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The Moralizing Message of the Senatus Consultum de cn. Pisone Patre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Alison Cooley
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Extract

The recently published senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre provides the opportunity not only to explore afresh an episode in Tiberius' reign recounted by Tacitus, but also to reassess several aspects of political life during the early Principate. This decree outlines the Senate's judgement of the conduct of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso who had been accused of maiestas for seditious activities in the East, but had committed suicide before the conclusion of his trial. The document adds a considerable number of details to those recorded by Tacitus. Quite apart from its main theme, the text has shed light on such thorny problems as the definition of imperium maius, and the relationship between the fiscus and aerarium The aim of this article, however, is not to investigate such matters, but to consider the rhetorical language with which the Senate treats the whole affair.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , October 1998 , pp. 199 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1998

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References

Notes

1. The decree will be abbreviated here to SCPP. Text and commentary are published by Eck, W., Caballos, A., and Fernández, F., Das Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre (Munich, 1996)Google Scholar. Griffin, M., JRS 87 (1997), 250–3Google Scholar provides an English translation of the inscription. I am grateful to Greg Rowe, Greg Woolf, and Nicholas Purcell for many stimulating discussions of the issues raised by this text, and to Michael Comber and Miriam Griffin for commenting on earlier drafts of this article. All errors remain my own.

2. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.43–3.19.

3. Eck, et al. , op. cit. (n. 1), 161Google Scholar, 179 commentary on SCPP, lines 34–6 and 55.

4. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.43, 3.3, 10–11.

5. SCPP, line 28.

6. SCPP, lines 12–15.

7. SCPP, lines 26–7. All translations are my own.

8. TLL s.v. ‘feritas’, II, de hominibus: ‘morum consuetudo consimilis moribus ferarum’.

9. Serv, . A. 8.Google Scholar194: ‘SEMIHOMINIS hoc est feritate corrupti’.

10. Vell. 2.106.2. TLL s.v. ‘feritas’, I–II, provides many more examples of the pejorative use of this word.

11. SCPP, lines 49–52.

12. The humanitas of the Senate and princeps: SCPP, lines 93 and 100.

13. SCPP, lines 58–61.

14. SCPP, lines 57–68. For the expression, compare Cic, , Inv. 2Google Scholar.53: ‘virtus est animi habitus’.

15. SCPP, line 58.

16. SCPP, lines 45–8.

17. SCPP, lines 45–9 and 55–6.

18. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.55, 3.13.

19. SCPP, lines 54–5.

20. Tiberius and Iunius Gallio: Tac, , Ann. 6Google Scholar.3.

21. He ends his account at Ann. 3.19 with the words ‘is finis fuit ulciscenda Germanici morte’.

22. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.76–7.

23. Tac, , Ann. 3Google Scholar.15–16.

24. Sal, ., Cat. 18Google Scholar.4–5.

25. PIR 2 C286; Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.43. Syme, R., The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939), 334–5Google Scholar. Hofmann-Löbl, I., Die Calpurnii. Politisches Wirken und familiäre Kontinuität (Frankfurt, 1996), 201–5Google Scholar suggests that Augustus wanted to demonstrate to the Senate his willingness to compromise, and that Piso may even have bargained with Augustus in order to promote the careers of two members of his family, L. Calpurnius Piso Pontifex and his son Cn. Calpurnius Piso, in return for accepting the suffect consulship.

26. D.C. 53.30.2; Suet, ., Aug. 28Google Scholar.1.

27. V. Max. 6.2.4.

28. Wirszubski, C., Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome (Cambridge, 1950), 165Google Scholar suggests that Tacitus uses the word libertas to record an individual's independent way of thinking and speaking rather than adherence to a constitutional principle.

29. Tac, , Ann. 1Google Scholar.74.5.

30. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.35.

31. D.C. 57.15.9.

32. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.34, 4.21.

33. Sal, ., Cat. 19Google Scholar.4.

34. OLD, s.v. ferocia, 1–2.

35. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.43.

36. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.55.

37. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.78.1.

38. Sen, ., Dial. 3Google Scholar.18.3 (de ira).

39. Tac, , Ann. 4Google Scholar.12. Martin, R. H. and Woodman, A. J., Tacitus Annals Book IV (Cambridge, 1989), 132Google Scholar note the echo of Jugurtha, another deadly foe of Rome, at Sal, ., Jug. 14Google Scholar.21.

40. Tac, , Ann. 1Google Scholar.12. Compare D.C. 57.2.5–7, where the word ferocia is rendered by the Greek παρρησία For further comment on Tacitus' use of the word, see Goodyear, F. R. D., The Annals of Tacitus.I. Annals 1.1–54 (Cambridge, 1972), 105–6Google Scholar and Traub, H. W., TAPA 84 (1953), 250–61Google Scholar.

41. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.72.

42. Suet, ., Aug. 65Google Scholar; ; Tac, , Ann. 1Google Scholar.3.

43. Tac, , Ann. 4Google Scholar.21.

44. Tac, , Ann. 4Google Scholar.45. Martin, and Woodman, , op. cit. (n. 39), 204–6Google Scholar comment upon Tacitus' deliberate echoes of the parallel episode in Sal, ., Cat. 19Google Scholar.

45. Syme, R., The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford, 1986), 367Google Scholar.

46. Tac, , Ann. 1Google Scholar.4; Suet, ., Tib. 2Google Scholar; Liv. 2.56.7.

47. Gell. 9.2.10–11. Salway, B., JRS 84 (1994), 124–5Google Scholar, especially 124–33, discusses Roman aristocratic preoccupation with the inheritance of names.

48. Suet, ., Tib. 1Google Scholar.2.

49. Festus (p. 151M); Liv. 6.20.14; Quint, ., Inst. 3Google Scholar.7.20.

50. Tac, , Ann. 2Google Scholar.32.

51. SCPP lines 73–84.

52. SCPP, line 97. EJ 2 69.12–3: iam designatu/m i/ustissumum ac simillumum parentis sui virtutibus principem.

53. Henderson, J., in Figuring out Roman Nobility. Juvenal's 8th Satire (Exeter, 1997)Google Scholar, explores Juvenal's comments upon this well-established theme in his eighth satire. See also Edwards, C., The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 1993), 14–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. Sal, ., Jug. 4Google Scholar.5.

55. Plb. 31.23–30.

56. Plb. 31.24–5.

57. Cic, ., Arch. 15Google Scholar.

58. Cic, ., Off. 1Google Scholar.118.

59. SCPP, lines 10–11. Eck, W., CCG 4 (1993), 194Google Scholar.

60. SCPP, lines 132–46; Germanicus' moderatio – lines 26 and 167.

61. SCPP, lines 148–50, and 132–3.

62. SCPP, lines 123–63.

63. SCPP, line 158.

64. SCPP, lines 90–2.

65. Sen, ., Cl. 2Google Scholar.2.1.

66. Sen, ., Cl. 1Google Scholar.1.6.

67. Tac, , Ann. 3Google Scholar.55.

68. SCPP, lines 165–72.

69. Tab. Siar. IIb.11–17. See Millar, F., ‘Imperial ideology in the Tabula Siarensis’, in González, J. and Arce, J. (eds), Estudios sobre la Tabula Siarensis (Madrid, 1988), 18Google Scholar.

70. Eck et al., op. cit. (n. 1),chapter 1 discuss the origins of the six surviving copies (only two of which are of any significant size).

71. Eck, et al. , op. cit. (n. 1), 101–3Google Scholar.

72. Tac, , Ann. 4Google Scholar.29.

73. Tac, , Ann. 4Google Scholar.13.

74. Edwards, , op. cit. (n. 53), 25Google Scholar.