Domitian (81-96)

1. Domitian (81-96) February 28th, 2012 Rome: Museo Montemartini. Credits: Ann Raia, 1999 http://www.vroma.org/images/raia_images/domitian.jpg

2. Problems with the Sources • Principal sources are: Suetonius, Domitian; Tacitus, Agricola, and Histories; The Younger Pliny, Letters, books 1-2; Cassius Dio (67). • Senatorial tradition universally hostile. • Tacitus and Pliny commenced senatorial careers under Domitian; Suetonius experienced reign of Domitian first hand (not in a political capacity). • Dio is a late source; epitome only; influenced by the hostile senatorial tradition.

3. Why was the senatorial class so hostile toward Domitian?

4. Causes of Senatorial Discontent • Micromanager of all political, legal, and social matters. • Revival of delatores; loss of free speech and debate in the senate (?) • Many senators put to death on trivial charges (?); Claudius had 35 senators killed – Domitian condemned 11. • Confiscation of properties of accused senators and knights to fund a depleted treasury. • Growing megalomania.

5. Tacitus on Domitian as the Murderer of Liberty • “We have only to read that the panegyrics pronounced by ArulenusRusticus on PaetusThrasea, and by HerenniusSenecio on PriscusHelvidius, were made capital crimes, that not only their persons but their very books were objects of rage, and that the triumvirs were commissioned to burn in the forum those works of splendid genius. They fancied, forsooth, that in that fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the Senate, and the conscience of the human race were perishing, while at the same time they banished the teachers of philosophy, and exiled every noble pursuit, that nothing good might anywhere confront them. Certainly we showed a magnificent example of patience; as a former age had witnessed the extreme of liberty, so we witnessed the extreme of servitude, when the informer robbed us of the interchanges of speech, and hearing. We should have lost memory as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget as to keep silence.” (Tac. Agr. 2. Trans. A.J. Church and W.J. Broadribb, 1877)

6. Dio on Domitian as the Murderer of Liberty • “Domitian was not only bold and quick to anger but also treacherous and secretive; and so, deriving from these two characteristics impulsiveness on the one hand and craftiness on the other, he would often attack people with the sudden violence of a thunderbolt and again would often injure them as the result of careful deliberation. 2 The god that he revered most was Minerva, in consequence of which he was wont to celebrate the Panathenaea on a magnificent scale; on those occasions he held contests of poets and orators and gladiators almost every year at his Alban Villa. This estate, situated at the foot of the Alban Mount, from which it received its name, he had set apart as a kind of acropolis. 3 There was no human being for whom he felt any genuine affection, except a few women; but he always pretended to be fond of the person whom at the moment he most desired to slay. So faithless was he even towards those who showed his some favour or helped him in his most revolting crimes, that, whenever persons provided him with large sums of money or lodged false information against large numbers of people, he was sure to destroy them, being especially careful to do so in the case of slaves who had given information against their masters. 4 Accordingly, such persons, though they received money and honours and offices in which they were his colleagues, lived in no greater honour and security than other men. On the contrary, the very offences to which they had been urged by Domitian were commonly made the pretext for their destruction, his object being that they alone should appear to have been the authors of the wrongdoing. It was with this same purpose that, when an emperor fails to punish informers, he himself makes them informers.” (Dio, 67.1. Trans. E. Cary, 1925)

7. Apology For Inaction Under Domitian? • “Let it be known to those whose habit it is to admire the disregard of authority, that there may be great men even under bad emperors, and that obedience and submission, when joined to activity and vigour, may attain a glory which most men reach only by a perilous career, utterly useless to the state, and closed by an ostentatious death.” (Tac. Agricola, 42. Trans. A.J. Church and W.J. Broadribb, 1877)

8. Early Life and Career of Domitian • B. Oct. 24, 51 to Vespasian and Domitilla; younger brother of Titus. • Spent much of his youth alone. • Good student with a sound literary education; accomplished poet and writer. • 69 – Besieged in the Capitol by Vitellians. • 70 – Represented the Flavian gens in the senate; led troops to Germany to help suppress the Batavian revolt; married Domitia Longina (d. of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo). • 71-81 – Held only honorary positions (i.e. suffect consulship etc.); No real power; Sept. 81 Domitian named Augustus, given the imperium and tribunician power, declared pontifex maximus and pater patriae.

9. Domestic Policy of Domitian Positive Negative • Increased silver content of denarius (81-2?). • Increased soldier’s pay (81-2?). • Massive rebuilding of Rome. • Cracked down on corruption of courts and magistrates. • Initiated series of moral reforms. • Great benefactor of the common people. • Building program, increased military pay, increased silver content of denarius strained treasury. • Reduced silver content of denarius (85). • Censor for life (85). • Some senators put to death on “trivial” charges (Revolt of Saturninus – 86; Valerius Flaccus – 90; Herennius Senecio, Arulenus Rusticus, Helvidius Priscus – 93; Clemens and Glabrio – 95). • Banned philosophers from Rome (90, 93). • Insistence on divinity; extremely autocratic.

10. Acts of Public Benefaction • “He constantly gave grand costly entertainments, both in the amphitheatre and in the Circus, where in addition to the usual races between two-horse and four-horse chariots, he also exhibited two battles, one between forces of infantry and the other by horsemen; and he even gave a naval battle in the amphitheatre. Besides he gave hunts of wild beasts, gladiatorial shows at night by the light of torches, and not only combats between men but between women as well. He was always present too at the games given by the quaestors, which he revived after they had been abandoned for some time, and invariably granted the people the privilege of calling for two pairs of gladiators from his own school, and brought them in last in all the splendour of the court…. He made a present to the people of three hundred sesterces each on three occasions, and in the course of one of his shows in celebration of the feast of the Seven Hills gave a plentiful banquet, distributing large baskets of victuals to the senate and knights, and smaller one to the commons; and he himself was the first to begin to eat. On the following day he scattered gifts of all sorts of things to be scrambled for, and since the greater part of these fell where the people sat, he had five hundred tickets thrown into each section occupied by the senatorial and equestrian orders. ” (Suet. Dom. 4. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

11. Building Campaigns • “He restored many splendid buildings which had been destroyed by fire, among them the Capitolium, which had again been burned, but in all cases with the inscription of his own name only, and with no mention of the original builder. Furthermore, he built a new temple on the Capitoline hill in honour of Jupiter Custos and the forum which now bears the name of Nerva; likewise a temple to the Flavian family, a stadium, an Odeum, and a pool for sea-fights. From the stone used in this last the Circus Maximus was afterwards rebuilt, when both sides of it had been destroyed by fire.” (Suet. Dom. 5. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

12. Social Policies • “He made many innovations also in common customs. He did away with the distribution of food to the people and revived that of formal dinners. He added two factions of drivers in the Circus, with gold and purple as their colours, to the four former ones. He forbade the appearance of actors on the stage, but allowed the practice of their art in private houses. He prohibited the castration of males, and kept down the price of the eunuchs that remained in the hands of the slave dealers. 2 Once upon the occasion of a plentiful wine crop, attended with a scarcity of grain, thinking that the fields were neglected through too much attention to the vineyards, he made an edict forbidding anyone to plant more vines in Italy and ordering that the vineyards in the provinces be cut down, or but half of them at most be left standing; but he did not persist in carrying out the measure. He opened some of the most important offices of the court to freedmen and Roman knights. 3 He prohibited the uniting of two legions in one camp and the deposit of more than a thousand sesterces by any one soldier at headquarters, because it was clear that Lucius Antonius had been especially led to attempt a revolution by the amount of such deposits in the combined winter quarters of two legions. He increased the pay of the soldiers one fourth, by the addition of three gold pieces each year.” (Suet. Dom. 7. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

13. Public Accountability and Morality • “He administered justice scrupulously and conscientiously, frequently holding special sittings on the tribunal in the Forum. He rescinded such decisions of the Hundred Judges as were made from interested motives. He often warned the arbiters not to grant claims for freedom made under false pretences. He degraded jurors who accepted bribes, together with all their associates. He also induced the tribunes of the commons to prosecute a corrupt aedile for extortion, and to ask the senate to appoint jurors in the case. He took such care to exercise restraint over the city officials and the governors of the provinces, that at no time were they more honest or just, whereas after his time we have seen many of them charged with all manner of offences. Having undertaken the correction of public morals, he put an end to the licence at the theatres, where the general public occupied the seats reserved for the knights; did away with the prevailing publication of scurrilous lampoons, in which distinguished men and women were attacked, and imposed ignominious penalties on their authors; expelled an ex-quaestor from the senate, because he was given to acting and dancing; deprived notorious women of the use of litters, as well as of the right to receive inheritances and legacies; struck the name of a Roman knight from the list of jurors, because he had taken back his wife after divorcing her and charging her with adultery; condemned several men of both orders, offenders against the Scantinian law; and the incest of Vestal virgins, condoned even by his father and his brother, he punished severely in divers ways, at first by capital punishment, and afterwards in the ancient fashion. For while he allowed the sisters Oculata and also Varronilla free choice of the manner of their death, and banished their paramours, he later ordered that Cornelia, a chief-vestal who had been acquitted once but after a long interval again arraigned and found guilty, be buried alive; and her lovers were beaten to death with rods in the Comitium, with the exception of an ex-praetor, whom he allowed to go into exile, because he admitted his guilt while the case was still unsettled and the examination and torture of the witnesses had led to no result. To protect the gods from being dishonoured with impunity by any sacrilege, he caused a tomb which one of his freedmen had built for his son from stones intended for the temple of Jupiter of the Capitol to be destroyed by the soldiers and the bones and ashes contained in it thrown into the sea.”(Suet. Dom. 8. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914)

14. A Good Reign Turned Sour • “But he did not continue this course of mercy or integrity, although he turned to cruelty somewhat more speedily than to avarice…. He put to death many senators, among them several ex-consuls, including Civica Cerealis, at the very time when he was proconsul in Asia, Salvidienus Orfitus, Acilius Glabrio while he was in exile — these on the ground of plotting revolution, the rest on any charge, however trivial.” (Suet. Dom.10.1-2. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914)

15. Accounting for the Change in Character • “Reduced to financial straits by the cost of his buildings and shows, as well as by the additions which he had made to the pay of the soldiers, he tried to lighten the military expenses by diminishing the number of his troops; but perceiving that in this way he exposed himself to the attacks of the barbarians, and nevertheless had difficulty in easing his burdens, he had no hesitation in resorting to every sort of robbery. The property of the living and the dead was seized everywhere on any charge brought by any accuser. It was enough to allege any action or word derogatory to the majesty of the prince. Estates of those in no way connected with him were confiscated, if but one man came forward to declare that he had heard from the deceased during his lifetime that Caesar was his heir. Besides other taxes, that on the Jews was levied with the utmost rigour, and those were prosecuted who without publicly acknowledging that faith yet lived as Jews, as well as those who concealed their origin and did not pay the tribute levied upon their people. I recall being present in my youth when the person of a man ninety years old was examined before the procurator and a very crowded court, to see whether he was circumcised.” (Suet. Dom.12 Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914)

16. Does Suetonius provide the reader with any specific event that could be considered a cause for the change in Domitian’s demeanor?

17. The Turning Point? L. Antonius Saturninus and the Revolt on the Rhine (86) • “After his victory in the civil war he became even more cruel, and to discover any conspirators who were in hiding, tortured many of the opposite party by a new form of inquisition, inserting fire in their privates; and he cut off the hands of some of them. It is certain that of the more conspicuous only two were pardoned, a tribune of senatorial rank and a centurion, who the more clearly to prove their freedom from guilt, showed that they were of shameless unchastity and could therefore have had no influence with the general or with the soldiers.” (Suet. Dom.10.5. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914)

18. The Foreign Policy of Domitian:Military Campaigns • Militarily active (Esp. in Central Europe); mostly defensive wars, not wars of conquest. • 83 – Domitian on campaign in Germany; repulsion of the Chatti from Gaul. • 84 – Britain pacified. • 86-89 – Domitian in Moesia campaigning against the Dacians (Decabulus); Revolt of Saturninus (86). • 89 – War with Marcomanni. • 92 – Campaigns vs. Suebi and Sarmatians.

19. Domitian’s Campaigns in Central Europe • “His campaigns he undertook partly without provocation and partly of necessity. That against the Chatti was uncalled for, while the one against the Sarmatians was justified by the destruction of a legion with its commander. He made two against the Dacians, the first when Oppius Sabinus an ex-consul was defeated, and the second on the overthrow of Cornelius Fuscus, perfect of the praetorian guard, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of the war. After several battles of varying success he celebrated a double triumph over the Chatti and the Dacians. His victories over the Sarmatians he commemorated merely by the offering of a laurel crown to Jupiter of the Capitol.” (Suet. Dom.6. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914)

20. Brass Coin (85-89) Celebrating Domitian’s Victory over the Germans:London, British Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus, 2001 http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/domitiancoingermans.jpg

21. The Provincial Administration of Domitian • A Micromanager; attempted to clean up/improve provincial administration. • Est. “curator” to investigate financial mismanagement. • Building programs est. in provinces (i.e. Road improvements, fortifications in Germany and Africa). • Strict collection of taxes. • Close scrutiny of governors and other magistrates.

22. Instructions from Domitian to a Procurator:R. Sherk, Doc.95 • “From instructions of Imperator Domitianus Caesar, son of Augustus, Augustus. To Claudius Athenodorus, procurator: Among items of special importance that required great attention by my father, the god Vespasianus, I know that he gave great care to the cities’ privileges. With his mind fixed on them he ordered that neither by the renting of beasts of burden nor by the distress of lodging should the provinces be burdened, but, nevertheless, by conscious decision or not, deliberate neglect has set in and thus order has not been observed, for there remains up to the present an old and vigorous custom which, little by little, will progress into law if it is not obstructed by force from gaining strength. I instruct you to see to it that, either by favor or prestige of certain people, requisition should take place which nobody but myself can grant. Therefore, let there be nothing which will break my instructions and spoil my intent, which is most advantageous to the cities, for to help the weakened provinces is just, provinces which with difficulty have enough for the necessities of life. Let no force be used against them contrary to my wish, and let nobody commandeer a guide unless he has a permit from me, for, when farmers are torn from their homes, the fields will remain without attention. You, either using your own beasts of burden or renting them, will act best….” (IGLS V 1998; SEG XVII 755)

23. The Murder of Domitian • Alleged signs of growing megalomania. • Power concentrated in the hands of the emperor and his amici (i.e. select senators, general, praetorian prefects, freedmen, equestrians). • Evident distrust of and scorn for senatorial aristocracy. • 11 consular senators executes, others exiled (Note: Claudius executed 35 senators and ca. 300 equestrians). • Suet. Unclear on the nature of the plot: 1. Insisted on title dominus et deus (lord and god). 2. Commenced after the execution of Clemens. 3. Engineered by Stephanus (steward of Domitilla). • Clearly a palace conspiracy. • Sept 18, 96 - Stabbed to death in his bedroom; Senators proclaim M. Cocceius Nerva as emperor.

24. Domitian’s Megalomania • “[13.2] With no less arrogance he began as follows in issuing a circular letter in the name of his procurators, "Our Master and our God bids that this be done." And so the custom arose of henceforth addressing him in no other way even in writing or in conversation…. [14.1] In this way he became an object of terror and hatred to all, but he was overthrown at last by a conspiracy of his friends and favourite freedmen, to which his wife was also privy. ” (Suet. Dom. 13. 2 and 14.1. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914). • “But now Domitianus Augustus has entrusted me with the education of his sister's grandsons, and I should be undeserving of the honour conferred upon me by such divine appreciation, if I were not to regard this distinction as the standard by which the greatness of my undertaking must be judged….Assuredly therefore I may ask indulgence for doing what I omitted to do when I first entered on this task and calling to my aid all the gods and Himself before them all (for his power is unsurpassed and there is no deity that looks with so much favour upon learning), beseeching him to inspire me with genius in proportion to the hopes that he has raised in me, to lend me propitious and ready aid and make me even such as he has believed me to be.” (Quintillian, Institutio Oratoria. 4.3.33. Trans. H.E. Butler, 1920) • Problem?

25. Domitian’s Official Titles:Brass Coin (88) - London, British Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus, 2001 http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/domitian_jup_sest2.jpg

26. The Murder of Flavius Clemens • “Finally he put to death his own cousin Flavius Clemens, suddenly and on a very slight suspicion, almost before the end of his consulship; and yet Flavius was a man of most contemptible laziness and Domitian had besides openly named his sons, who were then very young, as his successors, changing their former names and calling the one Vespasian and the other Domitian. And it was by this deed in particular that he hastened his own destruction.” (Suet. Dom. 15.1. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

27. The Desperation of Stephanus • “Concerning the nature of the plot and the manner of his death, this is about all that became known. As the conspirators were deliberating when and how to attack him, whether at the bath or at dinner, Stephanus, Domitilla's steward, at the time under accusation for embezzlement, offered his aid and counsel. To avoid suspicion, he wrapped up his left arm in woollen bandages for some days, pretending that he had injured it, and concealed in them a dagger. Then pretending to betray a conspiracy and for that reason being given an audience, he stabbed the emperor in the groin as he was reading a paper which the assassin handed him, and stood in a state of amazement. 2 As the wounded prince attempted to resist, he was slain with seven wounds by Clodianus, a subaltern, Maximus, a freedman of Parthenius, Satur, decurion of the chamberlains, and a gladiator from the imperial school. A boy who was engaged in his usual duty of attending to the Lares in the bedroom, and so was a witness of the murder, gave this additional information. He was bidden by Domitian, immediately after he was dealt the first blow, to hand him the dagger hidden under his pillow and to call the servants; but he found nothing at the head of the bed save the hilt, and besides all the doors were closed. Meanwhile the emperor grappled with Stephanus and bore him to the ground, where they struggled for a long time, Domitian trying now to wrest the dagger from his assailant's hands and now to gouge out his eyes with his lacerated fingers. He was slain on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October in the forty-fifth year of his age and the fifteenth of his reign. His corpse was carried out on a common bier by those who bury the poor, and his nurse Phyllis cremated it at her suburban estate on the Via Latina; but his ashes she secretly carried to the temple of the Flavian family and mingled them with those of Julia, daughter of Titus, whom she had also reared. (Suet. Dom. 17. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

28. The Reactions to Domitian’s Death • “The people received the news of his death with indifference, but the soldiers were greatly grieved and at once attempted to call him the Deified Domitian; while they were prepared also to avenge him, had they not lacked leaders. This, however, they did accomplish a little later by most insistently demanding the execution of his murderers. The senators on the contrary were so overjoyed, that they raced to fill the House, where they did not refrain from assailing the dead emperor with the most insulting and stinging kind of outcries. They even had ladders brought and his shields and images torn down before their eyes and dashed upon the ground; finally they passed a decree that his inscriptions should everywhere be erased, and all record of him obliterated.” (Suet. Dom. 23. Trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1914).

29. Further Discussion • Is Suetonius a good source for life under Domitian? • From your reading of Suetonius, how would you characterize Domitian’s family life? • Are there “stereotypical” elements in Suetonius’ account of Domitian’s character and reign? Explain. • How does Tacitus characterize the pers0nality and reign of Domitian in the Agricola and why? • Why do you think that Domitian was murdered and who do you think stood behind the plot? • Do think that Domitian’s character and reign have been unfairly maligned? Why or why not? • How much of the image of Domitian do you think is owed to Tacitus and his circle?