Augustus and the Principate

Some terms to note: Roman Republic, the Empire, Octavian, Augustus.

1. Reasons for the fall of the Roman Republic:
   1. The ancients believed that the civil wars of the late Republic [133-31 BC] were a consequence of moral failing (readings in Sallust and Vergil cover these issues): The Roman historian Livy reflecting on the collapse of the Republic writes: "I trace then the process of our moral decline how with the gradual relaxation of discipline, morals first gave way, then sank lower and lower, and finally began the downward plunge that has brought us to the present time when we can endure neither our vices (the civil wars) nor their cure."
      1. The civil wars were represented a moral failure and divine punishment subsection III.C. A parallel interpretation.
      2. To rule an empire meant that religion and virtue had to be re-established; the empire could only be ruled by the same values that had won it (so Sallust and others). Pax deorum had to be restored. Given these expectations, the new ruler of Rome, the Emperor Augustus, built temples (for Apollo for example, but 89 in Rome alone) and legislated morality (see below, Subsection III.B ).
   2. Modern views:
      1. There was a profound constitutional crisis: Breakdown in institutional and legal trust. Only through the force and violence could a politician sustain himself. [How Augustus dealt with these issues will come in the readings in DWP and lectures for next week]
         1. the core of the crisis is that there was a major discrepancy between the fighters and the legal voters; the former were effectively disenfranchised, but were ready fight for their "vote". The consequence was civil war, the "fighters" won and became the "voters"...elections, in a formal sense, ended. It was the loyalty of the soldiers that mattered.
         2. with the establishment of the Roman Empire, there was a breakdown in system of constitutional checks on magistrates (proconsuls held office in the provinces for ten years and without any constititutional constraint). They could enrich themselves and engage private armies.
      2. The Evidence: four passages document the level of violence and unconstitutional behavior in party politics:
         1. The Roman historian, Pliny writes: Marcus Crassus [one of the competitors of Caesar] used to say the no man was rich who could not maintain a legion [6000 soldiers and their equipment] upon his annual income.
         2. Soldiers' oath to their generals in the late republic (a composite): "I willing and freely swear by the gods of the state to protect the safety, honor and victory of …….. . I will take up arms, and I will hold as friends and allies the same ones I understand are his. And I will consider those to be my enemies, those whom I observe to be his. And if anyone does or plans anything against him or his family, I will pursue them to the death by land and by sea…and if I do anything contrary to this oath…I myself call down upon myself and property utter ruin and utter destruction unto all my issue and all my descendants, and may neither earth nor sea receive the bodies of my family or descendants, or yield fruits to them."
         3. in the year 56, a faction seized power: "they once more surrounded the rostra with armed men (private army), ejected Cato (the leader of the "optimate" party) from the Forum, killed some that offered resistence, then had Caesar granted his command (in Gaul) for another five years (ten altogether) use of extra constitutional offices
         4. The Greek historian, Polybius, had written earlier: Such then are the powers of each of the parts of government both to oppose one another and to work in conjunction, but governors stood outside these constraints.
   3. The final catharsis came in the Civil War fought by Octavian, the heir to Caesar, and Mark Antony, the later's prime assistant. Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium in 31 BC.
2. The Problem: The dilemma faced by Augustus was that the Roman constitution was inadequate to rule an empire, but for patriotic reasons had to be formally re-instated. Sallust explores this issue (last lecture). Central themes and factors in resolving the dilemma:
   1. How to construct a new and functioning system to administer the empire. A monarchy that looked like a republic? Roman public opinion would not tolerate a open monarchy (as Julius Caesar had learned). This is the subject of the next lecture, but in brief .
      1. Formally the constitution continued: After that time I excelled all in authority, but I possessed no more power that the others who were my colleagues in office, [RG34 = DWP 92, vs. 34]; in fact Augustus monopolized all the offices. Evidence in DWP Ch 4, doc5.
      2. Patronage the core of his solution. The Augustan system was a disguised military monarchy (i.e., the soldiers were the personal clients of Augustus, that is they took a personal oath of allegiance; promotions and retirement facilitated through Augustus). DWP Ch4, doc6.
   2. How to secure the loyalty of the citizens and subjects? How to incorporate the latter into the state (familia) as citizens? Without cooperation of citizen and subject, the costs of empire would be too high. Urban policy
   3. How could Augustus provide for peaceful transmission of power to a successor? (subject of a later lecture)
3. The Evidence esp on item II, B, namely re-defining the empire and Roman values is the subject of this lecture.
   1. To win support of Rome's subjects, Augustus pursued and active policy of urbanization. Some literary passages: From Vergil's Aeneid I 600ff. They (Aeneas and his companion) press forward on their path. They climb a hill that overhangs the city (Carthage), looking down upon the facing towers. Aeneas marvels at the enormous buildings, once mere huts, and at the gates and tumult and paved streets. The eager men of Tyre (Carthage) work steadily: some build the city walls or citadel-- they roll up stones by hand; and some select the place for a new dwelling, marking out its limits with a furrow; some make laws, establish judges and a sacred senate; some excavate a harbor; others lay the deep foundations for a theater, hewing tremendous pillars from the rocks, high decorations for the stage to come. Just as the bees in early summer, busy beneath the sunlight through the flowered meadows, when some lead on their full grown young and others press out the flowing honey, pack the cells with sweet nectar, or gather in the burdens of those returning; some, in columns drive the drones, a lazy herd, out of the hives; the work is fervent, and the fragrant honey is sweet with thyme. "how fortunate are those whose walls already rise!" Aeneas cries while gazing at the rooftops of the city. We will explore this theme more fully in a later lecture on Romanization.
      1. The argument of the Aeneid, Rome's national epic on urbanization:
         1. Citizens finds fulfillment (happiness) in the collective (=city, state); therefore, all efforts ought to be directed to civic prosperity; citizens have duty to state and familia before self; the collective good transcends individual good
         2. Only when the state prospers can the individual find happiness/fulfillment.
         3. To achieve anything (good), effort or labor must be expended; this involves the suppression of appetites and the postponement of gratification. I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate, first came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and to Lavinian shores – hurled about endlessly by land and sea, by the will of the gods, by cruel Juno’s remorseless anger, long suffering also in war, until he founded a city and brought his gods to Latium: from that the Latin people came, the lords of Alba Longa, the walls of noble Rome. Muse, tell me the cause: how was she offended in her divinity, how was she grieved, the Queen of Heaven, to drive a man, noted for virtue, to endure such dangers, to face so many trials? ...Such an effort it was to found the Roman people.
      2. Inversely: with the surrender to passion or appetites labor caese and with it also civic prosperity. End of happiness for state and ultimately for the individual. These words fed the fire in Dido. Hope burned away her doubt, destroyed her shame...How can vows and altars help one wild with love...Confusion takes the sky, tremendous turmoil...lightning fires flash, the upper air is witness to their mating...that was the first day of death and ruin...Her towers rise no more; the young of Carthage no longer exercise at arms or build their harbors or sure battlements, the works are idle, broken off; the massive menacing rampart walls, even the crane, defier of the sky, now lie neglected. Aeneas and Dido
      1. In sum: The greater the effort, the greater the achievement, the greater the happiness. There is a price to be paid for all "goods".
      2. The individual must subordinate his/her wishes to the collective good; subordinate passion and desire to duty. Those who can make the effort deserve a higher status.
   2. To insure compliance with the program of moral reform (for now morality was construed as the basis of governance) Augustus issued a set of laws on adultery "No one shall hereafter commit debauchery or adultery knowingly and with malice aforethought... This law punishes not only defiles of the marriages of others, but also the crime of debauchery when anyone without the use of force violates either a virgin or a widow of respectable character...A father, if he catches an adulterer of his daughter...in his own home or that of his son-in-law, or if the latter summon him in such an affair, is permitted to kill that adulterer with impunity, just as he may forthwith kill his daughter. A husband also is permitted to kill a pimp, an actor, gladiator, convicted criminal, freedman or slave caught in the act of adultery with his wife in his own home (but not in that of his father-in-law.
   3. The Romans perceived the restoration of virtue to mark the beginning of a new age. Horace: " ... Thy fathers' sins, Romans, you though guiltless shall expiate till you restore the crumbling temples and shrines of the gods ... it is by holding yourself client to the gods that you do rule...Outraged by neglect, they have sent unnumbered woes on sorrowful Italy. Teeming with sin, our times have sullied first the marriage bed, our offspring, and our homes. From this source, disaster's stream has overflowed the people and the fatherland". ...But: "Thine age, Caesar, has brought back fertile crops to the fields and has restored to our own Jupiter the military standards stripped from the proud columns of the Parthians; has closed Janus' temple, freed us of wars; has put reins on license overstepping righteous bounds; has wiped away our sins and revived the ancient virtues through which the Latin name and might of Italy waxed great...As long as Caesar Augustus is the guardian of the state, neither civil dissension nor violence shall banish peace, nor wrath that forges swords and brings misery to cities."
4. Some comparisons: Augustus and another dictator.
5. Significance and conclusions: Augustus began his career as a bloody and unscrupulous would-be despot; once he had power, however, he managed to change his image to that of the "prince of peace" and the defender of Roman traditional values; indeed his success in that capacity is noteworthy, for the Mediterranean world enters an unprecedented period of stability and prosperity. The core of his successful program was his policy to urbanization and citizenship.
6. For more on the archaeology of Augustan Rome try this site. For a project of local interest (in the Quad), try this site.