Corbulo versus Vologases: A Game of Chess for Armenia

Gregoratti, Leonardo

doi:10.4467/20800909el.17.024.7506

2017

DOI: 10.4467/20800909el.17.024.7506

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Corbulo versus Vologases: A Game of Chess for Armenia

Leonardo Gregoratti¹

Abstract: The available books of Tacitus' Annales constitute the most important source of information concerning the long war between Rome and the Great King for supremacy in Armenia. Leaving in the background the stereotypical way in which the Arsacids are often portrayed, his characterisation of the protagonists, both Roman and Parthian, reflects Tacitus' opinions about Rome' political past and present. The representations the Roman author provides of the various leaders, Corbulo, Paetus, Vologases and Tiridates, seem… Show more

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“…He went on a campaign and actually expelled the Iberians without a fight. The cities of Tigranokertes and Artaxatas surrendered to him 31 . But the onset of winter and the lack of food and supplies forced Vologeses to stop the campaign.…”

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“…prosperae in Armenia Res Addiderant”: Corbulo, Tacitus and Constructing the Images of Rome’s Early Imperial Campaigns in Armenia

Humennyi¹

2022

Visn. Lviv. Univ., Ser. Istor.

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he Roman historiography of the early Antonine era is represented by the works of Tacitus, whose texts are our main source for the attempts to solve certain problems of the history of early imperial Rome and the history of the surrounding regions. In this context, two central problems arise and still remain: the search for the origins of those models that Tacitus used as the basis for his description of the situation in Armenia in the middle of the 1st century CE and on the other hand – the actual problems of using the evidence of Tacitus for the reconstruction of the events of Nero's time which, in our opinion even in Tacitus’s works seems to be more complicated that the events of Corbulo’s activity in the East. Using the example of Rome's policy in the Caucasus region, the author states, that for a proper reconstruction of Rome's military policy in the East, we need to take into account the contexts and approaches with which Tacitus wrote his text, and in which his own narrative strategies were ephemerally combined. The first of them was the inclusion of major military and political events in the context of the activities of prominent political figures of the era. The role of “key bright figures” in the age of Julius-Claudius becomes dominant. To some extent, it is the role of prominent figures in history (but not Emperors) that lies at the heart of how Tacitus constructs Rome's past. The discussion over the early provincial offices of Corbulo at this point cannot be solved clearly. In the time of Augustus, the role of the Emperor at this time becomes quite important – he coordinated and controlled foreign policy measures, either personally or through his relatives and friends. Tiberius tries to strengthen the position of the provincial administration, and this policy proved to be effective. Neither Caligula nor Claudius particularly changed the trend set by their predecessors. For the Armenian campaigns of Rome at the time of Nero, Corbulo became the main figure for the narrative of Tacitus. Corbulo, as the author states, did not act as a protégé of certain circles at the imperial court, but within the framework of practices already common to the imperial court and provincial administration. Corbulo, despite the fact that his unique role was no more than a narrative strategy that reflected the practices of the era and despite the fact that the reconstruction of his powers and actual influence, according to most of existing scholarship, is problematic, in hands of Tacitus acts as the figure who is the creator of all politics Rome in the Caucasus region. Secondly, the narrative of Tacitus can be placed in the larger context of the age of Hadrian, when the Romans were forced to abandon the provinces created by Trajan and the conquered territories and retreat. The impossibility of destroying Parthian power in the region by military means prompted Roman authors to seek an explanation for the events witnessed by the Romans. Against all this background, in fact, lies the actual course of the Roman-Parthian conflict in the age of Nero, which requires the researcher to pay close attention and which reminds him once again that his predecessors, even in the ancient era, wrote histories based as on their subjective ideas and questions that worried their contemporaries.

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“…prosperae in Armenia Res Addiderant”: Corbulo, Tacitus and Constructing the Images of Rome’s Early Imperial Campaigns in Armenia

Humennyi¹

2022

Visn. Lviv. Univ., Ser. Istor.

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Corbulo versus Vologases: A Game of Chess for Armenia

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“…prosperae in Armenia Res Addiderant”: Corbulo, Tacitus and Constructing the Images of Rome’s Early Imperial Campaigns in Armenia

“…prosperae in Armenia Res Addiderant”: Corbulo, Tacitus and Constructing the Images of Rome’s Early Imperial Campaigns in Armenia

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