Cn. Domitius Calvinus 43

vol. V p.1419-1424

43) Cn. Domitius Calvinus, M. f. M. n.

According to the Fasti, inscriptions, and Dio, he was a legate of L. Valerius Flaccus in Asia in 692 = 62 (Cic. Flacc. 31. 68) and tribune of the plebs in 695 = 59. As tribune of the plebs, alongside two of his colleagues, Q. Ancharius (vol. I p.2012 nr. 3) and C. Fannius, he helped out the consul M. Calpurnius Bibulus (vol. III p.1368 nr. 28), <page break 1419/1420> and aimed to support him against the attacks from the other consul C. Caesar and his followers, P. Clodius and the tribune P. Vatinius (Cic. Sest. 113; Vatin. 16 with Schol. Bob. p. 204. 317. 318. 324 Or.; τρεῖς δήμαρχοι without names Dio XXXVIII 6, 1); during a riot sparked by these matters, Domitius was harassed by his opponents themselves (Cic. de or. II 249). <10> Supported by the optimates, he was elected praetor in 698 = 56 (Cic. Sest. 113; Vatin. 16 with Schol. Bob. loc. cit.), and was in charge of the court which dealt with charges de ambitu, eg. in February the trial of L. Calpurnius Bestia (Cic. ad Q. fr. II 3, 6), and perhaps he also lead the court for violence as a stand-in at one point, for the trial of M. Caelius Rufus at the beginning of April (Cic. Cael. 32, cf. nr. 11); <20> moreover, he gained a good reputation through the splendour of his games, the Ludi Apollinares (Cic. ad Att. IV 16, 6. 17, 3). In the year 700 = 54, under the consulship of Ap. Claudius Pulcher and L. Ahenobarbus nr. 27, he ran for consul for the following year, in a most despicable way, alongside another plebeian C. Memmius and two patricians M. Valerius Messalla and M. Aemilius Scaurus. First, he joined up with Memmius to buy votes in the centuria praerogativa (Cic. ad Q. fr. II 14, 4), and then to buy the votes of the consuls who were currently in office and leading the elections; however, the formal agreement, which the two candidates had made with the two officials, was then brought into the senate and made public by Memmius himself, at Pompeius’s request (Cic. ad Att. IV 15, 7. 17, 2; ad Q. fr. II 15, 2. III 1, 16). Nevertheless, Domitius and Messalla still seemed to be the most likely candidates to win, although the elections were delayed by a long time. <40> At first, people decided to hold a particular kind of investigation (tacitum iudicium) against all of the candidates because the elections had been interfered with (Cic. ad Att. IV 17, 3); then, the comitia were delayed under all kinds of pretences, and finally the individual candidates were charged by various people de ambitu, including Domitius who was charged by the tribune C. Memmius (ibid. 17, 5; ad Q. fr. III 2, 3, cf. 3, 2). <50> Because of all this, the year had finished before the elections had been able to take place, and at the beginning of the year 701 = 53 there was an interregnum, which meant that all of those charges were never actually heard. This interregnum lasted all the way into July, and, although it could have been, nobody put a stop to it by granting Pompeius full power in the form of a dictatorship. Instead, roughly an entire year too late, the elections were finally held. <60> Domitius, who had shown support for Pompeius at the end of 700 = 54, when he was a juror in the trial of A. Gabinius on a charge of maiestas, where he made a show of voting for acquittal (Cic. ad Q. fr. III 4, 1), was then elected with Messalla for the remainder of the year (Tessera CIL I 733. Chronogr. Idat. Chron. Pasch. Ascon. Mil. p. 42. Macrob. I 9, 14. Cassiod. Plut. Pomp. 54, 3. Dio XL ind. 17, 1. 46, 1). <page break 1420/1421> The anarchy in Rome continued throughout the months they were in office, and kept getting worse, since the candidates for consul for the following year, T. Annius Milo, Q. Caecilius Metellus Scipio and P. Plautius Hypsaeus, as well as P. Clodius who was running for praetor, were not only competing with each other in interfering with the elections in every conceivable way, but were also violently fighting each other in public. As in times of national mourning, the consuls called upon the senate without their insignia (Dio XL 46, 1, cf. Mommsen St.-R. I 419, 8); <10> the only senatorial decree brought to pass which we are aware of is the decree that five years had to pass between somebody entering public office in the city and being granted governorship of a province. However, it was essentially pointless, because it was soon repealed by Caesar’s opponents (Dio XL 30, 1. 46, 2. cf. Mommsen St.-R. II 241); while they were trying to hold the electoral comitia, both consuls (or only Domitius, according to Dio) had stones thrown at them (Cic. de aere al. Mil. frg. 7 in Schol. Bob. p. 343 Or. Dio XL 46, 3) and were forced, in the end, to step down without having any successors. In the time that followed, Domitius decided to support Caesar’s side, and to that end he had an influential position in the Civil War. In spring 706 = 48, Caesar sent him from Illyria to Macedonia with two legions and 500 cavalrymen, in order to block the path of Metellus Scipio who was advancing from Asia (Caes. bell. civ. III 34, 3). <30> During the battles in Dyrrhachion, they both stood their ground in Macedonia without entering open combat, through the use of clever maneuvers (Caes. bell. civ. III 36, 1-38, 4, contrary to Dio XLI 51, 2f., also Appian. bell. civ. II 60, on this cf. vol. III p.1227. 1411). Domitius’s position became dangerous when both of the main armies broke out from Dyrrachion, but Caesar’s army immediately moved south towards Apollonia while Pompeius’s set out to the east, <40> which meant that they ended up between Domitius and Caesar. Cut off from all his allies, Domitius was lucky to happen to overhear from a couple of celts under Pompeius that it wouldn’t be long before he would be surrounded and crushed by the two hostile armies of Pompeius and Metellus Scipio, so he managed to save himself just in time by quickly retreating south towards Aiginion on the upper Peneios from his position in Herakleia Lynkestis, <50> so that, if he was lucky, he would be able to catch Caesar on his way to Thessaly and join with him (Caes. bell. civ. III 78, 2-79, 7). In the battle at Pharsalos, he lead Caesar’s central troops and was once again opposite Metellus Scipio (Caes. bell. civ. III 89, 3. Plut. Pomp. 69, 1 with the incorrect praenomen L.; Caes. 44, 1. Appian. bell. civ. II 76). <60> While Caesar was pursuing Pompeius after the victory, he handed over command of the men from Asia Minor to Domitius (bell. Alex. 34, 1); but out of the three legions he was granted, two of them very quickly had to be sent to Alexandria to help the general in danger there (ibid. 9, 3. 34, 3). As a result, Domitius was left with only the 36th legion when he decided to take the opportunity to move against King Pharnakes of Bosporus, the son of Mithridates Eupator, who had taken advantage of his opportunity to take a large part of his father’s empire for himself. <page break 1421/1422> Domitius was strengthened by two legions arranged in a Roman style by the Galatian tetrarch Deiotarus (see vol. IV p.2402) as well as an extra legion recruited in Pontus, and he marched through Cappadocia, which the enemy had cleared out, against Lesser Armenia, whose surrender he refused to acknowledge. However, when it came to battle, the new troops made such a poor job of it that Domitius suffered a terrible defeat at Nikopolis, and was forced to retreat to the province of Asia with what remained of his army (bell. Alex. 34, 1-40, 5. 65, 3. Liv. ep. CXII. Suet. Caes. 35. 36. Plut. Caes. 50, 1. Appian. bell. civ. II 91; Mithr. 120. Dio XLII 46, 1f. 47, 2). After his return from Egypt, Caesar balanced out the damage with his victory at Zela on 2nd August 707 = 47. <20> Domitius had the satisfaction of chasing Pharnakes to Sinope and forcing him to surrender, allowing him to escape Pharnakes unharmed (Appian. Mithr. 120); he was temporarily made leader of affairs in Asia Minor, because Caesar himself was heading back to Rome again (Dio XLII 49, 1). However, in the following year 708 = 46, Domitius accompanied the dictator back into the African War, and on 6th April, after the Battle of Thapsus, he was sent with two legions against Thysdra, <30> which the enemy commander C. Considius Longus abandoned as soon as he found out Domitius was on his way (bell. Afr. 86, 3. 93, 1). In the year 709 = 45, Domitius was in Rome and present at the trial of Deiotarus, where he was able to come forward as a witness for the defense (Cic. Deiot. 14. 25. 32). He was also in Rome on the Ides of March 710 = 44, because according to Val. Max. VIII 11, 3 it was in Domitius’s house that Caesar and the haruspex Spurinna met in the early morning ad officium; <40> since there was probably a sacrifice that took place here, this confirms the theory that Caesar had granted him one of the positions in the collegium of pontifices (Bardt Die Priester der vier grossen Collegien 16), given that the inscription CIL VI 1301 and the appearance of the insignia on his coins (see below) show that he was pontifex. As a further honour, Caesar gave him the title of magister equitum for 711 = 43, though the murder of the dictator meant that he was unable to actually take on that office (Fasti Cap., cf. Mommsen CIL I² p. 42). <50> In autumn 712 = 42, after M. Antonius and Octavianus had headed over to Greece, he was supposed to lead them their reinforcements, which included the famed legio Martia, out of Italy from Brundisium. On the way, he was attacked and defeated by a hostile fleet, lead by L. Statius Murcus and Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus nr. 23: <60> his ships were for the most part destroyed, and he was thought dead, but five days later he arrived back in Brundisium (Appian. bell. civ. IV 115f., cf. Plut. Brut. 47, 1. Dio XLVII 47, 4). In the year 714 = 40, he became consul for the second time, with C. Asinius Pollio as his colleague, but before the year was complete both of them were forced to concede their positions to a different pair of consuls, L. Cornelius Balbus and P. Canidius (Fasti augur. CIL I² p. 60. Fasti Colot. ibid. p. 64. Chronogr. Idat. Chron. Pasch. Cassiod. Dio XLVIII ind. 15, 1. 32, 1, cf. Domitius being referred to as consul iterum on coins and CIL VI 1301. II Suppl. 6186). <page break 1422/1423> Next, he became governor of all of Spain and general of all of the troops stationed there, and he remained there between 715 = 39 and 718 = 36 (cf. Ganter Provincialverwaltung der Triumvirn [Strassb. 1892] 16). <10> He fought against the Cerretani and other peoples in the Pyrenees. When his own soldiers and centurions, lead by a legate, were defeated because of their cowardice, he came down upon them with terrifying strictness. Then, he defeated the enemy with ease (Vell. II 78, 3. Dio XLVIII 42, 1-3), probably nearby the city Osca (now Huesca), whose name appears on his coins minted in Spain, though, of course, it’s just as possible that the name Osca on the coins is merely referring to the city in which they were minted (Eckhel D. N. V 203, cf. Mommsen Münzw. 669, 18. Babylon Monnaies de la rép. rom. I 457). <20> A tile stamp with his name can be found in Emporiae (now Ampurias), another city in the area, on the coast (CIL II Suppl. 6186). Because of his victory, he was granted the title imperator, which he bore on coins and on the inscription CIL VI 1301, and he had a triumph on 17th July 718 = 36 (Acta triumph. Tab. triumph. Barberin. Dio). <30> He made a votive offering of some of his spoils on the Palatine, and the inscription on its base still stands (CIL VI 1301 = Dessau 42); there is also an inscription on a tile from Tarracina: [...Do]mitius M. f. [C]alvinus [co]loneis dedit must refer to a dedication he would have made to this city at some point (CIL X 6314 = 8043, 1). Domitius only took the aurum coronarium, the contribution towards the costs of the triumph, from the cities of his province, though he did use some of it for his own private business, <40> but most of it went towards rebuilding the regia which had been burnt down (Dio XLVIII 42, 4f.), near where his own house happened to have been (Fest. p. 154, cf. Val. Max. VIII 11, 3). Dio loc. cit. discusses the exuberant reconstruction and decoration of the regia, according to whom Domitius borrowed statues from Octavian for its dedication, and sneakily refused to give them back; in terms of the building itself, in whose marble walls Domitius had inscribed the lists of consuls and triumphs, now known as the Capitoline Fasti, <50> remains have been preserved which allow us to produce a reasonably accurate reconstruction (cf. Hülsen Archäol. Jahrb. IV 228ff. CIL I² p. 4f. with panels. Richter Topogr. der Stadt Rom² 91f. 359f.; a conclusive publication following the excavations and investigations of 1899 is on its way [from the perspective of 1905]). Bormann (Festschrift f. O. Benndorf [Vienna 1898] 283-286) aims to show that Domitius, as one of the most highly respected members of the collegium pontificum, may have later also played a role in Augustus’s revival of ancient religion. In reference to Hula (Arch.-epigr. Mitt. XV 23ff.), Bormann places the fragment of the Acta Arvalia Eph. epigr. VIII p. 317 in the year 733 = 21, and takes the Cn. Dom[itius] named here among the fratres arvales as this particular Calvinus. <page break 1423/1424> In the following year 734 = 20, or thereabouts, the calendar CIL I² p. 214f. found in the grove was set up, and it was set up by an [I]mp(erator) mag(ister) frat(rum) Arval(ium), whose name is not preserved: because of the title and its general context, there seems no likelier person than Cn. Domitius Calvinus, who would have therefore played an incredibly important role in the reorganisation of the fratres arvales. <10> Of course, whether this theory is true or not also depends upon Wissowa’s proposed dates for the fragment of the Acta Arvalia (vol. II p.1468), and the somewhat tentative identification of the Domitius named there with Calvinus, who last appears in history one and a half decades prior, which has lead Dessau (Prosopogr. imp. rom. II 29 [or 20?] nr. 120) to wonder whether he was even still alive when Augustus became sole leader. <20> There is no way for the Domitius on a bilingual inscription from Lydia (CIL III Suppl. 7113) to have anything to do with this Domitius, because the Domitius of the inscription belongs to the latter part of Augustus’s reign, given his title. The fragment of an inscription from Erythrai: ὁ δῆ[μος …] | Γναῖον Δομί[τιον …] (Athen. Mitt. XXVI 117) is too brief to be attributed with certainty to him or to another known Domitius. There is perhaps reason to doubt whether Perrot (Exploration archéol. de la Galatie et de la Bithynie I 379 nr. 162) was right to link an inscription he published from Zela: Καλουείνο | θεῶ | Φίλων to Domitius, or indeed whether he read and interpreted it correctly in the first place. <30> His daughter is nr. 93.

([Münzer.])

[from suppl. III p.394]

Cn. Calvinius, who was charged by Cervius for assassination, on the basis of the (Sullan) law (Comm. Cruq. Hor. sat. II 1, 47, cf. vol. III p.1994, 14ff), <40> can probably only have been this Cn. Domitius Calvinus, although this trial cannot be connected with any of the other events we know of from his life. In a treaty with Knidos, [Γναῖος Δομ]έτιος Μάρ(κ)ου [υἱὸς Μ]ενην[ί]α Κα(λου)[ῖνο]ς was one of the two representatives of the Roman people and set up the agreement. <50> Following the views of one of the publishers (Jardé Mélanges Cagnat [Paris 1912] 51-58), this was while he was governor of Asia 707 = 47, but following another publisher (Täubler Imperium Romanum I 450 cf. 453) the earliest this happened was 725 = 29. Domitius was probably prompted by Augustus to rebuild the regia (cf. Schön Wien. Stud. XXIV 325-335; on the building Hülsen Röm. Mitt. XVII 62ff. Vaglieri Bull. com. XXXI 42ff. Rosenberg vol. 1 A o. 465ff.).

[Münzer.]

This article is referenced by: Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus (23), L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (27), Augustus (Iulius 132)