Download Augustus 07 Lecture II

The Rome of Augustus
Lecture II 6 February 2007
"Crossing the Rubicon"
Chronological focus: from 63 BC (birth of the future Augustus) to 44 (assassination of Julius Caesar).
Main events: 63-62 conspiracy and uprising of L. Catilina (= Catiline), put down by Cicero as consul; 60
unofficial pact (often misleadingly called the "First Triumvirate") uniting Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius
(= Pompey the Great), and Marcus Crassus; 53 Crassus killed while leading invasion of Parthia; 49 Caesar
defies Senate, leads his army across the Rubicon into Italy; 48 war between Caesar and Pompey, victory of
Caesar at Pharsalus, death of Pompey; 48-45 Caesar defeats remaining opponents; 44 Caesar proclaimed
“Dictator for Life”; Caesar assassinated in the Senate, March 15 (Ides of March).
–Augustus born Gaius Octavius, September 23, 63 BC; in Roman reckoning either "the 691st year from the
founding of the city" by Romulus (traditional date 753 BC) or "the year of the consuls Marcus Tullius
Cicero and Gaius Antonius.”
–Annual succession of consuls the distinctive mark of the republican political system: according to
tradition, the consulate was introduced by L. Junius Brutus in 509 after the last king was expelled.
(Tacitus, opening sentence of Annals [SB 55].)
–Expulsion of last kings linked to rape of Lucretia (cf. Livy, SB 20-22); rape symbolic of royal abuse of
power; subsequent Roman abhorrence for name of "king" (rex).
So the system that collapsed in the first twenty years of Augustus’ life had lasted for about 450 years. To
understand why it came apart, necessary to sketch the rules of the Republican political game and the
society in which it was played.
Stress three aspects: tradition, hierarchy, and competition.
(1) Rome had no written constitution; Republican "constitution" refers to a set of practices sanctioned by
tradition or custom (Latin mos = "custom"; mos maiorum = "custom of the ancestors"). Assumption that
custom and consensus would settle most problems.
(2) Organization of political life reflected hierarchical stratification of Roman society at every level.
–Roman republic not a direct democracy: the people elected public officials who were theoretically
accountable to them, but the degree of popular control was limited. Role of populace a hotly debated topic
in current scholarship, but no doubt that Roman political life largely dominated by a small subset of the
population, mostly from wealthy and politically distinguished backgrounds.
–Shape of political careers strictly defined (as of early first century B.C., after reforms of Sulla), pattern
summarized in the cursus honorum ("sequence of offices"; those in brackets not compulsory):
military service, minor offices
starting in late teens
quaestor
20 per year
min. age. 30
[tribune of the plebs
10 per year]
[aedile
4 per year
min. age 36]
praetor
8 per year
min. age 39
consul
2 per year
min. age 42
[For more on the functions of these officials, see SB 8-9.]
–All holders of offices from quaestor upwards were members for life of the Senate (membership notionally
fixed at 600 by Sulla). Strictly speaking the Senate a body that advised the elected magistrates, but in
practice the Senate carried great prestige and functioned as the voice of the Roman political establishment.
In Roman terms it possessed great auctoritas ("authority"), as distinct from imperium or potestas
(executive power). Rome’s self-image as a republic encapsulated in formula "Senate and People of Rome"
(SPQR).
–Roman political elite not entirely closed: a man whose family had not already produced a consul had a
harder time reaching the consulship, but such "new men" (novi homines) made up a significant fraction of
consuls in the last period of the Republic. Cicero the most famous "new man" (novus homo) of this time,
held the consulship in 63, the year in which Augustus was born.
(3) Political elite highly interconnected (e.g., by marriage, as with Julius Caesar and Pompey), but also
intensely competitive: competition sometimes generated by ideological splits, but more often by individual
pursuit of honors and recognition. Competition in Roman society focused on political sphere: only path to
gloria and lasting renown for a Roman was public life, which included military leadership. Hence political
structures designed to keep competition within bounds and prevent concentration of power: multiple
holders of magistracies, annual term limits.
–Theme of competition embedded in Roman foundation myth (cf. Livy on Romulus vs. Remus, SB 18-19;
Horace on the death of Remus as a sort of "original sin," SB 139); contrast the collegial image of the
American "founding fathers."
Roman Republic flourished by channeling these ambitions toward the service of the
commonwealth, the res publica. The Roman elite sought glory for themselves and for their clan (gens), but
generally accepted that the road to glory was through benefiting the community.
What went wrong?
Traditional restraints not strong enough to contain ambitions of several forceful leaders, especially
Pompey and Caesar. In 49 Julius Caesar's crossing of the river Rubicon—the prescribed boundary of his
province—against the order of the Senate strained an already fragile system to breaking point and led to
civil war.
More broadly, Rome the victim of its own success: as Rome's dominance outside Italy grew,
rewards of military leadership became ever greater and traditional limits on personal ambition became
harder to enforce. Increased contact with monarchical systems abroad may also have weakened attachment
to republican government. Roman writers saw this process in moral terms: traditional Roman strengths
degraded by exposure to fabulous riches and vast power; see Sallust, SB 25; Lucan, SB 45-46.
End with images of Pompey and Caesar: coins of Caesar show increasing disregard for tradition,
culminating in appearance as DICTATOR PERPETVO [= "Dictator For Life"].
Reading assignment for Lecture II: Excerpts from Livy (Founding of Rome, Romulus and Remus, Rape of
Lucretia [SB 17-19, 20-22]), Catullus 29 and 93 (SB 117-118, 119), Julius Caesar (SB 28), Sallust (SB 2527), Lucan (SB 45-46), Suetonius on the assassination of Julius Caesar (SB 62-65); Le Glay et al. 123-148;
539-546 are also recommended as an introduction to the sources for the period.
For Lecture III: Livy on death of Cicero (SB 23), Velleius Paterculus on origin of Octavius and battle of
Actium (SB 40-42), Nicolaus of Damascus, excerpts from Life of Augustus (SB 29-32), Plutarch and Dio on
Actium (SB 95-103), Virgil, Eclogues 1, 4, 9 (SB 123-129), Horace, Epodes 7 and 16 (SB 139, 140-141),
Odes 1.37, 2.1 (SB 144-146), Propertius 1.21 and 22 (SB 161-162); poems of Akhmatova and Cavafy (SB
366-367); Zanker, Power of Images 33-65, 72-77; Le Glay et al. 149-154. Begin reading Suetonius' Life
of Augustus (SB 66-94).
THE FOUNDING BROTHERS