Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (36 page)

One such was Herodes who knew the importance of maintaining personal political relationships and headed to Mytilene over the winter months specifically to meet ‘his particular friend and companion’, and then returned directly home to Iudea.
⁴¹
In Herodes’ case though, the Roman commander and Jewish king seemed to enjoy a friendship beyond the diplomatic. When Herodes returned to his capital at Hierosolyma (Jerusalem), he called the two most opulent rooms in the new palace he was building respectively Caesareum and Agrippeum, after the eminent Romans.
⁴²

Some emissaries arrived from the Greek-speaking community of Gadara (modern Umm Qais in northern Jordan) to accuse Herodes of various violations, but the uninvited visitors had misjudged the governor general’s role and responsibilities.
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Agrippa’s ability to intervene in their case was curtailed by the fact that Herodes was a client king responsible for running the affairs of his own dominion according to its laws, and it was not for a Roman official to interfere without prior consultation unless the matter concerned Roman citizens, or he was invited by the regent to do so.
⁴⁴
Gadara had been placed under Herodes’ care in 30 BCE by Imperator Caesar. Herodes owed his position to Rome. Under treaty, in return the king provided the Romans stability on the frontier, providing his own troops to guard it, advertised his connections with Rome by establishing cities and encouraged policies sympathetic with Rome’s world view.
⁴⁵
Respecting the boundary between obligation and independence was essential to sustaining an effective client-patron relationship. Thus, Josephus writes that Agrippa sent the Gadarenes ‘back bound to the king without giving them the hearing’.
⁴⁶

To those regents who had supported Antonius, after Actium Imperator Caesar had taken a lenient approach – to act punitively would have injected uncertainty, even chaos, to the region.
⁴⁷
Just as Herodes had once been a loyal friend to Antonius, the expectation was that he would transfer that allegiance to Caesar Augustus, and so it proved to be.
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In the Judaean king Agrippa found a man of similar political and intellectual interests and passions. The political landscape of the region Agrippa was responsible for was not static, but an ever shifting network of relationships, some based on mutual respect, others self-interest. Upon the death of the client king or one of his descendants he might bequeath his realm to Rome. In this way, Romans often acquired territory without war. In 25 BCE, Amyntas – who had also supported Antonius at Actium – died and the kingdom of Galatia passed not to his sons, but to Rome; shortly after Galatia together with Lycaonia acquired a Roman governor, and the portions of Pamphylia previously assigned to Amyntas were restored to their own districts.
⁴⁹
Supervising these transfers of power would have been one of Agrippa’s responsibilities.

On account of its strategic importance as one of Rome’s breadbaskets, the governance of province Egypt was uniquely different. It was governed by a prefect (
praefectus Aegypti
), handpicked by Augustus from the equestrian order on the basis of his knowledge of administration and the law, and for his military prowess. In 24 BCE
praefectus
Aelius Gallus had initiated a war against neighbouring Arabia Felix, of which Sabos was king.
⁵⁰
Though Gallus at first encountered no opposition, he did not find the going easy. The combination of desert, the sun, and the strange quality of the water took its toll on his men, so much so that the larger part of the army perished on the march.
⁵¹
Dio describes a medical condition which ‘attacked the head and caused it to become parched, killing forthwith most of those who were attacked, but in the case of those who survived this stage it descended to the legs, skipping all the intervening parts of the body, and caused dire injury to them’.
⁵²
The cure was simple enough – a blend of olive oil and wine, taken orally and applied as an ointment – but few had access to the remedy. Finally attacked by the Arabians, Gallus had no choice but to sound the retreat.
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Dio adds that:

Gallus was replaced that same year by C. (or P.) Petronius. In 22 BCE, he was dragged into a war – not of his making – with his neighbours to the south, the Kushite (or Nubian) kingdom of Meroë in Ethiopia.
⁵⁵
The Kushites had raided deep into southern Egypt, reaching as far as the Island of Elephantine in the Nile and the city of Syene, taking captives and provocatively pulling down statues of Caesar Augustus.
⁵⁶
Leading them was Amanirenas Kandake (Candace) who Strabo describes as ‘a masculine sort of woman, and blind in one eye’, which perhaps owes more to a general Roman stereotype of barbarian queens than represents an accurate portrait of her.
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Petronius launched a devastating counterattack.
⁵⁸
His army of 10,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry pillaged the north of Ethiopia, razing their capital Napata (modern Karima in Northern Sudan) and other cities.
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As with Gallus before him, heat and desert prevented his troops from advancing further south and, after leaving a garrison on the border at Primis (present day Qasr Ibrim), he returned home. The Kushites then surrounded and attacked the garrison. Petronius returned again to deal with them, rescued his own men and compelled the Kandake to make terms with him, which included maintaining a permanent troop presence in the border region of the Dodekashoinos.
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Despite the shortcomings of Gallus’ and Petronius’ missions, Augustus gave a positive spin to their adventures and still claimed credit for them.
⁶¹

Agrippa was not one to sit idly. That was not his management style. From Mytilene he likely travelled to communities in nearby Anatolia and further inland to the cities of Asia, and to Syria, the location of his official seat. Inscriptions have been found across the region which mention his name, though it is not certain they all date from this time or later.
⁶²
Many of these cities had sided with Antonius – some freely, others under duress – only a decade earlier. Agrippa’s presence in the region would have given their city fathers the opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty to Augustus and by visiting them Agrippa showed that both sides were reconciled and spreading the message of the
Pax Augusta
, the Augustan Peace.
⁶³

In Rome, Agrippa’s closest friend was forced to intervene as the domestic situation deteriorated. In the spring of 22 BCE heavy rain had swollen the Tiber, which burst its banks and inundated parts of the city, and, writes the chronicler Dio ominously, ‘many objects were struck by thunderbolts, especially the statues in the Pantheon, so that the spear even fell from the hand of Augustus.’
⁶⁴
It was followed in the summer by famine and plague, which afflicted all Italy.
⁶⁵
Ascribing the crisis to the fact that Augustus was no longer consul and angered by the seeming inability of the authorities to deal with the growing crisis, a mob surrounded the
Curia
and demanded, while threatening to set fire to the building, that the Senate act by declaring Augustus
dictator
, granting him emergency powers, and giving him responsibility for the corn supply (
cura annona
).
⁶⁶
The Senate asked him to agree to both positions, but he knew instinctively that accepting the dictatorship was a dangerous option, carrying with it so many bad associations.
⁶⁷
However, Augustus agreed to take charge of the
annona
, and immediately appointed two ex-praetors, elected annually thereafter, as commissioners to supervise the distribution of the grain dole.
⁶⁸
(The Senate also offered Augustus the office of
censor
for life, deferring to his judgement in this important role, but this he also refused, instead proposing Aemilius Lepidus and Munatius Plancus to take the open posts.)
⁶⁹
At this time, he introduced regulations to restrict excess in public banquets and festivals, appointing their management to the praetors but imposing limits on the sums they could spend on gladiatorial games; as well as entrusting the curule aediles with the responsibility of the putting out fires and assigned them 600 slaves as firemen.
⁷⁰

Continuing Agrippa’s policy, Augustus showed himself to be both public spirited and politically responsible.
⁷¹
But not all were supportive of his social and political agenda. Particularly disturbing to Augustus was the exposure of a plot to assassinate him. Behind it was Fannius Caepio, but implicated was L. Licinius Murena, the brother-in-law of Maecenas.
⁷²
The men fled Rome to avoid prosecution, but were tried
in absentia
and sentenced to death.
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Neither Murena’s brother Procleius nor Maecenas were able to save him from a guilty verdict. As a result of the trial Augustus passed a law that a man who was not present at his trial could only be found guilty by unanimous agreement of the jury, and the voting must be transparent and not held in secret.
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The involvement of a family relation in a conspiracy to murder was an acute embarrassment to Maecenas, and from that time his influence with Augustus waned.
⁷⁵

Second Mission in the West

Believing the situation in Rome to have stabilized, Augustus departed for Sicily to settle affairs requiring his personal attention there.
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He had misjudged the situation back home, however. The new flash point was the consular elections. Even though the plebs had no direct involvement in the process of electing these chief officials, fighting broke out among them.
⁷⁷
The people fervently believed one of the two positions was intended for Augustus but he declined it and M. Lollius found himself sworn in as the sole consul at the start of 21 BCE. Two rivals emerged to contest the vacant curule chair – Q. Aemilius Lepidus and L. Silvanus – whose canvassing quickly deteriorated into tumult and the Senate appealed to Augustus to return and intervene, but he would not come back to Rome. The two candidates then travelled to Sicily and presented themselves to Augustus who rebuked and dismissed them.
⁷⁸
He demanded that the two men should absent themselves from the city while the election was held. They returned to Rome, but the quarrelling was as bad as before. Eventually Lepidus was chosen, but it was a sorry reminder to Augustus at how reliant on him the political system had become.
⁷⁹
He plainly could not run the empire if he was compelled to devote all his time to urban affairs, nor could he risk anarchy if he left it. ‘Accordingly’ writes Dio, ‘he sought for someone to set over it, and judged Agrippa to be most suitable for the purpose.’
⁸⁰
Once again it was his closest friend who he trusted above all others to deal with his difficult problems and, without further delay, he wrote to Agrippa calling him to a personal meeting in Sicily.
⁸¹
For the task Augustus had in mind, he felt it important to imbue his friend ‘with a dignity above the ordinary, in order that he might govern the people more easily’.
⁸²
His proposal contained a particularly special enticement. As related by Dio,

If Maecenas did indeed make the remark, he acknowledged the towering stature Agrippa had attained. By marrying his only child to his best friend, Augustus was now clearly communicating his intention of making Agrippa co-ruler of the Roman world. There was no other way to interpret it. Agrippa’s – or indeed the young widow Iulia’s – feelings about divorcing Marcella (his present wife and mother of his two children) are not recorded, not that the issue would have bothered Augustus much, even if they entered into his calculations.
⁸⁴
This was a politically-motivated marriage. It might have later blossomed into a relationship based on love, but this was not its genesis. It did not best serve Augustus’ interests in presenting his family as the role model for Roman society if his daughter remained a widow any longer. Admittedly, there was a considerable difference in age between the partners – Iulia was almost 18-years-old, while Agrippa was now 42 – but marriages between middle-aged men and teenage girls were common in the Roman world. As Augustus had no children by the Claudian Livia Drusilla, he must have had high hopes that the couple would establish a new Julian bloodline, which could produce a male heir to succeed him.

Iulia was Augustus’ daughter by his marriage to Scribonia. Little is known about her childhood and early teenage years, and what we know of her has been tinged by the notoriety of her adulthood.
⁸⁵
By her late teens she had grown up to be a popular figure in Roman society. People were drawn to her humanity and kindly temperament, but others were perplexed by her apparent contradictions.
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It seemed that beneath her warm personality lurked a spirit driven by darker passions. The precious few statue busts which have been identified as her show a pleasantly oval shaped face, wide open eyes, a Mona Lisa-esque expression on thin wide lips and hair done in the fashionably restrained style for the time, tightly gathered at the nape of the neck.
⁸⁷
Augustus indulged his daughter rather than taking a stern approach, but he found her dress sense at odds with his expectations as a father and he was critical of some of the company she kept. One day she appeared before him in what he felt was below the dignity of a woman of his family and he scolded her for it. The following day she reappeared, this time in a sober dress, wearing a demure expression, and hugged her father respectfully. He was delighted by the dramatic change and he complemented her on it; but it was an act intended to make a point. As reported by Macrobius she replied that ‘today I dressed for my father’s eyes, yesterday for my husband’s’.
⁸⁸
She was a woman who was aware of her sexuality and she was comfortable with it.