The Jewish War: Book 3

[cahn]

Last week: The Jews are basically in an abusive relationship with Rome and have no good options; they choose the particular bad option of picking a war with Rome that they can't win. The Romans are terrible. Also continuing discussion here about Britannicus, Messalina, and the Praetorians.

This week: Vespasian comes down like a ton of bricks. That whole !!!! part of Josephus happens, where he gets stuck in the cave with a bunch of others and invents and wins the Josephus problem (well, in the text it says they draw lots, so he doesn't actually really cite what developed into the problem) (*) and surrenders to the Romans once he and another guy are the only ones left, and prophesies to Vespasian that he will become emperor. (selenak: Is it Feuchtwanger's invention to add the nomenclature of Messiah in there too? That definitely... upped the ante.)

(I'll comment more on this tomorrow -- I got done with the reading late and obviously barely got this written.)

Next week: first part of book 4, to "Despite the Zealotes didn't exactly behave as if they disbelieved the prophecies, they themselves contributed to their fulfillment" (Josephus describing the Zealotes as the worst!) (388)

(*) E. wanted to know what I was reading, so I told her about the Josephus problem, and she said, "Real-world applications of math!"

Comments

How Antonia and Caenis saved the Empire (sort of)

[selenak]

Antonia, as mentioned, was one of two daughters Mark Antony had with Octavia the sister of Augustus. Antonia got married to Drusus, younger son of Augustus' wife Livia from her first marriage, also younger brother of Tiberius, so we have the dynastic connections clear, and by all accounts it was a happy marriage resulting in children - Germanicus (everyone's fave military hero, who'd later marry Agrippina the Elder), Livilla (we'll get to her) and Claudius. Since Drusus died young, she raised the kids on her own and must have been a frightening matriarch. If you read Suetonius' Claudius biography, you can immediately see why Robert Graves thought Claudius was first class woobie material, because good Lord: "His mother Antonia used to describe him as a monstrosity of a human being, begun by Nature but only half-finished, and would accuse anyone whose stupidity she particularly wished to emphasize of being a bigger fool than her son Claudius." (Be a stutterer with a limp and some twitching in the ancient world, and be doomed for mockery.) This being said, two of Antonia's slaves whom she freed would end up rising very high - one was her freedman Narcissus, who later became one of Claudius' chief ministers, and the other was Caenis, who was Antonia's private secretary.

Germanicus, reminder, also dies young after producing lots of kids with Agrippina the Elder, which is the reason why Antonia won't stop childraising since little Caligula, Drusilla and Julia Livilla will end up with her. (Not Agrippina the Younger, who gets married off at age 13 to Nero's bio dad.) Her sole daughter Livilla gets married to Tiberius' sole surviving biological son, i.e. her first cousin, because this dynasty really likes to keep it in the family. Now fast forward a few years. Antonia's brother-in-law Tiberius is now Emperor, but it has come too late in his life, he's a bitter old man withdrawn to Capri, and there are increasingly bizarre rumors about what he's up to there. In Rome, his bff Sejanus whom Tiberius has appointed head of the Praetorians is the de facto ruler of the city and is busy practising state terror, at least that's what later historians write. (The one historian writing while Sejanus is still alive describes him as the second Agrippa to Tiberius' Augustus and the most wonderful man, natch.) Now whether it's Tiberius' or Sejanus idea, Agrippina the Elder gets banished and later brutally maltreated and killed to an island, and Agrippina the Elder's two oldest sons get executed, which is how grandmother Antonia ends up raising the rest of the kids. Sejanus makes increasing attempts to get a connection by marriage to the imperial family. He's marrying his sister to Claudius (she becomes Claudius' second wife and will only stay around for as long as Sejanus does), but because Claudius is the least respected member of the clan, this is just the beginning. Sejanus then starts an affair with Antonia's daughter Livilla. Who is married to Tiberius' son, remember. Sejanus is also married, but hey.

Then, at least according to Sejanus' wife Apicata, who will tell all of this to Antonia, Sejanus and Livilla concoct the sinister scheme of poisoning Livilla's husband so she is free and Sejanus can divorce Apicata and marry Livilla, which would give him not only a direct connection by marriage to the imperial family but also would make him the stepdad of Livilla's son and Tiberius' sole biological male grandchild Tiberius Gemellus. Apicata, hearing she's about to be ditched, goes to Antonia to reveal all. Antonia believes her and is horrified. However, Sejanus completely controlls all the mail going to and from Capri to Tiberius. Antonia decides to write to Tiberius along the lines of "your bff murdered your son and wants to become the next Emperor, are you blind!" with the message disguised as a chatty family letter about the kids. (In "I, Claudius" she smuggles it via telling Claudius who is a historian writing about the Etruscans that he has to go to Capri to ask Tiberius permission to dedicate his latest historical work to him, which is the kind of excuse Sejanus will buy, but that was Rober Graves' addition.) She also tells Caenis whom she dictates the letter to to immediately forget all that was in it, but Caenis says she can't, she understands the content and the enormity of it, but she swears to keep mum. (If word gets out to Sejanus, these two are as dead as poor Agrippina the Elder and her oldest two boys.)

Antonia's letter is sent, deemed harmless by Sejanus and forwarded to Capri where a shocked Tiberius reads it and was REVENGE for this enormous betrayal. Because Sejanus has made a lot of enemies during his fast rise to the top, there is of course an ambitious Praetorian wanting to succeed him, Macro, who organizes Sejanus' takedown. (With enormous brutality. Sejanus' kids from his marriage to Apicata also get executed. Because the girl is a twelve years old virgin, and Roman law forbids executing virgins, she gets raped first, then executed.) As for Sejanus' lover Livilla, Antonia herself punishes her daughter by locking her in her room and starving her to death. As I said, she's a frightening old battleax.

Antonia will live into the reign of her grandson Caligula where she herself will commit suicide (in "I, Claudius" because she is so disgusted by what's going on and has no hope anymore things will get better). We don't know whether Caenis and Narcisuss were freed before or after her death, but freed they were. Vespasian's life long relationship with Caenis probably started before that point. Caenis became a very successful businesswoman and according to Suetonius, after the death of his wife the mother of Titus and Domitian Vespasian lived openly with her as if she were his wife, but because she was a Freedwoman and he of senatorial rank, he could not marry her.

Re: How Antonia and Caenis saved the Empire (sort of)

[cahn]

WOW. Well, I see that my days of getting wild drama and gossipy sensationalism have surely reached a middle.

Antonia decides to write to Tiberius along the lines of "your bff murdered your son and wants to become the next Emperor, are you blind!" with the message disguised as a chatty family letter about the kids.

So how does she do this in a way that Sejanus thinks is harmless but Tiberius knows exactly what's going on?

Because the girl is a twelve years old virgin, and Roman law forbids executing virgins, she gets raped first, then executed.

This is both awful and also seems to be kind of a problem with this law...

Re: How Antonia and Caenis saved the Empire (sort of)

[selenak]

Unfortunately, Cassius Dio, who provides us with the Antonia and Caenis write the letter story, doesn't mention just how she made it sound harmless to Sejanus yet clear to Tiberius. (Hence Robert Graves inventing the detail that Antonia makes her son Claudius travel to Capri ostensibly to ask Tiberius for permission to dedicate his latest historical book to him, but in reality to deliver her secret letter which she has put inside of the petition to dedicate the book, and because Claudius has the harmless idiot reputation and is his brother-in-law, Sejanus lets him pass.

Here's the exact passage by Cassius Dio:

It was at this time that Caenis, the concubine of Vespasian, died. I mention her because she was exceedingly faithful and was gifted with a most excellent memory. Here is an illustration. Her mistress Antonia, the mother of Claudius, had once employed her as secretary in writing a secret letter to Tiberius about Sejanus and had immediately ordered the message to be erased, in order that no trace of it might be left. Thereupon she replied: "It is useless, mistress, for you to give this command; for not only this but as whatever else you dictate to me I always carry in my mind and it can never be erased." And not only for this reason does she seem to me to have been a remarkable woman, but also because Vespasian took such excessive delight in her. This gave her the greatest influence and she amassed untold wealth, so that it was even p289 thought that he made money through Caenis herself as his intermediary.

Re: How Antonia and Caenis saved the Empire (sort of)

[cahn]

Oh, okay! That's too bad. Why not give me exactly the details I want, ancient writers! :)

(Although okay they do all seem to give lots of sensational gossip, whether it's true or not, so I guess they do give me some details I want!)