Book Thirty One - The Armenian War
Gaius Aviola, one of the primary architects of Germanicus' regime and his most trusted political ally
—In the consulship of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and Aulus Caecina Paetus…
The city of Rome was under duress. The consuls of the previous year had both been close associates of Vopiscus Caesar, and the political upheavals of that year did not go unnoticed by his elder brother, engaged with the politics of the provinces though he may have been. He had overseen personally the elections of that year’s magistrates on a session of the senate during which Vopiscus Caesar himself had been absent. The prior consul, Paulinus, was an unobjectionable man of considerable martial skill whom had served honorably in the Syrian and African legions during the reign of the Divine Invictus. However, the posterior consul, Caecina, was a close friend and associate of Felix and Cotta, with his father having served as a censor of Gaius Vipsanianus. The younger Caecina was a man of fiery and vengeful character, in contrast with the temperance and levelheadedness of his father, and had been recalled from his service in the German legions because of his unduly retributive disciplinary practices. Likewise, the chief praetors in that year were Gaius Saturninus, the son of the consul, and Julius Vindex, an Aeduan nobleman whom had seen his ambitions realized under the auspices of his patron Caesar.
These actions were undertaken by Drusus Caesar in order to strengthen his position among his own allies, which had wavered due to his inaction in the previous year. However, the elder Caesar’s heart remained forever with the legions, much as had his father’s and grandfather’s. He disdained the city of Rome itself and preferred to leave its governance to his trusted friends and allies, while he oversaw the legions in their castra personally. He thusly arranged to depart Rome, leaving behind his freedmen Fronto and Carbo and the elder censor Blaesus to secure his interests from being undermined directly. His entourage included the ex-consuls Aulus Plautius, Didius Gallus, and Flavius Sabinus, as well as their young sons whom were all destined for consulships in their time. The elder Caesar’s successes in Germania in the preceding years had realized only a portion of his dreams for the Empire. For although he disdained the pursuits of scholars and historians, he had keenly observed the tribulations of his father in Illyricum, and at the time of his service there, the Divine Invictus had relayed many of his own concerns with regard to that frontier. The Germans were quiescent in this new world, he is said to have relayed, whereas, “
The Illyrians hold the beating heart of the army. Hold this land dearly, for it cost the last tyrant his throne.” This was in reference to the crucial part played by the Illyrian legions of Agrippa during the civil war against Vipsanianus. The gradual escalation of the threat of the Dacians and Sarmatians over the last two decades only served to confirm this view for Caesar, and he thusly sought to secure these lands for himself.
However, while Drusus Caesar was away, the faction of his brother would not remain idle. Their accomplishments in the previous year — including the execution of Lentulus Maluginensis, the removal of Marcianus Rex as the praefect of Aegyptus, and if rumors are to believed, the death of Scapula — had emboldened them to assail more prestigious adversaries. Although Vopiscus Caesar was in Macedonia at this time distributing gifts of Roman citizenship to local magistrates and addressing petitioners, his allies in the senate, led chiefly by Glabrio, the consul of ten years hence whom had recently retired from a successful posting as the magister orientis, were active on his behalf. Salvius Glabrio and Marcus Cato conceived a plan by which they might siphon the support of the elder Caesar’s primary beneficiaries. These were the provincials, whom had risen through the ranks of the equites in the army and been awarded with senatorial postings thereafter for their service. This cohort of senators were strongly loyal to one another, having faced concerted opposition from the Italian nobiles to their ascendancy. Chief among these men was Pomponius Milo, whom was strongly loyal to his patron, Drusus Caesar, but he was absent from Rome at this time serving as the governor of Syria in that year, and thus the chief men of this faction were Sextus Mummius, the consul-elect, Julius Fulvus, whom was praetor in the consulship of Corvinus and Allenius, Annius Pollio, a wealthy Spanish orator and poet, and the serving peregrine praetor, Julius Vindex. Among these men, Mummius was the most principled and thus unlikely to collaborate with the agents of the younger Caesar. The pair thusly employed a tribune, Quintus Labienus, the grandson of the disgraced historian and great-great-grandson of the comrade and enemy of the Divine Julius. Labienus was an orator of considerable skill and cunning wit, having been trained in this respect by the famed lawyer, Julius Africanus, whom was himself a disciple of Marcus Lepidus. He engaged in a series of prosecutions under the purview of his brother-in-law, Marcus Lucceius, whom was the praetor of the corruption court in that year, of the most vigorous opponents of the admission of provincials into the senate. These were the Messallae clan, whom had been one of the most illustrious families of the Empire since before its inception. The grandsons of Messalla Barbatus whom were called Corvinus, the consul of eight years hence, and Niger, whom was consul-elect in that year, were harangued on charges of corruption, and although they were acquitted, the counsel for their defense, one Vettius Bolanus, was exiled for bribery in its aftermath. Changing tactics, Labienus and Lucceius sought convictions from other men of status, though not of consular rank. Gaius Metellus was exiled for having abused his powers as proconsul of Narbo several years prior, and Quintus Titius was likewise exiled for poor conduct in Sicilia, a conviction that was especially easy to secure because of the dishonor brought upon his family by his father and grandfather.
However, these and likewise seizures of power undertaken by the new prefect of the guard, Vedius Pollio, became too great for the elder statesmen to remain idle. Gaius Aviola, the princeps senatus and among the post powerful men in Rome convened a session of the senate whereupon he denounced the consuls for their inaction, denounced the censors for their apathy, and denounced the praetors for their complicity. During this speech he entered such a frenzy that his face swelled and he was forced to quit the senate house. He recovered quickly, and while the senate was still meeting, he mounted the Rostra and repeated his denunciation before onlooking throngs. The praetorian guard and urban cohorts alike would not seize him, in spite of their orders. He was the sole surviving scion of the illustrious Calpurnii, and had been the chief lieutenant of the Divine Invictus for his entire reign, and the loyalty of the troops to his memory was strong. They defied the orders of Vedius Pollio to arrest him, and instead the praetorians assembled at the base of the Rostra and around the Curia to prevent any of the senators from leaving the senate house and confronting him directly. When Aviola’s voice reached a fever pitch at midday, he collapsed onto the ground. His slaves rushed to his aid and carried him to his home, but he was dead within mere hours. A public funeral was hosted for him the next day at which his son, Calpurnius Bestia delivered a eulogy.
Glabrio and Cato moved quickly at the news of Aviola’s death. He had been one of the last surviving members of the Divine Invictus’ inner circle to remain untouched by the escalating court politics of the recent years, and thusly, no other man stood in the way of the ambitious jackals to jockey for the reigns of the state. Having secured the exiles of Metellus and Titius, both of whom had vocally opposed and physically blocked the entry of Julius Vindex into the senate house during his quaestorship, Vindex himself became more likened to the friends of Glabrio. In particular, there was one man whom Vindex hated above all others due to his haughty demeanor and arrogant disdain for the provincials. That man was also the father-in-law of the elder Caesar and one of the most powerful men of the Empire — Galba. Vindex’s disdain for Galba was such that when Galba had traveled to Lugdunum as the head of a senatorial embassy to the Gauls, Vindex had abstained from attendance at a banquet. Many other wealthy Gauls did the same, and Galba’s banquet was attended by merely two chiefs, the youngest and least respected druids, and a host of women. For this, Galba was made into a laughingstock across Gaul for his failure to court their favor. The Gauls called him the “King of Massillia” implying his authority was not respected but for the sole Greek city across the whole of their country. By courting the favor of the Divine Invictus, Galba had secured a governorship over the majority of Gaul in the years following, and he extorted considerable levies and taxes from the Gauls, in addition to abolishing their civil councils for his time as governor — though they would be reconstituted as he departed for Rome. Having patiently awaited retribution, the Gauls in the senate in this year brought the full force of their wrath upon the old patrician. As a group, the Gauls in the senate constituted a portion of wealth far greater than their proportion of that body’s numbers, and thus their vast sums of gold and silver filled the pockets of the jurors in the senate, who thusly convicted Galba of extortion and saw to his exile to Gaul. This final humiliation proved too great, and Galba committed suicide rather than face this ignominy in the face of the men he so despised.
Felix and Cotta, though they did not particularly care for Galba, saw the threat that his downfall posed to their own safety. Their own friends, the Messallae had suffered at the hands of the opposition in court, and the men of the Julii decided on drastic action. They enlisted the help of Caecina and Gaius Primus, the younger brother of the Caesars to secure provincial commands for them such that they would evade the reach of Vopiscus Caesar, whom had recently returned to Rome, and whom lauded the statesmanship of Labienus and Lucceius for their political prosecutions. Fortunately for Felix and Cotta, circumstances in the East intervened and they were able to leave the city. The recent claimant to the Arsacid throne, Vologases, had seized upon the death of Armenia’s king and instilled his own brother, Pacorus, as the Armenian monarch under the name Tigranes. Drusus Caesar was alerted of this by Milo, whom was passing through Illyricum on his way to Rome to serve as consul, and he immediately sent for his most trustworthy generals to congregate in Syria for the coming war. He brought with him two legions from the Danuvius and sent orders for additional auxiliaries to be drawn from Galatia and Thrace. Felix and Cotta departed as soon as they heard with the powerful generals Corbulo and Silius. However, Vopiscus Caesar did not wish for all of his brother’s allies to join the eastern legions in unison, and thusly he dispatched his ally Vergilius Capito to serve as the praefect of Aegyptus.
In this great absence of powerful men from Rome, one rose above all the others in both ambition and energy to become the urban prefect and broker between the disparate factions of the Caesars. Agrippa had been complaint with the wishes of the Caesars in recent years, however, with all the other Julian men departing for Syria and so many senators living in the shadow of Vopiscus Caesar’s iron will, Agrippa was poised to become the moderating influence in the city. His cousin and brother-in-law, Paullus Lepidus, the censor, arranged for Agrippa to be made prefect of the vigiles, a post usually reserved for an eques, but in this role, he personally financed the expansion of aqueducts into the center of Rome, where periodic fires had proved a sporadic terror of the urban plebs. He renovated several temples including the Temples of Augustus and Drusus as well as the Altar of Peace. He likewise followed in the footsteps of his adoptive grandfather, Tiberius the Elder, and patronized a number of young senators whom themselves permeated the austere house with a moderating influence that sought to blunt the open hostilities between the traditional aristocracy and the novi homines of Drusus Caesar. Agrippa joined hands with another of the wealthy statesmen of Rome, Sulla Felix, whom was the sole surviving heir to that great family out of his brothers, whom had long served the Caesars since the days of their father whom was consul with the Divine Augustus. Through his extended family, which included the sons and daughters of his two deceased brothers as well as his sister, he commanded what was perhaps the largest network of clients in all of Rome. The men whom counted him as their patron included those of many prestigious families including Lucius Vipstanius, son of the consul, Gellius Publicola the decemvir, Publius Cicero, descendant of the orator, Cinna, the soon-to-be consul-elect, and Sisenna Statilius Taurus, sole inheritor of his great-grandfather’s fortune, which was considerable, as he had been the consular colleague of the Divine Augustus. These men soon filled the praetorships and would shape Rome for many years to come.
The Parthian heavy calvary charging with the support of mounted archers in the rear, a common tactical maneuver
—In the consulship of Appius Valerius Messalla Niger Claudianus and Aulus Pomponius Milo…
The inaction of the censors ceased by their decision to resolutely evaluate the membership of that body and expel many unruly and parasitic hangers-on. Paullus Lepidus was the instigator of this effort, as he had grown in his antipathy for the ingratitude and rapaciousness of many in that austere body, and he induced his colleague Blaesus to cooperate in his efforts. By stipulation of the Julian law on the censors, the pair need not secure any criminal convictions requisite to these expulsions, and their mutual consent was sufficient on its own. The first of the men they subjected to this revision were men whom had already suffered disgrace in their families and did not enjoy the support of the wider senate. They announced, on the Ides of Februarius, that the membership of the senate would be under review coupled with the first eight men to be expelled. The only notable man of this group was Annius Seneca, a haughty and irreverent Spaniard who was not well-liked or respected, and had earned the disdain of his father-in-law, Avidius Quietus. The remaining senators offered little opposition to this, although the disgraced Seneca appealed to Vopiscus Caesar, who announced that the law was not his purview to overturn, having been authored by his grandfather. Thus concluded the first of many revisions of the senate by the censors since the days of the Divine Drusus. The censors then saw fit to direct their powers at the nobiles whom had fallen out of favor or suffered disgrace in their families. The elder brother of the exiled Galba, Gaius, was among those stripped of rank, even though Galba was an ex-praetor. Also expelled from office were the brothers of the Aruntii Aquilae, even though their grand-uncle, Camillus Scribonianus was the princeps senatus; also discharged was Marcus Nerva, the nephew of Octavius Laenas, the ex-consul whom had committed suicide rather than face disgrace in trial. The final, and most prestigious victims of this purge were the brothers Quintus and Marcus Lepidus, whom were the grandsons of the orator, consul, and censor, and whom had only risen to the praetorship but commanded outsized influence due to their lofty ancestry. They raised considerable vigor at this affront, especially from their kinsman Paullus, but it was to no avail. The memory of Lepidus the orator was not one that rallied any great sympathy from the sycophants and grovelers whom had filled the senate in the preceding years, and when this revision was complete, the abject subjugation of the senate to the power of the Caesars was absolute.
The only senators whom appeared above the fray of this public subordination were the kinsmen of the Caesars themselves. The vacation of so many prestigious men from the senate forced that body to make exemptions to those unqualified for office such that the magistracies every year were filled. Thusly, many men in their early twenties, including the young brothers of the Cassii, had ascended to the praetorship at this time in spite of their youth. However, as an affront to the intransigent censors and the absentmindedness of the consuls, a young praetor named Servilius Vatia, whom was of the highest patrician ancestry, organized the consular elections for the next year and saw the election of Vettius Bolanus and Vespasius Pollio. This was a direct affront to the regime of the Caesars as well, for they had predetermined the consuls for the next several years by a process of formal recommendation by an electoral college which had been assembled by lot, although it was widely know that its members enjoyed gracious benefits from the Caesars in exchange for their compliance. As this assembly of the senate had nearly drawn to a close, with the censors being unable to leave due to an intervention by the tribunes, the praetorian guardsmen burst into the curia with their patron Vopiscus Caesar. His ally and prefect Vedius Pollio had learned of this seditious assemblage and summoned the younger Caesar with all haste, who dissolved the senate and placed the seditious consuls-elect under arrest. They were later acquitted, but their disgrace in this affair precluded any return to public life and they both retired to their estates in Italia.
Vopiscus Caesar at this time, had received numerous reports from his subordinates in the East as well as his brother, and he was raised to considerable alarm by their omens. The young Caesar called upon one of Rome’s greatest generals, Gaius Lollius, the consul of four years hence to take command of the Syrian legions, securing for him a grant of maius imperium over the provinces of Syria, Cilicia, and Cyprus. He marshaled his considerable wealth and resources, earned as well as gifted for his service in the Germanic wars, and departed the city with an entourage of his kinsmen. This was a boon for the young Caesar as well, for Lollius was the nephew-in-law of Felix Pius by his cousin Julia Rufinia, and among his entourage, in addition to Felix and Cotta, was the powerful and respected ex-consul Gaetulicus, as well as many of Drusus Caesar’s ex-praetors of provincial origin. During the course of the escalating Parthian War, Vopiscus Caesar had assumed the command which had been denied to him since his consulship — he was the undisputed master of Rome.
The situation in the East had rapidly deteriorated. In the preceding two years, intermittent civil unrest in Armenia had enabled the Arsacid king of Parthia to march into that country under the pretense of a liberator, all the while subjecting the proud Armenians to his tribute. This was followed by still greater usurpations by the new Arsacid king of Armenia, whom demanded a levy of troops in his country for the reclamation of territory that was constituent to the mountain kingdom by birthright. His army had driven out the king of Lesser Armenia, Antiochus Gordianus, and menaced the Pontic shores. The seizure of Armenia itself was grounds enough for war, having been a violation of the treaties established by the Divine Augustus during the Armenian wars under his auspices, but these brute displays would not go unanswered. Drusus Caesar, whom at that time was at Sirmium, sent his capable aides, Vergilius Capito, Ventidius Bassus, and Coelius Rufus to assume total command of Aegypt from whence it might serve as the supply depot of the upcoming war. Before departing for Antioch, the elder Caesar ordered new fortifications and watchtowers to be built along that bend the Ister, and left his capable lieutenants Didius Gallus and Quintus Plautius, the consuls of six and five years hence, respectively, in the command of the Illyrian legions and made for Syria with all speed. On his arrival, he dismissed the magister oriens, Lucius Saturninus, the consul of ten years hence, and assumed general command over the provinces of the east, superseding Lollius and placing him in direct command of the legions. However, he eschewed his predecessor’s practice of leaving the legions to the command of his subordinates and resided in the castrum of the Legio XIII Augusta Invicta.
The force in Syria, which had quickly swelled to include eight legions, was commanded by Lollius, who employed as his lieutenants, the capable generals Silius and Corbulo, as well as the wealthy equite and tactician, Claudius Stolo, whose father was a freedman of the Divine Tiberius. Also at his table was the knowledgable young Livius, the son of Tiberius the Elder, whom had served only as quaestor but whom was easily the most learned man in Rome on the affairs of the East, having spent many of his early years attendant to his father and uncle, Lucius Vipsanianus, in Syria and Cappadocia. The legati of this force were a peculiar assemblage of persons, whom owed their position more to political favors than any conspicuous command ability. By far the most capable of these men was Licinius Mucianus, a young eques whom had been adopted by Licinius Nerva and seen many years of service in the Syrian legions, but the remainder of the legati were Felix Pius and Cotta, whom commanded the most prestigious legion, the XX Deiotoriana, Lucius Asinius Gallus — a young ex-praetor whom was untainted by the shame in his family — Veranius Incitatus, the aedile of two years hence, Gaius Caetronius, a close friend of Silius, and several provincial novi homines who were favorites of Drusus Caesar from their time in the Germanic legions. However, many of these officers and troops had become unaccustomed to regular combat with the Parthians and thus had to be drilled up to the standard of readiness to which the officers had been accustomed with the Germanic legions. This would take time, and in the interim, Drusus Caesar ordered a general levy of troops from Rome’s allies across the Empire. Men from quarters as diverse as the Batavia, Mauritania, Galatia, and Arabia would be assembled in Syria for the reclamation of Armenia, and when joined by the bulk of the Aegyptian legions, this force numbered a total of sixty-thousand men with numerous cavalry as well. The force divided itself into three columns. The first of these was a diversionary force, sent to menace the cities of Mesopotamia and engage the bulk of the Parthian’s strength therein. This force of three legions was led by Felix and included a large portion of the cavalry such that it might easily disengage from whichever army might seek their destruction. The second of these columns was lightly armed and consisted only of a single legion and the remainder of the cavalry. This force, led by Veranius Incitatus, served to forestall any major counterattack by the Parthians and would patrol the supply lines of the third and final column. This was the primary offensive force, consisting of four legions and several cohorts of the praetorian guard. Drusus Caesar himself commanded this force, accompanied by his his provincial lieutenants, the freedman secretary Paullus Fronto, and his son Servius.
On the Kalends of Aprilis, the legions of Felix marched into Osrhoene, the westernmost kingdom held by the Arsacids. They raided and laid waste to numerous cities including Edessa and Amida, dispersing the meager defense forces mounted by the king of Osrhoene and accruing reinforcements from defections and from levies undertaken by Alexander, the king of Commagena. The forces of the Parthian king’s youngest brother, Tiridates, shadowed this force, but did not engage them directly due to their inferior numbers. While this force was otherwise engaged, the primary force of the legions marched into Armenia through Cappadocia, gaining the full support of the Cappadocian army, which was the largest of the Anatolian kingdoms. This force quickly dispatched a relief army mustering under the King of Sophene, one Sohaemus, and marched straight for the Armenian capital, Artaxata.
The army of Tigranes was engaged partially in a war against the Iberians, whom were friends of the Roman people, and when he heard of this development, he rapidly withdrew to defend the city. However, the legions arrived at Volandum concurrently with Tigranes’ entry to Artaxata, and in spite of the mildness of their resistance to the legions, Volandum was put to the torch and many of its inhabitants were sold into slavery. On hearing this, Tigranes marched immediately to intercept the army of Caesar, but the cavalry of Incitatus engaged their rear, forcing them to retreat to a defensible hilltop a few miles to the west of the capital. Here, the Armenians watched helplessly as the legions encircled and besieged their prestigious seat of government. They twice attempted to counterattack the besiegers’ flank, but were twice repulsed and retreated southward. Their primary aim in this was to rendezvous with the main Parthian army, which had meanwhile been occupied suppressing a revolt of the Hyrcanians — an independent mountainous people whom warred intermittently with the Arsacid kings. The legions would remain at the siege of Artaxata through the winter and into the next year, and the war would continue as the Armenians remained undeterred by the resolve of their former patrons. As the year closed, the legions of Felix, having accomplished their primary aims, marched North, leaving the uncoordinated Parthian army to restore order to Osrhoene. They engaged the Armenian militias outside of another major city, Tigranocerta, which was in the southwesterly portion of that country. The legions had won overwhelming victories, yet the Arsacids were resolute in their conviction to wrest control of Armenia from their rightful masters.
Pompeia, the wife of Agrippa, travels in Rome with her two children, Agrippa the younger and Vipsania
—In the consulship of Sextus Mummius and Lucius Verginius Rufus…
Agrippa was elected to the urban prefecture, and the young Publius Cicero, the sole inheritor of the orator’s legacy, assumed the office of praetor patriae. This was seen by many among the senate as a victory for their Italian order in opposition to the provincial magnates admitted to their body by Drusus Caesar. Sextus Mummius in particular, had suffered several indignities from the senators in Rome, even being blocked from entering the curia by an obstinate tribune. Gaius, the young brother of the Caesars, saw to it that each of the consuls were attended by a contubernium of the praetorians in their lorica segmentata, in addition to their consular lictors, and were thus able to travel about the city unimpeded. Verginius Rufus in particular was a close friend of both Gaius and his brother Vopiscus Caesar, and enjoyed their companionship as well as political support. He was the protege of Camillus Scribonianus, the princeps senatus and former commander of the Italian legions during the Marcomannic war, and the support of Camillus was sufficient to win for him considerable honors. This sycophancy was denounced by Appius Messalla, the consul of the previous year and the elder son of the censor Appius Pulcher. He served in that year as the Italian prefect, and thus enjoyed the considerable support of the Italian legions, which at that time numbered four in total, and he leveraged this as a means of securing what he viewed as his own birthright by inheritance of the Claudian house. Very few senators saw fit to oppose him, especially as his young brother Publius was the son-in-law of Gaius Primus. However, his intransigence set him in array against both of the Caesars, and at his brother’s instigation with the support of Milo, he stripped Messalla of his command and recalled him to Rome. Mummius induced the orator Labienus to bring him to trial for majestas under the auspices of Ulpius Trajanus, whom was himself a Spaniard and the victim of many abuses hurled by the ex-consul. The outcome of this trial was not in doubt, and Messalla committed suicide before its conclusion. His ominous last words were reported to the senate by one of his slaves, “
The house of the Sabines will not be so easily snuffed out. So long as one of us remains, my kinsmen will surely be your masters.” Such was Labienus’ renown among the men of the senate, that Mummius arranged for his election as the next chief praetor. This move incurred fear from many, who were wary of his ambitions and vigor, which reminded many of the now-deceased Gaius Cassius — a man of passion and vengeance for whom loyalty held little stock.
The children of the August house were many, and I shall now relay their number and statuses to you. The house of Drusus, the most prolific of the Divine Augustus’ descendants, had produced three sons and three daughters, all of which had sired still more children. Drusus Caesar, although he had lost his son Nero, had fathered two daughters by his wife Julia Augusta, Drusilla and Agrippina, whom were betrothed to Servius Caesar and Furius Camillus, the sons of men whom were close associates of the Divine Invictus. Vopiscus Caesar and his wife Lepida, the sister of the censor Paullus Lepidus, had only a single son, Tiberius Publicola, whom was married to the granddaughter of Cornelius Dolabella the censor by whom he would sire three sons and one daughter in the coming years. Gaius was the most prolific of the Drusillans, having fathered two sons and four daughters, all of whom were betrothed to the most aristocratic families of the senatorial nobility. Faustus and Marcus, his sons, were married to Claudia Gemella, the granddaughter of Drusus Nero the censor and to Cornelia Cossa, whose brother had been consul five years hence with Lollius. His daughters were married to men on the stature of Agrippa’s son, the paterfamilias of the Pulchri, Paullus Lepidus the censor, and the sole of the Asinii in good favor with the Caesars, Saloninus. Agrippina the younger had been with many husbands in recent years, with whom only the latter, Marcus Cato the former decemvir and consul, produced any children. Their daughter Porcia was married to Fabius Persicus the ex-consul and by this time, they had produced one daughter and Agrippina was pregnant with their son, named Fabius Macedonicus for his illustrious ancestors. Julia Livilla had likewise been betrothed to four men and by this time had birthed children by all of them. her first husband, Gaius Solus, the son of Lucius Vipsanianus, had been butchered in the palace with his father when Felix took Rome from Agrippa, and she had subsequently wed Cornelius Scipio, then Domitius Ahenobarbus, and finally Gnaeus Pompeius. She had produced three daughters and three sons, of whom only Gaius Solus did not have a male heir. The last of the Divine Invictus’ daughters, Drusilla, was married to the illustrious general Gaius Silius and had given him two sons, Gaius and Publius. Of these men, Servius and Publicola were the apparent heirs of the Caesars, although Servius' tenuous claim to the August office led many to suggest that one of Drusus Caesar’s many nephews might be more appropriate heirs. Although, none of his brothers-in-law would ever suggest such a thing openly, as to do so would be to court sedition and exile.
The secondary house of the Julii, having fallen from favor with the rise of the Divine Invictus, had seen their number reduced considerably by the violence of the preceding year. Of their number, only one male heir remained, Lucius Pius, the son of Felix, and his son Octavius Pius, whom was to be born in the following year. Felix’s sister, Julia Augusta, was the wife of Drusus Caesar, and his nieces by the deceased Marcus Rufus had wed illustrious husbands of their own, Gaetulicus and Lollius, although none of them produced male heirs. The lesser Julii, descended from Lucius Vipsanianus, had intermarried with the Claudii. The sole surviving child of Lucius, Aurelia, was wed to Gemellus, the daughter of Nero the censor, and their son Gaius Nero had been betrothed to Domitia, the daughter of the general Corbulo. The collateral branch of the Julii, descended as they were from Julia the younger, included the elder censor Lepidus, whom had not yet fathered any children as his daughter Drusilla was too young, and Balbus Minor, the consul of eighteen years hence whom had married Vibia Postumia, the daughter of the disgraced ex-praetor Vibius Lamia and produced a son, Laelius Macer, and two daughters. However, the most prolific house of the August family was that of the Vipsanii. The children of Agrippa Postumus had been arranged to marry into the most illustrious families of their day. Aquileanus had married the daughter of Nerva the censor, Postumia had been wed to Gaius Cassius, and Antonius married Pompeia, also the daughter of a censor. Postumia’s children were four, of whom her sole daughter had married Lucius Antonius and then Blaesus the censor by whom she had a total of five children — Marcus Antonius Primus, Marcella Antonia, Jullus Antonius, Junia Popilia, and Blaesus the Younger. Longina’s three brothers were betrothed, as has been aforesaid, to the daughters of Gaius Primus, Crassus Dives, and Scipio by Livilla. Between the three of them would be born nine sons and five daughter, although only three of their sons would survive to adulthood. The elder Agrippa had one son and one daughter, whom had married the daughter of Primus and Quintus Labienus respectively, and he had adopted his nephew, Aquila, whom married the granddaughter of Torquatus the censor and borne three daughters. Of all these, the descendants of Livia, only one lineage, that of Tiberius the Elder, had not married into the descendants of Augustus, except for his daughter Antonia, whom had been the wife of Agrippa Postumus.
The younger Caesar in that year saw fit to dispatch his son to Syria in order to assist with the administrative burden of that region during such a time of war. With him traveled a number of imperial administrators and freedmen, whom were tasked with the arduous process of securing the grain supply from Aegyptus to Syria and from there to the legions in Armenia. However, these agents had a secondary purpose, for they were all personally loyal to Vopiscus Caesar rather than to his elder brother. Their secondary mission was to undermine the commands of Drusus Caesar’s subordinates and to secure allies for their own patron, whom envisaged a grand command in the East in the aftermath of the war during which time he might secure control of the grain supply and the portoria as leverage against his brother to secure the succession for Publicola against Servius. However, in the interim, with the grain supply secure, the legions of Drusus Caesar set about in their work of reducing the Armenians.
The siege of Artaxata by this time was in its final throes, and envoys from the city were sent to negotiate with the legions, whom were given the ultimatum of an unconditional surrender and an opportunity for flight from the doomed capital. The bulk of the army retired to rejoin Tigranes in the East, while the legions stormed the city and burned it. However, Drusus Caesar and his officers knew that the capture of the capital was meaningless so long as the usurper king was free to act as their sovereign, and thus, he set about in a pursuit of the Armenian army. They met the legions in battle with their Parthian reinforcements led by Vologases to the North of the Araxes River. The battle was slow, but ultimately decisive as the Parthian king fled the scene when his forces succumbed to a flanking maneuver by the forces of Incitatus whom had joined the main force the previous day. The bulk of the Armenian army fled into the country and the legions marched with impunity to join the siege of Tigranocerta which was still ongoing under the command of Felix.
The legions thereafter quickly secured the surrender of the city once the defenders heard of the defeat of Tigranes and Vologases, and the city was spared the fates of Volandum and Artaxata. However, word quickly reached the legions, now in a combined force of nearly sixty-thousand, that the Parthians were massing a fuller counterattack in Mesopotamia from the South. The legions were quickly marched to Nisibis, the nearest major city in Mesopotamia, where they engaged several parties of scouts from the Parthian camp, but were otherwise unimpeded in their seizure of the city. They remained there for the rest of the year as a pestilence settled in their camp. Many legionaries accused the locals of treachery and many were butchered, justly or unjustly, as recompense for this loss. However, the gravest victim of this plague was Drusus Caesar himself. His constant activity in the castrum and his attendance to the sick and wounded soldiers under his command saw him fall ill, and within a month, he lay dead in his tent, attended by his son, his trusted freedman Fronto, and his friend and brother-in-law Silius. The legions mourned the death of their imperator, and they rallied in attendance to his reported last words, “
Fear not, dear soldiers, for victory is still yours. The death of one man is no great loss for the Republic.” He was forty-two years old and had ruled the empire with his brother for five years.
His officers gathered together in a consilium to face the gravity of these events. Lollius, the highest ranked of them, assured the others that the transfer of sole power to the younger Caesar was a cause for joy rather than dread, for this tragedy need not plunge the Empire into war. The princeps was alive and well and his son was in good health and of capable administrative ability. However, Corbulo and Silius were wary of this assurance. Lollius had been arranged to marry the daughter of Marcus Rufus by Gaius Primus and thus enjoyed the favor of Caesar’s brother. They had no such favor, and indeed had been staunch proponents of the adoption of Servius into Caesar’s house because of their friendship with Galba. Now, Galba was in exile, the paterfamilias of the Claudii was dead, and Gaius Aviola had succumbed to his age. What remained in Rome of the faction of Drusus were the ex-consuls Mummius, Milo, and Paulinus, and these men were not of sufficient rank or status to lead them through the gauntlet of certain tribulations that Caesar was awaiting to foist upon them. Caesar’s hostility to the faction of his dead brother need no longer be concealed behind the facade of criminal trials that had been employed in the previous years. Corbulo, the bravest of these men, resolved to return to Rome alone, leaving Felix in his place to serve as the magister consilium, and beg for the clemency of Caesar, appealing his long history of service and statesmanship to be made to account for any hostilities at which the new Caesar might direct him. The officers thus resolved to administer an oath of loyalty to the new Caesar to their legions and continue the campaign unimpeded under the command of Lollius, and they prayed for good fortune and awaited news from Rome.
