Roman Empire: New Wars Old Enemies Part One

No one could escape what the desecration of Cicero's mortal remains meant: free speech was dead. Appian tells of the terrible stories of this new proscription: "Many people were murdered in all kinds of ways, and decapitated to furnish evidence for the reward. They fled in undignified fashion, and abandoned their former conspicuous dress for strange disguises. Some went down wells, some descended into the filth of sewers, and others climbed up into smoky rafters or sat in total silence under close-packed roofs. To some, just as terrifying as the executioners were wives or children with whom they were not on good terms, or ex-slaves, or creditors, or neighboring landowners who coveted their estates." Another story concerns a boy-a teenager who we only know from history as Atilius. He probably belonged to a noble plebian family. The young man had just come of age and his father had died and he inherited a fortune. He had been celebrating his coming of age with friends in Rome. Unfortunately his coming of age meant he could be tried for adult crimes-although he was an entirely innocent victim when his name was added to the proscription list. In fact, it was probably only his wealth that got him put on the list. In due course his friends deserted him, his mother was too scared to give him shelter so he ended up running away to the mountains.

Atilius had been forced by hunger to come down from the mountains and was caught by a bandit who preyed on passing travelers and forced them to work for him. The young man could not bear the hard labor after being brought up in luxury. He escaped and unwisely told some passing centurions on a main road his real name. The centurions killed him on the spot and no doubt brought his head back to Rome for their grisly reward. Another story is told on a funerary inscription. A grieving husband whose name we do not know-nor his wife's-but she is usually referred to as Turia, tells his story of the proscription on his wife's urn: "You provided abundantly for my needs during my flight and gave me the means for a dignified life-style, when you took all the gold and jewellery you wore and sent it to me." The story continues that a year later, when the proscription had ended, Octavian had pardoned Turia's husband. However, Lepidus, another triumvir was then responsible for the city of Rome and refused to acknowledge Octavian's decision. Turia had went to Lepidus to ask him to recognize the pardon but he instead had her dragged away and beaten. Turia's husband believed that Octavian's anger at Lepidus's behavior played a part in his eventual downfall: "That matter was soon to prove harmful to him," the widower notes with satisfaction.

In the end the proscription didn't bring in the money that the triumvirs had hoped for. So, after liquidating up to 300 senators (Cicero among them) and two thousand of the equestrian class they still had to find a way to pay for forty-three legions. They came up with a new proscription list that only confiscated private property and came up with new taxes. The three men had proven there wasn't anything they wouldn't do in their pursuit of power and they even stole personal savings guarded by the sacred Vestal Virgins. The new taxes were an unwelcome shock to the citizens of Rome. For the last century they had been exempt from personal tax due to the wealth and expansion of their empire. The citizens of Rome were now in a very real sense paying for their civil war because the western provinces had been milked dry and the east could not be touched. While the triumvirs tried desperately to fill their war chests back in Rome, the republican cause elsewhere was flourishing. Rome had a new thorn in its side to complement the growing power of Brutus and Cassius in the east. This new problem went by the name of Sextus Pompeius, Pompey the Great's youngest son. Sextus, along with his mother Cornelia had witnessed their father's and husband's execution on the beach at Egypt, due to the court intrigues of Ptolemy XIII, who was Cleopatra's brother and husband although at the time they were engaged in a vicious power struggle for the throne of Egypt.

Undoubtedly the shock of what he had witnessed changed Sextus forever. It is widely believed he based his life on his father's memory. He gave himself the agnomen Pius, meaning that he was loyal to his father's memory. Sextus had served with his older brother Gnaeus when they were fighting Caesar's legions in Spain. That particular battle was lost and Gnaeus hunted down and killed. Sextus escaped and Caesar even published a pardon for him as he thought him too young to be a threat. This additional example of Julius Caesar's clemency was a mistake. Sextus, although only a teenager was able to wage a very effective guerilla war to the dismay of the provincial governors Caesar appointed. The death of Caesar changed everything. He went from being an enemy of the state to a valid an valuable supporter of the republican cause. The Senate appointed him prefect of the fleet and the seacoasts in 43 BC. After this he grouped all the ships he could find together and went to Massilia (modern Marseille). Once again in the upside-down, topsy-turvy Rome after Caesar's death, Sextus's appointment as admiral was cancelled after the triumvirate came to power. Sextus, however, decided to keep his ships and went to Sicily instead of Spain. There he got the governor to give up control of the island. Now Sextus's name was added to the proscription list (even though he didn't have anything to do with Caesar's assassination-like so many others who wound up on it). This was because Sextus was now in a very formidable position. From Sicily he controlled the grain supply to Rome from Egypt, Africa and of course Sicily itself. The gaming board appeared to be getting very interesting again. Proscribed men, refugees and slaves from all across Italy fled to Sextus, as Appian tells us: "His small boats and merchant vessels met any who came by sea; his warships patrolled the shores, made signals to help the lost, and picked up anyone they encountered. He came in person to meet the new arrivals."

A new horizon could be seen in republican minds. Brutus and Cassius were in control of the east. Sextus by starving Italy into submission could be in control of the west. Suddenly, Italy and Gaul seemed isolated. Certainly now it would be only a matter of waiting the triumvirs out and engaging them when necessary before the tyrannical and hated faction of the dead dictator was defeated? Octavian saw the same development occurring and sent a force to crush Sextus, but it was defeated. After this Cassius sent reinforcements to Sextus and Octavian decided to lay off for the time being. The mood in Rome was desolate and anxious. On 1 January 42 BC a religious ceremony took place in Rome. The triumvirs had deified Julius Caesar. By their oaths, the dead dictator was now a god. All of Caesar's acts were sacred and binding. A small temple was dedicated to him in the Forum on the spot where his body had been cremated. From here on out his birthday would be a public holiday; celebrations compulsory and any senators or their sons who did not take part in the festivities were to be fined the huge sum of one million sesterces.

This signalled a huge change in Rome. Kings in the Middle East regularly had themselves "deified"-even in their lifetimes. Sometimes Roman governors were also awarded divine honors in the east-but their deification was only recognized there, not in the west. This greatly enhanced Octavian's position when the novelty of Julius Caesar's deification happened in Rome under the auspices of the state. Now Octavian could say he was a divi filius, the son of a god. Cassius now went to Syria, where he was well known and liked. He had seven legions there and another four in Egypt also joined him. Brutus had pretended to be a student at Athens, the closest thing the ancient world had to a university town. However, behind the facade of academic withdrawal, Brutus and his men had been busy winning over opinion in Macedonia. By the close of 44 BC he controlled most of the province. In addition the legions of the neighboring province of Illyricum joined him also. Brutus also captured and eventually executed none other than Mark Antony's brother, Gaius, who was to be the incoming governor there.

The image is of another Roman fresco unearthed at Pompeii. I still have a lot more information that can be typed it is just a matter of getting it here and I hope to have the next post here soon. Thanks again to anyone following or commenting on this blog!

Cicero's Last Stand Part Three

Talk about quick changes of fortune! Just a matter of weeks prior Antony had been on the run-almost looking at certain defeat and the end of his political career-if not his life. The armies of the Senate had been reduced to nothing and now Antony with the help of Marcus Aemelianus Lepidus was more of a force to be reckoned with than ever. Octavian was all that stood between the alliance and Rome. Rome waited, with the optimates in the Senate and Cicero being the most nervous to see which course the young man would take now. They didn't have to wait long for an answer. In July 43 BC a centurion from Octavian's army came before the Senate and demanded, now that the consulships were vacant that Octavian be given one of the offices. The Senate refused. The centurion opened his cloak and put his hand on the hilt of his sword, saying: "If you do not make him consul, then this will." (Suetonius, The Deified Augustus, 26.). Octavian had eight legions at his disposal and there were no senatorial armies to oppose him. Cicero must have been horrified and completely flustered at the quick change in fortunes that ruined all of his hopes. Still he marched out of the Senate to greet its new master. He did make a number of proposals to Octavian. However, the young man who had ingratiatingly called Cicero "Father" didn't answer, except for the rather disdainful reply that "Cicero had been the last of his friends to come and greet him." (Appian, 3.92).

Cicero was either allowed or ordered to leave Rome. His feelings of loss and despair must have been total as he made for his favorite country villa. On 19 August 43 BC, Octavian-not even twenty years old was formally elected consul. After Octavian had the condemnation of Caesar's assassins as traitors made official he left Rome. Going north and directly for the advancing army of Lepidus and Antony there was to be no war this time. On an island near Medina the three rival Caesarian leaders met and carved up the empire. In effect they were for once and for all time burying any hopes for the Republic. Of course, they claimed otherwise-words along the lines of "rescuing it" and the like, but in reality they were crucifying it as surely as a common thief. They decided that a second triumvirate should be formed. There was to be some major differences with the first triumvirate, that had been established by Pompey, Caesar and Crassus. Instead of a loose alliance this triumvirate would be formally constituted and imbued with enormous power. Their pact made them able to wield proconsular authority over the whole empire. The men had the right to pass or deny laws at their pleasure without consulting the Senate or having to face the electorate. Rome's sacred space was to be put under martial law. More than four hundred years of Roman freedom was being brought to a close.

As if this were not enough, the second triumvirate decided to seal their dealings with a pact of blood. They were looking past the celebrated clemency of Caesar for this to an earlier dictator-Sulla. The proscription lists were coming back to Rome. One cynical factor that weighed into this decision was the fact that more than sixty legions needed to be paid, and the triumvirs were short on funds-far short to pay them. Like under Sulla, the symbols of wealth would become death sentences. An exile who had been enjoying his looted treasure from a governorship was even killed for his "Corinthian bronzes." (Pliny the Elder, 34.6). The three men haggled and bargained over the unfortunate names to be added to the lists. There was a variety of reasons-to remove political opponents, factional reasons and even personal dislikes. In a fearful testimony of proof of their loyalty and committment to the triumvirate each man had to sacrifice a man that they otherwise would have wanted alive-or at least didn't wish particular harm to. For Mark Antony it was the proscription of his uncle, for Lepidus his own brother and Octavian wrote down the name of the man he had once called "Father"-Cicero. Still Cicero could have escaped his fate. We will never know-but one thing I wonder is that if at this point in his life he subconsciously wished for death? He had lost the things most dear to him, the Republic and his beloved daughter.

In Rome he went from friend to friend wondering what he should do and perhaps melancholy at the thought of exile for the rest of his life. Finally, when the bounty hunters of the second triumvirate did catch up to him, he leaned out from his litter and presented his bare neck to the blade in the manner of the gladiators who he had so admired. Besides gladiatorial courage maybe in the last moments of his life he was also thinking of his friend Cato-who had believed that death was preferrable to living as a subject under an emperor's caprice. Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC and died on 7 December 43 BC. He had died a martyr to freedom and his enemies knew that. When the executioners delivered Cicero's severed head and hands, Fulvia, Antony's new wife did her utmost to show her fury at her husband's old enemy. She spat on Cicero's head, tore out his tongue and stabbed it with a hairpin. When she was finished mutilating his remains, only then did she allow them to be shown publicly. The hand that had written so many brilliant and flourishing speeches was nailed up too.

The image is a gold aureus depicting Augustus Caesar (Octavian). I need to find out what the image on the reverse of the coin depicts. I should know it-yet another thing to try to find out. I have much more information ready to go and in fact am going to try to take a small break and do one more post, as I got so much further along than I realized and would like to get the information here.