affairs; the vague statement that he had "the worst character' may perhaps show that he had not the best, and that the conspirators in general resembled Catiline rather than Catulus. For enemies of this kind the emperor and his friends might have looked. But a surprise was in store for them. L. Licinius Murena (otherwise L. Licinius Varro Murena 1) was perhaps the last man whom the imperialists would have been disposed to suspect. His brother' Proculeius, to whom he was under great obligations, was among the emperor's most valued friends; his "sister" was married to Maecenas, who without any regular office, was a sort of minister, with especial charge of the city, and highest, Agrippa being absent, in the emperor's confidence. His manners were frank to the extreme of rudeness. He was now very wealthy, and having had experience utriusque fortunae, both in public and private affairs, was unlikely to imperil his prosperity. He was not out of favour, but on the contrary had been certainly distinguished and, it has even been thought, employed by Augustus upon the faith of his connexions and in spite of a disadvantageous career. Velleius, on this side an unimpeachable witness, allows that on the eve of the conspiracy 'poterat videri bonus'. He seems by his name to have been the representative and was probably the son of L. Licinius Murena, consul in 62, who was afterwards defended by Cicero. Of his age we have no evidence, but our first notice of him shows that whether from youth or prudence he preserved a tolerable fortune through the ruin of the optimates from Pharsalia to Philippi and was a person of some standing before the rupture between Octavian and Antonius'. In the description given by Horace of the journey to Brundisium, on which he accompanied 1 On his names see Note A. 2 Or cousin, frater being ambiguous. See Schol. on Hor. Od. II. 2. 4. 8 On the position of Maecenas see Note B. Dion 54. 3. On the question whether he was the commander of the expedition against the Salassi in B.C. 25, sce Note A. 6 Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Licini Murenae, and Smith, Dict. Biog. 7 I here make the usual assumption, that the 'Murena' of Od. III. 19, Sat. 1. 5. 38 and the 'Licinius' of Od. II. 10 are identical with each other and with the conspirator. The sequel will, I hope, place this beyond doubt. Maecenas, the only person not a member of the embassy who is mentioned as giving the negotiators private entertainment is Murena, who though absent himself placed his house at Formiae at their disposal— in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus The connexion with Fonteius Capito suggested by this passage is significant (for Capito was Antoni, non ut magis alter, amicus), and prepares us to find, that in the final contest of parties decided at Actium Murena was among the losers. The ancient commentaries on Horace describe him as 'spoliatus bonis in bello civili? Whatever latitude should be given to this expression, the better testimony of Horace himself shows that the loss of property, consideration, or both reduced him to a condition which could be called 'adversity' and be supposed to require encouragement and consolation-Non, si male nunc, et olim sic erit. This prophecy was fulfilled with a rapidity and completeness not often vouchsafed to poetic inspiration, for Murena, ruined in the year 30 was, before the year 22, not only living, as we shall see, in extravagant and dangerous splendour, but actually a member of the college of augurs and of such importance as to be 'advocatus' in a political cause on behalf of a magistrate accused of misconduct in his province. The significance of this last fact according to Roman ideas of 'advocacy' may be estimated from an expression of Suetonius, who describes a certain Q. Calpenus, who descended to the ignominy of fighting as a gladiator, as 'senator quondam actorque causarum'.5 Now these facts must suggest the question-how did Murena become so suddenly rich? The authorities who tell us of his losses add that Proculeius treated him very liberally®. But it would be absurd to suppose that either Proculeius or 1 Sat. 1. 5. 38. The most probable date is B.C. 38. 2 On Od. II. 2. 5. The scholiaand those on this passage in particular -are not precisely accurate. See the edd. of Horace ad loc. V. H. 3 Od. II. 10. 17. 4 Hor. Od. II. 19. Dion 54. 3. 5 Iul. 39. 6 Schol. on Hor. Od. 11. 2. 5. The text of Horace is vague. Maecenas, though they might protect their kinsman against the full consequences of his political mistake, would provide him with the means of supporting the position indicated by the descriptions of Horace and Dion (there is indeed no reason to think that Proculeius could have done so, if he would). The augurate alone, to say nothing of details to be presently noticed, is a proof of very great wealth. The sacred colleges under the Empire were of no political significance; the augurate, for example, was conferred by Augustus upon Claudius, afterwards emperor, as a suitable decoration for a princely person supposed unequal to serious employments. But these quasi-religious appointments, besides their historic dignity, had a certain indirect importance, since upon the liberality of the colleges depended, in great part, the proper performance of the feasts exhibitions and other functions, without which the government would have been neither popular nor respectable. The revolution, with its new fasti, increased the occasions of expenditure; for instance, the foundation-year itself was celebrated by a quinquennial festival, for which the sacred colleges became responsible1. Feasts proverbially sumptuous, fees so heavy as to embarrass a prince3, riches too tempting for imperial cupidity are the conditions which accompany the sacred offices. And had it been possible for a man of moderate means to be an augur, Augustus could not afford to promote him. This point is of such importance to the history and literature of the time as to be worth a short digression. When the Augustan writers inveigh against private luxury, and urge the duty of spending on public objects, this is no mere sentiment or moral commonplace. If the richer classes in Rome and Italy had all rejected this duty, the enterprise of Augustus and Agrippa would have been impossible. The machinery by which the provinces were afterwards made profitable was mostly still to create, and the provinces themselves were exhausted. The chief expedients of imperial taxation in 1 Dion 53. 1. 2 Hor. Od. II. 14. 28. 3 Suet. Claud. 9. 4 Suet. Tib. 49. 5 e.g. Hor. Od. II. 15. 13-20, III. 25. 45-50 etc. Italy were still to be devised. The financial difficulty is put in the front, as conclusive against the attempt to change the form of government, in the argument between Agrippa and Maecenas, by which Dion, imitating Thucydides, sets forth the problem as it stood after the overthrow of Antonius. 'In a republic', says Agrippa, 'you can get money, the competition for public rewards induces men to spend and subscribe for public objects'.' And this, though it was not the theory in Dion's own time, represents correctly enough the theory of the Roman republic and ancient republics in general. The wealthy contended for office by a sort of honest bribery, and corruption compensated for jobbery. Now the civil wars left an enormous load upon the state. Everything was in ruins. Rome itself, to remind the reader of one sufficient illustration, was in such a state that the Tiber, choked with rubbish, "made the city navigable", in the expressive phrase of Dion, with a sort of regularity. The roads, the harbours, the public buildings all required instant attention. And apart from public works, the government, with the army and the Roman populace upon its hands, had hard work to pay its way. Already in the contest with Antonius, Octavian had been rescued from a mutiny by the subscriptions of the loyal and wealthy Italians of the two upper orders, and in spite of the Egyptian booty the system of subscription, as well as the execution of particular works by rich persons, went on after the peace. Augustus wished for a regular taxation and at last, when floods and famine had enforced the necessity, wrested the consent of the senate, but this was many years later3. How grave was the situation in the interval a single fact will show. One of the worst vexations of the civil wars was the invasion of private lands by successive generals seeking settlements for their veteran troops. To put the matter on a proper footing was a first necessity for the government of peace. Now it was nearly twenty years from the battle of Actium before it could be undertaken. The inadequacy of the revenue to the needs of the time is one cardinal fact of Augustus' reign. The 'resources of the empire', in the sense in which Trajan or even Tiberius might have used the expression, were adequate enough, but in the reign of Augustus the empire had yet to be created. Thus the severe economy of the emperor himself was no matter of personal taste or moral preference'. The repeated purgation of the senate and the equites, by the expulsion of the poor and the 'bad', had an object more immediately practical than the restitution of a dignified appearance to society. Good means and 'good' dispositions were required in those on whose purses the government expected to draw. Under such circumstances, how a man 'ruined in the civil war' could within a few years after, with whatever advantages of connexion, be in a position either to obtain or retain such a place as the augurate under the government of the victors, is a question not to be passed over. In the case of Licinius Murena, however, special circumstances suggest an answer. At some time or other he acquired the name of Varro. Between the years 30 and 22 he acquired a large fortune. When we remember that in this interval3 died, without natural heir, a Varro who was one of the richest men of his time, we have some reasons for putting these facts together, and conjecturing that Murena's money came from none other than the Varro, the scholar and antiquary M. Terentius. Long before he had sought a successor in the Licinian gens*; between the Varrones and the Murenae there was certainly a connexion, though we do not know the exact relations; and when at length he also 'cessit coemptis saltibus', no person known to have been then living is more likely than Licinius Murena to have received the main share of 1 See the language attributed to Maecenas in Dion 52, 29. 2 See Note A. 3 The year is commonly given as 28 (Smith Dict. Biog.). This seems to be not quite certain, owing to confusion in the text of Jerome (ad. Euseb. Chron.) on which the date depends. The above statement is safe, and the usual assumption probably near. Varro died at 'nearly ninety', and this cannot have been very much later than 28. 4 He seems to have adopted the brother of the great Lucullus, but must have long survived him. See Drumann's Geschichte Roms, Pauly Real-Enc., Smith Dict. Biog. 5 See Note A. |