Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was the outstanding Roman general of Nero's reign and was ordered to kill himself. Born around AD 7 into a senatorial family, he was a half-brother of Caligula's third wife, and his sister was one of Caligula's mistresses. He was a byword for discipline. Commanding in Lower Germany around AD 47 he campaigned against the Chauci and began digging a canal between the Meuse and the Rhine, largely to keep his men occupied; Claudius ordered him back behind the river, and he is quoted remarking on how fortunate earlier Roman generals had been. Nero sent him east in AD 54 to deal with Armenia, where Parthia had installed its own candidate. He found the Syrian legions in a state of complete decay — soldiers who had never stood watch, veterans without helmets or armour — and rebuilt them by wintering troops under canvas in the Armenian highlands, where men reportedly lost limbs to frostbite and deserters were executed. He took Artaxata and Tigranocerta in AD 58-59 and installed a Roman client. When the arrangement collapsed and another Roman commander surrendered at Rhandeia in AD 62, Corbulo was given overall command, and negotiated the settlement that lasted fifty years: the Parthian nominee Tiridates would rule Armenia but receive his crown from Nero in Rome, which he did in AD 66. His success and his popularity with the armies made him dangerous. In AD 66 his son-in-law was implicated in a conspiracy, and Nero summoned him to Greece. On landing at Cenchreae he was ordered to die, and fell on his sword saying that he had deserved it.
- Lived: 7 CE – 67 CE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: military_leader
