Sextus Julius Frontinus and the Roman Empire by John D Grainger;

Author:John D Grainger;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2023-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Domitian’s War

Domitian attended to matters in Rome for his first months as emperor, including the re-dedication of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol, burnt in the fire in Titus’ reign two years before. Then he travelled to Gaul, giving out that he intended to supervise the provincial census.20 His aim in fact was to wage war in Germany, and it is worth considering his need to exercise this subterfuge; it suggests that the Germans across the Rhine were well informed about events in Gaul – the Hermunduri were not the only Germans who could enter the empire to trade – and perhaps in Italy. The movements of the emperor were apparently swiftly transmitted to the tribes outside the empire, and also that the emperor and his military men knew this; presumably the Germans were alert to the possibility that the new emperor would exercise his new power at their expense. They must have realized the propensity of newly installed emperors to validate their new power by a successful war. It also implies that the German enemy about to be attacked was seen to be formidable, and that subterfuge would confer a Roman advantage. The campaign by Pinarius, using five legions against only a relatively small section of the land to be acquired, was a lesson.

Why Domitian chose to work first on the German frontier is unclear. Several other frontiers also called for his attention, but certain details might provide a possible explanation. One is the earlier activity of Vespasian’s small advances in the ‘triangle’, where the advance may now have been seen as inadequate. Vespasian had also sent a campaign to retake the Wetterau, lost during the Civil War. To most soldiers with experience of the German frontier these advances were useful but minimal, and represented still unfinished business, a factor which both Titus and Domitian no doubt understood. It was therefore a dynastic priority, an incomplete imperial task. A third element in Domitian’s choice of this first task was that Frontinus was available to provide advice. Colleagues in Gaul a dozen years before, they had lived in or near each other in the city of Rome much of the time since, though Frontinus had, so it seems, been on better terms with Titus than Domitian was, but being emollient was perhaps one of Frontinus’ qualities, just as he was clearly diplomatically capable.21 It is clear the two men were friends, and it would not be a surprise if Frontinus, understanding that after Vespasian’s death Domitian was the heir apparent, should be assiduous in maintaining good relations with him.

That Domitian had chosen to attend to this part of the frontier first may be because it was clearly an unfinished task which had left several Roman forts exposed to sudden attack. The activity was clearly misunderstood, perhaps deliberately, in Rome, and Tacitus set the tone by ridiculing and belittling what was done, while Suetonius claimed that it was unnecessary.22 Tacitus in particular should have understood, and probably did,

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