective resistance. Augustus led the campaign against them, but this time without the help of Agrippa's indispensable generalship. These tribes employed guerilla tactics. They would strike out from their mountain hideouts and smartly avoid the full-scale battle for which the legion was designed. The Romans-who of course were superb soldiers-just weren't well adjusted to this style of fighting. They would march in a given direction and find themselves confronted with an enemy hidden in valleys and woods and would fall prey to ambushes.

Augustus was superstitious, and was a huge believer in omens. He had a piece of sealskin he used as an amulet for protection from thunder and lightning, which he was afraid of. The amulet proved its worth and confirmed his superstitious nature during the Spanish campaign. A flash of lightning struck so close that it scorched his litter and killed a slave who was walking ahead lighting the way with a torch. In gratitude for his survival in this close scrape with the grim reaper, he built the Temple of Jupiter Tonans (the Thunderer) on the edge of the Capitol overlooking the Forum. This temple was famous for its splendor and the famous works of art in it. Augustus--very pious in his own way-would visit this temple often in the years to come.

Augustus again became sick as he so often did when involved in a crisis-especially a military one. Augustus went to the Pyrenees and convalesced in Tarraco (modern Tarragona). During this period of illness, which lasted for about a year, Augustus wrote an autobiography, which he dedicated to Maecenas and Agrippa. No ancient sources tell us what Augustus was ill from, although Dio does say it was caused "from the fatigue and anxiety caused by these conditions." Most unfortunately, this autobiography has been lost to history. Augustus' deputy quickly brought the conflict in northern Spain to an end, which victory was credited to the military genius of Augustus--of course!

On page 213 of Anthony Everitt's Augustus: "During the late Republic, the wives of senior Roman officials did not travel abroad with their husbands. Augustus himself ruled that the legates he appointed to the provinces at his disposal should not spend time with their wives or, if they insisted on doing so, then only outside the campaigning season (generally March to October)."

"However, we have it on good authority that Livia accompanied her husband on his travels to west and east. She was probably with him in Gaul and Spain, although she will have stayed safely in the rear when Augustus was with the army, and tended him when he was ill."

Livia was an able businesswoman and over the years accumulated numerous properties and estates across the empire. Her tours around the Meditteranean as Rome's first lady allowed her to inspect her acquisitions and check that they were being well managed. In Gaul she owned land with a copper mine. Her property portfolio also included palm groves in Judea and estates in Egypt, including papyrus marshes, arable farms, vineyards, commercial vegetable gardens, granaries, and olive and wine presses."

As mentioned before, Augustus' wavering health may have been the reason he made the first major move to arrange a dyanstic succession in 25 BC (when he was only 38). He had his daughter and only child, Julia, by his second wife Scribonia, married off to his nephew, Marcellus. Julia was fourteen and Marcellus twenty. Augustus was in Spain at the time so Agrippa presided over the wedding. It would have been so interesting had Agrippa been the sort of fellow to leave his thoughts about this obvious monarchial type succession plan to history, but as Anthony Everitt states in Augustus: "...what he thought of the young man's promotion is unknown, for he kept his own counsel."

The image is of what remains of the Theater of Marcellus at nighttime. More about this theater will be explained in a later post. I may have time to do one more post today-not sure. Thanks again so very much to Jon, human being and anyone else commenting or following this blog!

Augustus Ascendant Part 4

2010-01-04T01:31:00.001-08:00

There was no mystery as to why his governorship of the also newly minted "province" of Gaul, Spain and Syria put him in command of twenty legions. These legions did indeed have a reason to be amassed in these areas: the northern of the two Spanish provinces hadn't completely submitted to Rome yet; Gaul continued to have uprisings now and then; and Syria was next to the unreliable Parthians. In contrast, the "senatorial" provinces, to be governed by proconsuls in the old fashion, were tranquil places; only three of them required armies, and in total, they commanded five or six legions. In this way, by far most of the empire's military might remained under command of Augustus, and as long as they and their commanders remained loyal, he was safely ensconced in power.

Patronage was another important part of Augustus' rule. He had inherited Julius Caesar's clientela, of which were stretched out over the whole empire. Augustus had greatly enlarged this group of people even before the Battle of Actium, after which he inherited Mark Antony's clientela also. Augustus had a command and authority throughout the empire that was excercised by an intricate web of personal contacts and loyalties that no other Roman could even remotely hope for. In communities large and small, leading men who were loyal to him were usually rewarded with citizenship.

A quote from Anthony Everitt's Augustus from pages 210 to 211: "Augustus was pleased to boast: "When I had put an end to the civil wars, having acquired supreme power over the empire with universal consent, I transformed the Republic from my control into that of the Senate and People of Rome." That was literally correct-the machinery of constitutional government came creakily back into operation-but for anyone with eyes to see, the truth of the matter was obvious. The princeps admitted it himself, stating baldly: "After this time, I exceeded everybody in authority."

"This was acceptable because Augustus held no unconsititutional or novel office. Broadly speaking, he was acting without precedent. Also, he gave back to the political class its glittering prizes. Once more it became worthwhile to compete for political office (even though the princeps tended to select the candidates). The ambitious and the able could win glory on the floor of the Senate or in the outposts of the empire."

"It would be wrong to suppose that Romans failed to understand what was going on. They were not deceived. They could see that Augustus' power ultimately rested on force. However, his consitutional settlement gave him legitimacy and signaled a return to the rule of law. For this most people were sincerely greatful."

"Augustus' "restored Republic" was a towering achievement, for it transformed a bankrupt and imcompetent polity into a system of government that delivered the rule of law, wide participation by the ruling class, and, at the same time, strong central control. It installed an autocracy with the consent of Rome's -and indeed of Italy's independent-minded elites. Some Roman historians, among them Tacitus a century or so later, mourned the death of liberty, but at the same time politicians, citizens, and subjects of the empire recognized that the new consitutional arrangements would bring stability and the promise of fair and effective public administration."

"If Julius Caesar had lived he would probably have desired a far more radical scheme, imposing a brutally abrupt transition from a republican past to an imperial future. Augustus may have been less brilliant than his adoptive father, but he was wiser. He understood that if his new system was to last, it should be seen to grow out of what came before. Rather than insist on a chasm, he built a bridge."

The image is a painting of Maecenas presenting the Liberal Arts to the Emperor Augustus by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone else following or commenting on this blog-I appreciate it so much! I hope to post again here soon-all the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 3

2009-12-30T02:59:00.000-08:00

From Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 206: "The end of the civil wars brought a substantial peace dividend. A grand total of sixty legions under arms in 31 B.C. was reduced to the minimum necessary to guard the empire from external invasion. Octavian set the number at twenty-eight legions, or about 150,000 men, all of whom were Roman citizens. These ere brigaded with about the same number of auxiliary troops, noncitizens recruited from the less Romanized and less military secure provinces (for example, Gaul and northern Africa). These auxiliaries often served near or in their homelands-a sensible policy, for it gave the provinces an active role in their own defense."

The army had a permanent prescence in the areas where it was most needed: along the frontiers in the east and northern Africa, Spain, northeast Gaul, and the Balkans. These reserves were sufficient, however, there weren't any men to send to areas where any conflict might occur. During his short life to this point, Octavian had learned a great deal about public finance, and to reduce public spending it seems he was willing to take a gamble on a just-adequate military.

Then he looked into civilian matters. Suetonius believes that Octavian pondered deeply about restoring the Republic after Actium. However, this flies in the face of everything we know about his sure and steady climb to absolute power. Dio thought that a debate was held where Arippa argued for a republican constitution, and Maecenas spoke of the benefits of a monarchy. This debate probably never happened, but Octavian did manage to cleverly mesh these two opposing principles. As always, Octavian took his time to decide how to go about this-three years in this case.

Octavian and Agrippa held the consulships together in 28 BC-this was Octavian's sixth time as consul. The pair annulled all of the acts of the triumvirs and promised that there would never be a return to the civil bloodbaths of the past. The consuls also assumed censoria potestas, the power of censors. The censors had been two senior and very trusted officials elected every five years. They had three major tasks: first to hold a lustrum or general ritual purification of the people; second to perform a census of Roman citizensl third to supervise the conduct of citizens-especially members of the Senate.

Going back to Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 207: "The census held by Octavian and Agrippa revealed that there were 4,063,000 citizens (we do not know whether the number included women and children). A more ticklish job was to identify and weed out senatorial undesirables. The number of senators was reduced from one thousand to a somewhat more manageable eight hundred. As Suetonius records, this was a highly unpopular procedure. At the meeting when the outcome of the review of the Senate was announced, Octavian is said to have worn a sword and steel corselet beneath his tunic. Senators were allowed to approach only after their togas were searched."

The new regime still wasn't ready to put the ship of state on a long-term course. However, an incident occurred shortly after this involving Marcus Licinius Crassus, the grandson of Julius Caesar's onetime colleague, that showed the rules of the new political order should be put in effect sooner rather than later.

Marcus had returned to Rome after a very successful campaign on the Macedonian frontier. He wanted not only a triumph but also a spolia opima. This very esteemed honor was granted to a general who had killed the enemy commander with his own hands and took his armor, the spolia opima or splendid spoils. This was done by only two other men in the history of the state before Crassus.

The problem was that absolute control of the legions was essential to Octavian's hold on power, and he didn't feel he could allow an independent man to gain such a high military reputation. A technicality was cited to prevent Crassus from dedicating the armor of his defeated opponent in the tiny Temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol, but he was allowed his triumph. Afterwards, though, history tells us nothing about him, so we are left to wonder if his iverreaching-at least in the eyes of the new regime brought his military career to an early end.

Finally in 27 BC, Octavian, aged thirty-six, was ready to unveil his constitutional blueprint. On 1 January he began his seventh consulship with Agrippa once again as his colleague. From Augustus on page 208: "On the Ides (the thirteenth of the month) he made a most extraordinary speech to the Senate-perhaps the most important speech of his life. Dio gave him words that cannot have been very far from those he actually uttered: I lay down my office in its entirety and return to you all authority absolutely-authority over the army, the laws and the provinces-not only those territories which you entrusted to me, but those which I later secured for you.

"For most of Octavian's listeners, the statement came as a shock. No one knew exactly how to react, and his cautious audience either believed him or pretended to. While he was speaking, senators broke in with shouts and interjections."

After Octavian sat down, the protests continued. He made a great display of reluctance, but allowed himself to be "argued" into accepting a very large "province" for ten years. This so-called province consisted of Gaul, Spain and Syria. Octavian would have proconsular authority over these lands: he would be able to appoint legates, or choose deputies to rule them in his stead while he remained consul at Rome. All the other provinces of the empire would come under direct senatorial management the same as before: the Senate would appoint former consuls and praetors to govern them.

The Senate certainly wasn't lax in showing its gratitude towards Octavian for this. The doorposts of his house were adorned with laurel and the lintel with oak leaves for rescuing Roman citizens from death. Octavian would later boastfully recall how a golden shield was put in the Senate House, "in recognition of my valor, my clemency, my justice and my piety."

Then there was the most glorious honor bestowed upon him-a change of name. One idea was to call Octavian by the name of Rome's original founder-Romulus. However, Romulus had made himself a king, and even worse-one tale had him murdered by angry senators-the same fate Octavian's first patron met! A much better idea was to call him Augustus, meaning "Revered One." Thus it was agreed and Octavian's official name was now Imperator Ceasar Augustus. A more modest title was adopted for casual use: princeps, "first citizen." These new names ushered in a new political era for Rome and a makeover for Octavian-the formerly bloodsoaked triumvir was now Augustus, the law-abiding princeps.

These acts of largely political theater were acted out primarily to assure the Senate that he was not leading Rome down the same path as his adoptive father-an autocracy-or even something similar to a Hellenistic monarchy. Octavian-now Augustus believed-and perhaps he was on the money with this thought-that if enough senators felt he was following in Julius Caesar's footsteps he would be the star of his own Ides of March.

Augustus also had to keep the ruling class happy so they would apply their skills to the arduous task of the day-to-day running of the empire. From Augustus on page 208: "The Senate was not quite the body it had been. New men from the Italian countryside had filled many gaps left the the old governing families that had been weakened in the civil wars or had lost their money and estates. Many came from regions that had received citizenship as little as fifty years before. Theirs was an Italian rather than a Roman identity. Even more controverially, leading men from southern Gaul and Spain, provinces that had long since adopted the Roman language and culture, were recruited as senators. All these arrivestes saw their fate as inextricably linked to the new regime. So did a good number of impoverished aristocrats, for the astute Augustus took good care to fund them generously and thereby constrain their freedom to oppose him. He bound other noble clans to him by arranging marriages with his relatives."

However much power Augustus managed to accrue, members of the Senate still felt a deep patriotic belief in Rome's constitution, and would never accept one-man rule. These men presumed the Roman empire and its rule and administration to remain a collective undertaking-even if it were led by one man.

In the end Augustus didn't really give back any real power to the Senate and the people of Rome, and in the final analysis he owed his preeminent position to the army. To a lesser extent he also owed his newly minted position to the people, who could be relied on to reelect him to the position of consul as many times as he wished.

This will probably be the last article on this blog for this year. I hope to do much more here next year. Thanks again to Jon and anyone else who reads or follows this blog for your fantastic thoughts and comments! I hope you all have a beautiful and joyous 2010!

Augustus Ascendant Part 2

2009-12-23T18:43:00.000-08:00

Octavian was now the undisputed master of Rome-he just downplayed a role so many others would have and did play up. Perhaps the more keen-eyed observers would have noticed the prescence of two teenagers, riding on his chariot's right and left trace horses during his triumph. These were the sons' of the two closest women in his life. Gaius Claudius Marcellus was his sister Octavia's 14-year-old son and the other young man was Tiberius Claudius Nero, his wife Livia's 13-year-old eldest son.

Octavia, who appears to have been a very loving and giving person anyway-loved her son "cheerful in mind and disposition" deeply. Octavian's interest in the youth certainly echoed Julius Caesar's interest in his years earlier as he was also a handsome and intelligent boy. Tiberius was no slouch in many areas either, but he had to play second fiddle in Octavian's plans because he was not related by blood-being Livia's son by her first husband.

Octavian was not only in complete control of the Roman empire-but was already starting to think about the long-term survival of his regime and his dynasty! Part of this planning and scheming was not just because it was Octavian's intelligence and nature to be this way-but due to his always unsteady health it was not too early to think of succession plans. If Octavian's nephew lived up to his promise, Octavian couldn't ask for a more suitable heir-and would keep control of the empire "in the family" at the same time.

Here is a quote from Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 204 that explains more: "There was another thing: Octavian liked and trusted youth. He and his "band of brothers," his two trusted former school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas, had set out together on their great enterprise to avenge Caesar's murder and win power in their late teens. The challenges they faced called forth their talent; now Octavian was looking forward to promoting the new younger generation that was about to emerge. Perhaps as early as 29 B.C., he arranged for the minimum age of officeholders to be reduced: in the case of a quaestor, from thirty years to twenty-five, of a consul, from forty-two to thirty-seven. Senators' sons were expected to familiarize themselves with administration; they were allowed to wear the purple-striped toga, which was the uniform of a senator, encouraged to attend Senate meetings, and given officer posts during their military service."

It wasn't for lack of trying that Octavian and Livia didn't produce an heir of their own. They had each had children by former spouses, and some sources from the classical era put it down to physical incompatibility, but it is more likely that a physical illness led one or the other to become infertile. The boys were still too young to help govern the new regime. Octavian's childhood friends, Agrippa and Maecenas still had huge responsibilities in this area.

Agrippa had been described as "more of a rustic at heart than a man of refined tastes." However, here it must certainly be stated that Agrippa admired fine art and even argued that all paintings and sculptures should be nationalized rather than be viewed by a chosen few in private collections! Not only that, but Agrippa collected art himself and spent the incredible sum of 1.2 million sesterces on two paintings-one of them featured the Greek hero Ajax and the other Aphrodite. A man who practiced what he preached, Agrippa had these paintings put in public baths he built.

Greatly dissimilar to Agrippa it was said Maecenas could almost "outdo a woman in giving himself up to indolence and soft luxury." He was very taken with silks and jewels. Maecenas was also an epicure and made popular a new delicacy-the flesh of young donkeys-to Rome's upscale dining tables. He was supposedly the first man to have a heated swimming pool in Rome. Interesting also, is the fact that he was married to the gorgeous but conceited Terentia. The couple was forever fighting, but Maecenas remained in love with her and would always seek reconciliation. Apparently Terentia caught Octavian's eye and eventually had an affair with him. This doesn't seem to have set relations back between the two men and Maecenas was hardly monogamous himself-although he certainly never tried to seduce Livia! Although one of his affairs was with a freedman and friend of Octavian, a famous actor, Bathyllus.

It would seem from every possible historical source that Octavian only slept with women, but he didn't take the slightest offense to the various sexual habits among members of his inner circle. It would seem that Maecenas didn't take any offense at Octavian's making fun of his effulgent style of writing either. Macrobius, a writer of the fifth century A.D., quotes on example: "Goodbye, my ebony of Medullia, ivory from Etruria, silphium from Arretium, diamond of the Adriatic, pearl from the Tiber, Cilnian emerald, jasper of the Iquvians, Pesenna's beryl, Italy's carbuncle-in short, you charmer of unfaithful wives."

Howver crazy his private life, Maecenas was amazing during times of crisis-showing tireless energy and unwavering skill at giving superb political advice. What was even better for both Octavian and the regime in many ways is that he didn't seek public office and honors, preferring to remain in the background. Maecenas did champion the greatest poets of the age also, and made sure that rare talents like Virgil and Horace were able to publish their works without censorship and stayed in favor with the new order.

Agrippa, for his part detested Maecenas' effeminate and luxurious manners. Agrippa was a very non-cynical, direct and loyal man in an era when men of unquestioned loyalty were sometimes hard to find. Without Agrippa's excellent generalship it is doubtful-impossible maybe that Octavian could possibly have got as far as he got. He received the corona rostrata for his role in the Naulochus campaign. Without Agrippa, the war against Sextus Pompeius would have been lost and he was also the strategist behind the victory at Actium. For Actium, Agrippa got the right to display an azure banner. Also of more fiscal value, Agrippa had the freehold country estates in Egypt. Agrippa was so trusted (as well he should have been), he was for all practical purposes Octavian's deput-almost his equal even, but always in Octavian's somehow larger shadow.

A historian that lived close to Agrippa's time says Agrippa "was...well-disciplined to obedience, but to one man only, yet eager to command others, in whatever he did he never admitted the possibility of delay. With him an idea was implemented as soon as it was thought of." The image portrayals left to us by history of Agrippa show a man with very stern and determined features. He definitely even looks like a man whose anger was to be feared-possibly even by his friend and master?

Agrippa did have official posts unlike the "unofficial" minister of culture-Maecenas-in a post that didn't exist. Agrippa was as unpurusing of the adornments of authority as Maecenas was, although for a completely different reason. Maecenas simply didn't care to hold the actual reigns of power (being satisfied with influence), Agrippa cared for it with great zest-but only for its reality.

There are no historical records of Agrippa's private opinions on political matters. However, as Anthony Everitt states in Augustus: "...we may surmise that he watched Octavian's growing affection for Marcellus with unease. As the young man grew up, Agrippa could well find an inexperienced heir interfering in his freedom of action, interposing himself between him and Octavian. That would not do."

The information for this post came from pages 203 to 206 in Anthony Everitt's Augustus. I really enjoyed this whole bit written here-and believe there is much more to come. I intentionally didn't "condense" information from this part as I found it so interesting. This is everything I have ready to go and I wanted to post it this evening in case I am offline (or not online much) for the next few days. I hope to post again soon-but am not promising anything -on anything I do as I have been struggling with health stuff more than usual-now it seems an overwhelming sense of exhaustion has taken hold of me along with everything else! Thanks again Jon and others for the great comments! I hope anyone stopping by has a beautiful Christmas (and if you don't celebrate Christmas a beautiful holiday season)-and a wonderful and joyous 2010!

Augustus Ascendant Part 1

2009-12-19T17:17:00.001-08:00

The new regime not only needed to redefine the past in the most glorious way possible, but it was also very important to establish Octavian as the natural ruler of Rome. They had to develop a cult of personality and an inconography of power. There was two ways this would be done. First, Octavian designated the complex of houses on Rome's Palatine Hill, where he and Livia lived as an emblem of his authority. A ramp connected them to a temple of Apollo, which was a major part of the complex. Octavian had vowed to build the temple during the wars against Sextus Pompeius, but its construction only got under way after Actium and was dedicated in 28 BC.

These days almost nothing remains of it, but the Apollo temple must have been a beautiful sight in its day. The doors were gilded and inlaid with ivory, and its walls were of solid shining-white marble (the walls of Roman temples were usually of brick and concrete with marble cladding). A chariot of the sun stood on top of the roof of the temple and it was surrounded by or connected to a portico of giallo antico, a speckled yellow marble from quarries in Numidia.

Octavian had more in mind for the temple than religious purposes. From his stay in Alexandria, and combining a plan he had had before Julius Caesar's assassination, Octavian put two public libraries there-one for books in Greek and the others for those in Latin. Medallian portraits of famous writers were placed on the walls. Here authors have public readings and the chief librarian, a polymath named Gaius Julius Hyginus, taught classes.

The Sibylline Books-mentioned much earlier on this blog also-were taken from their traditional home in the cellars of the Temple of Jupiter and stored under a gigantic statue of Apollo that stood in front of the new temple. As mentioned earlier, these books were a very highly valued collection of prophecies written in Greek hexameters. These books were consulted during times of crisis for Rome, not to learn the future but to find ways to placate the wrath of the gods. These precious books and their prescence so near Octavian's house was a very big sign of his unique role in the state.

Octavian's image also got a huge facelift. The goal was to give him an aura of divinity or at the very least a semidivine, heroic status. Tales were intentionally circulated about his miraculous childhood and of the prophecies that had foretold of his current greatness. Dio had preserved a false sounding story that is very similar to one told about Alexander the Great's mother and was probably put forth to encourage a direct comparison: When Julius Caesar decided to make Octavian his heir he was influenced by "Atia's [his mother's] emphatic declaration that the youth had been engendered by Apollo: for while sleeping in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this that caused her at the end of her pregnancy to bear a son."

There were more tales of prophecies along these lines. They were all probably made up and one of them had to have been false. This was a story that Quintus Lutatius Catulus saw a god throw what looked like a figurine of Rome in the form of a goddess into the lap of Octavian's toga as he led a procession to the temple of Jupiter. Catulus died before Octavian's fourth birthday-so obviously he was a bit young to be leading a procession to the temple of Jupiter that Catulus could possibly have seen! There was a method to these stories. The three men who supposedly told the most major of the prophecies-Nigidius, Cicero, and Catulus were all dead so they couldn't be asked about the veracity of them. More importantly, these men had all been distinguished republicans, who had opposed Julius Caesar. So the supposed prophecies of Octavian's greatness by them gave his regime founded on violence and illegality, a sheen of respectable Roman republicanism.

August of 29 BC saw Octavian celebrating three magnificent triumphs. One was over Dalmatia, where he had campaigned successfully in 35 and 34 BC; over Cleopatra (meaning Actium), and over Egypt (meaning the capture of Alexandria). If there were any doubts of Octavian's political dominance they would have been stamped out after witnessing these triumphs.

Within days of these, the Senate House opened for debate with a name change from Curia Hostilia to Curia Julia. A new speakers' platform had been built adorned with rostra, ships' prows, from Actium, and the temple to the now deified dictator, built on the spot in the Forum where he had been cremated on his quickly rigged-up pyre, was dedicated.

Here too-a change began in relation to the aforementioned dictator. Octavian had once been proud to call himself divus filius, because it established his power and authority in the eyes of his adoptive father's devoted soldiers and ordinary citizens. However, since the Sicilian War Octavian had not used the title so much and now, from this apogee of celebration and triumph, his propaganda starts to make even less noise about Julius Caesar that in past times. The reason was that Caesar had been a radical, who had crossed the Rubicon and liquidated old Rome. This was completely in opposition to the traditions and values that the new regime wanted to associate itself with-tradition rather than innovation. Of course the idea of the Republic being restored under Octavian and his "traditonal" values was nothing more than lip service and window dressing.

This took longer to correct and "edit" than I thought it would. I had some saved to drafts which helped a bunch-but my back and pain meds are slowing me down as usual. If possible, I would like to take a break and post a bit more tonight-can't promise anything-and even if I do it will be much shorter than this post. I am now in the mood of just getting all information I have posted and "here" instead of saving any for future posts-although for some reason not starting out "new" so to speak seems to help me for some reason. Thanks again so very much to Jon and anyone else who has commented on this blog. I think the information I am into now is so interesting and will try to keep this blog up as much as my health and other things allow. I hope everyone who stops by is having a beautiful holiday season so far! The image is of Emperor Hadrian's Tomb in Rome.

Intermezzo Part Five

2009-12-15T16:07:00.001-08:00

The following information in this article is from Anthony Everitt's Augustus from pages 196 to 200. Octavian looked upon the body for a time, then paid his respects by crowning the head with a golden diadem and placing flowers on the trunk. He was asked, "Would you like to visit the mausoleum of the Ptolemies?" To this he sneered, "I came to see a king, not a row of corpses." The Alexandrians may have warmed a bit to Octavian and his admiring curiosity-but this newfound warmth towards their conqueror may have lessened when he accidentally knocked off part of Alexander's nose!

Octavian's friend Areius may have shown him the Mouseion or Place of the Muses. This was a group of buildings on the palace grounds. They included lecture halls, laboratories, a park and a zoo. These were all richly endowed by the Ptolemies and were a center of scientific research and literary studies. The Library of Alexandria was famous over the whole known world at the time. It had about 300,000 books, or scrolls as it were and was opn to anyone who could read. Julius Caesar is wrongfully accused of burning the whole library down during his short Alexandrian war of 48-47 BC-in fact only a part of it was destroyed at that time.

Octavian's stay in Alexandria probably got many wheels turning in his head about what a capital should be, both architectually and culturally. The genius of the Ptolemies had been to show how intellectuals and artists could flower and grow with a "soft" guilding hand by the state. Octavian returned to Rome with his mind made up to create a city whose public image and monuments emanated an appropriate magnificence.

Egypt now lost the independence it had held dear (with a few intervals) for thousands of years and would not reclaim until the 20th century A.D. Octavian gave the new possession, as was proper, to the Senate and People of Rome. However, in many ways Egypt had become his private fiefdom. There was a bit of irony here, as not only was Octavian considered the "lord of the two lands" (that is upper and lower Egypt), but also king of kings-the same high-flown title that Mark Antony had accorded Cleopatra. It didn't take the Egyptians long to accept and pay homage to their pharaoh from the Alban Hills of Italy. Modern archaeologists have made a recent discovery of the Egyptian jackal-headed god, Anubis, as a Roman soldier guarding the entrance to a tomb.

There was a very good reason to give Egypt higher priority than other provinces in the empire. Egypt was the Meditteraneans major producer of wheat, it was Rome's breadbasket. This made it too important to let a senator govern the kingdom as a proconsul. Octavian made his friend, the poet Gallus its first prefect. At first, Gallus seems to have done a great job as an energetic and effective leader, but his new exalted status as a kind of lieutenant pharaoh mad him drunk with power. He also engaged in "indiscreet talk when drunk" about his boss-Octavian.

Gallus even had statues made of himself and a list of his achievments inscribed on the pyramids! This was too much and a colleague sent word to Rome about his activities. In 27 BC Gallus was dismissed. Octavian only denied him entry to his house and the right to enter the provinces of which he was the proconsul. This wasn't enough for the Senate, which exiled him and confiscated his estates. Octavian thanked the Senate for supporting him in the harsh measures he had taken against his friend. Octavian stated: "I am the only man in Rome who cannot limit his displeasure with his friends. The matter always has to be taken further." There are different accounts left to us from history about how Gallus dealt with his disgrace. One has him so humiliated by it that he committed suicide. Another story says he died while having sexual intercourse. The fate of Gallus was a warning to those who orbited the center of power, not to take anything for granted or get out of line.

Enough time had elapsed between the Battle of Actium and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra for the Meditteranean world to deal with the final conclusion of the civil wars and now to contemplate the unchallenged ascendancy of Octavian. Honors came to him from every corner of the empire, including the right to use the title Imperator, this was the name soldiers used to acclaim victorious generals, as his permanent first name. Octavian declined other awards and honors in a calculating show of modesty.

There was one senatorial decree that gave Octavian the greatest satisfaction above all others. This was the formal closing of the gates of the very modest Temple of Janus. This temple stood in the Forum and had perhaps been used as a bridge over a stream that used to flow across the square (covered a long time now and turned into a drain). Janus was the god of gateways. This god had two faces-one always facing towards the future and the other-the past. The temple had doors on either end; closed in times of peace and open in times of war. Seeing how the Romans were a very warlike people, empire-building people-these doors were almost always open. It was a great compliment and acclamation to Octavian that these doors were shut. A great symbol of the much talked about-and much delayed arrival of peace throughout the entire empire under one supreme leader.

Octavian did not get back to Italy until 29 August 30 B.C. He was consul again, and had been regularly holding the consulship since his triumviral mandate rendered in 31 B.C. Like his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, Octavian knew that he couldn't govern alone, and he made sure Rome knew that reconciliation was very much back in fashion. In his official autobiography, Octavian claimed: "Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon."

The claim of clemency should be taken with a grain of salt. Yes-many were forgiven, but some were not. Octavian was not near as free in his let bygones be bygones attitude as his great-uncle was-perhaps remembering what had happened to him by many he trusted on the Ides of March.

Revenge was even taken on the dead. Mark Antony's name was removed from the Fasti, the state register of official events, and many other steps taken such as removing statues of him-his birthday was even made a dies nefastus, an unlucky day, on which public business could not be carried out. There was more going on here than just Octavian's wish to see all memory of Mark Antony expunged from the face of the earth.

There was a propaganda machine cranking up that meant to rewrite history. Actium, which had really been no more than a minor naval engagement with the romantic twist of the star-crossed lovers Antony and Cleopatra breaking through the blockade, was being transformed into a great battle between the hardy and upright moral Rome and the effeminate and devious East, between Good and Evil itself. The poets who associated with Octavian's childhood friend Maecenas, worked on his imaginative rewritings of history.

Horace composed a memorable and-although it was well written-the poem did not have even one accurate statement in it! Virgil, who was the greatest poet of the age, wrote the most complete verse of what all of this was about, in his great national epic of Rome's beginnings, the Aeneid. In this epic, Julius Caesar's ancestor, Aeneas, has Octavian prophetically engraved on his shield at the head of tota Italia, all Italy. The nova or comet that had shone so brightly in the night sky for a week after Julius Caesar's assassination shines above Octavian as he sets out to put the corrupt and craven East in its place:

High up on the poop [he] is leading
The Italians into battle, the Senate and People with him,
His home gods and the great gods: two flames shoot up from his helmet
In jubilant light, and his father's star dawns over its crest.

The image is a marble bust of Octavian at a very young age. I do hope to post the next segment soon. I need to think of a new series name! The "intermission" is over now-if it indeed could ever have been considered one. I am glad I had some of this saved to drafts already. I can't do this near as much as I would like but it helps enormously when I can because of my back and lousy typing. The rest of this week until Monday starts again might be a bit of a mess depending on what happens, but I don't want to say what will or won't get done- as when I do I am often wrong! Please hope and pray if you want for a positive result for me with my disability hearing on the 17th-Thursday. I may not even know the answer for another 3 to 5 months-but my case will be "decided" Thursday whatever happens. The extra time is because there are not enough staff to type up decisions made-like a whole four people for the whole of Maricopa County-maybe even the whole state-forgot which. Thanks again to Jon and anyone else who has commented here or reads this blog-I appreciate it so very much-and hope to keep going with this blog as best I can in the future!

Intermezzo Part Four

2009-12-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

However, fate or history-are they one and the same? had something else in mind. Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a young aristocrat on Octavian's staff, and yet another member of the male sex said to be "by no means insensible to Cleopatra's charms," warned her that Octavian was about to leave Egypt and that she and her children were to be sent away within three days. For Cleopatra this signaled the end of the road. She arranged for an asp-the Egyptian cobra-to be smuggled in to her in a basket of figs. Cleopatra then dismissed all of her attendants, except for two faithful ladies-in-waiting, and closed the doors to the mausoleum.

There are different versions of what happened next but the end result was the same-she died. One version has her saying "So here it is," and removing the figs to reveal the snake, and holding out her arm to be bitten. Another has her provoking the asp to anger with a golden spindle until it jumped out of a jar and bit her. She was 39. Plutarch tells us that she was discovered "lying dead upon a golden couch dressed in her royal robes. Of her two women, Iras lay dying at her feet, while Charmion, already tottering and scarcely able to hold up her head, was adjusting the crown which encircled her mistress's brow."

Now we come to the hard part-trying to decide how much of this romantically tragic ending is true? The reason being is that propaganda and some things not considered by historians and commentators. Maybe the queen's leaving the stage was in Octavian's interest? Executing a woman was not fashionable in Rome, and Cleopatra's appearance at his triumph in Rome might not have been the glittering prize it would first seem to be.

Octavian could well have remembered how Cleopatra's half-sister, Arsinoe, had won the onlookers sympathy when led in chains in one of Julius Caesar's triumphs. Could it not have been much to Octavian's advantage to have Cleopatra kill herself? Here is one scenario: When Cleopatra didn't show any tendencies toward suicide, Dolabella, a man probably half the queen's age and far from being the type of trustworthy and loyal servant that the aforementioned Iras and Charmion were, was instructed to put a "bug" in Cleopatra's ear and leak his employer's travel plans in the hope that this would push her over the edge-and it did.

As for the exact way Cleopatra exited this life it is best to agree with Dio's judgment that "no one knows clearly in what way she perished." First of all the story of the asp in a basket of figs is problematic. The typical size of such a reptile would be eight feet long-a bit large for a basket of figs and one would assume very difficult to handle! Secondly, a single bite by an asp is not necessarily fatal, and even when it is, as much as two hours can pass before the victim of the bite perishes.

We can suppose that Octavian arranged to have Cleopatra murdered, and had his propaganda machine crank out the suicide story. The problem with this theory is that there is absolutely no evidence for it. We can only judge from the facts and aftermath of the queen's death. A second look has shown us that it might have been much to Octavian's advantage to have the queen out of the way-somehow-as she would probably not have been the centerpiece of any triumph he would hold in Rome.

Octavian certainly showed no hesitation whatsoever in have the boys Caesarion and Antyllus caught and executed. Sadly, the boys' last big celebration-their coming of age ceremony was also their death sentence, for it made them as qualified for blame as culpable adults. The younger children, the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus, were spared. Some historians apparently have questions about whether the youngest-Ptolemy Philadelphus- survived the journey to Rome. After being in Octavian's triumph, they joined a large group of children being cared for by Octavian's sister-the kind and maternal Octavia.

When Cleopatra Selene had grown up, she married the scholarly King Juba of Numidia, by whom she had a son and a daughter. In all likelihood, she took her brothers with her to North Africa. History tells us nothing more about them and we can suppose that they led intentionally quiet lives-doing all they could to avoid Rome's dangerous and unfair spotlight.

Octavian was somewhat different from many Romans-he enjoyed being a tourist but didn't loot expensive and beautiful objects. He only took one item, a single agate cup, away from the palace of the Ptolemies. He visited some of the sights in Alexandria, which would have been exquisite and brilliant in white limestone and marble. The most important of the sites to Octavian especially was the tomb of Alexander the Great, which stood at the crossroads of the city's two main avenues. Alexander had died in 323 BC. His embalmed body was placed in a gold and crystal coffin and was the new city's most sacred monument. Today, not a trace of the corpse or the building that housed it, the Soma, remains, although it very well could have stood on the site of today's Mosque of the Prophet Daniel.

Octavian was now the same age-33-as Alexander when he died. He was a great devotee of the conquering Macedonian. Octavian wanted to see the mummy and honor it; so it was temporarily removed from its coffin and burial chamber and displayed to the public.

The image is just an example of some Roman coinage. I almost got all the way caught up tonight-and just couldn't quite make it to the end. I will now need some time to get some article-sized information written. If tonight turns out to be another night of insomnia, I might even be able to work a bit on it this eve/am-but I would really like to sleep for once! I may be offline tomorrow-but do hope to be back soon. Again I appreciate the wonderful and insightful comments so much from Jon and others who have commented!

Intermezzo Part Three

2009-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

One of Mark Antony's bodyguards brought Octavian the dead man's bloodied sword, and it is reported that he withdrew into his tent and wept. Normally, Octavian kept his feelings under wraps-as Roman men were very much expected to do, and there is only one other report of him crying tears: when he received an account of Julius Caesar's funeral. If he had indeed wept at this point it was probably from the build-up of the stresses and tensions over the years and their sudden release. It is very unlikely (although not unheard of in history of one enemy weeping at the death of another) that Octavian wept with any empathy whatsoever toward Antony. He had never gotten along with his former brother-in-law and fellow triumvir.

Octavian had pursued with an utter single-mindedness to have this man out of his way on his climb up to ultimate power. Perhaps this whole event was invented, and simply was an illustration of Octavian and his camp's skillful use of propaganda.

Although Octavian ruled the Roman world, he had never seen a great Hellenistic megalopolis before. He was only familiar with cities like Rome and Athens that had grown unplanned and unkempt over many centuries. The type of city Octavian was used to were crowded, ugly, clamorous contrivances, devoid of charm, wide avenues and splendid vistas. Thus, Alexandria made a great impression on Octavian.

The city was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, the 25-year-old Macedonian king who conquered the Persian empire. The city was built on a narrow bar of land with the Meditteranean on one side and a shallow lake on the other.

A little way offshore lay an island, Pharos, with its celebrated lighthouse, which was three miles long and protected the lighthouse from storms. The street plan was based on a grid pattern, like a modern American city. A mile-long dike was built between the shore and the island of Pharos, thus creating two harbors, the Great harbor on the east side and the Eunostus (or Happy Return) harbor to the west. A canal from Lake Maraeotis in the south connected the city to the Nile and so to Egypt both as a center for making goods and a market. The city was a great success and in the first centurt B.C., the total population may have equalled Rome's.

Alexandria's magnificent look made it a center for culture and fashion throughout the eastern Meditteranean. Strabo described it as the "greatest emporium of the inhabited world." Now Octavian had the run of the city, and on foot he led his men through the Gate of the Sun, not far from the hippodrome outside the walls, and along one of the city's main thoroughfares, the Canopic Way. Anxious crowds had begun to gather around this audacious newcomer and conqueror. Octavian made a point of being accompanied by Aerius, an Alexandrian citizen and a well-known philosopher and rhetorician. This friendly move was probably to alleviate the fears of the people, as it was very common after a city's conquest that it would be given over to be pillaged and ransacked by the victors.

Octavian and his men made their way to the Gymnasium. This was the same place where Antony and Cleopatra probably held the ceremony of the Donations of Alexandria. The place was full of a very nervous people, and when Octavian came to the speaker's dais, the audience was so engulfed by their terror that they all fell on their faces. Octavian told them he had no intention of holding the city responsible for the conduct of its leaders. At Areius' request he granted a number of pardons. The Octavian went to the Royal Palace, which was to the north of the Canopic Way; here he would find Cleopatra.

He sent ahead an eques named Gaius Proculeius, a close friend of his whom, it so happened, Antony in his last moments had recommended to the queen. Proculeius had instructions to do whatever it took to capture her alive. The palace took up a whole fifth of the city, along with the quayside of the Great Harbor. The complex was almost completely buried under later buildings and there aren't any ruins to visit; however some of it sank into the sea after an earthquake and subsequent tidal wave in the fourth century B.C., and is now being explored. The main palace building stood on Cape Lochias, a promontory at the harbor mouth.

Somewhere near here, Cleopatra sat beyond despair in her mausoleum, awaiting Alexandria's conqueror-her conqueror. She had gathered gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory and cinnamon (a very pricey spice in that era and regarded as a present fit for royalty) in this place. She had also brought a great deal of firewood and tinder. This implied a threat to Octavian that if he didn't treat her well, she would set everything afire.

Ancient sources tell us that Octavian's debate on what to do about Cleopatra centered around these precious items in her possession at the time, but as Anthony Everitt states in his book Augustus on page 193: "...this consideration weighed heavily with him, although it cannot have been decisive: the queen can hardly have had personal possession of the kingdom's entire reserves of precious metals-and, even if she had, they would survive a fire. The loss of the jewelry and other precious items would be a pity, but it was not a matter of high importance."

Proculeius arrived at the mausoleum and gained entry by a trick. He had noticed that the upper window through which the dying Antony had been pulled through was still open. So, while someone distracted Cleopatra by engaging her in conversation through the door of the mausoleum, Proculeius climbed through the window with two servants using a ladder. He captured Cleopatra and placed her under guard. Cleopatra was allowed to preside at Mark Antony's funeral, but not before Octavian inspected the corpse. The formerly proud queen was now a broken woman-in spirit and physically. She became ill and remained a prisoner inside the mausoleum.

The long dreamed of addition of Egypt to the Roman Empire solved Octavian's financial troubles with a flourish. Over time, after the kingdom's bullion reserves were transported to Rome, the standard rate of interest instantly dropped from 12 percent to 4 percent. There was now enough money to not only settle his account with the veterans and to buy all the land they required-it was without any surprise that land values doubled-but there was enough money to invest in yet more public works, and the weary (from the civil strife and political upheavals over the last 50 to 100 years depending on where one wants to say the collapse of the Republic began) people of Rome received munificent individual money grants.

Soon after her arrest, Ocatavian paid a visit to Cleopatra. We can assume he must have known her (or at least heard much juicy gossip and seen her) from her stay in Rome as Julius Caesar's lover nearly fifteen years previously. Her appearance now must have been so hugely different that she must have been almost unrecognizable from the proud, luxurious-and the much despised by most Romans-queen who had visited Julius Caesar then. Plutarch tells us: "She had abandoned her luxurious style of living, and was lying on a pallet bed dressed only in a tunic, but, as he entered, she sprang up and threw herself at his feet. Her hair was unkempt and her expression wild, while her eyes were shrunken and her voice trembled uncontrollably."

Octavian asked her to lie down again and sat beside her. Cleopatra-rather pathetically we can imagine (but what would we do ourselves if we were in her shoes-or tunic;-) so to speak?) then tried to justify her part in the war, saying that she had been forced to act as she did and had been in fear of Antony. Octavian must have been happy with her pleading tone, for it suggested she didn't intend to kill herself. Then he undertook to destroy excuses point by point, and she begged for pity as if desperate to save her life. The ancient commentators claim that he did indeed want her to live because she would make a praiseworthy display in the triumph he intended to hold in Rome. There is some argument later over this as we shall see.

I tried to type as long as I could taking breaks and such for my back standing up down, up down-and I just gotta quit for the eve! My back is too sore and my hands are tired. And I still want to visit the blogs my friends have-at least as many as I can. I am still ahead of the game, so to speak and have more written out ready to go. Tonight I was going to attempt just to do it all-that I had done anyway to close the "Antony/Cleopatra Chapter" -although as with Hadrian/Antinous at MFM I am sad in a way to see them go-it has been a very long time since I had originally intended to be through not only this part of Roman history-but through all of the rule of Augustus too. I would still like to go fairly slow with the rest of Augustus-using Anthony Everitt's wonderful book as my guide-although not near as slow as I have been going-lately it has been pretty much page by page-rarely even skipping a paragraphs worth for every three pages. I really need to learn to be better at condensing information!

There are so many other areas of history-even Roman history-and questions of history (btw the reason I like using Anthony Everitt's Augustus -well one of the many-is that I feel he answers a lot of questions I have had about history when I started this blog-just in this post there were some economic questions answered-and I think in past articles using Augustus there have been many other questions answered-at least for the timeframe and people we are talking about-and I am on page 197 of a 327 page book-but like I say-I need to condense better!) I would even like to talk about "What If?" questions about history in this blog-and have two "What If?" books that talk about these alternate routes history could have taken.

The image is lame for what I was looking for-although still part of the story. It is a representation of Cleopatra VII (our Cleopatra) and her son by Julius Caesar-Caesarion. We will find out soon what happens to the children involved here also. I just checked out wikipedia-and they seem to have questions about the 2 youngest males that Everitt's book doesn't-so that might be interesting to think about. I was looking for a model-painting-heck-any type of likeness of Alexandria in the first century B.C. I will keep searching and put it in this post or a future one. I do hope to post again here in a matter of days. Thanks again Jon and anyone else who has commented in the past for your fantastic and intelligent comments! I really appreciate getting comments on this blog-it gives me that much more enjoyment for doing a blog about a subject I love and am always learning new viewpoints etcetera about. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Intermezzo Part Two

2009-12-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

Today's installment will determine if I can type with an angry cat after me! My cat has the run of the place-my heart-my home -everything-I just can't type with her in my lap-so she isn't very happy to be set down like just now!

Cleopatra still had plenty of money and her people were loyal to her. An army and a fleet were put together. To help the mood in Alexandria, a great ceremony-almost as magnificent as the Donations of Alexandria-was held, at which the sixteen-year-old King of Kings, Ptolemy XV Caesar (aka Caesarion), and Antony's son by Fulvia, the fourteen-year-old Antyllus, officially came of age.

Octavian received a succession of envoys from Alexandria. He listened to their proposals, but conceded nothing. Octavian didn't make his own stand clear, but it was obvious that he wanted to win the great and wonderfully wealthy prize of Egypt. Egypt had attracted the covetous gaze of powerful Romans for more than a century. Octavian wanted to win Egypt for himself, not just for the greater glory of Rome.

Octavian planned to use another pincer movement for the invasion. Four Antonian legions that had switched loyalties would invade from Cyrenaica-the land directly to the west of Egypt. In a show of favor, Octavian appointed the command of these men to the 30-year-old Gaius Cornelius Gallus, although he was only an eques and previously best known as a fine lyric poet. For once, the indispensable Agrippa was left back in Rome. This was because the Egyptian campaign was unlikely to cause problems that would require his strategic services. Octavian marched through Syria at the head of a large army towards the Egyptian frontier. Mark Antony was finally able to get out of his funk for a bit because he thought he could win his legions back if he went to Paretonium where Gallus had installed himself.

But poor Antony-his attempts to win back his legionaires and take the town failed. His ships were trapped in the harbor and burned or sunk. The remainder of Antony and Cleopatra's forces were stationed at Pelesium, a port on the easternmost edge of the Nile delta. It straddled the coastal route that edged the Sinai desert, and being the only way of entry by land into Egypt from the east, was strategically important.

Pharaohs throughout the millenia had always made sure it was well protected by a strong garrison. Pelesium fell with minimal resistance. It could have been quickly stormed without being able to put up much of a fight-or more intriguingly surrendered by Cleopatra. If this were the case, she was trying to break her ties to Mark Antony. Cleopatra's first loyalty had always been to her kingdom and maintaining her power-no matter what bonds were said to be forged in the 'societies' or 'orders' she and Antony created. This scenario and other accounts of her actions during this time could have been taken straight from Octavian's propaganda machine, which proclaimed the queen's eastern deviousness and Antony's embarrassing role as her dupe.

Octavian also seems to have encountered little or no defiance at Alexandria. He passed the upscale suburb of Canopus and set up a camp near the hippodrome, just outside the city walls. When Antony got news that Pelesium had fallen, he quickly made his way back to Alexandria and, on the outskirts of the city, took on an advance guard of enemy cavalry and wiped them out. Antony was ecstatic by this victory and returned to the palace and embraced Cleopatra while still in full armor. After that, he introduced her to a soldier who had displayed great bravery during the battle. As a reward, the queen gave him a golden helmet and breastplate. The soldier took them, and that night promptly deserted to Octavian.

Antony challenged his onetime fellow triumvir to single combat with hopeless bravado. Antony couldn't possibly have been anticipating an agreement and Octavian responded derisively: "There are many different ways by which Antony can die." On 31 July, Antony decided to launch an all-out attack by both land and sea the next day. At dinner that night he ate and drank heartily and told the people around him that he didn't expect to survive the battle. Supposedly this is what transpired later that evening: "about the hour of midnight, when all was hushed and a mood of dejection and fear of its impending fate brooded over the whole city, suddenly a marvellous sound of music was heard...as if a troop of revellers were leaving the city, shouting and singing as they went...Those who tried to discover a meaning for the prodigy concluded that the god Dionysus, with whom Antony claimed kinship and whom he sought above all to imitate was now abandoning him."

Indeed, gods in those days were often imagined to leave besieged cities before they fell, Troy, Athens and Jerusalem being some examples. However, if this story has a basis in fact, the Alexandrians could have been hearing Octavian, backed up by a soldiers' chorus, performing an evocatio, in this ceremony, a Roman general would call on the gods of an enemy city to change sides and go over to Rome. On 1 August, as dawn broke, Antony sent his fleet eastward to meet Octavian's ships, and he positioned his land forces on rising ground between the city walls and the hippodrome.

What happened next was a fiasco of mind-boggling proportions. It would have been a comedy for everyone except Antony and Cleopatra and those close to them. The ships raised their oars and surrendered without a fight; the fleets immediately combined and set a new course for Alexandria. The cavalry deserted and the foot soldiers made good on their "name" and used their feet to run away! Antony went into a rage when he got back inside the walls of Alexandria. He is reported to have shouted out that Cleopatra had indeed betrayed him (as some suggested earlier-I will talk more about this later-something just came to me involving this) to the enemies that he was fighting on her behalf. Terrified, she had a message sent that she was dead.

Now there was just one thing to do-go honorably the Roman way. Antony asked his body servant to run him through, but was failed again by "his" staff as the man turned on his own sword and committed suicide himself! Antony then stabbed himself in the stomach and lay on the bed. However, not only did the wound fail to kill him but soon stopped bleeding. He was still in pain and begged bystanders to put him out of his misery, but they too ran away from him.

Cleopatra heard what had happened and sent word for Antony to be brought to her. She was hiding in a large mausoleum she had commissioned, which stood-still only part finished in the palace grounds near a Temple of Isis-the goddess that Cleopatra claimed kinship with. Cleopatra was scared of any surprises and refused to unseal the doors, and she and two women servants painstakingly pulled the dying man with ropes up to a high window. Plutarch writes: "clinging with both hands to the rope and with the muscles of her face distorted by the strain." Cleopatra beat and scratched her breasts in the traditional manner of a grieving widow, and smeared her face with the blood from Antony's wound. Antony tried to calm her, and true to his reputation to the end called for and drank a cup of wine before dying.

My ever so brilliant deduction (joke:-) I just had-and maybe had the first glimmerings for several days ago when I wrote this-is this: By taking the dying Antony into her hiding place at the mausoleum -and it seems using quite a bit of stress to do it-haven't we exonerated-just maybe-the idea that Cleopatra had already turned her back on him and was even cooperating with the enemy? Or is it me-whose deductions are foolish? She may indeed have known how hopeless their cause was -even long before this as she was a very intelligent, learned woman. But as we shall see later (hopefully within a matter of days-I am trying to keep on top of this) she seemed to want to save her life later-as maybe her courage had left her by then. But with that in mind why do this with Antony now? Why not leave him out to die on his own? She had to have known that this would be used against her by Octavian I would think anyway.

I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this or anything else here on this blog. Thanks again so very much to Jon and others who have commented here and anyone reading or following this blog-I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and ideas! I hope to have the next part here soon and already have more written down, for some reason I have found it has helped me with this blog to stay several steps ahead. When I get everything I have posted it seems like such a large climb up the hill to get more done. I hope no one feels "gypped" no pun intended-by me doing it this way-especially as we are into such a fascinating timeframe-like I say I do intend to go as fast as I can barring problems with this blog for awhile. The image is a painting of Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse. The source used for this article was once again Anthony Everitt's excellent book Augustus, pages 189 to 191.

Intermezzo Part One

2009-12-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

At this point many more soldiers were active than needed-or could be afforded. Octavian sent Italian veterans older than a certain age back to Italy for their formal discharge, but gave these men no land or money, because at the time Octavian had none to give! Agrippa was sent to deal with these men who had become resentful-and rightfully so. This was not the only sign that Octavian's regime was unpopular.

Maecenas discovered a plot to assassinate Octavian upon his return to Italy. This plot had been clumsily hatched by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, son of the former deposed triumvir and a nephew of Marcus Brutus. This young man was put to death. Dio writes that Antony and Cleopatra planned to "actually kill [Octavian] by treachery." We can wonder if they were ever in touch with the younger Lepidus? Here we can see another aspect of Octavian's personality that helped him enormously in his rule over the Roman empire-and it's a quality that some other ancient and modern dictators lack or lacked completely. Octavian was more than happy to delegate powers to Agrippa and Maecenas. Of course these were two of the men who had been with him since his childhood and he had no reason not to trust them completely-so Octavian was certainly no fool in who he put his faith in. Octavian allowed both men to read his communiques to the Senate, and correct them if they saw a need for it. He had duplicates made of his seal ring-the image of a sphinx-so that they could seal up his letters again.

The Donations of Alexandria were immeditately canceled. Octavian did depose many minor royal figures-but Octavian confirmed on their thrones the major client kings-Amyntas of Galatia, who had defected to him before Actium; Polemo of Pontus, who had stayed put in his kingdom; and Archelaus of Cappodocia. These men were able rulers, and they knew very well that it was their best interest to stay loyal to whoever ruled Rome. In the case of these men and others, Mark Antony had been a very good judge of character and Octavian didn't see any reason to change the arrangements he had made in this part of the world. For Antony's sake it is only too bad-and a bit strange-that he wasn't a better judge of Octavian's character-or could at least deciphered his ultimate goal!

As to the directly ruled provinces of the empire, reliable and safe colleagues were appointed eventually as proconsuls. For example, Cicero's son Marcus, although drunk quite often, but reliable was given Syria. For the time being, the newly minted province of Armenia was lost. The deposed king of that nation had taken advantage of the distraction of Actium to reclaim his realm. Octavian had no choice but to ignore this slap in the face to Roman power and interests. The decision about what was to be done about the eastern frontier-the Armenians, the Medes, and east of them the untamed Parthians, who still held the lost standards of Crassus from 53 BC-would have to be put on the back-burner for now. Octavian was simply too busy.

Agrippa wrote a disturbing letter to Octavian in January of 30 BC. Octavian was still on Samos when he received it. The letter said that Agrippa wasn't able to handle the Italian veterans who had become openly mutinous and that his prescence was needed immediately. This was a terrible time of year to take a long sea journey because of dangerous storms, but it had to be done. When Octavian disembarked at Brundisium, something happened that let him know that people realized Rome was being ruled be one unchallenged man now. He was met by the entire Senate (except for a couple of praetors and the tribunes), many equites, and great numbers of regular citizens. Octavian received an enthusiastic welcome. This was a singular honor as it was normal for senators to meet a returning ruler outside the gates of Rome, but to get to Brundisium they had travelled 300 miles to do so!

The angry veterans met Octavian at Brundisium too, and he quickly met their demands, although he didn't have enough "liquid" cash to pay them all on the spot. He had to issue promises postdated to the expected fall of Alexandria. This satisified the veterans-for now. But Octavian knew he could not trifle with these promises, and after a month back on Italian soil Octavain returned to Samos, where he made plans for the long-awaited invasion of Egypt.

Unfortunately for Antony and Cleopatra the "theory" of political power ran up against "realpolitik." In theory they should haven't had reason to be unhappy, because they still ruled half the Roman empire. The complete financial and human wealth and reserves should have been theirs to use as they saw fit. However, since Actium, important people in the eastern provinces were unwilling to supply more aid and soldiers to support what they considered a lost cause.

Upon Antony's eventual arrival in Alexandria from Paratonium, he abandoned the palace and his friends. In his emotional despair he chose to live by himself in a quayside house that sat beside Alexandria's great lighthouse, more than 300 feet high, on the island of Pharos. Mark Antony turned 54 on 14 January 30 BC. Cleopatra got him out of his self-pity and misery by throwing a spectacular birthday bash for him. Plutarch wrote: "Cleopatra and Antony now dissolved their celebrated Society of Inimitable Livers and instituted another, which was at least its equal in elegance, luxury and extravagance, and which they called the Order of the Inseperable in Death. Their friends joined it on the understanding that they would end their lives together, and they set themselves to charm away the days with a succession of exquisite supper parties."

The couple knew Octavian would arrive with the coming of spring and march against them. They had no realistic opportunity to escape to some other part of the world, although they had briefly considered Spain and Cleopatra had tried to organize an expedition to Arabia but failed. The lovers were cornered. They had but two options left: negotiate and if that failed, to prepare for a final and futile last stand.

I still have some information written-probably two or three posts worth. I think 3 new posts -although the two below had been done mostly and saved to drafts is enough for now-and I still have one more post at my writing blog to do -that is if the power doesn't go out! The lights began to flicker a bit ago and it is actually stormy and rainy here in the desert tonight, which is weather I love-I would just love it more if I felt better. There is actually a question about the image I used-but I will post this bit first-just in case the power fails-and then if it doesn't come back with a link and my question about it. Thanks again so very much to anyone commenting or reading this blog!

OK-I hope this link works-if it doesn't I won't mess with it anymore. I think I answered my own question anyway. I was trying to see if any images of frescoes or anything had been unearthed at Augutus' house on the Palatine Hill. He was supposed to have had an appreciation for how life was kind of a farce -not to be taken too seriously. There was supposed to have been a frescoe of the tragic and comic masks actors wore in his bedroom. That is what I started to look for image-wise. I found the above image instead and thought it was from his place, but apparently it is from a cave-the Lupercal-very near to where his home was on the Palatine Hill and recently unearthed. So the image is from the cave and not Augustus' place. If the link works scroll down a bit to a November 21, 2007 entry and it tells about it. Again I couldn't be doing this series without Anthony Everitt's excellent book Augustus. I hope to post again very soon. Here is the link. http://chem11.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=UFO&action=print&thread=398

Battle Of Actium Part Two

2009-12-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Also interesting in the story of this fascinating event in Roman history is the fact that Octavian and Agrippa could not know for sure they had won. Octavian probably suspected he was the victor, but he couldn't be 100 percent certain. The night was starting to come and it wasn't always easy to tell and enemy ship from a friendly one at the best of times. Octavian would have received reports from a battle front that was probably over four miles long, but he could not rely on the accuracy of the reports.

Octavian's position would have been somewhere toward the center of his line, and he would have seen Cleopatra's getaway under full sail, but he wouldn't have any knowledge or reason, necessarily, to think that Mark Antony had fled the scene with her. One thing Octavian did see was a retreat by some enemy ships. He had learned, during the war with Sextus Pompeius that admirals often felt they had to spend a sleepless night at sea after a battle.

He and Agrippa knew they had probably achieved victory in corraling what remained of Antony's fleet, and they wanted to avoid the risk of it escaping under the cloak of night or at first light. To prevent this, as uncomfortable (especially as they were no doubt exhausted-just from the adrenaline coursing through their veins during the day and finally stopping would have left them drained and weary) and dangerous as it was, they kept their ships at sea throughout the night.

With the arrival of morning, Octavian now back on land could assess the battle. He saw that he had definitely achieved a partial victory at least. Between 30 and 40 enemy galleys had been sunk and about 5,000 of Antony's troops killed. The commanders of the 130 to 140 residual ships considered the hopelessness of their cause and surrendered. However, the large army of 50,000 men was still together under the leadership of Publius Canidius Crassus. Crassus had begun to lead these men towards the Pindos mountains and the relative safety of Macedonia. If this army could not be dealt with in some way, the battle of Actium would just be one engagement of the war and not its decisive encounter, so Octavian marched after Antony's legions.

As events conspired, Octavian had no need to worry. These men had no idea that their commander had abandoned them, until the day after the battle. For a time, they were certain Antony would appear from somewhere. However, the days and nights passed with no sight or word of him and these soldiers' confidence was lost. Instead they chose to deal with the victor, Octavian. After a week of difficult negotiations in which the soldiers demanded to be treated as if they had been on the winning side, Octavian caved in and agreed to keep the legions intact instead of disbanding them and more importantly he promised to give them the same rewards as the victorious army.

Canidius and other senior officers didn't want any involvement in this deal, and one night they left camp and made they sad and lonely way to Mark Antony. Mark Antony and Cleopatra's activities and location took awhile after Actium to get to Octavian. Antony had caught up to Cleopatra and they went to the beautiful port of Paraetonium, located just inside Egypt's western frontier and 180 miles from Alexandria.

Antony sent Cleopatra ahead to Alexandria with her ships bedecked in the garlands of victory. Before the truth could become known she had any potential rabblerousers killed. Antony had hoped to communicate with four of his legions in Cyrene, but they had already went over to Octavian and refused to meet him. Now Mark Antony fell into a dark and deep depression. Octavian sent a message of victory to Rome. Here in the aftermath of his victory at Actium another aspect of his personality came out that was so typical of the way he had methodically rose to power. Patient as ever, he was in no hurry to deal with the defeated queen and general. Octavian decided to spend the oncoming winter on the island of Samos.

The image is of a marble bust of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Thanks again for your fantastic and insightful comments! I always learn to look at things in a new light or perhaps change my whole perspective with the comments some people have left so I very much appreciate them! This post and the previous were saved to drafts and just required a slight bit of work to post. I hope to do one more for the night that will need to be typed up from the start. All the best to anyone stopping by!

PS-the next series name "Intermezzo" is not one I am sure I like -or that even properly describes this time frame -I was trying to think of a new post series name -short - and remembered a book I had read a long time ago about Soviet history-and it had a chapter called "An Itermezzo With Konstantin Chernenko" so that is where the name came from-I don't know Italian or any other languages but wish I did-especially French, Spanish and Italian.

Battle Of Actium Part One

2009-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Agrippa waited for Antony to realize he was not going to move, and start on his own again. This, eventually Antony did, putting himself with the squadron on the right. The command of Antony's left flank was given to the competent and able Sosius. Here the "fog of war" takes over and history can give only the widest and most nebulous account of what happened next.

Plutarch tells us: "The fighting took on much of the character of a land battle, or to be more exact, of an attack on a fortified town. Three or four of Octavian's ships clustered around each one of Antony's and the fighting was carried on with wicker shields, spears, poles, and flaming missiles, while Antony's soldiers also shot with catapults from wooden towers."

We can imagine that with his greater number of warships, that Agrippa could move his fleet into two lines and most likely did so, while Antony would have only been able to have one line of ships. Early into the battle, Agrippa began to test Antony's northern flank. Antony's ships responded by moving northward, maybe swinging around from a north/south to a west/east axis. This would have had the effect of weakening both parties center lines.

After a couple of hours into the fight, Agrippa must have started to feel more confident as there hadn't been an enemy line he couldn't break through. Antony's ships were fighting as best they could, they were simply outnumbered. In the early afternoon, the wind changed direction, as it did every day allowing a stunning event to occur.

Cleopatra's squadron, which hadn't been engaging in any of the fighting suddenly sailed through the weakened center, where there was room enough to maneuever between groups of battling vessels. Her ship was easy to spot because it had a royal purple sail. With the change in wind direction, once Cleopatra's squadron had bypassed Leucas, it could speed south with a breeze billowing in their sails and make their getaway outrunning Octavian's sailless ships with ease. Antony immediately took some ships from his position in the north. His own flagship was too involved in fighting, so he transferred to another vessel and took after Cleopatra with a small armada.

Here is a fascinating small digression about where the ancient commentators were wrong about this event. They incorrectly imagined that Cleopatra lost her courage and fled out of cowardice, and that Mark Antony followed her because he was enraptured with passion and love for Cleopatra. Looking back over 2,000 years we can tell this was very much not the situation. Here is why: 1) The stowing of the sails for use later on to escape. 2) The order of battle (with Cleopatra's ships kept towards the rear with no intention of fighting. 3) The timing of the escape to catch the afternoon wind change.

These facts-not theories or suppositions tell us that the couple was proceeding according to a well thought-out and executed plan. The traitor Dellius had made Agrippa aware that a general breakout was planned-but he hadn't known the specifics, so Agrippa was caught entirely unawares that Cleopatra would try to make her escape while the rest of Antony's fleet tried to keep him occupied. Agrippa had played right into their plan by sailing north to outflank Antony's right and this thinning his center-allowing for Cleopatra's escape.

We can imagine that Antony hoped that other ships of his would also be able to escape, but these vessels were completely engaged trying to fight off Octavian's larger fleet. The wind grew stronger after another hour and some of Antony's ships began to surrender. They had nothing to be ashamed of. The fight had been one of unequal strength from the beginning. Other ships of his withdrew into the Actium strait.

The image is an artist's rendering of the famous Alexandria lighthouse of the island of Pharos. I hope to be back soon with another post. All the best to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part Eight

2009-12-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

The defection of Amyntas was like a snowball rolling downhill, everywhere he looked Antony was losing client kings, Roman senators and others. The most stinging betrayal was the of Domitius Ahenobarbus. He was suffering from a fever that most likely had its source from whatever illness it was that had swept theough Actium earlier in the summer. Ahenobarbus sailed on a small boat to the bay of Comaros. Plutarch tells us: "Antony, although he was deeply grieved by his friend's desertion, sent not only his baggage but all his friends and servants after him, whereupon Domitius died almost immediately, as if he longed to repent as soon as his treachery and disloyalty became public knowledge."

This charitable side of Mark Antony was short-lived, however. He was a man who could be almost as cruel as Octavian when he became agitated. More than a few important defectors were executed in some harsh and imaginative ways after the defection of Ahenobarbus. One senator met his end by being tied to horses and pulled apart. Antony did very much understand, however, that some course of action must be decided on and made at haste. Things could not be allowed to fall apart much longer, so he withdrew his troops back to Actium and called a council of war.

One day Octavian noticed smoke coming from the area where Antony's fleet was based. He knew what was going on: Antony did not have enough oarsmen to man his whole fleet, so he was burning extra ships so they didn't come into his possession. From this it was easy to conclude that the final conflict was coming up fast. The man who had advised Cleopatra about the best method to attract Antony-Dellius-who was one of the defectors from Antony's camp-gave a full report to Octavian about Antony's intentions. He told Octavian that Antony was planning to try to break the blockade at sea.

This was the kind of decision an intelligent man in the matters of war would make under the circumstances. It would have been a very arduous task taking a demoralized army through the steep passes of the Pindos mountains, whereas it was reasonable to assume that a good portion of the fleet would escape manned with Antony's best legionaires. They could then meet up with the 11 or 12 legions in Egypt and Cyrenaica, and try to fight another day-at least that was the plan. The way Octavian's or more precisely Agrippa's response would be framed was the question now. In a very large sense, whatever type of battle was to come, for Octavian's camp-and many onlookers-this deluge of high level defections from Antony recently-the issue of who had won this conflict had already been decided.

To many important people, whether Antony and Cleopatra could break the blockade and escape mattered very little. If the pair could be caught and executed quickly it would simply abbreviate the coming war a great deal. Octavian and Agrippa had decided that if Antony tried to engage at or close to the mouth of the Actium Strait, they would hold back. This was for the obvious reason that they would lose the advantage of greater numbers if they fought in confined waters. Octavian and Agrippa did agree that they would not let Antony's fleet run through the blockade without a fight. If Antony made a clean break it would give him the initiative and also have a detrimental impact on opinion among the military and in Italy. But if Octavian's side waited on open seas, at some point Antony would be forced to emerge and fight on waters of their own choice.

If it happened that way they would try to outflank him in the north (the island that Agrippa had taken over-Leucas-would prevent that maneuver towards the south). Octavian's side would then encircle Antony's smaller fleet, or force him to lengthen his line of ships, which would make it easier for their ships to surround single ships and eliminate them one at a time. Due to the loss of manpower on Antony's side, the balance of naval force was in Octavian's favor. When Antony had first arrived at Ephesus, he had around 500 ships. Now he only had enough men to use 230-possibly less.

Octavian had about 400 ships available. Antony's ships were larger than Octavian's and had more oarsmen so at least this factor was in Antony's favor as they were just as maneuverable as Octavian's vessels. Stormy weather had forced Antony to delay his plans for four days-from 29 August to 2 September. The morning of 2 September was clear and sunny and the fleets headed out to confront each other. Octavian-definitely knowing who was best for the job ahead-smartly gave tactical command to Agrippa. Agrippa put about forty thousand men on the ships (approximately 90 per galley), and deployed them about one mile off the headlands Parginosuela and Scylla, marked the entry into the Actium narrows. With his fleet "parked" in this area, Agrippa waited to see what Antony would do. Mark Antony divided his fleet into four squadrons. On his galleys were about 20,000 legionaires and some archers.

One of the squadrons was Cleopatra's with sixty ships in all. Cleopatra herself was on her flaghip, the Antonias which carried enormous amounts of gold, silver coins, ingots and other items of great worth. Not only was the safety of the queen important, but it was absolutely essential that her war chest didn't fall into Octavian's hands or to the bottom of the sea. 50,000 men in Antony's army remained under the command of Publius Canidus Crassus, who was a long-time ally of Antony's. He had campaigned with great success in Armenia. If the fleet made its escape, he was to march to Macedonia, if possible, and then east.

Before leaving, Antony gave his ships' captains an odd order that may have demoralized them further if they could see how little sense it made in one context and how much in another context. Antony told them to take their sails with them so that not a single enemy ship escaped capture. In this era, sails were seldom if ever used in battle. They took up too much room when stowed and curtailed maneuverability when used. These men were probably wise enough to see through Antony's proclaimed reason and that he wanted the sails stored because he anticipated defeat and flight.

The defector, Dellius had told Agrippa about Antony's plans and he even knew about the decision to load the sails. The men who were not on the ships were watching from the shoreline to see how the battle would go. Octavian's soldiers had such a good view of Antony's ships that they could see exactly what he was doing in the strait and may have been able to keep their commanders updated by using small boats or a type of signaling. There was no surprises when the ships emerged from the strait, and deployed in two lines that stretched between the headlands and stopped. Cleopatra's squadron stayed behind the lines, and did not appear as if it were going to take an active role in the battle. Antony moved first and sailed towards the opening of the strait, hoping Agrippa would take the bait and start fighting. This plan failed because Agrippa judiciously refused to move. Thus a very long wait ensued that lasted through the morning. The two fleets, maybe a mile apart rested on their oars.

The first image is a painting done by Lorenzo Castro in 1672 called The Battle of Actium. I am going to try to put a second image here of the Anbracian Gulf with the location of Octavian's camp and Antony's first and second camps marked on it. I hope it comes out clear. I scanned the page directly from Anthony Everitt's Augustus. The information in this particular post is from his book from pages 180 to 183. I will try to go backwards through all of my posts here and put -if I can locate it-exactly what source and page the data is from sometime soon.

This blog kind of had a "near-death experience". This is because I wasn't sure how many people-if any -at times were reading it and it is too much work to do if no one was reading it. I think I have gone 10 or more posts here without a comment. But recently Jon and other great readers have commented on posts here-so that makes it all worth it. I also put the "sitemeter" thing on to see how many-if any -other readers were stopping by. It has only been on here since the 24th of November so it is probably too early to say I have exact data on it yet-but I was pleasantly surprised to see that out of the first 100 visitors 3 of them spent between 8 minutes and an hour with the blog.

To many 3 out of a hundred may not seem like much-especially as the other 97 stopping by were here zero seconds and it was obviously a net search that didn't pan out for them. But 3 out of a hundred is enough for me to keep going with it-especially if great comments come in here and there. At my "main" blog-My Favorite Monsters-8 to 9 people out of 100 spend any kind of time there-averaging 8 and a half minutes per visit. This is by averaging-the 8 and a half minutes comes from averaging a great many visits-and most are 1 to 4 minutes of the ones that stay-but the eight and a half comes in from averaging the ones that stay 25 minutes and more-with the "record" haha being 72 minutes.

Sorry for the "nerdmania" about visit statistics-I don't know why stuff like that interests me-maybe I should have been a bean-counter when I was able to go to school and work! By the way-I don't look or care about seeing the IP addresses and trying to match or guess who the hometowns are of people commenting. I only know the hometown of an Arizona "blogpal" because she mentioned it in a post-much less the out of state and country visits. I do have to give a "shout-out" to whichever reader of My Favorite Monsters and Dev's Questions hails from the town of Gliwece, Poland in the Katowice area of that nation. Thank you for having been at both of these blogs from the start!

Actually I would like to work more on this blog and my writing blog than My Favorite Monsters for awhile. My writing attempts may be beyond help-but I am going to try. A wonderful woman who I consider more like a sister than a friend has helped with this by recently sending me a Christmas gift of a book that should be easy and interesting to use for posts at My Favorite Monsters while I try hard to work on this and the other blog. You know who you are and you are "on my list" along with your son and father should I win my case-thanks again! OK-sorry -sheesh my internal-well hopefully external too "dialogue" about things unrelated to history is almost longer than the post I just did probably. One last thing related to this blog is that either when I am done with the "Cleopatra/Antony" portion-or maybe all the way through Augustus' rule itself-I would like to add other historical topics in between the Roman history-because I want to go through all eleven other "Caesars" and do a bit about the history of the "5 Good Emperors"-and I don't want others to get bored with Rome or me myself get bored with it. I tried to do this already with the "KAL" posts and a few about the Gorbachev era back in August and September. Thanks again for the fantastic comments and peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part Seven

2009-12-02T14:13:00.001-08:00

The next step would be for Octavian to move his legions from Brundisium to a place near the Via Egnatia in the north. At that point his forces would need to march south immediately moving as fast as they possibly could to corner Antony and keep him from moving his army out of the confined area of Actium into central Greece, where he would have elbow-room to make trouble and maybe even outmaneuver Octavian.

This was an enormously daring plan to say the least. A single stroke of bad luck-a Meditteranean storm could have laid waste to the whole thing. The plan involved moving a fleet across open seas (we would assume if it wasn't to be detected the ships could not have hugged the coastline) and risking the calamity of a Meditteranean squall. However, the mission was crowned with complete success. History has not left us details of the exact sequence of events, but we do know that Methone fell and Octavian, immediately, without any harrassment from the weather or the enemy forces, transferred the main part of his army across the Adriatic Sea, landing somewhere between the Via Egnatia and Corcyra-maybe at Panormus (modern Palermo in Albania).

The first news of Octavian and Agrippa's daring move to reach the headquarters of Antony and Cleopatra was that the enemy had taken over a small town some miles north of Actium called Toryne, the Greek word for ladle. It was a sign of the general anxiety at their headquarters at Patrae that Cleopatra made a terrible joke to try to obscure the nervousness the news provoked: "What is so terrible about Caesar Octavian having got hold of a ladle?" Once Octavian arrived at Actium he found an excellent spot, a hill that is now known as Mikhalitzi today. It was about five miles north of the channel into the Ambracian Gulf, and at 400 feet in height, it had great views all around of the surrounding areas. Right next to it in the south, there was an area that was flat enough to stage a battle, should that become necessary.

Shortly after his arrival, Octavian put his fleet in open water and offered battle, but the other side, short of men and not performing well, smartly declined to come out of safe harbor. Antony was having trouble recruiting oarsmen and keeping them. According to Plutarch, Antony was so short of men that the captain of his warships were "press-ganging travellers, muledrivers, reapers, and boys not yet of military age from the exhausted provinces of Greece."

Antony and Cleopatra came from Patrae in a few days. He moved his army from Actium to the northern peninsula. This may have been at the last part of April. He built a new camp that faced Octavian's. Antony was now ready and restless for battle. However, now Octavian was no longer so eager to fight. There was a very strong reason for this: the amazing and tireless Agrippa had captured the island of Leucas. This gave Octavian's men a safe harbor right on Antony's doorstep, and would make it terribly difficult for supply ships from Egypt to make it to Actium. This was an awful move for Antony's and Cleopatra's camp. Supplies started to run very low and Antony had to break the stranglehold.

There wasn't anything to be gained by waiting to do this, Octavian would simply become stronger because he had secure logistical support coming from Italy. Antony tried to prevent Octavian's camp from access to water by taking control of the springs in the plain beneath Mikahlitzi. He also sent another force of cavalry on a long journey around the Ambracian Gulf to establish itself above Octavian's camp and with that cut off their access to the Louros. However, once again, Lady Luck favored Octavian. His general Titus Statilius Taurus, launched a sudden counterattack and drove off Antony's men. At this juncture one of the eastern client kings deserted Antony's cause.

With the passage of time the health of Antony's men began to disintegrate. There were hardly any tides produced by the Meditteranean to wash away the garbage generated by a large army and naval fleet occupying such a crowded space. During the hot months of summer a plague of either dysentery or malaria wreaked havoc on Antony's camp. Men died and morale fell severely.

Most likely in early August, Antony led a vigorous attempt to break out by land. At the same time, Sosius commanded his fleet to sail under cover of a thick fog or mist and demolished the small enemy squadron that was blockading the exit from the straits of Actium. Most likely, the plan was for Sosius to join forces with Antony at some convenient point on the coast. Again, however, Lady Luck was on the side of Octavian and his forces. Agrippa, by pure chance, arrived in the area with the rest of his fleet and made Sosius flee back into harbor. Antony then tried another cavalry engagement-maybe by trying to cut off Octavian's water supply again-but was repelled. This led to the defection of King Amyntas of Galatia from Antony's forces with 2,000 cavalry.

The image is of a silver tetradrachm, Greco-Roman, minted in the Eastern Meditteranean c. 36 B.C. It shows both Antony on one side and Cleopatra on the other. I like using images of coinage from this period in history because the coins themselves-in certain cases-tell a huge story of what was going on at the time. I need to get caught up again with having material ready to post. It may be a week before anything is here again, but I doubt it will be that long. I wanted to give an outside time limit just in case. Thanks again to Jon, Cioara, Autumnforest and anyone who is commenting, reading or following this blog! We are coming up on a fascinating time with our story here and I am anxious to get to it and the aftermath.

War Drums Part Six

2009-11-30T02:45:00.001-08:00

It is somewhat hard to ascertain what Mark Antony's strategy was when first looking over it. During the two most recent occasions when Greece had been the field of battle, the opposing generals had focused their attention on the north side of the country and the Via Egnatia, the strategically important road to Byzantium and the east. That was where Pompey the Great had based himself in 49 and 48 BC; Brutus and Cassius had marched west along it to be destroyed by Antony and Octavian.

In comparison Antony had no defenses at all north of Corcyra, which was a hundred miles south of the Via Egnatia. Had Octavian wanted to, he could have sailed from Brundisium to Epirus in the hopes of an easy landfall. Some historians have argued that Mark Antony's decision was to cover the route back to Egypt. But it is very improbably that Octavian would have risked his army and fleet on a long jounrey to invade Egypt, assuming that Antony stayed in Greece.

Any invasion of Egypt would have left Italy open to invasion: The one main thing that can be said is that the way Antony had his forces arrayed would protect an escape route to Egypt should that become necessary. A more likely reason for the way Antony's forces were arrayed can be guessed at. The safest and shortest crossing point from Greece to Italy was from the northern parts such as Dyrrachium or Apollonia. By occupying the southern part of Greece, Antony could have been signalling that he had no intention whatsoever of invading the Italian mainland. This would have been important to make known to even his supporters as such a move would have been very unpopular as long as Cleopatra stayed with him.

Antony's plan had almost 100 percent to have been to tempt Octavian to move his army into Greece. Antony and Cleopatra's fleet at Actium could then move to the north and start a general blockade, stopping any reinforcements and provisions from reaching Octavian's men. Then once the trap was sprung, the Roman empire's leading commander would delay engaging his former co-ruler in a set-piece battle. With his supply route from Egypt secure, Antony would have an enormous amount of time before beginning any hostilities, whereas Octavian whom Antony knew was already short of money, would soon be short of food and other supplies. Octavian would be closed in and determined to begin hostilities. Mark Antony must have been thinking that from this point of weakness, Octavian and his army could easily be moved into a weak defensive position and destroyed.

On 1 January 31 BC, Octavian now 32 years old, had a constitutional role again as he began his third consulship. His colleague, Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, was a former republican, who had been put in the place of the excluded Mark Antony. The consuls, along with 700 senators and a large number of equites marched off towards Brundisium. Octavian had 80,ooo soldiers compared to Antony's 100,000. The difference was mostly made up by the number of Antony's auxiliary or light-armed troops. Octavian's legions were more experienced than Antony's mostly eastern recruits, having been blooded in the recent Illyrian campaign.

Octavian had made it very well known that he expected the senior men in Roman politics to accompany his army. Pollio, a strong-willed man who was almost retired from politics boldly refused, saying to Octavian, "My services to Antony are too great and his kindnesses to me too well known. So I will steer clear of your quarrel and will be a prize for whoever wins." Maecenas, Octavian's other friend from childhood, and whose abilities in any kind of conflict would have been questionable, stayed behind to watch over the political situation in Rome for his friend.

Humiliating and bitter experience had taught Octavian to respect his own constraints as a commander-and he turned once again to his other childhood friend-the indispensable Agrippa to take direct charge of the fleet, and of the battle plan as a whole. When they found out where and how Antony's forces were allayed, the two men agreed on a plan that used surprise and speed to turn the tables on Antony to trap him.

If at all possible, even before winter's end, early March, Agrippa would sail south more than 500 miles to the Peloponnese, the southern half of Greece. Agrippa's objective would be to lay siege and capture the heavily guarded fort of Methone. From this base he would then try to pick off Antony's other garrisons along the Greek coast.

Two positive outcomes for Octavian from this surprise attack were projected: 1) The supply line to Egypt would be severed and Antony's men would soon be short of food. The time pressure would be completely reversed from what Antony imagined. 2) Mark Antony would have to send warships to fight Agrippa and in doing this would weaken his naval garrisons.

I have more information written down that just needs to be typed out so I hope to post again to this blog soon-hopefully within a day or two. Thanks again to anyone commenting or following this blog! The image is just of a Roman mosaic of a fish-no direct relation to the post itself. When I do get further along in the Battle of Actium I would like to have images of maps and things with a direct bearing on the information in the article itself.

War Drums Part Five

2009-11-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

Octavian read through the document in private and made note of the parts least favorable to Antony. Then he read these out loud to the Senate. Octavian pointed out Antony's wish to be buried in Alexandria. Octavian's former fellow triumvir and former brother-in-law also left legacies to his children by Cleopatra and reasserted that Caesarion was Julius Caesar's child. Octavian's blatant interference with the sacred Vestal Virgins had a splitting effect. Many senators thought that his taking of Antony's will was "extraordinary and intolerable." However, to some the desired effect was created. The will seemed to this group of senators that the great Roman general had been subverted into becoming an easterner. Indeed, the mud stuck and even Antony's supporters in the Senate voted to deprive him of the consulship that had been planned for him the following year.

Now Octavian felt he was in a strong enough position to formally declare war. Another unique situation occurred after all of this maneuvering against Antony because the enemy had to be Cleopatra. There were two main reasons for this: Octavian didn't want to be accused of re-igniting a civil war that he claimed to have ended. Also, Octavian didn't want to make official enemies of Antony's Roman supporters, because some of them might want to switch sides in the future as Plancus had done.

A ceremony was conducted at the Temple of Bellona, goddess of war in the Campus Martius. After this ritual was complete Rome was officially at war with Egypt.

The promontory of Actium on the coast of western Greece, and the inland Ambracian Gulf it guards are almost unchanged by the passage of 2,000 years. The low, tongue of land which lies only a few feet above sea level stretches northward toward a larger and more elevated two-fingered peninsula. Between them, a half-mile wide strait shoulders its way from the open sea into the gulf, 25 miles wide and between 4 and 10 miles long. These days Actium is very busy in the summer. Tourists alight at the small airport and crowd the sea with yachts. Actium has three marinas; one of these is named the Cleopatra Marina.

This marina sits on a position on the strait from which if one had a time-travelling machine, one would be able to watch the powerful and seductive queen of Egypt in her magnificent galley sail by into her grim destiny and into history. Actium was a quieter place in the first century BC. It was a center for pearl fishing and a small village on the headland made a good jumping off location for travellers. Close by, on the shore where the strait was the slimmest there stood an old temple and a grove of trees sacred to Apollo, founded 500 years before.

Towards the end of 32 BC, the main part of Antony's fleet was based in the safety of the Ambracian Gulf. Where the strait narrowed to its smallest width as it led to the open sea, two towers were constructed (probably where the modern Venetian towers stand), from these catapults would lob missiles and fireballs at any passing galleys. The ships of Antony's fleet had been very busy during the summer and autumn transporting his army to Greece and then establishing a defensive line down its Adriatic Coast. A Squadron guarded Leucas, the Actium roads, and the islands in the south. It also protected the entry into the Corinthian Gulf and the port of Patrae (modern Patras, Greece), where Antony and Cleopatra had established their headquarters. A garrison guarded the Methone promontory. Yet another was placed on the headland at Taenarum. Added to these, Antony had troops on Crete and four legions policed the province of Cyrenaica slightly to the west ot Egypt. In the winter of 32-31 BC, Antony's army was spread out among these strongpoints on the western coast from Corcyra to Methone, with the largest portion gathered at Actium.

I hope to post to this blog again very soon. The images I had picked out for this post got kind of messed up. The bottom image is simply a map of modern Greece-it was supposed to show where Patras was located. The top image is a diagram of how the Battle of Actium was arrayed -but I don't think when I publish this the names will be readable due to size-the purple colors are Antony and Cleopatra's forces and the red is Octavian and Agrippa's forces. I will try to find some better maps for future posts. The middle image is simply of a Roman pinky ring. I have more information written -it just needs to be typed out. All the best to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part Four

2009-11-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

The west must be left open for Mark Antony to make a move against Italy so he would receive the black eye for beginning the war. During this game of cat and mouse, Octavian had to not only maintain but enlarge his army and naval fleet. There was no getting around raising taxes. An unprecedentedly harsh income tax was levied (25 percent to an individual's annual earnings) with the result that riots immediately broke out. Octavian might have felt as if he had stepped backwards in time to ten years earlier when he was the unpopular man who confronted the crowds when the Triumvirate had been forced to raise taxes for the wars against Brutus and Cassius.

Once again Octavian showed a knack for making surprise moves when the stakes were high. Some time during 32 BC he held a sort of personal referendum in which people were required to swear their loyalty to him. Later he wrote boasting: "The whole of Italy [and the western provinces] voluntarily took an oath of allegiance to me and demanded me as its leader in the forthcoming war." Octavian claimed that half a million citizens bound themselves to him. Even though we don't have to accept this dubiously round number to still concede the plebiscite was a surprising success.

It had been less than 50 years since the War of the Allies, when the peoples of Italy had rose up against Rome to claim their rights and were granted full citizenship. Octavian was a provincial as were many others in his regime. After centuries of being bossed around by Rome, they were enjoying the new era and definitely did not want to see Antony and Cleopatra overturn it. The rage over the new taxes was dying down. In its place a new patriotism emerged in the Italian consciousness.

Then things were once again to turn in favor of Octavian. Lucius Munatius Plancus had defected to Mark Antony after the Battle of Mutina in 43 BC, and became one of his closest advisers. However, in the summer of 32 BC, he seems to have taken stock of the situation and left Athens quietly, where Antony and Cleopatra were spending some time before hostilities commenced. Plancus made his way as quietly as possible to Italy. We can wonder what precipitated this move?

In May or June of that year Antony had at last divorced Octavia. He told her to leave his house in Rome. Once again there is actual historical evidence to back up what was being said by people at the time about Octavia being an affectionate and maternal woman. Because when she left the family home she took all of Antony's children with her, except for his eldest son by Fulvia, the teenaged Antyllus. Antyllus left Rome to join his father in Greece, where he gave Antony the uncomfortable news that Octavia had looked after the growing boy with great kindness. The divorce of Octavia by Antony had very serious consequences for him in the court of public opinion.

It had more to do with the fact that he had behaved boorishly to a loving wife but even more so that he had scorned a Roman woman in favor of a foreign queen. However, all this business with Antony, Octavia and Cleopatra was not enough in and of itself to force Plancus' hand. It would seem that Plancus noted the extremely corrosive effect Cleopatra's presence in the campaign and Mark Antony's supporters. Plancus could have figured out easily the effect of a foreign queen helping to lead an invasion of Italy would be!

Once he got to Rome, Plancus presented himself to Octavian and told him that he knew most of Antony's secrets. Antony kept a document with the Vestal Virgins that was too good not to expose. Octavian sent a message to the Vestal Virgins to give him Antony's document. They refused and said if he wanted it he would have to get it himself. This, Octavian was more than willing to do.

I hope to post at least one more article to this blog today. The post/article sizes may vary a bit as lately, my neuropathy/back pain is giving me more trouble than normal and I need to stand up and down more to keep it from going completely out-so many times it is easier to just post an article than to keep saving it to drafts-even though I do normally like my posts to be at least a certain length before publishing.

War Drums Part Three

2009-11-25T00:04:00.000-08:00

A tribune who supported Octavian vetoed the censure, but Sosius' move had flushed Octavian out. In mid-February he gathered his supporters and Caesarian veterans around him and returned to Rome as their leader. This move by Octavian was his own Rubicon-emulating his adoptive father Julius Caesar's move so many years before. Octavian convened a meeting of the Senate, a move he had no right to make, but the consuls and the senators arrived. Dio tells us that he surrounded "himself with a bodyguard of soldiers and friends who carried concealed daggers. Sittiing between the consuls in his chair of state, he spoke at length and his moderate terms in his own defense, and brought many accusations against Sosius and Antony."

The consuls did not intend to allow this use of force by Octavian to stand. According to Dio: "As they did not dare to reply to [Octavian] and could not bear to be silent," they left Rome in secret and set sail for the east. They were accompanied by three to four hundred of Rome's one thousand senators-republicans or supporters of Antony. It is hard to say, looking back, if this move was a defeat or a victory for Octavian. The consuls could claim legitimate political authority, unlike Octavian, and although the senators who joined them were a minority of the total membership-they were still a quite substantial number of the ruling class. Octavian also had to wonder how many of those senators who stayed behind were completely behind him for the long haul.

There is a definite comparison to be made between the events of this time and the flight from Rome in 49 BC of Pompey the Great and most of the Senate when Julius Caesar invaded Italy and began the first of the civil wars. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius could make the point that they were taking "Rome" with them. Octavian appears to have been taken aback id not stunned by this turn of events. He had to find a way to limit the political damage from this sharp rebuff. He pretended that this is what he had counted on and claimed that he had sent the senators away voluntarily.

Now that another civil war was a 100 percent certainty minds were being focused with great precision. All throughout the Roman empire, men of any significance had to make a decision with possibly fatal consequences: which man, Octavian or Mark Antony were they to support? For the first time since Alexander the Great one man controlled the entire seapower of the east. This man was Mark Antony and he was close to ending his preparations for war with Octavian. He also commanded an army of thirty legions with 12,000 light armed infantry and 12,000 cavalry.

Most of these soldiers were from the east as Octavian had prevented Antony from recruiting in Italy. These men were not necessarily inferior to Roman legionaires, but in a crisis they might not stay loyal. By early 32 BC it had become obvious that Antony and Cleopatra had come to a very important decision. Cleopatra was going to play a full part in Antony's campaign. This had the effect of further enraging Roman opinion against her. The queen was already very unpopular among Romans because of Octavians propaganda. It was a further blemish against both her and Mark Antony to see the foreign queen acting as a co-leader of a Roman army which is exactly what she would be in effect.

When Ajenobarbus and others of Antony's supporters arrived from Rome they were highly unsettled by this turn of events. Ahenobarbus strongly advised Mark Antony in no uncertain terms to send the queen packing back to Egypt. Herod the Great of Judea, who despised Cleopatra after many years of being pushed around by her, have Antony some advice in confidence: Cleopatra's prescence among Antony's forces would greatly damage his chances for success. Herod told Antony that to realize victory, he should have Cleopatra executed and annex Egypt!

There was indeed a time when Antony sent Cleopatra back home, but in the end caved in and let her stay. In April of 31 BC, the vast military machine set off on its slow journey to Greece where his forces would make their base of operations. Miliatarily it would have been in Octavian's interest to meet Antony's forces head on in Greece, but it wasn't in his political interest to do so. This was because he in no way wanted to be seen as the instigator of the coming war, when of course the naked truth was that he was the aggressor, and the invader if his one time co-ruler's territory.

Insomnia does have its uses-back pain too! I am actually getting a little bit caught up on this blog, but of course there is a long way to go. I do not know if I will be online tomorrow at this point because it looks like a miserable night is on the way, but if I am I will have more to post. All the best to anyone stopping by! And thanks so very much to anyone who has commented or followed this blog. I will try to not get so behind again. The image is of ancient Roman ruins in Aphamia, Syria.

War Drums Part Two

2009-11-24T16:30:00.001-08:00

Then Antony summoned Cleopatra, who joined him en route, bringing with her a very rich war chest of twenty thousand talents (about 480 million sesterces), and the two arrived at the port of Ephesus (near the modern town of Selcuk in southern Turkey) and made it their headquarters. The Triumvirate officially ended at the close of December 33 BC. Octavian, now had to maintain his new public image as a strict observer of the constitution and upholder of the "old" values that had made Rome so great. Octavian had no governmental position of any kind now, and it was exceedingly risky to be disarmed this way-now of all times.

In his favor was the fact that after more than ten years at the head of affairs he had built up a powerful auctoritas and political base. He had proven record of success, and was the overlord of a huge clientela-thousands of people had obligations to him. Maybe the most important fact was that the legions of the west remained under his command. Maintaining an outwardly defensive posture, he withdrew from Rome to await events.

Two new consuls took office in January 32 BC. During the period that the triumvirs had ruled, consuls had been named for years ahead. They were chosen from a roughly equal lot of supporters of the two triumvirs. As luck would have it, however, the two named for this year were both supporters of Mark Antony. The senior consul was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (the cognomen means "Bronze Beard"), the noble who had proven himself a good admiral for Brutus and Cassius. His colleague was also an able man named Gaius Sosius, a new man. Typically for this timeframe he was a provincial. Both men had an important mission to carry out for Antony.

Previous to their taking office, they had been sent a letter they were to read to the Senate upon taking office. Antony had probably sought to state his state his own case forcefully; he probably restated his eastern settlement, his various acta, and in particular his Armenian victory. However, the consuls made a strange decision about reading the letter.

Dio writes: "Domitius and Sosius...being extremely devoted to [Antony], refused to publish [the letter] to all the people, even though Caesar urged it on them."

What this means, in all probability is that the consuls' viewed the letters import on public or senatorial, opinion as the opposite of what Antony had intended. The problem with the letter could have been a prideful reasoning behind the Donations of Alexandria. Antony wasn't aware of Octavian's propaganda against Cleopatra-or the fact that it had been so successful. If this were the case, any reference to the Donations by Antony that weren't somehow apologetic would have added more fuel to the flames. Gaius Sosius went on the offensive on 1 February. He strongly advocated for Mark Antony and proposed a measure of censure of Octavian. Sosius' message had been that if there was a threat to peace it hadn't come from Antony who had shown no sign of aggression toward Octavian.

I hope to be back very soon with more. This is going to start getting very interesting for awhile for anyone interested in this. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

War Drums Part One

2009-11-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Pamphlets and letters were published and envoys travelled to an from Rome and Alexandria firing off volleys of accusations against the other side. Mark Antony was standing up for himself. He protested that he had been prevented from raising troops in Italy (true), as had been agreed on in the Treaty of Brundisium. He said that his veterans had not been given their fair share of lands upon demobilization; that, after defeating Sextus Pompeius, Octavian had taken over Sicily without even consulting him and that Lepidus had been deposed by Octavian in the fashion of an autocrat.

In fact, Antony's case for grievances was far stronger than Octavians. Octavian had shown himself to be a consistently untrustworthy and opportunistic partner. Whereever a compromise or concessions were needed it was always the older and more reasonable Mark Antony who caved in. However, some of the complaints Antony raised were no more than debating points. As an example, Sicily was in the western half of the empire, and once it had fallen it would have gone to Octavian anway as that was the half he ruled. The accusations grew more and more personal and heated in nature.

Octavian took issue with Antony's drinking. He also made fun of Antony's overelaborate use of Latin saying that Antony interjected "our tongue the verbose and unmeaning fluency of the Asiatic orators." For his part, Antony fought back hard. He ridiculed Octavians provincial ancestry and also accused him of sexual avarice, cruelty-and most important to the Roman mind-cowardice. Antony brought up the way Octavian had behaved when he had dressed up as the god Apollo at the scandalous fancy dress party. Antony also brought up Octavian's odd behavior when he hid in the marshes during the Battle of Philippi. He also made the accusation (seemingly with very good reason) the charge of sexual hypocrisy against Octavian: "What's come over you? Is it that I am screwing the Queen? But she isn't my wife, is she? It isn't as if it's something new is it? Or has it actually been going on for nine years now? What about you then? Is Livia the only woman you fuck? Good luck to you if, when you read this letter, you haven't also fucked Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia, or all of them. Does it really matter where and in whome you insert your stiff prick?"

Who knows what truths lay behind these highly personal and bitter personal exchanges? Insults such as these-especially grabbing onto an opponent's sexual misfortunes and peccadilloes were standard operating procedure during any kind of political debate in Rome. Even high distinguished Romans often debated this way. Quite often the charges made in these debates were exaggerated. But these allegations did need to have at least an element of poetic truth if nothing else, for any audience the disputants had to take them seriously.

Both Octavian and Antony insisted he planned to restore the Republic, and the other stood for a dictatorhship by one man. Here neither were telling the truth. Ten years had passed since the murder of Cicero, and the Republic was already dead and buried, indeed the idea of restoring the Republic at this point was simply unworkable. There were two realistic choices remaining for the Roman citizenry-an orderly and efficient autocratic empire represented by Octavian or a rambunctious and easygoing one represented by Mark Antony.

Octavian was coming up on perhaps the most dangerous and risky move of his political career-in a career that had been full of them. For the time being, he needed to set some limited goals, and he needed to be cautious. Octavian was trying to bring on a war with Mark Antony without receiving the blame for it. First he had to make his stand crystal clear and announce the inevitability of a showdown, and force the political forces in Rome to choose sides. While doing this he had to maximize his support throughout Italy, because Antony could very well stage an invasion of the mainland. Mark Antony was at the Armenian border with Media, preparing to renew his Parthian war when he received Octavian's final letter in the war of words in October 33 BC.

When Antony had digested the contents of the letter that his brother-in-law had written, he knew he had to call off the Parthian struggle for the time being. In this letter, Octavian had rejected all of the charges Antony had made against him and concluded with blatant mockery: "Your soldiers have no claim upon any lands in Italy. Their rewards lie in Media and Parthia which they have added to the Roman Empire by their gallant campaigns under their imperator." Now Antony knew and accepted that war with Octavian was inevitable, so he sailed off with a small advance force on the long journey back to the Aegean, ordering one of his generals, Publius Canidius Crassus, a loyal and able supporter who had campaigned efficiently in Armenia, to follow him with an army of sixteen legions.

OK-I am going to post this one-and do a small follow up. This was all supposed to be one post-but I need to take a small break because of my back. I just wanted to say something as the next post may be quite small. The image is marble bust of Octavia-Octavain (Augustus Caesar's sister-who we will hear more about shortly).

Back To Rome Part Five

2009-11-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

When Octavian and his close-perhaps his closest friend over the course of his lifetime-Agrippa got back to Rome in 33 BC from Illyricum, they were faced with an important question-how could they bestow legitimacy upon their own regime? This was an extremely important one as the power structure was so unstable-some of it because of Octavian's own political maneuverings. They needed to convince a tired and cynical populace that after the long years of division, bloodhshed, and fight-to-the-death politics, that Octavian meant to rule in the people's interest, not his own.

The answer they were looking for came in the form of Rome itself. Investment in public buildings and services would achieve three useful goals. First it would add a very much needed sparkle and grandeur to one of the shabbiest imperial cities of all time-making Rome truly worthy of its role as the capital of the known world. Second, the quality of life of Rome's citizens would be improved. This was important in and of itself as Romans could become volatile at times. Third, the renovation of the city's architectural heritage would be the first substantial example of Octavian's commitment to restoring Rome's old values. An appeal to the ancient core beliefs, customs and values that the Republic was founded upon was a very strong method of making the Triumvirate seem revolutionary-in the sense of a revolution going backwards, just as when a car goes forward or backwards the wheels are making revolutions either way.

Octavian told his generals to signal their victories on the battlefield by restoring various Roman landmarks at their own personal expense. They improved and modified temples and basilicas, and on the Campus Martius the extremely worthy commander Titus Statilius Taurus built Rome's first stone ampitheater.

Of course the eye candy needed to be supplemented by real improvements the average Roman could feel from these public works. Agrippa took an unusual step in 33 BC to help with this. He took the post of aedile-this could actually be considered a self-demotion because he had already been a consul, the state's highest office.

One of the aedile's duties was to monitor and regulate the city's water supply, street cleaning and drains. Agrippa reorganized and refurbished the aqueduct system. He also commissioned a new aqueduct, the Aqua Julia (years later he added the Aqua Virgo, so named because a young girl pointed out springs to the soldiers who were hunting for water). He had 500 fountains built as well as splendid public baths, The Thermae Aggripae. The resevoirs and the fountains, or nymphaea, were intricately decorated with bronze and marble statues and pillars. Agrippa also had Rome's underground drainage system repaired and cleaned.

Men who seek power as an ultimate goal such as Octavian (and any number of others throuhgout history that I can think of-not that I know about all of them) probably never had such a friend as Agrippa. It is pretty safe to say as we will see later also, that no Agrippa= no Augustus Caesar. Agrippa applied himself in any way he conceivably cold to help Octavian gain power. During his aedileship, he distributed olive oil and salt and arranged for the city's 170 baths to open free of charge throughout the year. He presented many festivals, and because those attending were expected to look good he subsidized barbers to offer their services gratis! At public entertainments, tickets good for money and clothes were thrown to the crowds. Also, massive displays of many kinds of goods were set up and made available for free on a first come, first serve basis. All these measures were paid for from the fortune Agrippa had built (from war treasure, legacies, and grants of land and money) during his ten years of working and fighting for Octavian.

The incredible job and fortune Agrippa had invested in Rome's infrastructure (also other buildings etcetera restored by other generals and followers of Octavian) greatly elevated its appearance. The construction work also spawned jobs in a city with a high rate of unemployment. While the long-absent triumvir (Mark Antony) was wasting time in the east, all Rome could see the enhancements that Octavian's regime was bringing to the ordinary Roman.

Finally, Octavian felt he was ready for a break with Antony. Octavian's career beginning with his acceptance of the legacy of Julius Caesar make sense only if looked at from the wider angle of a very cautious and unwavering pursuit of absolute power-however sometimes the cautious approach was thrown to the wind and Octavian took some breathtaking risks. Sometimes I think-even though it is hard to do at times-that Octavian must not be judged by today's standards as much as through the prism of the qualities ancient Rome valued. He was a typically ambitious and competitive Roman-he wanted to hold the sole reigns of power. Octavian was the heir to Rome's greatest single ruler (Julius Caesar) since the expulsion of King Tarquin the Proud in the sixth century BC, and he truly felt he was destined for this power and deserved it (as so many other world leaders have-from even further back in ancient history to Napoleon-and on to Hitler and Stalin).

In his uneven battle with Mark Antony for supremacy, Octavian never missed anything he could use as a projectile to his his victim. With regard to Antony's doings with Cleopatra, the Donations of Alexandria and the general way Antony had comported himself in the East, Octavian constantly made reference to the un-Roman style Antony had adopted-whether true in all cases or not, saying Antony had "failed to conduct himself as befitted a Roman citizen." The Illyrian campaign was another step in Octavian's quest for power. Not only did it allow him to keep legions under his command that could be used for other purposes if the right time came-but it also added much need military prestige to his resume that he had sorely lacked.

Octavian and the indispensable Agrippa's facelift of Rome that was both cosmetic and practical also seemed to be part of a larger plan for a long-term rule of the empire. Octavian and Agrippa must have been acutely aware, however, of the fickle nature of Roman politics. If they didn't find a way to confront Mark Antony now, the impetus could easily swing back to him, especially if he managed to finally achieve a real victory over the Parthians. The Triumvirate's second term was to end in December 33 BC, and it would help Octavian's cause to avoid a renewal of it. Octavian knew the hand he had to play now was a strong as it would ever be.

Octavian was elected consul for a second time n 33 BC. Early in the year he gave a speech that was a scorching diatribe against Mark Antony. Octavian criticized Antony's activities in the east. He claimed that Antony had no right to kill Sextus Pompeius, who had been executed in 35 BC, presumably with Antony's approval. Octavian said he would have spared Sextus. He also said that Mark Antony had been wrong to trick the Armenian king into becoming a prisoner, and said Antony's behavior had damaged Rome's good name. Octavian then went on to attack Antony's demeaning treatment of his Octavian's sister and Antony's wife, Octavia, and his relationship with Cleopatra.

The Donations of Alexandria were intolerable, and an even greater slap in the face (because it was a clear shot at questioning the legitimacy or Octavian's position) was Antony's promotion of Ptolemy Caesar or Caesarion (Julius Caesar's son by Cleopatra) as the great dictator's natural heir. There was much in the speech where one could question Octavian's motives. It is very hard to swallow Octavian having having any real feelings of sadness for Sextus Pompeius, or that he cared a whit about Armenia, a far- flung nation of which he and most Romans were entirely ignorant. Mark Antony's sexual life had always been flashy and Octavian himself was certainly no prude.

I hope to post at this blog again very soon and still have more information written up that just needs to be typed out. All the best to anyone stopping by! The image is a map of the Roman Empire at the beginning of Emperor Hadrian's reign in 117 A.D.

Back To Rome Part Four

2009-11-22T12:53:00.000-08:00

It's not that Cleopatra couldn't dream and plot with the best of them. BUT she was a realist. She knew where her dreams must end. There was no way she could wish for more than to keep Egypt the dominant power in the eastern Meditteranean under Roman tutelage. In all likelihood the Donations were a symbolic token, a way of easing public opinion in the east and getting the people behind Antony as Dionysus/Osiris and Cleopatra as Isis/Aphordite. There were very few if any practical changes that were of noted in Syria, Cappadocia, Pontus or Galatia. And there were most certainly not any masses of Egyptian administrators spreading throughout the Middle East, and replacing local authorities and Roman officials and tax collectors. From Anthony Everitt's Augustus, on page 162: "It is hard to disagree with the sentiments that the great twentieth-century Alexandrian poet Constantine Cavafy attributed to the audience at the glittering ceremony in the Gymnasium.

And the Alexandrians thronged to the festival
Full of enthusiasm, and shouted acclamations,
In Greek, and Egyptian, and some in Hebrew,
Charmed by the lovely spectacle--
Though they knew of course what all this was worth,
What empty words they really were, these kingships.

The importance of the Forum in Roman life can't be understated. The business of government was conducted in and around the Forum during the five centuries of the Republic. It was in a valley between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills and was a rectangular shaped piazza that had a plethora of temples to goes and heroes lining it.

Citizens' assemblies were convened in an open space called the Comitia. Money could be borrowed and prostitutes bought. Trials were conducted in the open air. Senators met and debated in the Senate House. Statues of famous Romans adorned columns, and large paintings celebrated Roman victories. Two basilicas, which mingled the activities of shopping mall and conference center stood down the Forum's long sides.

Now, with Octavian and the Second Triumvirate-and his growing ascendancy- a change could be seen in the way politics was conducted. Important politics moved from the noisy open square up to a complex of houses on the "wealthy" Palatine Hill, where Octavian and Livia worked and lived. "Palatine" derives from the word "palace," meaning some sort of confined space where autocrats make political decisions in private-away from the "noisy rabble."

To the northwest stand the buildings where Octavian and Livia spent most of their lives. In 36 BC, a grateful popular assembly voted that a house should be presented to him with taxpayer money. Octavian had already bought an expensive property at the southwest end of the Palatine Hill, but it had been struck by lightning-an omen tha he took to heart. So he demolished that building and replaced it with a temple to Apollo. With his grant from the Senate, he arranged the purchase of a house, or more accurately a group of houses, next door.

The location Octavian had chosen for he and Livia, was as so many things were with the young triumvir-chosen for very specific reasons and calculating purpose. Octavian wanted his residence to signal and embody his central role in Rome. Near it stood a hut, built on the hill's natural tufa and with a sloping thatched roof, its reed walls daubed in clay. This was said to be the home of Romulus, Rome's founder, and was carefully preserved in his honor. By closely associating himself with Rome's beginnings, Octavian was telling the Roman world that he stood for traditional values, for mosmaiorum, the customs of ancestors.

Rome certainly didn't look -or smell like the capital of a great empire. There had been no central planning of any sort as the city had grown over the ages. Things were so terribly close. There were no wide avenues and few open spaces-apart from the previously mentioned Forum and the forum boarium. There were few streets that were wide enough to allow vehicles to pass one another and most were unpaved. There was no wheeled transport at all in the daytime! To reduce traffic congestion, Julius Caesar had restricted it to the night time hours-with the natural effect being that the unpaved roads groaned and squealed with a cacophony of wooden carts when people were trying to sleep! The wealthy lived in houses with no outside windows to escape the noise (and some of the smells) of urban life. Their rooms were grouped around one or more open-air courtyards. The poor rented single rooms or crowded into multi-story apartments, or insulae as they were known.

These were often extremely shoddily built and very prone to collapse or fire. Rome, of course, did have shops-but they were usually just a ground floor room with a masonry or wooden counter for selling goods and a space in the back for stock. There were any number of bars and restaurants. These catered mostly to the poor or working classes-people whose homes or apartments didn't have properly equipped kitchens.

As mentioned before, Rome was a city of horrendous smells. Raw sewage, trash, even occassionally human corpses were dumped in the streets. People walking below were so often hit by the disgusting contents of chamber pots emptied from the second floor or the roof that laws were passed regulating the damages that could be claimed!

Water was the only thing that made life in the city bearable-especially for the poor. The ready availability of water supplied by four aqueducts-the first built way back in the fourth century BC. Arcades crossed the land bringing fresh, clear water from springs and lakes miles away. The water was piped to fountains-some of them tiny affairs-stone troughs really-in the small public squares that were all over Rome. The wealthy and powerful could obtain permission from the Senate to tap the pipes for their own personal use (their ornate fountains, orchards, baths etc). Regular folks carried water from the nearest fountain or had it delivered by a water seller. Another thing that the surfeit of water made possible, was one of Rome's most popular pastimes-going to the public baths. The price of getting into these was so small that all but the poorest citizens could afford it. Many Romans would go to the baths every day, often in the afternoon, after work and before the evening meal. Men and women both enjoyed meeting friends and catching up on the latest gossip.

I hope to do one more article for this blog today-I don't know how long it will be as I am rather tired. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Back To Rome Part Three

2009-11-20T00:34:00.000-08:00

Dio may have been correct in all or at least part of that. However, Octavian and his military men may have realized that authority over the coastal strip of Illyricum would not in itself secure Rome's preeminence. To achieve permanent control the Romans needed a defensible frontier. The most obvious landmark was the river Danube, which bordered the far or northeastern end of Pannonia. What this meant in practice was that Pannonia would become a Roman province. These plans were for the future, however. Now Octavian probably wanted to test just how much of an undertaking a permanent conquest might be. The tribesmen of this area proved to be very hard to fight at first. On two sides, the Colapis and the Savus (Save) rivers made the fortress of Siscia almost impregnable.

But on the third side there was a gap between the rivers that was fortified. The Romans attacked from the rivers and land at the same time. The defenders of Siscia, in the meantime, learned that a number of tribes had gone over to the Romans. With this unwelcome news they lost heart and negotiated a surrender. During this time the Roman fleet had defeated the Adriatic pirates and killed or enslaved coastal tribes. Octavian could congratulate himself on a fruitful year. he left more than two legions to hold Siscia. Then he returned to Rome where he planned to spend the winter attending to civilian business. Before the winter of 35-34 BC was over, new arrived that the garrison at Siscia was under attack and Octavian returned to Illyricum. On arriving he learned that the tribal forces had been defeated.

So Octavian went to the south of the province, where he joined Agrippa and then they fought against one of Illyricum's largest tribes-the Dalmatae. The terrain they battled the tribe on was rough and rocky. A sling stone hit Octavian's knee and he was immobilized for several days. When he recovered, he returned to Rome in late autumn to be ready for his second consulship, whihc began on 1 January 33 BC. After his return to Egypt in 34 BC, Antony put on a show that seemed almost like a triumphal procession. Antony rode into Alexandria on a chariot, preceded by his Armenian prisoners of war, and then went to the central square where Cleopatra sat in luxury awaiting him. Enormous banquets followed, along with the distribution of money and food. When word of this reached Octavian, he used it as a means to unfairly attack Mark Antony. However, Octavian knew he could spin this story his way because it was unheard of for a Roman general to hoold a triumph anywhere except for Rome.

Octavian and his allies were painting a picture, stroke by stroke, that Antony was losing his romanitas acting like a debauched Hellenistic monarch. What actually appears to have happened is that Antony simply staged a grand eastern spectacle, and not in anyway simulating a Roman triumph. Antony's persona during the Egyptian festivities was not that of a Roman general-but as a human Dionysus. He was reported as riding in the "Bacchic chariot." This chariot was traditionally pulled by big cats such as leopards or panthers. When Antony put on the personae of an appropriate divinity, he was just keeping to his policy of establishing a public persona that would appeal to the people of the eastern provinces.

Several days later an even more exotic ceremony took place which came to be known as the Donations of Alexandria. This took place in the city's splendid great Gymnasium. Two golden thrones were erected and Cleopatra, who was dressed as the goddess Isis joined Antony as Dionysus on the thrones. Caesarion, who was officially Ptolemy V, and at the age of thirteen was in theory at least, Cleopatra's co-ruler, as a woman was not allowed to reign alone. Caesarion, who was Cleopatra's child by Julius Caesar, and the queen's children by Antony say on lower thrones. Antony addressed the crowd, saying that Cleopatra had been married to Julius Caesar, and thus Caesarion (Ptolemy XV) was his legitimate son. This absurd claim was made by Antony in order to undermine Octavian's position. Antony conveniently ignored the existence of Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, and of the Roman custom to not marry foreigners. Antony may have been thinking along the lines of another symbolic or heavenly joining of two gods.

Antony then proceeded to give Cleopatra and the children honors and territories. Alexander was to receive Armenia, Media, and all the lands to the east as far as India-this would include the so far unconquered Parthian empire. The youngest child, Ptolemy Philadelphus was to become king of all the Syrian territories already given to Cleopatra, and overlord of the client kingdoms of Asia Minor. Cleopatra Selene, Alexander's twin sister, was given Cyrenaica (the eastern half of modern Libya) and the island of Crete. Caesarion was declared king of kings, and Cleopatra was queen of kings. Around this time Antony issued a silver denarius, which graphically showed his partnership with Cleopatra, One side showed Antony's bare head, and behind it the royal tiara of Armenia, with the inscription "Antony, after the conquest of Armenia." Cleopatra, depicted diademed and with jewels in her hair, was on the other side, along with the prow of a ship. The inscription read: "To Cleopatra, queen of kings and of her sons who are kings." This was quite scandalous for Roman currency, which never depicted foreigners.

What are the reasons behind the Donations of Alexandria? Antony never left any records for history about this event, and most sources mostly claim Octavian's version. So we can only guess. Something very important should be stated here about what Antony was not doing. He was not giving away the eastern half of the Roman Empire away to Cleopatra and her children! The Donations were in keeping with the way Antony had previously reorganized the east. In other words, especially as Rome had no permanent civil service, it made more sense to allow locals to manage most of the eastern provinces. This arrangement worked out great for Rome. It also solved the problem of greedy Roman officials becoming targets of local hatred and the empire itself was greatly more stable if the people that it ruled over didn't feel like they were under foreign occupation.

Historians at the time of Antony and later saw a much more duplicitous and dangerous reason for Antony's actions. They believed he was laying the foundations, with his allocated territory as a triumvir, to bring all of these lands under a single monarchy. And these men saw a longer range goal than even that-the final goal some believed was to overthrow Rome herself. One rumor actively had it that the queen's favorite oath was "so surely as I shall one day give judgment on the Capitol." This speculation is implausible. Antony was no the far-reaching, star-grabbing type or all conquering soul that Julius Caesar, Octavian and Alexander the Great before them were. Antony was even being crowded out of his role as a fellow triumvir by younger and even less experienced but whip-smart Octavian

I am hardly a professional historian-perhaps not even a good amateur one-but I have done a lot of research into the time from of Rome from Sulla through the "Twelve Caesars" and of course the era of Emperor Hadrian. I have also read many wonderful books on the subject, such as Anthony Everitt's Augustus, where so much of the information in about 40 or more articles on this blog comes from, and I just don't think Antony wanted to be a world-conqueror or maybe in the end even a Roman ruler. I feel he would have-and probably deeply hoped that he and Octavian could get along better and simply rule Rome as co-rulers as originally envisioned (or his part of the empire I should say). But Octvian's constant undermining of Antony prevented this.

I hope to be back very soon with more articles for this blog-although there will always be starts and stops on this blog due to the time it takes to read and condense information-but I will try to never go longer than two weeks without anything new. I have some information ready to go -it just needs to be typed out and I will try to keep staying ahead and get somewhat caught up on this blog. All the best to anyone stopping by! The second image shows a map of the Donations of Alexandria.

Back To Rome Part Two

2009-11-18T00:23:00.001-08:00

Roman legions marched into Illyricum for the first time in 229 BC. Rome had made the region a province but never completely subdued its unruly tribes. Octavian had decided the time had come to show the people there who was really their master. As always (almost anyway) Octavian's motives were not as crystal clear as they seemed at first glance. Outwardly the idea was that they people of Italy would honor him for another contribution to their peace and security. Two other reasons were more important to him as they were all about increasing his power and image.

Octavian wanted a war as an excuse to keep his legions, as he might need them for a future confrontation with Antony. Secondly, Octavian had a problem with the way the public perceived him. Although he had won great praise for his bravery during his battle with Sextus, everyone knew that Agrippa had saved his bacon and was truly responsible for the victory. In an event that could have been staged to a degree, Octavian was able to pull off a propaganda coup. Roman forces were laying siege to a city in Illyricum, a tribal capital named Metelum. During a crisis in the battle Octavian rushed down from a temporary wooden tower and grabbed a shield from a soldier who was hesitating to cross a gangway.

Octavian had his friend Agrippa by his side and his bodyguard, he rode ir over the gangway. Some of the men who followed him were not so lucky, as too many soldiers got on it and it collapsed. Supposedly Octavian himself was wounded with one leg and both arms crushed. Of course, he survived and was protected by men already on the wall who had already made it across. More gangways were built at a fast pace and the legionaires came across in droves. The tribesmen who were defending the city gave up and the town fell.

Leading a charge on a besieged city was an act of great bravery and extremely dangerous. This was the province of such commanders as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. This was rather not in keeping with Octavian's meticulous planning and unspontaneous character. We are left to wonder if Octavian, Agrippa and the other men around him saw a great opportunity for an impromptu show of bravery-perhaps somewhat akin to George W. Bush's much maligned "Mission Accomplished" landing on the aircraft carrrier. Whatever the truth behind this event, the propaganda boost was considerable and the public was impressed. The great historian of the time, Livy, stated that Octavian's "beauty of person [was] enhanced by blood and his dignitas by the danger in which he found himself."

Mark Antony had not been in Rome since 39 BC, and although this probably suited Octavian perfectly, there were some causes for worry-both personal and perhaps in Octavian's way of thinking-conspiratorial. Maybe Antony was just getting ready to battle the Parthians again. The most likely explanation, however, seemed to be that Antony and Cleopatra had set up housekeeping! Their relationship appeared to be stronger than ever and it was even rumored the two had married-although in the physical sense this is highly improbable, for both Greeks and the Romans strongly dispproved of bigamy. Maybe what the couple had intended was a sort of mystical wedding between the New Dionysus and the New Isis. In 35 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to yet a fourth child-her third by Antony, a boy named Ptolemy Philadelphus. Was it only Antony's typical love of the good life and laziness that was all that was keeping him from Rome?

Readying for a Parthian expedition could explain a lot of Antony's abscence from the capital. After all, Antony had to raise more troops and Octavian was continuing to hold back the four legions he had promised since the Treaty of Brundisium. Mark Antony was also bankrolling money for warships. He issued a series of coins, each with the number of one of is legions and backed by a warship. Many in Rome, maybe Octavian himself, might have wondered what Antony needed such a huge armada for, unless it was to invade the western empire? If this was the plan, Antony was unable to put it into effect right away.

The aftermath of the Parthian debacle claimed his attention. In the spring of 34 BC, the Romans invaded Armenia. The king of Armenia had betrayed Antony during the failed invasion and quickly admitted defeat. He and his two younger sons were taken prisoner. Armenia became a Roman province and was opened up for trade and economic exploitation. Antony of course, sent news of his victory to Rome, but the Roman mood was considerably darker than it had been since 36 BC and the false festivities that had marked the Parthian "victory" of that year.

Antony's victory in Armenia was genuine but Octavian, the Senate and the people of Rome ignored the victory with silence. Who could blame them? Crassus' standards were still in Parthian hands and not only that, but now the Parthians had some of Antony's standards also. Octavian marched east to fight the Pannonian tribes beyond Illyricum. History doesn't tell us what they did to be targeted by him. Dio has this to say about the young triumvir's motives: "He had no complaint against them [the Pannonians], not having been wronged by them in any way, but he wanted to give his soldiers practice and to support them at the expense of an alien people."

I hope to be back in a few days with another article in this series. I have one or two articles already written out-they just need to be typed. Thanks so much to anyone reading or commenting on this blog!

Back To Rome Part One

2009-11-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well it has been since 12 May since I have been back to the Roman era. Think I might be able to stay on track a bit more? The only thing I have to say in my defense-which is really no defense-is that I have been struggling worse than usual with my health and insomnia these last 4-6 months-and it was none too good before with my back pain and all. That and the number of different subjects I get into when I am at least feeling well enough to research and type have really put me so far behind on this blog. I hope to stay more on top of things in the future. The post size some days may vary quite a bit as my back pain is starting to make me take so many time outs on occasion that I just say forget it and wait until I feel better physically to post more. I also want to condense the Roman era information in a way that allows me to do just as much about it but without being so unnecessarily wordy. I still want to get into different historical subjects and eras here from time to time too. I will try to stay with Rome for the next six to eight posts!

This continues from the post on 12 May 2009: Speaking of doing the barest minimum to help Antony: Octavian knew Antony needed to replace the men he lost, but didn't let him raise legions in Italy as he was entitled to. Not only that, but Octavian was not even going to keep his promise in the Treaty of Misenum to send Antony four legions in return for the 120 ships Antony gave him! So let Antony have his 'victory' celebrations, and sacrifices, Octavian knew the real score. He wrote to Antony with an obscured but stinging sarcasm that in light of his resounding victory over the Parthians, Antony should have no trouble at all raising any soldiers he needed in his own half of the empire. Then to rub extra salt in the wound, Octavian send his sister, who had been in Rome (since last seeing Antony at Tarentum) to join her husband. In addition, Octavia brought huge stocks of clothing for his troopsm, money-even gifts for his staff.

Also a Praetorian Guard (the bodyguard of a general) of 2,000 men. Octavia also brought 70 warships (the ships left of the ones Antony had originally given to Octavian). 3 things betrayed the real message of this seemingly nice and un-Octavian like gesture. 1) The provisions for Antony's troops spoke loud and clear of Octavian's knowledge of the real events in the Parthian campaign. 2) Sending 2,000 men instead of the promised 20,000 was a slap in the face. 3) By sending Octavia to Antony when it was known he was living with Cleopatra was both spiteful and rude. Some historians want to give Octavian a break and would have us think that he just sent Octavia to get Antony away from Cleopatra, however, Octavian knew Antony much too well for that by now.

He was banking on Antony acting rashly and put the harsh glare of bad publicity on himself. He guessed right, when Octavia reached Athens she got a message from her husband that said to send the men and supplies and then return to Rome! Octavian advised his sister to move out of Antony's enormous house and set up her own independent household. She did indeed obey her husband but didn't follow her brother's advice. Historical sources paint a very kind picture of Octavia-almost saintly. A lot could be due to Octavian's propaganda machine, but there are far too many instances of factual statements about Octavia and her life about things that would not be worth bothering to lie about that suggest she was a truly kind woman.

From some of Octavia's own letters we can also infer that she was under a great deal of pressure from being stuck between her brother and her husband. Octavia did everything in her power to save her marriage. She also cared for Antony's children from his previous marriage as if they were her own. She also was a great hostess entertaining Antony's friends in Rome on business-and at the same time doing everything in her power to get what those friends wanted from Octavian. Only the most rosy-glasses could prevent someone from seeing the inevitable break between Octavian and Antony. How violent and rending of a schism to themselves, their families and friends-and of course the citizenry of Rome remained to be seen. Antony had the strength of a bull-proverbial of course, but at many times completely lost focus. Octavian on the other hand was energetic towards his duties and focused, but suffered bouts of poor health throughout his life. Octavian was a first class schemer and plotter with a great dash of opportunism added into the mix. Antony-although a great general, except for the previously mentioned fiasco, reacted to events-many times in a quite heroic fasion-like the time he saved Octavian's life in the Forum to name a few.

But how many politicians from antiquity to the present day last long if they are not guiding or at least predicting events but reacting to them as they come? The issue of what each of the men truly wanted from their high positions in the world. This also no doubt added a great deal of tension to their relationship. Mark Antony was definitely happy with the way things were as long as he could remain in the spotlight as a leading citizen of Rome. Octavian, on the other hand was out to change the whole structure on which Roman power was based and projected-although he made a show of being a traditionalist in some areas and was truly of a conservative bent in many areas, but Octavian wanted nothing less than to rule Rome completely while hiding the absolute nature of his rule with misleading propaganda and the pretense-but nothing more than that-of "restoring the republic."

I hope to be back very soon with another post. I plan to never go longer than three weeks between articles again-and hopefully no matter what I am working on, a lot less time than that. I will change the title to something snazzier than "Back to Rome" after a bit, once I have the chance to see what the main issues are going to be. All the best to anyone stopping by!

The Big Questions: Part Two

2009-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

There were certain things that Gromyko didn't agree with Gorbachev about. Gromyko, who had been in so very many foreign nations during his tenure, was slightly put-off or jealous of the glowing reviews that Mikhail Gorbachev had received during a tour of Britain in December 1984. This was the time that Thatcher expressed her "I like Mr Gorbachev; we can do business together" opinion. Andrei Gromyko's own son, Anatoly, was a strong Gorbachev supporter. Gromyko was nothing if not a realist. He simply reviewed the situation and decided the age of the dinosaurs was over. By helping Gorbachev win the post of general secretary, Gromyko would be the elder statesman of the USSR. Several minutes before the arrival of everyone else, Gromyko and Gorbachev met in the Walnut Room. Gorbachev told Gromyko, "We have to unite our forces. This is a critical moment." In reply Gromyko said, "It seems to me that everything is clear." Mikhail Gorbachev was now completely confident he had Gromyko's support and finally stated, "I am counting on the fact that you and I will cooperate."

Gorbachev then offered Viktor Grishin what would appear to us in the West as a consolation prize. However, in the Byzantine world of Soviet politics things were never quite so clear cut. Gorbachev had offered Grishin the chairmanship of Chernenko's Funeral Commission. Grishin may have been crooked but he was no dummy. If he accepted this prestigious but only symbolic position he might appear to be making yet another bid for power. If his Kremlin colleagues perceive him as too overreaching it could have dire consequences for his political career. Grishin told Gorbachev something to the effect that the Funeral Commission position usually went to the person acting in the general secretary's place when he couldn't be present, which had been Gorbachev himself. Grishin urged Gorbachev to handle the job in hopes that some of the old guard would resist him. Gorbachev who had just turned 54 on 2 March 1985, was indeed the "baby" of the Politburo-but was no fool either. He thought that his power base would expand and said to Grishin, "There's no need to hurry. Let's think about this carefully overnight."

When Gorbachev entered the Politburo Room, he still kept a respectful distance from the now empty general secretary's seat. The mood in the room was still guarded-more like "The king is dead" instead of "Long live the king." The men listened to a number of minor matters including the medical report about the death of Konstantin Chernenko. They prepared an obituary for him, picked a date for the funeral and began summoning members of he policy making Central Committee to Moscow. Then Gromyko made his move. He insisted that Gorbachev be appointed chairman of the Funeral Commission. This was Gromyko's way of saying in no uncertain terms that he supported Gorbachev's bid to become general secretary. There were a few dissenting voices about the unnecessary speed of his suggestion but no one opposed his proposal. Along with Andrei Gromyko, Gorbachev had another indispensable supporter from when Gorbachev had worked in the Central Committee in Moscow. This man's name was Yegor Ligachev, and he was the secretary in charge of cadres. Ligachev was another Andropov appointee who had been chosen for his Siberian toughness and appetite for hard work to purge the party of incompetent officials.

Ligachev, like Gorbachev was appalled at the corruption and drift of the Brezhnev years. Over the last three years, Ligachev had been traveling all over the Soviet Union replacing old Brezhnev cadres with younger men. Ligachev knew the ins and outs of the network of party officials who ran the nation on a day to day basis. 40 percent of the seats on the Central Committee were held by these regional party bosses. Back in 1964 these were the same kind of men who played a major role in ousting Nikita Khrushchev. This fact could become critical. If there was a deadlock in the Politburo, which there would be if Viktor Grishin continued his drive for power, the decision of these men and women would be decisive. Yegor Ligachev had counted heads-they were almost all in favor of Gorbachev by a great percentage.

Then there is another item of interest in our story here. Two long time Brezhnev cronies, who most likely would have supported Grishin were absent from the crucial meeting. The Ukrainian Communist Party boss, Vladimir V. Scherbitsky, was in San Francisco on an official visit. His flight home was mysteriously delayed-until the question of who would be the next gensek had been decided. Dinmukhhamed Kunayev, the Communist Party boss of Kazakhstan and a longtime Brezhnev colleague didn't get to Moscow from Alma Ata until the day after the leadership question had been decided. There wasn't much said about Kunayev's late arrival but Kremlin watchers and conspiracy theorists suspected a plot by the pro-Gorbachev forces to delay Scherbitsky's plane in San Francisco. This incident could have simply been timing-or simple cooincidence but as always for me anyway gives something to wonder about.

Might Soviet and perhaps world history been vastly different with Communist Party General Secretary Viktor Grishin instead of Mikhail Gorbachev? Would the Cold War between the superpowers have heated up further-maybe even becoming a "hot" war? Or would the superpowers simply have continued to walk the tightrope above nuclear holocaust as they already had for so many years? After Grishin would a reformer have arrived on the scene anyway-but maybe in the 90s instead of the 80s? There is much speculation about this question to people who study the "what ifs" or "might have beens" of history. Many of the men who helped Gorbachev originally insisted that they never realized how far he would take things, and blamed him for letting the reforms get out of control and thus ending the Soviet Union. This group of men includes Yegor Ligachev, who by 1988 was quite bitter about how far Mikhail Gorbachev had gone. Some say with or without reform the Soviet Union would have been gone anyway. I haven't yet made up my mind about this question and it may be one that is unknowable to any degree of satisfaction. One thing I do think is that the Soviet Union could have staggered on much longer than the early nineties without reform-doomed eventually maybe-but not as quickly as some analysts would have it. Finally, I would be fascinated for any responses about Gorbachev himself. Was this a case of one person truly making a difference? Or is history "too big" for anyone person to make much difference at all even though they may appear to at the time? Would the usually routine matter of Vladimir Scherbitsky's plane taking off at the proper time from San Francisco, and Kunayev arriving in Moscow the day of the leadership decision have changed history greatly? Is it silly to think about questions such as these anyway, as we only have the one timeline (so far:) to go by anyway?! I hope anyone stopping by is having a great weekend, and would love to hear any thoughts about these questions!

The inage is of Gorbachev and his wife Raisa. It appears to have been taken sometime in the mid to late 1980s but I do not know exactly when or where they were.

The Big Questions: Part One

2009-09-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

10 March 1985. Night had come to Moscow as the enormous black Zil limousines sped towards the high Kremlin walls. The traffic lights on the 205 foot high Spassky Gate switched automatically to green to all these "first among equals" citizens of the USSR access to their place of power, The guards, still dressed in long winter overcoats and knee-length boots would have sharply saluted their rulers. They also probably wondered what on earth the Politburo members were doing, gathering at 10 pm on a Sunday night. Once inside the Zils would have turned right in front of the Ivan the Great bell tower, completed by Boris Godunov in 1600. Then they would have gone past the glittering cathedrals where the tsars had been crowned and buried for over 300 years. Lastly, the huge limos would have made another right past yet another set of guards and a pair of wrought iron gates, there they finally would have stopped outside a mustard colored palace alongside the Kremlin wall. This three story building was shaped like a three-sided triangle, and formed an inner citadel -a kremlin within the Kremlin.

In tsarist times it had housed the Senate and the Palace of Justice. When Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow from Petrograd in March 1918, the Senate building became the headquarters of the new regime. Almost 70 years of Soviet history had been centered on this building. This was the location from where Lenin ordered the "liquidation" of the tsar and his family. It was from this building that Stalin organized not only a campaign of immense terror on ordinary Soviet citizens-but on his Kremlin colleagues as well! Lavrentiy Beria, another Stalin-inspired monster, had been arrested by his suspicious Politburo members here during Khrushchev's time. Beria and his arrest are worth a couple of articles on their own in the future if I get time.

On this Sunday evening there were to be no arrests. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Konstantin Chernenko had finally given up the ghost at 7:20 this very evening. For the third time in slightly more than three years the Politburo had to choose a new "Tsar." The Politburo members would have taken an elevator to the third floor of the Senate building. From there they would have seen a long, high-ceilinged corridor with a spotless red runner down the middle and doors on either side. The door one entered would have depended on one's senority. Voting members gathered in a walnut-paneled room, next to the "genseks" (general secretary's) office. Candidate or non-voting, members met with Central Committee secretaries in a more modest room, which had been cheerfully named the predbannik, Russian for the dressing room of a bathhouse. At the appointed time the two groups met in the Politburo Room, greeting each other in a formal yet friendly manner. The reason for the initially divided nature of this unwritten Kremlin tradition was to allow the general secretary to consult with the most senior Soviet leaders before the start of the meeting. Major decisions were often made in the Walnut Room, without any note takers present, and ratified in the Politburo Room.

Mikhail Gorbachev was still not guaranteed the top job as he waited to greet his fellow Politburo members that Sunday evening. Gorbachev had been chairing sessions in Chernenko's abscence (as Chernenko had done in Andropov's abscence), but he was very aware that the old guard wasn't ready to give up yet; even after going through so many leaders in such a short time the situation was becoming the stuff jokes were made of. Gorbachev knew that some of the old guard were wanting the 71 year old Moscow Communist Party boss, Viktor Grishin to get the top job. Grishin had a reputation for corruption and sluggishness that was high even compared to a party boss in one of the outlying Soviet republics. A few weeks earlier Grishin had put on a little theater that he hoped would make people see he was Chernenko's heir apparent by helping the dying leader cast his vote on nationwide television. Prime Minister Tikhonov was at it again behind the scenes to block Gorbachev's candidature. However, rank and file members of the Central Committee were very heavily in favor of Gorbachev. After 13 months and over 18 years (except for a few slight changes under Andropov) both the party and the people were desperate for real change. Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko was the key figure in this transition. Gromyko was an oldster himself, having served every Soviet leader since Stalin. He had joined the Communist Party in 1931-the year Gorbachev was born. Now that Defense Minister Ustinov was dead, there was no other man in the Politburo who could match his influence and prestige. To be continued...

I am kind of going crazy getting information I had written down here while I can type halfway decently. This is indeed a new series but I very much intend to go back to Rome very soon. The two different subjects will run simultaneously. In this series (which by the way I do not like the name-so any suggestions other than "The Big Questions" will be appreciated!) I just want to ask major questions of history and see if there are any answers. Things like: Can one person make a difference? What causes a nation to rise, stagnate or fall completely? Maybe even questions like: Do conspiracies play a major role in history? (conspiracies do not always have to be major to make a difference. Hopefully we will see shortly how if we believe one person can make a difference in the Gorbachev succession- a very tiny conspiracy may have ended up playing a major part-it then boils down if one believes a single man or woman can make a difference when confronted with the overwhelming tides of history.) These are pretty much the questions I started this blog for and wound up getting so wrapped up in Roman history ( but will definitely continue with that also, God willing) that I forgot-especially as I had a long spell on this blog without doing anything. If I am offline tomorrow, I hope to be online Friday. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Conclusion

2009-09-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

President Reagan seems to have been surprised when he learned in late 1983 that "many people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy were genuinely afraid of America and Americans...as potential aggressors who might hurl weapons at them in a first strike." Well if Reagan paid a bit more attention to our nation's interfering in the affairs of others and using "phony" provocations to start conflicts-maybe he would not have been as surprised. Reagan also appears to have had his horror of a nuclear war strengthened by watching a preview of the 1983 ABC television movie The Day After, which showed the destruction of Lawrence, Kansas, after a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. This probably shouldn't have come as a surprise for a president who always seemed to be "acting" and who quoted events from movies as if they happened in real life. However, this time Reagan being influenced by a movie was probably a good thing. Typically some administration officials felt that the ABC movie could play right into the hands of Soviet propagandists, but their commander in chief had a completely different view. In his diary, Reagan noted: It's powerfully done, all $7 million worth. It's very effective and left me very depressed. We have to do all we can to have a deterrent and to see there is never a nuclear war."

Even so there wouldn't be any great changes in superpower relations as long as the old guard remained in power. Yuri Andropov had wanted badly for his protege, Mikhail Gorbachev, to be his successor. Andropov's wishes were denied by a septugenarian cabal that wasn't ready (and perhaps never would be until they all died!) to hand the reigns of power to a new generation. When Andropov died on 9 February 1984, the post of general secretary passed to the semi-comatose Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko-the man who had once held so much sway over Brezhnev's cigarettes! Chernenko was already a dying man upon his succession. Gorbachev's hopes of getting the top job were scotched by the 78 year old Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov. In a conversation with his colleagues Tikhonov was overheard saying, "Mikhail is still very young. It's unclear how he would behave in such a position. Kostya is the one we need." The geriatrics had their way this time, and would even give it another go when Chernenko died only 13 months later.

I have probably gone further into this article about other subjects than KAL 007 than I intended. I will end this series by saying a couple of things about the shootdown. First of all, the Cold War was an enormous waste of human resources. I can start to get really upset if I begin to think about where humanity would be if we humans didn't have this endless propensity for violence-and sorry to sound crude but this constant battle between nations and their propagandists to "see whose dick is bigger?" And what are those missiles that can wipe out whole cities (or if they have multiple warheads -multiple cities) at one go, if not hugely phallic symbols? In my very humble opinion I am surprised, but very pleasantly surprised that we "made" it through the Cold War intact. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is a terrible and tragic reminder that the Cold War did kill people. This is what I think the tragedy boils down to: the people aboard that doomed flight were victims of the Cold War. There are a number of conspiracy theories from the left and the right about this incident. In a way that is sad too, that one's opinion of what happened would be based only on politics and not where the evidence leads.

The right-wing conspiracy theories say that the Soviets knew exactly what they were shooting down and then many of them go on to say the downing was because of Larry McDonald, the very anti-Soviet congressman from Georgia's seventh district who was on KAL 007. The left-wing conspiracy theories say that KAL 007 was on an out and out spying mission for the United States to see how fast the Soviet Union's radar and military would respond to an intruder-and how well it would respond. Note: as with many conspiracy theories there are many variations around these two themes-these are just the major ones. With KAL 007 I don't think there is enough information to judge what happened either way and tend towards the extremely tragic mistake explanation. I will say that I truly do not believe that Gennady Osipovich knew he was taking down a plane full of civilians at first, and I will also say that this doesn't excuse the lies the Soviets told about the incident. The terribly cold and beaureaucratic way high Soviet officials acted is also inexcusable. Against "our" side I will say that I do wonder why such an experienced pilot as Captain Chun missed so many chances to see that his plane was way off course. Remember he was a very experienced pilot and trusted so well that he served South Korean leaders as a pilot. I also have no doubt that there are those in our "security" agencies who might see a civilian plane going off course and let it stay that way as opposed to warning it to gain data about Soviet defenses-perhaps thinking the plane would simply be "escorted" out of Soviet airspace instead of being blown out of the sky.

I will add just a couple more thoughts and would love to hear from anyone with anything to say. I would also like to dedicate this little series to the victims and their families and friends of Korean Air Lines 007. My whole point in doing this series was to hopefully show that not only did people die during the Cold War but that it was a terrble waste of every kind of resource imaginable. I can only hope, along with millions-maybe billions of others that mankind learns to be -well more of what it is supposed to mean to be human in the future!

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Six

2009-09-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

For a time Major Gennady Osipovich had been on cloud -perhaps he felt that he would be named for the enormous honor of Hero of the Soviet Union for shooting down a foreign military craft. However, now that he knew what had actually happened, his mental anguish and regret was so great he could hardly conceal his feelings -and sometimes couldn't. During this time, Osipovich was described as listless, distracted and in his own world. Out of the blue and addressing no particular person, Osipovich would say things like: "Perhaps there was no one on the plane," and "Who can tell me exactly how many seats there are on this Boeing." Osipovich had been greeted like a hero when he came back from his mission. Indeed, the entire squadron had come to welcome the man who had shot down an "intruder." There had been much celebration at the time, hugs, kisses and many shots of vodka consumed. The younger pilots looked at him with a mixture of jealousy and pride. Gennady Osipovich may have had a premonition of something because during the celebratory time he phoned General Kornukov to find out what had actually taken place, asking if the plane had been "one of ours."

Kornukov replied sternly, "No. It was a foreigner. So make a hole in your shoulder boards for a new star." Shortly there was a different attitude in the air. Western radio stations reported that the Soviet Union had shot down a passenger plane, killing all 269 people aboard. Government officials arrived on Osipovich's turf from Moscow with endless questions and investigations. Major Osipovich's superiors, well-schooled in holding their cards close to their chests began to look at Osipovich with strange expressions. When interviewed by a reporter from the army newspaper Red Star, Osipovich complained: "Why are they treating me as if I am insane?" and "For days I have not even been able to go to the bathroom by myself. They keep me locked up." This journalist and others had been completely prepared by Moscow. Their mission: to get Osipovich to agree to the official Party line about shooting down a 'spy plane.' This of course meant repeating the same lies and obfuscations that the USSR had been telling the rest of the world. The entire script that Osipovich was to read on camera, on state TV had already been written in Moscow. The only thing that Osipovich needed to do was memorize his lines and repeat them on TV. Osipovich followed his instructions, but the first time around his performance and believeablity seemed terribly contrived.

A bottle of vodka was produced and brought out and he drank several shots in quick succession. Osipovich was much more relaxed now. When he got back in front of the TV cameras this time, his words of outrage, resentment and scorn issued from his mouth spontaneously and very importantly "sounded true." Not only did Osipovich talk about the threat of a nuclear war, he even mentioned how he had been scheduled to give a speech about peace to a school in Sakhalin the very same day that the United States had run its mission of "provocation." The television presenter then asked if he was positive that the intruder had been an ememy plane. "Yes, this is what I thought. After it crossed our border, it only made me more certain. This enemy aircraft which had broken into our territory was now flying over my home. It passed almost over our base. People at this time are peacefully sleeping and he's up there on a spying mission." The KAL 007 affair was a horrific but cathartic affair for both superpowers. This incident brought them closer to a nuclear holocaust than any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Oddly, however, it also began, very slowly at first, to begin a new era of East-West relations. Once again it was as if the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States came to the edge of the abyss-looked down and got scared-then came back from the edge. The rhetoric between the two superpowers at this time was extreme.

The Reagan administration accused the Soviets of "a crime against humanity" and the deliberate "massacre" of 269 innocent civilians. The Soviets fought back, comparing Reagan to Adolph Hitler (this seems to be a favorite insult for any two powers having significant disagreements), and a demagogue who wanted to rule the world-even if he had to destroy it first. This war of propaganda and accusations happened during the time of another war of propaganda between Washington and Moscow. This involved the deployment of the Pershing II missiles in Western Europe by the Reagan administration. If the Soviets could only convince public opinion in Europe that Reagan was pushing the world towards a nuclear confrontation; their battle against the Pershings was almost won. To counter this the Reagan administration sought to present itself as tough but reasonable. The Korean airline tragedy was a major public relations disaster for Moscow. It is quite possible that this horrible tragedy aided the Reagan administration to deploy the Pershing and Cruise missiles in Western Europe right on schedule. The Soviets had lost this round of the public opinion wars. Here I will enter a personal note. I was in Europe as a teenager in the summer of 1982-and to a person everyone I met-be they German, Austrian, Swiss or British thought that the quest to have the Pershings installed was a terrible idea. The KAL tragedy, sadly, may have helped the governments cooperating with the Reagan administration to "stand down" public opinion.

However, there was another way that the KAL tragedy, ironically, may have helped Andropov. The reaction in Moscow had convinced President Reagan that it would be stupid to push the Soviets too far. A state that felt it was cornered and being treated unfairly might strike back in terrible and unpredictable ways. OK-we are now quite close to the end of the KAL 007 series. I could have typed more tonight were I not extremely fumble-fingered-and it has gotten worse and not better since I have been online. I have made about one typo for every four words in this article! Being the first of September, this is the 26th anniversary of the horrible KAL 007 tragedy and I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims of this stupid and preventable Cold War tragedy. The image is of a memorial to the victims of the KAL 007 shootdown in Japan-I will come back with the exact location. Peace and best to anyone stopping by! The memorial is located at Cape Soya, Japan. In the wiki link I will give there is a picture of it under the "Aftermath" section. There are a huge amount of web resources on this tragedy and I would recommend to anyone interested to read them including the wikipedia article HERE

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Five

2009-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

Many commentators and historians have argued over the years about the notion of there being "hawks" and "doves" in the Kremlin. After studying Soviet history (albeit as a complete amateur for 30 years), I do believe that there were men in the Soviet government who wanted peace more than others, the problem is the only way for a dove to survive surrounded by hawks is to at least appear to be a hawk himself. Second of all, I believe that with the majority of the Soviet leadership, feelings of peace towards the West were greatly enhanced by what they could get out of cooperating and signing treaties with the US and other nations-detente. I also want to say that here it would be very hypocritical for me not to say that the same type of things could also be said of the United States. For the number of Soviets who no doubt would have been relieved if the United States were wiped off the face of the earth-there was a huge contingent of people in the United States who would have been happy to see the same thing happen with the Soviets. In the area of propaganda the United States -in my opinion anyway-intentionally overestimated the "threat" the Soviet Union posed to bloat the already hugely bloated defense industry or military-industrial complex (MIC). There was an enormous amount of hatred and mistrust whipped up by both sides of the Cold War.

Matters were not helped any in 1984 when President Reagan, who didn't realize he was talking into a "live" mike said, "I have just signed a bill outlawing the Soviet Union forever. Bombing begins in five minutes." I may not have the exact quote -but its damn close and it was a hugely stupid thing for Reagan to say-both as a head of state and as a human being. For once the "luck" that seemed to follow Reagan through a great deal of his presidency seemed to have slipped -at least for a moment. Looking back on it, I don't think the aftermath of the "bombing begins in five minutes" incident lasted that long. Forgive me please for digressing (yet again-a rather common thing with me) but does anyone else who was around in the early 80s feel that if any other prez had dealt with the PATCO strike like Reagan did -that if it were any other prez-I feel that within a couple of weeks a huge airline catastrophe would have happened-and thank god it didn't. But what really gets me after these years is that in some quarters in the US Reagan is on his way to being deified and -I suppose it just shows you what can be done with the right sound-bites and Madison Avenue marketing. To me the man was an absolute bore and completely uninspiring (haha-there was the "small" matter of him edging the US closer to a nuclear exchange with the Soviets than any time since 1962!). This may just be a typical left-wing rant but here is my thing with Reagan -he did an excellent job as acting as a president -but I guess that's where I part company with so many. I could always tell it was acting-none of it was real-and he was very good at it -but I could tell almost everything the man said was bullshit!

Sorry about that I will stick to the story from here on out -sheesh as if I am not behind enough! Damn I even lost my place!

Often, survival in the Kremlin meant not survival of the most sophisticated and intelligent -but the blandest and most boring! This meant having a preternatural feel for the upcoming party positions and to agree with them totally-whether you really did or not. Konstantin Chernenko, who would become the general secretary on Andropov's death, chaired the Politburo meeting on the KAL 007 affair because of Andropov's hospitalization. Chernenko was a completely colorless Brezhenev crony. One of Chernenko's responsibilities used to be making sure that Brezhnev didn't smoke over his quota of cigarettes. The Soviet ambassador to the USA, Anatoly Dobrynin, had told a reporter here during the wait and see period after Andropov's death, something to the effect that "The elevation of Konstantin Chernenko to the Communist Party leadership would be an insult to both the Soviet state and people." Once again -relying a lot on memory for that-I will look it up to be sure. Just the fact that Dobrynin wasn't even punished for making such a statement when Chernenko did get the nod-much less called back to Moscow and shot, as he would have been during Stalin's time shows how little respect Chernenko had among many important Soviet officials.

In regard to KAL 007, Chernenko said to the Politburo, "One thing is clear, we cannot allow foreign planes to overfly our territory freely. No self-respecting state can allow that." Defense Minister Ustinov was next to speak. His report to the Politburo contained several major lies, designed to relieve the military of all responsibility for the incident. Unstinov claimed that the 747 was flying "without warning lights," directly contradicted by the testimonyof the interceptor pilot. He also insisted that "repeated instructions" had been given to the intruder to land at a Soviet airfield and that warning shots had been fired "with tracer shells, as stipulated by International rules." Ustinov continued: "My opinion is that in this situation we must show firmness and remain cool. We should not flinch. If we flinch, it gives all kinds of people the opportunity to overfly our territory." Andrei Gromyko, the 74 year old foreign minister was the only Politburo member with the prestige and authority to stand up to Ustinov. And perhaps Gromyko was sorely tempted to do this, as he would bear the brunt of international outrage over the incident. However, Gromyko was always a very cautious man. He had survived Stalin's purges and managed to climb near to the pinnacle of power by always supporting the winning side.

Instead of choosing to debate Ustinov he also caved in, as he didn't want to appear too much like a peacenik during this rapidly escalating incident. Gromyko told the Politburo that the Soviet military had acted "correctly" when it shot down the Korean plane. However, he also acknowledged that the Soviet Union should anticipate a likely barrage of "imperialist propaganda" and admit that "shots were fired." "We should say so frankly, so as not to allow our adversary to accuse us of being deceitful. Our main argument should be that the plane was flying over Soviet territory and had penetrated an exceptionally long way into our territory." It was now Mikhail Gorbachev's turn to speak. The "baby" of the Politburo at 52 years old was in a very fragile position. His colleagues knew he was the one Andropov wanted to be his successor. Andropov had encouraged Gorbachev to get involved in all areas of Soviet government in anticipation of this. The older members of the Politburo needed his youthful energy and competence-but they also felt threatened by him to say the least. It was very hard for them to imagine Gorbachev keeping them around if he came to power, rather than replace them with men closer to his own age. Gorbachev walked a tightrope to retain their confidence and have a realistic chance for the top job.

He had to be an enthusiastic supporter of the Party without threatening any of the vested interests of the Soviet bureaucracy. Gorbachev also took the "safe" line in the Politburo meeting. He told his colleagues that the Americans must have known of this unauthorized violation of Soviet airspace. The length of time that the plane had been in Soviet airspace, two hours, proved that this was a "planned provocation" by the United States. To be continued....

The image is of a plane very similar to what Gennady Osipovich might have thought he was actually firing at. I am exhausted and probably shouldn't even have started this article! Sorry for going off-topic with the "Reagan Rant." I am just amazed so many times how the criminals get away with so much here in the US. O-and any conservatives who might see this-no worries about me. I am voting third party in 2012 and am disgusted with both major politcal parties in our nation right now. I hope to be back online soon with more-hopefully tomorrow. I hope there aren't a huge amount of typos in this-I will try to look real fast. Before finally going offline I will also check for the Dobrynin/Chernenko quote. If it is vastly different than I remember, I will come back and delete it or change it. All the best to anyone stopping by! OK -I am giving myself just a week to confirm the Dobrynin quote about Chernenko. If this were any other area of history I would have taken it down already. Just wanted to come back and let people know to beware of that quote until I can prove it or delete it-maybe someone else will know about it? The second image I brought back is of Chernenko and Brezhnev in happier times-probably the mid to late 1970s with a group of Young Pioneers.

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Four

2009-08-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

Yuri Andropov had the view that the key to ruling a country as vast and as teeming with so many different ethnic groups as the USSR was to never show weakness. This stratagem applied to both domestic and foreign policy. The enemies of the revolution were always lying in wait, ready to seize the slightest opportunity should the Soviet leadership show any signs of weakness or a non-united front. To a man of Andropov's thinking, events should never spiral out of control to the point that the onl solution was to use massive military force, as in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. During Politburo meetings before he became general secretary, Andropov was constantly calling for strong measures against dissidents and intellectuals. He was fond of quoting Lenin's views on this, "A revolution is worth something only if it knows how to defend itself." Indeed, for all his knowledge of the true state of the USSR and willingness to experiment, Andropov was a prisoner of the Soviet system as much as the average proletarian worker-although with much better perks and influence! His revolutionary world-view stopped him from challenging the basic features that were actually eroding Soviet power: the overwhelming might of the military-industrial complex; central planning; the elevation of politcal dogma over rational economic thought.

Andropov was also a fervent admirer of Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible, which was a very thinly veiled apology for autocratic rule that had been made to order for Stalin. Andropov was particularly fond of a scene early in the movie, when the new tsar is flexing his muscles and trying to impose his will on the rebellious boyars. The boyars say that neither Europe nor Rome will recognize the young tsar, to which a Jesuit priest replies, "He who is strong will be recognized by everybody." Andropov would repeat these words when any argument arose about the need for a tough stance to deal with the American imperialists. Similar to Stalin and Ivan the Terrible, Andropov lived in a world surrounded by plotting domestic enemies and hostile foreign powers. The only possible way to survive in such a world was to be as ruthless, crafty and even as paranoid as your enemies. Military strength was the keystond of the Russian state. The Soviet obsession with security many times undermined their other foreign policy goals when they wanted to be seen as peacemakers. Andropov was very reluctant to go against the ideas of the military-industrial complex. However, when KAL 007 occurred, the Foreign Ministry urged him to assume responsibility for the shootdown, while accusing the United States of orchestrating a deliberate spying mission on the USSR.

But Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, was absolutely against admitting any Soviet role in the destruction of 007. In a conference call to Andropov's hospital room, Ustinov told Andropov, "Don't worry, everything will be all right. Nobody will be able to prove anything." Since Stalin's time, Politburo meetings had followed an exact ritual. The meetings were less a forum for open debate than a weekly loyalty ceremony and rubbing of the elbows for members of the party's inner elite. The agenda for the meeting was usually predetermined by the general secretary and a small number of powerful chieftains, each of whom enjoyed a great deal of autonomy in their particular field of expertise or even moreso if they led one of the Soviet Union's fifteen republics (there were two to three leaders of various Soviet republics in the Politburo at this time if memory serves.) There was always a strict adherence to proper deference shown to the more powerful members around the Politburo table. Junior members were expected to give the floor to their elders and always say something to support the established party doctrine at the time. With this automatic support for a particular decision, they automatically assumed responsibility for it. This process spiralled down repeatedly until it became binding on all of the 18 million Soviet Communists. With the idea of "democratic centralism," once the Politburo had made a formal decision, no dissent was tolerated. Communist ideology by this time had long given way to cynicism. Oh-the Party bosses would still use it to fall back on and slavishly claimed to believe in a "bright Soviet future." But most-by the early 1980s only used lip service to support communist party directives-the revolutionary fires had long burned out for the great majority.

I had no idea this series would be this long! The image is of Major Gennady Osipovich, the pilot who shot down KAL 007. I may try to do one more article for this series today unless I get too tired. Peace and best to anyone stopping by!

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Three

2009-08-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

The passengers aboard Flight 007 were completely unaware of the drama taking place just outside their windows. Some would have covered themselves in blankets and dozed off. Others were waiting for the cabin crew to serve breakfast as the plane flew (supposedly) over Japan to South Korea. Most of the window shades would have still been down for the last part of the in-flight movie. The conversations on the flight deck also show how unaware the crew were of the danger they were in. They talked about upcoming vacations, customs procedures and the location and opening time of the airport currency exchange. The onboard inertial navigation system had failed to engage, either because the pilots had switched it on too late or because someone had flipped the switch to the wrong position.

At the moment, Captain Osipovich had attempted to catch 007's attention with cannon fire, Captain Chun was talking to air traffic control in Tokyo. He got permission to climb two thousand feet to an altitude of 37,000 feet, a normal fuel-saving excercise at this point in the flight. Osipovich interpreted this as an attempt to escape. With 007 heading out of Soviet airspace the generals on the ground were starting to panic. They could face severe consequences if they let a military target get away. There wasn't any time left to ID the target positively; Osipovich was running out of time and fuel. He had only 10 to 15 minutes of flying time left. In theory-and I do wonder why this wasn't tried earlier-perhaps because it had been assumed for so long that the intruder was military-with the Kurile Island incident in the very recent background?) Osipovich could have tried to reach the intruder on the internationally recognized emergency frequency-121.5 Megahertz. However, this meant Osipovich would lose communication with his ground controllers at this crucial time while he retuned his radio-and there was no time for that either.

At 6:21 AM Sakhalin time, just as dawn was arriving, KAL 007 was flying out of Soviet airspace. Kornukov had to make a final decision. His command was: "Fire missiles, fire on target six-zero-six-five, destroy target six-zero-six-five," and finally, "Carry out the task, destroy!" Bring one-six-three in behind Osipovich to guarantee destruction!" "Eight-zero-five, approach target and destroy target!" Osipovich spun around the still unidentified Boeing 747 and launched a heat-seeking missile. 2 seconds later he fired the radar-guided missile. "Launch executed," he radioed to the ground. It only took the missiles 35 seconds to cover the 5 miles between the two planes. Osipovich saw a burst of flame from the tail section. The navigation lights went out immediately. Initially, the plane appeared to climb but as Osipovich swung his jet to the right he could see the "target" falling into the sea. "The target is destroyed," he said in a voice filled with excitement. At the time Osipovich thought he had fulfilled the dream of his career: shooting down a hostile military target.

The destruction of KAL 007 was an enormous gift for President Reagan and the conservative movement in the United States. They could not have asked for a better incident to help label the USSR the "Evil Empire." The Soviets didn't help themselves by denying for almost a week what had happened. The first statement issued by the Soviet news agency TASS-that the plane was flying "without navigation lights," and that the Soviet interceptors had tried to guide the plane to the "nearest airfield" among others were easily destroyed when the Americans simply played a tape of exchanges between Sakahalin ground control and Osipovich to a solemn session of the UN Security Council.

Yuri Andropov had been in power less than 10 months at the time of the KAL incident. He was not a particularly vibrant man on becoming General Secretary, and now after his health eroded at an even faster pace and he was besieged by enormous responsibilities, the new Soviet leader looked like a skeleton. Even his longtime colleagues had trouble recognizing him. Andropov spent much of his time in a hospital that catered to the Soviet higher-ups. His room was a mess of cluttered medical equipment and Kremlin telephones. Andropov sat in a modified dentist's chair with a high headrest that allowed him to shift his position at the touch of a button. His kidneys ceased to function completely in the summer of 1983 and he had to be hooked up to a dialysis machine twice a week. To the average Russian citizen, General Secretary Andropov had become a rather ghostly prescence already-as if he had somehow got stuck on earth when he was supposed to have crossed over. They only heard from him through written statements labeled "from the Soviet leadership; a TASS communique or an interview in Pravda.

The Andropov era had gotten off to a good start in most Soviet citizens' minds-despite typical "dark" jokes such as greeting each other on New Years Day 1983 and saying "Happy New 1938!" -transposing the numbers of the year to signify one of the worst years of Stalin's purges and atrocities. After 18 years of glacial drift and stagnation under Brezhnev most Soviets welcomed change of any kind. They were impressed by Andropov's anti-corruption drive that targeted many former Brezhenev cronies and at the same time helped to glorify the image of the former KGB chief as a stern but just ruler who would get the country back on track and moving again. It appeared for a time that Russsian's finally had a real master -a khozyayin, who would restore dignity, honor, order and discipline to the Soviet Union. By the early 80s the Russian people were desperate for any strong leader. Many Russians acted warmly to even such token steps as a series of raids on Moscow bathhouses in the daytime to punish absenteeism from work. For the Communist Party elite, the sick old man in the dentist's chair was held in regard as the best of his generation.

Andropov's 15 years as the KGB chief had shown him what the true condition of the USSR was and also the extent that it lagged behind the West. In comparison to Brezhnev, Andropov was decisive and energetic. He definitely understood the need for change and was seriously considering new ideas. However, there was a very tough side to Andropov that knew "change" could only go so far-and only under the guidance of the Communist Party. The younger members of the Politburo who had not experienced war or revolution, as Andropov had, perhaps didn't realize that the key to Soviet power was only through the will of a ruthless minority to impose its will on the rest of the nation. In Andropov's mind reform was entirely necessary-but had to be very tightly guided and overseen. To be continued...

Still more to go -but I did get a lot done tonight-for me anway! Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! The first image is of a TIME magazine cover published shortly after the incident. The second image is a few of the faces of the victims of KAL 007.

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Two

2009-08-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here we are -back to KAL 007. This series appears quite a bit longer than I first thought. It is hard to tell because my handwriting is so large when I transfer information to paper. I will type as much as I can with each article from here on out-so if you see "to be continued" it means I had intended to type more but got too tired or fumblefingered or that the article should have stopped earlier and was running into the next part. Actually I am not done getting all of the information to paper-but as this looks to be an "insomnia" night perhaps I can finish in the small hours of the morning.

When KAL 007 was about 80 miles (130km) from the Kamchatka coast, four MiG-23 Soviet fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the fast and high-flying intruder. At 15:51 GMT, according to Soviet sources, 007 entered the restricted airspace of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The buffer zone extended 120 miles (200km) from Kamchatka's coast. The 62 miles (100km) radius of the buffer zone closest to Soviet territory had the additional designation of prohibited airspace. Significant command and control problems were experienced trying to vector the MiG jets onto the Boeing but they ran out of fuel. In addition, pursuit was made more difficult, according to Soviet Air Force Captain Alexander Zuyev who defected to the West in 1989, because Arctic weather had knocked out Soviet radar 10 days before. The unidentified jetliner therefore crossed over the Kamchatka Peninsula back into international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk without being intercepted.

Captain Gennady Osipovich climbed into the cockpit of his Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor an hour before dawn on 1 September 1983. He was given the coordinates of an unidentified "military" target approaching the island of Sakhalin from the direction of Kamchatka. His mission was to destroy the target if and when it crossed back into Soviet airspace. Osipovich received the order to take off at 5:42 AM Sakhalin time. The four fighter jets that had been dispatched previously had lost sight of their target as it headed out over the Sea of Okhotsk. Osipovich was a veteran pilot with 10 years of experience and knew that Soviet talk of the "impenetrable borders" of the USSR were a joke. The incident during FleetEx'83 in which a squadron of planes from the US Pacific Fleet had violated Soviet airspace over the Kurile Islands had proved that to a "T." A couple of items that may have led to the tragic downing of Flight 007 were: Ever since a Soviet fighter pilot flew a new high-tech MiG-25 to Japan and defected, orders were issued to ensure that Soviet Air Defense Force planes never had enough fuel to reach a foreign air field. This led to a maximum flying time of 40 to 50 minutes, barely enough time to complete a mission. Thus the time factor to make decisions was "squeezed" by quite a bit.

Also because of the previous dismissals of Soviet officers because of the US intrusions over the Kurile Islands, Soviet commanders on the ground (Soviet pilots were not encouraged to make their own decisions or take their own initiatives) were loathe to make the same mistakes and let more military targets get away. However, on the ground there was frantic going back and forth on the final decision to shoot the intruder down. The duty officer for Osipovich's squadron was stunned to disbelief if this were indeed a military target. The "stupid" behavior of the target was suicidal and not typical of American reconaissance. He told a colleague that the behavior of the target was "very suspicious" and "I don't think the enemy is so stupid. Can it be one of ours?" after this he called a control post on the eastern tip of the island to check on the intruder's progress. "It hasn't bombed us yet," was the mirthful and ironic reply. 400 miles to the west at the command control center at Khabarovsk there were also some doubts as to the identity of the "target."

The duty officer thought correctly that the intruder plane could be a passenger aircraft. He said, "All necessary steps must be taken to identify it." His superior, General Kamenski also had his doubts, "Maybe it is some civilian aircraft, or God knows what, " he told the commander of air defenses on Sakhalin, General Kornukov. (Hope Kamenski didn't get in trouble for the "God.":) Kornukov wasn't having any of it and said, "What civilian?!" He had only been awakened 45 minutes earlier and informed that an American RC-135 was heading straight towards the island. He was well aware of the penalties for letting such an aircraft escape. Korukov said, "It has flown over Kamchatka. It came from the ocean, without identification. I am giving the order to attack." However, a very short while later, Kornukov countermanded his earlier order to shoot down the plane! 6 times in total Gen. Kornukov asked, "Are there navigation lights or not?" The abscence of these lights would signify the hostile or espionage intent of the intruder. Osipovich radioed back, "The air navigation light is on." Kornukov ordered Osipovich to flash his plane's lights as a warning signal and also for him to approach the plane and roll his wings back and forth at it and force it to land.

Kornukov was irritated by the extra talk in the background and gave another order to the commander of Osipovich's squadron: "Stop that horsing around at the command post. Only you, I and the controller are to talk. No one else." Osipovich was positioned behind and slightly below the mystery plane. He fired four bursts of armor piercing shells, 243 rounds in all. In response the target appeared to reduce speed, forcing Osipovich to fire ahead of the target. Both planes had now crossed the island from east to west and were heading into the Sea of Japan. It appeared to Osipovich at the time that the target was taking evasive action. Osipovich could not slow down or he would stall, so he dived 2,000 feet and banked around for a second pass at the intruder. I am going to try to post this second article of the KAL series now and begin to work on a third-I do not know if the third will be here tonight but I will try. The first image is a list of the nationalities of the dead of KAL 007. The second image is the official portrait of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR at the time, Yuri Andropov. Andropov will also be making more of an appearance in this series. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt One

2009-08-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

In 1983 Cold War tensions had escalated due to several factors. These included the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative-SDI-or Star Wars, announced by President Reagan in March 1983. With this proposal the US would develop weapons that used a kind of energy beam to knock incoming Soviet missiles before they could reach their target. The planned and executed deployment of the Pershing II missiles in Europe in March and April. Also FleetEx '83, the largest fleet excercise held to date in the North Pacific. Aircraft from the USS Midway and the USS Enterprise repeatedly flew over Soviet military installations in the Kurile Islands, resulting in the dismissal or reprimanding of Soviet military officials who had been unable to shoot down the intruding aircraft. I also believe the Kurile Islands incidents will become somewhat important later in this story. On the Soviet side Operation RYAN (a Russian acronym for Raketno Yadernoe Napadenie-Nuclear Missile Attack) was also expanded. RYAN had been instituted by then KGB chairman Yuri Andropov (later to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after Brezhnev's death) in 1981 because he and his advisers thought the USA was planning a nuclear first strike on the USSR. Lastly, there was a heightened alert around the Kamchatka Peninsula when KAL 007 in the vicinity, because of a Soviet missile test that was scheduled for the same day. The missile test was the reason that a United States Air Force RC-135 reconaissance aircraft was patrolling off the peninsula.

With all of these heightened Cold War tensions the Soviets shot down a civilian Korean Airlines Boeing 747 on 1 September 1983. The loss of life aboard the aircraft was complete-all 269 people aboard died. KAL 007 was shot down while it was flying over the Sea of Japan, just west of Sakhalin Island over prohibited Soviet airspace. Lawrence McDonald, a member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia's seventh district was among those killed. There was an irony in this in that even though McDonald was a Democrat, he was violently anti-detente with the Soviets and was even a member of the ultra-conservative John Birch society. One would be hard pressed to find a more anti-Soviet, anti-communist person in Congress at the time. This incident also made McDonald the only US congressman to be killed by the USSR during the Cold War-albeit in a roundabout way. KAL 007 was en route from New York City with a layover in Anchorage, Alaska and from there was supposed to arrive in Seoul, South Korea. The flight strayed into Soviet airspace because of a navigational error.

The incident sparked one of the most tense moments in the renewed Cold War of the early 1980s that began with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States and also the oldest ever elected to the office. It led to an escalation of anti-Soviet sentiment, especially in the United States. The Soviet Union initially denied knowledge of the incident but later admitted to shooting down the aircraft after almost a week, and even then was not telling the whole story of what they had done or how it had happened. The Polituro of the USSR took the line that the incident was an act of provocation by the USA. The USSR thought that the flight navigation data had been altered-perhaps during the Anchorage layover-to take the wrong flight path to test the Soviet Union's military preparedness, or to even provoke an out and out war. The USA accused the USSR of obstructing search and rescue operations. Also the USSR's military suppressed evidence sought by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigation, including the flight data recorders, which were eventually released nine years later when the USSR had ceased to exist.

As a result of the incident, the United States altered tracking procedures for aircraft departing from Alaska, while interface of the autopilot used on airliners was redesigned to make it more failsafe. President Reagan ordered the US military to make the Global Positioning System (GPS) available for civilian use so that navigational errors like that of KAL 007 could be averted in the future.

KAL 007 was a Boeing 747-230B and carried 246 passengers and 23 crewmembers. The aircraft had an unusually high ratio of passengers to crew due to employees of Korean Airlines using free tickets (deadheading) for vacations and crewmembers returning back home after working flights already. There were 80 unused seats and twenty-two children under the age of twelve aboard. 130 passengers planned to connect to other destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolin, Senator Steven Symms of Idaho and Representative Carroll J. Hubbard of Kentucky were on board 007's sister flight-KAL 015, which flew 15 minutes behind KAL 007. They were also headed to Seoul in order to attend ceremonies of the 30 year anniversary of the US-Korean Mutual Defense Treaty.

After taking off from Anchorage, the aircraft turned left, seeking its assigned route JetRoute 501 (J501) which would take it over the navigational beacon at Bethel, Alaska. Here the aircraft would enter the northern-most of 5 50 mile wide airways known as the (NOPAC) or North Pacific routes, the bridge between the Alaska and Japanese coasts. KAL 007's particular airway R-20 (Romeo 20), passed just 17.5 miles (28.2km) from Soviet airspace off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. There were two navigational systems in use at the time for commercial aircraft, each of which was required for different phases of the flight. The inertial navigation (INS) mode, where the aircraft follows a set of pre-programmed waypoints and the HEADING mode, where the autopilot flies an aircraft along a constant magnetic heading. The Anchorage VOR (VHF Omni-directional radio range) was not operational at the time because of maintenance. The crew was notified of this fact, but this wasn't seen as a problem because the captain could still check his position at the VOR beacon at Bethel, Alaska, 346 miles (557km) away. However, the aircraft had to navigate on a magnetic heading to the Bethel beacon before it could start to use the INS mode to follow the waypoints that comprised route Romeo-20 around the coast of the USSR to Seoul. Since this leg was undertaken in the dark pilotage (using visual fixed points of reference on the ground or sea to check position) could not be used to assist the crew in navigating the route.

At about 10 minutes after take-off, KAL 007, flying on a heading of 245 degrees, began to deviate to the north of its assigned route to Bethel; it would continue to fly this way for the next 5 and a half hours. ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) simulations and analysis of the flight data recorder determined that this deviation was probably caused by the aircraft's navigation system operating in HEADING mode, after the point it should have been switched to INS mode. According to the ICAO, the autopilot was not in the INS mode for one of two reasons. Either the crew did not switch the autopilot to INS mode or they selected the INS mode, but didn't activate, as the aircraft had already deviated off track by more than 7.5 nautical miles (13.9km) tolerance permitted by the inertial navigation computer. In both scenarios, the autopilot remained in HEADING mode, and the problem wasn't detected by the crew.

KAL's divergence prevented the aircraft from transmitting its position via short range VHF radio. It therefore requested its sister flight-015 to relay reports to air traffic control on its behalf. At 14:43 GMT KAL 007 directly transmitted a change of its estimated time of arrival (ETA) for its next waypoint to the flight service stations at Anchorage. However, it did this using high frequency (HF) instead of VHF (Very High Frequency). High frequency transmissions are able to carry a longer distance than VHF but VHF is preferred by flight crews because it is not so vulnerable to static and interference. The inability to establish direct radio communications to be able to transmit their position directly did not alert the pilots of 007 to their ever increasing divergence. Halfway between Bethel and waypoint NABIE, KAL 007 passed through the southern portion of the North American Air Defense buffer zone. This zone, monitored intensively by the NSA (National Security Agency) is north of Romeo 20 and off-limits to civilian aircraft.

KAL 007 continued its journey, its rate of deviation ever increasing-60 nautical miles (110km) off course at waypoint NABIE, 100 nautical miles off course at waypoint NUKKS and 160 nautical miles (300 km) off course at waypoint NEEVA until it reached the Kamchatka Peninsula. The reasons put forward for the aircraft's deviation range from the pilots lack of knowledge about the situation to a planned and intentional deviation. Both sides of the argument note that the pilots from Bethel onwards had several sources of information that could have alerted them to their increasing deviation from their planned route.

The horizontal situation indicator (HSI) should have alerted the pilots of their course deviation. The needle of each pilot's HSI, capable of showing a deviation of only 8 miles (13km) should have been "pegged" all the way to the side. The pilots, therefore should have been aware they were at least 8 miles off course. Despite this at 13:49 GMT, the pilots were reporting they were on course, whereas 50 minutes after takeoff from Anchorage, military radar at King Salmon, Alaska saw they were more than 12.6 miles (20.3km) off course. The deviation exceeded the expected accuracy of the INS (2 nautical miles or 3.7km an hour) by a factor of 6. The pilots should also have been aware of the aircraft's serious deviation now, much more than 12 miles (19km) because 007 was too far off course for the pilots to make VHF radio reports, instead relying on their sister flight KAL 015 three times in total to do this for them. At one point in this part of its flight (14:43 GMT) 007 put a call through navigational "hookup" the International Flight Service Station on HF. KAL 007, now too far to speak directly with Anchorage controllers through VHF was transmitting its messages indirectly using HF. At another point of this section of the flight, at waypoint NABIE, 007 was too far north to make radar contact with the VHF air traffic control relay station on St. Paul's Island-KAL 015 relayed for 007.

The message was a change in ETA for the next waypoint (NEEVA), delaying by 4 minutes the ETA that KAL 015 had previously relayed for 007. Since a revised ETA could only be calculated by means of readout information presented by 007's Inertial Navigation Systems Control Display unit, pilot and co-pilot were once again presented with the opportunity of verifying their position and becoming aware of their enormous deviation. The contrary wind conditions of 007 and 015: When 007 passed out of Kamchatka airspace and was a few minutes into international airspace, over the Sea of Okhotsk, it was heading in the direction of Terpenie Bay on the west shore of Sakhalin Island. At the same minute (18:05 GMT) that Major Osipovich in his Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor fell in behind KAL 007 and reports to ground controllers "am observing" 007 was off course and 015, on course many miles away, and about 15 minutes behind 007, comparing wind velocity and direction. KAL 015 is encountering tailwinds while 007 is encountering headwinds: KAL 015: "Um Um We are now having an unexpected strong tailwind. How much do you get there? How much and in which direction? KAL 007: "206. Ask how many knots...? "KAL 007": "Ah! You got so much! We still got headwind. Headwind 215 degrees, 15 knots." KAL 015: "Is it so? But according to flight plan wind direction 360, 15 knots approximately." KAL 007: "Well it may be like this." Captain Chun (of Flt 007) by accepting these irreconcilables, has lost his last chance to escape.

Weather Radar: There was one last navigational aid to warn the crew. With consoles at the knees of both pilot and co-pilot, the plane's weather radar could have alerted them, both over Kamchatka and later over Sakhalin, to the fact they were no longer flying over water, as they ought to have been. Weather radar has 2 modes-land mapping for clear weather (when its possible to look down and see water or land masses) and weather surveillance mode for cloudy weather, when it is necessary to "see through" clouds in order to detect dangerous thunderstorms. KAL 007's mapping mode most likely in weather surveillance mode because of bad weather at the time. The ICAO's meteorological analysis concluded that "there was extensive coverage of low, medium and high level clouds over souther Kamchatka associated with an active cold front. ICAO's analysis of KAL 007's weather radar functioning stated, "it was concluded that the radar was not functioning properly or that ground mapping capability was not used. According to the ICAO, an indicator of pilot unawareness of the deviation of their flight and the danger they were in was the casual cockpit conversation at the times that awareness of deviation into hostile airspace would have increased tension and precluded this.

The image at the top is an artist's rendition of the same type of Korean 747 involved in the catastrophe. The second image is of the intended flight path of 007 with the deviation from it noted. I hope to be back with the rest of this series very soon. I don't think it will be that long. I wanted to talk about some other historical eras on the blog and thought this would be a good subject to start with. I do intend to stay mostly with ancient Rome up to a certain point but would like to do other topics here and there as well to prevent boredom (mine anyway:) from staying on one subject constantly. I do hope to be back with Augustus and his era very soon-by mid -September if not before. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Here are some links that I hope will be helpful or interesting and will have more in the future posts. Congressman McDonald HERE and an earlier incident in March of 1978 involving the shooting and forced landing of a Korean Airlines jet in 1978 HERE

Apologies!

2009-07-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to have not been following up on this blog! I was going at a pretty good clip and then-nothing. I have had a lot of problems this summer with different issues. I am even having-well knock on wood-maybe this part is over-problems with neighbors this summer and this has never happened to me before! My back is also worse and I have a lot of trouble sleeping (even without my neighbors help with noise all times of the early AM)-I do feel as if I am also making some extra excuses as a huge part of me just wishes I could hibernate in the summer here! I am planning to start up with this blog again in September (hopefully earlier) -I do not know how often articles will appear once I try to start back -but anything is better than what I have been doing. Thanks again to anyone following or who has commented on this blog! And again I am sorry for lack of articles. Like I say-I hope to be back in September with new material and am hoping for earlier than that. Best to anyone stopping by!

Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Eighteen

2009-05-12T22:16:00.001-07:00

It was also paramount in Roman society that there should not be any doubt as to who a Roman citizen's father was. This is precisely why Octavian himself ordered a favorite freedman of his to commit suicide after he had been convicted of adultery with freeborn Roman women. This policy of the properness of "who it was ok to have sex with" was a preventative measure to keep foreign genes out of the Roman gene pool. Citizens were supposed to marry citizens, and to wed a foreigner was looked down upon; if not illegal, such a union was not recognized by law-especially when it came to the matter of heirs to a will. For Mark Antony this meant that he could screw around with Cleopatra-but not marry her. For Octavia, a woman who appears to have been a wonderful, intelligent, loving spouse this may have stung a bit, but she understood the social mores of her time. Octavian, her loving brother was the one who absolutely hated the thought of Antony's liason with the eastern seductress. Then amidst Octavian dealing with his feelings about his Antony, some very interesting news started coming in from the east in the winter of 36 to 35 BC. This news-largely in the form of letters home from officers and others involved in Antony's Parthian campaign told a different story than Antony's gleaming tales of easy victory. In fact, it seems that his Parthian campaign came very close to defeat.

This interested Octavian greatly and other political higher-ups in Rome and a confidential investigation was commissioned to get the real story. Indeed it turns out that Mark Antony did make a series of mistakes that added up to a disaster. The campaign started out well enough but Antony started it too late in the year to afford a single setback or he would find himself fighting or retreating in the winter: think Napoleon or Hitler in later ages. Apparently Antony was so upset at himself he actually prepared for suicide several times. He was still a general in the midst of the quagmire, even after losing 20,000 men, one-third of his army, during the month it took to retreat to the relative safety of what would be modern Aremenia. I won't go into too may details of the actual battle as I am so behind on the major questions I want to at least ask if not answer on this blog, but I will try to find a link that describes it in full detail. When Antony's crippled army reached Syria, Antony started drinking heavily, as his sense of self-esteem was probably at the lowest point in his life. The soldiers that were left to him did stick by their general. According to Plutarch Antony's men, "greeted him with cheerful faces and gripped his hand as he passed: they begged him not to let their sufferings weigh upon him, but to go and take care of himself."

Messengers had been sent to ask Cleopatra for money and clothing for the soldiers. Apparently she took her sweet time (perhaps not wanting to be taken for granted?) but eventually brought everything that was required. After the soldiers were completely outfitted and supplied, Antony returned to Alexandria to contemplate how to proceed. When Octavian had absorbed all of the information about his colleague's debacle he decided to take a wait and see approach. Here is where some interesting thoughts about Octavian's motives come in. There are no records of any secret dealings or thougthts Octavian may have had with regard to sharing power with Antony until one or the other died. Who knows-maybe Octavian was just an intelligent and normally very careful opportunist and had no desire to unseat Mark Antony and rule the empire alone? But the sheer volume of evidence of his behavior-to me anyway (and not to worry-other "real" historians;-) argues very much against this. Octavian's slow but relentless and ruthlessness in chipping away at Antony's power and prestige (amongst other competitors) and his absolute refusal to do the barest minimum-even below minimum I think to help his fellow triumvir-taken as a whole points to an eventual plan to have sole rulership of the Roman world. I do think that Octavian truly adored his sister and am not entirely sure if he had an extra psychological push to get rid of Antony because of his dealings with Cleopatra; this situation probably added to the impetus to take Antony out, but I think this was the plan all along-ever since Octavian learned of his adoption by Julius Caesar.

The image is a Roman mosaic of a lion on a roundel. I do not know exactly when the next article will be here. I have developed the worse case of the summertime blahs on record I think-been very lazy regarding blogging lately. I do hope to come up with a schedule where I work on material for each blog three days of the week when I can with a day of rest. Hopefully I will get somewhat back on track soon. Thanks again to anyone following or commenting on this blog!

Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Seventeen

2009-05-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 36 BC, when Antony left for Parthia with 60,000 legionaires, to take long overdue revenge for Crassus's defeat in 53 BC, many of these republican diehards hoped that he would achieve a great triumph over the enemy and few doubted that he would and thus restore his predominance in the Triumvirate. Mark Antony did indeed announce victory of the Parthians in the autumn of that same year. Octavian kept up with his colleagues doings in the east. Communications were slow but a variety of individuals from businessmen to state officials wrote home with news and gossip. At this point in his life Octavian obviously had great power already but he was expected to keep the Senate informed and Mark Antony involved. Octavia was back in Rome while Antony was on his military campaign. Octavia was an intelligent and adoring mother, sister and wife, so she worked hard to not only be a good mother to her six children and stepchildren, but also to advocate Antony's interests and try to dull the sharp edges in relations between her husband and brother. Mark Antony also engaged in geopolitics in the east. In 40 BC, Parthian cavalry led by Pakur, the intelligent and capable son of King Urud had invaded the province of Syria killing the governor.

This invasion represented the greatest challenge since Mithridates of Pontus fifty years before to Roman hegemony. Antony realized that the client states that acted as a bulwark between the Parthians and Rome needed to be stronger. So Mark Antony created a new map, slicing up great territories for men he could count on. These men were all Greek speaking west Asians. Amyntas in Galatia, Polemo in Pontus, Archelaus-Sisiness in Cappadocia, and Herod in the tiny but very strategically important kingdom of Judea. If Antony was going to be responsible for the eastern part of the Roman empire he needed leaders steadfast enough to repel military stikes and powerful enough to react effectively to them. Still the royal figure that Antony placed his greatest trust in was Cleopatra in Egypt. The pair renewed their allegiance ( it would be wrong to think of it as a love affair at this point) when Antony was forty-five and Cleopatra thirty-three. The two came to a quick agreement about the future of their partnership (with equal speed Cleopatra became pregnant again). Egypt's resources would be at Antony's beck and call. In return for her letting Antony make use of Egypt's substantial resources Cleopatra received fittingly substantial territories. Among these were coastal cities from Mount Carmel )in the south of modern Lebanon), part of Cilicia(southeast modern Turkey), and other areas to the north and south of Judea.

Cleopatra had every reason to be greatly pleased with herself. She had made enormous strides towards rebuilding the Ptolemaic empire as it had been at the height of its power two centuries before. It is very important to note that in Rome at this time no one saw anything wrong with Antony's statecraft. His reorganization of the east showed great political forethought and made sense. Also, Antony appeared to be an able judge of the men best suited to lead the client kingdoms of Rome. Cleopatra was hardly what you would call well-liked by the Roman political class. But they had known her since the days of Julius Caesar and it was apparent she was a competent ruler. It mattered not a whit to mot that Antony had replaced Caesar as Cleopatra's lover. Octavian, however, had a much different view of the restored relations between the two. First of all it was an insult to his dear sister, Octavia. He also couldn't help but notice the semi-divine names that Antony's illegitimate children were given around this time: Alexander Helios (Greek "Sun") and Cleopatra Selene (Greek "Moon"). Due to their illegitimate status the children had no hereditary claims in either Rome or Egypt, but the new cognomens had to make one think about what was being planned for their future. An even greater embarrassment and possible threat to Octavian was growing up quickly in Egypt. Cleopatra's co-monarch, Ptolemy XV Caesar or Caesarion was the child of Julius Caesar.

He was now eleven years old and was the murdered "gods" real, not adoptive son. For a quick study like Octavian, he must have realized the implications of this down the road if Cleopatra and Antony should ever hatch some grand political scheme. Octavian, in this particular case, must have wished the Roman idea of marriage was not so unsentimental. This is not to say love didn't flower in many Roman marriages, but a Roman couple were almost always locked into a marriage of convenience(many times second or later marriages allowed for freer choice). The Romans had a largely unsentimental view of sexual relations, and romantic love, so glorified in later ages was rare. As for expressing feelings of affection in public and immoderate sexual activity, Marcus Porcius Cato the Censor (or Cato the Elder, father of the Cato that has already been mentioned on this blog) who lived in the second century BC, once expelled a man from the Senate for kissing his wife in public. A Roman man did not feel feelings of guilt about taking a different sexual partner and didn't feel bound to a particular sexual object of his desire. He would not have understood such modern terms as "heterosexuality" and "homosexuality", which put people in sexual groups. What the man did was what mattered, not what he was.

Some ancient sources reveal that it didn't matter whether the husband chose a young man or woman-as long as he did not play the "passive" or "receptive" role with another man. The previously mentioned poet Horace shows thoughts fairly common of his age: "When your organ is stiff, and a servant girl or a young boy from the household is near at hand and you know you can make an immediate assault, would you sooner burst with tension? Not me. I like sex to be there and easy to get." I find the word "assault" he used (or at least the way it translated) very interesting. For I can't imagine what the helpless servant girl or boy must have felt during these sessions where they were made, it would seem, less than human by their masters-simply objects to quench a desire-an object under ''assault." Besides the adulterer or fornicator only supposed to play the "active" role in sexual relations, their was a second rule that the men were supposed to only give their lustful attentions to non-citizens and slaves. Freeborn boys and women were supposed to be off-limits. There is a large amount of evidence that this custom was broken quite a few times.

The image is of Mark Antony's donations of territory to Cleopatra and his illegitimate children with her as of 34 BC. I hope to be back with more fairly soon. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Sixteen

2009-05-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

Instead Octavian paid part of the promised donatives, distributed honors, and pardoned Sextus' officers. The soldiers didn't take this well-especially Octavian's own men who mutinied, demanding full payment of all that was owed to them and immediate discharge. Acting quickly, Octavian countered this by announcing a campaign against the Illyrians (in modern Albania), for which he would need legions, and increased the number of awards to officers and men. Added to this he also made some pacific moves, discharging those who had fought at Mutina and Philippi and also offering an additional donation of two thousand sesterces. Peace returned among the soldiers. Sextus Pompeius moving eastward, disembarked at Mytilene in another eerie echo of his father's dash for freedom in 48 BC. There are only small details of his next moves. Sextus appeared to have large amounts of money still because he crossed over to the province of Asia and managed to raise three legions. Mark Antony didn't want much to do with Sextus, he was angered that Sextus had offered his services to the king of Parthia. Gaius Furnius, the governor of Asia, marched against Sextus with a large number of men. Outmanned, the judicious thing for Sextus to do was surrender. He had been promised fair and honorable treatment if he did so.

Again we can wonder if he was subconsciously 'wanting' to share his father's fate, for he apparently first tried to fight, then tried to escape but was caught. Sextus had thrown away his last chance for survival and was executed in 35 BC. He would have been about twenty-six years old. He had lived a short but exciting life. Also, it seems, especially going to earlier days, that Sextus should by rights have won the conflict. In fact for a long time he achieved a string of victories. It is fascinating to think that if he had taken Menodorus's advice and refused reconciliation with the Triumvirate, Sextus could have literally starved Italy into submission. The greatest part of this blog series so far might have had Sextus as its subject instead of Octavian. There is a vastly different view of Sextus between his own contemporaries and the later ancient historians who saw him as a pirate. The people of Sextus' own time saw him as a great and honorable nobleman fighting to claim what was legally his. Appian's view seems to be that Sextus had no grand strategic design and a marked tendency not to pursue his many successes until victory was achieved. As we have seen these descriptions of Sextus' actions do have truth in them. Another failure of Sextus was that he didn't put the relatively small amount of resources he had control over into an equation that counted the enormous resources available to the triumvirs.

Sextus was definitely not in a strategic position to wait and see how events would unfold. On the face of it, it would seem that Sextus didn't lose due to a lack of intelligence or military ability, but because he didn't take a broad overview of events into consideration and didn't follow up on the aimes he did achieve. I also wonder if ther were two psychological components to his failure. One being a strong subconscious bond with his father's life which had also ended in failure-but had made many glorious achievements to his name also. The other being that he simply lacked the psychological ruthlessness of his opponents. The Senate had voted Octavian many honors and also let him decide to accept them all or only those he approved before he got back to Rome in 36 BC. Octavian would be twenty-seven years old on the twenty-third of September and may have delayed his entry into Rome to coincide with his birthday. He accepted three honors. The first was an annual festival to celebrate his victory over Sextus at Naulochus, the second was a gold-plated statue of himself in the Forum, dressed like he was on entering Rome and standing atop a column decorated with ships' rams. The third honor carried the most weight by far: tribunicia sacrosanctus. This meant that his person was sacer (sacred), consecrated and inviolable on pain of stiff penalties-even death. This protection had always been given to tribunes of the plebs, but Octavian didn't need to hold the office of tribune, although he was also given the right to sit on the tribune's benches at meetings.

Octavian did a number of nice things for the citizens of Rome upon his return. He forgave unpaid installments of special taxes, as well as debts owed to collectors. He announced that documents relating to the civil wars would be burned. State administative duties were given back to the regular magistrates. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly in some people's eyes was that Octavian said he would give up all of his extraordinary triumviral powers when Antony returned from Parthia. The young man owed an enormous debt to his friends and supporters; starting with Agrippa he began to make sure they were well taken care of. As Agrippa was really the man who stepped in and saved Octavian's bacon-so to speak-Octavian rewarded him with a perhaps unique and prestigious honor-a corona rostrata, which was a golden crown decorated with ships' prows. Priesthoods were also given out quite freely. Land and treasure were also gifts that the friends of the new regime received. Agrippa came into even more wealth when he was rewarded large estates in Sicily and married Caecilia, who was the daughter of Cicero's extremely wealthy friend Atticus. With Octavian's two opponents for control of the west (Sextus and Lepidus) gone, his status had increased to the point the he no longer insisted on using the title divi filius.

He had now carved out his own name and place in the world. There was a remnant of a republican faction not necessarily under one umbrella of beliefs, but obdurate in their refusal to accept that the Republic was gone forever. These people now began to gravitate to Mark Antony now that Sextus was gone. Antony had several personal attributes that made him the 'last hope' of the republicans. He was anything but a natural autocrat like Octavian and people could see that he liked an easy life in some respects. Some felt that as long as Antony could hang onto his dignitas (dignity, honor) and auctoritas (influence, authority), he might not mind the idea of going back to the Republic.

The image is a statue of Bacchus and Ariadne. I still have more information ready to go-and it is once again my typing skills that have prevented more from being posted. Soon, after the showdown between Antony, Cleopatra and Octavian that led to the Battle of Actium I would like to start moving a bit faster as far as leaving out some of the less important details so I can get to some other subjects also. Thanks again to anyone following or commenting on this blog!

Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Fifteen

2009-05-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

This feat was done also by a painful march across an expanse of old cooled lava near Mount Etna. Again, after just a few days Octavian had gone from the most desperate of situations to being in the driver's seat. He had twenty-three legions, 20, 000 cavalry and more than 5,000 light armed troops under his command in Sicily. Sextus recalled all of his men back from the west to the northeastern part of the island which was all he had left. Sextus knew that the only way out know was to engage the enemy at sea. On 3 September, his fleet sailed out of Messana and met Agrippa's in the sea between the ports of Mylae and Naulochus. If Suetonius can be relied on it seems that Octavian again was having an acute psychological crisis, similiar to what had happened at Philippi: "On the eve of the battle he fell so fast asleep that his staff had to wake him and ask for the signal to begin hostilities. This must have been the occasion of Antony's taunt: "He could not face his ships to review them when they were already at their fighting stations; but lay on his back in a stupor and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until his admiral Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy." Slowly, as time passed, what were at first a few setbacks for Sextus became a rout.

One of Sextus' admirals took his own life, the other surrendered to Agrippa along with individual ships. Sextus had only 17 warships left. Sextus was so dumbstruck by what had happened that he forgot to give orders to his infantry. The result of this being that they immediately surrendered. Sextus gathered his money and anything else of use, took his daughter and some of his entourage and set sail towards the east with the remainder of his fleet. He intended to seek support from Mark Antony. We can wonder if Sextus was unconsciously following in his father's footsteps, who after his final defeat at Pharsalus had also sought safety in the east. Lepidus was about to do something extremely stupid. After being in the background so long he proclaimed himself the master of Sicily. This because he had landed on the island first and captured the largest number of cities. Of course Octavian was enraged by this. He sent some of his agents out. They found that Ledpidus' soldiers had little respect for him, applauded Octavian's courage (apparently they hadn't heard all of the stories about Octavian's crisis moments) and absolutely abhored the thought of another civil war. Then a very instructive incident took place that hwoed the courageous side of Octavian's personality.

Octavian took some cavalry to Lepidus's camp. Then unarmed he went into the camp with only a small number of companions. It was quite a scene, reminescent of the times Octavian put his life in mortal danger in front of large crowds. Naulochus had shown yet again that Octavian still found it very hard to deal with the experience of battle. However, when he was hurt or betrayed by opposition to himself he did not hesitate to put his life on the line. Lepidus ordered that the intruder be put out by force. Appian tells us that Octavian "was hit on the breastplate but the weapon failed to penetrate to the skin and he escaped by running to his cavalry. The men in one of Lepidus' outposts jeered at him as he ran." The experience must have been quite humiliating for Octavian but it had the desired effect. For in the next few hours Ledpidus' men began to desert him, even after he begged them to remain loyal. Lepidus even grabbed hold of a standard saying he would not release it. "You will when you're dead!" one of the standard-bearers replied. Now he knew it was over. Lepidus changed out of uniform and ran to Octavian as fast as possible, with spectators following along beside him like the event was public theater. Here a sea change occurred with the way Octavian treated some who betrayed him.

This could have been because for the first time in eight years Octavian didn't have a visible threat to his position on the horizon. Octavian also knew that people desperately wanted peace and a return to the rule of law. So when Lepdius came before him, Octavian stood and didn't let Lepidus fall to his knees. Octavian didn't punish Lepidus in any way and sent him to Rome as a private citizen. Octavian even let Lepidus keep his highly prestigious position of pontifex maximus. Lepidus was no longer allowed in the Triumvirate (he was probably grateful to be breathing). So Lepidus left public life and spent the remaining years of his life in a nicely comfortable retirement at the seaside resort of Circeii, about fifty miles south of Rome. This town was built on the side of a steep crag. The town also sported a temple of the sun and a lighthouse. Circeii was originally an island, and the malarial Pomptine Marshes were on its landward side. Legend had it that the witch Circe lived in one of the caves on its slopes. Circe had the ability to change visitors into swine. Circe with the rather porcine legend attached to it was a rather appropriate place for one of Rome's most loathsome politicians to spend his last years in. Now Octavian had 45 legions. 25,000 cavalry, about 37,000 light-armed troops and six hundred warships under his command. To find land for these men to settle on would take time; so it was very impractical to demobilize all of them immediately.

The image is a bust of Octavia, Octavian's loyal sister, with whom he was close to all of his life. Thanks again to anyone following or commenting on this blog! I hope to have the next article here soon.

Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part Fourteen

2009-05-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Agrippa continued building his navy in the lake of Avernus and Lucrine lake during 37 BC and the spring of 36 BC. When the fleet was finally ready, Lepidus was summoned from his dormancy in Africa; he would bring a thousand transport ships, seventy warships, sixteen legions and a large force of Numidian cavalry. Ledpidus was to disembark on the south side of Sicily and capture as much territory as he could. Octavian would sail from Puteoli and yet another fleet which would include Antony's donated ships would sail from Tarentum. Sextus must have been somewhat concerned about countering this massive strike force. Unlike the triumvirs Sextus did not have an inexhaustible supply of manpower. Sextus had 300 ships and ten legions. However, his successes to date must have given him some comfort. Starting out fortune favored Octavian. Lepidus had succeeded in getting twelve legions on Sicilian soil and quickly took over the port of Lilybaeum on the island's western tip. Depending on Lepidus was difficult to say the least. Lepidus appears to have opened a line of friendly communication with Sextus, so he could reap benefits no matter who won the war. Then on 3 July 36 BC the fleets were struck by another terrible storm. Immediately the ships from Tarentum returned to port as the winds became strong.

Octavian fled to a well protected bay on the west coast of Italy. The wind followed him to the southwest and it was impossible to sail out of the bay. Much worse; anchors could not hold the ships and they slammed into each other or onto the rocks. The storm lasted through the night and many ships were lost to the storm's fury. It would take a month to rebuild the fleet. It was at this point, in what was probably a combination stubbornness and dejection, that according to Suetonius, Octavian cried out: "I will win this war even if Neptune does not wish me to!" The summer was already hoving into view and an intelligent commander would cancel these operations until the following spring, especially after receiving a beating like this. In Rome, Octavian's pig-headedness was moving popular sentiment towards Sextus again. A few lines show the ridicule and contemptuousness that the people had towards Octavian now: He took a beating twice at sea. And threw two fleets away. So now to achieve one victory. He tosses dice all day. The critique of Octavian's behavior was somewhat unfair. He did like to gamble in his leisure time, as a letter he wrote to his successor,Tiberius, shows, but he was hardly wasting time now.

He sent his reliable friend Maecenas to Rome to try to counter some of his critics, while he himself went all around Italy speaking to settler veterans and trying to assuage their fears. Massive efforts were made to repair the damaged vessels and lay new keels. In a very real sense now Octavian was going to take the largest gamble of his life, however, it was hardly leisure gambling-the war with Sextus was going forward. Octavian and Agrippa realized their best move would be to push back and hold Sextus at Messana. They would really need to count on Lepidus for this plan, as he was already in Sicily. After some skirmishes between the republican and triumviral forces, Octavian and his troops disembarked on Sicily south of Tauromenium. Sextus's forces completely surprised Octavian's before they even built their camp. Sextus's cavalry harried the soldiers still at work on fortifying the camp. But Sextus made a serious mistake, as he held back both his navy and infantry. Had he not done this there is a great possibility he not only could have won a decisive victory, but also captured Octavian. But Octavian's situation was still desperate, his soldiers worked through the night to build the camp's defenses. At daybreak they were exhausted and not physically or mentally ready for battle. Octavian knew he had to save his fleet at all costs and sail from Sicily as soon as possible. He gave command of the legions to Lucius Cornificius, an early supporter of him who had prosecuted Brutus in 43 BC for Julius Caesar's murder.

When Octavian sailed out to sea Sextus took off from Messana. In two roughly fought engagements, Octavian came out much worse for wear. Now Octavian was unsure of what to do next. He did not know if he should risk sailing back to Sicily and Cornificius, or to try to find his troops on the mainland. Eventually he decided on the latter. Octavian set out on a single ship that Sextus's men were in hot pursuit of. This must have been a very dark time for him indeed. For fearing capture, he asked a loyal aide, Gaius Proculeius, to get ready to kill him. Once again Octavian avoided capture, but even though he was out of immediate danger, he was alone except for his armor-bearer. Octavian again barely evaded capture as he was walking on a coast road and saw ships in the distance. He went down to the beach to greet them, realizing in a nick of time that they were Sextus' ships. Then as Octavian was getting away from this almost disastrous encounter he was attacked by the slave of an officer on his staff whose father he had proscribed!

This is all that is known about this encounter-nothing more is said of the slave's fate or any wounds Octavian may have sustained. Then yet another turn of fate, this time in Octavian's favor happened. Some mountain folk had found Octavian in a state of being almost pushed over the limits of what he could take. They transferred him from one small boat to another to avoid getting caught and took him to his legions. Octavian showed great strength when reunited with his men, food and sleep could wait. He sent word to Cornificius in Sicily about the situation and also messengers around the mountains to get the word out that he was safe. Showing his usual intent focus on the most immediate goal, Octavian was not going to let a stupid communication failure deny his chance to resurrect his campaign. He knew two actions must be accomplished quickly. He had to find a way to get his legions to Sicily. Here the incomparably capable Agrippa, who had an earlier victory against Pompeian forces had taken the opportunity to occupy some ports on the island's north coast. Octavian was able to transfer his men this way. Secondly, Cornificius, who was currently held down by Sextus' troops near Tauromenium had to find a way to disengage and join Agrippa's forces.

Getting there slowly but surely :-). I want to have the next post here very soon-perhaps tomorrow-time permitting. The image is of a Roman coin honoring Agrippa on the obverse and Neptune on the reverse. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!