Vergil, the Confiscations, and Caesar's Tenth Legion

Abstract

The relevance of the 1st and 9th Vergilian Eclogues to land settlement in Italy after Philippi has been discussed by many scholars. Questions such as the identity of Tityrus, Menalcas, and the youthfuldeusof Eclogue 1, and the eventual fate of the paternal farm, are the very stuff of Vergilian scholarship. It is possible to add an archaeological and epigraphic commentary on these events which may perhaps provide a more balanced framework for the continuing literary investigation of the poems.That Cremona was among the 18 prosperous cities selected before Philippi to be a reward for the time-served soldiery among the Triumviral legions is a clear and safe deduction from the Eclogues themselves. The decision to establish colonies was taken at Bononia in October 43, and colony commissioners were appointed at the same time (Dio 47. 14. 4). It is unlikely that they began work in earnest until the necessary victory had been won. These commissioners, sometimes and perhaps always with the titlepraefectus, acted as substitutes for the formaldeductores, the Triumvirs themselves. Thepraefectusfor Cremona is not directly attested.From the poems themselves and the scholiasts it might be thought that the arrival of the veterans to take possession was sudden and unannounced, adding to the shock felt by the owners (Ecl.9. 3–4; Serv.Proem.). In fact, the process of establishing a colony was carefully defined, and took considerable time. Firstly the commissioner, with a staff of surveyors and assistants, visited the town and set in motion the measurement of itsterritorium, the land on which the veterans would in due course be settled. Frequently the veterans expressed their dissatisfaction at the resulting time-lag (App. 3. 87; Plut.Ant.73; App. 5. 13 ff.).