A Study of Suetonius' Use of Ordinal Numbers

Re Tiberius:

Re the death of Tiberius: “Detained, however, by bad weather and the increasing violence of his illness, he died a little later in the villa of Lucullus, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and the twenty-third of his reign, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Gnaeus Acerronius Proculus and Gaius Pontius Nigrinus.” (Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Tiberius, 73.)

- Tiberius was appointed the heir of Augustus on June 26, 1 BCE [Tammuz 4 or 5, 1 BCE].

- Tiberius died on 4 Adar I/Adar II, 23 CE [March 16, 23 CE.]

Considerations:

23^rd = 22+ years of reign

78^th = ? years of age

In my considerations re NT chronology thus far I have not used the above quote of Suetonius for the purpose of determining Tiberius years of age or years of reign. Nevertheless, I see no conflict with this statement of Suetonius and my findings until this point in time.

Re Caius:

“58 On the ninth day before the Kalends of February at about the seventh hour he hesitated whether or not to get up for luncheon… the others dispatched him with thirty wounds; for the general signal was "Strike again." Some even thrust their swords through his privates…”

(Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Caligula, 58)

Considerations:

7^th = ? hour of day

Re Claudius:

He died on the third day before the Ides of October in the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the fourteenth of his reign. (Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Claudius, 45.)

10 Having spent the greater part of his life under these and like circumstances, he became emperor in his fiftieth year by a remarkable freak of fortune.

(Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Claudius, 7 & 10.)

§ Claudius was born August 1, 24 BCE [Tammuz or Av 26, 24 BCE.]

§ Claudius’ de jure reign began in his 50^th year of life when Caius died: In the afternoon on January 24, 27 CE [Tevet (or Shevat) [10^th (or 11^th) Moon] 21, 27 CE.]

§ Claudius’ son Britannicus was born, most likely, on January 20, 26 CE [Tevet or Shevat (10^th or 11 Moon) 11 or 12, 26 CE,] (or less likely in January or February, 27 CE) and he died before the end of extended festivities attributed to the feast of Saturn in (December, 40 CE or) January 41 CE [Tevet or Shevat, (40/) 41 CE.]

§ Claudius’ daughter Octavia was born between mid May, 28 CE and mid June, 29 CE.

§ Claudius’ wife Messalina, the mother of Britannicus and Octavia, was killed in 32 CE after she married another man behind Claudius’ back and conspired to have Claudius killed. Narcissus took the initiative for this and was nominated as emperor of Rome for one day in order to accomplish this purpose.

§ The marriage of Claudius and Agrippina, the Agrippina’s killing of Octavia’s former fiancé Lucius Silanus, Octavia’s espousal to Domitian (Nero,) and the adoption of Domitian as Claudius’ son all took place in 33 CE – at a time when Domitian was 9 years old and Octavia was only 3 or 4 years old.

§ Octavia was married to Nero (between December 15 and 31, 39 CE) at an age of only 10 or 11, Nero being then 16 years old.

§ Josephus is making no statement as to the length of Claudius’ “reign” per se, but is making instead a statement re the length of time that Claudius was “administering the government.” Considering the apparent fact that Claudius was a consul, and thus a part of the government, prior to becoming emperor of Rome, I find that Josephus’ statement “But Claudius himself, when he had administered the government thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days, died” is referencing a time period beginning with Tishri 22, 26 CE, and ending, when Claudius died, on either Zif 21 or Sivan 21, 40 CE [May 22 or else June 20 or 21, 40 CE.]

§ Claudius’ death was concealed for almost 4 or 5 month until October 13, 40 CE when his death was finally made public.

Considerations:

o 64^th = 23 + 40 = 63+ years of age

o 50^th = 23 + 26 = 49+ years of age

o 14^th = 40 - 27 = 13+ years of reign

Re Britannicus:

Re Nero:

“In the eleventh year of his age, he was adopted by Claudius, and placed under the tuition of Anneus Seneca” (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars [6, 7] (ed. Alexander Thomson))

“He [Nero] died in the thirty-second year of his age, upon the same day on which he had formerly put Octavia to death” (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS, NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR:LVII.)

§ Nero was born December 15, 23 CE.

§ Nero began his de facto reign after a period of co-regency with Claudius, which, based upon Josephus’ reckoning of Nero’s years of reign, began between Aviv 1, 39 CE [March 14 or 15 or April 14, 39 CE] and Tishri 1, 39 CE [September 9 or October 8 or 9, 39 CE.]

§ Nero’s 1^st civil year of de jure reign began Tishri 1, 39 CE, [September 9, or October 8 (or 9,) 39 CE,] which year is concurrent with his 16^th civil year of life. He was not yet 17 years old, by Roman reckoning when Claudius died.

§ Josephus counts Nero’s 1^st sacred year of reign from the beginning of Aviv 1, 40 CE [April 2 or May 2, 40 CE.] Josephus is using sacred years of reign when referencing certain time periods within the war of the Jews in his work The War of the Jews.

§ Nero’s reign, as recognized by Josephus, ended on Aviv 9, 53 CE [March 19, 53 CE,] when he first “heard of the insurrection in Gaul, on the anniversary of the day on which he killed his mother,” i.e. at the beginning of the Civil War, and not at his death.

§ Nero died some time within a very few days prior to the time when Galba, sometime between June 1 and June 6, 53 CE [between Sivan 24 and 30, 53 CE,] received the “advice… from Rome that Nero was slain…”

§ Other events during Nero’s reign:

1. Nero’s poisoning of his step-brother Britannicus ((14 or) 15 years old) before the end of extended festivities attributed to the feast of Saturn in (December, 40 CE or) January, 41 CE [Tevet or Shevat, (40/) 41 CE.]

2. Paul, the apostle, arrives to Rome [Monday night July 19, or Tuesday July 20, 45 CE;]

3. Paul’s release from bondage in Rome [October 1, 45 CE;]

4. Nero’s first Quinquennial games [October 3 or 5 through 12, 46 CE;]

5. Nero’s comet [first seen in the lunar month between December 17, 46 CE and January 15, 47 CE;]

6. Nero’s matricide [March 19, 47 CE;]

7. The great earthquake in Pompeii [February 5, 48 CE;]

8. Nero “dearly loved Poppaea, whom he married twelve days after his divorce from Octavia;”

9. Octavia was divorced and later, “in her twentieth year,” killed, i.e. 19 years old [in the first half of 48 CE;]

10. Nero’s daughter’s, Claudia Augusta, birth and death [March(?) and June(?), 48 CE;]

11. Nero’s burning of Rome [July 19-26, 49 CE;]

12. Seneca’s first letter to Paul (Chapter XII) re Nero’s fire of Rome and Nero’s persecution of Christians [March 28, 50 CE;]

13. The apostle Paul’s last letter to Seneca [August 1, 50 CE;]

14. Nero’s second Quinquennial games [October 3 or 5 through 12, 50 CE;]

15. Seneca’s death [October, 50 CE;] and

16. The death of Nero’s wife Poppaea [October, 50 CE.]

17. The beginning of the War of the Jews: Artemisius [Jyar,] 51 CE [between May 30 and June 28, 51 CE;]

Considerations:

· 11^th = ? year of age

· 32^nd = 52 – 23 = 29+ years of age

Re Galba:

Unfavourable omens, and Seleucus’s warnings, delayed matters another five days. However, on the morning of the sixth, Otho posted his fellow-conspirators in the Forum at the gilt milestone near the Temple of Saturn while he entered the Palace to greet Galba (who embraced him in the usual way) and attended his sacrifice …” (Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (translated by Robert Graves,) p.261-2.)

§ Galba began his reign as Caesar of Rome when, sometime between June 1 and June 6, 53 CE [between Sivan 24 and 30, 53 CE,] he received the “advice… from Rome that Nero was slain…”

§ Galba died after sunset on January 15, 54 CE [Day 15 in the 11^th Moon, Shevat 15, 54 CE,] but Josephus counts Galba’s reign as ending on January 8, 54 CE [Shevat 8, 54 CE] when…

Piso:

§ Piso was adopted as Galba’s son on January 8, 54 CE [Shevat 8, 54 CE.]

§ Piso was killed before sunset January 15, 54 CE [Day 14 in the 11^th Moon, Shevat 14, 54 CE.]

Considerations:

1. 6^th = 5+ days of delay (verifiable by immediate context.)

Re Otho:

“XI… His funeral was hastily performed, according to his own order, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his reign.

XII… It is said likewise that he celebrated publicly the sacred rites of Isis…” (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS, A. SALVIUS OTHO:XI)

“He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one; and keeping his chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all who pleased the liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching his thirst with a draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and having examined the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, and shutting his chamber-door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about break of day, he stabbed himself under the left pap. Some persons bursting into the room upon his first groan, he at one time covered, and at another exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders, and thus life soon ebbed away. His funeral was hastily performed, according to his own order, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his reign.” (C. Suetonius Tranquillus, THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS, A. SALVIUS OTHO:XI)

§ “II. The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May [“IIII. Kal. Mai;” 28th April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and Domitius Aenobarbus…” [According to my consulship list this may have been 18 CE.]

§ Otho’s de facto reign began when Galba died after sunset on January 15, 54 CE [Day 15 in the 11^th Moon, Shevat 15, 54 CE.]

§ This allows for Otho’s accession period to be reckoned, alternatively, all the way from the beginning of the Civil War Aviv 9, 53 CE [March 19, 53 CE.]

§ Otho died on Adar III 22, the 22^nd Day of the Fourteenth Moon, 54 CE [April 19, 54 CE.] Otho’s funeral was performed on April 19, 54 CE.

Considerations:

38^th = 53 – 18? = 35+? years of age (? Based on consulship list uncertainty)

95^th = (31-15) + 28 + 31 + 19 = 94– (94+ if counting all of the first day (Jan 15, 54,) i.e. Roman inclusive reckoning) day of reign

Re Vitellius:

“XV. In the eighth month of his [Vitellius] reign, the troops both in Moesia and Pannonia revolted from him…

“XVIII. He [Vitellius] perished with his brother and son, in the fifty-seventh year of his age…”

(C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson;) Vitellius XV-XVIII.)

“In the eighth month of Vitellius’s reign… When Vespasian’s forces converged on Rome, he sent against them the troops… But on the following day… The soldiers put him through the torture before… they dragged his body to the Tiber with a hook and threw it in” (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves, London, The Folio Society, MCMLXIV, p. 276-278.)

“In the eighth month of Vitellius’s reign the Moesian and Pannonian legions repudiated him and swore allegiance to Vespasian…” (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves, London, The Folio Society, MCMLXIV, p. 276.)

§ “The emperor Aulus Vitellius, son of Lucius, was born on the eighth day before the Kalends of October, or according to some, on the seventh day before the Ides of September, in the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus.” (Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Vitellius: 3, p. 255.)

§ Vitellius reign is recognized by Josephus as having begun with the beginning of the Civil War on Aviv 9, 53 CE [March 19, 53 CE] on the anniversary of Nero’s matricide.

§ Vitellius died on Kislev 6 [December (24 or) 25,] 54 CE.

§ Upon Vitellius’ death Domitian, the son of Vespasian, was first [briefly] celebrated as the new Emperor of Rome.

Astronomical correlations to Vitellius’ reign:

Dio is giving reference to a comet during the reign of Vitellius as well as of a lunar eclipse in the middle of the summer. The following event satisfies all criteria provided in his record:

1. The comet observation is confirmed by recordings of the ancient Chinese astronomers who states: “This comet had a tail measuring about 5 degrees and was seen between June 9 and July 9 of that year.” In 54 CE June 9 and July 9 are the days for the astronomical full moons, not necessarily the duration of the observation of the comet.

2. There was a total lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour 46 minutes on Wednesday August 7, 54 CE at 04:36 UT, the first visible part of the eclipse beginning at 02:38 UT (i.e. beginning at 04:59 Jerusalem solar time.) (Also, on Tuesday, the Third Day of the Week, July 23, 54 CE at 11:41 AM and again on Wednesday, the Fifth Day of the week, August 21, 54 CE at 19:45 PM (local solar time from the Jerusalem horizon) there were partial solar eclipses but none of them were visible from the Roman Empire area.)

3. From the language of Dio’s record, which could represent an indirect quote from a first hand observer, it appears as though the above referenced comet may have been (?) eclipsed by the moon on the very same day as the lunar eclipse, possibly (?) even concurrent with the lunar eclipse. – However, I am not proposing that such a two-fold event can be proven from Dio’s original Greek words alone!

Considerations:

1. 8^th = 8+ month reign (seems confirmed by context, i.e. by e.g. Dispater sacrifice/founding of Rome/April 21 vs. December/Kislev/Tacitus/Josephus.)

Re Vespasian:

Re Titus:

“Excessit in eadem qua pater villa Id. Sept. post biennium ac menses duos diesque XX quam successerat patri, altero et quadragesimo aetatis anno…”

“He died in the same farmhouse¹⁶ as his father, on the Ides of September, two years two months and twenty days after succeeding Vespasian, in the forty-second year of his age. When his death was made known, the whole populace mourned as they would for a loss in their own families, the senate hastened to the House before it was summoned by proclamation, and with the doors still shut, and then with them open, rendered such thanks to him and heaped such praise on him after death as they had never done even when he was alive and present.”

(Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Titus, 11, p. 339.)

§ Titus was born December 30, 27 CE [Tebeth (the 10^th Moon) 12 or 13, 27 CE.]

§ Titus began his reign on June 24, 68 CE [Tammuz 5, 68 CE] after his father Vespasian died.

§ Titus died on “the Ides of September,” September 13, 70 CE [Elul or (or Tishri) (i.e. the 6^th (or 7^th) Moon) 18 or 19, 70 CE] “in the forty-second year of his age” as reckoned by Suetonius.

Considerations:

o 42^nd: 69 – 27 = by conception: April 19, 70 - April 19, 27 = 43+, OR by delivery: December 30, 69 – December 30, 27 = 42+, OR by delivery less 3 months: September 30, 69 – September 30, 27 = 42+

Re Domitian:

“16. .. Then he asked the time, and by pre-arrangement the sixth hour was announced to him, instead of the fifth, which he feared. Filled with joy at this, and believing all danger now past, he was hastening to the bath, when his chamberlain Parthenius changed his purpose by announcing that someone had called about a matter of great moment p377and would not be put off. Then he dismissed all his attendants and went to his bedroom, where he was slain.”

“17:3 He was slain on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October in the forty-fifth year of his age and the fifteenth of his reign…”

(C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The Life of Domitian)

o “Domitian was born on the ninth day before the Kalends of November…” [October 24, 39 CE (The Seventh or Eighth Moon (Tishri or Hesvan) 16 or 17, 39 CE.)]

o Domitian’s reign began “on the Ides of September…” [September 13] of “the fifteenth [year as reckoned by Suetonius] of his reign” [70 CE (the 6^th (or 7^th) Moon (Elul or (or Tishri)) 18 or 19, 70 CE.)]

o Domitian died on “the fifth hour…” [between 11 AM and 12 AM (considering Suetonius’ use of ordinals)] on “the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October…” [September 18, 85 CE (Elul or Tishri 9 (or 10,) 85 CE)] “in the forty-fifth year of his age and the fifteenth of his reign.”

o Suetonius, Dio, and Tacitus are all using a Julian calendar and a Roman way of reckoning. Suetonius’ ordinal numbers are usually referencing the year following the corresponding birthday etc. rather than the year preceding it.

Considerations:

o 6^th = ? hour of day

o 5^th = ? hour of day

o 45^th = 84 – 39? = 45 Years of age, OR by conception: Jan 85 - Jan 40? = 45, OR by delivery less 3 months: July 24, 85 – July 24, 40? = 45

o 15^th = 15+ years of reign