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Notes on Two Passages in Tacitus (Ann. 4. 24. 3 And 15. 25. 3)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

D. B. Saddington
D. B. Saddington
Affiliation:
University of Rbodesia
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Extract

At one stage in his account of the war against Tacfarinas, Tacitus describes the strategy of the proconsul of Africa, P. Cornelius Dolabella, as follows: ‘excito cum popularibus rege Ptolemaeo quattuor agmina parat, quae legatis aut tribunis data; et praedatorias manus delecti Maurorum duxere: ipse consultor aderat omnibus’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , December 1978 , pp. 330 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1978

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References

1 Tac, . Ann. 4. 24. 3Google Scholar. For Dolabella, P. Cornelius cf. PIR 2 C 1348Google Scholar; Thomasson, B.E., Die Statthalter der riimischen Provinzen Nordafrikas …, (Lund, 1960) ii. 26Google Scholar; for Tacfarinas, Stein, , RE iva (1932), 1985 f.Google Scholar; for Ptolemaeus, M. Hofmann, ibid. xxiii (1959), 1768 ff. (no. 62).

2 Fishwick, D. and Shaw, B. D.: ‘Ptolemy of Mauretania and a Conspiracy of Gaetulicus’, Historia 25 (1976), 493.Google Scholar

3 This passage is quoted by ThLL s.v. under the rubric ‘is qui alicui consilium dat, suadet, fauet‘. Gerber, A. and Greef, A., Lexicon Taciteum (1877, r. Hildesheim, 1962), give only one other instance of the word in Tacitus: 6. 10. 2, where Furneaux ad loc. translates it as ‘devisers’. Here Church and Brodribb translate ‘Dolabella in person directing every operation’, M. Grant ‘Dolabella himself attended and directed the different units in turn’. So too D. R. Dudley. The closest parallels in Sallust are Marius saying to his troops ‘egomet in agmine aut [‘ut’] Kunzel in proelio consultor idem et socius periculi uobiscum adero’ (B.J. 85. 47) and ‘simul ab eo petunt, uti fautor consultorque sibi adsit’ (103.7).Google Scholar

4 Fishwick and Shaw do not refer to the passage under discussion (Hofmann, loc. cit. 1, 1774), but discuss various other points in Hofmann’s article in some detail.

5 Rege Ptolemaeo is itself an emendation of M's recepto leameo (with ‘g’ traceable under ‘c’) by Beroaldus.

6 The most notable examples occur in Judaea. In 49 B.C., for example, Caesar gave a Jewish prince ‘two legions’ to cause trouble in Syria (Jos. A.J. 14. 7. 4. 123). When he became king in 41 Agrippa I was allowed to take over six auxiliary regiments which had previously served in the Roman army (Jos. A.J. 19. 9. 2. 365 as interpreted in Momigliano, A., Ricerche sull'Organizzazione delle Giudea sotto it Domino Romano (1934, repr. Amsterdam, 1967), pp. 68 ff.).Google Scholar

7 forJuba, , cf. Lenschau, RE ix, 1916, 2381 ff. (no. 1), and especially B.Afr. 57, where the Roman general submits to him.Google Scholar

8 Tac. Hist. 2. 58. 2. For Lucceius Albinus, cf. PIR 2 Me L 354.

9 Cf. Saddington, D. B., ANRW (Feschrift J. Vogt) ii. 3 (1975), 183.Google Scholar

10 For prominent roles being assigned by a governor to prefects (and tribunes), cf. Tac, . Agr. 8. 2; cf. 5. 1.Google Scholar 11 On these terms cf. Saddington, D. B., AClass 13 (1970), 101 f.Google Scholar

12 On praefectus in these senses, cf. Jones, A. H. M., Studies in Roman Government and Law (Oxford, 1960), pp.117 ff.Google Scholar; Ensslin, W., RE xxii (1954), 1290 ff.; 1278 ff.Google Scholar

13 Tac, . Ann. 15. 28. 1; the term is also used in 11. 8. 3; 13. 37. 3;Google Scholarcf. Pliny, , N.H. 6. 9. 27; Strabo 12. 1. 2. 533.Google Scholar