Augustus is feeling pretty chipper so he and Livia join Tiberius on his trip to the east. It’ll be the princeps’ last trip.   Meanwhile Augustus asked people to just leave him the fuck alone.  In 12 CE Germanicus read a speech out in the Senate where he said the princeps wanted senators to stop formally…

Before the news of Varus’ defeat had reached Rome, one of Augustus’ main concerns in 9 CE was how unpopular his legislation encouraging marriage and raising of children was.  Click on the banner and use the coupon code LOC to get 25% off your first three months! It’s a new law, which is an extension to…

News of Varus’ defeat reached Rome only five days after the victory celebrations from the Balkan war.  Click on the banner and use the coupon code LOC to get 25% off your first three months! At least Augustus could now transfer troops back to the Rhine.  But this was Rome’s biggest defeat since Carrhae in 53…

The downfall of Ovid and the rise of Arminius.   Click on the banner and use the coupon code LOC to get 25% off your first three months! Another person who got caught up in all this was the poet Ovid.  He of the Ars Amatoria, in Engligh, the Arse of Love.  Remember him from…

The downfall of Julia’s surviving children, Agrippa Postumus and Julia the Younger. Click on the banner and use the coupon code LOC to get 25% off your first three months! * The food shortages lasted for several months. * Including Augustus’s birthday, so he refused permission for public feats to be held to celebrate. *…

* While all this is going on with the Dalmatians, there are problems in other provinces as well. * We hear of campaigning going on in….. Africa. * And also this is the period when Herod’s son Archelaus is so unpopular in Judaea that he’s stripped of his throne and forced into retirement, and Judaea…

* 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…

And overnight, Tibbo goes from being invisible to being the Number Two man in Rome again! * WHO DOES NUMBER TWO WORK FOR * Oh he knows. * Now all of Aug’s successors are either Livia’s sons or her grandsons. * This would lead to rumours that she had organised the deaths of Caius and…

* By the time news of Caius’ death had reached Rome it was some time in late March, 4 CE. * Aug mourned but also hurried to plan for the future. * Of course, he didn’t have many options left. * Julia and Agrippa had one son left – Agrippa Postumus. * Or Aggy P…

* Keep in mind that by the standards of the day, jokes about deformities were pretty mild. * Remember those speeches Cicero gave about Mark Antony? The Phillipics? * Here’s just one example: * Let us speak rather of his meaner descriptions of worthlessness. You, with those jaws of yours, and those sides of yours,…