Re: Ariovistus again

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

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> --- On Sat, 6/21/08, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
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http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/13919

> Actually, Metellus Celer was proconsul in Gaul in 63 BCE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Caecilius_Metellus_Celer_(consul)

> which means that Rome had friendly relations with Ariovistus in 63
> BCE, which means that A. was not at war with the Aedui, the friends
> of the Romans at that time.
>
> ****GK: Torsten, Rome didn't care a tinker's damn for Ariovistus in
> 63 BCE. At that time he was just a Sequani mercenary. Not a major
> player on the international scene. That only happened after
> Magetobriga, in 61 BCE. More precisely after he effectively took
> over Sequaniland and their newly won privileges against the
> Aedui.****
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> DBG 1.44. Ariovistus says: "As for Caesar's saying that the Aedui
> had been styled 'brethren' by the senate, he was not so uncivilized
> nor so ignorant of affairs, as not to know that the Aedui in the
> very last war with the Allobroges had neither rendered assistance
> to the Romans, nor received any from the Roman people in the
> struggles which the Aedui had been maintaining with him and with
> the Sequani."
>
> 'Quod fratres a senatu Haeduos appellatos diceret, non se tam
> barbarum neque tam imperitum esse rerum ut non sciret neque bello
> Allobrogum proximo Haeduos Romanis auxilium tulisse neque ipsos in
> iis contentionibus quas Haedui secum et cum Sequanis habuissent
> auxilio populi Romani usos esse.'
>
> That would have been during their uprising under Catugnatus in 62
> BCE. At that time, then, the Aedui were 'Friends of the Roman
> People'.
>
> ****GK: And Ariovistus was still a nobody in Roman eyes.****
>
> http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Allobroges

I don't know why you think this is so important.

Anyway it is contradicted by DBG 1.43
"When they were come to the place, Caesar, in the opening of his
speech, detailed his own and the senate's favors toward him
[Ariovistus], in that he had been styled king, in that [he had been
styled] friend, by the senate - in that very considerable presents had
been sent him; which circumstance he informed him had both fallen to
the lot of few, and had usually been bestowed in consideration of
important personal services; that he, although he had neither an
introduction, nor a just ground for the request, had obtained these
honors through the kindness and munificence of himself [Caesar] and
the senate."

Why 'very considerable presents' to a nobody?


Torsten