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Dynastic Murder Most Foul Roman Style
During this ninety-nine year period, Rome was ruled by five emperors, each of whom left his bloody mark on his allotted time in the imperial sun. These five rulers: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero each left his personal imprint on the coinage of his reign. Augustus was born Caius Octavius in Rome on September 23, 63 B.C.E. into the noble senatorial Julian family. His heirless great uncle Julius Caesar adopted Octavius as his son. Julius had sired children by Cleopatra of Egypt, but they were very young and never would have been accepted as his heirs in the Roman World. Just as Julius had been a member of a three-man-dictatorship, or triumvirate, with Crassus and Pompey, Octavius entered into a triumvirate with mark Antony and Lepidus after the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. The history of these triumirates proves the truth of the old saying, "Politics makes for strange bedfellows." Julius Caesar had disposed of Crassus and Pompey just as Octavian would dispose of his partners Lepidus and Antony. Although Octavius would have no qualms about agreeing to Antony's murder of Cicero, Rome's leading senatorial champion of the Republic, and the murder of his own adopted brother from the union of Julius and Cleopatra, he suffered from a strange brand of morality. He had strong feelings about marriage. His sister Octavia was married to Mark Antony. This couple had two children, Marcellus and Antonia. When Antony took Cleopatra for his bride, Octavian was fully offended and waged war on Antony and Cleopatra. He and his general Marcus Agrippa defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the great sea battle of Actium. This star-crossed pair killed themselves at Alexandria in 30 B.C.E. Lepidus was forced out of power into retirement and died quietly in 13 B.C.E. Octavius now ruled alone and was granted absolute power in the Roman State which was a republic in name only. The name Augustus was granted to Octavius by the Roman Senate in recognition of his bringing peace, "The Pax Romana," to the state. Augustus decided to divorce his wife and marry Livia who had married into the Claudian family. According to the gossip of the day, Livia was a beautiful and strong willed woman who aspired to be co-ruler with Augustus. She has two children, Drusus and Tiberius. She favored Tiberius and sought a marriage between him and Augustus' only child Julia. Julia was married to Antony's son by Antonia, Marcellus. Marcellus was young, handsome and a good municipal official and deeply beloved by the Romans. He and Julia were deeply in love. According to the insinuations of Suetonius and Graves, Marcellus was nursed by Livia during a summer illness and then died. Augustus quickly fixed up a marriage between his old friend Agrippa, his military right arm and his widowed daughter Julia. Livia was truly livid because she has not been consulted. Julia had three sons by Agrippa. The last born after the strange death of Agrippa. His name was appropriately Posthumous. Now Livia would get her way. She forced Tiberius to divorce his wife and marry Julia. It looked as if she had positioned her son Tiberious for the imperial succession, but saying didn't make it so, as the old saying goes. It seems that Julia and Tiberius didn't get on very well. Tiberius took to visiting his former wife and belted Julia. Augustus exiled him to Rhodes. Julia then went on to become Rome's ultimate party girl. Livia made a list of Julia's lovers and had it presented to Augustus by one of Julia's sons! Since he was one of Augustus' heirs and wanted to stay in with grandad, he turned on mommy dearest. Julia was sent off into exile to a tiny island, devoid of males, with only her mother (Augustus' first wife) for company. There were still a lot of people between Tiberius and the Imperial Throne who had to go if Tiberius was ever to rule. Eventually Drusus, Livia's Republican loving son, Julia's three children and various others went the way of Augustus' other heirs Marcellus and Agrippa. According to Graves, only Augustus himself stood between Tiberius and Imperial power. Graves has Livia polishing off Augustus in 14 C.E. with some poisoned figs. He was 77 at the time. Tiberius Claudius Nero was born in 42 B.C.E. He was the son of Livia by T. Claudius Nero. Livia sought marriage with Augustus, as Rome's coming man, and dedicated herself to making Tiberius emperor. Tiberius was a fine military commander and scholar. By the time he became emperor at the age of 56, he really didn't want it anymore. From 14 C.E. to 26 C.E. he ruled well. Then at 68, he left Rome, where he felt jailed by his duties. Tiberius went off to Capri to distract himself with every lurid vice his sick mind could devise. His appointed officials ruled badly during this period. Rich citizens were denounced and their estates seized. Tiberius' son died under strange circumstances as did his nephew, the gifted General Germanicus. Many of his relatives were proscribed and murdered. In 37 C.E. Tiberius was most likely murdered by his adopted heir Caius Julius Caesar Germanicus, also known as Caligula. Caligula killed his co-heir, Tiberius' grandson Gamellus. He then entered into an incestuous relationship with all three of his sisters, one of whom he impregnated then killed because at this time he considered himself to be the incarnation of Zeus and he thought that the son of Zeus might be greater than the father was intolerable. Running short of funds, he opened a brothel in the palace and forced his wife and the aristocratic women of Rome to service it. He gave performances on the stage dressed in both male and female costumes. He also made his horse, Incitatus, a consul. His name "Caligula," which translates as both "Little Boots" or "Baby Boots" was given to him by the soldiers of Germanicus' (Caligula's father) army. By 41 C.E. Caligula, now 29, wasn't so cute anymore, and his abuse of his guards officers took their toll. Caligula was murdered by a combination of guards officers and aristocrats who could no longer live with a living god who was totally crackers. Caligula's uncle Claudius, who was thought to be both crackers and harmless, was found hiding behind a wall hanging by soldiers of the Imperial Praetorian guard. Without an emperor, these men would be unemployed. Many of the guardsmen were Germans, and along with their fellow roman guards, they decided to make Claudius the new emperor. The senate wasn't too crazy about the idea of making crazy Claudius emperor. Crazy Claudius had outlived many members of the imperial family who were considered rather bright. It seems that Claudius really was a very smart fellow. By not posing a danger to ambitious men (or women), he was spared death. As emperor, he rebuilt the port of Rome, reformed the funding of public works, participated in the invasion of Magna Britannia, and was awarded a triumph. His reign was marked by reform and fairness, but alas, he had a fatal flaw - women. He had little or no judgement in this area. His third wife, Valeria Messalina, married Claudius when she was 15 years of age. She was ambitious, and played to all of Claudius' passions. Messalina herself was a passionate woman who was more of a party girl than Julia. At the provocation of Rome's leading actor and her best friend, Mniester, she issued a challenge to the head of Rome's Guild of Prostitutes for a contest of "Love" at the Imperial Palace while Claudius was out of town. Robert Graves concocts an interesting scene between Messalina and Rome's most outstanding prostitute over the question of compensation for professional efforts. It goes something like this. Messalina states, "What do you mean you want to be paid? Aren't you fighting for the honor of your profession?'' "No, madam," replied the head of the prostitutes' guild. "Your hobby madam just happens to be my profession. My hobby is gardening for which I am not paid." The price agreed upon was supposedly three gold pieces a head. Claudius would hear nothing against Messalina, but at long last even she crossed the line. She divorced Claudius and married a consul and prominate member of an aristocratic pro Republican family. Claudius was informed of this plot by one of his favorite old mistresses. He returned to Rome and was tricked into signing a death warrant for the lusty and luckless Messalina. As a result of many plots against his life, 35 senators and more than 300 equites were executed. His next and fourth wife was his own niece, and daughter of his brother Germanicus, Agrippina, who was also the sister and former lover of Caligula. She persuaded Claudius into setting aside his own son and heir, Britannicus, and naming her son Nero as the next Emperor of Rome. Agrippina had imperial ambitious of her own. She proposed ruling through her son. There was a lot of Livia, who was Agrippina's great grandmother, in this imperial wife number four. All that had to happen was for Claudius to die, which he did in 54 C.E. after eating his favorite dish of mushrooms laced with poison. Now Agrippina ruled. Not really. Her son Nero was not about to be dominated by mama. He tried to kill her in an imaginative number of ways including having her boat rigged to sink. Agrippina was a good swimmer. In the end, he just had her stabbed to death by his guards. When the killers entered Agrippina's apartments, she pointed to her womb and said to them, "Stab me here first." They obliged and Nero was on his own. The year was 59 C.E. Nero built with great enthusiasm. The provinces were taxed beyond their capacity to pay. In 64 C.E., half of Rome burned. Nero was blamed for this drastic act of urban renewal. The newly born sect of Christians was blamed by Nero, and Nero was accused of composing and playing music while Rome burned. Nero built a huge imperial palace on the newly cleared urban area. By 68 C.E., the empire had enough of the last of the Julio-Claudians. Revolts broke out in Africa, Spain and Gaul. The Praetorian Guard deserted Nero. Galba marched on Rome. Vespasian marched on Rome. Even Otho, who was a lover of Nero's wife Poppaea, marched in the direction of Rome. Actually, it might be interesting to note that Nero had trouble with women in general. In addition to killing his mother, he jumped up and down on Poppaea until he crushed her. Nero was a troubled young man with a lot of unresolved issues right up until the time he killed himself in 68 C.E. He was the last direct victim of the Julio-Claudian Emperors, that is, if you don't count the thousands who died in the civil wars that followed. If you want to catch up with me in February (leave your daggers and vials of poison at home), I'll be at Ernie Botte's Westford Coin and Stamp Show at the Westford Regency Inn on Rt. 110 in Westford, Mass., located right off exit 32 from Rt. 495, on Sunday February 26. Show hours are from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. I look forward to seeing you there. |
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