vol. V p.1328-1331
Son of nr. 27 (Cic. Phil. 27. Tac. ann. IV 44. Suet. Nero 3. L. f. on coins; incorrectly or corrupted in the mss. Dio L ind.: Γ. υἱ. Γιν. ἐγγ.) and Porcia, Cato’s sister. In 704 = 50, while he was still a young man, he charged Cn. Appuleius Saturninus (Cael. in Cic. ad fam. VIII 14, 1, vol. II p.260 nr. 27), seemingly because he had helped to prevent his father from being elected augur. In the following year 705 = 49, he was with his father in Corfinium (Sen. de benef. III 24), <20> they were both pardoned by Caesar (Caes. bell. civ. I 23, 2), and then he travelled to his mother at Naples, and during the journey he passed by Formiae on 8th March (Cic. ad Att. IX 3, 1; cf. VIII 14, 3). So, he didn’t accompany his father to Massalia, but instead probably joined Pompey immediately. Either way, he took part in the civil war, and then turned back to Italy, without having made his peace with the new leader; <30> for, at some point in May 708 = 46, Cicero wrote the letter ad fam. VI 22 to him to get him to seek a full pardon, in the interests of him and his relatives, particularly his mother and wife. However, this doesn’t seem to have taken place, since Cic. Phil. II 27 references a spoliatio dignitatis of Domitio under Caesar. In 709 = 45, Cicero had his eulogy to Porcia, Domitius’ mother, sent to him (ad Att. XIII 37, 3. 48, 2). <40> His participation in the conspiracy against Caesar is doubtful. Cic. Phil. II 27. 30 lumps him together with the most significant of the conspirators, and he was convicted along with the others according to the lex pedia (Suet. Nero 3. Appian. bell. civ. V 55). Also, at the trial in Brundisium in autumn 714 = 40, Octavian charged him as one of the convicted murderers of Caesar, but intermediary L. Cocceius Nerva objected: Ἀηνόβαρβος δὲ οὔκ ἔστι τῶν ἀνδροφόνων, ἡ δὲ ψῆφος αὐτῷ κατ’ ὀργὴν ἐπῆκται· οὐδὲ γὰρ τῆς βουλῆς πω τότε μετεῖχεν (Appian. V 61. 62.). <50> This is why Domitius was listed as one of the murderers by Dio XLVIII 7, 5. 29, 2. 54, 4. Zonar. X 21, but as innocent by Suet. loc. cit. However, because of his entire political history, because of his family link (on his mother’s side) and friendship with M. Brutus, and because of his behaviour in recent times, Domitius must have fallen under suspicion of taking part in the conspiracy, even if he hadn’t done so. <60> In summer 710 = 44, he prepared some ships on the coast of Campania with Brutus and Cassius (Cic. ad Att. XVI 4, 4), and followed Brutus to Macedonia; at the end of the year, he convinced some of the cavalry there, whom the consul P. Dolabella had been leading to Syria, to defect (Cic. Phil. X 13), and from there in 711 = 43, he put himself forward for a position in the collegium of pontifices (Cic. ad Brut. I 5, 3; Brutus’s reply ibid. 7, 2. Cic. ibid. 14, 1). <page break 1328/1329> In 712 = 42, the murderers of Caesar sent him into the Ionian sea with 50 ships, where he combined with L. Statius Murcus and his ships; in autumn, around the time of the battle at Philippi, they defeated Cn. Domitius Calvus nr. 43 with their fleet of 130 ships, as he was trying to bring reinforcements to the triumvirs (Appian. IV 86. 100. 108. 115f., on the number of ships cf. Kromayer Philol. LVI 441, 73); <10> as a result of this victory, Domitius took on the title of imperator, which he bore on his coins from that point onwards. He didn’t take part in the battle at Philippi; although it is sometimes said that he saved himself from this defeat, this shouldn’t be taken literally: instead, it’s an expression for the catastrophe that befell the murderers of Caesar. After this disaster, the rest of the party gathered themselves together in the Ionian sea, meaning that Domitius had well over 200 ships at his disposal (cf. Kromayer loc. cit. 448, 125). <20> When Murcus was making his way to Sex. Pompey in Sicily with his men, he started the sea-battle independently with the 70 vehicles and two legions left over for him, he lay waste to the places along the coast belonging to the triumvirs, he destroyed Octavian’s fleet which was lying in the port at Brundisium, and he put the town under siege (Vell. II 72, 3. 76, 2. Tac. ann. IV 44. Suet. Nero 3. Appian. V 25f. 61. Dio XLVIII 7, 4f. Zonar. X 21). <30> Once the Perusine War had ended in spring 714 = 40, Domitius gave up his independent authority and joined together with Asinius Pollio, and Pollio arranged his reconciliation with M. Antony (Vell. II 76, 2. App. V 50). Full of trust, Antony came to Domitius’s fleet with only five ships, was welcomed as general with every honour, and was lead by Domitius himself to one of the places likely lying on the coast of Epirus (ἐς Παλόεντα App. V 55, cf. Mendelssohn on this section, Gardthousen Augustus II 101f., 9) where he also took over his land army (Vell. Tac. Suet. Appian. V 55f. Dio XLVIII 16, 2). Although Domitius had been minting coins independently up until now (in Spain [?], Mommsen S.-Ber. Akad. Berl. 1883, 1162), he now began to put the head of Antony onto coins minted in the following months, and on the back he put the sidus Iulium over his ship as a sign that he had changed sides (cf. Borghesi Oeuvres II 53f.). <50> However, Octavian continued to think of him as an enemy, not only because he had allegedly taken part in the murder of Caesar, but even all the more so because of the damage he had dealt in more recent time. And so, as has already been mentioned, he made serious complaints about Antony’s reconciliation with him at the negotiations in Brundisium in September (Appian. V 61), and in order to remove this obstacle in the way of peace, Antony moved Domitius out of the way by appointing him governor of Bithynia (ibid. 63). In the general peace treaties, he too was mentioned, and he was absolved from his conviction by the lex pedia and from his connection to the eight (Suet. Nero 3. Appian. V 65. Dio XLVIII 29, 2); in the treaty at Misenum in 715 = 39, it was also decided that in one of the following years, <page break 1329/1330> he should be consul along with C. Sosius (Appian. V 73, cf. Dio XLVIII 35, 1). He seems to have continued to be governor of Bithynia up until he actually stepped into office (cf. Ganter Provincialverwaltung der Triumvirn [Strassbg. 1892] 34). He took part in Antony’s first unsuccessful Parthian campaign with his army in 718 = 36 (Plut. Ant. 41, 4); after his return, he was called to bring help against Sex. Pompey by his neighbour, the governor of the province Asia, C. Furnius; <10> during the negotiations, a certain traitor Curius was intending to take control of Domitius’s reputation, but his attack was quickly discovered (Appian. V 137). On 1st January 722 = 32, when the triumvirs were just about to split apart, Domitius and C. Sosius became consuls (Fasti Venus. CIL I2 p. 66. Fasti collegii inc. ibid. p. 68. Chronogr. Cassiod. Nep. Att. 22, 3. Suet. Aug. 17 [incorrectly T. Domitium] cf. Nero 3 [amplissimos honores percucurrit]. Dio XLIX 41, 4. L ind. 2, 2. Zonar. X 28). <20> Both were on Antony’s side, and on the very day he stepped into office, Sosius stated that he was pro Antony and against Octavian; the month passed in discussions about their position; Octavian first made his response in February, by gathering together all charges against Antony and arranging for the documents to be read aloud in the next meeting of the senate; <30> the two consuls didn’t wait around to see what happened, instead they left the city and met Antony in Ephesus in March (on the chronology, cf. Kromayer Herm. XXXIII 42, 5. 45f.). According to Dio L 3. 6f., they set off from Rome in secret, and only later did Octavian claim that he himself had sent them and other allies of Antony to the enemy, which only Suet. Aug. 17 has recorded. <40> In the camp at Ephesus, Domitius asked for Cleopatra to be sent away in vain (Plut. Ant. 56, 2). He alone among all the Antoniani had refused to call her queen in his address (Vell. II 84, 2). He seems to have been given command over a section of the fleet especially because he had already proven himself on sea, and had Menodorus of Tralles executed because he was suspected of treason (Strab. XIV 649, cf. Gardthausen Augustus I 356. II 183, 9). <50> He was the head of the followers of Antony who were minded towards Rome and against Cleopatra’s influence, and according to the account in Suetonius’ Nero 3, in 723 = 31 his associates were even intending to give him the command against Octavian. Shortly before the deciding battle of Actium, he decided to leave Antony; he was in despair about his chances, and had himself brought over to Octavian in a small boat, unwell. Antony sent him his luggage, and mocked him, <60> saying that his beloved Servilia Nais had convinced him to defect. Domitius was unable to take part in the battle, because a few days after he defected, he succumbed to his illness (Vell. II 84, 2. Tac. ann. IV 44. Suet. Nero 3. Plut. Ant. 63, 2. Dio L 13, 6). One of his coins (also pictured in Gardthausen Augustus I 210) has a temple with four columns on the front and the inscription Nept(uni), <page break 1330/1331> and according to Plin. n. h. XXXVI 26 a large group containing Poseidon and other deities of the sea in Scopas was in the delubrum Cn. Domitii in circo Flaminio; it made particular sense for Domitius to worship a god of the sea; he probably constructed the temple as governor of Bithynia and had this marble group brought to Rome from his province (among others, cf. Furtwängler Intermezzi 43). <10> Furthermore, we owe his portrait to the rare coins of Domitius; people have also tried to find his portrait in marble busts, most recently in a head of Braccio Nuovo in the Vatican (Bernoulli Röm. Ikonogr. I 198-200; on an example of gold coins in Berlin Sallet Ztschr. f. Numism. XVIII 202f.; on the marble head Helbig Führer2 I 32 nr. 53). Suetonius, when summarising Domitius’s life, adds the comment: omnibus gentis suae procul praeferendus (Nero 3); <20> more recently, R. Schöll (Commentationes Woelfflinianae [Leipzig 1891] 397f.) has published a summary which hits the mark in general, but this and the reference to Shakespeare cannot be enough to prove the suggestion also put forward by Wissowa vol. IV p.1833 that this Domitius was the one who was depicted in the play of Curiatius Maternus (Tac. dial. 3).
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This article is referenced by: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (27), Cn. Domitius Calvinus (43), Augustus (Iulius 132)
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