Seianus on the Aventine

Author(s): R. Syme
Source: Hermes, 84. Bd., H. 3 (1956), pp. 257-266
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
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 SEIANUS ON THE AVENTINE

At some time in the first half of 23 B. C. the consul Varro Murena fell foul
of Caesar Augustus. He had to be suppressed. The Fasti Capitolini register
this man as colleague of the Princeps, with words of annotation after the
name. All that happens to survive is ]est'. Enough to show that no pretence
was made of his having resigned. A colourless and inoffensive formula covered
up the fate of Murena, presumably [in mag. mortuus] est. None of the other
inscribed calendars (so far as extant) carries the name of this consul. They
all have the suffectus who was appointed to take his place, namely Cn.
CalpurniusPiso, masked as an ordinarius, and standing as colleague of the ruler.
VarroMurenawasclose to the inner circle of government: the great Maecenas
had married his sister. Fifty-three years later a grand-nephew of Murena held
the fasces as colleague of Tiberius Caesar-none other than L. Aelius Seianus,
Prefect of the Guard2. Betrothed to a princess of the dynasty (Julia, the
daughter of Drusus Caesar), Seianus was in possession of imperium procon-
sulare, and expected more. The two consuls resigned early in May. On the
eighteenth of October arrived the 'verbosa et grandis epistuta' from Capreae,
signifying the doom of Seianus.
No official list ever afterwards would disclose the fact that Aelius Seianus
had been consul ordinarius in 3I. Fortunately there were historians, and a
mutilated inscription found at Rome alludes to the manner of his election3.

1 CIL 12 p. 70. DEGRASSIsuggests 'damn(atus)' in Inscr. It. XIII I, p. 59. Not neces.
sary-and too revealing.
2 The relationship was deduced from ILS 8996 (Volsinii), which reveals a Terentia as

the mother of Seius Strabo, by C. CICHORIUS, Hermes 39, 1904, i6i ff. His stemma is adopted
in Rom. Rev. (I939), table VI.
3 CIL VI I02I3 = ILS 6044. For drawings, IRN (I852) 6807; HtBNER, Exempla
(I885) 1038. A thick marble slab, 'litteris bonis et accuratis' according to MOMMSENin IRN.
Line 8 is in larger letters than the rest. MOMMSEN was enthusiastic about the comitia on the
Aventine- )deutet das nicht auf eine republikanische Verschworung, deren Haupt Seian ge-
wesen ? (( (Die romischen Tribus [i844] 208). More guarded in Staatsrecht III (I887) 348-
where, however, he wrongly assumed that Seianus was consul when he fell. Not many
historians have exploited this curious document. DESSAUsuggested that the Aventine had
to be used because the campus Martius was cramped (Gesch. der rom. Kaiserzeit II [I926] 70).
A. ROSENBERG took Tacitus to task for neglecting the incident (Einleitung u. Quellenk. zur
rim. Gesch. [I921] 257). No allusion in F. B. MARSH, The Reign of Tiberius (I931).
Hermes84,3 17

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258 R. SYME

It runs as follows:

arl NORVM * LX *SEIANI SCE lerati

ITATIO ET JIN'ROBAE*COMITIAE alc
NE- FVERVNT * IN *AVENTINO *VBI
8e; ANVS.COS FACTVS EST*ET EGO
)LIS *INVTILIS * BACVLI * COMES 8ic

yT.SVPPLEX-FIEREM OMNI-NVNC
VOS ROGO.BONI.CONTRI
hULES * Si SEMPER APPARVI
uy IS* BONVS * ET VTILIS - TRI
but IS .I NVNQVAM OFFIC ii rnei
isamemor VI NEC* R

The document is more than peculiar. What is its type, and how did the
thing come to survive? No clear answer can be given-and, at the same time,
authenticity has never been called in question. An old man is speaking, [de]bilis
inutilis baculi comes'. He alleges a claim on the indulgence of his fellow-
tribesmen for something done (or not done) when Seianus was elected consul.
Seianus' methods are stigmatised. For ]itatio one might suggest [efflag]itatio,
attaching to that word (and not to 'Seiani') the adjective sce[lerata], or
sce[lesta]. A strong word, and a rare word. Tacitus suitably puts it into the
mouth of the angry Tiberius, denouncing the grandson of Hortensius for his
importunacy-non enim sunt preces istud sed elllagitatio2. Before this, ef/lagi-
tatio is attested only three times, all in the correspondence of Cicero'. One
instance has a singular felicity. Munatius Plancus adverts upon the manoeuvres
of Caesar's heir in the summer of 43 B. C., upon his cogitationemconsulatus
bimestris summo cum terrorehominum et insulsa cum efflagitatione4.However,

I By a strange aberration HIRSCHFELD(in the note on CIL VI I02I3) assumed that

some (Sextius) Baculus was meant, appealing for the name to the Caesarian centurion
P. Sextius Baculus (BG 2, 25, i). Whence TLL. 2 Ann. 2, 38, 2.
3 Ad fam. 5, 19, 2; 10, 24, 6; Ad M. Brutum i, i6, ii. Not again until Ausonius and

Symmachus, cf. TLL. 4 Ad lam. 10, 24, 6.

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 Seianus on the Aventine 259

there might not be room on the inscription for ef/lagitatio, and flagitatio would
do, likewise a vigorous and uncommon word'.
The election of Seianus, it is here stated, took place on the Aventine-
inprobae comitiae I [q]uae fuerunt in Aventino ubi I [Sei]anus cos. factus est.
How could this be? The Comitia Centuriata meet in the Campus Martius; and,
even after elections had been transferred from Campus to Senate by Tiberius
in A. D. I4, there still remained vestigial ceremonies of the ritual to be gone
through on the Campus before a consul was well and truly created. Indeed,
a wholeincantation-longum illud carmen comitiorum2.
Tiberius was disliked, and his memory execrated. His successor, so it is
recorded, went back on the ordinances of Tiberius and restored elections to
the People . It mattered not at all, and he soon dropped the silly notion.
The intent is clear-not only a reaction from Tiberius but an advertisement
of the old Republic. Caligula was a son of Germanicus-and Germanicus (it
was fondly alleged) could have brought back Libertas4. Election by the
Sovereign People was the palladium of the Free State, both aristocratic and
democratic: libertatemet consulatumL. Brutus instituit5.
The show and pretence of direct election by the Populus Romanus could
have been put up again at any time after I4. Various devices offered. One
is known. The Lex Valeria Cornelia of A. D. 5 had brought into operation a
kind of preelection, which was conducted by the specially created centuriae,
restricted in their composition to senators and knights6. It is not clear, however,
that this electoral body can have retained any important role after 47. . .
Seeking popular support, Seianus might have tried to revive the full and
ostensibly sovereign ComitiaCenturiata.He did something else. If the testimony
of the inscription is to be accepted, it indicates that a part of the electoral
ceremonies was staged this time on the Aventine-or at the very least, some
preliminaries.
Now the Aventine signifies not the Populus Romanus but the plebs. It
was the place of extraneous cults, and of secessions; Diana of the Latins had

1 Also in Tacitus (Ann. I3, 50, I); previously only Terence, Phormio 352; Cicero,
Topica 5. Pliny, Pan. 63, 2. Cf. Dio 58, 20, I ff. Dio 59,9,6. 20; Suetonius, Cal. I6,2.
4 Ann. I, 33, 2. Cf. Suetonius, Tib. 50, i (on the father of Germanicus). 5 Ann. I, I, I.
6 As revealed by the Tabula Hebana, first published in I947. For the text see now
J. H. OLIVER and R. E. PALMER, Am. Journ. Phil. 75, I954, 225ff.; EHRENBERG and
JONES, Select documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (Ed. 2, 1955) 94a.
7 Tacitus is plain and explicit-tum primum e campo comitia ad patres translata sunt
(Ann. I, I5, I). The testimony of the consular historian should never have been doubted,
and cannot be infringed: it is clear that from now on the main and central act in elections
was performed in and by the Senate. It was no help to suppose that Tacitus made a mistake
-'patres' instead a mixed electoral assembly that included knights as well as senators.
Thus G. TIBILETTI, Principe e magistrati republicani (I953) I69. Cf. now A. H. M. JONES,
Journ. Rom. Stud. 45, 1955, I8.

17*

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260 R. SYME

her temple there, built by injunction of Servius Tullius, and the Aventine
was the stronghold of C. Gracchus. The hill remained outside the Roman
pomeriumdown to the time of Claudius Caesar.
Caesar Augustus was the patyonus of the Roman plebs, and the claim to
protect the populace was embodied in the tribunicia potestas of the emperors.
Tiberius, however, made little effort to win the affection of the masses, and
he hated games and spectacles. Seianus might make amends. If he hoped to
slide gently into the power through the help and agency of the old emperor,
he needed in the first place support from men of family and repute in the
Senate, and from the army commanders'. He had allies there. But it was
also worth the effort to draw to himself the urban clientela of the dynasty,
to solicit the plebs sordida et circo ac theatris adsueta2.
The Roman plebs was not just a mass and a mob. It had a corporate
existence. In 29 or 30 separate embassies went to Tiberius and Seianus, from
Senate, from Knights, from the plebs (with their tribunes and aediles); and
they instituted prayers and sacrifices separately3.
Seianus was a novus homo. He might reflect upon the resplendent fortune
of Vipsanius Agrippa, whose family and origin could not stand comparison
with his own, he might exploit in his own favour the past history of Rome.
There were old legends to be read in a recent and classic writer. Indeed, the
best and most beneficent among the kings of Rome had been novi homines.4
Above all, Servius Tullius, who was the son of the captive woman, Ocrisia
from Corniculum, a small town in old Latium5.
As was suitable, temples and altars of Fortune tend to have Servius assigned
as their founder6. The most illustrious was the shrine in the Forum Boarium7.
That temple had an ancient and mysterious shrouded image, of the goddess,
or, as some thought, of the monarch himself 8. Ovid is positive-

1 For his relatives and partisans, L. STEWART, Am. Journ. Phil. 74, 1953, 70 ff. F. ADAMS

ib. 76, I955, 70ff. 2 As Tacitus calls them (Hist. 4, 4, 3). 3 Dio 58, 2, 8.
4 Livy 4, 3, I7: optimis regum, novis hominibus.
6 Livy I, 39, 5; 4, 3, 12. For the variants, and her name (Ocrisia), E. MARBACH, RE I7,
I78I ff.
6 For the evidence, G. WISSOWA,Religion und Kultus der Romer2 (I9I2) 256ff.; PLAT-
NER-ASHBY, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1929) 212ff.; W. HOFFMANN,
RE 7A, 814ff.
7 Adjacent to Fortuna in the Forum Boarium was Mater Matuta, likewise assigned to
Servius Tullius, and with the same foundation-day (June ii). For the sites in the area,
H. LYNGBY, Beitrage zur Topographie des Forum-Boarium-Gebietes in Rom (I954),
esp. 37. For the excavations under S. Omobono, G. LUGLI, Roma Antica. Il centro monu-
mentale (1946) 542ff.; Journ. Rom. Stud. 36, I946, 3f. Foundations of two temples were
found, side by side, of the third to second century B. C. Also, however, a rubbish dump,
which yielded, along with the terracotta head of a warrior (JRS, P1. VII), other fragments,
bucchero ware and Corinthian pottery, indicating the existence of a temple in the sixth cen-
tury. 8Pliny, NH8, 194 cf. '97; Festus, p.282 L.; Nonius, p.278 L.; ValeriusMaximus i,8, ii.

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 Seianus on the Aventine 26i

sed superiniectis quis latet iste togis?

Servius est, et constat enim'.
However, that may be, the sacred vestment was nothing less than the toga
regia undulata which Servius had worn, woven by the hand of Tanaquil, so
the learned Varro bore witness2.
According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the original temple had been
consumed by fire, and everything perished except the statue, which, though
of wood, was gilded over; and, he adds, only the statue is old, the rest being
patently due to restoration3. It happens to be recorded that there was a fire
in 2I3, a rebuildingthe year after4.
Dionysius says nothing about any vestments. Faith or scepticism can draw
comfort from what is reported about other relics at Rome. When a conflagration
destroyed the Chapel of the Salii on the Palatine, the augural staff of Romulus
was found intact5. Even better, the linen corslet dedicated in the Temple of
Juppiter Feretrius by Cornelius Cossus (only a century later than Servius
Tullius). Augustus had gone into the temple. He had read the inscription,
which proved that Cossus was consul (not military tribune) when he won the
espolia opima', so Augustus told Livy6.
Like the linen corslet, the statue of Fortuna has a certain interest for history
as well as legend, for fact as well as fraud. It concerns the aspirations of Aelius
Seianus, and his fate. Seianus had in his house an image of Fortuna that had
belonged to Servius Tullius. It was his habit to worship that image, and he
was terrified when it turned its back to him7. Clearly the famous statue from
the Temple of Fortuna in the Forum Boarium8. The elder Pliny adds confir-
mation, and a date. He says that the vestments of Servius Tullius survived
intact, defying moth and decay, for five hundred and sixty years, down to
the death of Seianus9. Hence a new fact in history. It can be taken that the
mob assailed and looted the mansion of Seianus on that October day in 3I.
The vestments perished then, but not perhaps the statue10.
Seianus and the Fortuna of Servius Tullius, that is enough to make it
credible that the previous year witnessed some kind of electoral pageantry,

I Fasti 6, 270f. 2 Cited by Pliny, NH 8, 194. 3 Ant. Rom. 4, 40-

4 Livy 24,47, I5; 25,7,6. Forthe fire, cf. also Ovid, Fasti 6,625 ;ValeriusMaximus i, 8,Ii.
5 Cicero, De div. I, 30. 6 Livy 4, 20, 7. The item occasions much and varied speculation.
7 Dio 58, 7, 2.
8 The identity of the two statues has sometimes been overlooked, e. g. by W. W. Fow-

LER, The Roman Festivals (I899) I56f.

9 Pliny, NH 8, 197: Servi Tulli praetextae quibus signum Fortunae ab eo dicatae cooper-

tulm erat duravere ad Seiani exitum, mirumque fuit neque diffluxisse eas neque teredinum
iniurias sensisse annis quingentis sexaginta.
10 So at least it has been inferred from what Pliny says about Nero: construxerat aedem
Fortunae quam Seiani apellant a Servio rege sacratam (NH 36, I63).

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262 R. SYME

staged by the great novus homoon the plebeian hill. Another cloue leads from
the goddess to Seianus, but devious and abstruse.

The loyal and obsequious Velleius Paterculus, introducing his panegyric

of the indispensable minister with the theme 'magna negotia magnis adiutoribus
egent', goes on to a general laudation of new men and imported merit. He
begins his list with Coruncanius,after whom and before Cato he names Sp. Car-
vilius Maximus-equestri loco natum Sp. Carvilium et mox M. Catonem,novum
etiam Tusculo urbis inquilinuml. This man held the consulate twice (293 and
272), each time as colleague of the eminent patrician L. Papirius Cursor. He
was also censor, a fact which only Velleius has transmitted.
Coruncanius we knew, consul in 280, and pontifex maximus many years
later (in 254), the first plebeian to hold that office. In the company of Corun-
canius one expects to discover those inescapable worthies M.' Curius Dentatus
(cos. 290, 275, 274) and C. Fabricius Luscinus (282, 278). These three are the
canonical and consecrated novi homines of the epoch of the war against
Pyrrhus. A band of brothers, according to Cicero, steady, frugal and un-
impeachable 2.
Why Carvilius? Cicero nowhere invokes him as a paragon of civic virtue.
nor is his name registered in the edificatory collection of Valerius Maximus,
Carvilius has no bed nor niche in the hortus siccus of the Roman heroes
preserved through the ages down to the last days of the Empire. A modern
catalogue, erudite and exhaustive, accords him no entry3.
Carvilius must have mattered very much. His censorship presumably falls
between 290 and 286, in which period a lustrum happens to be attested4. Great
wars had terminated, with a wide extension in the dominion of the Roman
People. The next item on historical record in this dark and momentous interval
is the secession of the plebs, composed by the dictator Hortensius, that enig-
matic figure-no parent is known, no son, no other office, and he died while
dictator, so it is recorded5.
It was not easy for a novus homo to establish his fame and family. No
consular sons continued the newly earned nobilitas of Coruncanius, of Curius,
of Fabricius. Carvilius was more fortunate. Sp. Carvilius Sp. f. C. n. Maximus
Ruga, was consul in 234 and in 228, perhaps the son, perhaps a grand-nephew.
The memory of the second Carvilius survives, documented by the double
opprobrium of moral delinquency and political folly. Carvilius is pilloried in
the standard tradition as the first Roman to divorce his wife. The charge

1 Velleius
2, I28, 2. 2 Laelius 39; Cato maior 43.
3 H. W. LITCHFIELD, Harvard Studies 25, I914, I ff. The Sp. Carvilius of an anecdote
in Cicero (De oratore 2, 249), a man lamed by wound in war, is an isolated item, beyond
date and identity. 4 Livy, Per. ii. 5 Ib.: isque in ipso magistratu decessit.

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 Seianus on the Aventine 263

happens to be false-at least, if records such as these can safely admit the
canons of true and false'.
The other thing is even more abominable. After the carnage at Cannae,
Carvilius came out with a proposal that the Roman Senate should be supple-
mented by an adlection of new members from the Latin towns. Whence horror
and indignation, with an authoritative pronouncement from the venerable
Fabius Maximus. The bare notion, he exclaimed, would have to be blotted
out for ever-id omniummaxime tegendumocculendumobliviscendum.Therefore,
so Livy adds (with no misgivings about the authenticity of what he relates),
the Senate concurred: eius rei oppressa mentio est2.
No other Carviliusgot as far as the consulate. They fade out, the last senator
of the name being casually attested in I293. Some ancient families, absent from
theFasti for centuries,werediscovered and brought to renewedlustre through the
patronage of Caesar Augustus. Patrician, however, rather than plebeian. No
Carvilius or Carvilia is known, worth flattering by mention of the ancestor .
The Carvilii left no good memory behind them. Velleius, who is desperately
anxious to conform to safe and received opinions about Roman history, passes
over the inevitable Curius and Fabricius, evoking instead Sp. Carvilius Maxi-
mus. The reason might be worth looking for.
Consul in 293 and victorious in the field, Carvilius built a shrine to Fors
Fortuna, prope aedem eius deae ab rege Servio Tullio dedicatam5. Servius'
temple was on the right bank of the Tiber, near the first milestone out of Rome.
Now Fors Fortuna was celebrated by the Roman plebs in one of its principal
festivals (and slaves were not excluded). It occurred on June 24, hilarious and
bibulous, on land and on the water. Ovid testifies,

ferte coronataeiuvenum convivia lintres

multaqueper medias vina bibanturaquas.
plebs colit hanc quia qui posuit de plebe fuisse
fertur et ex humili sceptra tulisse loco6.

1 For the abundant and repetitive testimonia, RE 3, I63I. Valerius Maximus, after
duly producing Carvilius (2, I, 4), goes on blissfully to record an earlier transgressor,
L. Annius (2, 9, 2). Cf. Historia 4, I955, 55. 2 Livy 23, 22, 9.
8 Sp. Carvilius, the twenty second name on the sc de agro Pergameno (A. PASSERINI,
AthenaeUm 25, I937, 268). He has the 'Sabatina', one of the four tribes formed from the
territory of Veii.
' There had been a Roman knight, Carvilius Pollio, with a taste for novel and expensive
furniture shortly before the bellum civile Sullanum (Pliny, NH 33, I44; cf. 9, 39). Note also
ab atriis Sapalas et Carvilios (Q. Cicero, Comm. Pet. io-not in RE). The only entry the
Empire can show is Carvilius Pictor (PIR 12 p. 454), the author of Aeneidomastix (Do-
natus, Vita 44, I. i8o). 5 Livy 10, 46, I4.
6 Ovid, Fasti 6, 779 ff. For the plebeian and popular character of other festivals asso-
ciated with Servius Tullius, such as the Compitalia and the Nundinae, cf. RE 7 A, 8i6.

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264 R. SYME

There is a vexed problem, but hardly relevant to the principal enquiry:

how many temples were there of Fors Fortuna across the river'? The Augustan
calendars know two, the one near the first milestone (in the gardens of Caesar
theDictator), the other near the sixth, close by the grove of theArvalBrethren2.
The latter has a claim to be Carvilius'temple - at least an inscription of late
Republican date reveals two freedmen of the name Carvilius in a confraternity
worshipping Fors Fortuna at that site3. Livy may be in errorabout the location
of the temple dedicated by Carvilius.
It is suitable that the novus homo Carvilius should follow and emulate
Servius Tullius in the cult of Fors Fortuna. He might have contributed
something to the memory or legend of his predecessor. The mother of Servius
Tullius is said to come from Corniculum,somewhere in the territory northeast
from Rome in the direction of Nomentum and the Sabine border. The grand-
father of another king, Tullus Hostilius, was an immigrant from Medullia in
the same region4. According to an erudite and perhaps perverse authority,
namely Claudius Caesar, Cameria was the home of Coruncanius5. Corniculum,
Cameria and Medullia were among the Latin towns captured by Tarquinius
Priscus6. The nomen'Carvilius' is rare (apart from low-class people on inscrip-
tions at Rome), and might seem promising, but it cannot be tied to any
locality7. A Latin origin for the family, known and remembered, is rendered
attractive (but is not proved) by the fact that a Roman annalist attributed
the proposal made after Cannae to a Carvilius.
Fors Fortuna emerges early in the reign of Tiberius. That emperorearned no
fame for magnificence of constructions. Posterity credits him with two new
works only, the temple of Divus Augustus and the scaena of the Theatre of
1 For the problem, PLATNER-ASHBY, 0. C. 212ff.; S. M. SAVAGE, Mem. Am. Ac. Rome
17, 1940, 26ff. 2 CIL I2 p. 2IO; cf. 320.
9 CIL 12 977 = ILS 9253. There is a freedman Carvilius, member of some collegium
or other, on I 2 IOOS (Insula Tiberina). For low-class Carvilii as political agents, Q. Cicero,
Comm. Pet. IO. 4 Dionysius, Ant. Rom. 4, I.
f Tacitus, Ann. II, 24, 2. It can be conjectured that this instructive item, though not
in the Oratio Claudi Caesaris as exstant (ILS 2I2: Lugdunum), was lifted by the historian
from some other learned disquisition. The standard (or at least the only other) attribution
is Tusculum (Pro Plancio 20). There is no point of pro of in 'combining' the two notices
(as some do) with Cameria put in the territory of Tusculum. As for M'. Curius, Cicero says
he was municipal, that is all (Pro Sulla 23); and there is nothing a record about the origo
of Fabricius.
6 Livy 1, 38,4, cf. Dionysius, Ant. Rom. 3, 49 f. For the early towns in the region, NIssEN,
It. Landeshunde II (1902) 563; A. N. SHERWIN-WHITE, The Roman Citizenship (1939) 9.
7 TLL, Onom. II 219f. However, the early instance from Praeneste is useful-L- CAR-
VILIO - L * F (CIL I2 i io). Otherwise only freedman in CIL I2 (977; ioo5). The place
Carventum (Dionysius, Ant. Rom. 5, 6I; cf. Livy 4, 53, 9 etc.) eludes identification. For
Carve, cognomen of the consul of 458, see DEGRASSI, Inscr. It. XIII I P. 92. The root Carv-
is well attested in the Celtic lands (cf. HOLDER, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz); and the
British chieftain Carvilius will not be forgotten (BG 5, 22, I).

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 Seianus on the Aventine 265

Pompeius, which had been destroyed by fireI. Tiberius in fact went in for a lot
of repairing2.Otherwise,any initiative of this parsimonious ruler was (and is)
worth noting. The historian Tacitus records several items at the end of the
year i6. Not only a triumphal arch commemorate the recovery of standards lost
in Germany, but aedes Fortis Fortunae Tiberim iuxta in hortis, quos Caesar
dictatorpopulo Romanolegaverat,sacrariumgenti Iuliae effigiesquedivo A ugusto
apud Bovillas dicantUr3.
Fors Fortuna is among the most patently plebeian of the Roman deities. The
partician Claudii were arrogant and oppressive, haters of the plebs, accordingto
the Roman legend as transmitted by Livy and others. There is another side-a
family conscious of its alien origin long ago out of the Sabine country, promoting
novi homines, and alert to extend its clientela among the urban populace4.
The senator Velleius Paterculus will not have been wholly oblivious when
the Senate in I6 voted a temple to Fors Fortuna (whether a new construction
or a remodelling of Servius' shrine, it is here irrelevant). That goddess evoked
the name of Sp. Carvilius. And Velleius (like everybody else) will have known
what it signified when Seianus took Fortuna from the Forum Boarium to be
his peculiar and domestic protector.
Velleius and Seianus were acquaintances of long date. They had both been
on the staff of the prince C. Caesar in the eastern lands5. When Velleius wrote
(in 29 or 30), the fortune of the great novus homo seemed beyond doubt or
hazard. Velleius ends his work with a solemn prayer to the gods of Rome: when
Tiberius is called to a higher station (let it be as late as possible) may he consign
the burden of empire to shoulders strong enough to bear it 6. Velleius advertised
his hopes and his allegiance. It is a fair conjecture that Velleius shared the fate
of Aelius Seianus7.
** *

Fortuna was an immigrant goddess, perhaps deriving from Etruria. Seianus

came from Etruscan Volsinii, and the poet Juvenal, registering the hopes and
prayers of Seianus, duly refers to the goddess of fate worshipped at Volsinii,
si Nortia Tusco
favisset, si oppressa foret secura senectus
principis 8.
I Ann. 6, 45, I; cf. Suetonius, Tib. 47; Cal. 2I.
2 Dio 57, io, I f.; cf. Tacitus, Ann. 2, 4I, I. 49 (a respectable total). Velleius is naturally
exuberant-quanta suo suorumque nomine exstruxit opera! (2, 130, I). 3 Ann. 2, 4I, I.
4 MOMMSEN, Rdm. Forsch.2 (I864) 287ff. Also, with especial emphasis on the urban
plebs, G. C. FISKE, Harvard Studies 13, 1902, I ff.
I Ann. 4, I, I; Velleius 2, 6 Velleius 2, I3I.
IOI, 2f.
7 As did one historian at least, viz. Bruttedius (PIR I 2 p. 369 n. IS8), cf. Ann. 3, 66, 4,
with Juvenal IO, 83.
8 Juvenal IO, 74ff. For Nortia, L. R. TAYLOR, Local Cults in Etruria (I923)
I54ff.;
E. BERNERT, RE I7, 1o48ff.

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266 R. SYME: Seianus on the Aventine

It may not perhaps be safe and expedient to go further and adduce the view
that Servius Tullius himself was really an Etruscan. That doctrine was pro-
claimed to the Senate in 48 by Claudius, with appeal to Etruscan authorities:
he was identical with the Etruscan Mastarna, a companion of Caeles Vibenna'.
Claudius had written, in Greek, twenty books of Tyrrhenica2. Seianus might
(or might not) have been familiar with this striking (and perhaps wilful) depar-
ture from the standard tradition of the Romans3. . .
If Seianus chose the Mons Aventinus as the scene for parading his ambi-
tions, he showed veneration for good King Servius, and a wanton defiance of
history and legend, of auspicia and of omina. A man did not have to consult the
writings of Messallathe augur to know that the place lay under a curse-quasi
avibus obscenis ominosum4.
Remus had chosen the Aventine, there watching the skies for an omen, and
Remus had been killed by Romulus. 'Remo cum fratreQuirinus', thus did Virgil
hail the prospect of concord at Rome after fratricidal strife. In the course of
time, ignorance applied the reference to the partnership between Augustus and
Agrippa5.
Seianus was coming close to parity in the power with Tiberius Caesar. The
emperor cherished him; their statues stood side by side in places of public
honour. But Tiberius came to conceive doubt, suspicion and fear. He discarded
his friend and associate, compassing his doom most craftily. Fortune forsook
her worshipper, his allies among the consulars drew back, and the Roman plebs
was not going to help him now,
sed quid
turba Remi? sequiturfortunam, ut semper, et odit
damnatoS6.
Oxford R. SYME

1 ILS 212: si nostros sequimur, captiva natus Ocresia, si Tuscos, Caeli quondam Vivennae

sodalis fidelissimus etc. He than proceeds: mutatoque nomine (nam Tusca Mastarna ei
nomen erat). This is no place to pursue the attractive topic of Mastarna, and the many
problems.
2 Suetonius, Divus Claudius
42, 2. That he wrote in Greek is not wholly reassuring.
For the Etruscological studies of the Emperor see now T. HEURGON, CRAI 1953, 92ff.;
Latomus I2, I953, 402 ff.
3 Seianus and Claudius were acquainted, and all but related. For the (abortive) betro-
thal of their children, foreshadowed as early as 20, see Ann. 3, 29, 4; 4, 7, 3; Suetonius,
Divus Claudius 27, i. Further, Aelia Paetina, the second wife of Claudius, may belong to
Seianus' family: see the new stemma produced by F. ADAMS, Am. journ. Phil. 76, I955, 75.
4 Quoted in Gellius I3, I4, 6. 6 Servius on Aen. I, 292, cf. Rom. Rev. (I939) 345.
6 Juvenal 10, 72ff.

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