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Vergil, the Confiscations, and Caesar's Tenth Legion*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Lawrence Keppie
Lawrence Keppie
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

The relevance of the 1st and 9th Vergilian Eclogues to land settlement in Italy after Philippi has been discussed by many scholars. Questions such as the identity of Tityrus, Menalcas, and the youthful deus of Eclogue 1, and the eventual fate of the paternal farm, are the very stuff of Vergilian scholarship. It is possible to add an archaeological and epigraphic commentary on these events which may perhaps provide a more balanced framework for the continuing literary investigation of the poems.

That Cremona was among the 18 prosperous cities selected before Philippi to be a reward for the time-served soldiery among the Triumviral legions is a clear and safe deduction from the Eclogues themselves. The decision to establish colonies was taken at Bononia in October 43, and colony commissioners were appointed at the same time (Dio 47. 14. 4). It is unlikely that they began work in earnest until the necessary victory had been won. These commissioners, sometimes and perhaps always with the title praefectus, acted as substitutes for the formal deductores, the Triumvirs themselves. The praefectus for Cremona is not directly attested.

From the poems themselves and the scholiasts it might be thought that the arrival of the veterans to take possession was sudden and unannounced, adding to the shock felt by the owners (Ecl. 9. 3–4; Serv. Proem.). In fact, the process of establishing a colony was carefully defined, and took considerable time. Firstly the commissioner, with a staff of surveyors and assistants, visited the town and set in motion the measurement of its territorium, the land on which the veterans would in due course be settled. Frequently the veterans expressed their dissatisfaction at the resulting time-lag (App. 3. 87; Plut. Ant. 73; App. 5. 13 ff.).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , December 1981 , pp. 367 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1981

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References

1 Williams, G., Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 1968), pp. 307 ffGoogle Scholar. Wilkinson, L. P., The Georgics of Vergil (Cambridge, 1969), p. 28Google Scholar. For a convenient bibliography of recent work, cf. McKay, A. G., CW 68 (1974), 13–19Google Scholar. See also Hardie, C., in The Ancient Historian and his Materials, ed. Levick, B. M. (Farnborough, 1975), p. 109Google Scholar; Winterbottom, M., G&R 23 (1976), 55–9Google Scholar.

2 ILS 887; also Grant, M., From Imperium to Auctoritas (Cambridge, 1947), p. 33Google Scholar.

3 P. Alfenus Varus, suffect consul in 39, has sometimes been suggested for this post; see the discussion in Broughton, T. R. S., Magistrates of the Roman Republic ii (New York, 1952), pp. 377 fGoogle Scholar.

4 Nicolet, C., Latomus 29 (1970), 72Google Scholar.

5 Castagnoli, F., Mem. Acc. Linc. ser. 7, 4 (1943), 83Google Scholar.

6 Storia Padana Antica (Milano, 1972), pp. 18 ffGoogle Scholar. The size of the new centuriae was already known from the gromatic treatises, cf. Frontinus 30. 19; Siculus Flaccus 159. 14; Hyginus Gromaticus 170. 19.

7 op. cit., p. 22.

8 Lib. Col. 214. 14; Frontinus 30. 20 (centuria triumviralis of 50 iugera); Castagnoli, F., L'Universo 28 (1948), 361Google Scholar; Bosio, L., Att. Ist. Ven. 124 (1965–1966), 194Google Scholar; Alfieri, N., Riv. Stor. Ant. 6 (1976–1977), 171Google Scholar; Piganiol, A., Les documents cadastraux de la colonie romaine d'Orange (Paris, 1962), p. 56Google Scholar.

9 op. cit., pp. 55 ff.; cf. Servius on Ecl. 9. 7–10.

10 The grids of Cremona and of Brixia overlapped north of the Oglio; Tozzi supposes (op. cit., p. 115) that the Brixian grid belongs to the Augustan age, in which case Cremona's expanded territory must have been cut back after Actium, thus restoring some balance between the economies of these two adjacent towns.

11 Fredericksmeyer, E. A., Hermes 94 (1966), 213 ff.Google Scholar; Coleman, R., Vergil: Eclogues (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 31, 87Google Scholar.

12 On the origins of colonists, Brunt, P. A., Italian Manpower (Oxford, 1971), pp. 319 ffGoogle Scholar.

13 e.g. Legions VII and XXVI at Luca (ILS 887); VI and XXX at Beneventum (ILS 2235; CIL ix 1622).

14 Weinstock, S., Divus Julius (Oxford, 1971), pp. 15 ff., 80 ffGoogle Scholar.

15 On the movements of legions at this time see Brunt, op. cit., pp. 473 ff.

16 Even in 45 b.c., at Munda, its ranks were noticeably thin; Bell. Hisp. 31. 4.

17 Pontiroli, G., Catalogo della sezione archeologica del museo Ala Ponzone di Cremona (Milano, 1974), no. 252Google Scholar. The inscription reads…ius Nae[vi]|us Ter.f. leg. X[V]| Apollin…

18 Chilver, G., Cisalpine Gaul (Oxford, 1941), p. 73Google Scholar.

19 P. A. Brunt, op. cit., p. 475.

20 Boll. Stor. Crem. 20 (1955–1957), 175Google Scholar. The incription reads C. Domitius C. [f.]|legione II sib[i]|[et D]omitiae sor[ori] f.

21 Pontiroli, op. cit., no. 249: Arruntius Maxumus [sig]n. leg IIX; ibid., no. 259: T. Aponius P.f. Ani. signifer leg. IX Hispanien. vetera.

22 The name ‘Lanius’ is too rare for a precise origin to be pinpointed; ‘Domitius’ is an all too common name, but Cisalpina or Transalpina may be indicated. The Naevius at Cremona is almost certainly a Cisalpine (see above).

23 JRS 52 (1962), 69Google Scholar; idem, op. cit. (n. 12), pp. 294 ff., and more recently Garnsey, P. D., Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 205 (1979), 1–25Google Scholar.

24 See Keppie, L. J. F., Colonisation and Veteran Settlement in Italy, 47–14 BC (forthcoming)Google Scholar.