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The Princeps Optimus: Towards a New Reading Ofvelleius Paterculus' History

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The Princeps Optimus: Towards a New Reading Ofvelleius Paterculus' History The Princeps Optimus: Towards a New Reading ofVelleius Paterculus' History Christopher Dawson, BA Hon Classics Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Humanities Faculty of Arts, Brock University st. Catharines, Ontario ©2008 Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ................. '" ...................................................................................... ii Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1-19 0.1 Prologue ........................................................................................................... 1 0.2 Tiberius and Velleius: The Relationship .......................................................... 2 0.3 The Political Goals ofVelleius' History: Past Scholarship .............................. 4 0.4 Methodology .................................................................................................. 10 0.5 Charismatic Theory ........................................................................................ 13 0.6 The Text .......................................................................................................... 16 0.7 Structure ......................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 1: Velleius' Ideal Tiberius: from Virtues to Consensus .......................... 20-54 1.1 The Early Career ............................................................................................ 20 1.2 The Virtues of Tiberius ................................................................................... 26 1.3 Virtues in Action ......................................................................................... '" 30 1.4 The Defeat of Madness .................................................................................. 35 1.5 The Late Republic: a Descent into Chaos ...................................................... 40 1.6 The Creation of Universal Consensus ........................................................... 46 Chapter 2: The Use of Power ................................................................................... 55-94 2.1 Transition: From Republic to Principate ........................................................ 57 2.2 The Fear of Absolute Power ........................................................................... 63 2.3 Caesar and the Tribunes, Clemency and Moderation .................................... 66 2.4 Caesar and the Violence of the Second Triumvirate ...................................... 76 2.5 Is the Principate Clement? ............................................................................. 80 2.6 The Avocation of Power ................................................................................. 87 2.7 The End of Liberty ......................................................................................... 89 Chapter 3: Sejanus, Singularis Principalium OnerumAdiutor (2.127.3) ........... 95-125 3.1 Sejanus, the Background ................................................................................ 96 3.2 Velleius' Sejanian Chapters .......................................................................... 101 3.3 Adiutores and Novi Homines: a Not so Favourable Comparison ................. 106 3.4: Just One Adiutor? ........................................................................................ 113 3.5 The Legati: Velleius' IdealAdiutores ............................................................ 116 3.5 Princeps Seianus? ........................................................................................ 123 Chapter 4: Velleius' Anxieties: the Negative Conclusion ................................... 126-145 4.1 The Last Chapter and a Half ........................................................................ 126 4.2 The Shift in Tone .......................................................................................... 128 4.3 The Nature ofVelleius' Critique ................................................................... 135 4.4 Livia and Tiberius: Like Mother Like Son ................................................... 140 4.5 The Rhodian Retreat Revisited .................................................................... 142 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 146-152 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 153-162 Appendix ............................................................................................................... 163-170 Abstract This thesis works towards a new reading ofVelleius Paterculus' survey of Roman history, published in AD 29 or 30. Modem scholarship has tended to condemn Velleius as historian and stylist. Though opinions have started to change in the last few decades, even the most recent works generally treat him as a passive and perhaps unconscious conveyor of Roman cultural ideals and Augustan ideology. This thesis argues that the historian is, in fact, manipulating these themes to make definite political points. It focuses on the negativity of the history's conclusion as it stands in stark contrast to the preceding narrative celebrating the principates of Augustus and Tiberius. The thesis tentatively concludes that Velleius was trying to express concern over Rome's future, and specifically to influence Tiberius to return to Rome from his retreat on the island of Capri and curb the power of his "assistant," Sejanus. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Government of Ontario and Brock University for their generous financial support of my studies. They ensured that my attention could rest on my work. My thanks also go to the prompt staff at the James A. Gibson Library, Brock University, who made sure that all my research needs - and they were many - were always met. Finally, I am incredibly grateful to the faculty, staff and my fellow students in the Department of Classics. Without their unceasing encouragement and stimulation from the very start, this project would not be half of what it is today. 11 Introduction * 0.1 Prologue How does one influence an autocrat? When one sees him acting contrary to the accepted norms and not quite living up to the values and goals of his regime, how can one correct him? An auxiliary question may be, how can one attempt to reshape that behaviour with a degree of safety? These are questions essential to the interpretation of Velleius Paterculus' history.l Here we find a man in an essential search for peace, security and order in his life. The meaning he is looking for is intimately connected to Tiberius, his family - the domus Augusta - and the prosperity and calm they brought to the empire. * All abbreviations, unless otherwise explained, follow the guidelines of the Oxford Classical Dictionary. The original title of the work does not survive. The traditional title given to it in modem times, Historia Romana, while very possibly not accurate, is apt. I resist the urge to label Velleius' history "universal," which is the new trend in Velleian scholarship. HeUegouarc'h (1976: 240), for example, states that "l'oeuvre que l'on designe traditionnellement sous Ie titre d'Histoire romaine est en realite une Histoire universelle." While the work does probably start with the Assyrian empire (Kramer 2005: 148) and spends considerable time with Greek history, its direction is always towards Rome. Kramer has ably shown that Velleius inserted these earlier epochs into the history in part to present Rome as the culmination of empires. He adds (2005: 152,158) that Velleius viewed the non-Roman portions as a digression and that Velleius' narrative becomes much more detailed and dense after he comes to the height of Republican Rome. Where the second lacuna ends we find ourselves between the second and third Punic Wars. Thus much Roman history must have come beforehand and Velleius, except for two chapters on Greek literature (1.16, 18), never returns again to themes outside of Rome. Kramer himself (2005: 159-160) reasonably maintains, however, that Book J was "to a certain extent universal." But this does mean that the work overall is a universal history. Dawson Introduction He is thus a devout loyalist to the lulio-Claudian line, but it will be argued that the historian believed that Tiberius was no longer fully achieving the ideals of the Principate as established by Augustus and Tiberius' own past conduct. In particular, it will be argued that Velleius disapproved of the aged Tiberius' retreat to the island of Capri and his reliance on his equestrian assistant to transact state affairs: his adiutor, Sejanus. It seems that he feared that the internal harmony that Augustus had introduced into Rome after years of civil war was going to come to an end. But of course the question is, how did he try to influence Tiberius, especially when the adiutor had a proven violent streak? 0.2 Tiberius and Velleius: The Relationship This thesis is attempting to place Velleius' history in its historical and political context. I read it as a document that not only reflects its time but as a document specifically crafted to influence it. Furthermore, I assume that Tiberius was a target
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