Background context: Roman Republic & Augustus’ rise to power · Augustus in power

Topic 1: Background – the end of the Roman Republic and Octavian's rise to power

Key events

Date (BC)	Event
49	Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon; civil war against Pompey and the senatorial "optimates"
48	Pharsalus: Caesar defeats Pompey, who is murdered in Egypt
46	Thapsus (Africa): Caesar defeats the Pompeians; Cato commits suicide
45	Munda (Spain): the final Pompeian defeat
44	Caesar made dictator perpetuo (dictator for life); assassinated on 15 March (the Ides) by Brutus, Cassius and others
44	Octavius (born 63 BC), Caesar's great-nephew, is adopted in Caesar's will and becomes "C. Julius Caesar" (Octavian). He raises a private army (Res Gestae 1).
43	The Second Triumvirate (Antony, Lepidus, Octavian), legalised by the lex Titia; proscriptions, including the killing of Cicero
42	Philippi: Brutus and Cassius are defeated; Julius Caesar is deified, so Octavian becomes divi filius, "son of a god"
40	Pact of Brundisium: Antony marries Octavia, Octavian's sister
36	Naulochus: Agrippa defeats Sextus Pompeius; Lepidus is sidelined
34	The "Donations of Alexandria": Antony assigns Roman territories to Cleopatra and her children
32	Octavian publishes Antony's will. Italy swears an oath to Octavian (RG 25). War is declared on Cleopatra, not on Antony, to present it as a foreign war.
31 (2 September)	Battle of Actium: Agrippa's fleet defeats Antony and Cleopatra
30	Alexandria falls; Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide; Egypt is annexed
29	Triple triumph (Illyricum, Actium, Egypt); the doors of the Temple of Janus are closed

Why the Republic collapsed (context for the debate)

• Over-powerful generals with client armies loyal to them rather than the state.
• Competition among nobles for glory.
• Problems governing an empire through annual magistrates.
• Repeated civil wars.

Glossary

Term	Definition
Republic (res publica)	The Roman state governed by the senate, annual magistrates and popular assemblies.
Optimates / populares	Political approaches: senate-centred versus working through the people's assemblies.
Dictator	An emergency magistrate; Caesar was made dictator for life.
Triumvirate	Rule by three men; the Second Triumvirate was legal (43 BC).
Proscriptions	Published lists of enemies who could be killed and their property seized.
Divi filius	"Son of the deified (Julius Caesar)": Octavian's title.

Self-test

Q1: Why did Octavian declare war on Cleopatra rather than Antony in 32 BC? A: To present the war as a just foreign war against Egypt, not another civil war against a Roman. This rallied Italy behind him and made Antony look like a traitor under a foreign queen's control.

Q2: What was the significance of the lex Titia (43 BC)? A: It legally established the Second Triumvirate with powers to reorganise the state, giving Octavian, Antony and Lepidus legal authority. It led to the proscriptions.

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Topic 2: Augustus in power, part 1 – Actium, the constitutional settlements, military achievements and the "restored Republic"

Prescribed debate: To what extent did Augustus restore the Republic?

The presentation of victory at Actium

• Res Gestae 25 (paraphrased): "The whole of Italy swore allegiance to me of its own accord and demanded me as its leader in the war in which I was victorious at Actium." Augustus presents himself as Italy's chosen champion. Antony is not named.
• Virgil, Aeneid 8.671–731 (the shield of Aeneas):
  • Augustus stands on the high stern with Agrippa, the gods of Rome and Actian Apollo.
  • He faces Antony with barbarian wealth and his "Egyptian wife", and monstrous animal gods (e.g. the dog-headed Anubis).
  • This presents Actium as a cosmic battle of Roman order against Eastern chaos. It ends with Augustus' triple triumph.
• Horace, Odes 1.37 ("Nunc est bibendum", "Now is the time to drink"):
  • It celebrates the fall of Cleopatra, the "fatale monstrum" (deadly monster).
  • But it ends by praising her noble suicide. Antony is never mentioned.
• Material evidence:
  • The victory monument at Nikopolis ("Victory City", founded at Actium; inscription H10): dedicated on the site of Octavian's camp to Neptune and Mars, decorated with captured ships' rams.
  • Coins: e.g. the AEGYPTO CAPTA ("Egypt captured") issues with a crocodile.
• Evaluation:
  • The presentation shows an official narrative: a foreign war; Apollo's favour; Antony erased; peace restored.
  • In reality, Actium was a civil war and something of an anticlimax. Antony's fleet broke out and many of his ships surrendered.

The constitutional settlements

Date	Event and powers	Sources
28 BC	Octavian and Agrippa hold a census and purge the senate. The illegal acts of the triumviral period are annulled. An aureus of 28 BC proclaims that he "restored to the Roman people their laws and rights".	Dio 53; the 28 BC aureus
13–16 January, 27 BC: the First Settlement	He "transferred the state from my power to the control of the senate and people" (RG 34). The senate gave him a provincia of Spain, Gaul, Syria (plus Egypt), i.e. most of the legions, for 10 years. He received the name Augustus, laurels for his doorposts, the civic crown of oak leaves, and a golden shield honouring his virtus, clementia, iustitia, pietas (RG 34). He continued to hold the consulship every year.	RG 34; Dio 53.11–13, 16–17
23 BC: the Second Settlement	After a serious illness and the conspiracy of Caepio and Murena (dated to 23 or 22), he resigned the consulship. He received tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) for life, counted annually, and imperium proconsulare maius (power greater than other governors).	Dio 53.32
19 BC	(Probably) consular powers and insignia within Rome	Dio 54 (debated)
12 BC	Pontifex maximus after Lepidus' death (RG 10)	RG 10
2 BC	Pater patriae ("Father of the Fatherland") (RG 35)	RG 35

Res Gestae 34 (paraphrased): after that time, "I excelled all in auctoritas (influence or prestige), but had no more potestas (legal power) than the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy."

Military achievements (RG 26–33)

• Expansion:
  • Egypt added.
  • Spain: the Cantabrian wars, 26–19 BC.
  • The Alps (the Tropaeum Alpium).
  • Illyricum/Pannonia (under Tiberius).
  • Germany to the Elbe, under Drusus and Tiberius.
• The Parthian standards (20 BC): the standards lost by Crassus (53 BC) and Antony were recovered by diplomacy, not war.
  • This was celebrated as a triumph: on the Prima Porta statue's breastplate, on SIGNIS RECEPTIS coins (in LACTOR 17), and in the Temple of Mars Ultor.
  • RG 29: he compelled the Parthians to return the spoils and standards and to seek Roman friendship.
• The doors of Janus closed three times (RG 13): a symbol of peace throughout the empire.
• Setbacks:
  • The Varian disaster (AD 9): three legions under Quinctilius Varus were destroyed in the Teutoburg Forest.
  • Suetonius, Augustus 23: Augustus banged his head on the door, crying "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
• Army reforms:
  • A professional standing army of 28 legions (later 25), with fixed terms of service.
  • The aerarium militare (military treasury, AD 6) paid discharge bonuses. It was funded by inheritance and sales taxes, with a personal gift from Augustus (RG 17).
  • The Praetorian Guard of nine cohorts.

The "restoration of the Republic" debate

• The case for restoration:
  • The forms of the Republic survived: consuls, senate, assemblies, elections.
  • RG 34 claims he handed the state back.
  • The Fasti Praenestini (a calendar) and other inscriptions refer to the state being "restored".
  • Velleius 2.89 (paraphrased): the force was restored to the laws, the authority to the courts and the dignity to the senate. The "ancient form of the Republic" was recalled.
  • Suetonius, Augustus 28: he twice thought of restoring the Republic, and wished to be called the "author of the best state".
• The case against:
  • Real power: command of most of the legions; tribunician power; imperium maius; control of patronage and finances; personal wealth.
  • Tacitus, Annals 1.2 (paraphrased): he won over the soldiers with bonuses, the people with grain, and everyone with the sweetness of peace. He gradually took over the functions of the senate, magistrates and laws, unopposed because the boldest had died in battle or in the proscriptions.
  • Tacitus, Annals 1.3: how few were left who had seen the Republic!
  • Tacitus, Annals 1.9–10: at his funeral, "intelligent people" gave two opposing verdicts. The hostile verdict says filial duty and civil war were pretexts for his lust for power.
  • Dio 53.17 (paraphrased): from this time, the monarchy was firmly established. Republican titles were used to disguise it.
• Modern historians:
  • Ronald Syme (The Roman Revolution, 1939) argues the Republican constitution was a façade concealing the rule of a faction led by a military dictator. He wrote in the shadow of 1930s dictatorships.
  • Karl Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) stresses auctoritas and a genuine programme of cultural and moral renewal, accepted by many Romans.
  • Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Augustan Rome, 1993) presents the princeps as a civilis princeps ("citizen-like emperor") who behaved like a citizen while transforming Rome.
  • Werner Eck (The Age of Augustus) and Josiah Osgood (Caesar's Legacy, 2006) show how the triumviral period shaped the regime.
• A balanced judgement: Augustus restored res publica in the Roman sense of "the public affairs / the state", i.e. peace, order and functioning institutions. He did not restore the competitive, senate-led Republic. The "restoration" was real in form, unreal in substance, but it was accepted because it delivered peace.

Glossary

Term	Definition
Princeps	"First citizen": Augustus' preferred, non-monarchical title.
Auctoritas	Influence and prestige that commands respect (not legal power).
Potestas	Legal power attached to an office.
Imperium (maius)	The power to command armies / greater imperium overriding other governors.
Tribunicia potestas	The powers of a tribune (veto, proposing laws, sacrosanctity) without holding the office.
Provincia	A sphere of command; in 27 BC, the provinces assigned to Augustus.
Res publica restituta	"The state restored": the regime's claim.
Pater patriae	"Father of the Fatherland": a title given in 2 BC.
Aerarium militare	The military treasury funding veterans' pensions (AD 6).

Exam practice: 12-mark "How useful are the sources on Augustus?"

Example passage: Res Gestae 34.

• Usefulness:
  • Augustus' own words show how he wanted his position understood: auctoritas not potestas, the honours he received, and his claim of restoration.
  • It is accurate on the honours: the golden shield is confirmed by a marble copy found at Arles.
• Limitations:
  • It is self-presentation that omits his military power base, the provincia with the legions, and the 23 BC powers.
  • It was written 40 years later, after a lifetime of image-making.
• Judgement: highly useful for ideology and presentation, but limited for the reality of power. Compare it with Tacitus, Ann. 1.2, and Dio 53.

Self-test

Q1: What powers did Augustus receive in 23 BC? A: Tribunician power (tribunicia potestas) for life and greater proconsular imperium (imperium maius). In exchange, he gave up the annual consulship.

Q2: What is the significance of RG 34's contrast between auctoritas and potestas? A: Augustus claims he had no more legal power than his colleagues, only greater personal authority. This presents his rule as Republican and based on consent, concealing his real control of the army and the state.

Q3: Summarise Syme's view. A: Augustus' "restored Republic" was a façade concealing a monarchy built on military power and a faction of supporters. Syme was influenced by 1930s dictatorships.

Q4: How did Augustus present the return of the Parthian standards (20 BC)? A: As a great military triumph: on the Prima Porta statue, on SIGNIS RECEPTIS coins, in RG 29, and by housing the standards in the Temple of Mars Ultor. In fact they were recovered by diplomacy.

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Revival of traditional Roman values and practices

• Moral legislation:
  • 18 BC: the lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (encouraging marriage among the upper classes) and the lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis (making adultery a public crime).
  • AD 9: the lex Papia Poppaea modified these laws. Ironically, both consuls who gave their names to it were unmarried.
  • The ius trium liberorum: privileges for parents of three children.
  • Suetonius, Augustus 34: when the equestrians protested at the games against the laws, Augustus displayed Germanicus' children to encourage them to follow that example.
• Religion and tradition:
  • Restoration of 82 temples in 28 BC (RG 20).
  • Revival of priesthoods and rituals, e.g. the Arval Brothers and the priest of Jupiter (flamen Dialis).
  • The Secular Games (Ludi Saeculares), 17 BC, celebrating a new age. Horace wrote the hymn, the Carmen Saeculare.
• Poetry:
  • Horace, Odes 3.6: Romans will pay for their ancestors' sins until they restore the temples. Moral decline and civil war are linked to neglect of the gods.
  • Horace, Odes 4.15: Augustus' age brought crops, the standards returned, Janus closed, moral order and security.
  • Virgil, Aeneid 1.257–296: Jupiter promises Rome "empire without end" (imperium sine fine) and an age when the gates of war will be closed.
  • Virgil, Aeneid 6.752–806: the parade of heroes. Augustus will bring back a Golden Age.
  • Ovid, Fasti: e.g. 2.119–144 (Augustus as pater patriae, superior to Romulus); 2.55–66 (temple restoration); 5.140–158 (the Lares). Note that Ovid himself was exiled to Tomis in AD 8, for "a poem and a mistake", which suggests limits to the regime's tolerance.
• Hypocrisy and limits:
  • Augustus' daughter Julia was exiled in 2 BC for adultery, and his granddaughter Julia the Younger in AD 8.
  • Suetonius (Aug. 64–65) reports his distress: he would quote a line of Homer wishing he had never married and had died childless.

Relations with the senate, equestrians and ordinary people

• The senate:
  • Purges (lectiones): membership was reduced from about 1,000 to 800 in 29/28 BC, and to 600 in 18 BC. The property qualification was raised to 1 million sesterces.
  • Respect for senatorial dignity: senators governed the "public" provinces, served as consuls (with more suffect, i.e. replacement, consuls to spread honours) and acted as a court. A consilium (advisory committee of senators) prepared business.
  • Suetonius, Aug. 35: Augustus wore a breastplate under his tunic during a senate revision, and senators were searched before approaching him.
  • Conspiracies:
    • Caepio and Murena (23/22 BC);
    • Egnatius Rufus (19 BC);
    • Cn. Cornelius Cinna, whom Augustus pardoned and made consul on Livia's advice (Seneca, On Clemency 1.9). This is a moral exemplum for Nero, so it may be embellished.
    • Iullus Antonius, linked to Julia (2 BC).
• The equestrians (equites): given new career paths in imperial service.
  • The Prefect of Egypt was an equestrian, and senators needed permission even to visit Egypt.
  • The Praetorian Prefects (two from 2 BC).
  • The Prefect of the Grain Supply (praefectus annonae) and the Prefect of the Vigiles.
  • Procurators managed finances. Equestrians also served as jurors and army officers.
  • This created a loyal service class dependent on the princeps.
• The plebs:
  • Cash gifts (congiaria): e.g. distributions to about 250,000–320,000 citizens (RG 15).
  • The grain dole for about 200,000 recipients; Augustus took charge of the grain supply in a crisis of 22 BC (RG 5).
  • Games and spectacles (RG 22–23): gladiatorial shows with about 10,000 fighters in total, and a staged naval battle.
  • The fourteen regions and their vici (neighbourhoods), reorganised in 7 BC, with local magistrates (vicomagistri) who worshipped the Lares Augusti and the genius of Augustus. This tied ordinary people to the regime.
  • Fire brigade (vigiles, AD 6); water board (curatores aquarum, 11 BC, building on Agrippa's work as aedile in 33 BC); urban cohorts.
  • Suetonius, Aug. 40–42: care over citizenship and the grain supply.

Religion and the imperial cult, inside and outside Rome

• In Rome:
  • Divi filius (son of the deified Caesar), and builder of the Temple of Divus Julius.
  • Pontifex maximus from 12 BC.
  • The genius and Lares of Augustus were worshipped in the vici (Augustan Lares, L12).
  • He avoided direct worship of himself as a living god in Rome.
  • The Temple of Apollo on the Palatine (28 BC) was linked to Actium; the Sibylline Books were moved there.
  • The Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace), dedicated 9 BC.
• Outside Rome:
  • The provinces: Augustus permitted a cult of Roma and Augustus at Pergamum and Nicomedia (29 BC) for provincials, while Romans there worshipped Roma and Divus Julius (Dio 51.20).
  • The Altar of the Three Gauls at Lugdunum (12 BC).
  • The altar to the numen (divine power) of Augustus at Narbo (L17).
  • Greek cities honoured him as a god, following Hellenistic traditions of ruler cult.
• Evaluation: the cult was a flexible tool of loyalty: restrained in Rome, encouraged in the provinces. Augustus was deified after his death in AD 14.

Administrative changes to Rome and the provinces

• Provinces:
  • The division between imperial provinces, governed by Augustus' legati, and public provinces, governed by senatorial proconsuls chosen by lot.
  • Governors were paid salaries, which reduced extortion. Censuses were held for taxation.
  • The Edicts of Cyrene (M60, 7/6 and 4 BC) show Augustus intervening in a public province. They reformed jury composition for Greeks and introduced a quicker senatorial procedure for extortion cases (the senatus consultum Calvisianum), which shows concern for provincial justice.
• Rome:
  • the 14 regions;
  • the vigiles;
  • the urban prefect;
  • the grain prefect;
  • the water board;
  • Tiber curators.
• Finance: the aerarium militare, plus Augustus' vast private wealth (e.g. from Egypt).

Building programme

• Suetonius, Augustus 28: he boasted that he had found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble.
• Res Gestae 19–21:
  • the Curia Julia (senate house);
  • the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine;
  • the Temple of Divus Julius;
  • the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus (dedicated 2 BC), with statues of Roman heroes (summi viri) and of Aeneas and Romulus;
  • the Theatre of Marcellus;
  • restoration of temples, roads (the Via Flaminia) and aqueducts.
• Agrippa's buildings: the original Pantheon, the Baths of Agrippa and the Aqua Virgo (19 BC).
• The Mausoleum of Augustus (begun 28 BC). The Ara Pacis (13–9 BC).
• Strabo 5.3.8 (T9) describes the splendour of the Campus Martius.
• Purposes:
  • Display piety and generosity.
  • Provide jobs and amenities.
  • Inscribe the regime's ideology into the city (Actium, peace, dynasty).

Challenges to Augustus' rule

• Conspiracies: see above.
• Illness: 23 BC.
• Military setbacks: the Lollian defeat (16 BC); the Pannonian revolt (AD 6–9); the Varian disaster (AD 9).
• Family scandals: Julia (2 BC); Julia the Younger and Agrippa Postumus (AD 7–8).
• Succession crises: see below.
• Social discontent: grain shortages and the equestrians' protest over the marriage laws.

Establishing a dynasty and the problem of succession

Heir	Fate
Marcellus, nephew; married Julia (25 BC)	Died 23 BC
Agrippa, loyal general; married Julia (21 BC); shared tribunician power	Died 12 BC (the laudatio Agrippae, T14)
Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Agrippa and Julia's sons, adopted by Augustus in 17 BC; "princes of the youth"	Lucius died AD 2; Gaius died AD 4
Tiberius, Livia's son; forced to divorce Vipsania and marry Julia (11 BC); retired to Rhodes (6 BC–AD 2)	Adopted in AD 4 and made to adopt Germanicus; given tribunician power and imperium. Succeeded in AD 14.
Agrippa Postumus	Adopted in AD 4, then exiled; killed at the start of Tiberius' reign (Tac. Ann. 1.6)

• Livia: Augustus' wife from 38 BC; very influential. Tacitus insinuates that she poisoned rivals and perhaps Augustus himself (Ann. 1.3–1.5). Augustus' will made her "Julia Augusta".
• Germanicus: Tiberius' nephew and adopted son; married Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder. His lineage combined the Julian and Claudian lines.
• Assessment: Augustus never formally created a monarchy, but he marked out successors through adoption, marriage and shared powers. Ill fortune and deaths repeatedly forced changes of plan.

Debate preview: interpretations of Augustus' succession policy

• Did Augustus always intend a Julian heir (by blood), with Tiberius as a reluctant last resort? This view is suggested by Tacitus, Ann. 1.3, and by the Rhodes episode.
• Or was he consistently grooming a group of potential successors?
• Barbara Levick (Tiberius the Politician) argues that Tiberius was a reluctant but recognised partner.

Glossary

Term	Definition
Imperial cult	Worship of the emperor (his genius or numen), deified emperors, and Roma.
Genius / numen	The guardian spirit of a man / divine power.
Lares Augusti	The neighbourhood guardian gods linked with Augustus.
Vicomagistri	Local magistrates of the city's neighbourhoods (vici).
Praefectus annonae / vigilum	The prefect of the grain supply / of the fire-watch.
Congiarium	A cash handout to the people.
Adoption	The Roman legal means of creating heirs, used for succession.

Exam practice: 20-mark interpretation on Augustus

Example question: a passage arguing that "the Augustan settlement was a sham that concealed autocracy" (Syme-type).

• Agree, because of: military power; Tacitus, Ann. 1.2; Dio 53; the dynastic planning.
• Qualify, because: Republican forms worked (consuls, senate courts); Augustus had genuine consent and auctoritas (Galinsky); people valued peace; the "sham" view reflects a senatorial perspective.
• Judge: how convincing is the passage? It is convincing on the reality of power, but it underplays the consensus and the new system's real benefits.

Self-test

Q1: What did Augustus claim about the city of Rome according to Suetonius? A: That he found it a city of brick and left it a city of marble (Suet. Aug. 28).

Q2: How did Augustus' treatment of the imperial cult differ between Rome and the provinces? A: In Rome he avoided direct worship of himself, promoting instead his genius and the Lares Augusti and the cult of Divus Julius. In the provinces he allowed temples to Roma and Augustus (e.g. at Pergamum) and altars such as Lugdunum.

Q3: List Augustus' intended heirs in order. A: Marcellus, then Agrippa, then Gaius and Lucius Caesar, then Tiberius (with Agrippa Postumus, and Germanicus as Tiberius' adopted heir).

Q4: What was the Ara Pacis? A: The Altar of Augustan Peace, vowed in 13 BC and dedicated in 9 BC. Its sculpted reliefs celebrate peace, fertility, piety and the imperial family.

Q5: Why were new equestrian posts politically important? A: They gave equestrians careers that depended on the emperor, creating a loyal administrative class. They also kept sensitive commands, such as Egypt and the Praetorian Guard, away from potential senatorial rivals.

Assessment checkpoints: 12-marker on the usefulness of the sources on Augustus; 20-mark interpretation question on Augustus.

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