Magnus Pius: Sextus Pompeius and the Transformation of the Roman Republic

383 Pages·2012·20.153 MB·English

by  Kathryn Welch

M P
AGNUS IUS
S P
EXTUS OMPEIUS
T
AND THE RANSFORMATION OF THE
R R
OMAN EPUBLIC
Kathryn Welch
The Classical Press of Wales
First published in 2012 by
The Classical Press of Wales
15 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN
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www.classicalpressofwales.co.uk
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© 2012 Kathryn Welch
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publisher.
ISBN 978-1-910589-15-1
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset, printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
–––––––––––––––––
The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to support the work
of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from further afield. More recently it
has published work initiated by scholars internationally. While retaining a special loyalty to Wales and
the Celtic countries, the Press welcomes scholarly contributions from all parts of the world.
The symbol of the Press is the Red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced
by 1905 to some five individuals confined to a small area known as ‘The Desert of Wales’ –
the upper Tywi valley. Geneticists report that the stock was saved from terminal inbreeding
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Kite now thrives – in Wales and beyond.
To
MartinStone
conaffetto
Frontispiece:sea-battle.CoinofQ.Nasidius,(?)43BC.
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xv
Illustrations xix
Maps xxv
1. The lost Republic 1
2. Sons of Neptune 43
3. The Pompeian inheritance 93
4. Refashioning Republicanism after the Ides of March 121
5. A Republican Triumvirate? 163
6. Pompeianum tempus 203
7. Bellum Siculum 261
8. Pietas at the dawn of the Principate 291
Appendix: Imp. and Imp. iterum: an unreliable guide to dating 319
Bibliography 323
General index 353
Index of quoted passages 363
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It was on a pleasant afternoon in Swansea almost fifteen years ago that
Anton Powell and I discovered a common interest, even then of long
standing,inSextusPompeius.Thatconversationledtothepublication,in
2002,ofavolumeofcollectedpapers.Webothknewthateachhadmore
tosay.Hisownimportantworkappearedin2008.Minenowfollows,not
without the benefit of his immense scholarly and editorial acumen, his
extraordinary patience, which I pushed to ever-new extremes, and his
carefully-timedexhortationstocompleteit.Sufficeittosaythatwithouthis
initialencouragementandhiscontinuedinterestovermanyyears,thisbook
wouldneverhavebeenwritten,andwithouthisforbearanceitwouldnot
havehadthechancetoturnintowhatitbecame.
I have been blessed in the friends and colleagues I have encountered
throughoutmyworkinglifesofar,stretchingbacktomyyearsasateacher
atKogarahHighSchool,thenmydoctoralcandidatureattheUniversityof
Queensland and a happy period as a Leverhume post-doctoral fellow at
theUniversityofExeter,throughtomytenureattheUniversityofSydney.
In recent years, I have also enjoyed short stays at the British School at
RomeandStJohn’sCollegeOxfordandourownCentreforClassicaland
NearEasternStudies inAustralia provided a havenjust farenoughaway
frommyofficetogetsomerealworkdone.Eachoftheseplacesandthe
individualsIencounteredthereinhavecontributedtomyunderstandingof
historyandmysenseofwhyitwasimportanttowriteit.
There have been many conversations, not necessarily restricted to
Roman history, with many colleagues, including (but certainly not only)
LeaBeness,AlastairBlanshard,PeterBrennan,KaiBrodersen,BenBrown,
Andrew Burnett, Emily Christian, Eleanor Cowan, Robert Cowan,
Nicholas Eckstein, Vincent Gabrielsen, Léonie Hayne, Dexter Hoyos,
Edwin Judge, Julia Kindt, Sarah Lawrence, Hugh Lindsay, Harold
Mattingly,MichelleMcVeigh,SusannaMortonBraund,FrancesMuecke,
Josiah Osgood, Andrew Pettinger, Nicholas Purcell, John Rich, Anne
Rogerson, Kenneth Sheedy, Tom Stevenson, James Tan, Jeff Tatum,
AlexanderThein,FrederikVervaet,LindsayandPatriciaWatson,Richard
WestallandPeterWiseman.IcannotsaytheywillagreewithwhatIhave
written–infactsomeofthemdefinitelywon’t–butIamsurethatwewill
continue our debates in the spirit of friendly exchange which makes the
studyofhistorysoabsorbing,soworthwhile–andsoentertaining.Others
madeadirectcontributionbyreadingallorpartofthemanuscript,among
xi
Acknowledgements
them Jonathan Barlow, Martin Drum, Michael Hayes, Tom Hillard,
Michael Gooley, Paul Roche, John Ramsey, Christopher Smith, John
Trappes-Lomax and Andrew Wright. Andrew Bonnell and Ruth Lazer
helpedmetoreadGermanmorequicklyandAnthonyAlexanderchecked
my transcription and translation of ancient Greek, suggesting many
improvementsashewent.RosalindKearsleykindlyprovidedherresearch
aheadofpublication,ThomasWrobelinformationontransportshipsand
othernavalissues,andJonathanPragimportantdetailsaboutSicily.Every
oneofmyresearchstudents,includingNatalieAngel,BronwynHopwood,
Anna Mi czewska, Hannah Mitchell and Lily Withycombe Taperell, has
ą
contributed to this project through their acute observations and critical
questions. I owe special thanks to Liam McGowan, Fiona Tweedie and
AndrewStileswhoparticipatedin‘ChaptersintheGarden’sessionswhere
myownworkwasputonthetablealongwiththeirs.
I have lost count of the times that Roger Pitcher read drafts of
manuscript,givingmeexcellentadviceoneachoccasion.Nordidheever
despairofit,evenwhenitwasinaverymessystate.Inrecentmonths,he
has improved my Latin translations, my grammar and my temper at vital
moments.Happyisthescholarwhocancountonesuchasheamongher
friends.
Richard Waterhouse, Duncan Ivison and Barbara Caine, as Heads of
School, and Peter Wilson and Eric Csapo, as Chairs of Department,
deserve special thanks for believing me when I said in many an annual
review that the book would be finished by the next year, sometimes two
yearsinarowtothesameperson!OurFacultyresearchmentorMargaret
Harris has been a constant source of support and inspiration, and I am
gladthatIhaveeventuallybeenabletorepaythefaithshehasalwayshad
inme.Since 2006,the combinationoftwouniversity-funded study leave
programmes, a research and development grant and a compassionate
teachingloadatvitalmomentshasmadeitpossibleformetogivethework
the attention it deserved and needed. Louise Jones, typesetter for the
ClassicalPressofWales,broughtthefinalproductintoexistencewithgreat
careandefficiency.
Twopricelessresearchassistantshavecontributedtothisbook,notjust
bycarryingouttheirnominatedtasksbutbycontributinggenerouslyfrom
their own knowledge and scholarly expertise. Patrick Tansey conducted
animportantprosopographicalenquiryintotheconsulsandsuffectconsuls
from 39 to 19 with an incredible eye for detail and immense care. I was
veryhappytoseeseveralarticlesemergefromthisstudyandhopetosee
moreoftheminthefuture.Patrick’seffortsunderpinmyreconstruction
oftheTreatyofMisenumandmuchofthefinalchapter.Morerecently,Kit
xii
MagnusPius
Morrell has laboured tirelessly to rid the book of errors and to improve
bothitsargumentanditsreadability,oftenattimesofgreatpersonalstress.
I must also acknowledge (and do so gladly) that my interpretation of the
politicalrelationshipbetweenMarcusPorciusCatoandGnaeusPompeius
MagnuswasinspiredbyherHonoursthesisof2002ontheLexPompeia
of52andhersubsequentresearchintoRomanprovincialgovernanceand
Cato’seffortstoreformit.Theerrorsandinfelicitieswhichstillremainin
the work, despite her efforts and those of all my friends and colleagues,
remainminealone.
Outside the academic world is another more personal one. I have two
families, Welches and Buckmans, both dear to me, and many friends to
thankfortheirunfailingaffection.CathyBoyleandEstelleLazerhavebeen
apartofmylifeforevenlongerthanSextusPompeius,nomeanfeat.The
members of my Italian conversation class deserve special thanks for the
oasistheyhaveprovidedovermanyyears,aswellasforintroducingmeto
Sciascia. James Buckman, my husband of almost two decades, made
writing the book possible and completing it a pleasure. Besides the
emotionalsupporthehasconstantlyprovided,hehasmademorethanone
practicalcontribution,includingactingasmychauffeuraroundthecoast
ofAlbania,wheresomeoftheroadsweremerelyasuggestionandthelocal
driverswereextremelycreative.
One last debt remains to be paid. More years ago than I care to
remember(andofwhichheuncharacteristicallylostcount),MartinStone
acted as supervisor for the MA thesis where I first discovered Sextus
Pompeius.Intheinterveningyears,hehasbecomemycolleagueandmy
friend,andasaconsequenceIamabetterhistorianthanImighthavebeen.
He was among the last to read this manuscript. Employing his unique
mixture of kindness and scholarship, he zoomed in with deadly accuracy
on remaining weaknesses while offering wise advice on how they might
beeliminatedorresolved.Thereisnopageofthefinalproductwhichhas
not benefited from his critical care. From the beginning, this book was
alwaysgoingtobededicatedtohim,anditiswithaffection,gratitudeand
somereliefthatIdosoatlast.
KathrynWelch
Sydney2012
xiii
PREFACE
This book should have been completed a long time ago, but whenever I
thoughtitwasalmostdone,itslowedmedowninunexpectedways.What
was meant to be a simple connecting narrative of the two phases of the
civil war became a re-conceptualisation of the project. What was meant
to explain the connections between the main characters in 44 became a
re-examination of the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, a task not
recommendedtoanyonefacingadeadline.Adesiretofollowtheusemade
of pietas in contemporary rhetoric between 35 and 27 turned into a full-
scale study of Cassius Dio’s virtue language, the results of which are
includedhereonlyinpart.Despiteprofessionalandpersonalincentivesto
finishtheworkmorequickly,nottomentiontheconcernIwascausingmy
long-suffering publisher, each time I took on one of these seemingly
‘peripheral’ tasks, it imposed itself in such a way that it could not be
abandoned.
What began as a contained study of the career of Sextus Pompeius
MagnusPiusbecameachallengetothewayswecurrentlyreadthe‘Roman
Revolution’.Themostcommonlyacceptedparadigm,suggestedbyTacitus
(Annales 1.2) but made canonical by Ronald Syme, was that the already-
suspectpoliticalclassgaveupitsstruggleandquicklybecamecomplicitin
theimpositionofone-manruleupontheRomanStateafterthedeathof
Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus. It is based, firstly, on the assumption
that the institutions of the Roman State were already moribund and,
secondly,thatwhateverhopetheyhadwassnuffedoutatPhilippiin42BC.
Accordingly,SextusPompeius’achievementswereaboutindividualpower
andpersonalrevenge,ratherthanacontinuationoftheideologicalstruggle
thathadledtowarinthefirstplace.Tacitus’maininterestliesinanalysing
the new system and its flaws. His description is not wrong. Indeed it is
brilliant. However, it does not always allow for the twists and turns in a
roadthatlooksstraightonlyfromadistance.Myaimistorediscoverthe
journey, not the end result, and thus to give more credit to groups and
individualswhomadeapassionate,ifultimatelyunsuccessful,standagainst
theimpositionofautocracy.
Hitherto,scholarshiphasmoreorlessacceptedanarrativeputforward
by Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero (a sometime opponent of
Caesarbutonewithaveryparticularpointofview),andtheultimatevictor,
GaiusJuliusCaesarOctavianus,laterAugustus.Thefocusofthenarrative
has fallen unevenly. It privileges specific phases such as the Pharsalus
xv