Question about "the Fimbriani"

[Guest Pangloss]

Hi everyone. My first post here, so try not to be too rough! I have read SOME ancient and modern non-fiction and have been interested in Rome for over 20 years. But my interest was rekindled a few years ago by reading Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series. I recently re-read them, and it occurs to me to wonder about the "Fimbriani", a legion that is featured prominently in her storyline.

 

As with many elements in her books, they seem to far-fetched to be real, but typically whenever I think that I'll go look it up and sure enough it'll be true! But in this case Googling (and Wikipedia-ing) doesn't seem to be answering my question. So I thought I'd ask here.

 

Did they exist in the ancient sources, or did she just make them up to make the story more interesting?

[Pompieus]

The "Fimbriani" were indeed historical. They were two legions raised in 87 or 86 BCE and sent to the East by the government under the suffect consul of 86 L Valerius Flaccus to attack either Mithridates or Sulla(!?) After some success against the Pontic forces in Thrace, Flaccus and his legate C Flavius Fimbria turned south to seek out Sulla. But so many men deserted they turned east to Byzantium instead. While the army was crossing to Asia Flaccus and Fimbria quarreled and Fimbria (whose only previous distinction seems to have been an attempt on the life of the Pontifex Maximus at Marius' funeral) raised the troops against Flaccus and killed him in Nicomedia.

 

In spite of its' disapproval of his actions the senate confirmed Fimbria in his usurped command and he began a succesful campaign in Bithynia and Asia, destroying a Pontic army at the Ryndacus River and shutting up Mithridates himself in Pitane. Fimbria appealed to Lucullus, who was operating with a fleet in the Aegean, to complete the blockade, but Sullas' deputy refused to cooperate and the king escaped to make peace with Sulla at Dardanus.

 

Fimbia then moved south into Phrygia and was surrounded by Sulla at Thyatira. With his troops openly fraternizing with Sullas' and after unsuccesful attempts at negotiation and assasination, Fimbria fled to Pergamum where he commited suicide.

 

The two legions were added to Sullas army and were left in Asia as the garrison when he returned to Italy in 83. They served under Lucullus in the Second Mithridatic War and in Armenia until they mutinied in 67, responding to Lucullus' personal pleas by throwing down their empty purses and telling him to fight alone since only he knew how to profit from it.

 

When Pompey superseded Lucullus in 66 he disbanded the two legions and discharged the survivors or took them into his own legions.

[Guest Pangloss]

Thanks for the reply! That's fascinating stuff. Do you happen to know what the ancient sources are for all this? It has a faintly Plutarchian ring to it; pehaps the Life of Sulla? I haven't read that in ages, maybe I'll drag it down off the shelf again.

 

Colleen McCullough goes on to use the Fimbriani in several other scenes, most notably in Egypt just before the Civil War. Bibulus's sons go to Egypt to re-activate the Fimbriani, but they revolt and kill the two sons. Cleopatra resolves the situation, releasing most of the legionairies and sending the centurions to fight with Bibulus. I wonder if there's any accuracy here or if McCullough just made it all up.

 

(This is ever the "problem" with McCullough. She gives you just enough to peak your interest but then you have to dive in to the "real" books!)

[Pompieus]

Plutarch's "Sulla" and "Lucullus" are the main sources; there is also, apparently, a fragment of Cassius Dio that treats the story. Volume ix of the Cambridge Ancient History (1951 ed, pg 255 and 266) give the story and a reference.

 

It's difficult to believe any of the "Fimbriani" were still around by 49 BCE. After all, the two legions were raised in 87 or 86 and had been campaigning hard in the East for twenty years when Pompey took the command. After such long service there cannot have been many survivors, and for this and many other reasons it is very likely that Pompey disbanded them as units. A few individual old-timers might possibly still have been with Gabinius when he restored Ptolemy Auletes in 55, but they would have had to be in their 50's!

 

I like McCullough's books (especially the earlier ones) because they give color and texture to the period, but I find her weak on the military side. (viz. there was no such thing as a "legion" of allied troops et al)

[Guest Pangloss]

Thanks again, that was most helpful. :-)

[alibegoa]

What about the part in that Colleen McCullough's book where Caesar commands a cohort of Fimbriani in that action where he wins his civic crown? Any truth in that?

If not, do we have any clear information of how exactly he won his crown?

[Pompieus]

What about the part in that Colleen McCullough's book where Caesar commands a cohort of Fimbriani in that action where he wins his civic crown? Any truth in that?

If not, do we have any clear information of how exactly he won his crown?

It is plausible, the Fimbriani were in Asia at the time. The story is in Suetonius Iul Caes 2; apparently Caesar saved the life of a citizen during the siege of Mytilene in 81 BC

[alibegoa]

What about the part in that Colleen McCullough's book where Caesar commands a cohort of Fimbriani in that action where he wins his civic crown? Any truth in that?

If not, do we have any clear information of how exactly he won his crown?

It is plausible, the Fimbriani were in Asia at the time. The story is in Suetonius Iul Caes 2; apparently Caesar saved the life of a citizen during the siege of Mytilene in 81 BC

 

But what precisely is known?

Just "Caesar saved the life of a citizen during the siege of Mytilene in 81 BC" or are there some more details known exactly?

 

On another note, I always wondered if it was possible at that time or heard of (with all the election briberies and such) to actually bribe yourway to some of those crowns?

[Pompieus]

The only reference I could find is the one paragraph in Suetonius. Typically, Suetonius writes mostly about the gossip and rumors surrounding Caesars supposed dalliance at the court of the king of Bithynia, and then says he "recovered his honor" by winning the civic crown at Mytilene.

 

Could someone bribe a commander into awarding a civic crown? I guess it's possible, but there is nothing in any source suggesting it ever happened. It would be bad for army morale not to mention that there would be thousands of fellow soldiers and officers to dispute a false award. Could someone bribe his was to a Silver Star or Medal of Honor?

Edited October 16, 2007 by Pompieus

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici:

Caius Suetonius Tranquillus indeed (De Vitae XII Caesarum, Divus Iulius, Cp II):

 

"Stipendia prima in Asia fecit Marci Thermi praetoris contubernio... Reliqua militia secundiore fama fuit et a Thermo in expugnatione Mytilenarum corona civica donatus est.

He served his first campaign in Asia on the personal staff of Marcus Thermus, governor of the province... During the rest of the campaign he enjoyed a better reputation, and at the storming of Mytilene Thermus awarded him the civic crown."

 

Loeb Classical Library Editor's Note: "A chaplet of oak leaves, given for saving the life of a fellow-citizen, the Victoria Cross of antiquity."

 

Here comes Aulus ornelius Gellius, Noctes Atticae, Liber V, Cp. VI, sec. XI-XV:

 

"The crown is called "civic" which one citizen gives to another who has saved his life in battle, in recognition of the preservation of his life and safety. It is made of the leaves of the esculent oak, because the earliest food and means of supporting life were furnished by that oak; it was formerly made also from the holm oak, because that is the species which is most nearly related to the esculent; this we learn from a comedy of Caecilius, who says:

They pass with cloaks and crowns of holm; ye Gods!

But Masurius Sabinus, in the eleventh book of his Memoirs, says that it was the custom to award the civic crown only when the man who had saved the life of a fellow citizen had at the same time slain the enemy who threatened him, and had not given ground in that battle; under other conditions he says that the honour of the civic crown was not granted. He adds, however, that Tiberius Caesar was once asked to decide whether a soldier might receive the civic crown who had saved a citizen in battle and killed two of the enemy, yet had not held the position in which he was fighting, but the enemy had occupied it. The emperor ruled that the soldier seemed to be among those who deserved the civic crown, since it was clear that he had rescued a fellow citizen from a place so perilous that it could not be held even by valiant warriors. It was this civic crown that Lucius Gellius, an ex-censor, proposed in the senate that his country should award to Cicero in his consulship, because it was through his efforts that the frightful conspiracy of Catiline had been detected and punished."

Edited October 16, 2007 by ASCLEPIADES