Augustus Fights in Spain, Thrace, Yemen, Africa - Roman Empire DOCUMENTARY

At its foundation in 753 BCE, Rome was just a small city-state, but by 27 BCE, the Roman Empire had become a sprawling expanse of territory stretching across the Mediterranean, from the tip of Gaul in the northwest to the newly annexed breadbasket of Egypt. But this painting was not yet complete. The great conquests of Pompey, Caesar, and Octavian were still interspersed with rebellious tribes and semi-independent client-states not yet brought into the imperial fold. Octavian promised security and appointed a cabal of men to deliver it. Welcome to our episode on the military campaigns of the early part of Augustus' reign, in which we will chronicle how Rome's first emperor brought stability to his massive imperial realm. This video is sponsored by our youtube members and patrons, who get two exclusive videos weekly, not available anywhere else, for their kind support of our channel. You can join their ranks to watch more than 160 videos, including our series on the Pacific War, Punic Wars, Persian Wars, Spanish War of Succession, Russo-Japanese War, North African Campaign of World War II, History of Prussia, Italian Unification Wars, Risorgimento, Albigensian Crusades, and much more. Click the link in the description or pinned comment to get the exclusive videos, early access to all public videos, our schedule, wallpapers, access to a special discord server where we are very active, and much more. Thanks for supporting us, we couldn't be doing it without your help. In the intervening years between the end of the Civil War and the First Settlement, many of Augustus' generals remained active in the field. Indeed, with such a large army and many veterans demanding their pensions, it may have been impossible for the Romans not to seek new conquests to fund Augustus' massive force reduction. However, the largest and most politically inconvenient of these conquests would prove to be a flashpoint on Rome's northern borders, on the middle and lower Danube. The commander of this war was a man named Marcus Licinius Crassus, son of the infamous general who had been defeated at the Battle of Carrhae just over two decades before. Crassus commanded Roman forces in what was then the province of Macedonia, south of the various peoples of Mysia who inhabited the Danubian border in 30 BCE. These peoples had been in conflict with a group of migrating peoples from the northeast, the Bastane, who were possibly an early Germanic tribe. The Romans initially did not consider this worth their involvement, but when the Bastane had finished their conquest of the Trebali, Dardani, and Mysia, they crossed into the territory of the Thracian Dentholeti. The king of the Dentholeti, Citas, requested Roman aid, and Crassus happily obliged. Crassus' approach was enough to send the Bastane into a panic and force them to retreat. Eager to prove himself, Crassus pursued them across the Danubian plain into Segestica, the stronghold of the subjugated Mysi. He sent forth his vanguard, which the Mysi mistook for the entirety of Crassus' force, compelling them to lead a sortie out of their stronghold. This proved a grave tactical blunder that allowed Crassus to quickly crush the defenders with reinforcements. The Bastane, still in retreat, came up against the Sibritza river and sent envoys to parley with Crassus. Instead, Crassus extracted what information he could from the diplomats and prepared a night attack on the Bastane. Crassus sent his scouts ahead, drawing out the Bastane to the edge of a forest, into which they pursued the scouts, only to be ambushed. The Roman historian Florus preserves several details, including how Crassus duelled and slew the Bastane king, Deldo, and captured his armour and equipment. After this, a massacre followed and the now leaderless Bastane scattered. Thus, Crassus turned his attention back to the Mysi, but the campaign season was drawing to a close and he was forced to turn south to the Thraci for safe harbour. The Thraci misinterpreted this move as hostile and attacked his forces, but without other options, he endured the winter in their lands. The receding winter brought another bout of raids from the Bastane against the Denthileti, who once again called on Crassus. Crassus advanced to the field with forced marches, defeating the weakened Bastane again, before turning back south against the Thraci, quickly defeating the Serdi, Bessi, and Medi, but sparing the Ordrisi for their loyalty and service to Dionysus, being awarded the lands of the Bessi for their faithfulness to Crassus. Meanwhile, the king of the Roman-aligned Getae tribe, Rollis, also approached Crassus for aid against a usurper named Dapyx. Crassus obliged, advancing north to the Danube and engaged Dapyx's Getae warriors in battle before capturing Dapyx's fortress, slaying the usurper king himself and subjugating his lands. Crassus then advanced on the kingdom of Xeraxes, targeting the fortress of Gnucla. Xeraxes had abandoned the fortress to seek aid from further north, and Crassus assaulted it from land and the Danube, upon whence it was situated, capturing it quickly. In just two years, Crassus had massively expanded Roman territory, subjugating all of Micha. However, his success did not sit well with Augustus. Crassus demanded to dedicate the armour of King Deldo in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, and his troops proclaimed him Imperator. Augustus could not allow either of these to be permitted. Augustus allowed Crassus a triumph, but the younger Crassus' political and military career was then cut short, and he disappeared from public life. When Augustus reached his first settlement with the Senate in 27 BCE, he had done so under the promise that his retention of the proconsular imperium was for the pacification of Rome's new conquests. While officially, the doors of the temple of Iannus had been closed, to signify the end of all ongoing wars, in actuality, the newly secured peace was quite unstable. The year before, two revolts had already occurred in Egypt, followed by a major war with the Meroites of Nubia, along with continued border wars in Spain and on the Danube. The year of Augustus' elevation would prove to be similarly tumultuous, when the 14 tribes of the Aquitani, situated between the Garon and Loire rivers, revolted against Roman rule. Augustus chose Marcus Valerius Massala Corvinus to subjugate this insurrection. Little is known about this campaign, but since Corvinus celebrated a triumph in September, it can be reasoned that it was successful. In 26 BCE, Augustus shifted his focus to the provinces of Roman Spain. For 190 years, the region of Spain had gradually been subjugated through a series of brutal campaigns against the Celtiberian peoples, but parts of it remained fiercely independent. The Cantabri and Asturias provoked the Romans by attempting to assert dominance over subjugated tribes of the Vacchi, Termighis, and Ortrogonis, and engaging in widespread banditry. This drew Augustus' ire, who now sought to complete the conquest of Hispania, arriving in Seguisama to prepare for his campaign. He amassed an army consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 20th Legions, along with 4 cavalry alae and 2 auxiliary cohorts. He replaced Sextus Apuleius with Gaius Antistius Vetus as Legatus Auguste Pro Praetore, and also placed Pompeius Carusius in command as a Legatus. Augustus himself would lead the expedition, bringing with him his two potential successors, his stepson Tiberius Claudius Nero and his nephew and favourite Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who were appointed tribunus militum to begin their military careers. Cassius Dio first begins his account with a moralising tale about a bandit in the region named Corrocotta, a fictional name which translates to a mythical, monstrous version of a hyena. Dio relates, for instance, there was a robber named Corrocotta who flourished in Spain, at whom he was so angry at first that he offered a million sesterces to the man that should capture him alive, but later when the robber came to him of his own accord, he not only did him no harm, but actually made him richer by the amount of the reward. Corrocotta's fictional tale represents one of the many real indigenous leaders who resisted Roman rule in north Spain, but were forced to retreat in the face of this massive army. Augustus' three-pronged plan of battle was immediately put into action. While he had advanced to Sege Sama, the legates Thetis and Coriceas moved forward and besieged Attica and Velica, forcing the contabri to retreat into the mountains. There, Cassius Dio writes about how they hurried the Romans with javelins on their approach to the fortress of Vindias, a natural mountaintop stronghold that they used as a refuge. Unable to assault it directly, the Romans suffered from targeted harassment and guerrilla tactics until it surrendered due to starvation. Struggling to achieve results with traditional Roman infantry, Augustus was forced to send for more specialised troops from Aquitania. These men landed on the north coast and quickly took Aricillium, beginning a longer but more successful encirclement campaign. Augustus' forces to the south meanwhile made heavy use of the ballista to quickly topple hilltop fortresses like Monte Benorio, continuing his campaign over the winter into 25 BCE. Alongside Spain, the next year saw additional uprisings across the empire, with one particular sticking point being the Selassie in the Alps. The Selassie had been a thorn in the Roman's side for some time. Both Gaius Antestius Vetus and Marcus Valerius Massala had been unable to defeat them in 35 BCE due to the difficult mountain terrain. Incapable of dealing with the matter personally, Augustus appointed Aulus Terentius Varro, adoptive brother of the future conspirator Morena, to lead the expedition against them. Varro's strategy was simple but effective. He attacked the Selassie simultaneously from all of the passes they controlled, dividing their response. Unable to unite, they were incapable of meeting the Roman's insufficient numbers on any front to defeat them and were subdued. Varro then tricked the Selassie, imposing a heavy tribute and sending soldiers to collect the payments, pretending it would be the only punishment, only to enslave all of the military-age men upon their arrival. Over 36,000 Selassie were captured and taken to Ivrea, then sold into slavery. Varro then founded the city of Aosta as Augusta Praetoria Salasorum, where 3,000 retired veterans and Praetorians were expected to keep the peace. Meanwhile in Spain, the war against the Cantabri proved to be the last military expedition that Augustus would lead in person. Early the next year, as the conflict renewed, he fell gravely ill, with modern historians believing he contracted typhus. Augustus was evacuated to Tarico on the coast, leaving the conflict in the hands of Gaius Antestius Vetus and Titus Coriceus, who moved to besiege the Asturias fortress of Lancia. The Roman author Florus recounts these events. During the winter, Coriceus' forces had built three fortified marching camps along the Elsa River, waiting for the next campaigning season. The Asturias sought to take advantage of the situation and divided into three large contingents, significantly outnumbering the encamped Romans. In their usual fashion, the Romans preferred to fight on the open field, rather than from the strength of their fortified positions, but they faced annihilation. They were only saved by the arrival of Coriceus with reinforcements, who had been forewarned by the Brigachini tribe who betrayed the Asturias. The Romans then met the Asturias in an open battle, defeating them, but suffering significant losses. After this victory, the Romans pursued the Asturias to the fortress citadel of Lancia, seizing it after a difficult siege. This likely impacted the strategy of the final battle of the revolt, where the Romans decided to surround the town of Mons Medullius above the Mino River with a nearly 18-mile circumvallation. With the city succumbing to starvation, Coriceus entered the gates and erected a trophaeum, marking the end of the conflict. Just as with Varro, Coriceus also discharged his 16-year veterans to found a new colony named Augusta Emerita, the site of modern Merida in Spain. As a result of this great victory, the Senate vowed to bestow a triumph upon Augustus, and for the second time in Augustus' reign, the doors of the Temple of Iannus were shut. 24 BCE would prove to be an eventful year, well known for a rather ambitious and disastrous Roman expedition on the far side of the Empire. In Egypt, Cornelius Gallus had recently been replaced by Gaius Aelius Gallus, who proved more restrained than his predecessor. Under Augustus' order, Gallus was to invade and conquer the lucrative region of Arabia Felix in modern Yemen, seizing control of the spice trade and establishing a foothold for the future conquest of the Kingdom of Aksum. A force of 10,000 men was assembled, of which 8,500 consisted of Romans, 1,000 Nabataeans under Silaeus, 500 Jewish troops from Herod, and 80 triremes, byremes, and smaller craft built at Asinui. Silaeus was to serve as their guide, but he proved duplicitous, taking the Romans on a roundabout course that exposed them to disease and desert heat, delaying the expedition by many months. Before even reaching the small harbour of Lukekame, just across the Red Sea from Egypt, several ships had run aground on reefs, and Gallus' troops had succumbed to diseases of the mouth, head, and legs from consuming local water and forage. After several weeks of recovery, the Romans set out on an 80-day march to Negrena, modern Najran, at the north edge of Arabia Felix. The Romans seized the town and its provisions. The local king, named Sabos, had fled, but he soon returned with an army. In the ensuing battle, the Romans allegedly defeated a force of 10,000 Arabians while losing only two men, a lopsided victory which Strabo attributes to the fact that Roman equipment proved far superior to that of the Arabians. The Romans then advanced on Marsyaba, capital of the Romanate, and identified with modern Marib. However, the Romans were forced to end the siege after six days. Realizing Silaeus' betrayal, the Romans returned to the port of Mios Hormos after only 60 days' march. Ultimately, the expedition was considered a success despite the failure to conquer Arabia and heavy losses. The consequences did not echo this sentiment, however. Silaeus was sent to Rome and tried for treason before being beheaded, while Gaius Aelius Gallus' political career ended as Gaius Petronius replaced him. Gaius Petronius would quickly face his own challenge as praetorian prefect of Egypt. While the Romans had been away in Arabia, a massive army of 30,000 Nubians under King Tericatus invaded and ravaged southern Egypt, sacking Syene and tearing down a bronze statue of Augustus. In 22 BCE, with his army recovered, Petronius was finally able to respond to this invasion. Petronius led a force of 10,000 infantry and 800 cavalry drawn from three legions and several cohorts of auxiliaries down into southern Egypt, but attempted a different strategy from that of Gallus before him. Instead, he reached out to a certain Ammonerenus Candace, Queen of the and widow of the now-deceased Tericatus, demanding to know the reason for their invasion. She replied that the Nomarchs, the local rulers in south Egypt, had somehow wronged them, to which the Romans explained that the Nomarchs no longer ruled Egypt, but they now did. The Nubians asked for three days to deliberate, but Petronius grew impatient and instead forced them into open battle, defeating them with ease and forcing them to quickly retreat to Selchis, while the Romans moved to capture Premnus, modern Kasa Ibrim. Candace offered a truce, promising to return the prisoners and looted goods, but Petronius instead laid siege to the capital of Napta, razing the city and enslaving its population. However, instead of embarking on a full conquest of Nubia, Petronius wisely withdrew to Kasa Ibrim, fortifying the site and imposing a tribute on the surviving ruler of the Nubians. Eager to avoid his predecessor's fate, a thousand of these slaves were gifted to Augustus. Across the rest of the empire, the years 24 to 21 BCE had remained rather quiet, but for a few minor hiccups. In 21 BCE, a similar campaign in Africa was undertaken by Lucius Cornelius Balbus, a Spaniard and proconsul of Libya, who undertook a punitive campaign against the Garamantes who raided north into his province. This campaign would take two years, with one detachment of soldiers reaching as deep into Africa as the Niger river. It was extremely successful, capturing the capital of Garama and 15 other towns. The senate was so impressed that upon his return in 19 BCE, he was awarded a triumph, the first provincial to be given one. On the other side of the empire, the Asturias and Cantabri attempted to rebel twice, but both of these revolts were suppressed. Meanwhile, Augustus himself had to order a revolt in Cilicia put down after they had slain Roman officials in the region. However, most of Rome's expansion during this period had been peaceful. The Numidians agreed to cede territory in exchange for control of Mauretania, while the King of Galatia and Liconia passed his realm into Roman hands upon his death. The Romans were also able to elicit peace with Ferrates of Parthia after a brief intervention in an Armenian succession dispute in 20 BCE, which settled many matters regarding their eastern border and returned the insignia lost at Carrhae three decades before, a great symbolic triumph for Augustus. Despite this brief intercession of relative peace, trouble was brewing outside the Roman sphere. Since the conquest of Gaul by Caesar, the Rhine had served as a natural, but not impenetrable barrier with the Germanic peoples expanding across northern Europe. For decades they had conducted minor raids into newly acquired Roman territory, killing merchants or sacking minor colonies, but as their leaders slowly organized, the threat grew more severe. Next time we'll introduce General Drusus and the beginning of the Germanic Wars, beginning a section of this series ultimately leading to Rome's most infamous defeat, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. If you don't want to miss that and many other historical videos, make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see them. Please, consider liking, subscribing, commenting, and sharing, it helps immensely. Recently, we've started releasing weekly patron and youtube member exclusive content. Consider joining their ranks via the link in the description or button under the video to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our private discord, and much more. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.