Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (34 page)

It must have been clear to all that of his closest friends and advisers Agrippa was now Augustus’ right-hand man. He had proved more loyal than Salvidienus, and he had exceeded Messala and Taurus in carrying out his missions. Yet Augustus also favoured the friendship of Maecenas. Historian Velleius Paterculus describes Maecenas as a man:

Where Agrippa had doggedly fought to ensure Augustus was the victor of the civil wars, Maecenas had been the reliable representative back in Rome, tirelessly standing up to his pro-Antonian foes. While Agrippa had built harbours for a navy and fortifications for an army, Maecenas built a network of financiers and politicians; but he also assembled a team comprised of the best talent in Latin creative writing.
¹⁷⁰
Words and music would be their weapons in the war of ideas. Sometime before 37 BCE he had met Vergilius Maro and was deeply impressed by his work. Vergil showed his gratitude by dedicating the
Georgics
to him, which he finished in 29 BCE. Vergil, in turn, introduced him to another up and coming poet, Horatius Flaccus (Horace). Also benefiting from Maecenas’ patronage were Propertius, and the lesser poets Domitius Marsus, Varius Rufus, Valgius Rufus and Plotius Tucca. Soon Maecenas became known as a patron for the greatest poets of the new age of Augustus.

What, then, was the manner of Agrippa’s relationship with Maecenas? It was probably not an easy one. There is an implication in one surviving account that Agrippa was no great lover of florid writing with obscure words. Suetonius mentions a M. Vipsanius who could be our M. Agrippa. He is reported to have:

That somewhat contemptuous view of artifice in language would, however, be consistent with Agrippa’s known preference for rustic simplicity in architecture, painting and sculpture.
¹⁷²
In many ways, the two men were diametric opposites: Agrippa, the man from an undistinguished family from outside Rome, compares with Maecenas, the descendant of Etruscan aristocracy and a respectable bloodline; Agrippa, a man willing to put himself in harm’s way on land and sea in pursuit of victory for his friend, in contrast to Maecenas, who stayed in Italy, using personal connections and persuasion to build a consensus favourable to the cause he supported; Agrippa, the master builder and commissioner of works shaping great structures in wood, brick, stone and marble which brought water and visual beauty to the city, as opposed to Maecenas, a curator of poets, a lover of self-indulgent pleasures and the easy life. Their only common ground was their friendship with Augustus. It did not mean they had to like each other. While there is no direct evidence of conflict between the two men, it is easy to imagine Agrippa at times feeling frustration with, or even contempt for, Maecenas for being a dandy and a rake, and Maecenas for perceiving Agrippa as a man lacking in sophistication and an appreciation for the finer things in life, as someone who did not know how to have fun.

There was little to enjoy where Augustus was residing. He was personally directing military operations in northern Spain, which he had initiated in the spring of 25 BCE from his base in Segisama (Sasamón). He hoped this would be the final phase in the conquest, completing a haphazard process which had begun in 218 BCE.
¹⁷³
Successive campaigns had been undertaken by eager generals, but the gains had been won at high cost and the spoils to pay for them proved disappointing. Ambitious Roman consuls preferred to seek glory in the East, where rich rewards awaited and a commander could rather more expeditiously gather political and financial capital to build up his personal prestige among his peers and provide for a comfortable life in retirement in a villa on the Campanian coast. The last corner of Hispania
libera
was inhabited by two proudly independent nations, the Astures and the Cantabri. Augustus believed that a concentrated military campaign would finally break the resistance of these people. So confident of victory was he that he took with him 18-year-old Ti. Claudius Nero, son of his wife Livia, to begin his military career as a
tribunus militum
.
¹⁷⁴
Assisting him were his
legati
C. Antistius Vetus and P. Carisius, but the same source also mentions Agrippa was involved, which is problematic since he was in Rome at this time.
¹⁷⁵
The Iberian nations proved quite able to stand up to the Romans. The legions’ progress was impeded as heavily armed soldiers trained to fight in set piece battles on open plains were forced to fight a guerrilla-style war in the hills and valleys.
¹⁷⁶
Then, as he so often did during wartime, Augustus fell ill. Dio suggests overexertion and anxiety, though typhoid is suspected.
¹⁷⁷
He was swiftly transferred to Tarraco on the Mediterranean coast, where he remained in the care of Livia and his personal physician.
¹⁷⁸

Meanwhile, in Rome, Augustus’ 14-year-old daughter Iulia the Elder was due to marry his 17-year-old nephew, M. Claudius Marcellus (
plate 27
).
¹⁷⁹
He had hoped to preside in person at the wedding, but his poor health prevented him from travelling on the long journey back to the city. To stand in his place and give away his daughter’s hand to her new husband – a singular honour given Iulia was his only child – Augustus appointed Agrippa.
¹⁸⁰
Augustus gradually recovered and, left the prosecution of the
Bellum Cantabricum et Astruricum
in the hands of his deputy Antistius, and the governance of the Roman province to L. Aemilius.
¹⁸¹
It must have occurred to him that this was a job ideally suited for Agrippa, but for the time being he had other plans for his friend. The deflated commander-in-chief returned to Rome in 24 BCE. As he approached the city he sent ahead of him a letter promising 400
sestertii
to each citizen but insisted it be approved by the Senate first before being made public.
¹⁸²
When he reached Rome new honours were given to him for his safe return by a grateful city.

It would have been a great relief for Agrippa to be able to greet his friend again. In another mark of Augustus’ gratitude and friendship, when the house on the Palatinus, which had belonged to Antony but had later been given jointly to Agrippa and Messalla, burned down, Augustus gave money to Messalla, but insisted that Agrippa move into his own house.
¹⁸³
Dio writes ‘Agrippa not unnaturally took great pride in these honours’.
¹⁸⁴

The scare caused by Augustus’ debilitating sickness raised the uncomfortable issue of what would happen when he died. Speculation turned to Marcellus, who was seen by many as the rising star in the imperial family. On Augustus’ return to Rome Marcellus was granted several privileges and promotions aimed at accelerating his political career, perhaps even with him as successor in mind.
¹⁸⁵
Young and inexperienced, he was also given the right to become a senator among the expraetors and to stand for the consulship ten years earlier than was customary.
¹⁸⁶
These concessions were also extended to Livia’s sons Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus – who Augustus had not adopted as his own – who were permitted to stand for each magisterial office on the career ladder five years before the regular age; Tiberius was at once elected
quaestor
, while Marcellus was appointed aedile.
¹⁸⁷
Agrippa was 30-years-old when he first became aedile, so it was quite an extraordinary concession to the ‘mere strippling’, as Tacitus calls the young man.
¹⁸⁸
Augustus’ seeming favouritism for his nephew over his best friend caused some to speculate on trouble later:

Other than Paterculus, no other Roman historian makes this assertion, but writing around a half century after the events, he may have had access to contemporary records later historians did not which mentioned the rumours. What people thought, of course, may not have been what Agrippa himself thought. If, in fact, Agrippa did harbour resentments towards the young man, scrupulous to a fault, he kept them private. Augustus, for his part, was smart enough to realize that his nephew had much to learn and that he was very far from ready to take on the mantle of supreme power.
¹⁹⁰
Yet he was also keen to promote the notion of a
Res Publica
where men enjoyed freedom, and to avoid creating the impression that he was founding a monarchical dynasty – regardless of whether his eventual successor was Marcellus or Agrippa. As Dio articulates the conundrum,

If Agrippa’s ignoble origins were despised by the patricians, they played well with the plebs.

The year 23 BCE began without incident, but Augustus was now preoccupied by the issue of who would succeed him. The matter came to a head when Augustus, then in his fortieth year, fell ill again and this time it really did seem that he would die.
¹
He put his affairs in good order and called a meeting of the magistrates, leading senators, certain
equites
and Agrippa. Those attending and expecting him to announce a successor – specifically Marcellus – were to be disappointed. Overcoming his nausea he talked with them awhile about the state of public affairs. He gave Calpurnius Piso copies of his written documents detailing the strength and locations of the armed forces and a statement of the public revenues.
²
Then he handed his signet ring to Agrippa. It may have been intended to simply demonstrate his confidence in his close friend, but others present reasonably inferred a deeper meaning: Agrippa was the heir apparent. Indeed, he would have been a popular choice had that been Augustus’ intention, but the fact of the matter was ‘he did not, to be sure, appoint a successor’.
³

Augustus’ health did not improve and he eventually lost the will to attend even to the most urgent matters.
⁴
When the regular therapy of potions and prayers did not work, his personal physician Antonius Musa tried a different approach: a course of cold baths and cold medicines. Remarkably, the treatment worked and Augustus made a full recovery. Musa, a
libertus
, was handsomely rewarded with cash and certain privileges, including the ability to wear gold rings (normally denied to freedmen), and he was granted exemption from taxes, both for himself and his descendants, and also for the other members of his profession.

When he felt fit enough Augustus attended a session of the Senate in person.
⁵
He went with the express intention of showing that he was alive and well, and in no need of a successor. He took with him his last will and testament but, as a mark of their confidence in his longevity and out of respect for his privacy, the senators would anyway not let him read aloud its contents. The occasion is known to modern historians as the ‘Second Constitutional Settlement’. The Senate now reconfirmed Augustus’ power to govern provinces, but enhanced it as
imperium maius
, and consented again to his
tribunicia potestas
, which would thereafter be renewed annually. In return, Augustus resigned the consulship and agreed he would no longer automatically assume the most senior magistracy at the start of the year. Probably at this time Agrippa was granted
imperium proconsulare
, though it is not explicitly stated so in the sources.
⁶
This time-limited power gave him the authority to delegate duties to the
legati
personally appointed by Augustus in the imperial provinces.
⁷

Map 12. Agrippa’s Travels, 23–19 BCE.