The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
Читать онлайн книгу.
afterwards, going round in person, induced them to fight by threats and exhortations.
SECT. III. — THE PROVINCES UNDER CLAUDIUS
The gradual elevation of the provinces to a political equality with Italy is one of the features of the imperial period. The extension of the ius honorum to Gaul, which has been already mentioned, was an important step in this direction, and the reign of Claudius was marked by a tendency to bestow the Roman citizenship on provincial communities. He was ridiculed, in a humorous satire written after his death by the philosopher Seneca, for having resolved to see all the Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards and Britons, dressed in the Roman toga. He introduced many changes in the administration of the subject lands, both the provinces and the dependent kingdoms. In the north the Empire gained a new province by the conquest of Britain, which will be recounted in another chapter; and this led to an increase of the army by two new legions. The praetorian cohorts were also increased in this reign from nine to twelve. Mauritania had to be conquered anew at the other extremity of the Empire. The inhabitants had rushed to arms after the execution of their king Ptolemy, under the leadership of Aedemon, one of his freedmen. The governor, Publius Gabinius, was not equal to coping with the rebellion; but his successor, C. Suetonius Paulinus, who became famous afterwards by his campaign in Britain, crossed Mount Atlas and went as far south as the river Gir, reducing the Maurusian tribes (42 A.D.). This expedition, however, was not decisive, and the struggle seems to have lasted until 45 A.D., when Lucius Galba (who was afterwards Emperor) became proconsul of Africa, and Cn. Hosidius Geta commanded in Numidia. When order was restored, chiefly through the energy of Geta, Mauretauia was divided into two provinces, separated by the river Mattua. The western was distinguished as Tingitana, from the town Tingi; the eastern as Caesariensis, from the town Jol Caesarea. Each was governed by a procurator; but in case of necessity they were united under the authority of a legatus. Another change in the western half of the Empire was the enlargement of the little prefecture of the Cottian Alps, and the elevation of its prefect, Julius Cottius, to the rank of king.
Claudius conquered Britain, but he did not essay the other enterprise which had once seemed expedient for the protection of Gaul; he did not try to repeat the conquest of Germany, which had busied his father Drusus, and his brother Germanicus. There was, however, in his reign some fighting beyond the Rhine. Domitius Corbulo, an able soldier, the rival of Suetonius Paulinus, was appointed legatus of Lower Germany. He was the half-brother of Caesonia, the wife of Gaius, in whose reign he had been entrusted with the task of inspecting the condition of the roads in Italy. On reaching the Rhine he set himself to check the piracy which had been practiced in recent years by the German peoples along the coast of the North Sea. He punished the Frisians, who had refused to pay the stipulated tribute, and made an expedition against the Chauci (47 A.D.), who had dared to make incursions into the Lower province. But as he was about to establish a fortress in the land of that people, he received orders from the Emperor to desist from his undertaking, and leave the Chauci to themselves. The enemies of Corbulo had represented that he was only seeking his own glory. But in any case it was the policy of the government at this time to keep the Germans in order by diplomacy rather than by arms. Thus the Cherusci, who had degenerated since the days of Arminius, besought the Emperor to provide them with a chief. Claudius sent Italicus, the son of Flavus and nephew of Arminius. For a time the youth was popular, but he soon became suspected and disliked on account of his Roman manners, and had great difficulty in maintaining his position. This was just what Rome desired; it was her policy to promote discord and dissension among the Germans.
Corbulo returned to his province disgusted and disappointed. “How happy were the Roman commanders in old days”, he is reported to have murmured when he received the imperial command. As the soldiers were not to fight, he employed them in the task of cutting a great canal, connecting the Mosa (Maas) with the northern branch of the Rhine, parallel to the coast. This supplied the place of a road, and has lasted till the present day, running from Rotterdam to Leiden. The reign of Claudius was also distinguished in the history of the Rhine lands by the elevation of the Oppidum Ubiorum to the rank of a military colony (50 A.D.),— Colonia Claudia Agrippinensis, called after his fourth wife the Empress Agrippina, who was born there. Colonia, as it was simply called—and is still called so in the form Cologne or Koln—became an important centre of Roman civilization. It is possible that another illustrious Roman colony, Augusta Treverorum—Trier on the Mosel—was also founded under the auspices of Claudius. One work which had been begun by his father it devolved upon him to complete. This was the great road connecting Italy with the Upper Danube, passing over the Brenner Alps, the Via Claudia Augusta.
There were also hostilities in the Upper province during the reign of Claudius. It was found necessary to make an expedition against the Chatti, and the last of the three eagles lost by Varus was on this occasion recovered. Some years later (50 A.D.) predatory bands of Chatti invaded the province, which was then governed by Publius Pomponius Secundus. He ordered the Vangiones and the Nemetes—tribes which dwelled on the left bank of the Rhine about Borbetomagus (Worms), and Noviomagus (Speyer)—along with the auxiliary cavalry, to intercept the retreat of the invaders and attack them while they were dispersed. The troops were divided into two columns. One of these cut off the plunderers on their return, when after a carouse they were heavy with sleep; and some survivors of the disaster of Varus were delivered from captivity. The other column inflicted greater loss on the foe in a regular battle, and returned laden with spoil to Mount Taunus, where Pomponius was waiting with his legions. The triumphal ornaments were decreed to Pomponius, who, however, was more celebrated for his poems than for his military achievements.
On the Pannonian frontier, Claudius was called upon to intervene in the affairs of the Suevi. After the overthrow of Maroboduus, Vannius had been recognized as king of the Suevic realm, which included Bohemia, the land of the Marcomanni, and also the modern Moravia, the land of the Quadi. For about thirty years Vannius reigned in great prosperity, popular with his countrymen, whom he enriched by plunder and the tribute of subject tribes. But long possession made him a tyrant, and domestic hatred, combined with the enmity of neighboring peoples, proved his ruin. In 50 A.D. a plot was formed for his overthrow by his nephews Vangio and Sido, who were supported by Vibilius, king of the Hermunduri, a people who lived west of Bohemia. Claudius declined to send Roman troops to protect his vassal, and would only promise a safe refuge to Vannius in case he were expelled. But he instructed Palpellius Hister, the legatus of Pannonia, to have his legions with some chosen auxiliaries posted along the banks of the Danube—as a rule their station was on the Drave—to be a support to Vannius if he were conquered, and a terror to the conquerors. The enemies of Vannius were supported by an immense force of Lugii, a Suevic tribe which probably dwelled in the modern Silesia. To oppose this large force, Vannius had obtained some cavalry from the Iazyges (a Sarmatian race who lived between the Danube and the Theiss), to support his own infantry. He wished to protract the war by maintaining himself in fortresses; but the Iazyges, who could not endure a siege, brought on an engagement; Vannius was compelled to come down from his forts, and was defeated. He then fled to the Roman fleet on the Danube, and grants of land in Pannonia were assigned to him and his followers. Vangio and Sido divided his kingdom, and remained loyal to Rome.
In the east, the list of provinces was augmented by the conversion of the kingdom of Thrace into a province governed by a procurator (46 A.D.). The free confederation of the cities of Lycia was also abolished and that country united to the province of Pamphylia (43 A.D.). This measure led to the complete Hellenization of Lycia. Macedonia and Achaia, which Tiberius had placed under the common control of an imperial legatus, were restored by Claudius to the senate, and again governed by praetorian proconsuls. Now that Moesia was separately administered, they were girt round by a chain of frontier provinces which secured them against hostile inroads, so that they could be safely entrusted to the senate.
The affairs of the small dependent kingdoms in the east were ordered anew. Antiochus IV was restored to the throne of Commagene, which Gaius had given him and then capriciously taken away. Special attention was attracted to the kingdom of Bosporus and the north-eastern shores of the Euxine. The history of these regions is so little known that the glimpse of them which we get now is welcome. In 41 A.D. Claudius transferred the kingdom of Bosporus, which Gaius had bestowed on Polemo, to a certain Mithradates, who claimed to be descended from the great opponent of Rome; and