Varus' Big Judaean Adventure
Tags judaea, quinctilius varus, roman empire
If you have ever heard of Publius Quinctilius Varus, it will no doubt be in conjunction with the infamous clades Variana of 9 CE, the catastrophic loss of three legions to the German tribes under the command of Arminius in the Teutoberg Forest, near present-day Kalkriese in Lower Saxony, Germany. This celebrated military catastrophe was an event of some consequence - it put an end to the fledgling Roman province across the Rhine, and drastically curtailed Roman hopes of a German imperium. Not only did this event lead to Varus' own suicide, but it blackened his name in perpetuity, to the extent that many people interested in Roman history do not even realise that this individual had a long and rather illustrious prior career, and that one aspect of it in particular is relatively well-documented. Knowing about Varus' previous big military adventure in the territory of Judaea in 4BCE can contribute a great deal to our appreciation of him as a man, and can influence and nuance the way we read the sources that deal with the famous German disaster.
One of the most influential portraits of Varus comes from the writings of Dio. Dio portrays Varus as a sort of "wall-flower", a rather peaceable, scholarly and placid man unfit for the rigours of a command in a military zone. Famously, Dio depicts Varus holding assizes in the wastes of Germania, running a frontier zone as if it were a settled and pacified province. We have various reasons for doubting this. Some modern scholarship on Varus can overlook the fact that, prior to 9, Varus was without question one of the most important figures in Augustus' administration. He was a son-in-law of Agrippa, and thus linked by family to the very heart of the court. He had previously held high office as Governor of Syria, the most important and demanding posting in the Eastern Empire, and his selection to run the newly-acquired German province tells us something about his standing in the eyes of Augustus. Bookish wallflowers did not attain this level of influence in imperial Rome. Moreover, as we shall see, a good many citizens of Judaea would have strong reason to dispute Dio's characterisation of the man.
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Trouble flared up in Judaea immediately after the death of Herod the Great, when Varus was the governor of neighbouring Syria. Herod's heir Archelaus was able to suppress the initial unrest, but he then had to depart for Rome to convince Augustus of his status as Herod's successor. Turbulent Judaea was left under the supervision of Varus, who visited Jerusalem, left one legion as a garrison, and departed for Antioch. However, further trouble was precipitated by the arrival of Sabinus, the equestrian procurator of Syria who, immediately upon arrival in Jerusalem, began to confiscate land and property. Soon afterwards, when Jerusalem was full of pilgrims at the Passover, fighting broke out between Sabinus' soldiers and incensed locals, in which part of the Temple was damaged and its treasure looted. This caused further unrest. Massive numbers of rebels blockaded Sabinus and his soldiers in Herod's palace, but not before Sabinus was able to send desperate appeals for help to distant Varus.
By the time Varus entered Judaean territory with two legions and large contingents of allied troops, the rebellion had spread from the city to the surrounding countryside. Charismatic rural rabble-rousers with evocative names caused trouble in the country districts of Israel: Athrongeus the Shepherd, Simon the Royal Slave, Judas ben Ezekias. Varus sent a detachment of his army into Galilee, to destroy the city of Sepphoris and take its inhabitants as slaves. Meanwhile, his own army advanced on Jerusalem, en route reducing the towns of Sampho, Emmaeus and Arus. His blood-stained progress through the country terrified the rebels of Jerusalem, who fled from the city at his army's approach. Their ringleaders were ferreted out and, in a horrific display of Roman power, 2,000 Judaean rebels were crucified by the walls of the city. This terrifying example persuaded the remaining rebels, concentrated in the southern region of Idumaea, to surrender and hand over their leaders to Varus' custody.
Thus the "wallflower" of Dio's account is the same man who, thirteen years earlier, had butchered the rebels of Jerusalem in vast numbers and lain waste to their country. Varus' Judaean adventure does not suggest a quiet, bookish, unmilitary temperament. It suggests a ruthless, efficient and unforgiving administrator, and a highly effective military leader. From studying the classical accounts of Varus' Judaean incursion (in Josephus' Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, with a considerably briefer account in Tacitus' Histories) we begin to apprehend why Augustus had such confidence in this man, and how he had risen so high in the administration. Dio's character sketch of Varus cannot stand.
Which might lead to a further interesting historiographical question: why did Dio feel he needed to depict Varus in such an evidently unhistorical way? But that is for another essay!
One of the most influential portraits of Varus comes from the writings of Dio. Dio portrays Varus as a sort of "wall-flower", a rather peaceable, scholarly and placid man unfit for the rigours of a command in a military zone. Famously, Dio depicts Varus holding assizes in the wastes of Germania, running a frontier zone as if it were a settled and pacified province. We have various reasons for doubting this. Some modern scholarship on Varus can overlook the fact that, prior to 9, Varus was without question one of the most important figures in Augustus' administration. He was a son-in-law of Agrippa, and thus linked by family to the very heart of the court. He had previously held high office as Governor of Syria, the most important and demanding posting in the Eastern Empire, and his selection to run the newly-acquired German province tells us something about his standing in the eyes of Augustus. Bookish wallflowers did not attain this level of influence in imperial Rome. Moreover, as we shall see, a good many citizens of Judaea would have strong reason to dispute Dio's characterisation of the man.
***
Trouble flared up in Judaea immediately after the death of Herod the Great, when Varus was the governor of neighbouring Syria. Herod's heir Archelaus was able to suppress the initial unrest, but he then had to depart for Rome to convince Augustus of his status as Herod's successor. Turbulent Judaea was left under the supervision of Varus, who visited Jerusalem, left one legion as a garrison, and departed for Antioch. However, further trouble was precipitated by the arrival of Sabinus, the equestrian procurator of Syria who, immediately upon arrival in Jerusalem, began to confiscate land and property. Soon afterwards, when Jerusalem was full of pilgrims at the Passover, fighting broke out between Sabinus' soldiers and incensed locals, in which part of the Temple was damaged and its treasure looted. This caused further unrest. Massive numbers of rebels blockaded Sabinus and his soldiers in Herod's palace, but not before Sabinus was able to send desperate appeals for help to distant Varus.
By the time Varus entered Judaean territory with two legions and large contingents of allied troops, the rebellion had spread from the city to the surrounding countryside. Charismatic rural rabble-rousers with evocative names caused trouble in the country districts of Israel: Athrongeus the Shepherd, Simon the Royal Slave, Judas ben Ezekias. Varus sent a detachment of his army into Galilee, to destroy the city of Sepphoris and take its inhabitants as slaves. Meanwhile, his own army advanced on Jerusalem, en route reducing the towns of Sampho, Emmaeus and Arus. His blood-stained progress through the country terrified the rebels of Jerusalem, who fled from the city at his army's approach. Their ringleaders were ferreted out and, in a horrific display of Roman power, 2,000 Judaean rebels were crucified by the walls of the city. This terrifying example persuaded the remaining rebels, concentrated in the southern region of Idumaea, to surrender and hand over their leaders to Varus' custody.
Thus the "wallflower" of Dio's account is the same man who, thirteen years earlier, had butchered the rebels of Jerusalem in vast numbers and lain waste to their country. Varus' Judaean adventure does not suggest a quiet, bookish, unmilitary temperament. It suggests a ruthless, efficient and unforgiving administrator, and a highly effective military leader. From studying the classical accounts of Varus' Judaean incursion (in Josephus' Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, with a considerably briefer account in Tacitus' Histories) we begin to apprehend why Augustus had such confidence in this man, and how he had risen so high in the administration. Dio's character sketch of Varus cannot stand.
Which might lead to a further interesting historiographical question: why did Dio feel he needed to depict Varus in such an evidently unhistorical way? But that is for another essay!
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