69 A.D.: The Year of Four EmperorsOxford University Press, 01.12.2005 - 336 Seiten The Year of Four Emperors, so the ancient sources assure us, was one of the most chaotic, violent, and frightening periods in all Roman history. It was a time of assassinations and civil war, of armies so out of control that they had no qualms about occupying the city of Rome, and of ambitious men who ruthlessly seized power only to have it wrenched from their grasps. In 69 AD, Gwyn Morgan offers a fresh look at this period, based on two considerations to which insufficient attention has been paid in the past. First, that we need to unravel rather than cherry-pick between the conflicting accounts of Tacitus, Plutarch and Suetonius, our three main sources of information. And second, that the role of the armies, as distinct from that of their commanders, has too often been exaggerated. The result is a remarkably accurate and insightful narrative history, filled with colorful portraits of the leading participants and new insights into the nature of the Roman military. A strikingly vivid account of ancient Rome, 69 AD is an original and compelling account of one of the best known but perhaps least understood periods in all Roman history. It will engage and enlighten all readers with a love for the tumultuous soap opera that was Roman political life. |
Inhalt
1 | |
1 The Fall of Nero and the JulioClaudian House | 11 |
2 The Reign of Galba June 68 to January 69 | 31 |
3 Adoption and Assassination January 69 | 57 |
4 The Opening of the Vitellian Offensive January and February | 74 |
5 Otho Prepares for War January and February | 91 |
6 The War between Otho and Vitellius March and April | 112 |
7 The Reign of Vitellius April to September 69 | 139 |
Vespasian through August 69 | 170 |
9 The Opening of the Flavian Offensive August to October | 190 |
10 End Game November and December | 214 |
Conclusion | 256 |
Appendices | 269 |
Notes | 301 |
315 | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Adiutrix Antonius Primus army asserts attack Augustus Aulus auxiliary battle Bedriacum Blaesus Brixellum Caecina Caecina and Valens camp campaign cavalry centurions Cerialis civil claim Claudius commander consulship Cremona death detachments Domitian emperor enemy Fabius Valens fight Flavian force Galba Gallus Gaul Gemina Martia Victrix governor Hist Italy Josephus Julius killed Laco later legionary legionary legate Lower Germany Lucius Lugdunum miles military Moesia Mucianus murder mutiny Nero Nymphidius officers once Otho Otho’s Othonians Pannonia Paulinus perhaps Piso Placentia Plutarch praetorian cohorts praetorian guard prefect probably Proculus province rankers refused revolt Roman Rome Rome’s Sabinus says Tacitus senate sent sesterces soldiers speech stationed story Suetonius suicide supposedly Syria Tacitus thought throne Tiberius tion Titianus Titus took troops Upper Germany urban cohorts Verginius Vespasian victory VII Galbiana Vindex Vinius Vitellians XIV Gemina XIV Gemina Martia XXI Rapax XXII Primigenia
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 6 - AD 68, the frontier legions learned what the historian Tacitus called the secret of empire: that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome. Nero's incompetence and unpopularity, and especially his inability to control his armies, led to a serious rebellion in Gaul in AD 68.
Seite 2 - Stitching together a lively and seamless narrative on "one of the most exciting, bloody, colourful, critical, absorbing, best documented and least well-known episodes in the whole of Roman history," Greenhalgh drew his material principally — and as a rule uncritically — from Tacitus