Week 5: Army and Diplomacy

1. Armies of the late republic/triumvirate …the soldiers did not serve the interests of the state, but only of those who had recruited them; and they gave their support to these people not because of the compulsion of the law, but because of personal inducements; and they fought not against enemies of but against private adversaries, not against foreigners, but against fellow-citizens, men just like themselves. All these factors contributed to a breakdown of military discipline; the soldiers believed that they were not so much serving in an army as helping out, through their personal decision and favour, leaders who found their assistance essential for private ends. (Appian, BC 5.17)

2. Paying for reforms Now lacked funds for all these troops, and therefore he introduced a proposal in the senate that revenues in sufficient amount and continuing from year to year should be set aside, in order that the soldiers might receive without stint from the taxes levied their maintenance and bonuses without any outside source being put to annoyance. The means for such a fund were accordingly sought… when no revenues for the military fund were being discovered that suited anybody, but absolutely everybody was vexed because such an attempt was even being made, Augustus in the name of himself and of placed money in the treasury which he called the military treasury… established the tax of five per cent. on the inheritances and bequests which should be left by people at their death to any except very near relatives or very poor persons, representing that he had found this tax set down in Caesar's memoranda. (Dio 55.24.9)

3. Military discipline He made many changes and innovations in the army, besides reviving some usages of former times. He exacted the strictest discipline. It was with great reluctance that he allowed even his generals to visit their wives, and then only in the winter season. He sold a Roman knight and his property at public auction, because he had cut off the thumbs of two young sons, to make them unfit for military service… He dismissed the entire tenth legion in disgrace, because they were insubordinate, and others, too, that demanded their discharge in an insolent fashion, he disbanded without the rewards which would have been due for faithful service. If any cohorts gave way in battle, he decimated them, and fed the rest on barley. When centurions left their posts he punished them with death, just as he did the rank and file; for faults of other kinds he imposed various ignominious penalties, such as ordering them to stand all day long before the general's tent, sometimes in their tunics without their sword-belts, or again holding ten-foot poles or even a clod of earth. (Suet, Aug 24)

4. Enrolment and conscription Augustus, when he learned of the disaster to Varus, rent his garments, as some report, and mourned greatly, not only because of the soldiers who had been lost, but also because of his fear for the German and Gallic provinces, and particularly because he expected that the enemy would march against Italy and against Rome itself. For there were no citizens of military age left worth mentioning, and the allied forces that were of any value had suffered severely. Nevertheless, he made preparations as best he could in view of the circumstances; and when no men of military age showed a willingness to be enrolled, he made them draw lots, depriving of his property and disfranchising every fifth man of those still under thirty-five and every tenth man among those who had passed that age. Finally, as a great many paid no heed to him even then, he put some to death. He chose by lot as many as he could of those who had already completed their term of service and of the freedmen, and after enrolling them sent them in haste with Tiberius into the province of Germany. (Dio 56.23)

5. Augustus and the army He seduced the soldiery with gifts... (Tac, Ann 1.2.1)

6. Feriale Duranum (AD 223-7) [23] Sept. For the birthday of the divine [Augustus], to the divine Augustus [an ox]. (Feriale Duranum, publ. Fink et al. 1940)

7. Colonization I settled rather more than 300,000 of these in colonies or sent them back to their home towns after their period of service; to all these I assigned lands or gave money as rewards for their military service. (RG 3)

I founded colonies of soldiers in , Sicily, , both Spanish provinces, , , Syria, and . Italy too has twenty-eight colonies founded by my authority, which were densely populated in my lifetime. (RG 28)

8. Augusta Praetoria Salassorum For these reasons Augustus, who was now consul for the ninth time, with Marcus Silanus as colleague, sent Terentius Varro against the Salassi. Varro invaded their country at many points at the same time, in order that they might not join forces and so be more difficult to subdue; and he conquered them very easily, inasmuch as they attacked his divisions only in small groups. After forcing them to come to terms he demanded a stated sum of money, as if he were going to impose no other punishment; then, sending soldiers everywhere ostensibly to collect the money, he arrested those who were of military age and sold them, on the understanding that none of them should be liberated within twenty years. The best of their land was given to some of the Praetorians, and later on received the city called Augusta Praetoria. (Dio 53.25)

9. Varus Varus Quintilius, descended from a famous rather than a high-born family, was a man of mild character and of a quiet disposition, somewhat slow in mind as he was in body, and more accustomed to the leisure of the camp than to actual service in war. That he was no despiser of money is demonstrated by his governorship of Syria: he entered the rich province a poor man, but left it a rich man and the province poor. When placed in charge of the army in Germania, he entertained the notion that the Germans were a people who were men only in limbs and voice, and that they, who could not be subdued by the sword, could be soothed by the law. With this purpose in mind he entered the heart of Germania as though he were going among a people enjoying the blessings of peace, and sitting on his tribunal he wasted the time of a summer campaign in holding court and observing the proper details of legal procedure. (Velleius 2.117)

10. Varus disaster: aftermath He suffered but two severe and ignominious defeats, those of Lollius [15 B.C.] and Varus [9 A.D.], both of which were in Germany. Of these the former was more humiliating than serious, but the latter was almost fatal, since three legions were cut to pieces with their general, his lieutenants, and all the auxiliaries. When the news of this came, he ordered that watch be kept by night throughout the city, to prevent any outbreak, and he prolonged the terms of the governors of the provinces, that the allies might be held to their allegiance by experienced men with whom they were acquainted. He also vowed great games to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, in case the condition of the commonwealth should improve, a thing which had been done in the Cimbric and Marsic wars. In fact, they say that he was so greatly affected that for several months in succession he cut neither his beard nor his hair, and sometimes he would dash his head against a door, crying: "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!" And he observed the day of the disaster each year as one of sorrow and mourning. (Suet, Aug 23)

11. Varus disaster (Germanicus visiting site of slaughter, AD 15)

Germanicus upon this was seized with an eager longing to pay the last honour to those soldiers and their general, while the whole army present was moved to compassion by the thought of their kinsfolk and friends, and, indeed, of the calamities of wars and the lot of mankind. Having sent on Caecina in advance to reconnoitre the obscure forest-passes, and to raise bridges and causeways over watery swamps and treacherous plains, they visited the mournful scenes, with their horrible sights and associations. Varus's first camp with its wide circumference and the measurements of its central space clearly indicated the handiwork of three legions. Further on, the partially fallen rampart and the shallow fosse suggested the inference that it was a shattered remnant of the army which had there taken up a position. In the centre of the field were the whitening bones of men, as they had fled, or stood their ground, strewn everywhere or piled in heaps. Near, lay fragments of weapons and limbs of horses, and also human heads, prominently nailed to trunks of trees. In the adjacent groves were the barbarous altars, on which they had immolated tribunes and first-rank centurions. Some survivors of the disaster who had escaped from the battle or from captivity, described how this was the spot where the officers fell, how yonder the eagles were captured, where Varus was pierced by his first wound, where too by the stroke of his own ill-starred hand he found for himself death. They pointed out too the raised ground from which Arminius had harangued his army, the number of gibbets for the captives, the pits for the living, and how in his exultation he insulted the standards and eagles. And so the Roman army now on the spot, six years after the disaster, in grief and anger, began to bury the bones of the three legions, not a soldier knowing whether he was interring the relics of a relative or a stranger, but looking on all as kinsfolk and of their own blood, while their wrath rose higher than ever against the foe. (Tac, Ann 1.61-2)