Reminders

Outline

• Cults
• Hercules Invictus
• Ludi Romani
• Titus & Domitian
• The Flavian Amphitheater

Cults

The Role of Cults in Roman Religious Life

• When we talk about Roman cults, we are talking about three kinds of religious practices. Every family had its own 'cult' in which it worshipped its dead ancestors. Some elite families also had devotions to particular gods. Generation after generation, sons of these families would pay for the maintanence of temples and serve as priests in the rituals which honored the gods. Romans also developed an official 'public' cult of emperor worship. Finally, the Roman empire in general and beginning around the time of Augustus (with a few notable earlier exceptions, like the Magna Mater) 'mystery cults' of foreign antecedents began to acquire popularity in the city of Rome.

Mystery Cults

• One of the most striking things about the 'foreign' cults which came to Rome is the degree to which Romans took great care to control their operations in the city. We saw in the case of the Magna Mater for example, that Rome forbade citizens to become priests of Cybele (until the reign of Claudius) and limited the public worship the Great Mother could receive. Most foreign cults and gods, moreover, were invited to Rome at the behest of the Senate after consulation with the Sibylline Books. During the Republic, 'cult' religion seems to have been subject to effective control by the Roman elite. There were several significant changes during the imperial period.
  
  
• First, Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean world meant that the range of cultures now incorporated into the Roman empire was quite large. As Roman citizenship expanded it became increasingly inevitable that Roman citizens would be as likely to worship Baal or Mithras as they would Vestia or Jupiter. Second, during the imperial period, political power in Rome increasingly became a function or military authority and regionally generated wealth. Thus Rome found itself led by emperors from prominent families of Spain, North Africa and Syria who had known great success as generals. Typically these individuals were highly "Romanized": they and their fathers had lived in Rome and been educated in Rome, but Romans perceived them as "Spanish" and "African" Romans. As Emperors, these men all held the office of pontifex maximus and it is not surprising that they often tolerated and encouraged the cults of deities with whom they were quite familiar, even if peninsular Italians were not. Third, Romans themselves, at a variety of levels of social classes were increasingly well traveled and thus exposed to a variety of types of religious worship. A young member of the elite was likely to do some military or imperial service in some far flung corner of the Empire as he climbed the ranks of Roman political power. Once Augustus imposed relative political peace in Rome, Romans who made their business in trade, had every interest in expanding their operations through the Empire. They, their sons and their freedmen would have to travel widely to pursue these interests and thus observe and often experience "exotic" cult worship. When they returned to Rome, finally, they would find sites of cult worship established at home, by foreign traders, immigrants and slaves. Thus, what had been highly localized modes of worship, increasingly became cosmopolitan and international societies.
  
  
• Cults, accordingly, afforded a site of social interaction based on individual identity and preference. One Roman returning from the east might find a group in Rome who worshipped Isis, another Mithras. In Rome, they could pursue the society of those who shared whatever personal enthusiasm had first sparked their interest in the god. If they travelled again, they could meet similarly minded folks at cult sites for Isis or Mithras in cities throughout the empire. The energy this association based on individual interest afforded was quite different than that offered by participation in the public, state religion of Rome. Romans continued to uphold that religion (although, as we have seen, various public religious observances waxed and waned in popularity) because it was essential to their Romanitas. But cults offered a form of behavior and association that was essential to their personal sense of identity - who they were and what being in the world meant.
  
  
• The organization of cultsvaried greatly. Some were quite loose and easy going - you joined, you could, if you were interested become a priest or priestess. Others, were very hierarchical - only individuals born of the priestly caste in Egypt could be high priests of Isis - even in cult sites located in Rome. While the cult of Mithras was limited to men and tended to draw upon the military for its adherents, many, if not most, cults were highly democratic in their membership - women and men from a range of ethnic identities worshipped together, as did freedmen and senators (and sometimes slaves).
  
  
• Mystery cults offered their adherents a very specific vision of the nature of the world, and access to a personal relationship with the divine that would offer them a transcendent peace in their human existence, and very often the prospect of a life that transcended death. Typically, the gods of mystery cults, according to their mythology had died and been resurrected. Orpheus, Dionysis, Attis, and Jesus were all gods whose cult adherents believed had died and risen again. They offered their followers the same possibility of resurrection. Many mystery cults shared similar structural features: new worshippers were initiated into the cult after a ceremony in which they confessed or claimed their identity as adherents of the god. Cult ceremonies often included hymns and ritual feasts. Most observed a calendar of yearly celebrations which were preceeded by periods of ritual preparation (e.g., fasting). Few cults had highly developed literary or scriptural traditions and thus they typically lacked a consistent and coherent theology. While they resembled one another structurally, the specifics of their beliefs and practices could vary dramatically.
  

The Affair of the Bacchanalia

• Many of the features of cult worship that made them so popular with citizens of the Roman Empire, disturbed Rome's political/religious leadership. The cults were typically inclusive and not hierarchical, except in the social deference cult members paid their priests. The priests, moreover, were often not Roman, and not of the 'best' social background. The cults, moreover, potentially offered a form of social identity that seemed to transcend (or undermine) Roman values of that undergirded that hierarchy of gender, status and class. Most 'foreign' cults were required to maintain their cult site outside the pomerium. When cult popularity advanced beyond a local and ethnically distinct group (Phoenicians or Jews, for example) within Rome, the Roman Senate (and Emperor) tended to pay attention. Cults that maintained private, even secret, sites of worship and/or complex grades of initiations (e.g., Mithras, Christianity) raised Roman suspicion. If cult rites and ritual language seemed imcomprehensible to Roman sensibilities (e.g, 'take this bread, it is my body') suspicion quickly turned to overt hostility and policies of suppression. Conversely, cults that welcomed affiliation with and assimiliation to more traditional Roman deities and incorporated celebrations for the emperor's well being in their ritual calendar (e.g., Isis), posed far less difficulties to the Roman elite.
  
  
• Male members of the Roman senatorial elite and the order of the equites overwhelmingly did not join (even when they tolerated) mystery cults until well into the third century of the common era. They might, however, when in the provinces, offer respectful sacrifices to the gods in questions. Similarly, they might make donations to the cults as open-minded patrons. Conversely, members of the municipal elite, quite often fully and publicly participated in cults. In the city of Rome, itself, cult members came from the ranks of the ordinary and the despised: free-born citizens of no particular economic security, freedmen and slaves (and foreigners visiting or emigrating to Rome). The adherence of the hoi polloi, for members of the Roman elite, was itself a reason for scorn.
  
  
  
• In one segment of their membership, however, mystery cults typically transgressed Roman class hierarchies. Roman women of the senatorial elite frequently played major roles as patrons of and participants in mystery cults. While traditional Roman, public religion offered a place for women, it did not offer them much of an active role in ritual observations and, with very few exceptions, offered them no positions of religious authority. Male members of the Roman elite frequently complained about the superstitio of their wives and daughters (well, actually, the uncontrolled wives and daughters of others). This complaint was usually exaggerated. The exaggeration itself represents the fear members of the male, senatorial elite felt when confronting the ,"other," represented by the foreign, feminine mystery cult. The cult, they feared, would infect traditional Roman male authority first by infecting weak and susceptible women.
  
  
• The earliest evidence we see of a hostile Roman response to a foreign, feminine cult is very early indeed. Livy tells us that during the Second Punic War a Roman praetor took public action against an religious practice by Roman women that the Senate found offensive. We don't know much about this case, but scholars believe it is linked to the more famous senatorial action (in 186 BCE) against adherents of the Greek god Dionysus (also called Bacchus ). Worshippers of Dionysus were called Bacchants and celebrations in his honor were called the Bacchanlia.
  
  
• Bacchic rites in honor of Dionysius had been established in Greece for centuries. In Italy, the Bacchic cult and was established in Etruria and southern Italy long before 186 BCE and for some time in Rome as well. Thus, the Senate's action was taken against a cult it had tolerated for at least a while. Its adherents included slaves and free, Romans and Latins, and men and women. The cult appears to have been organized quite hierarchically, with adherents granting priests signfiicant authority over the conduct of their personal lives. To members of the Roman elite, the inclusiveness of membership combined with this authority was a strange and threatening religious practice. The cult also engaged in "ecstatic" practices - they drank and at least talked in highly erotic language about their encounter with the god.
  
  
• While much of the Roman propaganda against the cult focused on critiques of ritual practice, the Senate's edict was, in fact, directed only against the hierarchical organization of the cult. It forbade Romans to be priests. It forbade adherents to share money and property in kind. It forbade adherents to recognize the authority of Bacchic priests in their daily lives. Thus, devotees of Bacchus could get drunk and have sex as much as they liked, as long as their worship didn't create a structure of social and religious authority that members of the Senatorial elite could not control. Similarly, while the propaganda Livy reiterates attacks the role of women in the cult, what appears to have prompted at least part of the Senatorial response was the fact that cult had begun to become popular with Roman men. The existing cult structure, accordingly, would have permitted women authority over the daily lives of male adherents that completely subverted the traditional authority of the Roman pater familias.
  
  
• The timing of the Senate's response is also interesting. Senators clearly knew of the cult and its activities for sometime before they sought to repress it? Why the delay? Roman soldiers just returning home from Rome's first extensive and extended foreign activities might have resented the intrusion. Roman allies, who tolerated, if not encouraged, Bacchic cults might have resented the intrusion of Roman authority into their domestic affairs precisely when Rome needed their help against Hannibal. The popularity of the cult, however, signalled a need within the Roman population that existing state religious practices failed to satisfy. Many scholars believe that the decision of the Senate to import the cult of the Magna Mater, but under rigid control, was an attempt to satisfy this need in a way that did not threaten their authority. The Bacchic cult, meanwhile survived, at least outside of Rome, and certainly more quietly than it had at the time of its suppression. You should think about Bacchus' reception in Rome when you consider Rome's response to Christianity, several centuries later.

mystery religions (EB) / Roman gods (EB)

The Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii

numerous sources on particular cults are available in the Late Antiquity section of the Ancient History SourceBook (scroll down for quite a while)

Cults you know about: Magna Mater; Mithras, Hercules; Imperial

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Hercules Invictus

• August was, before Augustus, called Sextilis (the sixth month of the Roman Calendar in which March 1 was the original New Year, if you count inclusively). Sextilis was renamed August in honor of Octavian (honored with the name Augustus). Quintilis, the fifth month, had similarly been renamed in honor of Julius Ceasar. It's a hot month in Rome without many big draw feasts. The calendar, as might be expected at harvesting time, has a number of agricultural festivals.
  
  
• On the 12th of August [C], Romans honored one of the first foreign gods admitted to the city, Hercules (Greek - Heracles). His first altar was within the pomerium [indicating an official embrace of his cult] in the Forum Boarium (cattle market), near the Circus Maximus. Perhaps because of this original location of Hercules' cult, he was associated with merchants (and may have been introduced to Rome by Phonecian merchants). Near Hercules' altar (the Ara Maxima), said to be built by Evandar even before Aeneas came to Italy, the Romans built the temple of Hercules Invectus - Hercules the Unconquered (or Hercules the Victor). The temple was unusual in Rome because it, like the aedes of Vestia, was round in structure. We have reports of Pope Sixtus the Fourth destroying a round templein the Forum Boarium in the last quarter of the 15th century of the common era. Fortunately, someone thought to make a drawing before they knocked the building down. We have ruins of a round temple in the Forum Boarum which survive to this day. (Same or different or evidence that there were many temples to Heracles?) The Italians reconstructed the ruins in time for tourist revenue at the millenium (before pix; after pix). An anonymous Roman general dedicated a temple to Hercules near the Porta 'Trigemina in 173 BCE. The consul L. Mummius, in the middle of the second century BCE dedicated a temple to Pompey on the Caelian hill. One hundred years later, Pompey the Great had a temple dedicated to Hercules near the Circus Maximus.
  
  
• Two Roman families, the Potitii and Pinarii, managed the cult of Hercules Invectus at the Ara Maxima until early in the fourth century BCE, when it was taken over by the Roman state. The Roman state had already funded a famous cult celebration which included Hercules, early in the century. Livy tells us that in 399, the Republic sponsered a lectisternium [lectus - is the Latin word for bed or couch]. The statues of a number of gods and goddesses (mostly Greek) were brought out of their temples and set upon dinner couches. A huge meal was prepared and offered to them as though they were guests at a Roman banquet.
  
  
• The ceremonies for Hercules at the Ara Maxima were quite distinct. Roman men worshipped in the Greek fashion (they did not cover their heads with cloaks; but they did wear garlands of laurel). There were two altars. Women were permitted to attend only one of them. Dogs were driven from the area. Finally, no one was allowed to mention any other gods at the ceremony.
  
  
• It was common (but not legally required) for merchants and successful generals to donate 10% of their profits (or booty) to the Hercules Invectus. Crassus was famous for donating 10% of his entire estate to the temple. Despite such regular and generous contributions, the cult was not wealthy. Unlike other gods, who were quite finicky in what they would eat, Hercules would eat everything. Thus, a lot of different types of animals were sacrificed to him. Second, unlike ritual feasts for other gods, Hercules would brook no leftovers. Whatever was sacrificed had to be eaten in its entirety. As a consequence, the feats for Hercules were popular, well attended and expensive.
  
  
• The next day, August 13 (NP), was quite a holiday in Rome. There was a procession to the temple of Hercules Victorus (Hercules of the Victory) near the Porta Trigemina. But for slaves, the action was all on the Aventine Hill, where Diana of the Aventine was. Diana, like Artemis, her Greek counterpart, was a patron of women (particularly associated with childbirth) and hunters. The temple of Diana on the Aventine was founded in the sixth century (its inscriptions were actually in Greek) and may have been connected with the conflict of orders, but the political associations to her worship, if any, were rapidly forgotten. On this feast day, all Romans had to give their slaves the day off. Her temple became a sanctuary for runaway slaves. Between the feasting with Hercules and the holiday for slaves, these mid-August days must have afforded a nice vacation from harvest labors.

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Ludi Romani

• In September, the Romans went to the Ludi. Beginning on the Nones of September and continuing for two weeks (September 5-19), Romans celebrated games they called either "Roman" or "Great." These were the oldest and most magnificent of the Roman games. They were first held (for a single day) on the Ides of September in 509 BCE in honor of the god Jupiter Optimus Maximus to whom the Romans consacrated a temple on the Capitol on the same day. Over the course of the Republic additional days of celebration were added both before and after the Ides. In the early years the games were not celebrated annually. Rather, generals vowed to pay for the games if the won a battle and were granted a triumph (votive games). By 366 BCE, however, the games had become annual events, paid for by the state and supervised by the aediles.
  
  
• The Ludi Romani included two types of competition: the ludi circenses (Games in the Circus Maximus - athletic) and luci scaenici (dramatic competitions). On the first day of the Ludi an extraordinary parade, even more striking than that Ovid described for the Ludi Megalesiaci was held. We know alot about what the parade was like in the time of Augustus because Dionysius of Halicarnassus (a Greek historian living in Rome) described it in detail. The parade route began at the Capitol, continued through the Forum and concluded with a sacrifice of oxen presided over by the consuls. The parade itself consisted of the athletes who would compete, a group of musicians and actors dressed as satyrs and Silenoi, and finally, a procession of statues of the gods.
  
  
  • the consuls and magistrates
    
    
  • young men on horseback and foot
    
    
  • charioteers driving four horse and two horse teams
    
    
  • riders on individual, unyoked mounts
    
    
  • athletes for other competitions, dressed only in loin cloths
    
    
  • flute and lyre players
    
    
  • war dancers in red tunics and bronze belts, wearing bronze crested helmets and carrying swords and short spears
    
    
  • actors dressed as satyrs in goatskins and others dressed as Silenoi in shaggy tunics - this groups mocked and mimicked the war dancers who proceeded them
    
    
  • flute and lyre players
    
    
  • incense burners
    
    
  • people carrying gold and silver vessels (?for use in the sacrifice?)
    
    
  • men bearing images of gods on stretchers carried at shoulder height
    
    
    • Olympians
      
      
    • Saturn, Ops, Themis, Latona, Parcae
      
      
    • Muses and Graces
      
      
    • heros: Hercules, Aesculapius, Castor and Pollux
      
      
• Romans had probably inherited chariot racing from the Etruscans. A typical race lasted seven laps (5 miles) and the competitors wore blue, green, red or white colors. Over time professional teams developed, identified by these colors. Romans were more obsessed with the rivalry between these teams than people in Boston are with the Patriots. Betting was furious and fan loyalty was obsessive (there is a recorded example of a fan who threw himself onto the funeral pyre of a Red charioteer in the 70s BCE). During the principate, fan support often had political overtones. People conciously chose to boo teams that "bad" emperors backed.
  
  
• Some of the races were unique. For example, in one kind of chariot race, an extra man rode with the driver. After the driver crossed the finished line, his companion jumped from the car and ran the track again. It was the winner on foot who determined the winner of the race. In another competition, the rider rode a team of two horses, leaping from one to the other at the end of each lap. Occasionally, but not always the Ludus Troiae (the Trojan Game) was also held during the Ludi Romani. The Romans believed that Aeneas had invented this competition but the earliest evidence modern scholars can find for it dates from Sulla's reign. Two groups of young men of good birth paraded, wearing armour, on horseback, performing very complicated drills and then a mock battle. Augustus revived these games.
  
  
• It is impossible to underestimate the enthusiasm Romans had for the games. The Circus Maximus sat 150,000 and it was always full (perhaps in part because at all the other Roman amphitheaters - and the temporary theatres erected for the ludi scaenica men and women had separate seating sections). Some highbrow Romans like Cicero and Pliny complained about them, but emperors who dared not to attend were despised as high-faluting. Julius Caesar attempted to negotiate this dilemna by attending the games, but doing paper work in his seat. The fans saw right through him.
  
  
• On the Ides of September itself, Romans honored Jupiter Optimus Maximus at his temple on the Capitol. At some time over the course of the Republic an epulum Iovis - banquet for Jupiter) became associated with the rites in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (organized by the college of epulones from 196 BCE on). The magistrates and Senate attended the feast which began with a sacrifice (which included, in addition to the sacrificial animal, the mola salsa, the Vestal Virgins had prepared for use at the Vestalia, Lupercalia and this feast). A statue of Jupiter, the face of which had been painted red was laid on a couch and statues of Juno and Minerva were placed on chairs (in the 'old fashioned' days, Roman women never reclined at dinner but always sat in upright chairs). Food was set on tables before them and music played to entertain them.

The History of Roman Public Games (via a review of Bernstein's Ludi Publici) / EB on chariot racing

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Titus & Domitian

Titus:

• biography

  • dates: born 39: CE; died: 81 CE [Titus Flavius Vespasianus]; reigned 79-81 CE
    
    
  • Because Vespasian, his father, had such a successful career, Titus had many advantages. He was educated at Claudius' court, for example, and was a boyhood friend of Claudius' son Britannicus. Like his father, he managed, nevertheless, to avoid Nero's disfavor. (After Nero's death, however, he made a fairly public display of his loyalty and affection for Britannicus). His early military posts seem to have been coordinated with his father's commands in Germany and Britain. He appears to have done quite well in them, in his own right, however. Nero, in fact, entrusted Titus with his own legion (he was quite young for the command) under his father in the Judean campaign. How immediatley the confidence was rewarded remains open to some dispute. Josephus, our main source for Titus' Judean years, makes him sound like Tommy Franks. Josephus, however, was a protege of the Flavians. It appears that he did well but not splendidly in the first year of the campaign. He played a key role in organizing support for Vespasian's imperial bid among provincial governors and military commanders in the east during this period. His great claim to military fame was the siege of Jerusalem which he successfully completed in August of 70 CE. The Arch of Titus commerates his victory over Judea but was not completed until after his death.
    
    
  • As Vespasian's right hand man, he had the opportunity to demonstrate his own talents to the Romans as a soldier and adminstrator. Part of the reason Romans could accept Vespasian was the "two for one" nature of the package he offered. The Flavians propaganda highlighted the benefits of the dynastic tranquility the promised Rome.
    
    
  • Titus was so zealous in his duties to root out conspiracies against the throne (Suetonius called him the "sharer, and even guardian of the imperial power") in his office as prefect of the Praetorian Guard, however, that many Romans feared he would turn out to be a paranoid emperor like some of the Julio-Claudians, who relied on informers and suppressed any members of the elite who might potentially compete for pre-eminence. On his accession, however, Titus conciously crafted a public persona of "good emperor."
    
    
  • Titus' personal life was a matter of some dynastic scrutiny. His first wife died and he divorced his second wife (whose family had incurred Neronian displeasure) after their daughter (Flavia Julia) was born. Titus married Flavia off to a family cousin but as we shall see, she was not a stay at home kind of girl. After his divorce Titus began an affair with Bernice, a Jewish princess whom he met while suppressing the Jewish Revolt. Bernice was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I (the grandson of Herod the Great, whom you might know from the Christian Nativity scriptures). Bernice's own sexual history was the subject of much speculation. She had been married off at a young age, but her husband died before the marriage could be consumated. She returned home to live wih her brother, Herod Agrippa II, and folks began to mutter that they were too fond of each other. So she was married off again but left her husband, the king of Cilia, to return to live with her brother. She came to Roman attention by interceding for Jews during the Jewish Revolt. Titus fell for her like a rock and took her back to Rome where she lived openly as his mistress until 79. As Vespasian's death approached, Titus brooked increasing opposition to the prospect of the Roman princeps being under the thrall of a Jewish, foreign, well - wench (remember the hay Octavian was able to make over Anthony and Cleopatra?). He was forced to send her back to Jerusalem.
    
    
  • He died of fever (or brotherly ambition, some say) only two years after he took the throne.
    
    
• problems Titus faced upon taking the throne
  
  
  • Actually, he didn't face the kind of problems emperors like Augustus or Vespasian did. The Flavian rule had been quite successful in restoring order. Like his father, Titus maintained a propaganda mill promoting the Flavian dynasty. His tack was clearly that of embracing the "good emperor" rhetorical figure which the Romans had now developed. Good emperors worked hard (unlike Nero and Caligula), didn't manipulate the courts to supress their opponents (like Tiberius and Nero), were easy with the common folk and threw lots of games (unlike Tiberius), but didn't blow the budget to do so (unlike Nero). Good emperors cared about and took good care of the army (unlike Nero). In addition to embracing the role model of "good emperor", Titus had statues of the "good emperors" Augustus and Claudius erected all around Rome. His message was clear. "These are the kind of rulers I will emulate."

   

  • His actions were as good as his rhetoric:
    
    
    • The games which opened the Flavian Amphitheater in 80 lasted 100 days.
    • He built baths for the people of Rome.
    • He was notably generous to folks in Campania after the eruption of Mt. Vesusvius.
    • He spent readily to rebuild Rome after a fire in 80.
    • His ruthlessness as heir apparent may also have afforded him the opportunity to be benevolent as princeps. The only notable with whom he had bad relations was his own brother and heir, Domitian. The Romans who served as his closest advisors (his amici) were well respected.
    • His legislative program was popular, extending civil rights (e.g., marriage, wills) to soldiers.
    • Despite his noted generosity, Titus, like his father before him, knew how to balance the imperial books and left the Romans with a surplus.
      
      
  • It is hard, nevertheless, to judge Titus' rule. His reign was quite brief. If Nero were judged on the the early years of his reign alone, we might, for example, consider him a great Emperor. We can look at Titus' work as heir-apparent and conclude that like his father he offered and served a vision of the principate that differed from that of the Julio-Claudians. Their success is indicated by the absence of grand events in the narratives of their reign. The Flavians, father and first son, were autocrats who justified their power by their competence. They did not have grand notions of nobility, but they did have hard, if unglamorous evidence of their efficiency. Romans worked in peace, prosperity and safety under the rule (if you don't count slaves and provincials who preferred to run their own countries).
    
    

Domitian

• born: 51 CE; died: 96 CE (Titus Flavius Domitianus); reigned 81-96 (pix)
• biography
  
  
  • Our early historical notices of Domitian, Vespasian's (much) younger son, are less than flattering:
    
    
  • Suetonius writing only 15 years or so after Domitian's death may give us less biography than evidence of the "anti-Domitian" rhetoric of the day which prevailed. According to Suetonius, Domitian was as poor as a church mouse (unlikely given Vespasian's success); sexually prolifigate (he slept with old men and other men's wives) [?like Nero?]; a wimp who even at 18 needed his uncle to protect him; a coward who ran away from battle, inattentive to his government duties and reckless with government patronage. Domitian's reign was clearly a failure. He was murdered by his closest associates. He did rule, however, for 15 years. If we ask how, why and when Domitian failed as Emperor, we may use our sources more profitably than if we ask if some of the scandalous rhetoric was literally true.
    
    
  • It does seem clear that Domitian was not the perfect son his older brother Titus was. While waiting for his father to arrive in Rome after he had been proclaimed emperor, for example, Domitian apparently handed out so many government appointments that Vespasian wrote and thanked him for not giving away the job of emperor. In order to earn victories comparable to those Titus won in Judea, he attempted to take over his uncle's campaign to suppress revolts in Germany shortly after Vespasian's succession. Vespasian, however, clearly forgave Domitian his shortcomings. With Titus, he was named a princeps iuventutis and served as consul six times during Vespasian's reign. It was not unreasonable for Domitian to expect that Titus, when he gained the throne, would grant him maius imperium and tribunician potestas to indicate his status as heir apparent. Titus did not satisfy these expectations. One strand in the historiographical tradition suggests that Domitian then plotted Titus' death.
    
    
  • He took the office of consul every year from 82-88 (and repeatedly thereafter for a total of 17 tenures).
  • In Gaul in 82 for census (which gave him effective control of the Senate), he launched a war against a minor German tribe (the Chatti). Having won the favor of the legions he claimed a triumph for his victory. The weren't actually defeated for a number of years more.
  • In 84, he increased the pay of the legions by 1/3.
  • He executed his cousin, Flavius Sabinus in 84.
  • In 84, a German tribe, the Dacians, crossed the Danube and defeated the legions of the Roman governor in Moesia. Domitian raced to the scene, drove off the Dacians and claimed a triumph.
  • He made himself censor for life in 85.
  • The Dacians returned in 88 but were defeated by the Roman governor.
  • In 89, Saturninus, governer of Upper Germany revolted. The generals and legions of lower Germany suppressed the rebellion.,
  • Domitian invoked the law of maiestas to execute a number of figures involved with the rebellion. Thereafter he increasingly confiscated the estates of Roman senators convicted of maiestas.
  • Having made a truce with the Dacians, Domitian attacked two other tribes in upper Germany in 89. He had to go back three years later and lost a legion in the campaign.
  • In 96 he was murdered by a conspiracy which included prefects of the praetorian guard, his wife, and the senator Nerva (one of his amici), who became Emperor on Domitian's death.
    
    
• "Good or Bad Emperor"
  
  
  • In addition to private residences, Domitian built a new forum and inaugurated one of the most ambitious public building programs in Roman history. His program included the Circus Domitianus (Stadium of Domitian), which was subsequently razed and revived as the Piazza Navona (pix; a place you would be an idiot not to visit if you were in Rome if only for the Bernini fountain of the rivers; if only for the cafés; if only for the gelato).
    
  • He raised the pay of the legions significantly.
  • Some say that only the maiestas confiscations prevented fiscal bankruptcy. Others say he left the treasury with a surplus.
  • He expelled the Stoic philosophers from Rome.
  • He insisted that others address him as dominus et deus ["master and god"] and had his effigy carried in processions of statues of the gods.
  • Early in his reign he continued the Flavian policy of strategic territorial acquisition in upper Germany. However, he was never able to consolidate Roman positions in Germany or Britain. His commanders lost two legions in Germany and had to retreat from their northern positions in Britain..
  • He promoted Greek styled literary and athletic competition in Rome. He frequently held games and was noted for the innovations he introduced to them (night contests, female gladiators, distribution of food).
  • He wore the costume of a general who has won a triumph into the Senate.
  • His consilium and circle of amici included (as well as Senators) equites and freedmen. He did not consult the Senate widely but preferred to rely on a few Senators and relied heavily on his closest associates for advice.
  • He executed at least 11 senators and exiled more.
  • He appears to have been an able and strict administrator who prevented governors from defrauding their provinces.
  • He spent as much time as possible in his private estate twelve miles outside of Rome.
  • Believing the Romans drank too much, he pomoted legislation which would have converted vineyards to grain fields. He also appears to have back socially conservative, "family values" measures while carrying on an affair with Flavia Julia, Titus' daughter and his niece.
  • To him are attributed the quotes:
    • "Let them hate me so long as they fear me." [Actually he was quoting an old Roman play].
    • "Everyone says the Emperor's paranoid until he's assassinated."
  • The senatorial historiographic tradition (i.e. Tacitus and Pliny) despised him.

Suetonius, Life of Titus; Life of Domitian

The Arch of Titus and its reliefs / Domitian coinage / more Domitian coinage / even more Domitian coinage / yup - more coins

Professor MacKay on Domitian / The Roman Emperors - Domitian / a Domitian bibliography

Maecenas pictures of the ruins of Domitian's palace

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The Flavian Amphitheater

description:

• stone barrel vault construction; 3 levels built around arches, top level around windows; limestone facade; variety of column types; fabric canopy (exterior view)
  
  
• seating for 50,000 (reconstruction of interior)
  
  
• elaborate network of underground passageways, rooms and machinery (e.g., elevators) to facilitate spectacular productions
  
  
• According to Suetonius (Life of Titus, 7), Titus sponsored "opening games" (which last for 100 straight days) that consisted of gladitorial fights, a mock sea battle and a wild animal hunt involving 5,000 beasts.
  
  
• arena floor was 76m by 46m
  
  
• begun by Vespasian in 70, dedicated by Titus in 80, completed in 82. (exterior and aerial reconstructions)
  
  
• Romans called it the "Flavian Amphiteater." A giant statue of Sol Invictus (a "colossus") stood near the site and in the Middle Ages, folks started calling it the "colosseum."
  
  
• Amphitheaters had been built throughout the Roman empire long before the Flavians built the Colosseum. However, none had ever been built in Rome before. It was the first, permanent, stone amphitheater constructed in the city.

Lecture on the Flavian Amphitheater

National Geographic article on the reconstruction of the Flavian Amphitheater

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