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Domitius Corbulo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Affiliation:
Brasenose College, Oxford
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Extract

Of the campaigns of Domitius Corbulo, not much remains to be said at so late a date in the annals of erudite investigation. His significance for social and political history is another matter. Corbulo's early career excites curiosity. And, later, the effort is not vain to look for links between Corbulo and certain persons, families, or groups destroyed by Nero in 65 and 66, in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy; and scrutiny of the legates who had served under Corbulo during the dozen years of his activity in the eastern lands also proves remunerative. In the winter of 66/7 Nero summoned Corbulo to Corinth and ordered him to put an end to his life. The general had become ‘capax imperii’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 60 , November 1970 , pp. 27 - 39
Copyright
Copyright ©Ronald Syme 1970. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Cichorius, C., Römische Studien (1922), 429 ff.Google Scholar

2 This possibility is not noticed in PIR 1, S 700, or in P-W.

3 For the items and the evidence, see Degrassi, A., I Fasti Consolari (1952), 12 ff.Google Scholar Add now, for 44 and 45, Barbieri, G., Epigraphica XXIX (1967), 3 ff.Google Scholar

4 Robert, L., Hellenica VI (1948), 62Google Scholar, whence AE 1949, 250 (Hierocaesarea in Phrygia). The previous evidence was Inst. III, 8, 3: ‘Suillio Rufo et Ostorio et Scapula’ Dig. XXXVIII, 4, 1, praef.: ‘Velleo Rufo Ostorio Scapula’. Also CIL VI, 24729: ‘[……‥] P. Suillius Rufus …’

5 Both ladies anonymous. Ovid's third wife had an uncle ‘maxima Fundani gloria, Rufe, soli’ (Ex Ponto 11, 11, 28): not identifiable.

6 Not, however, ‘spätestens um das J. 5 n. Chr.’ as M. Fluss, P-W VA, 722. That scholar was on a false trail; and, arguing from M. Suillius Nerullinus (cos. 50), the son of this marriage, he showed himself unaware of the age-differential touching consulships.

7 Thus, following Lipsius, H. Fuchs in his edition (1946).

8 Not recorded by any historian but deduced from facts, notably the age of L. Piso the Pontifex (Ann. VI, 10, 3), consul in 15 B.C.

9 JRS XLVIII (1958), 1 ff.

10 The praetorships of Allenius (ILS 945) and of Laecanius are dated by the Fasti Arvalium (Inscr. It. XIII, 1, 299). For the cursus of Veranius, Q., see AE 1953, 88.Google Scholar

11 As suggested in Tacitus (1958), 788. The index of that book registers the general as ‘suff.? 39.’

12 The standard opinion accepts Dio and assigns the consulship in 39 to the general's father. Thus Groag in PIR 2, D 141; Degrassi, o.c. By corollary, the son must then have been consul c. 43: he was legate of Germania Inferior in 47 (Ann. XI, 18, 1). However, the case for the general's consulship in 39 is vindicated with powerful arguments by Townend, G. B., Hermes LXXXIX (1961), 234 ff.Google Scholar

13 CIL I2 P, p. 70, cf. PIR 2, D 141.

14 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, cf. JRS XLIVI (1956), 18.

15 It is suggested in PIR 1, V 490 that both Vistilia and the other Vistilia (Ann. II, 85, 2) are daughters of the old praetorian senator Sex. Vistilius. Against which, cf. JRS XXXIX (1949), 17; Tacitus (1958), 374. The Vistilii have been omitted from the recent instalment of P-W.

16 That barren island would have been a suitable receptacle for her cousin P. Suillius Rufus, banished five years later (Ann. IV, 31, 3).

17 For the distribution of the name, JRS XXXIX (1949), 16 ff. PIR 1, V 489 notes four freedmen of a Sex. Vistilius—but not the example at Iguvium (CIL XI, 5825).

18 As potential father, a Pomponius consul in 23 has recently been conjured up in P-W XXI, 2356, with a reference to ‘Inscr. Per. 11 p. 428’. The inscription is spurious, cf. CIL XI, *314.

19 CIL XI, 5809. He is ‘C. [f.]’ therefore not the consul, who is presumably, like his brother Flaccus, ‘L.f.’ (cf. PIR1, P 540). Perhaps a son. Note further, as relevant to Pomponii in this period, that Graecinus had at least two brothers (Ex Ponto 11, 6, 15). The Vistilii appear to come from Iguvium, cf. above, n. 17.

20 The nomen ‘Suillius’, vulgar in appearance, is not at all common. For ‘Suillius’ and ‘Suellius’, see W. Schulze, LE 233; 372 (with mention of the Suillates in Umbria, Pliny, , NH III, 114Google Scholar). The nomen is absent from the Indices of CIL V, IX, X, XIV. In XI, one instance at Pisae (1493, with the cognomen ‘Cerylus’), one at Spoletium (4924). The latter, a fragmentary inscription with the words ‘loc. pub.’ in the second line, reveals M. Suillius M.f., clearly a person of local consequence. Observe also at Spoletium a woman called ‘Suilla P.f.’ (4925).

21 Should any doubt subsist about the year of his consulship (cf. above, n. 12), it does not in itself affect the problem of the sequence of Vistilia's children, or the approximate dating.

22 So Cichorius, , Römische Studien (1922), 432Google Scholar; M. Fluss, P-W V A, 722.

23 M. Fluss, P-W V A, 722, followed by R. Hanslik in XXI, 2356 (on P. Pomponius Secundus).

24 Cichorius (oc. 431 ff.), appealing to the P. Suillius Rufus named second in a pair of consuls (CIL VI, 24729), postulated a consul distinct from the man in the pair ‘Suillius Rufus, Ostorius Scapula’ (above, n. 4), hence a homonymous son of Germanicus' quaestor. Against, Robert, L., Hellenica VI (1948), 62.Google Scholar This second P. Suillius Rufus has secured an entry in P-W V A 722. Not, however, in Degrassi's Fasti Consolari.

25 M. Suillius Nerullinus (cos. 50) is patently the son of Ovid's step-daughter. But Suillius had at least two sons, compare the taunt of Valerius Asiaticus — ‘interroga, Suilli, filios tuos’ (Ann. XI, 2, 1). Another son, Suillius Caesoninus, is discovered soon after that in an appropriate context — ‘Caesoninus vitiis protectus est, tamquam in illo foedissimo coetu passus muliebria’ (XI, 36, 4). The cognomen ‘Caesoninus’ invites speculation. May not Suillius Rufus have contracted a second marriage, finding a bride somewhere in the congenial ambiance of his half-sister, Milonia Caesonia? Hence his son Caesoninus, to be presumed younger than Nerullinus.

26 Velleius 11, 10, 2, on the ‘peculiaris … felicitas’ of the Domitii (but not quite accurate).

27 Rom. Rev. (1939), 44; Tacitus (1958), 783 ff.

28 Jerome, Chron. 179 H.

29 Tacitus (1958), 591, n. 5: ‘conceivably Narbonensian.’

30 Tacitus (1958), 788.

31 Not cited in Tacitus (1958), 788.

32 As suggested by F. Münzer, P-W V, 1314.

33 Sydenham, E. A., The Roman Republican Coinage (1952), 191.Google Scholar

34 Cited in TLL, s.v. ‘Ahenobarbus’.

35 Krahe, H., Lexikon altillyrischer Personennamen (1929), 101.Google Scholar

36 Krahe, H., Die Sprache der Illyrer I (1955), 59.Google Scholar

37 CIL V, 5033: ‘Lubiae Esdrae uxsori Turi Barbarutae f.’ Cf. H. Krahe, o.c. 53.

38 See P-W VIII A, 1781.

39 For ‘Digitius’ see, discussing Sex. Digitius (pr. 194 B.C.), Münzer, F., Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien (1920), 92 ff.Google Scholar The nomen, preternaturally rare, points to Paestum, so he suggests, adducing CIL X, 477; 483; 493 ff. The only other instance in the towns of Italy is X, 5068 (Atina).

40 Perhaps by its root not Latin but Illyrian. Compare ‘Ovia Laevica Domatoris f.’ (CIL V, 449: Piquentum in Istria), registered by Krahe, H., Lexikon altillyrischer Personennamen (1929), 44.Google Scholar Add (noted in TLL), the ‘Domator” of Pan. Messallae 116, which some have impugned, without good reason. There is also the place name Domavia, in the back country of the province Dalmatia.

41 Diodorus XXXVII, 13, 1.

42 P-W V, 1327.

43 Caesar, , BC I, 20, 2.Google Scholar He had estates in central Italy, cf. 17, 4: ‘militibus in contione agros ex suis possessionibus pollicetur’. Also, however, in Etruria, cf. 1, 34, 2; 56, 3.

44 CIL IX, 3418 ff.; 3432; 3438; 3469; ILS 9518. Registered in PIR 2, D 181, also in Tacitus (1958), 788.

45 Dessau in cautious comment on ILS 9518 said ‘aut ipsa Domitia Domitiani, Longina etiam alibi dicta, aut mater eius, uxor Corbulonis, praeterea ignota’. Groag, however, did not find the notion worth admittance to the rubric on Corbulo, PIR2, D 142.

46 Groag, E., Jahreshefte XXIX (1935)Google Scholar, Beiblatt 193.

47 On Larcius Priscus in Syria, cf. Tacitus (1958), 631. He is not heard of after his consulate.

48 Dessau in comment on ILS 9518, mooting Corbulo's wife, said “praeterea ignota, nisi ad eam spectat IX 3426’. That possibility was briefly evoked in Tacitus (1958), 788.

49 The sequence and changes in Corbulo's sphere of authority are clearly set forth in PIR 2, D 142.

50 Seneca, De const, sap. 17. 1. In PIR2, C 1350 the parent is assumed ‘sine dubio.’ But observe the convincing argument of Townend, G. B., Hermes LXXXIX (1961), 235.Google Scholar Cornelius Fidus married a daughter of one or other of Ovid's first two wives: a daughter finds an anonymous mention in Tristia 1, 3, 19 (she was then absent, in Africa).

51 ILS 207, cf. Ashby, T. and Gardner, R., JRS III (1913), 205 ff.Google Scholar

52 As suggested, with due diffidence, in Tacitus (1958), 560 (cf. 788), and drawing attention to another character, C. Pompeius Longinus Gallus (cos. 49): known only as consul and proconsul of Asia.

53 However, Suillius' son was consul ordinarius in 50, and Suillius himself became proconsul of Asia (Ann. XIII, 43, 1, cf. IGR IV, 972; 995: Samos).

54 Tacitus (1958), 560.

55 Borghesi supposed that his father, Annius Pollio (suff. ann. inc.) had married a sister of M. Vinicius: conceded in PIR 2, A 677, cf. 701.

56 Josephus, , AJ XVIII, 49Google Scholar; 52; 251. For these transactions, see now Timpe, D., Historia, Einzelschriften, Heft 5 (1962), 80 ff.Google Scholar; Syme, R., Hermes XCII (1964), 415 f.Google Scholar

57 Dio LX, 15, 1.

58 Pliny, , Epp, III, 16, 7 ff.Google Scholar

59 One will note reserve about his consulship: c. 43 on the standard assumption (PIR 2, D 142), but, as here assumed, in 39.

60 OGIS 768 = Forschungen in Ephesos 11, 173, no. 59.

61 PIR 2, D 141. Local coins of a community in Lydia, under Augustus and under Nero, register the name of Corbulo. For the detail see PIR 2, D 142, with no positive conclusions. They do not forbid the notion that the parent had been in Asia as quaestor, the son as proconsul. Further, both Corbulones could have been quaestors in Asia.

62 Viz., coins of Docimium in Phrygia (BMC Phrygia 190), and unpublished inscriptions of Cos, from Clara Rhodes VIII (1936), 370, noted in PIR 2, D 142. Cf. also Segré, M., Aevum IX (1935), 254Google Scholar, with an addition to the proconsul's decree of IGR IV, 1944 (Cos). As for identity, PIR 2, D 141 expresses a preference for the elder Corbulo.

63 CIL VI 6866; SEG XIV, 646 (Caunus). Cf. Tacitus (1958), 386. This lady has no entry in PIR 1 or in P-W.

64 On the evidence of the tile bearing the date of that year (CIL XV, 554), cf. PIR 2, D 181.

65 CIL XIV, 2795 = ILS 272.

66 For this conjecture, cf. Tacitus (1958), 501; 780. That on the contrary Suetonius began with the six Vitae from Galba to Domitian is now argued by Bowersock, G. W., Hommages à Marcel Renard I (1969), 119 ff.Google Scholar

67 This paper was composed in 1959. For pertinent criticism, for valuable and necessary improvements, I am much indebted to various members of the Editorial Committee. The drawing of the surviving half of the Peltuinum inscription (CIL IX, 3426), along with a photograph, was generously furnished by Dr. A. La Regina, of the Superintendency of Antiquities for the Abruzzi.