#Imperial civil war 2.2 series#

In addition, these passages appear at significant points in the narrative of the civil war, as Otho, Vespasian, and Vitellius each make decisions that will lead to further conflict, implicating women in the yearвЂ™s вЂњdestructive and shamelessвЂќ violence (cf. In each of these passages, the women who are named reflect some aspect of the men with whom they are associated: PoppaeaвЂ™s memory serves to identify Otho with Nero, grafting him on to the defunct Julio-Claudian family tree Berenice, the Judaean princess, identifies the Flavians as political outsiders and the politically active women of VitelliusвЂ™ family underscores VitelliusвЂ™ own lack of agency. 2.63-64 follows VitelliusвЂ™ victory over Otho and presents VitelliusвЂ™ family, which includes his wife, his mother, and his sister-in-law Triaria. 2.2 also serves to contextualize TitusвЂ™ (and VespasianвЂ™s) imperial ambitions in early 69.

1.13, OthoвЂ™s position in NeroвЂ™s court is explained with an account of his marriage to Poppaea Sabina, later NeroвЂ™s wife BereniceвЂ™s presence in Hist.

#Imperial civil war 2.2 series#

In this paper, I will explore the way that these repeated names lend meaning to each of these passages I will argue that these three passages taken together form a pattern which reveals that TacitusвЂ™ notion of the principate is inseparable from his notion of dynasty, and invites a reading of his history of the civil war as a series of violent, destructive succession narratives rather than a contest between individuals. 1.13, 2.2, and 2.63-64 are exceptional in TacitusвЂ™ account of the civil war because in each passage he repeats a womanвЂ™s name within a few lines, stressing each womanвЂ™s active or symbolic significance in the military events that are unfolding. Three passages emphasize the presence of women in a striking way: Hist. Indeed, the very scarcity of references to women in Books 1-3 of TacitusвЂ™ Histories invites scrutiny of the narrative, symbolic, or moral significance of the women who do appear (cf. However, TacitusвЂ™ Histories lacks this strong female presence, which some have attributed to the fact that the surviving books treat the civil war that followed the collapse of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and that TacitusвЂ™ attention to battles and legionary politics does not offer the same opportunity to develop female characters as the dynastic court intrigue of the Annals (Christ 1978, Marshall 1984-1985). The imperial history in TacitusвЂ™ Annals is populated with female characters who have received attention from modern scholars for their historical and political significance as well as their symbolic roles and moral exemplarity (e.g.