Who Was Vedius Pollio?

Author(s): Ronald Syme

Source: The Journal of Roman Studies , 1961, Vol. 51, Parts 1 and 2 (1961), pp. 23-30
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/298832

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 WHO WAS VEDIUS POLLIO ?

By RONALD SYME

When Cilicia for a season was a province of consular rank, governed in succession
by P. Lentulus Spinther, Ap. Claudius Pulcher and M. Tullius Cicero, what held it
together was the high-road from Laodicea to the Syrian Gates. Those proconsuls never
strayed very far from the road. Cicero, coming up from Tarsus early in February of
50 B.C., encountered an unexpected welcome. P. Vedius had journeyed out some way
from Laodicea to meet him, that ' magnus nebulo ', a friend of Pompeius Magnus.I
Vedius was escorted by a large and motley retinue. With him paraded a baboon in a
chariot-no doubt congenial company, and perhaps a reminder of absent friends or a high
dignitary like Ap. Pulcher, the recent proconsul, whom the outspoken Caelius Rufus
likened to an ape.2 Vedius also had some wild asses (the bleak upland plains of Lycaonia
and Cappadocia were their peculiar habitat). For what purpose no man can say, though
the breeding of high-grade mules had become a lucrative pursuit in this age.3 The dubious
credit of introducing the flesh of young onagri to Roman tables was reserved for the great
Maecenas. 4
Chance brought a startling revelation about P. Vedius. He had left his personal
effects at Laodicea, in the charge of a certain Pompeius Vindullus (clearly a freedman
or client of Magnus).5 Vindullus died. A Roman business man, C. Vennonius, making
an inventory of the property, came upon the baggage of Vedius.6 He opened it, and
found miniature portrait-busts, ' imagunculae,' of five society ladies. Among them was
Brutus' sister, the wife of M. Aemilius Lepidus.
Cicero could not stand the fellow-' nunquam vidi hominem nequiorem '. One would
wish to know more about P. Vedius. Also about P. Vedius Pollio, the friend and favourite
of Caesar Augustus, opulent, cruel and luxurious, who fed slaves to the muraenae in his
fishponds at Pausilypon. Hope or surmise might reach out towards some connection
between the two.7 Nobody has taken the bold and simple step. Perhaps they are identical.
Nothing forbids, least of all age. Vedius Pollio wound up his evil life in 15 B.C.8 He
need not have been much over sixty.

It might be worth looking for a Pollio who is not Asinius. Writing to P. Lentulus
the proconsul in February or March of 56, Cicero consoles him for assaults on his dignitas
(Lentulus' enemies blocked him from the commission of reinstating the King of Egypt)
and affirms that he will learn from Pollio of measures taken to defend his interests-
' quae gerantur accipies ex Pollione, qui omnibus negotiis non interfuit solum sed
praefuit'.9 This Pollio has generally been held identical with C. Asinius Pollio.10 If so,
the earliest trace of that young man's existence (he was now about twenty), apart from
the graceful reference in Catullus' poem about his brother, the napkin-snatcher.11 The
attribution acquires plausibility because Pollio made his debut in public life two years
later when he prosecuted C. Porcius Cato (tr. pl. 56), who, in one episode of 56, had
an enemy of Lentulus Spinther.12
Another item, however, that has confidently been adduced is not at all secure. The

1 Ad Att. VI, I, 25. 7Thus H. Dessau in PIR' v, 213: 'valde similis

2 Adfam. VIII, 12,2: 'illius simiae vultus.' huius, sed tamen vix hic P. Vedius, magnus nebulo
3 Varro, Res Rusticae ii, I, 14; 8, 3; III, 2, 7. quem Cicero in Asia vidit'; J. Keil, P-W viii A,
Stud donkeys at Reate commanded exorbitant prices. 570: 'dagegen wiisste man gern ob der magnus
4 Pliny, NH viii, 170. nebulo P. Vedius, sed Pompeii tamen familiaris,...
5 Not registered in P-W. The cognomen looks irgendwie mit P. verwandt gewesen ist.'
Celtic. 8 Dio LIV, 23, I.
6 For the business-man Vennonius, cf. Ad Att. vi, 9 Ad fam. I, 6, I .
3, 5, and, later, in reference to his heirs and estate, 10 Thus Schanz-Hosius, Gesch. der r. Literatur I4
Ad famn. XIII, 72, 2. The article in P-W has missed (1927), 308; J. Andre, La vie et l'ceuvre d' Asiniuls
the inscription at Apamea, 'C. Vennonio C. 1. Eroti Pollion (S 949), ICI ,
heredes ex testamento,' with Greek text (Ramsay, 11 Catullus I12, 6.
Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia (1897), 475). 12 Seneca, Controv. VII, 4, 7 ; Tacitus, Dial. 34, 7.

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 24 RONALD SYME

poet Helvius Cinna wrote a farewell poem for Pollio's departure on a voyage to Greece.13
Hence, it is inferred, the same journey, and the same person as the Pollio who was on his
way to Cilicia.14 A difficulty arises-at least if it be held that a Propempticon implies
that both author and recipient are together at the same place. Cinna, along with Catullus,
was in Bithynia on the staff of C. Memmius, proconsul 57/6.15 Catullus salutes with deligh
the vernal season and the warm south-west wind:
iam ver egelidos refert tepores
iam caeli furor aequinoctialis
iucundis Zephyri silescit auris.16
Catullus, proposing to make a tour of the cities in Asia, takes leave of his friends, who
came out together, but will go back by different routes. Spring is not an early visitant
to Bithynia. To be in Rome and write a Propempticon for Pollio, in February or March,
Cinna would have had to leave Bithynia in mid-winter. Asinius Pollio was bound for
Greece-a ' Studienreise ', it is generally supposed. The Pollio in Cicero's letter is going
to Cilicia with precise news for the proconsul, like M. Plaetorius a year later, whose
mission is described in closely similar language.17 It may therefore be expedient to
dissociate Cinna's poem from the early months of 56.
Moreover, there happens to be another Pollio in the correspondence of Cicero. In a
missive to his Epicurean friend Papirius Paetus in the second half of February, 50,
Cicero urges action on behalf of M. Fadius Gallus.18 This person (perhaps a citizen of
Cicero's own town) exhibits Epicurean tastes, but his creed (if such it was) did not prevent
him at a later date from writing about Cato.19 Fadius had recently been in Syria with
Cassius. At Laodicea he had disturbing news of a lawsuit about property at Herculaneum.
Cicero names his enemies-' Matonem et Pollionem inimicos habet Fadius. quid multa ? '
Mato offers no clue.20 The cognomen ' Matho ' belonged of old to a branch of the
Pomponii, none of whom are on record subsequent to the Hannibalic War. ' Mato ' is
exceedingly rare but discoverable in a family of local standing resident at Atina in Latium,
the Crittii.21 As for Pollio, some are for identifying him with Asinius Pollio, others
against.22 Nothing emerges. The item remains enigmatic.
The topic should not, however, be given up before another Pollio is evoked and
equipped with his proper identity and nomenclature. Running through the disreputable
catalogue of Antonian partisans at the time of the War of Mutina, Cicero exclaims
'addite illa naufragia Caesaris amicorum, Barbas Cassios, Barbatios Polliones.' 23 Cassius
Barba is elsewhere on record, once. He is a Caesarian officer present with Caesar when
Caesar dined with Cicero at his villa near Puteoli on igth December, 46.24 Perhaps a
centurion, perhaps rather an equestrian officer.25 As for Barbatius Pollio, editors of the
Philippics have obscured the truth by inserting a comma between ' Barbatios ' and
'Polliones .'26 There is a further dereliction. Standard works of reference produce a
Barbatius Philippus.27 This entry derives from a hasty emendation of the name of

13 Cinna fr. I (FPL, ed. Morel), cf. Charisius, GL also the primipilaris Q. Crittius C. f. Cor. (ILS 2640).
I24 K. The tribe of Atina is not the ' Cornelia' but the
14 J. Andr6, o.c. (n. Io), ii. ' Teretina '. The neighbour city Arpinum has
15 IO, 29 f. cf. 'Prusiaca vexi munera navicula' the ' Cornelia'.
(Cinna, fr. II, 1. 4). 22 For, Tyrrell and Purser and OCT (Index);
16 46, I ff. against, L. A. Constans (Bude, 2950). No entry or
17 Adfam. I, 8, I: 'de omnibus rebus ... optime notice in P-W.
ex M. Plaetorio cognosces, qui non solum interfuit 23 Phil. XIII, 3.
iis rebus sed praefuit.' He is identified with 24 Ad Att. XIII, 52, : ' ac mihi Barba Cassius
M. Plaetorius Cestianus (aed. cur. 68 or 67) in P-W subvenit, custodes dedit.'
xx, 1952; and, further, conjectured to be a legate of 25 He has been discovered as one of the three
Spinther in MRR II, 219. Doubt is permissible. centurions in Phil. v, i8 (P-W, SUpp. I, 277). But
18 Ad fam. IX, 25, 3. the best reading is ' Crassicius ', not ' Cassius ', cf.
19 For this man, and other Fadii, among them an OCT. The three, ' Crassicius, Mustela, Tiro,' recur
aedile at Arpinum, see P-W VI, 1958 f. They might together in XIII, 3, where Cassius Barba has a separate
all belong to one family, with a descendant in entry with Barbatius Pollio. For L. Crassicius (at
L. Fadius Rufinus (suff. A.D. 113), who crops up first 'Pasicles', then 'Pansa '), who ended in
appropriately in an anecdote about notable persons teaching and erudition, cf. Suetonius, De gramm. i8.
from municipia (Pliny, Epp. IX, 23, 4). 26 Thus OCT (ed. Clark, I9I6) and Teubner
20 No entry in P-W, but he is mentioned under (Schoell, I9I8).
'Matho ' (XIV, 2195). 27 P-W III, 2 f.; MRR II, 372, cf. Index. For
21 viz. M. Crittius C. f. Mato, son of C. Crittius the arguments in rectification see Historia Iv
L. f. Cor. Laevinus Pulcher (CIL I2, 1535). Note (i955), 57: accepted in the Supplement (I960).

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 WHO WAS VEDIUS POLLIO ? 25

Barbarius Philippus, the runaway slave who became praetor in the Triumviral
period. 28
The existence of Barbatius Pollio can be established beyond dispute. A Barbatius
was quaestor of M. Antonius in 4I.29 Coins struck in the eastern lands in that year
certify this quaestor as ' M. Barbatius ' H30 le can be identified without discomfort as
the curule aedile M. Barbatius Pollio of a Roman inscription.31
Further, this man is detected as the M. Barbatius, duumvir with a M.' Acilius (they
were represented by praefecti) on a coin of Parium on the Hellespont; and it has been
claimed that this pair of agents carried out a refounding of that colonia for Octavian
shortly after the Battle of Actium.32
As concerns the identity of persons called ' Pollio ' in the letters of Cicero, Barbatius
Pollio is not debarred. A quaestor of Antonius in 4I need not conform to the rules of age
and promotion-he could be well over thirty. And, to conclude. ' Pollio ' is not at all
a rare cognomen. It is borne by two holders of municipal office in this period.33

The search produces two Polliones in the correspondence of Cicero (neither of whom
has to be identical with Asinius Pollio), also M. Barbatius Pollio, but no light on Vedius
Pollio. However, there is a neglected Vedius who cries out for exploitation.
Writing to P. Dolabella in the last days of 46, Cicero reports that he has been acting
as arbiter in a dispute between ' Niciam nostrum et Vidium ' (the latter name must
clearly be improved to ' Vedium', or, better, ' Veidium ').34 The subject is a sum of
money claimed by Vedius from Nicias. Cicero playfully transmutes the situation into
the language of classical philology, for example, ' alter Aristarchus hos O6PEAiIE.' T
instructive. Nicias is the well-known scholar of Cos (frequent references in the letters).35
As the context shows, a bon vivant: there is a reference to a meal of ' fungi '.
Nicias had attached himself to Dolabella. The previous history of this grammaticus
would be worth knowing. It happens to be scandalous. Suetonius furnishes a decisive
revelation.36 Nicias had been a familiar of C. Memmius (the patron of Lucretius) and
of Pompeius Magnus. He was guilty of a grave misdemeanour in 52-he tried to pass
a letter with a proposition ' de stupro ' to the wife of Pompeius (i.e. Cornelia), who
denounced him. Magnus forbade Nicias his house.
To go further back. Nicias may have come to Rome in 62 in the train of the conqueror
of the East, along with other clients such as Pompeius Theophanes of Mytilene. Suetonius
(and no other source) gives him the name ' Curtius Nicias '. The nomen attests some
benefactor, acknowledged when Nicias acquired Roman citizenship. Who might he be ?
The trail leads to the son of the great banker C. Curtius: Curtius Postumus who (having
been taken in adoption by his maternal uncle) is also C. Rabirius Postumus.37 This man
managed for a time the finances of Egypt. He might have been active in the eastern lands
at an earlier date.
Nicias suffered a reverse in 52, but no permanent damage. After no long interval
he attached himself to young Dolabella. Nicias had all the talents for penetrating high
society. In the year 45 he is discovered in possession of confidential information. He can
tell Cicero that the divorce of Marcus Brutus is settled, but not approved.38 And he
knows that Juventius Thalna has failed in his suit for the hand of the much-married
Cornificia.39
Cornificia is the sister of the poet Q. Cornificius (pr. ? 45),40 herself a literary lady.

28 Dig. i, I4, 3, cf. the B6pPios (DAtTrTrw6Ks of Suidas. tion of the person in Tyrrell and Purser, no entry
29 Appian, Bella civilia V, 31, 120 f. in P-W.
30 Grueber, BMC, R. Rep. II, 489 ff.; Sydenham, 35 P-W iII, i868.
Coinage of the R. Rep. igi. 36 Degramm. 14.
31 ILS 926I. 37 As demonstrated by H. Dessau, Hermes XLVI
32 M. Grant, FITA (1946), 249. For Barbatii in (i9ii), 613 ff. cf. Von der Miihll, P-W I A, Z5 ff.
the eastern lands add M. Barbatius Celer, magistrate 38 Ad Att. xiii, 9, z; cf. 22, 4.
in another colonia (Corinth VIII, 2, 62). 39 Ad Att. xiii, z8, 4: ' Cornificiam, Q. filiam,
33 viz. Cn. Agrius Cn. f. Poliio (CIL I2, 1542: vetulam sane et multarum nuptiarum.'
Casinum); L. Papius L. f. Ter. Pollio (1578: 40 As shown by CIL I2, 793, which registers
Sinuessa). 'Cornificia Q. f. Cameri ' and her brother. Her
3 Adfam. ix, io, i, cited in Suetonius, Degramm. husband Camerius is patently the Camerius of
14. For the correction of ' Vidius ' to ' Vedius ' or Catullus 55, io, and 58, b. 7. Not entered in P-W.
'Veidius ', cf. HIistoria VIII (I959), 2II. No annota-

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 26 RONALD SYME

It is no surprise to discover the erudite Nicias in the near vicinity of poets of the Neoteric
School. In May and June of 44 Nicias was with Cicero at Tusculum in the company
of a certain Valerius.41 There is no sign of the identity of this Valerius.42 The nomen
is all too common. There is a faint chance that he is P. Valerius Cato, that is to say,
Cato grammaticus Latinus Siren
qui solus legit et facit poetas.
Valerius Cato had a house at Tusculum.43 He was interested in the works of Lucilius,
having attended the lectures of P. Vettius Philocomon.44 It will be relevant to observe
that Nicias wrote a commentary on Lucilius, good enough to win the approbation of
Santra, an exacting critic.45

If the Vedius of the Ciceronian letter of December, 46, is P. Vedius, the ' magnus
nebulo' and friend of Pompeius Magnus, it is highly suitable that he should emerge in
the company of Nicias, who was much more than a mere grammaticus. With Nicias one
enters a recognizable and raffish world-poets and scholars, gourmets, gamblers and
musicians, financial experts and political agents. It is a world dominated by great freed-
men such as Demetrius the opulent Gadarene, Tigellius the Sardinian, or P. Volumnius
Eutrapelus.
Roman knights of decent municipal stock who could easily have aspired to senatorial
rank (but dislike the expense and the hazards) are drawn into these circles ; and the
dinner tables of freedmen, like their good offices, are not disdained by persons of superior
rank or blameless morality. Cicero in 45 asked his friend Fadius Gallus to intercede with
Tigellius.46 In the following year he was not loth to exploit the influence of Volumnius
Eutrapelus with Marcus Antonius.47 Two letters to Eutrapelus are preserved. Style,
content and allusiveness show that the recipient was a man of delicate perceptions.48
The best-known document, however, is Cicero's letter to Papirius describing a banquet.49
Cicero was placed between Atticus and a certain Verrius (elsewhere commended for polish
and elegance).50 And Cytheris was present, that is Volumnia Cytheris, actress and
courtesan.5' Cicero had not imagined she would be there (so he asserts), and he is moved
to avow a kind of complacent alarm.
The precepts of Epicurus had an appeal for all manner of men, from a senator like
Cassius, who was grim and austere, eschewing wine, to Roman knights enamoured of
ease, to quiet scholars or frank hedonists. Personal friendship or congenial tastes often
counted much more than adherence to any dogma. Cassius numbered among his friends
Fadius Gallus, Nicias of Cos and Volumnius Eutrapelus; 52 while Eutrapelus is on
terms of amity and influence with P. Dolabella and M. Antonius.53
Those who embrace the philosophy of the Garden seldom earn public praise in any
age ; and the strength and sincerity of their friendships is sometimes called into sharp
question. To take an extreme instance. It has been alleged that Atticus, fortified by no
principles of sound morality, was ready, at the bidding of Octavianus, to produce shortly
before the War of Actium a doctored edition of letters most damaging to the memory
of his dead friend.54 That notion can be repulsed, if only because the political reputation
of Cicero had ceased to matter long since. Events moved rapidly. Other themes pre-
occupied the rival dynasts.
The Life of Atticus by Cornelius Nepos furnishes a corrective, at least in so far as

41 Ad Att. XII, 5I, I ; 53. cf. XIII, 15, 2. 47Ad Att. xv, 8, i.
42 cf. P-W viiA, 2297, 2309. Miunzer holds him 48 Adfam. VII, 32 f. (February, 50, and July, 46).
different from the P. Valerius of Ad Att. XVI, 7, I In the second letter Cicero looks forward to
Phil. i, 8. ' honestissimum otium ' with Eutrapelus and other
43 Suetonius, De gramm. i I. lovers of literature.
44 ib. 2. Observe Horace, Sat. I, IO, I, relevant 49 Ad fam. IX, 26.
even though authenticity be strongly impugned 50 Ad fam. IX, 20, 2 (to Papirius Paetus). For
(E. Fraenkel, Hermes LXVIII (I933), 392 if.). Verrius, cf. P-W viii A, I636.
45 ib. I4. 51 For her relations with M. Antonius, Ad Att. x,
4" Ad fam. VII, 24, i. The problem of Tigellius 10, 5 ; XV, 22; Phil. II, 58.
the Sardinian and Tigellius Hermogenes (both 52 Ad fam. xv, 14, IVII, 23, 4; 33, 2.
' cantores ') is here irrelevant. For identity, 53 Adfam. VII, 32, 3; 33, 2.
F. Miunzer, P-W VI A, 943 ff.; against, E. Fraenkel, 54 J. Carcopino, Les secrets de la correspondance de
Horace (I956), 86. Ciceron II (I947), 2I8 ff.

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 WHO WAS VEDIUS POLLIO ? 27

concerns one of his friends. Atticus succoured Volumnius Eutrapelus at the time of the
War of Mutina in 43, and during the Proscriptions he had shelter in his house.55 Not,
perhaps, that Atticus lacked more powerful protection. It would have been a criminal
error if the Triumvirs allowed this man to be destroyed.
Knights, freedmen and foreigners, Caesar's victory had carried many partisans a long
way forward. The fresh wars ensuing so quickly opened marvellous opportunities for
active daring, profit from army contracts and alert skill in the intrigues of high diplomacy.56
Adventurers prospered, with no bar against libertine or foreign origin, and various
links now reinforced between former boon-companions. In the catalogue of Antonian
partisans, after Cassius Barba and Barbatius Pollio, the orator proceeds: ' addite Antoni
conlusores et sodalis, Eutrapelum, Melam Pontium,' 57 etc. Volumnius Eutrapelus was
in fact the praefectus fabrum of Antonius in 43.58 Holders of that post should never be
lost from sight and scrutiny. In this period the praefectus fabrum is the chief of staff to
a holder of imperium. The names as casually emerging disclose persons of no small
consequence, like the Gaditane Cornelius Balbus or Mamurra of Formiae.59 Others
might be surmised, such as the Narbonensian Cornelius Gallus, P. Ventidius, or Salvidienus
Rufus.
About P. Volumnius Eutrapelus, nothing stands on record subsequent to 43. There
is a chance that he survived, to acquire unexpected merit. Plutarch cites a P. Volumnius
who wrote a life of Marcus Brutus.60 There is no clue to his identity. Was he perhaps that
cultivated person P. Volumnius Eutrapelus ? An author in late antiquity reveals the fact
that Volumnia Cytheris was the mistress of Brutus, of Antonius, of Cornelius Gallus.61
Surprising at first sight. However, if the history of the years 44 and 43 omits the friendship
between Brutus and Antonius and ignores the chance that they might have combined to
check or destroy the heir of Caesar, it is false history.62
The poet Gallus gets his earliest documentation when Asinius Pollio, writing from
Corduba in the summer of 43, mentions ' Gallum Cornelium, familiarem meum I.63
Apart from the Tenth Eclogue of Virgil and inferences thence derived, a long silence
envelops the activities of Cornelius Gallus. A friend of Pollio, he should have been a
partisan of Antonius. The veil lifts, and Gallus is discovered leading an army to conquer
Cyrenaica and invade Egypt in 30.
Nicias departed for Asia with his patron, the proconsul Dolabella, in the summer
of 44, and his name disappears from the correspondence of Cicero. Nicias' way of living
gave no promise of energy-' nosti Niciae nostri imbecillitatem, mollitiam, consuetudinem
victus '.64 Opportunity converted this Epicurean scholar into a man of action. Strabo
tells of a tyrant of Cos called Nicias in the Antonian period, his rival for power being
Theomnestus the harp-player.65 Not a phenomenon exorbitant or lacking parallel. One
observes the citharoedus Anaxenor of Magnesia, whom Antonius appointed to collect the
revenues of four cities.66
Nicias the grammaticus and Nicias the tyrant are clearly one and the same person.67
Coins of Cos carry his name.68 Also, no fewer than fourteen inscriptions in his honour
have been preserved, of a tenor almost identical.69 Nicias, one assumes, had been able
to do much good for his native island, especially in the troubles of 43 and 42, being a
friend not only of Dolabella but of Brutus and Cassius.

55 Atticus 9, 4; 10, 2. 63 Adfam. x, 32, 5 ; cf. 3I, 6.

56 Rom. Rev. (I939), 20o. " Ad Att. xii, 26, 2.
57 Phil. XIII, 3. G5 Strabo xiv, p. 658.
58 Nepos, Atticus 12, 4. 66 Strabo xiv, p. 648; cf. Plutarch, Antonius 24;
69 cf. Rom. Rev. (1i93), 71, 355. MRR unfortu- SIG3 766 (Magnesia ad Maeandrum).
nately missed Balbus and Mamurra. Also Cicero's 67 As first shown by R. Herzog, Hist. Zeitschr.
praefectus fabrum in 63, Vibius, described by CXXV (I922), I89 ff. cf. A. Stein, P-W xvii, 334;
Plutarch (Cicero 32) as EnKaMos &v'p. Possibly D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (I950), 1278.
identical with the mysterious Sicca, cf. Miinzer, 6 8 BMC, Caria and the Islands 213. Showing on
P-W ii A, 2I86 f. But observe in Sicily the knight the reverses eight names of annual magistrates, the
L. Vibius, 'vir primarius' (In Verrem II, 2, i82). coins indicate the duration of his rule.
60 Brutus 48 (cf. 5I). Plutarch calls him an &vp 69 e.g. Paton and Hicks, Inscr. of Cos (I891), 76-80.
yt6aoqos. It is therefore unwise to press for an For the detail of the rest (four still unpublished),
identification with P. Volumnius Eutrapelus. P-W xviI, 334. Nicias is designated as TVO S&vov vi6s
61 De viris illustribus 72. pAwOarpi5, ipcaS, E?Epy?TaS -ras w6?oS.
62 Rom. Rev. (I939), I84, 203.

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 28 FRONALD SYME

Nicias died in his bed, but had no rest in the grave. An epigram of Crinagoras tells
what happened.70 The citizens of Cos violated his tomb. The incident will suitably be
placed in the winter of 3I/30.

Meanwhile, what of that Vedius who was discovered in the scholarly company of
Nicias in December, 46 ? Annalistic history does not disclose P. Vedius Pollio until
Cassius Dio registers his decease under the year I5. The omission need occasion no
surprise, various survivors of superior rank having left no trace in the years of war and
tribulation, or, for that matter, in the first epoch of the new dispensation.
Accidental testimony redresses the balance. An edict of an aristocratic proconsul of
Asia under Claudius refers to a constitutio of Vedius Pollio.71 It is clear that he exercised
authority in Asia. The date should also be clear-3I/30, after the crowning victory and
before the installation of a regular proconsul (whoever that first proconsul may have
been).72 It does not have to be supposed that a knight was in charge of Asia for any
long time. That is not all. Coins of Tralles exhibit the name of Pollio and his portrait
as well.73 His prominence is also attested by dedications in his honour at Ilium, Miletus
and Athens.74
Curiosity is whetted by the emergence in a later age of the opulent house of the
P. Vedii at Ephesus, who became senatorial under Antoninus Pius, but no firm answer
is available. Are they descendants of Italian merchants in the last epoch of the Republic ? 75
Or does the name in fact recall P. Vedius Pollio, assumed to honour him when a local
family took the Roman franchise, or transmitted by one of his own freedmen ?
The evidence about Vedius Pollio's position and activities is clear and precious.
Standard works continue to ignore it.76 Where is the reason to be sought ? In the first
place, no doubt, that biographical conception of Caesar Augustus' reign which obscures
both his agents in government and the whole history of Roman society in that epoch.
There is also that benevolent or subservient tendency which plays down any despotic
manifestations in the Princeps, or hushes up enormities, thus omitting, along with the
scandal of the fish-ponds, the services rendered by Vedius Pollio in the province of Asia.
It is easier to multiply discourse on a topic traditional. innocuous and sterile, the
'Augustan constitution
Revolutionary leaders tend to collect valuable partisans of dubious morality or
excessive in their pretensions. It may be expedient to curb or discard these allies in the
season of peace and ostensibly normal government. Something went wrong with Cornelius
Gallus, chosen by Caesar's heir to be the first viceroy of Egypt. The true story is lost,
or rather covered up. Gallus ended disastrously-Caesar renouncing his friendship, a
prosecution under way, and suicide.
Nor did Maecenas have a long tenure of power. He was allowed to go out quietly,
worsted in the secret struggle in 23 (Agrippa won) and guilty of a grave indiscretion, so
it is alleged: he warned his wife Terentia of the danger that menaced her brother, the
unsatisfactory Varro Murena.77
The memory of Maecenas is redeemed and verdant because he happened to discover,
encourage and promote the best poets ; and a sentimental view of Horace inevitably
inclines to benevolence towards his patron and friend. Men of the time had no reason
to be indulgent-they could recall such incidents as the young Lepidus put to death for
an alleged conspiracy in the year after Actium.78
Maecenas by the manner of his living was no ornament to a regime that was already
beginning to preach frugal ideals before it embarked on a programme of reform through

70 Anth. Pal. ix, 8i. 7 IGR IV, 215 A AE 1903, 212 = Didyma II
71 CIL III, 7124 (Ephesus), cf. F. K. Dorner, Der (1958), I46; IG 11', 4125. Registered by J. Keil in
Erlass des Statthalters von Asia Paullus Fabius P-W viii A, 568.
Persicus (Diss. Greifswald, 1935). 75 Keil inclines to this view, P-W viii A, 563.
72 For conjectures, assumptions and problems see 76 Not in Magie's vast work, and all that CAH x
M. Grant, FITA (1946), 383 ff. D. Magie, Roman provides is an erroneous statement about his original
Rule in Asia Minor (1950), 1580; K. M. T. Atkinson, status (189).
Historia VII (2958), 329, 324. Grant, o.c. 383, puts 7 7Suetonius, Divus Aug. 66, 3.
Vedius Pollio in 30/29. 78 PIR2, A 368.
73 BMC, Lydia 338; M. Grant, o.c. 382.

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 WHO WAS VEDIUS POLLIO ? 29

legislation. Vedius Pollio was likewise an anachronism, recalling by ostentatious luxury

the great Optimate piscinarii of an earlier age.79 Also an embarrassment to the ruler.
Augustus was able to break or strain their ' amicitia' in a spectacular fashion. When
the cup-bearer of Vedius Pollio broke a myrrhine goblet, and was about to be thrown to
the muraenae, Augustus foiled and shamed his host by calling for the whole collection of
priceless myrrhina, which he commanded to be smashed one by one.80
Cassius Dio relates the anecdote on the occasion of Vedius' death. Under that year
he also spreads himself on the extortionate operations of the freedman Licinus in Gaul,
likewise with an anecdote.81 Licinus became proverbial for his riches, and for his tomb
marmoreo Licinus tumulo iacet, at Cato nullo,
Pompeius parvo: credimus esse deos.82
Augustus saw to it that Vedius should have no monument. Vedius bequeathed much
of his property to his patron, including the villa on the Bay of Naples. The testament
enjoined the construction of a public monument to his memory.83 That was not done.
Augustus demolished the palatial mansion at Rome and built on the site the Portico of
Livia. As Ovid states, in one of his rare allusions to contemporary transactions:
haec aequata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni,
sed quia luxuria visa nocere sua.84
The name of Vedius Pollio was preserved by the scandal of the fish-ponds, to the
exclusion of all else. Standard tradition knew nothing of the financial expert who set in
order the affairs of Asia, and Cassius Dio can affirm that Vedius had performed no service
of any note.85
When Tacitus narrates the obsequies of Caesar Augustus, omitting of set purpose
the pageantry, he brings on the men of understanding, the ' prudentes ', who duly serve
up items of discredit from the career of the ruler. Vedius Pollio is there, but in a phrase
and collocation that has baffled all emenders so far-' tque tediit et Vedi Pollionis luxus I.86
But Tacitus was alive to the true relevance of this man. In a later passage, in digression
on Roman knights, the historian passes from Caesar's agents Oppius and Balbus to the
equestrian ministers of Caesar's heir-' Matios posthac et Vedios et cetera equitum
Romanorum praevalida nomina referre nihil attinuerit .87 The introduction of Vedius
shows him alert-and subversive. Other writers might have missed the importance of
Vedius Pollio. Observe, for example, that Suetonius and Dio have no word anywhere of
the great minister Sallustius Crispus. Tacitus in the stylized obituary puts him on exhibit
as the successor of Maecenas, brings out the resemblance between the two, and closes
with sagacious reflexions on the transience of ' potentia '.88

Tacitus emphasized continuity, as shown in the equestrian agents of Caesar and

Caesar Augustus. Freedmen in the last epoch of the Republic lead on to the liberti of
the Caesars and ministers of the imperial Palace, scandalously conspicuous under Claudius,
but already installed long before. In utility, and even in status, the two classes tended to
approximate, to the advantage of liberti. There were small knights, referred to in
disparagement, whose census was ' vix equestris ; 89 and there were big freedmen,
carrying the prestige of their patrons-houses of the nobilitas or monarchic faction-leaders
such as Pompeius and Caesar.
In the Roman conception of the civitas, the liberated slave bore a close resemblance
to the enfranchised alien-and distinctions would tend to be blurred if a freedman came
of respectable stock originally or had the benefit of education and the social graces. It is
not easy, and it may not be expedient, to draw a sharp line separating people like
Volumnius Eutrapelus and Curtius Nicias of Cos.

79 Ad Att. I, i 8, 6; II, 8, I. 85 LIV, 23, I.

80 Dio LIV, 23, i-6. cf. Seneca, De ira III, 40, 2; 86 Ann. I, 10, 5.
De clem. I, I8, 2; Pliny, NH ix, 77. 87 Ann. xii, 6o, 4. For C. Matius, Caesar's friend,
81 Dio LIV, 21, 3-8. and his son (the latter is probably the man who wrote
82 PLM iv, p. 64 (ed. Baehrens). on kitchen and cellar), see F. Miunzer, P-W xiv
83 Dio LIV, 23, 5. 22o6 ff.
84 Fasti vi, 643 f. The Portico was completed 88 Ann. III, 30.
eight years later (Dio LV, 8, 2), and was admired by 89 Cicero, Adfam. IX, 13, 4.
Strabo (v, p. 236).

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 30 WHO WAS VEDIUS POLLIO ?

The eastern wars brought misfortune or enslavement to families of substance and

repute in the Greek cities. Furthermore, men of birth along the Cilician shore had taken
to piracy as a pursuit of profit and honour.90 Former pirate chieftains might be surmised
among freedmen of Magnus such as Menodorus (Menas), his son's admiral, who deserted
to Octavianus and was given equestrian rank.91
There were slaves of Italian stock, foundlings or victims of war and spoliation. Some
alleged that Valerius Cato the poet had been a slave. He denied it, and asserted that he
had been defrauded of his patrimony by his guardian at the time of the Sullan proscrip-
tions.92 Defeat in the Bellum Italicum meant poverty for some notable families, and
questionable expedients for a livelihood. Thus Scato the Marsian, who became a house-
agent at Rome.93 And all the world knows that P. Ventidius was captured in infancy at
Asculum and led (or carried) in the triumph of Pompeius Strabo. His family may have
been both reputable and prominent in their town of origin.94
All of these factors help to explain P. Vedius Pollio, the Roman knight of libertine
parentage, his milieu, activities and resplendent success.95 The nomen ' Vedius ' is
parallel to ' Veius', ' Veienus', ' Veianius ', ' Vehius ', ' Vehilius'. ' Veidius' is the
older form, and it points to the region of Italy from Picenum through the central high-
lands down to Samnium. The earliest emergence of a Vedius is worth noting. When
the young Pompeius was raising his private army in Picenum in 83, envoys or agents of
Papirius Carbo tried to intervene: one of them, Vedius, was killed by Pompeius' men.96
Another Vedius has only a phantom existence. Horace, himself not much superior,
is impelled to denounce a slave who became a military tribune in the Triumviral period.97
Porphyrio asserts most ineptly that Menas (i.e. Menodorus) is meant; and some scholia
supply the name of Vedius Rufus. Not valid evidence, no clue.
Veidii can be discovered in towns of Picenum; 98 among the Aequi; 99 and near
Amiternum in the Sabine land.100 At Pompeii there was a P. Veidius, candidate for
office.101 But it is Beneventum that glorifies Vedius Pollio, memorable for ever. He
constructed a Caesareum, in devout loyalty to his patron and friend.102 Beneventum is
perhaps his place of origin. It will be a fitting epilogue to set it on record that one of
his freedmen, namely P. Veidius P. 1. Philocles, has his monument there : this fellow
put on a show of five hundred gladiators.103 ' Credimus esse deos.'

90 Plutarch, Pompeius 24. 100 IX, 4429 (' litteris antiquioribus ').
91 cf. F. Munzer, P-W xv, 897. 101 12, I671.
92 Suetonius, De gramm. i I. 102 IX, 1556 = ILS IO9; 'P. Veidius P. f.
93 Cicero, De domo sua i i6; cf. Ad Att. IV, 5, 2 Pollio/Caesareum imp. Caesari Augusto/et coloniae
VI, I, 15. Beneventanae.'
94 cf. Latomus XVII (1958), 77 f. Humble origin is 103 ix, 1703.
alleged by Gellius xv, 4, 2.
95 Dio states his parentage &r rmwOvUpcov ?yEy6vat ADDENDUM. When Alexander and Aristobulus,
(LIV, 23, I). Misunderstood in CAH x, I 89, where he the sons of Herod, came to Rome c. 22 B.C., they
is described as a freedman who acquired equestrian lodged in the house of Pollio, v5p6sr TC^)v li&?uTa
rank. oTrov8aa6(vrcv irepl -rnv 'Hpc5ov q?idav (Josephus,
96 Plutarch, Pompeius 6. Not in P-W or MRR. AJ7 XV, 343). This Pollio is generally and without
97 Epodes 4. question held identical with the illustrious consular.
98 CIL IX, 5295, 5333 (Cupra); 5141 (Interamna). But observe the hesitation of Groag, PIR2, A 1241.
99 2, i8i6. Perhaps Vedius Pollio.

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