* Apparently this kind of pride was enough for Augustus to decide they had to go.
* Bodacious must have seen it coming, because he built up his forces to prepare.
* Which of course the Romans noticed, so they thought he was even more of a threat.
* The Romans had a large army put together under the command of the legate Caius Sentius Saturninus.
* Saturninus had an interesting career up to this point.
* We’ve talked about him before actually.
Click on the banner and use the coupon code LOC to get 25% off your first three months!
* He was known as Saturninus because he wore a lot of rings.
* Get it? Rings? Saturn?
* His nickname was Ringo.
* He was a novus homo.
* Back in 19 BCE, he’s been a single consul and had to execute the trouble maker Rufus who was trying to start a revolution.
* See episodes 58 and 59 for more on that.
* We recorded those a year ago! April 2017!
* Then Saturninus ended up as the legate of Syria during the last years of Herod The Great.
* He got involved in the whole kerfuffle when Herod wanted to execute his own sons.
* And according to the early church historian Tertullian, Jesus was born while Saturninus was Legate of Roman Syria.
* In combination with other sources, this suggests Jesus was born in 8BC or 7BC.
* Anyway, now he’s in Germany.
* He’s going to come in from the north while Tiberius comes up for the south.
* They are going to DP King Bodacious.
* Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been involved in a DP, Ray.
* But there are a couple of rules.
* The first rule of DP is – communication.
* You’ve got to have a plan and some rules and stick to them.
* Or things could get dicey.
* And messy.
* The second rule – and perhaps the most important – is that you have to relax.
* You can’t clench.
* So Ringo and Tibbo enter into King Bodacious….’s territory.
* But he doesn’t push back.
* He just lets them slip inside.
* RELAX DON’T DO IT.
* But just before they were going to fight – Ringo and Tibbo had to quickly pull out.
* There was a major rebellion in Illyricum that they had to go and deal with.
* So they offered Bodacious a deal and he took it.
* He was a little sad that they had to pull out before he had a chance to …. Finish… But he didn’t want to finish without them.
* It’s known as the Great Illyrian Revolt.
* Or the Bellum Batonianum – the war of the Batos.
* There were two regions in this Roman province: Dalmatia and Pannonia.
* The rebellion began among native peoples who were recruited as auxiliary troops for the Romans.
* They were led by Bato the Daesitiate (the Deasitiae were a tribe which lived in Dalmatia).
* The most shocking thing about it was these were territories that the Romans thought were well and truly settled.
* Agrippa and Tiberius had both dealt with these guys back in 13 BCE.
* 20 years ago.
* And they were very close to Italy.
* Just across the Adriatic Sea.
*
* Our sources of information are Cassius Dio and Velleius Paterculus.
* The latter participated in the war, but gave limited information.
* Suetonius gave this description of this war: “the most serious of all foreign wars since those with Carthage, which [Tiberius] carried on for three years with fifteen legions and a corresponding force of auxiliaries, amid great difficulties of every kind and the utmost scarcity of supplies.
* Suetonius’ claim about fifteen legions is incorrect.
* At one point there were ten legions assembled in Illyricum, but five of them were sent back because this would have created an oversized army.
* Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, the governor of Illyricum, was going with him with most of his army, and ordered the local tribes to provide auxiliary contingents.
* When these troops gathered they rebelled under the leadership of Bato, a Daesitiate, and defeated a Roman force sent against them.
* Although this war is sometimes described as having been fought by the Daesitiatae and the Breuci only, Cassius Dio identified the forces led by Bato the Daesitiate as Dalmatian, indicating a broader composition.
* According to Velleius Paterculus, the population of the tribes which rebelled was more than 800,000, and they fielded 200,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry.
* We do not know how trustworthy this information is, as ancient historians tended to exaggerate figures.
* Velleius Paterculus also wrote that the rebels knew Roman military tactics and spoke Latin.
* They divided their forces into three parts.
* One was to invade Italy, which was not far from Nauportus (a Roman fort in today’s Slovenia), one had already entered the Roman Province of Macedonia (Greece) and the third fought in their home territories.
* They executed their plan swiftly, massacring Roman civilians and a sizable veteran contingent who were helpless in this remote area.
* They seized and pillaged Macedonia, creating general panic in Rome.
* Augustus, also alarmed, ordered a general levy, and recalled the veterans.
* Rich families were ordered to supply freedmen in proportion to their income, which had not been done since the aftermath of the Battle of Cannae two centuries earlier.
* Augustus warned that the rebels could reach Rome in ten days if drastic action was not taken.
* He assigned the command of the war to Tiberius.
* The Roman army was organized into several divisions to evade the united forces of the rebels.
* Outposts were placed to prevent them from breaking through to Rome, as well as to disrupt their supply lines.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellum_Batonianum
* According to Velleius Paterculus, the population of the tribes which rebelled was huge.
* Do you know how many men they had?
* 101.
* No… more than 800,000, and they fielded 200,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry.
* Which is a big fucking army.
* So Bato divided his army into three parts.
* One part was going to invade Italy.
* One had already crossed into Macedonia which of course was now a Roman province.
* And the third stayed and fought in their home territories.
* And they did a pretty good job.
* They slaughtered a lot of Roman civilians and a pretty big unit of veterans.
* When news reached Rome, they were understandably terrified.
* Aug called a general levy for the first time in decades.
* He even recalled veterans.
* The rich were ordered to supply freedmen in proportion to their wealth.
Something that hadn’t happene since the Battle of Cannae, 200 years earlier.
* Aug warned the rebels could reach Rome in ten days if drastic action wasn’t taken.
* He assigned command of the war to Tibbo.
* Oh how he much have longed for the days when Marcus Badass Agrippa could have just given them a stern look!
* Tibbo has been out of retirement for ten minutes, and already he’s had to DP in Germany and now he has to deal with a 101 Dalmatians.
* While Tibbo is marching all the way from Germany to Macedonia.
* Which is a long fucking way.
* According to Google Maps, Berlin to Pella, 1735 kms, a little over 1000 miles, would take 358 hours of walking.
* If you’re walking 12 hours a day, that’s about 29 days of walking.
* While he’s walking, he sings this song.
* 500 MILES
* Because it’s going to take him a while to get there, he orders Messallinus, the governor of Illyricum, to start without him.
* And while he’s singing, the 101 Dalmatians are causing havoc.
* Paterculus says: “Roman citizens were overpowered, traders were massacred, a considerable detachment of veterans, stationed in the region which was most remote from the commander, was exterminated to a man, Macedonia was seized by armed forces, everywhere was wholesale devastation by fire and sword.”
* They are taking cities left and right, right across Illrycum and Macedonia.
* Their leader, Bato, gets hit with a stone from a catapult and it badly wounded.
* Tibbo seems to give instructions for the Italian troops to break up into make it harder for them to get pinned down by the enemy.
* The interesting thing about one of our sources for this war, is that the author Velleius Paterculus was actually involved in it.
* He writes:
* In this war also my modest abilities had an opportunity for glorious service. I was now, at the end of my service in the cavalry, quaestor designate, and though not yet a senator I was placed upon a parity with senators and even tribunes elect, and led from the city to Tiberius a portion of the army which was entrusted to me by Augustus. 4 Then in my quaestorship, giving up my right to have a province allotted me, I was sent to Tiberius as legatus Augusti.
* It’s not often we’ve had a first hand account.
* Not since the days of Big Julie?
* VP seems to have been pretty impressed with Tibbo.
* Of course, he’s writing this while Tibbo is the Augustus, so, take it with a grain of salt.
* What armies of the enemy did we see drawn up for battle in that first year! What opportunities did we avail ourselves of through the foresight of the general to evade their united forces and rout them in separate divisions! With what moderation and kindness did we see all the business of warfare conducted, though under the authority of a military commander! With what judgement did he place our winter camps! How carefully was the enemy so blockaded by the outposts of our army that he could nowhere break through, and that, through lack of supplies and by disaffection within his own ranks, he might gradually be weakened in strength!
* When Tibbo arrives on the scene, Bato manages to get out of his sickbed to lead the forces against him.
* Tiberius was stronger in open battle, but he was defeated in an ambush.
* Paterculus wrote that Messallinus was surrounded by 20,000 men and had only one legion at only half its normal strength (roughly 2,500 men).
* Yet he routed the enemy and was awarded a triumph.
* This whole thing goes on for three fucking years.
* Tibbo is chasing Bato and his 101 Dalmatians around the region, but they refuse to give pitched battle.
* They are like the PLAF, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam.
* Hit and run operations.
* As 7 CE rocks around, Augustus is starting to think Tibbo is just fucking around, trying to keep his army for as long as possible.
* I have no idea why he’d come to that conclusion.
* Augustus might been unhappy with what he saw as a passive approach.
* But Tibbo is going all scorched earth on the motherfuckers.
* He’s dropping napalm.
* SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING. (N)
* Anyway he sends Germanicus with a force of freeborn and freedmen.
* Apparently he’s bought slaves from their masters and promised to pay for their upkeep for six months.
* Which was good because there was another famine in Rome and grain was short and nobody wanted to have to feed slaves with it.
* BTW, If anyone wants to take Ray off my hands for the next six months to fight a war, just email me.
* So Germs turns up and… Well we don’t know.
* None of our sources tell us much, except VP says he handled himself well.
* He also says that at one point, Tibbo got reinforcements.
* Tiberius now had ten legions (50,000 men), 70 regular cohorts (35,000 men), 14 cavalry units (7,000 men), 10,000 veterans drawn back into the army by the emergency, and levies from the Thracian king, which together amounted to more than 102,000 men.
* But he sent half of them back from whence they came, deciding it was too many troops to handle.
* Probably not much good while you’re fighting a geurilla war.
* BTW one of the commanders under Tibbo during the war was Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, brother-in-law to Augustus’ granddaughter Julia the Younger, who was married to his brother Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and who had himself been consul is 6 CE.
* I mention that because he’ll come up later in our story.
* VP has this to say of Tibbo during the war:
* And now for a detail which in the telling may lack grandeur, but is most important by reason of the true and substantial personal qualities it reveals and also of its practical service — a thing most pleasant as an experience and remarkable for the kindness it displayed. Throughout the whole period of the German and Pannonian war there was not one of us, or of those either above or below our rank, who fell ill without having his health and welfare looked after by Caesar with as much solicitude indeed as though this were the chief occupation of his mind, preoccupied though he was by his heavy responsibilities. 2 There was a horsed vehicle ready for those who needed it, his own litter was at the disposal of all, and I, among others, have enjoyed its use. Now his physicians, now his kitchen, and now his bathing equipment, brought for this one purpose for himself alone, ministered to the comfort of all who were sick. All they lacked was their home and domestic servants, but nothing else that friends at home could furnish or desire for them. 3 Let me also add the following trait, which, like the others I have described, will be immediately recognized as true by anyone who participated in that campaign. Caesar alone of commanders was in the habit of also travelling in the saddle, and, throughout the greater portion of the summer campaign, of sitting243 at the table when dining with invited guests. Of those who did not imitate his own stern discipline he took no notice, in so far as no harmful precedent was thereby created. He often admonished, sometimes gave verbal reproof, but rarely punishment, and pursued the moderate course of pretending in most cases not to see things, and of administering only occasionally a reprimand.
* Again, take it with a grain of salt.
* So by 9 CE, Tibbo’s policy of scorched earth had forced the 101 Dalmatians into famine and surrender.
* Bato is brought in front of Tibbo to negotiate terms.
* When Tibbo asked him why they rebelled, Bato later claimed: ‘You Romans are to blame for this; for you send as guardians to your flocks, not dogs or shepherds, but wolves.’
* Germanicus turned his attention to the last holdouts in Arduba, a strongly-fortified town with a river around its base.
* Within the town, there was tension between rebel deserters, who wanted to carry on the fight, and the inhabitants who wanted peace, which eventually developed into violence.
* The women helped the deserters because, contrary to their men, they did not want to get raped and sold into slavery.
* You know what St Augustine would have called those women?
* Too proud.
* The deserters were defeated and surrendered.
* The women took their children and threw themselves into the flames or the river below.
The Complete Premium Caesar: (Protected Content)
HOW TO LISTEN
If you’re seeing this message, it means you aren’t logged in as a subscriber. If want to listen to the premium episodes of the series – 200 episodes on the lives of Julius, Augustus and Tiberius Caesar – you’ll need to become one of our subscribers and REGISTER NOW and pay unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
