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A NOTE on SYME's CHRONOLOGY of VISTILIA's CHILDREN Domitius

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A NOTE on SYME's CHRONOLOGY of VISTILIA's CHILDREN Domitius A NOTE ON SYME’S CHRONOLOGY OF VISTILIA’S CHILDREN I Domitius Corbulo, the famous military man of the Neronic age, is a rea- sonably well known figure to scholars familiar with the history of impe- rial Rome. Much less famous, though, are the general’s mother Vistilia and her numerous progeny. This paper aims at straightening out some issues in this area, and will therefore highlight their marital, familial and amical ties and connections within the imperial aristocracy. It also intends to point out and illustrate their continuous adherence to one par- ticular faction within the wider imperial family, an amicitia inherited by several generations of Vistilia’s offspring and lasting throughout the entire period of the Iulio-Claudian dynasty. In the first place, it will prove to be useful for the purposes of this arti- cle to suggest a clear solution to a matter which Syme felt to be a press- ing problem for the validity of the chronological sequence of the births of Vistilia’s children which he so cleverly reconstructed in his outstand- ing paper dealing with the origins and early career of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, on the basis of information from the elder Pliny and their indi- vidual senatorial careers. Although the adequacy of the English histo- rian’s scheme is not to be doubted, there can be no objection to an attempt to produce a possible solution to the problem which Syme could not resolve. The result of this attempt is that some very significant and more general conclusions can be drawn, in particular with respect to the careers of Corbulo and his direct kinsmen, and also concerning their ‘patronal’ relationship to a certain part of the imperial house, a relation- ship from which they so clearly benefited. At the same time, it provides a demonstration of just how influential this particular ‘clan’ really was within the imperial houshold, and allows to determine more or less pre- cisely what senatorial families (clientela) belonged to the nexus which it patronised. In pursuit of this solution, I therefore begin by reproducing the information given by Pliny (N.H. VII 39), followed by the scheme Syme developed. Vistilia Gliti ac postea Pomponi atque Orfiti clarissimorum ciuium coniunx ex his quattuor partus enixa, septimo semper mense, genuit 96 F.J. VERVAET Suillium Rufum undecimo, Corbulonem septimo, utrumque consulem, postea Caesoniam Gai principis coniugem octauo. Vistilia, the wife of Glitius and subsequently of Pomponius and of Orfitus, citizens of the highest distinction, bore these husbands four children, in each case after a pregnancy of six months, but thereupon gave birth to Suillius Rufus after ten months, Corbulo after six (both of these became consuls), and afterwards Caesonia, wife of the emperor Gaius, after seven months1. Below is Syme’s proposal for the chronology of Vistilia’s children from her six marriages2: 1. Glitius, c. 15 BC 2. Q. Pomponius Secundus, c. 14 BC; suff. 41 3. P. Pomponius Secundus, c. 12 BC; suff. 44 4. (Servius) Orfitus, c. 11 BC 5. P. Suillius Rufus, c. 10 (at the latest c. 7) BC; suff. 41? 6. Cn. Domitius Corbulo, c. 4 BC – AD 1; suff. 39 7. Milonia Caesonia, c. AD 5 Before discussing the above-mentioned particular problem which this paper wishes to resolve pertinent to this chronology, it is not unimpor- tant to point out that this Vistilia should not be confused with the homonymous lady exiled in AD 19 to Seriphus for prostitution, hereby causing some trouble for her over-indulgent husband, Titedius Labeo, in the senate (Tacitus, Ann. II 85.1- 3). About this lenient senator, Pliny (N.H. XXXV 20) provides the following information: Paruis gloriabatur tabellis extinctus nuper in longa senecta Titedius Labeo praetorius, etiam proconsulatu prouinciae Narbonensis functus, sed ea res inrisa etiam contumeliae erat. Titedius Labeo, a man of praetorian rank who had in fact been pro- consul of Gallia Narbonensis and who died lately in very old age, used to be proud of his miniatures, but this was laughed at and actu- ally damaged his reputation. 1 Pliny, N.H. VII 39. 2 R. SYME, Domitius Corbulo, in Roman Papers II, Oxford 1979, p. 811-812 (paper originally published in JRS 60, 1970, p. 27-39). The rather dim praetorius Gnaeus Domi- tius Corbulo, Corbulo’s homonymous father, who(se ancestors) probably derive(s) from the Narbonensian aristocracy (thus R. SYME, Tacitus, Oxford 1958, p. 788, and B.J. KAVANAGH, Corbulo’s Origins and the Rebellion of Vindex, AHB 8, 1994, p. 99- 105) will not be discussed in this paper. It is, however, noteworthy that Drusus, friend of Vis- tilia’s close relative Vistilius (infra), organised the census in tres Galliae (B.E. THOMAS- SON, Legatus, Stockholm 1991, p. 86). Nevertheless, in his article focusing on Domitius Corbulo, Syme argued for an Italian origo for the Domitii Corbulones. CHRONOLOGY OF VISTILIA'S CHILDREN 97 As this praetorius did not die until the first half of the seventies AD, in longa senecta, I deem 10 BC a reasonable date for his birth. It is obvious that there must be a close tie of kinship between the Vistilia of N.H. VII 39 and the homonym of Ann. II 85.1-3 and N.H. XXXV 20. It is often presumed that the prostitute banished in AD 19 was identical with the respectable and fertile lady of several clarissimi ciues3. But I agree with those scholars who argue that they were two different women4. Syme argues that, since she had at least four children before P. Suillius Rufus, quaestor around AD 15-19, she cannot have been born later than 30 BC5. Syme also points out that Sextus Vistilius, styled explicitly as senex praetorius in Ann. VI 9.2 (infra), when taking into account his amicitia with Tiberius’ brother Nero Claudius Drusus, must have been a man of respectable age in AD 326. He was therefore much more likely to have been Vistilia’s brother than her father. The Vistilia who was banished in AD 19, on the other hand, might have been his daughter7. In my opinion, Syme’s notion that the prostitute was a niece of Corbulo’s mother is sup- ported by the fact that Titedius Labeo cannot have been born before 10 BC (supra), and that, in accordance with proper Roman traditions, his undisciplined wife was at least 10 years younger than him. The two of them, therefore, may better be regarded as belonging to the generation of Vistilia’s younger children. 3 M. HAMMOND, Corbulo and Nero’s Eastern Policy, HSPh 14 (1934), p. 86 and B. GALLOTTA, Cn. Domizio Corbulone, RIL 112 (1978), p. 309. Hammond even assumes, without further explanation, that Vistilia was the mother of Corbulo Maior. The senator in N.H. VII 39 mentioned simply as ‘Corbulo’ can only refer to the great general, as Pliny dedicated his Naturales Historiae in 77 to Titus Caesar, at a time when the public’s mem- ory of the Neronian legate must still have been very fresh. 4 In PIR1 V 491 it is accepted that the praetorius Sextus Vistilius (Ann. VI 2.9) was the father of both Vistiliae. 5 R. SYME, art. cit. (n. 2), p. 810-811, followed by W. ECK, art. Vistilius, in RE Suppl. XIV (1974), col. 910-911. For the dating of Suillius Rufus’ quaestorship to AD 15 see R. SYME, art. cit., p. 806. L. CAPPELLETTI, Domizio Corbulone e la coniuratio Viniciana, RSA 22-23 (1992), p. 82 n. 55, doubts Syme’s thesis that Suillius was born in 10 BC as she finds a quaestorship at the age of 25 «all’ età minima consentita durante il principato… un po’ pochi per un novus homo». However, she ignores the fact that Vistilius, closely related to Suillius’ mother Vistilia, had been a personal friend of Drusus. Besides, the mere fact that he was quaestor Germanici indicates special favour. 6 W. ECK, art. cit. (n. 5), col. 910, thinks Drusus’ friend cannot have been born after BC 30. The senate posthumously granted Drusus the honorific cognomen Germanicus: Suetonius, Claud. 1. 7 M.-T. RAEPSAET-CHARLIER, Prosopographie des femmes de l’ordre sénatorial, Leu- ven 1987, p. 638-639, is also convinced that this Vistilia was the daughter of Sextus Vis- tilius and the wife of Titedius Labeo. 98 F.J. VERVAET To proceed, Syme, discussing the validity of his own chronological scheme, argues that a period of 20 years for the pregnancies of Vistilia does not strain belief, nor does the fact that «two senators whose ages may be separated by about a dozen years (Suillius and Corbulo) should reach the consulate in the same season». On the other hand, what Syme does indeed regard as peculiar is the long gap between the fifth and the sixth child, and the fact that the two Pomponii, although styled as sons of a clarissimus ciuis, a citizen of the highest distinction, came to the fasces unexpectedly late. «Why Suillius was retarded is clear — thirteen years in exile. But the consulates of the two Pomponii belong in the same period as his. It might have seemed preferable to put their births c. 2 B.C., not a dozen years earlier; and the younger brother may in fact have been praetor in 30. A dark suspicion arises. Perhaps the Pomponii are junior to Suillius Rufus. That would be advantageous, putting them in the gap between Suillius Rufus and having them accede to the fasces at an earlier age. However, who can tell? Pliny ought to have known what he was talking about»8. II To my thinking, Syme’s somewhat desperate undermining of his well constructed and neatly argued chronology is rather unnecessary.
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