The House That Crassus and Pompey Built

Are they? And welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from La Trobe University. I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Rihanna Nevins, Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at La Trobe University. This is episode CCXLII. The house that Crassus and Pompey built. After the death of Crassus, his powerful name, his fortune, and his family's honour survived.

In this episode we'll trace the life of the Crassie yet to come, and how the family comes together with an old rival. Here's Rihanna Nevins. I thought that a good way to wrap up our little mini-series here on Crassus would be to take the family tree forward a bit and explore the lesser known Crassi. Crass eye? Crassy. What's a plural look plural? Crassy I would say. Okay.

And to see what happens to the family and the fortunes of Crassus, I guess, because a large amount of inheritance would come along, that there'd be power, there'd be family titles. And initially we've talked about him having two sons that were involved in the military, that were closely allied with Caesar, but one of those sons dies.

in battle against the Parthians. So Crassus's two sons are born to him and his wife Totullia. We don't know much about her except she'd been married to Crassus' brother previously and widowed. On Totullia we get only uh this slightly scandalous rumour, and it's from Plutarch's Life of Cicero, chapter twenty five, one of the sons of Crassus, who was thought to resemble a certain Axius, and on this account had brought his mother's name into scandalous connection with that of Axius,

once made a successful speech in the Senate, and when Cicero was asked what he thought of him, he answered with the Greek words Axius Crasu, So it both means Axias of Crassus, so it could be Axius son of Crassus, which doesn't make sense that way around, but also worthy of Crassus. Axias' name means worthy. Yeah, yeah. But he's just making a pointed comment that, you know, the mum sleeps around and this is a yeah, this son. Yeah. It's low hanging Greek pun.

A good way to do this episode just might be to take it a a generation at a time and we will we'll plod through the family tree because ultimately and and spoilers here. I think it's really interesting that we get to a certain point where there's a merging of the houses of Pompey and Crassus. And Both Pompey and Crassus, I imagine, would have hated that.

But it it shows how how close the families were and how small Rome is in some ways. Well, there's not that many elite families to marry into. Exactly. And and at some point you're going to be related to the guy that you absolutely hated during your consulship.

But I like the way you're calling them houses. It's like something from Dune or Yeah. You're probably thinking Game of Thrones still. Uh no, I actually wasn't thinking Game of Thrones. But it is like crime family story. You know, here we've got the Montagues and Capulets finally coming together.

Exactly. We'll start with uh the first generation. We've got Marcus Licinius Crassus. I've put the second there because he's named after his father, and Crassus' other son was called Publius Licinius Crassus. So these two sons we have met previously, they've gone to war alongside Caesar and we've come across them in the retelling of the life of Crassus. Yes. So Marcus

Marcus the second, who was born in around eighty six or eighty five B C E. He rises through the ranks as your elite Roman manual. He's Quistor in fifty four BCE in Gaul, along with Caesar. when Caesar goes over to Britannia, he's involved in that invasion and is even mentioned by Caesar as being in charge of a legion there. So he's definitely a a Caesar loyalist. He is made the governor of Kisalpine Gaul in forty nine BCE, so when Caesar's conquest is finished and on the verge of civil war.

He marries uh Cailia Metella from a very, very distinguished Roman family. He's the she's the daughter of Metellus Credicus. She is the Kaikelia Matella whose massive tomb looks like a fortress tomb on the Appian Way. Yeah. They have a son, Marcus Licinius Crassus the Third. The Romans do not use the numbers, but just to identify them ourselves. Yes. Okay. A lot of the reading that I did about these two Crassy seemed to be that uh Publius was the more well known of the two, the better regarded.

We get a mention from Cicero, I think that Cicero thought much of him or he looked up to Cicero. Mm-hmm. So maybe he's not the one who looks like Axios. Maybe not. Maybe not. Who knows? When you're going to r uh insult Crassus, you you take whatever you can get. But in regards to Marcus, who we assume was the elder brother due to the naming convention, but there's no indication that he really was.

Ronald Syme seems unimpressed by him, the historian. He later on refers to this Crassus' son as taking more after his uncle as far as being a better soldier and everything and Okay, so then we've got Publia. who may have been born in eighty six or may have been born in eighty two, it's not entirely clear. So he's the one who dies at Cari. He had also served with Julius Caesar. He might have been just twenty four when he went out there, if he's born slightly later.

as you've already mentioned, historians regard him a little higher than his brother. He marries Cornelia Metella, so another one of the Metelli she's kind of known for her intellect, f for being a clever and gifted daughter of Metella Scipio. She's kind of the heir of the last surviving branch of the Skipios, this family that had been so dominant throughout the mid republic.

So he would have been in his late twenties marrying Cornelia and the marriage may be delayed by his military service. And we know that he dies in Parthia. So Plutarch tells of how he killed himself on the battlefield after being injured in order to allow those who could escape to escape. He didn't want to slow them down basically and that he had been pierced by an arrow

And he presented his side to his shield bearer and ordered him to strike home with his sword. So I guess it's not suicide formally. It's suicide in the same way Mark Antony did it. Requiring an inferior to kill you. So this is kind of presenting his death as honourable for the sake of sparing others. The Parthians, however, mutilate Publius's body and parade his head they do like to take heads on the tip of a lance in front of the Roman camp.

So they do this to mock Crassus, who survived the battle. And after this taunts are hurled at his father, at Crassus the Elder, for his son's greater courage. Publius Crassus' widow marries Pompey the next year, Pompey's fifth and final wife, and the two families are joined already. Already, yeah. I guess, yeah.

It's they're gonna become more joined. Is that the one who was on the boat watching him beheaded on the shores of uh Egypt? Well she's definitely his final wife. Yeah. So it depends if I take HBO Rome as being a historical account. Well we ha we have discussed that at length whether we should. Okay.

So those are Crassus's two sons. One dies in battle with him, the other survives, but only for a few more years. But has had a son. So the line continues. All right, here we are with Marcus Licinius Crassus the third.

He oh when we're sort of moving through Roman history as we go through these a a great way to kinda explore the tumult of the Roman history. Yeah. So now we are down to the the generation that's alongside The civil war between Mark Antony and Octavian, and initially a third Crassus fights alongside Mark Antony and Sextus Pompey. Pompey's son. But eventually two defects to Octavian. The winning side. Yeah, like so many. It's interesting that yet the next generation, you've got all the same names.

involved in different sides of the civil war, history repeating itself. Indeed. Even though, you know, this Crassus is never gonna be as famous as the Crassus uh Trailmweir, you know, he is consul in thirty with Octavian. He's considered important enough for that. Although I guess if I were being fair I'd have to say by this stage Octavian is probably making people who can't threaten him co consul. Yeah, that's it. You would only give very trusted patsies, yes men, that kind of thing.

He is involved in non civil war military affairs as well. So he fights against the Gauls, probably against the Macedonians, but he is denied a triumph because by this point Octavian is starting to only give them to members of his own family. Eventually he does get one, but Octavian doesn't attend, so there's some kind of split going on between him and Octavian there.

He doesn't want his generals lording it over him. And then he disappears from the historical record. Is it suspicious? My anti Octavian stuff coming through here. He seems to be denied a political career at the very least. Yeah. Because we don't hear of him turning up as consul or anything or, you know, going out to be governor somewhere again.

We think he didn't have any children, but he did adopt Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi. So, you know, when you're adopted you get the first three names of your adopted father from the Calpurni Pizones family. a very, very elite family in Rome. Uh, he we're told Uh oh no you do sign. You be sign. I be sign. I be the sign of this podcast. And if I can quote Ronald Stime here. Sir Ronald. Sir Ronald. Sir Ronald. Ronnie. He resembled his uncle Publius in the scope of his military talent and ambition.

So that's a a sledge against his father i in some ways. Can you say a little bit about the adoption or the concept of adoption? Is this sort of thing common when you don't have, by the looks of it, any airs yourself? Even if you do, but yes, especially if you don't. And you fish around for a I assume a lesser known frugie in this case and say, Would you like to be my heir? Yeah. I mean there are various advantages to this that you now have an heir, that that family now has

potentially added wealth, you know, which it might not have been able to give if there are several offspring. You don't have to divide the wealth or have one son go off and make their own fortune. It's how a lot of the Skipios get to be Skip Yos. They can get added in. you know, Scipio Aemilianus is from the Aimilianus family and gets adopted into the Scipios. Yeah, it's common and it's gonna continue to be common. The Imperial family will practice it because they so rarely seem to have

Biological airs. True, yeah. We do see it a lot in the imperial history where a distant relative will be adopted back into the family tree. to be the next emperor. And it even happened, I guess, with Julius Caesar adopting the young Octavian, again distant relative. But in this case distant, but yeah. Great nephew. Yeah it doesn't have to be. They're all just one little pack of inbred families, aren't they? The Roman oligarchs of the Republic.

Alright, so now we've got Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi I. Great name. So now we've moved on from the Civil Wars to Augustus, Octavian's become Augustus, and he's established as princeps. This guy, I'm just gonna call him Froogie to distinguish him. Yep, fru frugie one. Oh yes, we're gonna get more, of course. There's more frugie.

He's consul in fourteen BCE. Mhm. He gets a decent career. Governor of Hispania Taracanensis, around ten B CE. We get this from an inscription. And he is the proconsular governor of Africa. For nine to eight BCE. That comes from documentary evidence too. He has a son and a daughter. The son Marcus Lacinius Crassus Frugi, exactly the same name as him, so the second. And his daughter Lakinia. Who marries Lucius Calponius Piso, the consul of the

Right. So they're still kinda doing this republican in marriage. they don't really know that the empire is going to be all consuming to the or the imperial family. Mm. So this sort of family relationships are continuing as they were. Well I mean this is early enough in the reign of Augustus where it you know, it c could conceivably be a blip. Oh, absolutely. I mean dates that we've got here are I mean the latest one we've talked about is nine APC. I guess it's installed by then, but

Twenty seven BC, Consul of Twenty Seven. At that point, it's not really clear. He doesn't get full powers until twenty three BC, really. Yeah. The next Friggi that we've got, Marcus Lacinius Crassus Friggy the Second. Mm-hmm. So we are now four generations on from our crash. So we do have an inscription that tells us about his career and we've got a few random mentions of Frugi II uh in the historical record.

So we know but that he's the urban praetor, in twenty seven he's the ordinary consul. And this would be with Lucius Calponius Piso, who is his brother in law as his colleague. Mm-hmm. And then we've got a reference to him being quite a bit older in forty four CE. He's uh serving as the governor of Mauritania. So he had quite a long illustrious career here. uh he was also admitted to the Collegium Pontificum. So go him. The College of Priests. Yes.

So he gets the ornamentor triumphalia, so that's like getting the honour of a triumph without really having a triumph. You get the bits and pieces, but you don't get the parade because he is a legate of the emperor in Mauritania. And then he goes along with to Britain when he invades in forty three CE and he gets the ornamental triumphalia, so the honour but not the triumph for a second time.

See by this period that they're sort of fudging the whole triumph thing. Yes. Triumphs for the Imperial family and just you can say you've got one and you've got bits and pieces the toga or whatever, but not the actual parade. It sounds like he has a relatively important military and political career then, I guess, as far as one, a Crassus goes at this time, and two just as Romans generally do. You don't hear a lot about Roman senators unless they're sleeping with

The Emperor's daughter. Well done him for the I mean part of this is chances to which bits of Tacitus have survived, I guess. Um so he might have mentioned all kinds of s senators during that bit of Caligula and Claudius's reign that's missing or the end of Nero's. But yeah, it's true. The fact that we get to hear about him means that he's having

as illustrious a career as you can have in the imperial period. Mm-hmm. He marries Scribonia, who is A direct descendant of the daughter of Pompey, Pompeii. So again we've got the family butting up here. Yes. So and she is He marries Scribonia, who is connected with Pompey's family, in fact of direct descent from Pompey's daughter Pompeia. So this Scribonia is the great great granddaughter of Pompey.

Well, we're about the same number of generations down the line of Crassus as well. Four on from Crassus and Pompey then. And the families come together. Yes. Okay. Of course we're so far on now that I guess that rivalry has become insignificant. The rivalry is long gone and what you've got here are just Two very illustrious names. This sounds like a power couple. You know, this is the wedding that everyone hoped they'd get invited to. I can see this being a good match and a big deal. Mm-hmm.

my good old buddy Ronnie Syme, though, calls it a match illustrious and fatal. Which is very kinda telling. I guess when you've got these people who are powerful in ancient Rome at this point, they are seen as also a threat. Mm. You know, at what point does this person with that kind of name and pedigree become somebody who can rival? Scribonia's father had been executed for treason against Tiberius, so

her relationship to Pompey has come through the maternal line. But all of these families are potentially dangerous to the emperor. Yeah. So part and parcel of being part of the Roman aristocracy at this point. He's he doesn't get off uh as as um The second Frugi. There are some insults that remain against him. Seneca calls him a silly fellow, silly enough to qualify for the purple.

This is Seneca the Younger in the Apocalyptois, which is a satirical work. So it's a it's a work about the deification of Claudius. He's very clumsy and it's a nasty piece of work in some ways. Yeah, the pumpkinification of Claudius rather than deification. So it's both a jibe at him but also a jibe at

what it takes to be emperor. And just how much mockery the whole title has. It goes badly. He is executed in forty seven CE on a charge of conspiracy, along with his wife and their son Pompey. Yes. We will get to the son. Frugi two and his wife.

Pompeia have five children. So this is the most children that we've seen in a Crassus line so far that kind of get to this point. And what I really like here is It's not clear if he takes on the name or if he is given it. Mhm. But the eldest son is named Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Mm. So he takes on the name of that illustrious ancestor. The second son is named. Marcus Lacinius Crassus Frugi. Which is what you'd expect him to be named,'cause that's his dad's name. Yes. But this is a second son.

So interesting that they've decided to privilege Pompey's name for the first son. Crisis would have hated this. Cressus would have hated it. Maybe it's part of the f fatalness that means that his head is raised literally above the parapet there. Calling him that points him out to people. Yeah. So there are three un other children. One of whom is a daughter.

And because women get simpler names, they just get the feminine form of their father's name usually. She's Lakinia. But she is notably Lakinia Magna. Mm. So she gets the Magnus bit thrust on her too. So a two in the one name. Yeah. Yeah, indeed. Yeah. And we know the fate of some of these families. So Pompey two? Yeah. Not Magnus for long. No. Caligula removes the Magnus. Which you know, maybe, yeah, you didn't earn that name. Yeah, I guess.

I mean, it's part of his family. Um, but yet Seetonius tells us that. He took from all the noblest of the city the ancient devices of their families. Seetonius doesn't approve. It was restored by Claudius. Claudius didn't approve either. Always uh the administration undoing the rulings of the former administration. Claudius might have had a reason for it because in forty three C Eus Pompeius Magnus II Married Claudius' daughter Claudia Antonia.

Part of the family give the Magnus back. This Pompeius also goes to Britain with Claudius and is indeed the one who comes back to Rome to deliver the news of the victory of Claudius over the Britons. These things always go wrong, don't they? Uh he dies in forty seven CE. Suetonius says that he's executed by Claudius at the instigation of Messellina. Bad wife Messellina. Yes. Bad Empress. Yes. Pompey was stabbed in the embraces of a favourite youth. According to Ciretonius life of Claudius. Yeah.

This is what my students decide every week about Suetonius as we go through the emperors' lives. So uh around the same time we've got Friggy II, so this is Pompeius's father and his mother as well being executed on the same time of charges of conspiracy. So they all got rolled up in the same kind of conspiracy.

Meanwhile the other siblings, um Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi III seems to have a reasonably lengthy career. Yeah. Until it ends. Yeah, well that's always the way. Consul in sixty four C E under Nero. So year of the fire. Mm. Quite the year to be consul. Yeah. But does make it into the reign of Nero, so escaping. Yes. Yes. He's executed sometime around or after sixty six C E. after being implicated in a conspiracy charges brought by Marcus Aquilius Regulus. Pliny the Younger writes about this.

in a letter and and Pliny's kind of talking about the de la Torres, the people who inform, mm writing about how terrible and scary life was under Nero. His wife who's called Solpicia Pray Textata. Great name. It is. Which means, you know, the pretextta is the broad band on the on the toga. So it means it's like saying your surname is I am an elite.

So Sulpicia and her children attended the Roman Senate during the early reign of Vespasian, emperor from sixty nine CE, seeking vengeance, so they want to avenge Frugi's death, Frugi III. Regulus and his associated political circle were prosecuted by the Senate. So almost a side note, uh Frugi three and good old Salpicia have four children. We will not

follow them down through their associated family tree other than say, which I found a bit interesting, the eldest daughter, Licinia, pryetextata. Uh served as a chief festival virgin. Mm-hmm. One of the sons, Lucius, Scribonius libo ripilius frugi bonus. Bonos. Does that mean we had an extra son and didn't expect it? Served as Suffolk consul in eighty eight and was an ancestor of Marcus Aurelius.

These elite families are still just keeping it all within the same little gang, aren't they? Well, sooner or later everyone is going to be related. To Crassus. Mm. Oh well, yeah, sure. Crassus would have liked that. Crassus likes that. So, uh we've talked about Pompey the Second, we've talked about Frugy the Third. There's a couple of other

siblings that they have. One of them is uh Pizo and we've heard about Piso being adopted by Galba. Galba who's the emperor short lived after the reign of Nero. So when you say we've heard, do you mean like way back in our podcast? That is this piezo, probably adopted because of

the connection to Crassus and Pompey. Yeah. That nobility gives him authority to be emperor. Or well, that's the hope. It doesn't actually turn out that way. In fact As your man Syme says, go on, you you say you say the words I'm the Sime of the Podcast in a vain attempt to redress the iniquity of history and bring back the monarchy to the line of Pompeius and Crassus. that he is uh killed four days after Galba.

Tacitus Histories one forty three seven. Rushing, dagger in hand, meet the armed men and upbraiding them with their crime, he drew the attention of the murderers on himself by his exclamations and gestures.

and thus gave Pigzo, wounded as he was, an opportunity to escape. Piso made his way to the temple of Vesta, where he was admitted by the compassion of one of the public slaves, potentially his niece was there because his niece became chief festal virgin later on who concealed him in his chamber

There, not indeed through the sanctity of the place of worship, but through the obscurity of his hiding place, he obtained a respite from instant destruction, Till there came, by Otho's direction, and especially eager to slay him, Sulpicius Florus, of the British auxiliary infantry to whom Galba had lately given the citizenship. Wow.

and Statius Marcus one of the bodyguard. Piso was dragged out by these men and slaughtered in the entrance of the temple. Wow. Sacrilegious. Yeah, pulled out of the temple of the Vesta. Yeah, and that's chapter forty three of Tacitus Histories One and chapter forty four starts I mean this is kind of more about Otho, but it's it's hard not to quote it. No other murder, according to report, gave Otho greater joy.

Nasty, nasty. Hm. I have to carry on. On no other head did he gaze with such insatiable eyes. What a nasty man Otho is. Yeah, that's not a a good way. And then we've mentioned the last sibling there, Licinia Magna, later killed on the order of Vespasian. None of them seem to end very well, Matt. This is a depressing lot of people you brought together for us. Oh, it's not me. Blame Pompey and Crassus, you know? Blame Tacitus and Ronald Syme.

No, this is really interesting to see where all of this ended up, where their descendants got to So it's interesting just how much these two families became intertwined. And I guess that, you know, by this point the original Crassus' money would have run out, but there would have been more funds because, hey, interest, high yield, that sort of thing. Well, it's all speculation as far as I know as to what g what goes on with Crassus' money.

Some of this would have ended up with the emperor, possibly. I'm sure at some point. Yeah. And we do have the tombs of a few of these people. So they owned land of what is now the Villa Bonaparte. Yeah. So you discovered this through this really interesting article about rediscovering the Lakinan tomb, it's called, by Catherine Benn. From nineteen ninety seven. When I read the beginning of this and she says it's in the grounds of the Villa Bonaparte, I'm like

Napoleon is always in everything in Europe. There's always some point at which Napoleon will tread on it, even when you think you're doing ancient history. But yes, near the Porta Solaria, not that far from the tomb of Caikilia Matella. So we're in that neck of the woods. And it's kind of fascinating that these sarcophagi have been found in the same location, that they were buried there together. Yeah. So a tomb was found on these grounds. We call the the Lysinian tomb now.

and it was discovered in the late eighteen hundreds during the period of where excavations were more grave robbing. So it wasn't well documented and we don't know exactly what was found there. but it seems like the altar of sarcophagus of Frugi II, mm hmm, his wife Scribonia and Pompey the Second, mm-hmm younger Pompey. were all found in here and also the daughter Licinia Magna, her altar was found on the same ground.

And so you we've got an extended amount of family in this one tomb, which is usually what happened. And you've also got, if you look up um statues, uh portraits of Pompey and of Crassus, The busts have all come from this term. So w what we know of how Crassus looked, about how Pompey looked, comes from the tomb of their descendants, which I think was a i is a great joining of two Roman powers that they both would have hated. But

Crassus kinda gets to win just by virtue of the fact that it's the male members of his family that have provided this link, so it gets to be the Lakinan to By Roman standards Crassus wins. Yeah. That was Rihanna Nevins, Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at Latrobe University, and you have been listening to Emperors of Rome.

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I'm Matt Smith. You've been fantastic and thanks for listening.