The Emperor Domitian

Brian Jones

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134853120
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire antique

Domitian, Emperor of Rome AD 81-96, has traditionally been portrayed as a tyrant, and his later years on the throne as a `reign of terror'. Brian Jones' biography of the emperor, the first ever in English, offers a more balanced interpretation of the life of Domitian, arguing that his foreign policy was realistic, his economic programme rigorously efficient and his supposed persecution of the early Christians non-existent.
Central to an understanding of the emperor's policies, Brian Jones proposes, is his relationship with his court, rather than with the senate. Roamn historians will have to take account of this new biography which in part represents a rehabilitation of Domitian.

1
EARLY CAREER

FAMILY AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

Domitian was born in Rome on 24 October 51, the eleventh year of Claudius’s reign. According to tradition (Dom. 1.1), the birth occurred at the family home in Pomegranate Street (possibly the Via delle Quatro Fontane) on the Quirinal Hill in the sixth Region. Later, he converted it into a temple of the Gens Flavia, covered with marble and gold,¹ and, when it was struck by lightning in 96, many interpreted this as an indication of the emperor’s mortality (Dom. 15); on his death (18 September 96), his ashes and those of his niece Julia were mingled and deposited there by Phyllis who had nursed them both (Dom. 17).

Suetonius (Dom. 1.1) repeats various rumours about his boyhood and early youth: such was his family’s poverty that there was no silver plate, he had to sell himself to various senators, including the future emperor Nerva. Even Suetonius does not vouch for the accuracy of these tales and they can be safely discarded.

The family’s ‘poverty’ is a myth. On the contrary, one of the bases for their upward mobility was wealth, just as it was an essential ingredient for any would-be member of the new aristocracy in the early empire, with influence and ability being the other relevant factors. Needless to say, the Flavians and, in particular, Domitian’s grandfather (Titus Flavius Sabinus), had (or acquired) all three.

His great-grandfather (T.Flavius Petro) had come from Reate (Rieti), an Italian town in the Sabine territory on the Velino near where the Via Salaria crossed the river. He had served in Pompey’s army (possibly as a centurion) at Pharsalus where his military career came to an inglorious end as he fled from the field of battle: on the other hand, the relationship between the Plautii and the Flavii, very significant in their rise to imperial status, might well have begun during this civil war, for one of Pompey’s officers at Pharsalus was A.Plautius whose great-grandson of the same name (PIR1 P 344) was a patron of the Flavians—two of his three legions in Britain during Claudius’s invasion were under the control of Petro’s grandsons, Vespasian and his brother (Sabinus).

But Petro’s reverse was only temporary. He set about acquiring what was one of the essentials for social and political success in most societies and particularly so in this one—money: he became a moneylender and married a wealthy wife. An ability to acquire money and then to retain it were qualities he handed down to his descendants. His wife Tertulla was extremely rich, owning estates at the Etruscan coastal town of Cosa and it was here that Domitian’s father Vespasian was brought up (AD 10–20). Fifty years later, the family still owned it and Vespasian visited it regularly during his reign. This was not the family’s only asset. There was a villa at Aquae Cutiliae on the Via Salaria between Reate and Interocrea (Antrodoco) where Vespasian spent every summer (Vesp. 24) and where both he and Titus died; when the family acquired it is not known. There were another three properties. Suetonius (Vesp. 2.1) does not record the precise nature of their estate at Falacrina (also on the Via Salaria, some 13 kilometres from Reate) where Vespasian was born, nor whether Vespasian owned the houses in Rome where Titus (Titus 1) and Domitian (Dom. 1.1) were born. Vespasian’s ‘poverty’ during the Julio-Claudian period was an invention of Flavian propaganda of the early 70s, when the safest policy was to mention as infrequently as possible the financial, social and political successes of the Flavii during the reigns of emperors such as Gaius and Nero.

Tertulla’s money and her husband’s financial acumen were passed on to their descendants amongst whom was their very able son, Domitian’s grandfather Titus Flavius Sabinus (Sabinus I). During the early decades of the first century, he amassed considerable wealth and possibly equestrian status from his posts of tax collector in Asia and banker in Switzerland.² With the practical common sense of most of the Flavii, he married well, with apparent increase in both wealth and social status, for Vespasia Polla’s family was renowned and ancient: Suetonius claims (Vesp. 1.3) to have seen many monuments of the Vespasii not far from Nursia (Norcia), a mountain town also in the Sabine country. As Sabinus I’s new brother-in-law was a senator of praetorian rank and, presumably, a member of Augustus’s senate, the Flavii had, within two generations, emerged from comparative obscurity, and the change coincided with the rise of a new aristocracy, as the old families disappeared in the series of civil wars during the last decades of the Roman Republic.³

The third generation saw the family senatorial: Sabinus I’s wealth was sufficient to ensure that both his sons (Sabinus II and Vespasian) had the financial prerequisite for a senatorial career—some HS 1,000,000 each.⁴ So, before Sabinus I, the Flavians may well have been ‘obscure and without family portraits’ (Vesp. 1.1), but, amongst his seven direct male descendants, were numbered three emperors and these seven between them amassed thirty-nine consulships.⁵

PATRONAGE

Antonia’s circle

In many societies, and especially in the early empire, social and political advancement depended on access to influential patrons in the aristocracy.⁶ From marriages, the Flavii had acquired money (Tertulla) and status (Vespasia). But it was through their patrons that they gained access to the imperial court and to the honours that followed therefrom.

During Tiberius’s reign (14–37), both Sabinus I’s sons were granted senatorial rank. So their father had by then acquired not only considerable wealth but also the advantages accruing from powerful patrons; and whilst we can not be absolutely certain of their identity, subsequent contacts made by Vespasian are suggestive. It would seem that patronage came from four powerful and eminent families (the Petronii, Pomponii, Plautii and Vitellii) who were linked together not only by marriage ties and common interests, but also by imperial patronage via Antonia Minor, daughter of Mark Antony and mother of Germanicus and Claudius.

The links between the four families were long-standing.⁷ Some years before his consulship in 1 BC, an Aulus Plautius had married a Vitellia—forty or more years later, Petronia, whose mother was a Plautia, married the future emperor Vitellius. In the interval, the families’ fortunes varied with those of Antonia and her sons. Observe Publius Vitellius, the uncle of the future emperor, and the trusted associate of Germanicus (comes Germanici: Vit. 2.3). Commander of two of his legions in 14 (Ann. 1.70), Vitellius led the struggle to avenge his death (Ann. 3.10); and, in the period of Germanicus’s greatest influence (16–19), four of the group attained the consulship. But, with his death, all that changed and from 19 to 31 only two of them were successful.⁸ Sejanus’s fall in 31, however, represented another turning-point and between 32 and 37, two Vitellii, a Plautius and a Petronius became consuls; similarly, with the accession of Antonia’s son Claudius, seven consulships were awarded to the group in the first eight years of his reign.⁹

There is some evidence to explain the significance of Sejanus’s death in boosting the families’ influence. When Antonia was informed of the plot against Tiberius, she wrote a ‘full and accurate account’ of it to Tiberius: ‘previously he had held Antonia in high regard, but now he valued her even more and put full confidence in her’ (AJ 18.180–4). However accurate the tale,¹⁰ it reflects the perception commonly held that Antonia’s¹¹ influence with Tiberius increased with Sejanus’s death and, with it, that of her circle.

At this same period, the Flavians acquired an even more direct contact with the imperial family in the person of (Antonia) Caenis,¹² secretary and freedwoman of Antonia and known to have been Vespasian’s mistress both in his youth and in his old age (Vesp. 3). Presumably, he met her when he was in his early twenties. A woman of no mean ability, she had an important part in the events surrounding Sejanus’s fall, for, according to Dio 60.14.1–2, it was to her that Antonia dictated the letter to Tiberius about Sejanus.

At all times, access to the court was vital, since decisions were effectively made there, not in the senate, and Vespasian acquired such access through the able and influential Caenis. As shrewd in selecting a mistress as his father and grandfather had been in their choice of wives (observe three different reasons in three generations—money [Tertulla], status [Vespasia] and influence [Caenis]), Vespasian capitalized on the advantages gained by his family’s patrons.

Ten years later, with the accession of Claudius, the Flavians’ patrons still retained their influence, as the evidence amply indicates. Once emperor, he immediately chose their senior members as his personal advisors—L.Vitellius for internal matters and A.Plautius for the external. As well, Tacitus has L.Vitellius reminding Claudius that not only were they both friends of long standing but also equally devoted to his mother Antonia (Ann. 11.3). Just as decisive is the evidence for Vespasian’s connection with the group: according to one of the emperor Vitellius’s supporters, ‘Vespasian was a client of a Vitellius when a Vitellius was a client of a Claudius’ (Hist. 3.66); his first appointment to command a legion (in Germany) was due to the influence of Claudius’s freedman Narcissus (Vesp. 4.1)—once again, Vespasian was acute enough to maintain his contacts at court (Caenis) and also to extend them (Narcissus); and when A.Plautius was appointed commander of the invasion of Britain, he had, as two of his three legionary commanders, Vespasian and his elder brother Sabinus II.

Oriental group

Another group that helped the Flavians, especially during the Jewish war and the seizure of power by Vespasian in 69, was the family and friends of the Jewish king Julius Agrippa II, all of whom had close links with members of the imperial family, especially Antonia.¹³ Agrippa’s father (Agrippa I), who had been educated with Tiberius’s son Drusus, ‘also won the friendship of Antonia,…for his mother Berenice¹⁴ ranked high among her friends and had requested her to promote the son’s interest’ (AJ 18.143); in Berenice’s will, one of her freedmen, Protos, was left to Antonia (AJ 18.156). Agrippa I was chronically hard up, and, on one occasion, sought a substantial loan from Antonia, who paid up ‘because she still remembered Berenice his mother and because Agrippa had been brought up with Claudius and his circle’ (AJ 18.165). The friendship was extended to include his son Agrippa II ‘who was brought up at the court of Claudius Caesar’ (AJ 19.360), and who, with his sister Berenice,¹⁵ was to prove a loyal and valuable ally to Vespasian.

When war broke out in 66, Agrippa was at Alexandria with his former brother-in-law Tiberius Julius Alexander,¹⁶ prefect of Egypt and another member of the circle. Later (1 July 69), he was to be the first military governor to declare for Vespasian, and, although Vespasian’s predecessor Vitellius was destined to survive until December 69, Vespasian officially dated his reign from Alexander’s proclamation in Egypt. Agrippa immediately returned to Caesarea, provided the Romans with auxiliaries (BJ 3.68) and served with them, being wounded at the siege of Gamala (BJ 4.14). Better known, perhaps, is his sister Berenice, married (or promised) to Marcus Julius Alexander (brother of Tiberius) and then to her uncle, Herod of Chalcis by whom she had two sons, Berenicianus and Hyrcanus (AJ 19.277; BJ 2.217, 221). She would have been twenty when he died c. 48. Subsequently, she returned to live with her brother, but the scandal and notoriety caused by their alleged incest (AJ 20.145) persuaded her to seek another husband. Polemo of Cilicia found her money and charms irrestible (AJ 20.146) and, in his late thirties, even consented to be circumcised. The marriage was brief and subsequently she became Titus’s mistress.¹⁷ Tacitus’s introduction of her is memorable. Titus was obviously well aware of her physical attractions, but his father was drawn to her wealth: ‘she commended herself to the elderly Vespasian by the splendid gifts she made him’ (Hist. 2.81).

So Agrippa II, Berenice and Alexander were all part of the ‘oriental group’ that supported the Flavians in 69. But the relationship had been forged, almost certainly, far earlier, in the early decades of the century when Sabinus I sought and found influential patrons. Of considerable interest in this connexion is the father of Marcus and Tiberius Julius Alexander, usually known as Alexander the Alabarch (or Arabach: i.e. he was a senior customs official in the Greek administration), and one of the few Jews resident in Alexandria to hold ‘Greek’ citizenship; equally famous was his brother Philo whose works have come down to us. Now, according to Josephus, ‘Alexander surpassed all his fellow citizens in ancestry and in wealth’ (AJ 20.100); more importantly, he was also, ‘an old friend of Claudius and looked after the interests of Claudius’s mother Antonia’ (AJ 19.276). Many imperial women owned property, so it is not surprising that Antonia (daughter of Mark Antony) should have estates in Egypt or that she should have an agent there to protect her investment.¹⁸ Less obvious is her choice. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine just when the ar...