Germanicus

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Aureus of Caligula with the image of Caesar Germanicus
Germanicus, marble bust, Musée Saint-Raymond
Germanicus as General, Vatican Museums , Rome
Bust of Germanicus, first half of the first century, Museo Nazionale Romano : Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome

Nero Claudius Germanicus (* May 24, 15 BC ; † October 10, 19 AD in Antioch on the Orontes ) was a Roman general, known for his campaigns in Germania . He was the father of Caligula and the great-nephew of the first Roman emperor Augustus . From this he was intended as the successor of Tiberius in the office of Princeps .

Life

family

Germanicus was a son of the older Drusus and the younger Antonia . He did not receive the winning name Germanicus because of his deeds, but inherited it from his father. His brother was the future emperor Claudius .

When Augustus tried again to arrange his succession in AD 4, he adopted his stepson Tiberius, with the proviso that he also took his nephew in place of his son. Germanicus was thus determined as the next but one Princeps . From that time on his name was Gaius Iulius Caesar Germanicus . He married the elder Agrippina , a granddaughter of Augustus, with whom he had nine children, including Nero Caesar , Drusus Caesar , Gaius, the future emperor Caligula, Agrippina the younger , the wife of Claudius and mother Nero , Drusilla and Iulia Livilla . The historian Tacitus claims that Tiberius secretly feared and hated Germanicus, but there is no reliable evidence for this. Rather, the childless emperor accepted the succession plan even after Augustus' death and promoted his nephew accordingly.

Military leader

Germanicus supported Tiberius in suppressing the Pannonian uprising and in securing the Rhine border after the Varus Battle . In the year 13 he took over the supreme command on the Rhine and in the following year, after the death of Augustus, had to suppress a mutiny by the legions there , who would have liked to proclaim him emperor: By remaining loyal to Tiberius, Germanicus avoided a new civil war.

After a first incursion into Germania on the right bank of the Rhine in 14 against the Marser , Germanicus began large-scale forays in the following year, the so-called Germanicus campaigns , first against the Chatten , then to the Ems and to the site of the Varus Battle . On the march back to the Rhine, the four legions commanded by Aulus Caecina Severus were almost annihilated in the battle of the Pontes longi . Two other legions that Germanicus had unloaded to relieve the ships and marched along the coast under the legate Vitellius, suffered heavy losses from a storm surge. In the year 16 Germanicus visited the battlefield again and pushed as far as the Weser , where there was a battle against Arminius in the summer near Idistaviso , which had no clear winner. In late summer, on his retreat to the winter camp, there followed a mild battle on the Angrivarian Wall . However, a severe storm in the North Sea destroyed a large part of the 1000 ships in the fleet that Germanicus had commissioned to build for the conquest.

Although Germanicus spent two years with eight legions, i.e. H. One third of the total Roman armed forces that passed through the country, he could not significantly weaken the Arminius coalition, because one year after the withdrawal of Germanicus, the 74,000-man army of the Marcomann king Marbod was unable to defeat the Arminius coalition in an open field battle. This clearly indicates that the campaigns of Germanicus did not serve their purpose despite a few victories. Many of the battles that appear to be victories for the Romans may not have been - according to Ralf G. Jahn after a thorough analysis. At best, they were victories that were not decisive for the war. Tiberius himself spoke of grave and terrible losses.

Nor can one speak of a successful “revenge for Varus”. Firstly, one of the three legionary eagles was still in Germanic hands until AD 41, secondly, there was no deditio (submission) of the core of the rebel tribes, thirdly, Arminius was still at the head of a strong coalition army and fourthly, he was able to Years 17 AD claim without contradiction that he had "thrown out" the Romans, that is, he could claim the success for himself without this appearing unbelievable.

The doctrine issued by Emperor Tiberius to Germanicus in 16 AD, to leave the Teutons to their internal disputes instead of fighting them with high Roman losses in their forests and swamps, actually worked: After the death of Arminius (approx AD) the Cheruscan aristocracy increasingly extinguished itself through fraternal feuds, so that in AD 47 the Cheruscans sought a suitable prince in Rome. Rome then granted them the Italicus . However, his success in pacifying blood feuds has been limited. Tacitus was able to write around 100 AD that the recently so strong and important Cheruscan family no longer existed apart from a miserable bunch.

However, further forays by the Roman legions were not lacking. Finds on the Harzhorn testify that even in the 3rd century AD (more than 220 years after the Varus Battle) larger Roman associations were active far in the supposedly Germanic area.

death

Germanicus was recalled, honored with a triumph in Rome and sent by Tiberius on a political mission to the east of the empire. He traveled via Greece , where he became Olympic champion at Tethrippon at the 199th Olympic Games in AD 17 . He reached Syria via Asia Minor , and from there to Egypt . Since entering the Nile land was forbidden to senators without the express imperial permission, Tiberius is said to have been angry. Germanicus returned to Syria. There, in Antioch , he suddenly fell ill and died. The rumor quickly arose that the governor of the province, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso , with whom he was in dispute, had poisoned him. However, the exact circumstances of death have never been clarified. Piso, who had sought imperial protection in vain, took his own life. In the Senatus consultum de Gnaeo Pisone patre , the Senate's decision on the Damnatio memoriae imposed on Piso is preserved in writing . The Senate resolution received on the so-called Tabula Siarensis also lists the honors that Germanicus received on the occasion of the funeral ceremonies held for him.

Germanicus, unlike his adoptive father, was very popular throughout the empire, which was reflected in the great mourning after his death. Numerous honorary monuments and honors for the dead were decided for him. He was also active in literature; The astronomical poem Arati Phaenomena , 725 hexameters based on the didactic poem Phainomena (celestial phenomena) by Aratos by Soloi, has survived .

reception

Georg Philipp Telemann created the opera Germanicus in 1704 , which depicts the events of the Germanic campaign as a couple drama between Germanicus and Agrippina on the one hand and Arminius and Claudia (Telemann's name for Thusnelda ) on the other.

The baroque Serenata (homage music) Germanico is based on an episode from Germanicus' life. The anonymous composition, which was created at the beginning of the 18th century and rediscovered in 2007, is attributed to Georg Friedrich Handel , although this is not unanimously accepted in musicology.

Fonts

  • Les phenomènes d'Aratos. Texts établi et traduit by André Le Boeuffle. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1975.
  • José María Bernardo Nicás Montoto: Revisión del texto, léxico, traducción y comentario de “los fenómenos de Arato” de Germanico. Dissertation . Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología 2004, ISBN 84-669-2862-6 . (PDF)

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Giorgio Bonamente (ed.): Germanico. La persona, la personalità, il personaggio; nel bimillenario dalla nascita. Bretschneider, Rome 1987, ISBN 88-7689-029-7 .
  • Karl Christ : Drusus and Germanicus. The entry of the Romans into Germania. Schöningh, Paderborn 1956.
  • Ralf G. Jahn : The Roman-Germanic War (9–16 AD). Dissertation, Bonn 2001.
  • Lindsay Powell: Germanicus. The Magnificent Life and Mysterious Death of Rome's Most Popular General. Pen and Sword, Barnsley 2013, ISBN 978-1-78159-120-8 .
  • Dieter Timpe : The triumph of Germanicus. Investigations on the campaigns of the years 14-16 AD in Germania (= Antiquitas . Series 1, Volume 16). Habelt, Bonn 1968.

reception

Web links

Commons : Germanicus  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilfried Horstmann: The Romans on the Weser. Investigations into the Germanicus campaign of the year 16 AD. In: Mitteilungen des Mindener Geschichtsverein. 54, 1982, pp. 9-49.
  2. ^ Luigi Moretti : Olympionikai, i vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici. In: Memorie della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche. Ser. 8, vol. 8, fasc. 2 (1957), p. 154, No. 750 (Italian).
  3. ↑ Senatus consultum de Gnaeo Pisone Patre in the Heidelberg Epigraphic Database with further references.
  4. ↑ Alvaro Sánchez-Ostiz Gutiérrez (Ed.): Tabula Siarensis. Edición, Traducción y Comentario. Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona 1999 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Thomas Migge: A new Handel or not? Dispute over the opera "Germanico" in the classical music scene. Deutschlandfunk, August 3, 2011, accessed on May 14, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Germanicus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Germanicus, Gaius Iulius; Germanicus, Nero Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman general, adopted son of Emperor Tiberius
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 15 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 19
Place of death Antioch on the Orontes