Augustus (27 BC

Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD)

Family and Background

Born on September 19, 63 B.C. the son of Gaius Octavius, a successful politician who was the first member of his family to achieve prominence at Rome, and Atia, the niece of Julius Caesar. For a chronological summary see notes on H002

Rise to power

By the end of 45 B.C. Julius Caesar emerged as the victor in a series of civil wars which began with his invasion of Italy in 49. It was during this time that the young Augustus (still known by his family name, Gaius Octavius) came to his attention. Impressed by his ability, Caesar intended to take him on the campaign against the Persians which he was planning in 44 and included him in his will as his primary heir and adoptive son. It was, in fact, this adoption in Caesar's will which launched the future emperor on his career. The veterans of Caesar's campaigns were devoted to the memory of their general and provided a powerful base of support for the young man when he returned to Rome to take up his inheritance as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. The situation was, however, extraordinarily complicated. Octavian found that there was a substantial group which supported the assassins, led by Brutus and Cassius, and that there was a serious split among Caesar's remaining supporters as to whether Mark Antony should, as he intended to do, assume Caesar's position. There was an equally important group of generals in western Europe who had decided to wait and see which of the other factions prevailed. At first Octavian appeared to be a convenient figurehead for the group which opposed Antony, and when the senate declared war on Antony in 43, as nominal third in command, he accompanied the army under the command of the consuls Hirtius and Pansa that was sent against Antony at Mutina, in northern Italy. Two battles were fought outside of Mutina in the spring of that year and, although Antony was defeated, both consuls were killed. Octavian was now in command of a powerful, independent force.

At the end of the summer Octavian made an agreement with Antony and the most important general in southern France, Marcus Lepidus, to the effect that they would govern the state as triumvirs (essentially three dictators--before this a single dictator had occasionally been selected during a time of crisis with absolute power over the state) for a term of five years and avenge the murder of Caesar. In part to pay their troops and in part to terrify their political enemies, the triumvirs immediately issued an edict of proscription. Any man whose name appeared on the lists that they published was thereby sentenced to death and his property was confiscated by the state. This action, for which all three partners must have borne an equal measure of responsibility, was long remembered as the bloodiest act of political terrorism in Roman history. Victory over Brutus and Cassius was won in November, 42, at Philippi in northern Greece.

After the battle, Octavian returned to Italy and Antony took charge of Rome's eastern provinces. The next few years were difficult ones. In 41 Octavian had to crush a revolt at Perugia led by Antony's brother and between 38 and 36 he engaged in difficult naval campaigns against Sextus Pompey, who controlled the seas around Italy. It was only with the victory over Sextus, won by Octavian's close friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and the subsequent deposition of Lepidus from the triumvirate that Octavian emerged as the dominant figure in the Roman west. It was also at this time that his relations with Antony, who had married his sister Octavia in 40 to seal a treaty between the two men after the war around Perugia, began to break down completely.

Antony was estranged from Octavia in 36 and soon married Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. In 33 relations between him and Octavian reached a crisis point; at the beginning of 32 Octavian led a thinly veiled coup at Rome. He forced the senate to declare war on Antony and assumed overall control with the title of dux, a position that was essentially that of Dictator. On September 2, 31 B.C., the fleet of Octavian, under Agrippa's command, crushed that of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, off the west coast of modern Greece. In the next year Octavian completed his victory by annexing Egypt to the Roman empire. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. To honor the victor for his achievements the senate bestowed the name "Augustus" upon him in carefully managed ceremonies between January 13 and 16, 27 B.C. Henceforth Octavian was known as Imperator Caesar Augustus.

Augustus and the Constitution

The constitutional forms with which Augustus cloaked his autocratic position were many and varied. He felt that these contortions were necessary for a simple reason: there was a long-standing distaste at Rome for the outward forms of monarchy. They smacked of the "degenerate" east or of the tyrant Tarquinius the Proud, the last of Rome's legendary seven kings, whose expulsion led to the creation of the Republican form of government. Moreover, the excessive display of preeminence by one aristocrat was mortally offensive to the sensibilities of others. Caesar's adoption of many of the symbols of monarchy and evident lack of respect for the traditional institutions of government had been the main reason for his assassination.

In the early years Augustus had assumed the powers of a dictator as triumvir and, between 32 and 28 as dux or "leader." The title dictator was avoided because Caesar had adopted it in his later years. In 28 he laid aside these powers and contented himself with the one of the two "ordinary" consulships (consulships distinguished from the increasingly common "suffect" consulships because "ordinary" consuls entered office on January 1 and gave their name to the year), as well as the government of an extended province which included most of the areas in the empire with large garrisons. This state of affairs changed in 23, perhaps because he felt that his constant consulships were offensive to members of the aristocracy who desired the distinction for themselves, and perhaps because he felt that he was strong enough to adopt a new, more powerful position. In that year he laid down the consulship and received the powers of a tribune for life, the proconsulship for life and supreme power (imperium maius) over all other governors. These powers enabled him to control political life within the city of Rome (as tribune he had the power to bring public business to a halt) and to control Rome's military forces. After receiving these powers and suppressing a conspiracy to murder him, either at the end of 23 or at the beginning of 22, he left Italy to set Rome's eastern frontier in order. When he returned in 19 he was given the powers of a consul for life and "freedom from the laws." These powers, that is the consulship, the tribunate of the plebs, and certain other extraordinary powers, served to define the office of princeps or emperor for the rest of his reign and for those of his successors.

Augustus and the senate

Augustus' relationship with the aristocracy was summarized by Tacitus as follows: "...the most violently opposed had fallen in battle or through proscription, the rest of the nobles, in so far as those who were most readily obedient were raised up with wealth and honor and enhanced with new dignities, preferred the safe present to the dangerous past" (Ann. 1.2). The civil wars had had a devastating impact on the governing class of the old Republic and it was indeed true that the majority of those who had not joined Augustus in the course of the wars had been killed. But, even after Actium, Augustus could not depend on the the loyalty of the survivors. He carried out revisions of the list of senators, in 29, 18 and 11 B.C. to remove those who he thought were unworthy (or dangerous), and he had a fourth revision carried out by a board of senators in 4 A.D. He also increased the property qualification necessary for entry into the senate and introduced a number of important changes in the way that offices might be held.

In the course of his reformation of the senate Augustus concentrated the power of patronage and promotion in his own hands. There were two principle features of this control. The first was his power over the provinces in which Rome's main armies were stationed. He therefore had the power to appoint the commanders of these forces; it was virtually impossible for a man of suspect loyalty to obtain one of the military commands that were still cherished by the bellicose members of the aristocracy. The second feature was his virtual control over the electoral process. Tacitus described this as one of the greatest "secrets of power" (Ann. 2.36.1). It was very difficult for any man to win office without his approval and he enhanced this control through the practices of "nomination" and "commendation." For each election Augustus would publish a list of men whom he supported, or "nominated." These lists would contain fewer names than there were offices, but inclusion on the list meant that a man was virtually assured of election, thus saving him a great deal of stress and, presumably, a good deal of expense since running for office often involved tremendous outlays on public spectacles to court public support. A man who was "commended" as a "candidate of Caesar" would receive the office for which he had been "commended" without having to run for it. This was a very special and coveted honor, by the end of Augustus' reign only four men would receive it each year. This put a very real premium on Augustus' goodwill; the senatorial ideology which began to emerge in this period stressed service to the state under the emperor's guidance rather than absolute personal dominance.

Augustus and the Roman Plebs

The other great problem that Augustus inherited from the Republic was the poverty and unrest rampant among the Italian lower classes. One solution was simply to ensure peace, and this he was able to do after Actium. Another practice that he had to change was that of the periodic redistribution of agrarian land to the rural and urban poor and the settlement of veterans on farms in Italy. He did this in the years after Actium by initiating an extensive program of overseas colonization. Such colonization had been attempted from time to time under the Republic and had been a major feature of Julius Caesar's program just before his death, but nothing had been attempted on anything like the scale which Augustus introduced. A great number of new colonies were founded abroad, and they had the effect not only of alleviating problems in Italy and serving as garrisons in newly pacified areas, but also of speeding the spread of Latin culture throughout western Europe as well as into the east. This was one of Augustus' most significant actions.

Within the city of Rome itself, Augustus introduced a more regular supply of subsidized grain for the poor and sought to keep better order through the institution of the vigiles, Rome's first professional police force and fire department. He engaged in a massive building program which served to beautify the city and celebrate the glory of his achievements. He issued regular distributions of food and money at festivals and to commemorate important moments in his reign. In doing so he not only alleviated the suffering of the poor, but he also bound the lower classes to his house. Preferential treatment of the population of Rome was thus established as one of the foundations of imperial government.

Morality and Culture

Augustus not only sought to refashion the political structure of the

Roman state, but also to restore what he thought was Rome's "pristine moral virtue." In 18 he issued laws that encouraged the upper classes to have more children by giving preferential treatment to fathers of more than three offspring and imposing severe penalties upon the childless. He also issued a severe law aimed at curbing adultery. Later in his reign he took strong action to ensure the "racial purity" of the Roman people by limiting the number of slaves that an individual could free and restricting their access to Roman citizenship. He granted new privileges to senatorial and equestrian families, but he also imposed severe penalties upon members of those families who married slaves or engaged in what he regarded as disgraceful professions, such as acting or fighting as gladiators.

The reign of Augustus was also notable as the golden age of Latin literature. Although Augustus himself can take little or no credit for the development of poets such as Vergil, Propertius, Tibullus and Horace--all of them began writing well before Actium-- he did have an active interest in the arts. Vergil's Aeneid and Livy's massive history of Rome created images of Rome's past which Augustus found congenial, even though neither, especially Vergil's, can be considered wholly favorable. With the passing of time, however, his attitude towards literature began to harden. His later years were notable for the exile of the one great talent his reign produced, the poet Ovid. One reason for this was that Augustus found his work offensive.

Foriegn Policy
(see also H002 and notes there)

There were also a number of developments in the overall governance of

the empire and its relations with foreign peoples. One of these was the creation of a regular standing army in place of the Republican armies which were raised for specific campaigns. This army engaged in a number of important campaigns, which were carried out by Augustus' lieutenants, often under the overall command of members of his family. The main areas of operation were Germany and the Balkans. Although there were some setbacks-- the most important of which was the destruction of three legions by the Germans in 9 A.D.-- the result of these campaigns was that the empire gained much new territory and began to develop fixed frontiers. There is still debate as to whether this was Augustus' intention in beginning these wars; some have argued that he hoped to conquer the world and was only deterred from this aim by problems at the end of his reign. But it is certainly the case

that the frontiers developing along the Rhine and Danube at the time of Augustus' death were readily defensible and were to remain, with very few changes, the limits of Roman power down to the fall of the western empire in the fourth century. The administration of the provinces themselves became somewhat more efficient than it had been under the Republic. Augustus was able to exercise some restraint over the rapacity of his officials. In addition, he began to create a new bureaucracy-- staffed by freedmen and slaves from his own household as well as by members of the equestrian order-- to oversee the administration the grain supply, certain minor provinces, his own enormous estates throughout the empire, and the significant contribution which he made to the finances of the state from his own funds.

The Creation of the Imperial House
(see also H003; H004; H005 and notes there)

One of Augustus' primary aims was to ensure that the heir to his "station" in the state, as he called it, would be a member of his own family. As he had no sons and only one daughter, Julia, he had to rely upon nephews, stepchildren and grandchildren to satisfy his ambition. The first heir-apparent was Augustus' nephew, Marcus Claudius Marcellus who married Julia in 25 B.C. He died in 23 and Augustus then turned to his old friend, Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa married Julia, by whom he had a number of children before his own death in 12 B.C. At the same time that Agrippa was marked out for succession, Augustus also promoted his two stepsons, Drusus and Tiberius, an "insurance policy" against the death of Agrippa. Tiberius, the elder of the two, was the favorite at this time and after Agrippa's death he married Julia.

Drusus died in 9 B.C. and as a further "insurance policy" Augustus began to promote the careers of two of his grandsons by Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius. This seems to have caused some friction with Tiberius and in 6 B.C. Tiberius retired from public life to live on the island of Rhodes, much against Augustus' will. His retirement soon became little better than an exile and a dynastic crisis ensued. Gaius and Lucius were too young to succeed Augustus and, as he passed the age of 60, it seemed that he might soon die. Julia, who appears to have detested Tiberius, began to conspire with Augustus' nephew Iullus Antonius (the son of Antony and Octavia). This conspiracy was uncovered in 2 B.C., Iullus, was executed and Julia was exiled on the charge of adultery with a number of members of the nobility.

Augustus' hopes for Gaius and Lucius soon foundered. Lucius died of disease at Marseilles in 2 A.D. and two years later Gaius died as the result of a wound he received while on campaign in the east. Tiberius was recalled and formally adopted by Augustus as his heir. At the same time Augustus also adopted his last surviving grandson, Agrippa Postumus: yet another "insurance policy". Agrippa Postumus soon proved inadequate (there is some suggestion that he was insane) and was exiled to an estate outside Rome in 6 A.D. In 7 he was sent into exile on an island. A year later, after yet another domestic scandal, Augustus' granddaughter, the younger Julia, was also exiled. In 13 Tiberius was granted the same powers as Augustus, and when Augustus died on August 19, 14 A.D. Tiberius assumed the sole government of the Roman empire. This succession, without civil war, was Augustus' final political achievement.