Germanicus as Religious Interpreter

This chapter focuses on Tacitus’ presentation of Germanicus, Tiberius’ rival. While Germanicus has often been associated with traditionalism and the past, this analysis shows that in the area of religion he is just as much of a threat to Roman cultic memory as Tiberius. When Germanicus engages with emperor cult or uses religious rhetoric in his speeches, he does so mainly to improve his image. In his campaigns in Germany he runs afoul of Tiberius when he attempts to bury the dead from Varus’ legions and opens himself up for accusations of religious pollution. On his journey east toward Egypt, he ignores several ominous occurrences that presage his death; and in his final moments his use of the rhetoric of fate and fortuna shows a poor conception of his own place in the cosmos. If Tiberian Rome is in a crisis of religious memory, Germanicus is not the solution.

Introduction

The Introduction contextualizes the study in terms of existing scholarship on Tacitus, cultural memory theory, and the study of Roman religion. Roman paganism, with its emphasis on exact repetition of rituals as they have been performed for centuries, is particularly fruitful when analyzed using cultural memory theory as developed by scholars such as Jan Assmann, Maurice Halbwachs, and Pierre Nora: religious ritual is viewed as a key component in any society’s efforts to create a lived version of the past that helps define cultural identity in the present. Tacitus’ own background as a quindecimvir, one of the most important priestly colleges in the Roman state cult, as well as the conventions surrounding the treatment of religion in Roman historiography, are likely to have informed his interest in religious material.

Conclusions

This chapter summarizes the conclusions that emerge from the analysis conducted in previous chapters. While the reign of each emperor described in the Annals has its own unique religious character, Tacitus nevertheless highlights certain problems that afflict them all: emperor cult, and the way it encourages religious commemoration of living members of the Imperial family; the prosecution of rivals on religious charges; religious flattery; increasing disregard for the cultic traditions of Rome; and the gods’ anger as manifested in prodigies. Tacitus also shows that there is no convincing alternative approach available, since rivals to the emperors’ conduct (such as Germanicus or the Pisonian conspirators) are also plagued by religious problems, and Claudius’ attempt to revive cultic traditions does not make any real difference. A brief consideration of the Histories suggests that, while the Flavians come off better than the Julio-Claudians, Tacitus also does not seem to have considered them to be a real solution to Rome’s religious problems, either. The best Tacitus can offer is his own works, as a conduit that can preserve religious memory in their own right.

Nero

This chapter examines Annals 13–16 and their depiction of the reign of Nero, an era Tacitus presents as the nadir of the decline in Roman religious memory. Nero engages in gross impieties (including the sacrilegious murders of his adoptive brother Britannicus and mother Agrippina the Younger, and the ransacking of temples to finance the rebuilding of Rome after the fire of AD 64) and abets the continued religious flattery of Senate and people. The gods send prodigies to demonstrate their increasing displeasure. Yet the problems afflicting Neronian Rome differ mainly in degree and not in kind from those of Nero’s predecessors; even his most egregious acts of negligence and sacrilege have their antecedent in what has come before under Tiberius and Claudius. This does not so much suggest that Nero is a blameless sufferer for the sins of his fathers as it shows that the principate’s evolution has only intensified the problems in Roman cultic memory that have existed since its beginning.

Memory and Forgetting from the Death of Germanicus to the Rise of Sejanus

This chapter focuses on Annals 3, in which Tacitus recounts several episodes that show the pervasiveness of Tiberian Rome’s failure to maintain traditional religious practices. Tiberius prevents changes from being made to the important ritual taboos regulating the conduct of the flamen Dialis, and the Senate discusses placing limitations on the granting of asylum by sanctuaries in the Greek world, but these discussions are conducted in a way that suggests that the principle of religious memory is falling into disuse. At the same time, the use of divine honors to memorialize the deceased Germanicus, and the attempt of the fetialies to become involved in rituals for the health of Livia although that does not fall within the traditional remit of their priesthood, show society’s increasing inability to practice appropriate commemoration.

Tiberius the Autocrat

This chapter shows how Tacitus’ treatment of the early principate of Tiberius in Annals books 1–2 lays the foundation for the problems of Roman religion that will shape the rest of his account. The deification of Augustus is an important part of Tiberius’ consolidation of his political position, but also encourages the living emperor’s subjects to treat him in ways that approach worship. Religious flattery of Tiberius and his family becomes a growing problem. The consequences of Augustus’ deification are further tested in early maiestas trials. Tiberius takes an autocratic position when he sets himself up as the sole arbiter of important religious questions (whether the flooding of the Tiber is an omen; in what cases a triumphal ritual can be celebrated), allowing no room for debate even as his interpretations conflict with traditional practice.

Claudius and the Failure of Tradition

After a brief assessment of how the lost portions of the Annals covering the reign of Caligula might have affected our understanding of the importance of religion within the work, this chapter considers the reign of Claudius as described in Annals 11–12. Claudius is depicted as an antiquarian-minded reformer whose attempts to revive Rome’s cultic traditions are nevertheless destined to fail to improve Rome’s poor relationship with its gods. Claudius revives the augurium salutis and the college of the haruspices, celebrates a lustrum to conclude his censorship, and holds the Secular Games. Yet none of these changes is enough to restore a true spirit of cultic memory to Rome, since Claudius’ reign also sees the abuse of rituals by his wives Messalina and Agrippina the Younger that threaten to anger the gods. It is also during his reign that the gods first send prodigies to convey their anger explicitly, an anger that Claudius’ attempts to revive tradition cannot mitigate.

Fate, Astrology, and the End of Life

This chapter examines Annals 5–6, in which Tiberius’ life draws to a close and the issues of fate and divine punishment are linked to the decline in religious memory that has characterized his principate. Commemorations of Sejanus, Livia, and Agrippina the Younger show the Senate’s tendency to use cult practice for the flattery of the Imperial house. Episodes such as the appearance of a phoenix in Egypt and Tiberius’ own predictions of the future, made with the help of astrology, give Tacitus’ reader the impression that Rome will be punished for its actions.

Divine Wrath and Annals 4

Book 4 is examined at a turning point in the discussion of religious material in the Annals. At the start of the book, the rise of Sejanus is attributed to the savageness of fortuna and the wrath of the gods; Tacitus for the first time explicitly introduces the possibility of divine punishment for the decline in cultic memory shown in previous books. Episodes such as godlike honors for the deceased Drusus, the form of marriage ritual appropriate for the flamen Dialis, and the revisiting of temple asylum rights show that the problem of cultic amnesia persists. It is interwoven with notices about the proposal of temples in Asia (4.15.2–3) and Spain (4.37–8) to be dedicated to the worship of Tiberius himself. Tiberius’ rejection of the Spanish temple, which rests on his alleged wish to keep such honors the province of the deified Augustus alone, shows his fundamental misunderstanding of the principle of cultic memory and earns him the ire of his critics as showing an insufficient concern with his own posthumous commemoration, of which emperor cult is now presumed to be the best form. Tiberius comes into conflict with Agrippina the Elder over the proper way to commemorate divus Augustus, and Tiberius’ withdrawal from Rome allows for new abuses of ritual to be performed in his absence.