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Antonius Saturninus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

Milestones, they are more numerous than needed. They may tell very little, often merely certifying stages and intervals on roads already known, traced and trodden: or, less instructive, the names and titles of an emperor.

There are happy exceptions. From time to time the miliaria, by registering an imperial legate, contribute usefully to the study of the governing class. A new discovery can offer a sudden and welcome illumination. For example, the milestone set up on a strategic road in Palestine in the second half of the year 69: the road from Caesarea by Caparcotna to Scythopolis. At the head stands the name of the pretender, styled ‘Imp. Caesar Vespasianus Augustus’, and this stone was erected by M. Ulpius Traianus, the legate commanding the legion X Fretensis.

The document is variously instructive, not least for the career of that legate. In the narrative of Josephus, Traianus was last heard of in the early summer of 68 when, after the subjugation of Peraea, he brought his army corps to join Vespasian at Jericho. The next fact is his consulate in 70, revealed by a small fragment of the Fasti Ostienses. He followed as suffectus the great Licinius Mucianus (the second consulship of that person). The honour was deserved. Like another legionary legate, Aurelius Fulvus, who commanded III Gallica in Moesia, Ulpius Traianus (the inference is easy and painless) had a hand in the intrigue that led to the proclamation of Vespasian. Both were legates of some seniority. Fulvus is attested in 64, under Domitius Corbulo in Armenia (ILS 232).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 68 , November 1978 , pp. 12 - 21
Copyright
Copyright ©Ronald Syme 1978. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Isaac, B. H. and Roll, I., JRS LXVI (1976), 15Google Scholar.

2 The present paper, designed for brevity and economy, omits the evidence for a number of facts and dates that are not in dispute. Recourse may be had to the excellent repertorium of Eck, W., Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian (1970)Google Scholar, henceforth cited without the title.

3 Generally assigned to 70. For 72, however, see now the arguments of L. Vidman, Listy fil. 98 (1975), 66 f.

4 Gichon, M. and Isaac, B. H., Israel Exploration Journal XXIV (1974), 117Google Scholar. The editors duly supplement ‘Aug. [f.]’ in line 4. I had the good fortune to inspect the stone in February of 1971.

5 ILS 232.

6 AE 1969/70, 443, cf. Eck, W., Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte XIII (1972/1973), 89 fGoogle Scholar.

7 Titus also had a praefectus praetorio. That is, Ti. Julius Alexander (P. Hibeh 215).

8 viz. ILS 8904; 253 f.; AE 1974, 653. An earlier and sporadic instance in 72/3 is the dedication made by the town council of Sestinum in Umbria: ‘imp. T. Caes. Aug. f. Vespasian.’ (260).

9 IEJ XXIV (1974), 123.

10 Suetonius, Dom. 10. 2 f. Add 11.1 (M. Arrecinus Clemens); 15. 1 (T. Flavius Sabinus).

11 On the reconstruction of E. Ritterling, adopted in CAH (1936), 172 f.

12 CIL IX. 5420.

13 Thus W. Eck, op. cit., 60 (a strong doubt).

14 The Fasti Ostienses show no erasure of T. Flavius Sabinus (cos. 82) or of T. Flavius Clemens (95). And the name of M. Arrecinus Clemens stands entire on the record of his second consulship (in 85) with L. Baebius Honoratus for colleague (CIL XII. 3637: Nemausus).

15 The few exceptions are registered by W. Eck, ANRW II. 1 (1974), 216 (three between 78 and 127).

16 ILS 7155 (P. Furius Saturninus).

17 For recent catalogues, H. G. Pflaum, IEJ XIX (1969), 230 f.; W. Eck, op. cit. (n. 2), 243; G. Vermes and F. Millar in the revised edition of Schürer, E., The History of the Jewish People 1 (1973), 515Google Scholar.

18 ILS 988.

19 Arguments for 74 are adduced by W. Eck, op. cit., 101. See, however, C. P. Jones, AJP xcv (1974), 89 f., with appeal to the evidence of Josephus, BJ VII. 219; also Bowersock, G. W., JRS LXV (1975), 183 fGoogle Scholar.

20 W. Eck, op. cit., 102.

21 For retardations suffered by some of Pliny's friends see Historia IX (1960), 362 fGoogle Scholar. = Roman Papers (1978), 477 f.

22 For the list, W. Eck, op. cit., 103 f.

23 Tacitus, Hist. in. 52. 3; IV. 39. 1 f.; 40, 2.

24 AE 1925, 126 (Pisidian Antioch).

25 Hist. III. 44.

26 See Eck's lists for certain provinces, such as Numidia and Lycia-Pamphylia. A biennial tenure of Lusitania emerges clearly for C. Arruntius Catellius Celer (suff. 79).

27 Observe, for example, L. Tettius Julianus (suff. 83), praetor in 70, or M. Tittius Frugi (suff. 80), who replaced Titus in the command of XV Apollinaris in 70.

28 AE 1969/70, 183. See the full discussion in W. Eck, op. cit., 93 f.

29 For the problem, Mus. Helv. XXXIV (1977), 129 f.

30 Aelian, fr. 112 (Hercher).

31 Yet perhaps Narbonensian. The cognomen might reflect one of the common Celtic names in ‘vind’, meaning ‘white’. Not, indeed, that ‘Albus’ is frequent: six in CIL XII, cf. eight in XIII.

32 CIL 11. 4194, adduced in Tacitus (1958), 596. The man is to be presumed a citizen of Tarraco.

33 AE 1965, 236 (Tarraco): the text of J. Deininger taking in improvements on AE 1932, 84. The item is relevant to Pliny's attempt (abortive) to get senatorial rank for his friend Voconius Romanus. He had been a high priest (Epp. II. 13. 4). See Harvard Studies LXXIII (1968), 231Google Scholar = RP (1978), 769.

34 PIR2, A 1088; 898.

35 Alföldy, G., Flamines Provinciae Hispaniae Citerioris (1973), 14 fGoogle Scholar.

36 Dunant, Chr. and Pouilloux, J., Etudes Thasiennes v (1958)Google Scholar, no. 186, cf. J. and L. Robert, Bull. Ep. 1959, no. 333. The career of the procurator was known (AE 1936, 1: Ilium).

37 ILS 9199 (Heliopolis), cf. PIR 2, A 854.

38 Pflaum, H. G., Journal des Savants, 1959, 81Google Scholar.

39 H. G. Pflaum, Rev. ét. lat. XLIII (1965), 139; IEJ XIX (1969), 227; W. Eck, op. cit. (n. 2), 244. Eck later registered the proconsulate as ‘sehr problematisch’ (Zephyrus XXIII/IV (1972/1923), 241Google Scholar.

40 Only a glossary (CGL III. 32, 52) was cited by Magie, D., De Romanis iuris publici sacrique vocabulis sollemnibus in Graecum sermonem conversis (1905)Google Scholar, 51— and no specimen anywhere in Mason, H., Greek Terms for Roman Institutions (1974)Google Scholar.

41 Thus ἀνὴρ ἐπιφανέστατος for an Augustan proconsul of Asia (SIG 3 785); ‘vir ornatissimus’ for the procurator of Sardinia who had been replaced as governor by a proconsul, a ‘vir clarissimus’ (ILS 5947, of the year 68).

42 cf. W. Eck, RE Supp. XIV, 276; Historia XXIV (1975), 334Google Scholar. On the other hand, Marius Celsus (suff. 69), governor of Syria in 73 (ILS 8903), still lacks a praenomen.

43 CIL x. 6785: the date at the end of the funeral inscription of a freedman who was in charge of the island Pandateria. The item ‘Arrtio’ is assumed a mistake for ‘Arruntio’. Neither he nor his colleague can be identified.

44 viz., the suffecti of 12 B.C. and A.D. 3 (the praefectus urbi of long duration), and the consul of 56: Ann. in. 30. 1; XII. 22. 2; XIII. 30. 2; xm. 25. 1; XIV. 46. 2; 56. 1. Note also the ‘L. Volusius’, consul and augur, named on his wife's gravestone (ILS 924): date and identity not certain.

45 Columella I. 7. 3: ‘sed et ipse nostra memoria veterem consularem, virumque opulentissimum, L. Volusium asseverantem audivi’.

46 Praetor in 88, he had known the consuls of 87 and 92.

47 For the testimonia, PIR 2, A 874. In Plutarch he is only Άντώντος (Aem. Paull. 25).

48 Suetonius, Dom. 6. 2; 73. Whence, one presumes, the ‘L. Antonius’ in one of the three instances in the HA (Alex. 1. 7).

49 Martial IV. 11. 2; Aelian.fr. 112 (Herscher).

50 Grant, M., From Imperium to Auctoritas (1946), 216Google Scholar.

51 Divergence will emerge from sundry dates proposed by H. G. Pflaum, IEJ XIX (1969), 227 and W. Eck, op. cit. (n. 2), 244.

52 ILS 1002 (Viterbo). Tarquinii is the patria.

53 ILS 987 (Antium).

54 E. Groag, RE VII A, 1326.

55 It was, as Suetonius reports, ‘pestilentia quanta non temere alias’ (Divus Titus 8. 3). For surmised deaths see Some Arval Brethren, Ch. VII (forthcoming).

56 Martial v. 30.

57 One of the Vestal Virgins called Varronilla got into trouble in the early years of Domitian (Suetonius, Dom. 8. 4).

58 Observe the language employed by Pliny when inciting his friend to come back to the life of the capital c. 107 (Epp. VII. 3).

59 For the proconsulate, AE 1930, 130 = SEG XVI. 291 (Beroea). For the consulate, CIL XII. 3637 (Nemausus), with ‘]atus’ on the Fasti Ostienses.

60 JRS XLIII (1953), 155. For the complete list of 85 see now Zevi, F., Rivista storica dell' Antichità III (1973). 106Google Scholar.

61 ILS 1011 (Urbs Salvia). Further, PIR 1, S 105 and the exemplary article of Groag, RE IA, 2026 f.

62 CIL VI. 3236 f.

63 H. Petersen, CP LVII (1962), 32: accepted, so it appears, by W. Eck, op. cit., 133.

64 CIL VI. 32362.

65 PIR 1, S 105; RE IA, 2027.

66 Like the ‘priores principes’ who awarded one set of decorations to a centurion (CIL XI. 5992).

67 ILS 1015.

68 CIL VIII. 23165. Tettius Julianus is attested for 81/2 (AE 1954, 137).

69 F. Zevi, Rivista storica dell'Antichità in (1973), 107. Accepted by W. Eck in RE Supp. xv (forthcoming).

70 W. Eck pronounced firmly for 83/4, op. cit. (n. 2), 133.

71 Pliny, Epp. III. 9. 33.

72 See further Some Arval Brethren, ch. XI (forthcoming).

73 Macedonia in this period stood highest, cf. Pflaum, H. G., Banner Jahrbücher CLXIII (1963), 226Google Scholar. Observe further, under Trajan, the Ignotus disclosed by an inscription at Side: on which, L. Robert, Rev. phil. LXXXIV (1958), 33. He proceeded from Macedonia to Judaea; that article mentions the avowedly hazardous conjecture that the person might be ‘[C. Avi]dius C[eioni]us [Comm]odu[s]’. Hence AE 1969/70, 606.

74 W. Eck, ANRW 11. 1 (1974), 202 f.

75 ILS 8970.

76 Pliny, Epp. x. 58. 6.

77 For an analysis of the consular legates from 70 to 235, see Campbell, B., JRS LXV (1975), 11 ffGoogle Scholar. That study properly deprecates notions of specialization. At the same time, a distinction can be drawn between Flavio-Trajanic practices and a certain pattern that can be detected under Hadrian and Pius.

78 S. Gsell, Essai sur le règne de l'Empereur Domitien (1894), 252; Syme, R. in CAH XI (1936), 172Google Scholar.

79 Epit. 11. 9. Similarly Antonius is a ‘tyrannus’ in the three notices in the HA (Pesc. 9. 3; Alex. 1.7; Quadr. tyr. 1. 1).

80 Suetonius, Dom. 6. 2.

81 CAH XI, 174 f.

82 Dio LXVII. 10. 2. Domitian was ‘imp. XVII’ by November of 88 (CIL XVI. 35).

83 CAH XI, 174 (adducing Sallustius Lucullus).

84 Tacitus, Agr. 42, 1, cf. ILS 1374 (the procurator).

85 Suetonius, Dom. 10. 3.

86 Thus Birley, A. R., Epigraphische Studien IV (1967), 68Google Scholar. For his identity, perhaps a polyonymus, see Tacitus (1958), 648—and, to no firm conclusion, Some Arval Brethren, ch. XI (forthcoming).

87 Dio LXVII. 11. 2 f.

88 Epit. 11. 9. Aurelius Victor and Eutropius do not mention the usurper. Which touches an intricate question, namely different sources evident in the Epitome. On Nerva it is profuse, probably deriving from Marius Maximus.

89 Suetonius, Dom. 8. 3.

90 Suetonius, Dom. 10. 5; Dio LXVII. 11. 4.

91 Aelian, fr. 112 (Hercher). The insurgent in fact seized the savings chest of the troops (Dom. 7. 3).

92 Hist. 1. 9. I, cf. 52. 1.

93 Hist. 11. 82. 2: ‘plerosque senatorii ordinis honore percoluit, egregios viros et mox summa adeptos: quibusdam fortuna pro virtutibus fuit.’

94 It is a theme of predilection in the Historia Augusta, which ends by bringing out comedy as well as folly in the act of usurpation. In the three brief references to Antonius he is coupled with Vindex: in one of them, ‘Lucium Vindicem et L. Antonium’ (Alex. 1. 7), Vindex is accorded the same praenomen. Had the author been aware of the cognomen he might have put it to good employ in the lavish inventions about the usurper Saturninus in Quadrigae tyrannorum.