Nero si Parthia !

 1-Acest articol este copiat !

2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr -1!

“Nero lost all sense of right and wrong, and listened to flattery with total credulity.”

Nero began planning for war with Parthia in the early years of his reign. His pretext for invasion arrived when Parthian King Vologeses placed his brother Tiridates on the throne of Armenia, a nominally independent buffer state betwixt the two great powers, which was a constant source of strife as each sought to either make it a vassal, or annex it. In 58 AD the general Corbulo advanced on Armenia with several legions, capturing the capital of Artaxata and replacing Tiridates with Tigranes. When Tigranes then expanded into rival territory, Nero was forced to send further legions to defend Armernia and Syria. But Rome’s major military strife would be further west.

In the newly added province of Britannia, when the Iceni King Prasutagus (ruling the client kingdom of modern East Anglia) died, he left his kingdom in his will to his wife. Many client king states operated on the explicit, or implicit, assumption that the state would become a Roman province when the monarch died. This, coupled with Roman patriarchal ideas not accepting women in powerful social positions, meant that the will was ignored by the provincial governor. Instead of the kingdom being passed into the hands of a woman, it was annexed by Rome, with its queen flogged its princesses raped. Now the embittered Iceni looked to rally against Rome in support of their dishonoured queen, Boudica.

In 60 AD, the governor Paulinus was campaigning on the island of Mona (Anglesey), the final strong hold of the Druids, who had been a persistent menace to Rome. Mona proved a unique challenge, defended by a fortified causeway off the Welsh coast, with garrisons either side, and the climate and mountain routes taken to reach it severely restricting the campaigning season there, while also hampering access to supplied. It had previously resulted in the near-destruction of two legions several years previously, and now Paulinus was determined to use his legions to crush the Druids. His absence, however, provided an ideal opportunity for the flames of Boudica’s rebellion to spread.

Boudica’s Iceni were soon joined by the Trinovantes as increasing numbers of Celtic tribes flocked to her cause, seeing this as a real opportunity to expel Rome – just as Arminius had done half a century earlier. They destroyed Camolodunum (Colchester), which had been converted into a Roman colony, before advancing south to the Thames. An ambush saw the under-strength Ninth Legion destroyed on the Suffolk/Essex border (believed to be at either Great Wratting, or Sturmer), while Boudica then attacked the undefended settlements of Londimium and Verulamium (St Albans). Betwixt 70,000 and 80,000 Romans and their Celtic advocates were massacred during Boudica’s rebellion, with many tortured. These losses caused Nero to begin contemplating abandoning the province altogether. It had already proved a yoke for Claudius, consuming far more resources than it provided as resistance continued to drag to legions further in land, and this latest rebellion made it look as if the wild land could never be tamed.

Paulinius had returned, evacuating Londinium prior to its sack before regrouping in the Midlands. He then moved East, and chose an ideal ground where he could field his two legions against the overwhelming number of Celts (some estimates up to a quarter of a million strong). At the Battle of Watling Street (near Norwich, though the precise location has yet to be discovered), he lined up with thick forests to protect his flanks, and prepared to accept the Celtic advance. The forests and narrowing land prevented the Celts from overwhelming the Romans with sheer numbers, as Boudica’s army was forced into a bottleneck against the Roman legions. They were so confident of victory that many of their family and friends gathered on carts behind them to watch the battle.

Roman discipline began to tell, and the legions were at their best in close combat against undisciplined Celts. The legions hacked their way through the advancing Britons, and soon the sheer numbers were to their detriment, as confusion spread betwixt those trying to advance and those attempting to rout. Boudica, leading from her flamboyant war chariot, was unable to rally her army. Soon the spectating family members proved nought but an obstacle to flight, blocking the army’s escape as the legions hacked into their rear. Seeing that the battle was lost and her uprising over, Boudica committed suicide. The hard fought victory persuaded Nero to remain committed to the province, though he adopted a strategy of leniency to the islanders, rather than that of harsh reprisals which Paulinus advocated, and appointed a new governor in Turpilianus.

Having quelled the rebellion in the west, Rome’s attention was soon turned back east. For while the legions under Corbulo had succeeded in Armenia while the Parthians were locked into internal revolts, with those now resolved they were able to turn their attention back to the border. A Romam army under Paetus surrendered under humiliating circumstances, and though both Roman and Parthian forces withdrew from Armenia, it was firmly under the control of the Persians. Corbulo’s triumphal arch was part-built when Parthian envoys arrived in 63 AD to discuss terms, and when the general gathered his legions for a fresh invasion, he was met with delegates. An agreement was reached where Tiridates was recognised as king by Rome, though only if he received his diadem from Nero. As a coronation ceremony in 66 AD, he said “I have come to you, my God, worshipping you as Mithras”, to the emperor, with Nero declared “The New Sun” and “The New Apollo”. A period of peace betwixt Rome and Parthia followed, interrupting the intermittent warfare betwixt the two powers that was to continue for centuries.

In the year of his coronation, revolt broke out in Judea. Anti-taxation protests escalated with attacks on Romans by Jews, to which the governor, Florus, responded by plundering the Second Temple, claiming the money for Nero, launching a raid on Jerusalem the next day. The city’s Roman garrison was quickly overrun, and the pro-Roman King Herod II fled the city, along with imperial officials. The Syrian legate, Gallus, marched south with the Twelfth Legion and auxiliaries, but at the Battle of Beth Horon saw his 6,000 strong force massacred following a Jewish ambush. It looked as if Rome was to be expelled from the land of the Hebrews.

The Judean provisional government was formed, though the Jews were so divided by internal politics that they struggled to form a cohesive opposition to Rome. The diehard Sicarii failed in an attempt to take control of the city, with their leader execution and another peasant leader exiled. Nero assigned the unassuming general Vespasian, the accomplished former legate of the Britannia conquest, the task of crushing the revolt, with his first son Titus as his adjutant. Given four legions and support by Herod, Vespasian invaded Gaelilee in 67 AD, managing a persistent campaign to eradicate rebel strongholds without attacking the fortified city of Jerusalem. Thousands of refugees from these strongholds began to arrive in Jerusalem, further stoking the fires of political turmoil. The internal confrontation led to bloody violence, with the high priest killed in fighting and severe casualties suffered by each faction.

Despite his apparent success in resolving foreign crises, it would be his handling of affairs in Rome that condemned Nero. For Rome would be in flames, and the cost of rebuilding would be crippling for the provinces. This, coupled with his erratic behaviour, soon had provincial governors questioning their loyalty to the divine Julio-Claudian bloodline.