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Titus Flavius Domitianus (24 October 51 – 18 September 96), commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman Emperor of the gens Flavia. Domitianus was a member of the Flavian Dynasty, being the son of Vespasian, by his wife Domitilla, and brother of Titus, whom he succeeded on 14 October, 81.
LifeEarly lifeDomitian was born in Rome while his father was still a politician and military commander. He received the education of a young man of the privileged senatorial class. He studied rhetoric and literature, publishing some of his writings on law and administration. In his biography Suetonius describes him as a learned and educated adolescent, with elegant conversation. Unlike his brother, Titus, who was much older, Domitian did not join his father's campaigns in the African provinces and Judea.
In 70 he managed to force the divorce of Domitia Longina in order to marry her. Lucius Aelius Lamia, her husband, could not prevent the prince's will, and so Domitia became daughter in law of the emperor. Despite its initial recklessness, the alliance was very prestigious for both sides. Domitia Longina was the younger daughter of general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, one of the victims of Nero's terror, remembered as a worthy commander and a honoured politician. They had a son in 71 and a daughter in 74, but both died young. The marriage was far from being traditional: Domitian was a notorious womaniser and his wife was not jealous. Some sources refer that she would join Domitian in his escapades with his mistresses. As a second son, Domitian was spared from responsibilities. He held several honorary consulships and several priesthoods but no office with imperium. During the reign of his brother Titus, his situation remained essentially the same, since nobody saw him as future emperor. But Domitian certainly had his ambitions. When Titus was dying, he managed to be hailed as his successor by securing the Praetorian Guard's support. As emperorAs an administrator, Domitian soon proved to be a disaster. The economy first came to a halt and then went into recession, forcing him to heavily devalue the denarius (silver currency). To further compensate for the economic situation, taxes were raised and discontent soon followed. Due to his love of the arts and to woo the population, Domitian invested large sums in the reconstruction and embellishment of the city, still suffering the effects of the great fire of Rome of 64 and the civil war of 69. Around fifty new buildings were erected and restored, including the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill and a palace in the Palatine Hill. Image:024 Domitian.jpg Denarius of Domitian.
Domitian's greatest passions were the arts and the games. He implemented the Capitoline Games in 86. Like the Olympic Games, they were to be held every four years and included athletic displays, chariot races, but also oratory, music and acting competitions. The Emperor himself supported the travels of competitors from the whole empire and attributed the prizes. He was also very fond of gladiator shows and added important innovations like female and dwarf gladiator fights. Domitian was not gifted as a military commander, due to his education in Rome, away from the legions. Probably because of this, the emperor limited Roman military enterprises during his reign. He claimed several Roman triumphs, namely over the Chatti and in Britain, but they were only propaganda manoeuvres, since these wars were still being fought. Nevertheless, several campaigns were fought during his reign, especially in the Danube frontier against Decebalus, king of Dacians. Domitian also founded Legio I Minervia in 82, to fight against Chatti. Towards the end of his reign, which had started with moderation, Domitian revealed a cruel personality. According to several sources, despite some arguments in the academic community, Jews and Christians were heavily persecuted during his reign. The emperor also developed a paranoid fear of persecution that led him to kill or execute several members of the senatorial and equestrian orders. He disliked aristocrats and had no fear of showing it, withdrawing every decision-making power from the Senate. Domitian was murdered in September 96, in a plot organized by his enemies in the Senate, Stephanus (the steward of the deceased Julia Flavia), members of the Praetorian Guard and empress Domitia Longina. The emperor knew that, according to an astrological prediction, he would die around noon. Therefore, he was always restless during this time of the day. In his last day, Domitian was feeling disturbed and asked a servant boy what time it was several times. The boy, included in the plot, lied, saying that it was much later. More at ease, the emperor went to his desk to sign some decrees, where he was stabbed eight times by Stephanus. Domitian was succeeded by Nerva (by appointment of the senate), the first of the Five Good Emperors. The custom of damnatio memoriae was issued on Domitian, obliterating him from all public record. Many of the images that survive of Domitian's successor Nerva were actually once Domitian but converted to Nerva after the damnatio was issued. Ancient sources on DomitianThe derivation of fact from ancient (or modern) literary texts, whether their genre is panegyric or history, is as problematic as the use of film or other artistic media for the same purpose. The creators of all these forms of expression are driven by their personal interests and beliefs as well as the socio-historical context within which they lived, as the proponents of new historicist literary criticism have noted; the concept of neutral historiography is a modern invention that remains difficult if not impossible to achieve. A major contemporary source for the life of Domitian is the poet Statius, who lauded the emperor and his works as the main topic of four poems of his Silvae: 1.1; 4.1, 4.2, 4.3.
The tone of these poems could hardly be more fulsome; indeed this genre of composition is so alien to modern sensibilities that some scholars have questioned whether it is a form of covert criticism. Similarly, the contemporary poet Martial repeatedly heaps praise upon the emperor in his Epigrams. There are a great many casual references and entire epigrams to Domitian under his many titles, some of the more salient:
Although much younger than Statius, the poet Juvenal and the historians Tacitus and Suetonius were all adults within the reign of Domitian. Each of these authors wrote most or all of their works after the reign of Domitian, when verse or prose flattering to the former emperor would have been impolitic. Further, the composition of works highly unflattering to the previous imperial dynasty (the Flavians) would have been in all probability welcome. Tacitus had a significant political career under the Flavians, reaching the rank of consul under Domitian. That author was thus able to speak from personal knowledge when he wrote his Histories on the arc of the Flavian dynasty. Unfortunately, the books of this work that detailed the reign of Domition are lost, yet in the introduction he criticizes the Flavian era in severe terms, stating that it was ipsa in pace saevum (savage even in peace itself; Hist. 1.2-3). It is probable that his portrayal of Domitian would have rivaled the level of invective that he leveled against the emperor Tiberius in his Annales. Juvenal is scathing in his treatment of the court of Domitian and the emperor himself in many places, notably:
The use of Roman satire as a historical source has its difficulties, but the essential point of the author is apparent: the emperor was corrupt, violent, and unjust. These themes are continued in the Vita Domitiani (Life of Domitian) of the somewhat younger Suetonius within his Lives of the Twelve Caesars. This is the most extensive ancient discussion of the life of the emperor that is preserved, and the author had access to many sources no longer extant. These facts, however, do not equal the assurance that Suetonius was an impartial reporter of impartial sources. The best that can be done in the interest of researching the life of Domitian – or any ancient historical figure – is to examine all of the evidence and balance the biases of each source against those of the others. In later culture
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