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‘Domitianae Cohortes’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
Dr. Rice Holmes has thrown a flood of light on innumerable passages in Caesar's Commentaries, but in one small matter he has, as I hope to show, darkened counsel. In his recent work on the Roman Republic and the founder of the Empire (Vol. III., pp. 369–71) his anxiety to retain the MSS. reading III. in Caesar (Bell. Ciu. I. 30. 2), ‘Mittit … in Siciliam Curionem pro praetore cum legionibus III.,’ leads him to pervert or neglect the plain meaning of other passages in Caesar. He holds that ‘Curio was not sent to Sicily with any legions,’ and that the ‘Domitian cohorts,’ which Caesar says (Bell. Ciu. I. 25. 1) he sent to Sicily straightway from Corfinium, are identical with the three legions which Caesar (Bell. Ciu. I. 30. 2, u.s.) says he sent with Curio from Brundisium. Dr. Holmes believes that this was what Caesar really meant, though he expressed himself loosely. Let us see how it agrees with Caesar's other statements.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1924
References
page 65 note 1 History of Rome (Eng. trans.), Vol. V., p. 111.
page 65 note 2 In a sense this is doubtless true. Curio probably accompanied Caesar on his journey from Brundisium to Rome (March 20–30; cf. ad Att. IX. 15. 1), and was certainly at Cumae and Pnteoli in the middle of April (ad Att. X. 4.8 sq.; 5. 2; 7. 3), while the legions probably marched direct from Brundisium to Rhegium, at least 250 miles. But is this anything more than the not uncommon practice of a general's arrival at the last moment?