1. Gaius Julius CAESAR, despite the civil war between 49 and 45 BC and his

frequent absences fighting outside Italy, had been able to introduce a whole

series of economic and administrative reforms, often holding the powers of the

office of dictator to get his legislation passed.

2. For a multiplicity of reasons CAESAR had been assassinated on 15th March

44 BC by “Republicans” whose slogan was “FREEDOM!” - but not before

he had introduced an innovation by putting his own head on the coinage of the

state - the first instance of a living Roman appearing on coins.

3. This practice has implications for our course, since it became the ‘norm’ for the

portrait of the head of state to appear on the state’s coinage for at least the next

five hundred years.

OCTAVIAN AND HIS WORK AS AUGUSTUS

Coin minted by Lucius Aemilius Buca

depicting CAESAR as IM(perator) [military

commander]

Two coins minted after late

January 44 BC depicting

CAESAR

as “life-long ‘dictator’”

[DIC(TATOR) PERPETUUS]

CAESAR had set the precedent and soon after his assassination the head of BRUTUS appeared

on the coinage, along with ‘a cap of freedom’, ‘two daggers’ and the wording EID MAR

THE RISE OF OCTAVIAN AND HIS WORK AS “AUGUSTUS”

1. In his will the assassinated JULIUS CAESAR had named his great-nephew,

GAIUS OCTAVIUS as his heir (to his estate, his clients, and his veteran

soldiers) and had announced his adoption of GAIUS OCTAVIUS as his son.

2. It hung in the balance whether GAIUS OCTAVIUS would take up his

inheritance at all: his mother advised against.

3. Caesar’s right-hand man and close associate, MARCUS ANTONIUS, appears

to have expected more from Julius Caesar.

4. The future was going to depend very much on how GAIUS OCTAVIUS (at

18) approached his inheritance, especially given this dissatisfaction over the

terms of Caesar’s will on the part of MARCUS ANTONIUS (aged 39).

MARCUS ANTONIUS

GAIUS OCTAVIUS who became

GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR

OCTAVIANUS

5. Although there was a short period of conflict between GAIUS OCTAVIUS

(who initially was wooed by the SENATE to support its cause) and MARCUS

ANTONIUS, he was soon working, at least for a time, with MARCUS

ANTONIUS and a third ‘Caesarian’, Marcus Aemilius LEPIDUS as

a member of the formal “SECOND TRIUMVIRATE” which was

legitimized through legislation and which, in essence, meant that the

Roman state was now ‘managed’ for two five-year terms by a JUNTA OF

THREE.

6. But, after the disgrace of LEPIDUS, OCTAVIAN and MARCUS ANTONIUS

soon ceased seeing eye to eye, drifted apart, and began to prepare for what was

perhaps the inevitable conflict between the two “Caesarians”.

7. a) OCTAVIAN more and more worked on gaining the support of “the West”;

b) MARK ANTONY had the support of “the East” and soon gained access to

the massive resources of Egypt too - through its queen, CLEOPATRA VII.

Two contemporary

depictions of

CLEOPATRA VII

8. The final confrontation (after years of propaganda) between the two camps came

only at the naval battle of ACTIUM at the beginning of September 31 BC.

9. a) A victorious OCTAVIAN was soon left the sole surviving military leader

from what had been another civil war, although it was presented as a foreign

war against an ambitious foreign queen, namely CLEOPATRA, .who had

“entrapped” a MARCUS ANTONIUS who was bewitched by Egyptian culture

and Egypt’s queen.

b) After Actium and some necessary ‘mopping up’ operations, all power,

through the support of the armed forces, was, by 30 BC, in the hands of

GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR OCTAVIANUS.

10. As the dominant figure politically, OCTAVIAN ‘ruled’ for the next three years

with an iron fist.

11. BUT by 28 BC he appears to have become more and more aware that his fate

might be the same as that of his great-uncle and adoptive father, JULIUS

CAESAR, if he remained a blatant ‘autocrat’.

12. And so he began the complex process of “inventing” the ‘PRINCIPATE’ or

‘EMPIRE’ as a new form of government to replace “the REPUBLIC”.

13. And, in January 27 BC he himself became

“IMPERATOR CAESAR AUGUSTUS”

and began moulding more and more the new position of “PRINCEPS”

(“FIRST CITIZEN”) and, with time, founding a dynasty, the ‘JULIO-

CLAUDIAN’ dynasty.

Various depictions of AUGUSTUS

14. From that time onwards AUGUSTUS work tirelessly for over 40 years to

stabilize the state, to reform the administration, and to strengthen the

foundations of society as he created the new system, “the Empire”.

15. And as he created the new system which was in reality a disguised ‘autocracy’

headed by a “First Citizen”, he never acknowledged that an autocratic political

system had been created, always aiming to create the impression that “the

Republic” had been restored and that he was just a citizen like the rest, even if

the leading one - the “first among equals” [primus inter pares].

16. a) On becoming ‘Augustus’ in January 27 BC, he accepted a huge provincial

‘governorship’ for ten years (which was always renewed) consisting of “the

two Spains”, “the three Gauls”, “Syria”, “Cilicia” [in southern Turkey] and (for a

time) “Macedonia” [+ Egypt] - leading to the terminology “the imperial

provinces”.

b) the remaining provinces were now called “senatorial” (or “public”) and to each

of them the SENATE continued to send a governor each year as before.

[Any new “provinces” added by conquest became “imperial”]

MACEDONIA

GREEN =

‘IMPERIAL’

PINK =

‘PUBLIC’

THE WORK OF AUGUSTUS

ARMED FORCES

1. a) Once stability returned, Augustus spent ten years creating the Roman state’s

first permanent professional army, consisting initially of 28 legions (with

about 150,000 well-paid men) strategically stationed towards the frontiers of

the empire.

b) To the legions were attached auxiliary units offering a career to about

150,000 provincial subjects - together giving a professional army of 300,000.

2. The army’s loyalty to Augustus was guaranteed, since he paid for it himself from

his own resources - handing over to the state, in AD 6 (by creating a “military

treasury”) responsibility for at least the troops’ pensions when they retired.

AUGUSTUS

was eager to be depicted as

‘commander in chief’

CIVIL SERVICE

1. He also began to mould the state’s first ever civil service, offering in particular

paid positions to members of “the Equestrian Order” – the most important

appointees (answerable to Augustus alone) being the two PREFECTS OF THE

PRAETORIAN GUARD, who commanded (in the end) a force of some 9000

men in Italy.

2. A very limited number of hand-picked senators served too: as the governors of

the provinces assigned to Augustus in January 27 BC and as the commanders of

the professional legions.

CULTURE

1. The city of Rome was enhanced with an extensive building programme and

literary production was stimulated through patronage, although there is little

evidence of any pressure being brought to bear on the writers (men like Virgil,

Horace, Propertius and Livy) who were sponsored to write on any particular

themes.

2. “The Augustan Age” also saw the production of a superb coinage with a

very impressive range of themes, many of them purely artistic and not

conveying any particular political message that we are aware of, although some

did celebrate the achievements of the new political order

AUGUSTUS

IN A TRIUMPHAL

CHARIOT

RECORDING THE

FOUNDATION OF

NEMAUSUS(modern NÎMES in France)

WHERE VETERANS

FROM EGYPT WERE

SETTLED

(hence the crocodile)

TWO COINS WHICH SEEM TO BE PURELY ARTISITIC

THE STRENGTHENING OF SOCIETY

1. An attempt was made through legislation (not very successfully) to strengthen

the family as a unit, to encourage the procreation of children, to limit frivolous

divorces, to criminalize adultery, and to regulate the flow into society of freed

slaves (who became Roman citizens upon ‘manumission’).

2. a) The religion of the state was given new life through the repair of temples and

the restoration of neglected rituals.

b) Outside Italy non-citizens were not discouraged from dedicating temples,

shrines and altars to Augustus, on condition that ROMA was associated with his

name - giving rise to “the imperial cult” (erroneously called ‘emperor worship’) and to

surviving dedications to “ROMA ET AUGUSTUS”.

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

1. The empire grew under Augustus too (especially as it was extended north-

eastwards to the line of the River Danube), but attempts to establish a Roman

presence east of the River Rhine were abandoned after the disaster of

Quinctilius Varus in AD 9 (when three entire legions [of Rome’s 28] were wiped

out of existence).

2. Augustus, in his will five years later, recommended that there be no further

expansion of the empire.

THE EMPIRE ABOUT 32 BC AS OCTAVIAN

WAS ABOUT TO DEFEAT MARK ANTONY

AND CLEOPATRA

THE EMPIRE IN AD 9 (FIVE

YEARS BEFORE AUGUSTUS’

DEATH) AND JUST BEFORE

THE WESTWARD WITHDRAWAL

BACK TO THE LINE OF THE

RIVER RHINE

CONSTITUTIONAL REORGANIZATION

1. As noted earlier, OCTAVIAN ruled initially with an iron fist for three years.

2. But in 28 BC, he announced that any of his acts of questionable

constitutionality would become null-and-void at the end of the year.

3. Then in January 27 BC, as one of the two consuls, he presided over the

SENATE and announced that he was surrendering control of the empire to

“the Roman Senate and People” (S.P.Q.R.)

4. But then the most unstable “provinces” were almost immediately returned to

his control for a ten-year term and various honours were bestowed upon him,

including the new name “AUGUSTUS”.

5. However, dissatisfaction caused by his continuing monopolization of one of the

two annual consulships after that led to a readjustment of his position in

23 BC.

6. He resigned the consulship, accepted the powers of a “tribune of the Plebs”

for life (without the office of tribune) and had his formal authority over the

“imperial” provinces made superior to that of other provincial governors

(enabling him, if need be, to issue orders legally to the governors of the

‘public’ provinces which the Senate still oversaw).

7. Later, probably in 19 BC, he accepted the powers of the consulship for life

but, again, without holding the actual office of consul.

7. a) It had taken time, but Augustus had gradually accumulated into his own

hands a series of traditional, “Republican” powers (without the offices) and

had created the new position of Princeps (“First citizen”).

b) The importance of this work lies in the fact that all his successors had

approximately the same ‘constitutional’ position for the next 200 years.

8. But the ‘problem’ for Augustus was how to pass these extensive powers,

entrusted to him for use in the interests of the state during his lifetime only, to

the next generation – without destroying the image that “the Republic” had

been “restored”.

“THE SUCCESSION”

1. From early on Augustus appears to have wanted a family member to follow

him as ‘head of state’, but the position was not hereditary and he needed to

maintain the pretence that Rome was a “Republic” (as just noted).

2. a) Having no son, he ‘used’ his daughter JULIA in the most unconscionable

manner through her various arranged marriages in order to obtain an heir.

b) Upon the birth in 17 BC (during her second marriage) of her second son,

LUCIUS, (which gave Augustus a second grandson) he adopted both LUCIUS

and his older brother, GAIUS (born in 20 BC), as his ‘sons’ and, once they

had reached ‘manhood’, began to have powers bestowed on them in

preparation (presumably) for one or other of them to assume the helm of

the state after his death.

GAIUS

JULIA, MOTHER

OF GAIUS AND

LUCIUS

LUCIUS

3. But in AD 2 LUCIUS died (aged 18) and two years later in AD 4 GAIUS died too

(aged 23).

3. Reluctantly (we are told) AUGUSTUS (at the age of 66) now adopted, as his

‘son’ and heir, his stepson and former son-in-law TIBERIUS (aged 45) who over

the next nine years was gradually given the same formal powers that Augustus

enjoyed.

5. Consequently, when AUGUSTUS died in AD 14 (at 76), TIBERIUS could move

smoothly to become Rome’s second “PRINCEPS” with very few formalities

required.

TIBERIUS

(born 42 BC)

at a much younger age

than he was in AD 4

when he was adopted

The period of “the Julio-Claudian Dynasty” had begun.

TIBERIUS (14 – 37)

GAIUS“CALIGULA”

(37 – 41) CLAUDIUS(41 – 54)

NERO(54 – 68)