Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
Tags: #Historical
Suetonius was subsequently denied access to the official records, but it is clear from his collection of pocket biographies,
Lives of the Caesars,
that he had begun researching a book on Roman leaders while he was running the archives. His biographies of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius are filled with detail that could only come from official sources—excerpts from emperors’ private letters, for example—while his later biographies rely on gossip, hearsay, myth, exaggeration, and sensational anecdote in place of hard fact, suggesting that his researches had only reached Tiberius at the time of his dismissal and fall from favor.
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Even in territory where he had good material to work with, Suetonius managed some obvious errors, mostly, it seems, from sloppiness. For example, where Caesar describes 30,000 arrows found in the Dyrrhachium fort of the 9th Legion after Pompey’s surprise attack in 48 b.c., Suetonius ups it to 130,000. And he puts the 6th Legion on Caesar’s side, when its surviving cohorts were actually in Pompey’s army at that time—some 900 men of the legion would go over to Caesar after the Battle of Pharsalus several months later.
Suetonius was to write a number of books, including those aimed at capturing a broad market, such as
The Lives of Famous Whores, The Physical Defects of Man-kind,
and
Greek Terms of Abuse.
But it is his
Lives of the Caesars
that has proven of most interest down through the ages, despite its errors and imperfections, and in terms of the legions from Caesar up until the end of the first century, his access to official records makes him a source that cannot be ignored.
Recommended among many English translations:
Lives of the Twelve Caesars,
1606 transl. P. Holland, republ. New York Limited Editions Club: NY (1963); rev.
transl., F. Etchells & H. Macdonald, Haselwood: London (1931); a 1796 transl.
by A. Thompson, Robinson: London, republ. Corner House: Williamstown, MA (1978); Loeb series edition, transl. J. C. Rolfe: London (1914);
The Twelve Caesars,
transl. R. Graves (1957), rev. M. Grant, Penguin: London (1979).
:
Tacitus.
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was the king of Roman historians. His
Annals
and
Histories
and, to a lesser extent, his
Agricola
and
Germania
are treasure troves of information about Rome and her empire in the first century. Living between about a.d. 55 and 117, Tacitus was a consul in 97 and governor of the province of Asia in 112. With apparently unlimited access to the official archives, his hugely detailed books abound with facts and figures taken directly from the records of the proceedings of the Senate and other sources as varied as back issues of the
Acta Diurna.
He acknowledges liberal use of the work of other writers, much since lost, men such as Pliny the Elder, whose writings on Germany after serving with the legions on the Rhine undoubtedly helped shape Tacitus’s attitude to Germany, Germanicus, and Arminius, as well as serving soldiers such as Vipstanus Messalla, second-in-command of the 7th Claudia Legion during the crucial civil war battles of a.d. 69, who went on to write his memoirs.
For the period a.d. 14–70, Tacitus can be read as the unrivaled authority on the legions of the first century. He also makes several telling remarks about earlier eras. He identifies the legions taking part in the wars, campaigns, and battles of the time, inclusive of their names, commanders, and frequently the names of individual officers and enlisted men. Almost always resisting gossipy anecdote in favor of documented fact, and making only very occasional errors, it is Tacitus who renders any history of the legions possible, and this particular work is in his great debt.
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a p p e n d i x g
Recommended English translations: A. J. Church & W. J. Brodribb transl.,
Annals & Histories, London 1869–72;
Republ. Chicago (1952),
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Also a Franklin Library edition, Franklin, PA (1982); Loeb series, transl.
W. Peterson: London (1914–37);
Annals,
transl. M. Grant, Penguin: London (1966);
Annals,
transl. D. R. Dudley, Mentor: New York (1966);
History,
transl.
A. Murphy, Dent: London (1900);
The Agricola & The Germania,
transl. A. J.
Church & W. J. Brodribb: London (1869–72); also, transl. of H. Mattingly & S. A. Handford, Penguin: London (1948); a combined works of Tacitus, including all of the above, transl. C. H. Morre & J. Jackson, Heinemann/Putnam: London (1931).
:
Cassius Dio.
Also referred to as Dio Cassius and Dion Cassius (his father was also a Cassius, his grandfather a Dio), Cassius Dio Cocceianus was a Greek historian born in the Roman province of Bithynia in about a.d. 150. Going to Rome, he joined the Senate under the emperor Commodus. Twice consul, and governor of several provinces during his long career, Dio had considerable military experience and was well versed in the ways of the legions. He wrote a history of the Roman Empire in eighty books in the years leading up to his death in 235. These histories took the form of a year-by-year synopsis of major events, with occasional diversions into anecdote.
Dio worked from existing sources, and clearly based much of his first-century narrative on Tacitus. With the a.d. 37–47 chapters of Tacitus’s
Annals
lost to us, it is from Dio that we glean the little we know about Claudius’s invasion of Britain. We can also see where Dio borrowed from Suetonius in his books on the first centuries b.c. and a.d., although some of his errors and exaggerations are glaringly original—he has Titus save his father, Vespasian, on a British battlefield in a.d. 47, when the boy was only seven. Dio also assumed that some customs prevalent in his day had been current in earlier times.
Unlike Tacitus, Dio rarely makes reference to individual legions, and when he does, he is sometimes in error—he puts the 3rd Gallica Legion in an a.d. 69 civil war battle, when from Tacitus we ascertain it was the 3rd Augusta. The 3rd Gallica, a new legion, had not even taken the field by that time. But he does tell us how the 12th Legion gained its Fulminata title from Marcus Aurelius in a.d. 174.
More importantly, Dio provides a list of all the legions in existence in his day, with brief background information on each, which, although not entirely accurate, provides a proverbial bookend to any history of the legions of the early imperial era.
Most valuable English translations include: Loeb series,
Dio’s Roman History:
London (1914–27), transl. E. Cary; and
Cassius Dio. The Roman History: The Reign
of Augustus,
transl. I. Scott-Kilvert, Penguin: London (1987).
:
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Josephus.
Born in about a.d. 37, Josephus Flavius was a Jew who commanded Jefat during the town’s siege by Vespasian’s army in a.d. 67, where he was captured. He claims he won his freedom and the favor of Vespasian by predicting that both he and his son Titus would become emperor of Rome. Collaborating with the Romans, Josephus several times tried to talk the Jewish partisans holding Jerusalem into surrendering, ultimately witnessing and documenting the city’s destruction. He later wrote extensively about the Jewish peoples, providing a detailed background on Herod the Great. But it is his coverage of the a.d. 67–70
Judean offensives of Vespasian and Titus that is of most use to anyone interested in the legions.
Tacitus wrote of the early stages of these campaigns, identifying units such as the 3rd Augusta and 18th Legion detachments involved, but most of his account of this episode has been lost, so that Josephus is the only continuous source of the events in Judea of a.d. 67–71. Identifying the five main legions involved in the campaigns, including the 10th, Josephus reports the Judean operations in impressive detail, right down to the legions’ order of march. He is not without error, and while he praises individual Jewish fighters, he was at pains to paint the Jewish leaders in a bad light and depict their cause as folly. His intent was to ingratiate himself with the Roman leadership, and he succeeded. Granted his freedom, citizenship, property, and wealth by the Flavian emperors, he wrote for a Roman readership, and his stance is far from objective. But as an eyewitness to one of Rome’s most bitter wars and one of history’s most pivotal events, he is a rare source.
Recommended English translations among many:
The Jewish War,
transl. H.
St. John Thackery, R. Marcus, & L. H. Feldman, Loeb: London (1926); also, transl. of G. A. Williamson, Penguin: London (1959, rev. 1970). A nineteenth-century
Complete Works of Josephus,
transl. W. Whiston, Winston: PA, republ. by Kregel in United States in twentieth century.
:
Polybius.
This Greek statesman and historian lived between 200 and 118 b.c.
At Rome, initially as a hostage, he became a friend of and adviser to Scipio Aemillianus, the Roman consul and general who conquered Carthage. Traveling widely, Polybius wrote his
Histories
in forty books after returning to Greece in 150 b.c. Having broad experience of Roman political and military matters, he wrote with intelligence and authority about the Roman army of the mid-second century b.c. Some chapters are so detailed they read like a legion owner’s manual. It is from Polybius that we know so much about legion practices and proce-dures, many of which seem to have remained unchanged for centuries after, from camp layout to bravery decorations, sentry details to punishments.
Recommended English translations:
The Histories of Polybius,
transl. E. Shuck-burgh, Macmillan: London (1889).
Polybius. Histories,
transl. W. R. Paton, Loeb: London (1922–27).
Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire,
transl. I. Scott-Kilvert, Penguin: London (1979).
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:
Pliny the Younger.
His full name was Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. He was a consul in a.d. 100 and governed Bithynia-Pontus between a.d. 111 and 113.
His correspondence, in particular his exchange of letters with the emperor Trajan at Rome on matters that came before him for judgment, give a fascinating insight into Roman life of the time. They are especially enlightening about the wisdom of Trajan and the workings of Roman imperial government, from the operations of the
Cursus Publicus
to how Christians were then tolerated, and how slaves who illegally enrolled for legion service were dealt with.
Recommended English translations:
The Letters of Pliny the Consul,
transl. W.
Melmoth, London (1746), rev. W. M. Hutchinson, Loeb: London (1915).
Pliny’s
Letters,
transl. A. J. Church & W. A. Brodribb, Blackwood: Edinburgh (1872).
The Letters of the Younger Pliny,
transl. B. Radice, Penguin: London (1963).
:
Acts of the Apostles.
From the Bible, these provide insights into several aspects of legion activity in Judea during the first century. One deals with a centurion who retired from his legion to live in Caesarea and who was converted to Christianity by St. Peter. Indications are that the centurion was of Greek heritage, that he retired from the 1st Legion, then based on the Rhine—confused by the
Acts
author with the 1st Italica, which had in effect replaced the demobilized 1st Legion by the time
Acts
was written—and probably entered the army by enrolling with the 3rd Augusta Legion at its Beirut recruiting station.
The other episode of interest, almost certainly written by St. Luke, tells of St.
Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, his trial and detention in Caesarea, and then his conveyance under escort to Rome to have his appeal heard by the emperor, Nero, as was his right as a Roman citizen. From
Acts
we ascertain that Paul’s escort was made up of a centurion and legionaries from the 3rd Augusta Legion based in Caesarea, and the story Luke tells of the journey he and Paul took to Rome in a.d. 60–61, inclusive of a shipwreck on Malta with their legionary escort, is the only detailed eyewitness account we have of a first-century sea journey, making this a treasure trove for historians.
Additional Sources
Abbott, F. F. and Johnson, A. C.
Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire.
Princeton, NJ: University Press, 1926.
Allegro, J. M.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1956.
Arrian.
History of Alexander, and Indica.
Trans. P. Brunt. London: Loeb-Harvard University Press, 1976.
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Aurelius, M.
Meditations.
Trans. G. Long. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952.
Azzaroli, A.
An Early History of Horsemanship.
London: E. J. Brill, 1985.
Birley, A.
Marcus Aurelius.
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1966.
Birley, E.
Roman Britain and the Roman Army.
Kendal, U.K.: Titus Wilson, 1953.
Boardman, J.; Griffin, J.; and Murray, O.
The Oxford History of the Classical World.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Bouchier, E. S.
Spain under the Roman Empire.
Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1914.
Brogen.
Roman Gaul.
London: Bell, 1953.
Broughton, T. R. S.
The Romanization of Africa Proconsularis.
NY: Greenwood Press, 1968.
Bryant, A.
The Age of Elegance.
London: William Collins, 1954.
Buchan, J.
Augustus.
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.
Carcopino, J.
Daily Life in Ancient Rome.
London: Pelican, 1956.
Casson, L.
Ancient Egypt.
Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1965.
Cave, W.
Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the Holy Apostles.
London: John Hatch-ard & Son, 1836.