Augustus, page 37
Livia probably accompanied Augustus to Gaul, although Dio does report an absurd piece of gossip which claimed that he was leaving Italy so that he could carry on his affair with Maecenas’ wife Terentia away from the public eye. Livia’s son Tiberius soon joined them and both of Augustus’ stepsons were to enjoy an especially prominent role in public affairs during the next few years. One of the reasons Tiberius tarried in Rome was so that he and Drusus could jointly preside over gladiatorial games to mark the opening of the rebuilt Temple of Quirinus, another of Rome’s ancient cults now seen as the deified Romulus. It may not have been a coincidence that the brothers organised these games, for the new temple frieze depicted the brothers Romulus and Remus – not in strife, but sitting as augurs seeking the guidance of the gods before the foundation of the City. Such fraternal harmony – whether between brothers or simply all Romans – was the present and the future proclaimed by Augustus’ regime.5
Tiberius was elected praetor for 16 BC, finally holding the office some years after being ranked among the former praetors on the senatorial roll. He was twenty-five, and permitted by senatorial decree to stand for each magistracy five years earlier than normal. At some point Augustus reduced the minimum age for all of the important posts, although it is not clear precisely when and whether this occurred in one sweeping reform or as a succession of smaller changes. The process seems to have been complete by the late twenties BC, and meant that posts could be held at a younger age than in the past, so that a praetor had normally to be just thirty and a consul thirty-three. It was a change that helped to replenish the ranks of the consulship and the magistracies in general with men bearing famous names, as the new generation of families devastated by civil war and proscriptions reached adulthood.6
On 1 January 16 BC the two new consuls were Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Publius Cornelius Scipio. Both had impeccably aristocratic pedigrees – as indeed did Tiberius and Drusus. Ahenobarbus was also Augustus’ great-nephew, being the son of the elder Antonia, daughter of Octavia and Mark Antony. The connection with Scipio was less close, although he was half-brother to Julia, being the child of Augustus’ divorced wife Scribonia by another marriage. Such close inter-relation was a well-established feature of Roman public life and had never guaranteed political co-operation. In the event, Scipio did not serve for a full year, and was replaced by one of Augustus’ old senior officers as suffect consul. We do not have any idea why this occurred, but the silence of our sources makes it unlikely that there was any sinister reason for the change.7
Before he left the City, Augustus once again reinstated the office of urban prefect and this time gave it to his experienced subordinate, Statilius Taurus. His earlier attempt to revive this old office had failed when Messalla resigned after a few days in 26 BC, but a decade later presumably its powers and role had been clarified. At some point three urban cohorts were formed and placed under the prefect’s command to serve as a police force. Tiberius may well have received the prestigious post of urban praetor, but if so he was only able to perform his duties for a few months before he accompanied Augustus to Gaul. In his absence, Drusus acted for him, even though he had not yet held any formal office. Men like Statilius Taurus were old confederates, but the emphasis was more and more on the princeps’ extended family. Agrippa, his son-in-law and fellow holder of tribunician power, was in the east. Tiberius was with him in Gaul, where he would soon replace Lollius as legate, while Drusus would be summoned from Rome to take on a more active role in the provinces in 15 BC. The brothers, and in the longer term the real sons of Agrippa and the adopted sons of Augustus, offered assurances of stability for the future. The princeps’ death no longer threatened the immediate collapse of his regime and descent into civil war.8
COLONIES, COMMUNITIES AND ROADS
This was Augustus’ fourth visit to Gaul, and that in itself is a testimony to the area’s importance. It was the conquest of Gallia Comata or ‘Long-Haired Gaul’ that had given Julius Caesar the wealth, prestige and loyal army to match Pompey. In the years that followed, the region played a strategically vital role in the civil wars even if it saw little actual fighting. Recently conquered, and prey to raids from across the Rhine, the new Gallic provinces usually needed a substantial garrison, and those legions inevitably stood closer to Italy than any other Roman army. In addition, Gaul was a fertile recruiting ground for auxiliary soldiers, and was especially famed for its cavalrymen. Control of the army in Gaul had made Lepidus a real power in 43 BC, while Augustus’ securing of the legions there in 40 BC had fundamentally undermined Antony’s position.
Cisalpine Gaul was now part of Italy and was no longer garrisoned. Julius Caesar’s main base had been Transalpine Gaul (modern Provence), and this area was included in the vast provincial command given to Augustus in 29 BC. In that year he had promised to transfer areas to senatorial control once he had made them secure from any threats, and Transalpine Gaul was presented as the first proof of his sincerity. At some point – 22 BC is the most likely date, but we cannot be sure – the province was handed back to the Senate’s authority and from now on governed by a proconsul. Renamed Gallia Narbonensis after its capital city Narbo (modern Narbonne), it no longer contained a legionary garrison, although many discharged veterans were settled in numerous colonies established in the last few decades. Such men were grateful to Augustus, and this loyalty made it unlikely that they would rise in support of any rival. In the longer run the area proved a fertile recruiting ground, as the descendants of the colonists followed family traditions of military service.9
Gallia Narbonensis was already very Roman – a generation earlier Julius Caesar had found its aristocrats useful allies. Such men were fluent in Latin, familiar with Roman and sometimes Greek culture, and readily able to mix socially with his Roman officers and staff. Some already possessed citizenship, and many more would receive it as a reward during the years that followed. Julius was by far the most common name for citizens throughout all of Gaul, but especially in Narbonensis, and testifies to the largesse of Julius Caesar and later Augustus. The most favoured of these local aristocrats became equestrians or even senators. In many cases their home communities were already turning into something very close to the Roman model of a proper city, and the establishment of veteran colonies only accelerated the process. Many cities were planned around an ordered grid of streets, centred on a forum with a basilica for public business, space for commerce and usually a temple dedicated to an appropriately Roman deity. Most soon acquired theatres and amphitheatres, whether given by the princeps or the product of local largesse. Less than a century later Pliny the Elder could describe Gallia Narbonensis as virtually a part of Italy.10
The rest of Gaul was different, and here the Roman influence was far less advanced. In time Gallia Comata developed into three provinces: Aquitania in the south-east, Lugdunensis in northern and central Gaul, and Belgica in the north-east. These were roughly, but not exactly, equivalent to the tres partes or three parts into which Julius Caesar declared Gaul was divided at the start of his Commentaries. There is reference to ‘the three Gauls’ under Augustus, and the later provinces may already have been defined, although it looks as if a single legate governed the entire area. It was most definitely a military province, as Lollius’ unfortunate encounter with German raiders had so recently demonstrated. There were also occasional problems in the area near the Alps, whose peoples remained free of Roman control, and in Aquitania. All in all it was reasonable for Augustus to present the three Gauls as difficult regions requiring his attention.11
There is no real trace of serious resistance among the tribes of Gaul itself, even though their conquest remained within living memory. Aquitania was the only exception to this, and now that northern Spain was fully subjugated there were no longer independent peoples on the far side of the Pyrenees ready to raid or assist the Gaulish tribes of that area. We hear of no more serious fighting there in the years to come. Yet for the moment the regions closest to the Alps and the long border with the Germanic tribes were exposed to attacks from outside Rome’s empire. If the Romans failed to deal with these and offer protection, then some Gaulish aristocrats were likely to wonder whether alliance with Rome was worthwhile, and they or their rivals might instead seek support from German war leaders. This had been the situation in Julius Caesar’s day, and he had seen it less as a problem than as providing plentiful opportunities for intervention.12
Augustus needed to find a more permanent solution. In many ways the Alps were easier to deal with, since they were already virtually surrounded by Roman provinces, although it was far from a straightforward task. The peoples living in the higher valleys were loosely organised, consisting of many distinct communities whose leaders only held sway over very small areas. Harsh living conditions produced tough and ferocious warriors, apt to raid down into the settled valleys and extort tolls from merchants and sometimes even Roman armies, wanting an unmolested passage through the passes. More recently there were reports of dreadful savagery which suggested that at least some of the communities had come to loathe the Romans. In a spate of raids it was claimed that they slaughtered any male Romans they captured, and murdered any pregnant women thought by their diviners to be carrying a baby boy.13
In recent years Augustus had ordered several Alpine campaigns, and now he resolved on completing the conquest of the area and gave the task to his stepsons. Drusus began operations in the spring of 15 BC, advancing with several columns from Italy into the Valley of the Inn. Tiberius then advanced from bases in Gaul, and this became a war of tough little skirmishes and the storming of walled villages. By a happy coincidence the two brothers joined forces to win a larger-scale action on 1 August – the fifteenth anniversary of Augustus’ victory in Egypt. By the end of the year almost all of the Alps were under firm Roman control, and the few remaining areas were mopped up soon afterwards. Rome’s possession of the mountains and their passes was never again to be challenged. To mark this success – and match a similar trophy set up by Pompey in the Pyrenees – a spectacular victory monument was erected in the Maritime Alps at La Turbie and listed forty-five peoples defeated during these campaigns. A good few of the names are barely attested anywhere else, reflecting the loose society of the region, and it seems there were other peoples who did not resist and chose to accept Roman rule. There was probably little fighting in Noricum, but at least some of the Rhaeti and Vindelici resisted fiercely even if they could not hope to stand up to the greater resources employed by the Romans. Horace devoted two poems to praising Tiberius’ and Drusus’ victories. Augustus boasted that he had just cause to fight against all of these peoples, but of course that was something that the Romans always liked to believe.14
Controlling the routes through the Alps greatly improved communications between Italy and Illyricum in the south and Gaul in the north, making Rome’s empire a more coherent unit. In many ways it seems surprising that it took the Romans so long to achieve this, but it required the confidence and control of an Augustus to devote substantial resources to a grim series of campaigns that involved difficult, unglamorous fighting with little profit in terms of loot or slaves. In the past, it was simply easier and more economical to pay off the Alpine tribesmen. Much as he had conquered the mountainous north of Spain, Caesar Augustus was willing to undertake difficult but useful tasks – and as willing to celebrate his achievements.15
More than a decade before, Agrippa had begun work on an extensive road system in Gaul, ensuring good communications across the country, and in particular improving access to the Rhine in the north and east, and Aquitania and ultimately Spain in the west. The two main roads met at Lugdunum (modern-day Lyons), so that the street grid of the city was orientated on these major highways. As with all Roman roads, the initial concept was military, providing good, well-drained routes for the use of the army and, most importantly, its supply convoys throughout all the seasons of the year. The quantities of grain, meat and other materiel needed by the legions was substantial – even the coins required to pay the armies on time were heavy and bulky to transport. Wherever possible these goods were transported by water since it was so much easier and cheaper, and thus the new road system complemented the much-used waterways such as the Rivers Rhône and Garonne. Much of what the army consumed was supplied by levies of grain and animals within the province, but it took care and considerable effort to transport these to where they were needed. Over the next few years more and more legions were moved to the Rhine frontier, greatly increasing demand. Along with the convoys of essentials went an ever-growing flow of greater and lesser luxuries, feeding and creating markets all along the way, as civilians as well as soldiers discovered a taste for things like wine and fine tableware.16
None of this was entirely new. Julius Caesar had discovered Roman merchants living and trading in the native towns or oppida throughout Gaul, and archaeology testifies to the Gauls’ enthusiasm for goods from the Mediterranean. The quantities of Italian wine shipped north to Gaul in the first century BC were truly staggering: one scholar estimates that some 40,000,000 amphorae went up the Rhône. Nor were roads entirely an innovation, for the Gauls had laid down major trackways along a number of routes, bridging rivers and building causeways through marshland. Many Gaulish towns reveal the presence of craftsmen, sometimes in substantial numbers and with a range of skills producing goods for sale over a wide area. Many of the tribes, especially in central Gaul, show signs of considerable political and economic sophistication.17
Yet even so the arrival of the Romans as occupiers brought profound changes beyond the – often dreadful – trauma of conquest itself. The existing tracks and roads, while functional enough for much of the year, fell far short of the new system of all-weather metalled roads in design and even further behind in the sheer scale of the network. If the flow of trade goods before the arrival of Julius Caesar had been on a grand scale, it had still focused very much on luxuries for the elite. The beneficiaries were almost exclusively the aristocracy, and control of trade confirmed their power. Among the Aedui, whose lands lay along the Rhône, a few chieftains gained immense wealth and dominance within the tribe through controlling levies on the wine trade. Under the Romans such monopolies were broken, and the native aristocracy could only seek local power through becoming part of the Roman system of government. A wider range of goods went north from Italy – and in time came from other provinces – aimed at a broader section of society. The locals also adapted to new-found tastes. Under Augustus widespread cultivation of vines and wine-making began in Gaul, while manufacturers of ceramics responded to the demands of a growing market by establishing workshops in Gaul itself. Use of coinage based on the Roman standard, already widespread in the south, extended over a wider area, fostered particularly wherever the army was based and legionaries inclined to spend their wages. An official Roman mint was set up at Lugdunum, producing gold and silver coinage which provided wages for the soldiers and funds for official projects and rapidly became more widely circulated. The economy soon became more and more monetised, at the same time circulating the image and symbols of Caesar Augustus.
Roman influences spread widely and quickly, but the process was neither instant nor so total that the area did not retain a distinctive character and some regional variation. The three Gauls were far less Roman than Narbonensis. Only three veteran colonies were established outside the latter, at Lugdunum, Noviodunum (modern Nyons), and Raurica (modern Augst in Switzerland) during the great phase of colonisation, and although towns were already an important feature of Gaulish society in many areas, they did not function in the way the Romans expected. For them a city was a political entity, administering the lands around it, but each city essentially independent from its neighbours. In Gaul the nation – or civitas – was more important, and most included several towns, all of which felt part of the wider entity, while many aristocrats might dwell on their own farmsteads and not in the oppida.18
Augustus followed what was probably the existing Roman approach of ignoring the details of this structure, and instead treating each civitas as if it were a city state, naming one of the towns as its capital – the true civitas centre, even if there were in fact other communities of similar size. Development in some of these centres was encouraged by the state, but the pattern was often a blending of styles. Many lacked the neat grids of planned Roman cities, although almost all quickly acquired a forum. Over time, most centres moved away from the hilltop sites favoured in pre-Roman times to locations on lower ground, and ideally with ready access to the road network. Roman institutions for local government were gradually adopted, even if once again these merged with local traditions. Old Gaulish names such as vergobret remained in use for the supreme magistrate of a civitas, while even when Roman titles such as praetor were adopted there was usually just one of these officials in the traditional way, rather than the two duoviri or some other college of magistrates.19
