Projekttitel: eManual Alte Geschichte
Modul [optional]:
Autor_in: Tacitus
Lizenz: CC-BY-NC-SA
Tac. Ann. I,16-23 – Original:
16. Hic rerum urbanarum status erat, cum Pannonicas legiones seditio incessit, nullis novis causis nisi quod mutatus princeps licentiam turbarum et ex civili bello spem praemiorum ostendebat. castris aestivis tres simul legiones habebantur, praesidente Iunio Blaeso, qui fine Augusti et initiis Tiberii auditis ob iustitium aut gaudium intermiserat solita munia. eo principio lascivire miles, discordare, pessimi cuiusque sermonibus praebere auris, denique luxum et otium cupere, disciplinam et laborem aspernari.
[…]
20. Interea manipuli ante coeptam seditionem Nauportum missi ob itinera et pontes et alios usus, postquam turbatum in castris accepere, vexilla convellunt direptisque proximis vicis ipsoque Nauporto, quod municipii instar erat, retinentis centuriones inrisu et contumeliis, postremo verberibus insectantur, praecipua in Aufidienum Rufum praefectum castrorum ira, quem dereptum vehiculo sarcinis gravant aguntque primo in agmine per ludibrium rogitantes an tam immensa onera, tam longa itinera libenter ferret. quippe Rufus diu manipularis, dein centurio, mox castris praefectus, antiquam duramque militiam revocabat, vetus operis ac laboris et eo inmitior quia toleraverat.
21. Horum adventu redintegratur seditio et vagi circumiecta populabantur. Blaesus paucos, maxime praeda onustos, ad terrorem ceterorum adfici verberibus, claudi carcere iubet; nam etiam tum legato a centurionibus et optimo quoque manipularium parebatur. illi obniti trahentibus, prensare circumstantium genua, ciere modo nomina singulorum, modo centuriam quisque cuius manipularis erat, cohortem, legionem, eadem omnibus inminere clamitantes. simul probra in legatum cumulant, caelum ac deos obtestantur, nihil reliqui faciunt quo minus invidiam misericordiam metum et iras permoverent. adcurritur ab universis, et carcere effracto solvunt vincula desertoresque ac rerum capitalium damnatos sibi iam miscent.
22. Flagrantior inde vis, plures seditioni duces. et Vibulenus quidam gregarius miles, ante tribunal Blaesi adlevatus circumstantium umeris, apud turbatos et quid pararet intentos ‚vos quidem‘ inquit ‚his innocentibus et miserrimis lucem et spiritum reddidistis: sed quis fratri meo vitam, quis fratrem mihi reddit? quem missum ad vos a Germanico exercitu de communibus commodis nocte proxima iugulavit per gladiatores suos, quos in exitium militum habet atque armat. responde, Blaese, ubi cadaver abieceris: ne hostes quidem sepultura invident. cum osculis, cum lacrimis dolorem meum implevero, me quoque trucidari iube, dum interfectos nullum ob scelus sed quia utilitati legionum consulebamus hi sepeliant.‘
Incendebat haec fletu et pectus atque os manibus verberans. mox disiectis quorum per umeros sustinebatur, praeceps et singulorum pedibus advolutus tantum consternationis invidiaeque concivit, ut pars militum gladiatores, qui e servitio Blaesi erant, pars ceteram eiusdem familiam vincirent, alii ad quaerendum corpus effunderentur. ac ni propere neque corpus ullum reperiri, et servos adhibitis cruciatibus abnuere caedem, neque illi fuisse umquam fratrem pernotuisset, haud multum ab exitio legati aberant. tribunos tamen ac praefectum castrorum extrusere, sarcinae fugientium direptae, et centurio Lucilius interficitur cui militaribus facetiis vocabulum ‚cedo alteram‘ indiderant, quia fracta vite in tergo militis alteram clara voce ac rursus aliam poscebat. ceteros latebrae texere, uno retento Clemente Iulio qui perferendis militum mandatis habebatur idoneus ob promptum ingenium. quin ipsae inter se legiones octava et quinta decuma ferrum parabant, dum centurionem cognomento Sirpicum illa morti deposcit, quintadecumani tuentur, ni miles nonanus preces et adversum aspernantis minas interiecisset.
Projekttitel: eManual Alte Geschichte
Modul [optional]:
Übersetzung: Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb
Lizenz: CC-BY-NC-SA
Übersetzung:
This was the state of affairs at Rome when a mutiny broke out in the legions of Pannonia, which could be traced to no fresh cause except the change of emperors and the prospect it held out of license in tumult and of profit from a civil war. In the summer camp three legions were quartered, under the command of Junius Blæsus, who on hearing of the death of Augustus and the accession of Tiberius, had allowed his men a rest from military duties, either for mourning or rejoicing. This was the beginning of demoralization among the troops, of quarreling, of listening to the talk of every pestilent fellow, in short, of craving for luxury and idleness and loathing discipline and toil.
[…]
Meanwhile the companies which previous to the mutiny had been sent to Nauportus to make roads and bridges and for other purposes, when they heard of the tumult in the camp, tore up the standards, and having plundered the neighbouring villages and Nauportus itself, which was like a town, assailed the centurions who restrained them with jeers and insults, last of all, with blows. Their chief rage was against Aufidienus Rufus, the camp-prefect, whom they dragged from a waggon, loaded with baggage, and drove on at the head of the column, asking him in ridicule whether he liked to bear such huge burdens and such long marches. Rufus, who had long been a common soldier, then a centurion, and subsequently camp-prefect, tried to revive the old severe discipline, inured as he was to work and toil, and all the sterner because he had endured.
On the arrival of these troops the mutiny broke out afresh, and straggling from the camp they plundered the neighbourhood. Blæsus ordered a few who had conspicuously loaded themselves with spoil to be scourged and imprisoned as a terror to the rest; for, ever as it then was, the commander was still obeyed by the centurions and by all the best men among the soldiers. As the men were dragged off, they struggled violently, clasped the knees of the bystanders, called to their comrades by name, or to the company, cohort, or legion to which they respectively belonged, exclaiming that all were threatened with the same fate. At the same time they heaped abuse on the commander; they appealed to heaven and to the gods, and left nothing undone by which they might excite resentment and pity, alarm and rage. They all rushed to the spot, broke open the guard-house, unbound the prisoners, and were in a moment fraternising with deserters and men convicted on capital charges.
Thence arose a more furious outbreak, with more leaders of the mutiny. Vibulenus, a common soldier, was hoisted in front of the general’s tribunal on the shoulders of the bystanders and addressed the excited throng, who eagerly awaited his intentions. „You have indeed,“ he said, „restored/light and air to these innocent and most unhappy men, but who restores to my brother his life, or my brother to myself? Sent to you by the German army in our common cause, he was last night butchered by the gladiators whom the general keeps and arms for the destruction of his soldiers. Answer, Blæsus, where you have flung aside the corpse? Even an enemy grudges not burial. When, with embraces and tears, I have sated my grief, order me also to be slain, provided only that when we have been destroyed for no crime, but only because we consulted the good of the legions, we may be buried by these men around me.“
He inflamed their excitement by weeping and smiting his breast and face with his hands. Then, hurling aside those who bore him on their shoulders, and impetuously flinging himself at the feet of one man after another, he roused such dismay and indignation that some of the soldiers put fetters on the gladiators who were among the number of Blæsus’s slaves, others did the like to the rest of his household, while a third party hurried out to look for the corpse. And had it not quickly been known that no corpse was found, that the slaves, when tortures were applied, denied the murder, and that the man never had a brother, they would have been on the point of destroying the general. As it was, they thrust out the tribunes and the camp-prefect; they plundered the baggage of the fugitives, and they killed a centurion, Lucilius, to whom, with soldiers‘ humour, they had given the name „Bring another,“ because when he had broken one vine-stick on a man’s back, he would call in a loud voice for another and another. The rest sheltered themselves in concealment, and one only was detained, Clemens Julius, whom the soldiers considered a fit person to carry messages, from his ready wit. Two legions, the eighth and the fifteenth, were actually drawing swords against each other, the former demanding the death of a centurion, whom they nicknamed Sirpicus, while the men of the fifteenth defended him, but the soldiers of the ninth interposed their entreaties, and when these were disregarded, their menaces.
Projekttitel: eManual Alte Geschichte
Modul [optional]:
Autor_in: Falk Wackerow
Lizenz: CC-BY-NC-SA
Tac. Ann. I,16-23
Leitfragen:
1) Welche Ereignisse führten zu der Meuterei?
2) Welche Rückschlüsse auf den Alltag der Soldaten lassen die Schilderungen zu?
3) Wie gelang es, den Aufstand zu beenden und welche Folgen hatte er?
Kommentar:
Nach dem pannonischen Aufstand im Jahre 6 n. Chr., in dem die nichtrömischen Bewohner der Provinzen Dalmatien und Pannonien rebelliert hatten, hatte sich die Lage in der Region zunächst wieder beruhigt. Jedoch zeigte sich die militärische Schwäche des Imperiums gegen Ende der Herrschaft des Augustus. Im Jahre 9 n. Chr. folgte die verheerende Niederlage im Teutoburger Wald. Der Regierungswechsel von Augustus zu Tiberius sorgte bei Teilen der in Dalmatien stationierten Legionen für Unmut. Zukunftsängste, materielle Sorgen und die strenge Disziplin gaben Anlass zu ersten Auseinandersetzungen zwischen einfachen Soldaten und ihren Vorgesetzten. Erschwerend wirkte dabei angeblich die Freistellung durch den Legaten Blaesus anlässlich des Todes des Kaisers. Häufiger finden sich in den Quellen Kommentare, dass sich Nichtstun und zu viel Freizeit negativ auf die Disziplin der Legionäre auswirke. So kam es zu offener Befehlsverweigerung und Insubordination ganzer Einheiten. Plündernd zogen die Soldaten durch die Region und verwüsteten Gehöfte. Gegen die Bestrafung der Übeltäter durch den Kommandanten Blaesus wehrten sich die Legionen, befreiten die Gefangenen, sodass sich schließlich loyale und aufständische Soldaten in Waffen gegenüberstanden. Schlimmer noch, der Aufstand weitete sich auf die Rheinlegionen aus, die stärkste Streitmacht im römischen Militär. Hauptbeschwerdepunkt der Soldaten war die als zu lang empfundene Dienstzeit, die geringe Bezahlung und die brutale Durchsetzung der Disziplin. Im Vergleich zu den wesentlich besser gestellten Prätorianern fühlten sich die gemeinen Soldaten herabgesetzt, obwohl sie doch die wichtigsten Verteidiger des Imperiums waren. Kaiser Tiberius entsandte seinen Sohn Drusus mit zwei Prätorianerkohorten und ausgewählten anderen Truppen, um den Aufstand zu unterdrücken, bevor er in offene Rebellion mündete. Recht schnell gelang es Drusus, unter Androhung von Gewalt die Soldaten zu überzeugen, die Rädelsführer auszuliefern. Einige töteten die Männer selbst, eifrig um Wiedergutmachung bemüht, andere ließ Drusus öffentlich hinrichten. Ähnlich lief es in Germanien, wohin Germanicus mit ähnlichen Anweisungen entsandt worden war. So kam der bedrohliche Aufstand zu einem Ende. Die Geschehnisse verdeutlichen, wie fragil die Ordnung des römischen Reiches war, wenn die Hauptstütze seiner Macht, das Militär, aus seinem Handlungsrahmen trat. Allein die Angst vor offener Rebellion und der damit einhergehenden Todesgefahr hatte die Aufständischen überzeugen können, von ihren Taten abzulassen. Rein mit militärischer Macht wäre der Aufruhr in Anbetracht der Stärke der pannonischen und Rheinlegionen kaum zu unterdrücken gewesen. Erst die Sondergesandten in Person von Angehörigen der kaiserlichen Familie bewirkten ein Umdenken bei den Legionären. Indes ist dies eines von wenigen Ereignissen, bei denen es zu Widerstand gegen Bestrafungsmaßnahmen innerhalb der Armee kam.