Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 32 BC)

Coin of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. On the front his portrait, on the back a depiction of his victory over Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus in the battle of Philippi

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus († 31 BC ) was a politician and military leader of the late Roman Republic . He was a major protagonist of the Roman Civil Wars and initially fought against Gaius Iulius Caesar . After his death he joined the Caesar murderers and fought against the triumvirs . After the defeat in the Battle of Philippi , he switched to the side of Marcus Antonius , who gave him his support in 32 BC. Helped to the consulate . He tried to reduce the influence of Cleopatra , Antony's lover, but did not succeed. Shortly before the foreseeable defeat in the Battle of Actium , he finally went over to Octavian , but died of a fever before the battle. His great-grandson Nero became Roman Emperor in 54 AD .

Fight against Caesar

Gaius Iulius Caesar (portrait head, Altes Museum Berlin)

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was the son of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 54 BC) and Porcias , the sister of Catos . At a young age he raised 50 BC Indictment against Gnaeus Appuleius Saturninus , probably because he was involved in preventing his father's election as augur. At the outbreak of the Roman civil war in February 49 BC, he accompanied His father to Corfinium , who fought the first major battles against Gaius Julius Caesar there as a bitter enemy . Caesar was able to capture both father and son, but amnestied both generously. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus did not follow his father to Massalia , but traveled in March 49 BC. BC via Formiae to Naples to meet his mother. Probably despite Caesar's pardon, he immediately entered the service of his opponent for supremacy in the Roman Empire, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus . At his side he fought in the civil war and, after the failure of his party, returned home to Italy without reconciliation with the victorious Caesar. The famous speaker and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero admonished him in 46 BC. By letter to finally make peace with the victor, apparently without success. 45 BC Cicero sent him an eulogy to his mother Porcia.

Domitius Ahenobarbus may not have participated in the conspiracy to murder Caesar. Cicero joins him in his Philippine speeches to the conspirators, with whom he was also in 43 BC. At the instigation of the Caesar heir Octavian was condemned by the Lex Pedia . And still at the end of 40 BC When the Triumvirs in Brundisium negotiated a new peace treaty, Octavian accused him of participating in the murder (see below), but Lucius Cocceius Nerva contradicted . The judgment of the ancient authors is equally ambivalent: while the historian Cassius Dio considers him to be one of the murderers, the biographer Suetonius believes the exact opposite. The suspicion surely arose because Domitius had fought earlier against Caesar, leaned towards the side of Pompey due to his descent and, after the murder of the dictator, joined the main conspirators Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus .

Fight against the triumvirs

Domitius Ahenobarbus went with the two Caesar killers in the middle of 44 BC. To Campania to repair and enlarge their fleet. He went to Macedonia with Brutus and was able to do so at the end of 44 BC. BC to pull part of the cavalry of the Caesarian Publius Cornelius Dolabella , who wanted to drive Cassius out of Syria , to his side. Early 43 BC He asked the Senate to be appointed pontiff . After the defeat of the Senate troops and the formation of the second triumvirate, Mark Antony and Octavian continued to fight the murderers of Caesar in 42 BC. From Italy to Macedonia. At that time, Domitius Ahenobarbus was a promagistrate in command of the fleet of Brutus and Cassius and joined the fleet of Lucius Staius Murcus with his 50 ships in the Ionian Sea . They were now able to prevent supplies for the triumvirs by inflicting a decisive defeat on the squadron of Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and sinking his two legions on the day of the first battle near Philippi (autumn 42 BC) . Because of this success, Domitius Ahenobarbus now took on the title of emperor , which he immortalized on coins through corresponding legends.

Although Domitius Ahenobarbus did not fight in the second battle at Philippi, he gathered the supporters of Brutus and Cassius who had escaped the devastating defeat with the remaining ships under his command and thus commanded 200 ships. But after Staius Murcus had soon separated from him with his fleet, he devastated those coastal regions that were under the triumvirs with the 70 ships still under his command and two legions. Then he succeeded in destroying Octavian's fleet, which was anchored in the port of Brundisium.

Career under Antonius

Mark Antony and Octavian ( Aureus , 41 BC)

As early 40 BC Chr. Lucius Antonius , the brother of the triumvir Mark Antony, who had lost the Peruvian war against Octavian, Domitius Ahenobarbus reconciled himself with Mark Antony, with Gaius Asinius Pollio acting as mediator. Antonius immediately demonstrated his confidence in Domitius Ahenobarbus by joining his squadron with only five ships, and he was actually received in a friendly manner. The former opponent of the triumvirs then brought Antonius to a coastal town, which was probably in Epirus , and subordinated his land troops to him there. Now Domitius Ahenobarbus minted coins with the head of Antonius instead of his previous independent coins in order to celebrate him as his new master. Octavian, however, remained hostile to him, accused him, as mentioned above, of being one of Caesar's murderers, and was particularly grieved for the military defeats he had suffered recently. When a renewed rapprochement of the triumvirs was negotiated in Brundisium (autumn 40 BC), the heir of Caesar expressed his displeasure over Antonius' peace agreement with Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was therefore praised as governor of Bithynia , but at least his condemnation by the Lex Pedia saw canceled.

In the Treaty of Misenum (39 BC) it was determined that Domitius Ahenobarbus should become consul with Gaius Sosius in one of the next years. At first he stayed until 34 BC. BC governor of Bithynia. 36 BC He took part in Antony's Parthian War, which failed miserably. As Sextus Pompey in 35 BC After his defeat by Octavian, after his defeat by Octavian, he fled to the east and started an incursion into the kingdom of Antony, the governor of the province of Asia , Gaius Furnius , asked Domitius Ahenobarbus for help. He was supposed to be the victim of an attempted attack by a certain Curius during the negotiations that followed, but the attack was foiled in good time.

The eldest son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Lucius , was betrothed to Antonia the Elder , the eldest daughter of Antony of Octavia.

Role in the conflict between the triumvirs and death

Over the next few years the conflict between the triumvirs escalated . Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius, who both belonged to Antony's party, were born on January 1, 32 BC. Chr. Consuls. Sosius immediately attacked the absent Octavian in a speech from the Senate. The latter had expected this and had left Rome in order to be able to think of a better answer to the individual points of the indictment against him. He only returned in February 32 BC. BC and in turn raised numerous allegations against Antonius, but numerous secretly armed men had come with him to the Senate. He concluded by saying that the next time the Senate convened, he would provide written evidence of his charges. But his show of force had intimidated the consuls to such an extent that they left Rome beforehand and went with 300 senators to see Antonius in Ephesus (March 32 BC). This departure was more of a secret escape, and Octavian only later claimed that he had voluntarily sent the consuls and other hostile senators to Antonius.

Cleopatra, whose influence Domitius Ahenobarbus sought to reduce ( Antikensammlung Berlin )

Domitius Ahenobarbus was the most important representative of a group of Antonians who wanted to push back the influence of Antony's lover, Cleopatra VII , because this gave Octavian the best arguments for his propaganda against Antony. The consul was the only Antonian to address her not with the title of queen, but only with her name and demanded that she should be sent back to Egypt from Ephesus. Only then would Antony, with the presence of 300 senators like Pompey once, have the opportunity to form a counter-senate and thus to fight Octavian with the help of Roman constitutional law. Antony is said to have bowed to the arguments of Domitius Ahenobarbus first, until Cleopatra was allowed to stay in the Roman camp through the intercession of Publius Canidius Crassus .

Apparently Domitius Ahenobarbus became one of Antony's naval commanders because of his earlier successes in sea wars. He had the priest Menodoros from Tralles executed because he was accused of inciting Domitius' seamen. In the battles of the Triumvirs in Greece in 32/31 BC In the 2nd century BC Antony's position deteriorated, numerous followers left him and went over to Octavian. Domitius Ahenobarbus also deserted in the end, because he supposedly could no longer bear the influence of Cleopatra; however, he did not change sides until shortly before the decisive battle at Actium , when he was already sick. He traveled to Octavian's in a boat. To the anger of Cleopatra, the shocked Antony had his luggage sent to him generously and scoffed at the fact that he was longing for his lover Servilia Nais. A few days after changing parties, Domitius Ahenobarbus died of a fever, even before the battle of Actium.

progeny

From his marriage to Aemilia Lepida, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had a son named Lucius , who lived in 16 BC. The consulate and was married to the elder Antonia . His son was named like his grandfather Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and officiated as consul in 32 AD. With Agrippina the Younger , a daughter of Germanicus , he had the son Lucius, who was adopted by Emperor Claudius and succeeded him as Emperor in 54 AD. This great-grandson of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, the last emperor from the Julio-Claudian dynasty , is known today under the name Nero .

Coins and Neptune Worship

The few gold coins that have survived provide information about the appearance of Domitius Ahenobarbus. Then an attempt was made to assign him some marble busts, but these ascriptions are controversial. As an admiral he especially worshiped the sea god Neptune , so he depicted a temple dedicated to Neptune on the reverse of a coin. Several statues of Poseidon and other sea gods are said to have stood in a temple of Neptune consecrated by him in the circo Flaminio , but more recent research relates this communication more to that Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus , who lived in 122 BC. Became consul.

literature

• Jochen Bleicken : Augustus. A biography . Fest, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8286-0136-7 .
• Joachim Brambach: Cleopatra. Ruler and lover . Callwey, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7667-0998-4 .
• Friedrich Münzer : Domitius 23) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Sp. 1328-1331.
• Christoph Schäfer : Cleopatra . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-15418-0 .

Remarks

1. ↑ Caelius in Cicero, ad familiares 8,14,1.
2. ↑ Seneca , de beneficiis 3.24; Caesar, De bello civili 1,23,2.
3. ↑ Cicero, ad Atticum 9,3,1.
4. ^ Cicero, ad familiares 6.22.
5. ↑ Cicero, ad Atticum 13,37,3; 13.48.2.
6. ↑ Cicero, Philippica 2.27; 2.30; Suetonius , Nero 3; Appian , Civil Wars 5.55.
7. ↑ Appian, Civil Wars 5,61f.
8. ↑ Cassius Dio 48.7.5; 48.29.2; 48,54,4; Suetonius, Nero 3.
9. ↑ Cicero, ad Atticum 16,4,4.
10. ↑ Cicero, Philippica 10.13.
11. ↑ Cicero, ad Brutum 1,5,3; The replicas of Brutus and Cicero have also been preserved (Cicero, ad Brutum 1,7,2; 1,14,1).
12. ^ Appian, Civil Wars, 4.86; 4,100; 4,108; 4,115f.
13. ↑ On this, inter alia, Appian, Civil War 5,25f .; 5.61; Cassius Dio 48,7,4f.
14. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5.50; Velleius Paterculus 2,76,2.
15. ↑ This, among other things Appian, Civil Wars 5,55f .; Cassius Dio 48.16.2.
16. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5,61; 5.63.
17. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5,65; Cassius Dio 48.29.2; Suetonius, Nero 3.
18. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5,73.
19. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 41.4.
20. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5,137.
21. ↑ So inter alia CIL I² p. 66; Cassius Dio 49.41.4; 50.2.2.
22. ↑ So Cassius Dio (50,2,6f.), While Suetonius ( Augustus 17,2) only reproduces Octavian's assertion; Bleicken, Augustus , pp. 271f .; Schäfer, Cleopatra , p. 197f.
23. ↑ Velleius 2.84.2.
24. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 56.2; Brambach, Cleopatra , p. 281f .; Schäfer, Cleopatra , pp. 203ff.
25. ↑ Strabo 14,1,42, p. 649
26. ^ For example Suetonius, Nero 3,2; Cassius Dio 50,13,6; Plutarch, Antonius 63.2; Velleius 2.84.2.
27. ↑ Coin of the Ahenobarbus ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
28. ↑ Pliny , Naturalis historia 36,26.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 12, 2008 .