Early Roman Empire, Julio-Claudian Dynasty (27-00-68): Tiberius, Germanicus

02 TIBERIUS (78; r.14.09-37.03)

In AD 13 the Senate and the Roman people, at the request of Augustus and to ensure a smooth succession, decreed that his rights in all the provinces and armies of the Empire should also be invested in Tiberius. Thus when Augustus died his successor was already in full power. His first act was to use his tribunician privilege to summon the Senate to receive oaths of loyalty from the consuls, the equestrian prefects, the senators, the soldiers and the people.

In Germania the Roman legions were commanded by Caecina Severus (cos.1 BC) in the north and ⁰²Silius Aulus (cos.13) in the south, both of them under the supreme command of Germanicus. In Pannonia the three legions fell under the command of ¹⁴Junius Blaesus (cos.10) and ⁵⁵Cornelius Dolabella (cos.10). The commander in Spain was Aemilius (17) Lepidus (c.63; fl.6-33), and the governor in Africa was Nonius Asprenas (cos.6).

Almost immediately a mutiny broke out among the legions in Pannonia and along the Rhine hoping to compel the new regime to give them better conditions, increased payment, and retirement at the correct age. The mutiny in Pannonia was dealt with fairly quickly. Tiberius sent his son Drusus ¹³Julius Caesar (36; fl.13-23) and ⁰⁵Aelius Sejanus (51; fl.14-31), prefect of the praetorians, together with a detachment of praetorians to Pannonia. A convenient eclipse of the Moon (27 September) worked on the superstitions of the rebels and was enough to convince them that their mutiny was doomed.

Germanicus Julius Caesar (=Germanicus; 34; fl.14-19)

Tiberius’ nephew Germanicus was collecting the taxes in Gaul when he heard of the trouble in Lower Germania. He set out at once and at Castra Vetera (Xanten) he confronted the mutineers, who had already killed some of their officers and thrown the others out. When he reprimanded the soldiers for their actions they bared their wounds and scars, some having served in thirty campaigns, and offered to support Germanicus if he should himself emperor, but this he refused to do. 

Germanicus ended up having to make concessions and to pay money from his own purse in order to regain the legions’ oath of loyalty. Their general Caecina then marched two legions to their winter quarters at the Ubii capital at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne), sixty miles south of Vetera; Germanicus went to the army in Upper Germany at Moguntiacum, where he re-affirmed the oath of loyalty from its four legions.

In the spring Germanicus campaigned in Lower Germania against the Chatti, Cherusci and Marsi. In the summer he attacked the Bructeri, reached the Teutoburg Forest, and recovered the legionary standards after an indecisive battle with the Cherusci under Arminius. For the main campaign of AD 16 a fleet was prepared and the troops were transported via his father’s canal to the Ems, whence they proceeded to the Weser and met Arminius’ army at Idistaviso, near modern Minden. Germanicus’ better trained and equipped legions inflicted huge casualties on the Germanic army but with only minor losses. A final battle was fought at the Angivarian Wall, west of modern Hanover, where the Romans seized a German-held position and then warded off a German furious counterattack.Germanicus claimed that one more campaign would defeat Germania, but Tiberius judged that the results did not justify the Roman losses and sent him to reorder the Eastern provinces. In AD 17 he reduced Cappadocia and Commagene to provincial status. Two years later on his return journey from Egypt he entered Syria and the enmity between him and its arrogant governor (AD 17-19) ¹⁶Calpurnius Piso (c.64; fl.07-00-20) led him to order Piso to leave the province. In the midst of all this Germanicus fell mysteriously ill and on 10 October he died near Antioch.