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Fields - AD69: Emperors, Armies and Anarchy

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Fields AD69: Emperors, Armies and Anarchy
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With the death of Nero by his own shaky hand, the ill-sorted, ill-starred Iulio-Claudian dynasty came to an ignominious end, and Rome was up for the taking. This was 9 June, AD 68. The following year, commonly known as the Year of the Four Emperors, was probably one of Romes worst. Neros death threw up a critical question for the Empire. How could a new man occupy the vacant throne in Rome and establish a new dynasty? This situation had never arisen before, since in all previous successions the new emperor had some relation to his predecessor, but the psychotic and paranoid Nero had done away with any eligible relatives. And how might a new emperor secure his legal position and authority with regards to the Senate and to the army, as well as to those who had a vested interest in the system, the Praetorian Guard? The result was that ambitious and unscrupulous generals of the empire fell into a bloody power struggle to decide who had the right to wear the imperial purple. Tacitus, in his acid way, remarks that one of the secrets of ruling had been revealed: an emperor could be created outside Rome. This was because imperial authority was ultimately based on control of the military. Thus, to retain power a player in the game of thrones had to gain an unshakable control over the legions, which were dotted along the fringes of the empire. Of course, this in turn meant that the soldiers themselves could impose their own choice. Indeed, it turned out that even if an emperor gained recognition in Rome, this counted for nothing in the face of opposition from the armies out in the frontier provinces. It was to take a tumultuous year of civil war and the death of three imperial candidates before a fourth candidate could come out on top, remain there, and establish for himself a new dynasty. Nic Fields narrates the twists and turns and the military events of this short but bloody period of Roman history

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procul hinc procul este severi Ovid Amores 213 First published in Great - photo 1

procul hinc, procul este, severi

Ovid Amores 2.1.3

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Pen Sword Military an imprint of - photo 2

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Nic Fields 2014

ISBN 978 1 78159 188 8
eISBN 9781473838147

The right of Nic Fields to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset in Ehrhardt by Mac Style, Bridlington, East Yorkshire
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Transport, True Crime, and Fiction, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents
List of Plates

Caricature credits

: Caricature of Nero by the author, based upon a rough sketch of the head of Nero and signed TVLLIVS ROMANVS MILES (Tullius Romanus, soldier), which was found in the basement of the Domus Tiberiana on the Palatine Hill, Rome.

: Caricatures of Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasianus by Pedro Llorente, based upon various busts of the aforementioned emperors.

Maps and Graphics

(* = depleted by the dispatch of vexillationes to Italy)

Iberia
1. I Adiutrix?
2. VI VictrixLen-Castra Legionis?
3. X GeminaRosinos de Vidriales
Britannia
4. *II AugustaGloucester- Glevum
5. *VIIII HispanaLincoln- Lindum
6. *XX Valeria VictrixWroxeter- Viriconium
7. XIIII Gemina Martia Victrixin transit but returning to the province
Germania Inferior
8. *XV PrimigeniaXanten- Vetera
9. *XVI GallicaNeuss- Novaesium
10. *I GermaniaBonn- Bonna
Germania Superior
11. MacedonicaMainz- Mogontiacum
12. *XXII PrimigeniaMainz- Mogontiacum
Pannonia
13. VII GalbianaPetronell- Carnuntum
14. XIII GeminaPtuj- Poetovio
Dalmatia
15. XI Claudia pia fidelisKnin-Burnum
Moesia
16. VII Claudia pia fidelisKotolac- Viminacium
17. III GallicaGigen- Oescus
18. VIII AugustaSvitov- Novae
Italy
19. I Italicafrom Lyon- Lugdunum (Gallia Lugdunensis)
20. V Alaudaefrom Xanten- Vetera (Germania Inferior)
21. XXI Rapaxfrom Windisch- Vindonissa (Germania Superior) plus vexillationes of I Germania, II Augusta, IIII Macedonica, VIIII Hispana, XV Primigenia, XVI Gallica, XX Valeria Victrix, XXII Primigenia

Rome

Praetorian Guard (sixteen cohortes )

urban cohorts (four cohortes )

e classicis legio (perhaps sailors recruited from classis Misenensis )

Syria
22. IIII ScythicaKrus- Cyrrhus (near Beroea/Aleppo)
23. VI FerrataRafaniat-Raphaneae (near Emesa/Homs)
24. XII FulminataRafaniat- Raphaneae
Iudaea
25. V MacedonicaCaesarea- Caesarea Maritima
26. X FrentensisCaesarea- Caesarea Maritima
27. XV ApollinarisBeit Shean- Scythopolis
Egypt
28. III CyrenaicaSidi Gaber- Nikopolis (near Alexandria)
29. XXII DeiotarianaSidi Gaber- Nikopolis
Africa
30. I Macriana liberatrixHadra-Ammaedara
31. III Augusta liberatrixHadra-Ammaedara

2. Organization of a Neronian legion

Legio

The chief tactical unit of the Roman army, the legio was divided into ten cohortes , all of which, during the Iulio-Claudian era, were officially 480 strong. Attached to a legio was a body of mounted legionaries, known as the equites legionis and 120 strong.

Cohortes I X

The primary tactical unit of the Roman army, the cohors was subdivided into six centuriae of eighty men. Each centuria was led by a centurio who was assisted by an optio, signifer , and tesserarius .

Centuria

The centuria was the smallest unit of the Roman army. An administrative arrangement that served no tactical purpose, a centuria was divided into ten contubernia , tentfuls. Each contubernium consisted of eight men, contubernales , who messed and slept together, sharing a leather tent on campaign and a pair of rooms in a barrack block. In the period from Augustus to Nero, a legio had sixty centuriae .

VITELLIANS Full legions I Italica V Alaudae XXI Rapax - photo 3

VITELLIANS Full legions I Italica V Alaudae XXI Rapax Vexillationes II - photo 4

VITELLIANS Full legions I Italica V Alaudae XXI Rapax Vexillationes II - photo 5

VITELLIANS Full legions I Italica V Alaudae XXI Rapax Vexillationes II - photo 6

VITELLIANS

Full legions: I Italica, V Alaudae, XXI Rapax

Vexillationes: II Augusta, VIIII Hispana, XX Valeria Victrix (from Britannia), I Germanica, IIII Macedonica, XV Primigenia, XVI Gallica, XXII Primigenia (from Germania)

FLAVIANS

From Pannonia: VII Galbania, XIII Gemina

From Moesia: III Gallica, VII Claudia p.f., VIII Augusta

Picture 7 HQ of Antonius Primus

Prologue: Imperial Illusions

I n the harrowing year of four emperors, Otho, whose principate is a byword for its unpeaceful brevity, struck gold coins that proudly displayed the sugary words PAX ORBIS TERRARVM Peace of the World on their reverse side. Nothing, of course, was said of the blacker side of the picture, since one rightly expects the message on coinage, like other political propaganda, to concentrate on heartening uplift. Still, what is remarkable about Othos coinage is the total dissociation of its inscription from what was really going on at the time of its issue. The truth was otherwise. To the contrary, there was no peace, and we can only assume that the message of the new emperor in Rome, who was not long for this world, to the populations of his vast and heterogeneous empire was a pious hope, unless of course it was wishful thinking or just a downright lie.

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