Review:

The Problem: In the last lecture we examined the expectations associated with Augustus' ascendency, namely to secure public support he needed to rule, he had to restore morality and the republican form of government. Today we explore the latter problem further. Specifically, the issue is how did Augustus disguise a military monarchy behind the facade of a republican constitution. How (in brief) did he undermine the constitution?

  1. The Principate (in theory, the princeps="first citizen"; primus inter pares = first among equals).  The term also describes a military monarchy (i.e., the armies of the empire took an oath to Augustus, and not to that state) disguised as a republic (SPQR). As with many tyrannies found in Greece, Augustus claimed to have restored order, public virtue and the constitution but undermined the latter by:
    1. Combining offices that had never been held by one man at the same time; (DWP ch4, doc5 "...have taken to themselves all the offices ") so remaining nominally within the constitution (doc 7 rg 6: "I refused to accept any office offered to me that was contrary to the traditions of our ancestors"). He did have consular (executive) power, was head of religion, and had tribunician power (to veto); was personally sacrosanct and the embodiment of the public will.
    2. Controlling access of others to high office (especially offices that had military authority) = political patronage ( DWP ch4, doc6). Paid and promoted all soldiers and they took personal oath to him.
    3. Overwhelming wealth (as evidenced by his many benefactions, e.g., DWP ch 4, doc 7, verses 17, 18, 20, 22, 23)
    4. Personal prestige (authority) was overwhelming: of victory in war (statue); of being son of god also on coins and on monuments and and the restorer of public morality (last lecture). after I had put an end to civil war, having attained supreme power by universal consent, I transferred the State from my own power to the control of the Roman Senate and People [SPQR]. Decree of the Senate; the doorposts of my house were publicly decked with laurels; (civic crown) For this service of mine [on January 13 and 16, 27 B.C.] I received THE TITLE OF AUGUSTUS and the civic CROWN was affixed over my doorway; and a Golden Shield was set up in the Julian Senate House, which (as the inscription on this Shield testifies) 'the Roman Senate and People gave me in recognition of my valor, clemency, justice, and devotion'.
    5. In sum, Augustus concludes After that time (27 BC) I excelled all in authority, but possessed no more power than the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy. Tho this may be legally true, the reality was different. A footnote...from recent history; and more recent history: F Zakariah, "Elections do not produce democracy. Consider Russia, where Vladimir Putin was elected but rules like an autocrat. He has forced his political opponents out of office, weakened other branches of government and intimidated the once free media into near-total silence." Newsweek, 21Apr2006.
  2. THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN PERIOD (A.D. 14-70); so-called because all the emperors descended from Augustus (by adoption he was member of the Julian clan) and from the two children (of the Claudian clan) his wife Livia brought into his household when they married.
    1. The central questions of this period are two:
      1. could the illusion of the restored republic be maintained? Though the Republic appeared to be functioning, its true military and autocratic character were just beneath the surface.
      2. given that the republic had been "restored" by the unique achievement of Augustus , how could the personal and despotic power of Augustus be transferred to a successor? The soldiers became the effective "voters"; loyal at first to the descendants of Augustus, they eventually supported whomever they believed provided best for their interests. His unique position had to be institutionalized.
    2. Nero (AD 54-68) and the "revelation" of the secret of empire.
      1. Nero failed to secure the support of the army and of the senate; when he began to execute individual army commanders, the others revolted, fought one another until one of them, Vespasian, emerged triumphant.
      2. It became clear during the "Year of the the Four Emperors" (69) that: the Augustan illusion had been exposed, the arcanum imperii; reality could not be disguised forever; emperor made in provinces by armies; not in Rome by senate and people [SPQR].
      3. The fundamental problem. As a monarchy disguised as a republic there was no acknowledged system of succession. Hence, the death of each emperor opened the way for a provincial general to emulate Augustus himself and become emperor. That it happened so rarely was due to the general acceptance of the reality, namely descent (familia) mattered; Augustus had created a monarchy.
  3. General Developments in the High Principate, Gibbon's 'happiest period' (AD 70-190). Because none of the emperors between AD 96 and 186 had a natural son, they used adoption as a devise to transfer authority to the "best" person.
    1. The power of the emperor increased enormously in the period because these men were "good" emperors and found it easier to establish precedents. Specifically, the emperor became the source of all law.
    2. The senate flourishes (in symbolic way) because it was willing to cooperate with emperor.
    3. Plebs and lower classes: benefit from the increasingly humane nature of legislation.
  4. Roman Culture, Society and Economy
    1. Literature and Culture
      1. Literature in the oral context
      2. Subordination to Greek
      3. Literary creation not valued among elite; but conformity to certain traditional and "classical" standards.
    2. Didactic: all Roman writers had a strong social, moral and patriotic consciousness that their art could be and should be used for social improvement. 
    3. Patronage: Almost all artists needed a patron in order to create cultural monuments whether written or monumental.
    4. Not Roman, but Italian and eventually Mediterranean.
    5. Rome's civilizing mission: "For other people [the Greeks] will, I do not doubt, still cast their bronze to breathe with softer features, or draw out of the marble living lines, plead causes better, trace the ways of heaven with wands and tell the rising constellations; but yours will be the rulership of nations, remember, Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer, to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud."
  5. The nostalgia about the "happiest" time in human history :
    1. The acqua felice another view and today
    2. Recamier
    3. Forum
    4. portico

November Greetings: Election Notices (from Pompeii). Such indications suggest that though the central government of the Caesars had become a military monarchy, the vitality of the "democratic" tradition / consensual government in the cities of the Roman Empire remained. This will be a central subject this week.