Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
sounded (gob-smackingly?) incongruous when yoked to the austere<br />
yeoman ethnic ‘Sabinus’; tacking on holy ‘Augusta’ completed the effect.<br />
Antium (modern Anzio) was a coastal town in Latium<br />
south of Rome (see Map of Italy). Nero founded a colony of veterans there<br />
(hence colonia – though this species of self-perpetuation carried an oddly<br />
Greek name, ‘Antion’, ‘Opposite’/ ‘Against’; perhaps not coincidentally,<br />
back in 37 CE when he was born, as L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, his uncle<br />
Caligula was just succeeding Tiberius as emperor, before soon losing it<br />
<strong>with</strong> everybody). Many Roman nobles had sea-side villas in the region,<br />
but it became a particularly significant location for the imperial family. It<br />
was where Augustus received a delegation from the Roman people that<br />
acclaimed him pater patriae. 106 The emperor Gaius (Caligula) was born there<br />
(<strong>and</strong> so according to Suetonius, Caligula 8.5, at one point even considered<br />
making it the new capital!) – as was Nero, who also took it upon himself<br />
to raze the villa of Augustus to the ground so he could rebuild it on a<br />
gr<strong>and</strong>er scale. He was in Antium when news of the fire of Rome reached<br />
him (<strong>Annals</strong> 15.39, discussed below).<br />
<strong>23</strong>.2 iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice<br />
susceperat, quae multiplicata exsolutaque. et additae supplicationes<br />
<br />
<br />
locarentur, ludicrum circense, ut Iuliae genti apud Bovillas, ita Claudiae<br />
Domitiaeque apud Antium ederetur.<br />
Here we reach our first example of what Stephen Oakley has aptly called<br />
‘corporate servility’ in the set text: 107 The senate tries to match the anxious<br />
expectation of the emperor before <strong>and</strong> his joy after the birth of his daughter<br />
by intensifying communication <strong>with</strong> the gods on behalf of the imperial<br />
family. This was an excellent way to show loyalty <strong>and</strong> devotion to the<br />
princeps; 108 on occasion, however, it backfired. In his biography of Caligula,<br />
Suetonius mentions instances in which the emperor dem<strong>and</strong>ed that those<br />
106 Suetonius, Augustus 58.<br />
107 Oakley (2009a) 188, <strong>with</strong> reference to 14.64.3. As he points out, the examples are<br />
innumerable – <strong>and</strong> need to be appreciated as such: ‘The instances of servile behaviour<br />
that <strong>Tacitus</strong> chronicles are legion, <strong>and</strong> all readers will have their favourites; any selection<br />
that is not copious is false to the tone of his writing.’<br />
108 See <strong>Annals</strong> 2.69.2 <strong>and</strong> elsewhere.
Change language