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CLAUDIUS’ HOUSEBOAT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2019

Carolynn Roncaglia
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Extract

In the first months of 44 ce, the Roman emperor Claudius, after spending as few as sixteen days in Britain, returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph. On his journey back to Rome, he stopped near the mouth of the Po river to take a cruise, as Pliny the Elder describes:

The Po is carried to Ravenna by the Canal of Augustus; this part of the river is called the Padusa, formerly called the Messanicus. Nearby it forms the large harbour Vatrenus; from here Claudius Caesar, when celebrating his triumph over Britain, sailed out into the Adriatic, in what was more a domus than a ship.

Pliny describes a vessel that was less a boat than a floating domus, a somewhat ambiguous word which denotes a structure ranging in size from a modest house to a palace. The cruise, like his time in Britain, was short, and yet this cruise was a part of meticulously planned campaign, a campaign not just for conquest but also for Claudius’ reputation. Aulus Plautius, the experienced commander and suffect consul of 29 ce, had been sent ahead with the army, and Claudius’ freedman Narcissus was also on hand to oversee the invasion. The Roman army achieved initial successes and then halted until the emperor could arrive to command the final assault on the stronghold at Camulodunum (Colchester). While Claudius only spent around two weeks in Britain, his journey to and from the island took six months. Claudius travelled to Britain with a huge entourage, including senators, relatives, and even elephants. This was a mammoth undertaking, and one that seems to have very carefully planned, to ensure military success and a positive reputation for a new emperor of still uncertain legitimacy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , April 2019 , pp. 61 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019 

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References

1 Pliny HN 3.119: Augusta fossa Ravennam trahitur ubi Padusa vocatur quondam Messanicus appellatus. proximum inde ostium magnitudinem portus habet qui Vatreni dicitur, qua Claudius Caesar e Britannia triumphans praegrandi illa domo verius quam nave intravit Hadriam. The Latin text and translation are those of Rackham, H., Pliny. Natural History (Cambridge, 1942)Google Scholar.

2 Cass. Dio 60.19.1. On Plautius’ career, see Birley, A., The Roman Government of Britain (Oxford, 2005), 17–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Birley, A., The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford, 1981), 37–40Google Scholar.

3 Cass. Dio 60.21.1–2.

4 Cass. Dio 60.23.1.

5 Cass. Dio 60.21.2.

6 On the Padenna, see Cirelli, E., Ravenna. Archeologia di una città (Borgo San Lorenzo, 2011), 21–3Google Scholar; Deliyannis, D., Ravenna in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2008), 27–8Google Scholar; Maglieri, A., ‘Ravenna: il percorso del Canale Lamisa’, in Quilici, L. e Gigli, S. Quilici (eds.), Spazi, forme e infrastrutture dell'abitare (Rome, 2008), 54–5Google Scholar; and Maioli, M. G., ‘Vie d'acqua e stutture portuali di Ravenna romana’, in Mauro, M. (ed.), Ravenna Romana (Ravenna, 2001), 219–20Google Scholar.

7 F. Fabbi, ‘Ravenna romana nelle ricostruzioni storiche grafiche e cartografiche’, in Mauro (n. 6), 107–9; M. David, Eternal Ravenna. From the Etruscans to the Venetians (Milan, 2013), 18–19.

8 Cirelli (n. 6), 28.

9 App. B Civ. 5.78, 80; Suet. Aug. 49.

10 Pliny HN 36.83.

11 Maioli (n. 6), 220.

12 Osgood, J., Claudius Caesar. Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2011), 184–7Google Scholar.

13 CIL V 8003.

14 Levick, B., Claudius (New Haven, CT, 1990), 143Google Scholar.

15 Ibid.

16 CIL XI 5. On the gate, see E. La Rocca, ‘Claudio a Ravenna’, La Parola del Passato 47 (1992), 269–74.

17 CIL XI 5.

18 La Rocca (n. 16), 272–4.

19 Ath. 5.207–9. On Moschion the paradoxographer, see FGrHist 575. This Moschion is not to be confused with Moschion the tragic poet or Moschion the medical writer.

20 Ath. 5.209a.

21 Ath. 5.204–5. On the Thalamegos, see M. Pfrommer, Alexandria. Im Schatten der Pyramiden (Mainz, 1999), 93–120; and F. Caspari, ‘Das Nilschiff Ptolemaios IV’, Jahrbuch Kaiserlich Deutschen Arch ë ologischen Instituts 31 (1916), 1–74.

22 M. Pfrommer, ‘Roots and Contacts: Aspects of Alexandrian Craftsmenship’, in Alexandria and Alexandrianism. Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by The J. Paul Getty Museum and The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities and Held at the Museum, April 22–25, 1993 (Malibu, CA, 1996), 179; A. Kropp, Images and Monuments of Near Eastern Dynasts, 100 bc–ad 100 (Oxford, 2013), 103–4.

23 The evidence for the ‘Big Ship Phenomenon’ of the Hellenistic era is surveyed by D. Thompson, ‘Hellenistic Royal Barges’, in K. Buraselis, M. Stefanou, and D. Thompson (eds.), The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile (Cambridge, 2013), 185–6; W. Murray, The Age of Titans (Oxford, 2012), 143–207; and W. Tarn, Hellenistic Military and Naval Developments (Cambridge, 1930).

24 Murray (n. 23), 267–82. The exact arrangement of oarsmen on ‘sixes’ is unclear, and possibilities include two rows of three rowers or three rows of two rowers.

25 Ath. 5.203d–204b, OGI 39.

26 Ath. 5.203e–204b.

27 Plut. Vit. Aem. 31.1; Livy 45.35.

28 Livy 45.35: Romam primum reges captivi, Perseus et Gentius, in custodiam cum liberis abducti, dein turba alia captivorum, tum quibus Macedonum denuntiatum erat ut Romam venire, principumque Graeciae; nam ii quoque non solum praesentes excite erant, sed etiam, qi qui apud reges esse dicebantur, litteris arcessiti sunt. Paulus ipse post dies paucos regia nave ingentis magnitudinis, quam sedecim versus remorum agebant, ornate Macedonicis spoliis non insignium tantum armorum, sed etiam rregiorum textilium, adverso Tiberi ad urbem est subvectus, completis ripis obviam effuse multitudine. The Latin text and translation are those of A. Schlesinger, Livy (Cambridge, 1951).

29 Suet. Caes. 52.1; App. B. Civ. 2.90. T. Hillard, ‘The Nile Cruise of Cleopatra and Caesar’, CQ 52 (2002), 549–54, urges caution in interpreting Suetonius and Appian as giving precise descriptions of the barge in which Cleopatra and Caesar sailed.

30 On Caesar and Cleopatra's voyage as a traditional Ptolemaic reunification cruise, see Clarysse, W., ‘The Ptolemies Visiting the Egyptian Chora’, in Mooren, L. (ed.), Politics, Administration and Society in the Hellenistic and Roman World. Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Bertinoro 19–24 July 1997 (Leuven, 1997), 37Google Scholar.

31 On Caesar and Cleopatra's voyage as a traditional reunification cruise, see Clarysse, W., ‘The Ptolemies visiting the Egyptian chora’, in Mooren, L. (ed.), Politics, Administration and Society in the Hellenistic and Roman world. Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Bertinoro 19–24 July 1997 (Leuven 1997), 37Google Scholar.

32 Thompson (n. 23), 186.

33 McManamon, J., Caligula's Barges and the Renaissance Origins of Nautical Archaeology under Water (College Station, TX, 2016), 1–2Google Scholar.

34 A. Barrett, Caligula. The Corruption of Power (London, 2002), 201–2.

35 Suet. Gaius 37.2: Fabricavit et deceris Liburnicas gemmates puppibus, versicoloribus velis, magna thermarum et porticuum et tricliniorum laxitate magnaque etiam vitium et pomiferarum arborum varietate; quibus discumbens de die inter choros ac symphonias litora Campaniae peragraret. The Latin text and translation are those of J. Rolfe, Suetonius (Cambridge, MA, 1970).

36 Suet. Claud. 17.3.

37 Suet. Claud. 21.6 describes his presentation in the Campus Martius of the siege and storming of a town.

38 For representative cippi, see CIL VI 31537a, CIL VI 1231b (= 31537b), CIL VI 1231c (= 31537c), CIL VI 1231a (= 31537d). Claudius’ extension of the pomerium is also attested by Aulus Gellius (13.14.7) and Tacitus (Ann. 12.24).

39 auctis populi Romani finibus pomerium.

40 CIL VIII 1668 = Dessau, ILS 212.

41 Alpibus bello patefactis: CIL V 8002 = Dessau, ILS 208.

42 CIL V 698 = Dessau, ILS 5889.