Julius Tutor

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Iulius Tutor was a distinguished Treveri who played an important role in the Batavian revolt against Roman rule in Gaul and Lower Germany in AD 70, led by Iulius Civilis .

Life

The only extant ancient source that reports on Iulius Tutor are the histories of the Roman historian Tacitus . Accordingly, Tutor was appointed by Vitellius as praefectus ripae as commander of the Lower Germanic Rhine border in the Four Emperor's year. After the assassination of the governor of the province of Germania superior , Marcus Hordeonius Flaccus , by mutinous soldiers (January 70 AD), he secretly joined the revolt of Iulius Civilis, as did a more powerful leader of the Treveri, Iulius Classicus . Apparently, Tutor was one of the participants in a meeting of high-ranking representatives of different tribes in a private house in Cologne , where their anti-Roman alliance was sealed. At that time, the creation of a Gaul independent of Rome is said to have been discussed.

Tutor then commanded auxiliary Treverian troops to support the Roman legate Gaius Dillius Vocula . When he set out from Cologne to relieve the Vetera, besieged for the second time by Civilis (near today's Xanten ), Tutor and his soldiers left him, as did other Gallic auxiliary troops. For this reason Vocula was forced to stop the attempt at relief. More and more troops fell away from Vocula, who finally fell victim to the attack by a deserter of the First Legion , Aemilius Longinus. Tutor and Classicus had openly sided with the Gallic insurgents and had to organize the revolt even further.

Tutor besieged Cologne with strong associations and is said to have forced this city and the other garrisons on the upper Rhine to take the oath to a Gallic empire. The Sequani , however, were still loyal to Rome, the Remer also wanted to keep peace with Rome and Quintus Petilius Cerialis , a confidante of Emperor Vespasian , moved a large contingent of troops from Italy to suppress the uprising. Tutor was supposed to occupy the banks of the Rhine in Germania superior and the Alpine passes, but was in default. It was only when the news that the Legio XXI Rapax , the Rhaetian auxiliary cohorts under Sextilius Felix and the Ala Singularium were on the march from Vindonissa , that Tutor began to recruit more warriors from the ranks of the Vangion , Caeracaten and Triboker tribes . With these new military units he increased his army as well as with veteran legionary soldiers. So he achieved an initial success over a Roman vanguard. But when the main Roman army was approaching, the newly raised Gallic auxiliaries and the legionaries from Mogontiacum (today Mainz ) fighting in the tutors' army surrendered to Sextilius Felix. The result was that Tutor could only rely on his Treverian soldiers and had to retreat to Bingen . There he had the bridge over the Nahe destroyed, but the Roman forces managed to cross the river at a ford and win a victory over Tutor.

This military failure caused great consternation among the Treverians. Tutor sought with the rest of his troops to unite with Iulius Valentinus , another leader of the Treveri. They gathered an army recruited from their people and had the legionary soldiers Herennius Gallus and Numisius Rufus killed in order to make an understanding with the Romans as difficult as possible.

Petilius Cerialis advanced with armed forces gathered in Mogontiacum in forced marches against the Treverian capital Augusta Treverorum (today Trier ), defeated Valentinus at Rigodulum (today Riol ) on the way and then took Augusta Treverorum. Civilis and his allies gathered their troops around this metropolis. Tutor and Classicus, contrary to the view of the Civilis, advocated a rapid joint attack on the Cerialis entrenched in Augusta Treverorum. Tutor, Classicus and Civilis each commanded part of the united army that advanced against Augusta Treverorum. At the beginning their attack was successful, but the courageous determination of the Cerialis and the greed of the Teutons and Gauls, who thereby neglected the exploitation of their initial success, turned the tide. The Romans were able to repel the enemy attack and Civilis and his allies fled.

Tutor and Classicus remained allies of the Civilis, crossed the Rhine and went into the land of the Batavians to continue the fight against Rome. A total of 113 Treverian nobles came to Civilis. When the latter took the offensive with divided forces and ordered attacks on four fortified Roman sites (Arenacum, Batavodurum, Grinnes and Vada), Tutor was probably in command of one of the four departments. Here he probably led either the attack on the Roman auxiliary units in Grinnes or in Vada. The timely appearance of the cavalry under the leadership of the Cerialis saved the Roman auxiliary troops. However, Tutor was able to escape across the Rhine by boat. His further fate is unknown.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Tacitus, Historien 4, 55.
  2. ↑ Tacitus, Histories 4, 55 and 4, 57 f.
  3. ^ Tacitus, Historien 4, 59.
  4. ↑ Tacitus, Historien 4, 70.
  5. ^ Tacitus, Historien 4, 71.
  6. ↑ Tacitus, Historien 4, 76-78.
  7. ^ Tacitus, Historien 5, 19 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Julius Tutor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tutor, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION noble Treverer
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century