We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Suetonius quotes at Tiberius 21. 4–7 a number of passages from letters of Augustus to Tiberius showing the high regard in which he professed to hold him, despite his reservations about the darker side of his character, once he had decided to adopt him ‘rei publicae causa’ in a.d 4. They seem to have attracted little critical comment, although Seager connects them with the handling by Tiberius of the Pannonian revolt in a.d. 6–9. suggesting that in view of their fulsome character they were probably written towards the end of this period, when the crisis was past, rather than earlier when Augustus may (Dio 55.31) have been critical of Tiberius’ caution in prosecuting the war. But he does not attempt a more detailed appraisal of the possible dates of the individual letters quoted. Sections 21. 4 and 5 in particular present interesting textual difficulties, mainly arising from the transmission of Greek in a predominantly Latin text: this article discusses these with a view to throwing greater light on the historical significance of the letters.
First, the text, to which I have appended a limited apparatus which concentrates on the points of greatest difficulty (the manuscript references are as in Ihm's edition).
1 Seager, R., Tiberius (London, 1972), pp. 41–2Google Scholar.
2 The received order of Cicero's correspondence does not encourage such optimism; but Cicero's letters were not preserved officially.
3 Suet. Tib. 70. 1: ‘Artes liberales utriusque generis [i.e. Greek and Latin letters] studiosissime coluit.’
4 ‘Neque post bella civilia aut in contione aut per edictum ullos militum commilitones appellabat, sed milites, ac ne a filiis quidem aut privignis suis imperio praeditis aliter appellari passus est, ambitiosius id existimans quam aut ratio militaris aut temporum quies aut sua domusque suae maiestas postularet.’
5 Nor would such a reading sit well in the syntax of the sentence as a whole, which seems to require a participial clause; the fact that the Latin gloss repeats the better reading ‘gere’ (now extant only in M) from the main text is perhaps contributory evidence that the scholiast found the Greek baffling.
6 ‘Legatos, inter quos fuimus, partitis praefecit hibernis’; cf. notes ad loc. in Woodman, , Velleius Paterculus 2. 94/131 (Cambridge 1977)Google Scholar.
7 There seems no good reason for doubting that “νομιμώτατε” is the correct reading despite the slight corruption present in all MSS. (For what it is worth the Latin scholiast so took it too.) Casaubon's amendment is unnecessary, serving merely to avoid the problem of interpretation.
8 Suet. Tib. 11. 5, 12. 1: ‘Sed neque impetravit ultroque etiam admonitus est, dimitteret omnem curam suorum, quos tam cupide reliquisset. remansit igitur Rhodi contra voluntatem, vix per matrem consecutus ut ad velandam ignominiam quasi legatus Augusto abesset.’
9 Dio 55. 27. 5: “τ⋯ τε γ⋯ρ τ⋯ν πολ⋯μων ἄμα διῴκει καì εἰς τ⋯ν πóλιν, ὅποτε παρ⋯σχοι, συνεχ⋯ς ⋯σεφοíτα, τò μ⋯ν τι πραγμ⋯των τιν⋯ν ἕνεκα, τò δ⋯ δ⋯ πλεῖστον φοβο⋯μεος μ⋯ ⋯ Αὔγουστος ἄλλον τιν⋯ παρ⋯ τ⋯ν ⋯πουσíαν αὐτο⋯ προτιμ⋯σῃ.” (Of whom was he afraid? Agrippa Postumus?)
10 Levick, B., ‘Drusus Caesar and the Adoptions of AD 4’, Latomus 25 (1966), 227Google Scholar.
11 There is little other evidence bearing on the date of either marriage except that the marriage of Nero Julius Caesar, Germanicus' eldest son, to Julia, daughter of Drusus, took place in 20 (Tac. Ann. 3. 29. 3), implying that the marriages of their respective parents cannot have taken place long after 4; cf. PIR 4, p. 174 and note 13.
12 Syme, R., The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939), p. 422Google Scholar.
13 For the argument see Mommsen, in Hermes 13 (1878), pp. 246–7Google Scholar. The child's birth in 5 or even 7 would be possible but the key seems to be Tacitus' clear implication in Ann. 3. 29 (‘iam ingressum iuventam’, ‘iam puberem’,) that he came of age in the normal way (at age 14 in a.d. 20). By contrast, Tacitus makes a point here of the request for an early quaestorship and cf. Ann. 12. 41. 1 which is explicit (‘toga virilis maturata’) about the early coming-of-age of the future emperor Nero at age 13.
14 Roth, and Ihm's first (1907) edition deal with the difficulty by taking ‘Ordinem aestivorum tuorum!’ as an exclamatory phrase. This seems unlikely, as the following sentence (‘I, however, think you have done splendidly’) makes it difficult to understand. Ihm seems to have given this idea up in his shorter (1908) edition.
15 Souda: 'Αρρωστíα: ⋯ ⋯σθ⋯νεια. 'Αρρωστíα δ⋯ το⋯ στρατε⋯ειν, ⋯ντì το⋯ ⋯προθυμíα. Θουκυδíδης (3. 15. 2, cf. also 7. 47).
16 cf. Tacitus, , Annals 1, 16 ffGoogle Scholar. on the mutinies in Pannonia and Germany in 14.
17 Veil. Pat. 2. 114. 3 (eulogy of Tiberius): ‘Non sequentibus disciplinam, quatenus exemplo non nocebatur, ignovit; admonitio frequens,? interdum et castigatio, vindicta rarissima, agebatque medium, plurima dissimulantis, aliqua inhibentis.’
18 Woodman, op. cit., ad loc.
19 Div. Aug. 51. 3, 71. 2, 71. 3, 76. 2.
20 (Effect of Pannonian revolt) Velleius 2. 110. 6: ‘quin etiam tantus huius belli metus fuit ut stabilem ilium et formatum tantorum bellorum experientia Caesaris Augusti animum quateret atque terreret. (111. 1) habiti itaque delectus, revocati undique et omnes veterani, viri feminaeque ex censu libertinum coactae dare militem. audita in senatu vox principis, decimo die, ni caveretur, posse hostem in urbis Romae venire conspectum. senatorum equitumque Romanorum exactae ad id bellum operae.’ Cf. also Dio 55. 26 (a.d. 6) – continued problems of military finance, introduction of 5 per cent death duty, famine and fire in Rome, all of which lead (55. 27) to revolutionary talk and bill posting. Also Pliny, , NH 7. 149Google Scholar: ‘Iuncta deinde tot mala: inopia stipendi, rebellio Illyrici, servitiorum dilectus, iuventutis penuria, pestilentia urbis, fames Italiae, destinatio expirandi et quadridui inedia maior pars mortis in corpus recepta’.
21 (Clades Variana): Suet. Aug. 23 1–2.: ‘Hac nuntiata excubias per urbem indixit, ne quis tumultus existeret, et praesidibus provinciarum propagavit imperium, ut a peritis et assuetis socii continerentur…Adeo denique consternatum ferunt ut per continuos menses barba capilloque summisso caput interdum foribus illideret vociferans, Quintili Vare, legiones redde! diemque cladis quotannis maestum habuerit ac lugubrem’. Pliny, , NH 7. 150Google Scholar (immediately following passage quoted in note 20): ‘Iuxta haec Variana clades et maiestatis eius foeda suggillatio’.
22 Levick, B., ‘The Fall of Julia the Younger’, Latomus 35 (1976), 301Google Scholar.
23 See especially Div. Claud. 4. 1, 2, 5 and 6. This was clearly an exceptionally delicate family problem.
