The student's Roman empire. A history of the Roman empire from its foundation to the death of Marcus Aurelius (27 B. C.-180)

Front matter

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Table Of Contents

CHAP. PAGE

31-27 B.C. I. Feom the Battle op Actitjm to the

Foundation of the Principate . 1 27 B.a-14 a.d. II. The Principate . . , .12

Chapter I. From The Battle Of Actium To The Foundation Of The Principate

§ 1. Caesar. § 2. Agrippa aDd Maecenas. § 3. Caesar's treatment of Egypt. The Egyptian booty. Settlement of the veterans in Italy. Reorganisation of legions. § 4. Caesar in the East. His return to Italy. Conspiracy of Lepidus. Decrees in honour of Caesar. His triumphs over (1) Dalmatia and Pannonia, (2) Asia, (3) Egypt. Closing of the Temple of Janus. § 5. Caesar's position as triumvir. He resigns the triumvirate (27 B.C.).

§ 1. C. Julius C^sar, the triumvir and the founder of the Eoman Empire, was the grandnephew * of C. Julius Caesar, the dictator, his

* His mother Atia was the daughter of Julia, the dictator's sister. 1

2 FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM. Chap. i.

adoptive father. Originally named, like his true father, C. Octavius,* he entered the Julian family after the dictator's death, and, according to the usual practice of adopted sons, called himself C. Julius Caesar Octavianus. But the name Octavianus soon fell into disuse, and by his contemporaries he was commonly spoken of as Cassar, just as Scipio iEmilianus was commonly called Scipio.

The victory of Actium (Sept. 2, 31 B.C.), and the death of Marcus Antonius (Aug. 1, 30 B.C.) placed the supreme power in the hands of Caesar, for so we may best call him until he becomes Augustus. The Koman world lay at his feet and he had no rival. He was not a man of genius and his success had perhaps been chiefly due to his imperturbable self-control. He was no general ; he was hardly a soldier, though not devoid of personal courage, as he had shown in his campaign in Illyricum. As a statesman he was able, but not creative or original, and he would never have succeeded in forming a permanent constitution but for the example of the great dictator. In temper he was cool, without ardour or enthusiasm. His mind was logical and he aimed at precision in thought and expression. His culture was wide, if superficial ; his knowledge of Greek imperfect. In literary style he affected simplicity and correctness ; and he was an acute critic. Like many educated men of his time, he was not free from superstition. His habits were always simple, his food plain, and his surroundings modest. His family affections were strong and sometimes misled him into weakness. His presence was imposing, though he was not tall, and his features were marked by symmetrical beauty ; but the pallor of his complexion showed that his health was naturally delicate. It was due to his self-control and his simple manner of life that. he lived to be an old man.

§ 2. The successes of Caesar had not been achieved without the aid of others. Two remarkable men, devoted to his interests, stood by him faithfully throughout the civil wars, and helped him by their counsels and their labours. These were M. Yipsanius Agrippa and C. Cilnius Maecenas. As they helped him not only to win the empire, but also to wield it after he had won it, it is necessary to know what manner of men they were.

Of Agrippa we know strangely little considering the prominent position he occupied for a long and important period, and the part he played in the history of the world. From }^outh up he had been the companion of Caesar, and he was always content to take the second place. His military ability stood Caesar in good stead, notably in the war with Sextus Pompeius, and on the day of Actium. He had first distinguished himself at the siege of Perusia * Thurinus is said to have been given him as a cognomen.

31-27 b.o. AGRIPPA AND MAECENAS. 3

(41 b.c), and, subsequently, his victories over the Germans beyond the Rhine established his military fame. His success was due to his own energy, for he had no interest, and, belonging to an obscure gens, he was regarded by the nobility as an upstart. He was not, perhaps, a man of culture, but bis tastes were liberal. His interest in architecture was signalised by many useful buildings ; and Gaul owed him a great debt for the roads which he constructed in that country. In appearance he is said to have been stern and rugged; in temper he was reserved and proud. He was ambitious, but only for the second place ; yet he was the one man who might have been a successful rival of his master.

Maecenas resembled Agrippa in his unselfish loyalty to Cassar ; but his character was very different. Like Agrippa, he did not aspire to become the peer of their common master; but while the heart of Agrippa was set on being acknowledged as second, Maecenas preferred to have no recognised position. Agrippa's excellence was in the craft of war ; while Maecenas cultivated the arts of peace. Agrippa had forwarded the cause of Caesar by his generalship ; Maecenas aided him by diplomacy. It will be remembered how the latter negotiated the treaties of Brundusium and Misenum. During the campaigns which demanded the presence of Caesar, Maecenas conducted the administration of affairs in Italy, and watched over the interests of the absent triumvir. Until his death, (8 b.c.) he continued to be the trusted friend and adviser, in fact, the alter ego of Caesar ; and he had probably no small share in making the constitution of the Empire. But he always kept himself in the background. He was content with the real power which he enjoyed by his immense influence with Caesar ;' he despised offices and honours. It is characteristic of the man that he refused to pass from the equestrian into the senatorial order. He could indeed afford to look down upon many of the nobles ; for he came of an illustrious Etruscan race. In his tastes and manner of life he was unlike both Agrippa and Caesar. He was neither rough nor simple. A refined voluptuary, he made an art of luxury ; and it was quite consistent that ambition should have no place in his theory of life. When affairs called for energy and zeal, no one was more energetic and unresting than Maecenas ; but in hours of ease he almost went beyond the effeminacy of a woman.* Saturated with the best culture of his day, he took an enlightened interest in literature. Of the circle of men of letters which he formed around himself there will be an occasion to speak in a future chapter.

* This is the expression of Velleius Paterculus : otio ac mollitiis psene ultra feminamfiuens.

4 FBOM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM. Chap. i.

Such were the men who helped Caesar to win the first place in the state ; and who, when he had become the ruler of the world, devoted themselves to his service without rivalry or jealousy. Agrippa became consul for the second time in 28 B.C., with the triumvir for his colleague ; and his friendship with Caesar was soon cemented by a new tie. He married Marcella, the daughter of Octavia, Caesar's sister, by her first husband, C. Marcellus.*

§ 3. The battle of Actium decided between Antonius and Caesar. But it also decided a still greater question. It decided between the East and the West. For the Boman world had been seriously threatened by the danger of an Oriental despotism. The policy of Antonius in the East, his connection with Cleopatra, the idea of making Alexandria a second Borne, show that if things had turned out otherwise at Actium, Egypt would have obtained an undue preponderance in the Boman State, and the empire might have been founded in the form of an Eastern monarchy. Caesar recognised the significance of Egypt, and took measures to prevent future danger from that quarter. It was of course out of the question to allow the dynasty of Greek kings to continue. But instead of forming a new province, Caesar treated the land as if he were, by the right of conquest, the successor of Cleopatra, ,and of Ptolemy Caesarion, whom he had put to death. He did not, indeed, assume the title of king, but he appointed a prefect, who was responsible to himself alone, and was in every sense a viceroy ; and, as the lord of the country, he enacted that no Boman senator should visit it without his special permission. The first prefect of Egypt was C. Cornelius Gallus, with whose help Caesar had captured Alexaudria. The inhabitants of Egypt were debarred from the prospect of becoming Boman citizens, and no local government was granted to the cities.|

The treasures of Cleopatra enabled Caesar to discharge many pressing obligations. He was able to pay back the loans which he had incurred in the civil wars. He was able also to give large donatives to the soldiers and the populace of Borne. The abundance of money which the conquest of Egypt suddenly poured upon Western Europe helped in no small measure to establish a new period of prosperity. After many dreary years of domestic war and financial difficulties, men now saw a prospect of peace and plenty.

But, above all, the booty of Egypt enabled Caesar to satisfy the demands of 120,000 veterans. Immediately after Actium he had discharged all the soldiers who had served their time, but without

* Octavia's second husband was M. I + See below, Chap. VII. $ 8. Antonius. I

31-27 B.C. SETTLEMENT OP CAESAR'S VETERANS. 5

giving them the rewards which they had been led to expect. These veterans belonged both to Caesar's own army and to that ot Antonius which had capitulated. Seeing that they would be of little importance after the conclusion of the civil wars, they made a stand as soon as they reached Italy, and demanded that their claims should be instantly satisfied. Agrippa, who had returned with the troops, and Maecenas, to whom Caesar had entrusted the administration of Italy, were unable to pacify the soldiers, and it was found necessary to send for Caesar himself, who was wintering in Samos. The voyage was dangerous at that season of the year, but Caesar, after experiencing two severe storms, in which some of his ships were lost, reached Brundusium safely. He succeeded in satisfying the veterans, some with grants of land, others with money ; but his funds were quite insufficient to meet the claims of all, and he had to put off many with promises. He thus gained time until the immense Egyptian booty gave him means to fulfil his obligations.

The greater number of the veterans were of Italian origin, and wished to receive land in their native country. As most of the Italians had supported the cause of Caesar, it was impossible to do on a large scale what had been done ten years before, and eject proprietors to make room for the soldiers. But the veterans of Antonius, who had on that occasion been settled in the districts of Ravenna, Bononia, Capua, &c, and sympathized with his cause, were now forcibly turned out of the holdings which they had forcibly acquired. They were, however — unlike the original proprietors — compensated by assignments of land in the provinces, especially in the East, where the civil war had depopulated many districts. But the land thus made available was not nearly enough, and Caesar was obliged to purchase the rest. In b.c. 30 and b.c. 14, he spent no less than 600 million sesterces (about £5,000,000) in buying Italian farms for his veterans. We find traces of these settlements in various parts of Italy, especially in the neighbourhood of Ateste (Este). After the conquest of Egypt, the Antonian troops were transferred to the south of Gaul, and settled there in colonies possessing ius Latinum, for example, in Nemausus (Nimes).

The wholesale discharge of veterans, as well as the losses sustained in the wars, rendered a reorganisation of the legions necessary. The plan was adopted of uniting those legions which had been greatly reduced in number with others which had been similarly diminished, and thus forming new " double-legions," as they were called by the distinguishing title of Gemina. Thus were formed the Thirteenth Gemina, the Fourteenth Gemina, &c.

§ 4. The greater part of the year following the death of Cleo-

FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM.

Chap, l patra (Aug., b.c. 30) was occupied by Caesar in ordering the affairs of the Asiatic provinces and dependent kingdoms. Herod of Judea was rewarded for his valuable services by an extension of his territory, and several changes were made in regard to the petty principalities of Asia Minor.* There was probably some expectation at Rome that Caesar, in the flush of his success, would attempt to try conclusions with the Parthian Empire, and retrieve the defeat of Carrhae, before he returned to Italy. Yirgil addresses him at this time in high-flown language, as if he were the arbiter of peace and war in Asia,f as far as the Indies. But Caesar deferred the settlement of the Parthian question.

In the summer of 29 b.c. he returned to Italy, where he was greeted by the senate and the people with an enthusiasm which was certainly not feigned. There was a general feeling of relief at the end of the civil wars, and men heartily welcomed Caesar as a deliverer and restorer of peace. The only note of opposition had come from a son of M. iEmilius Lepidus, the triumvir. The father lived in peaceful retirement at Circeii, but the son was rash and ambitious, and formed the plan of murdering Caesar on his return. He did not take his father into the secret, but his mother Junia, a sister of Brutus, was privy to it. Maecenas discovered the conspiracy in good time, and promptly arrested Junia and her son. Young Lepidus was immediately despatched to Caesar in the East, and was there executed. But this incident was of little consequence; Caesar's position was perfectly safe. The honours which were paid to him would have been accorded with an equal show of enthusiasm to Antonius, if fortune had declared herself for him; but there is little doubt that Caesar was more acceptable. The senate decreed that his birthday should be included among the public holidays, and it was afterwards regularly celebrated by races. His name was mentioned along with the gods in the Carmen Saliare, and it is probable that, if he had really wished it, divine honours would have been decreed to him in Rome, such as were paid to him in Egypt, where he stepped into the place of the Ptolemies, and in Asia Minor, where he assumed the privileges of the Attalids. But though he had become a god in the East, Caesar wished to remain a man in Rome.J He already possessed the tribunician power § for life; but it was now

* For these changes, see below, Chap. VII. $ 5.

f Georgics, ii. 170 :

dum.

% For his worship, subsequently established, in the western provinces, see below, Chap. VI. $$ 5 and 6.

$ The potestas or magisterial power which belonged to a tribune of the plebs involved the following important rights : (1) the power of summoning the plebs

THE TRIUMPH OF CJESAR.

granted again in an extended form. It was also decreed that every fourth anniversary of his victory should he commemorated hy games (ludi Actiaci) ; and that the rostra and trophies of the captured ships should adorn the temple of the divine Juliu?. Triumphal arches were to be erected in the Roman Forum and at Brundusium, to celebrate the victor's return to Italy; and a sacrifice of thanksgiving was offered to the gods by the senate and people, and by every private person.

The triumph of Caesar lasted three days (Aug. 13, 14, 15). The soldiers who had been disbanded returned to their standards in order to take part in it, and all the troops which had shared in his victories were concentrated close to Rome. Each soldier received 1000 sesterces (about £8) as a triumphal gift ; and the Roman populace also received 400 sesterces a head. The triumph represented victories over the three known continents. The first days were devoted to the celebration of conquests in Europe ; the subjugation of Pannonia and Dalmatia, and some successes won in Gaul over rebellious tribes by C. Carrinas during Caesar's absence in the East. The triumph for Actium, which took place on the second day, represented a victory over the forces of Asia. The trophies were far more splendid than those won from the poor princes of Illyricum. The poet Propertius describes how he saw "the necks of kings bound with golden chains, and the fleet of Actium sailing up the Via Sacra." Among the kings were . Alexander of Emesa, whom Caesar had deposed after the battle, and Adiatorix, a Galatian prince, who before the battle had massacred all the Romans he could lay hands on. Both these captives were executed after the triumph. But the third day, which saw the triumph over Africa, was much the most brilliant. Cleopatra had, by destroying herself, avoided the shame of adorning her conqueror's triumphal car, but a statue of her was carried in her stead, and her two young children, Alexander and Cleopatra, represented the fallen house of Egyptian royalty. Images of the Nile and Egypt were also carried in the triumphal procession, and the richest spoils, with even against the will of the patrician magistrates, and making re=olutions in the assemblies of the tribes ; (2) the power of hindering the proceedings of other magistrates, in case he was appealed to for help, within the first milestone from the city; (3) the right of interceding against decrees of the senate and against the acts of other magistrates ; (4) the right of coercitio — that is, of suppressing and punishing any person who attempted to hinder him in his acts, or who insulted him in any way. The tribunician poiestas was hallowed by religious sanctity (sacro* sancta) ; the tribune's person was inviolable. As there was no means of opposing it except by the intercession of another tribune, or by an appeal (provocation to the comitia centuriata or tributa,it became the strongest kind of power in the constitution, and was adopted by the Caesars, both dictator and triumvir, as a support of their position.

8 FEOM THE BATTLE OF^ACTIUM. Chap. i.

quantities of gold and silver coins, were exhibited to the gaze of the people. The result of the great influx of money into Italy was that the rate of interest fell from 12 to 4 per cent. In one respect the order of Caesar's triumph departed from the traditional custom. His fellow-consul M. Valerius Messalla Potitus, and the other senators who took part in the triumph, instead of heading the procession and guiding the triumphator into the city, according to usage, were placed last of all. This innovation was significant of the oming monarchy.

On this occasion the buildings, which Julius Cassar had designed and begun, and which had been completed since his death, were dedicated, and his own. temple was consecrated by his son with special solemnity. The game of " Troy " was represented in the Circus Maximus by boys of noble family, divided into two parties, of which one was commanded by Cassar's stepson, Tiberius Nero, the future Emperor. A statue of Victory was set up in the Senate-house. The occasion was further celebrated by games and gladiatorial combats, in which a Eoman senator did not disdain to take part.

But these festivities were less significant for the inauguration of a new period than the solemn closing of the temple of Janus, which had been ordained by the senate, probably early in the same year (Jan. 11). The ceremonies instituted for such an occasion by King Numa had not been witnessed for more than two hundred years, for the last occasion on which the gates of Janus had been shut was at the conclusion of the First Punic War. Strictly speaking, peace was not yet established in every corner of the Eoman realm. There were hostilities still going on against mountain tribes in northern Spain, and on the German frontier. But these were small matters, mere child's play, which shrank to complete insignificance by the side of the Civil War which had been distracting the Eoman world for the last twenty years. Peace (the famous pax Romano) had in every sense come at length, and it was fitting that the doors of war should be closed at the beginning of an empire, of which the saying that " Empire is peace," * was pre-eminently true.

§ 5. The powers which Cassar possessed as a triumvir were unconstitutional, and were, by their nature, intended to be only temporary. Besides the ordinary imperium domi of a consul and an extraordinary imperium (militias) in the provinces, the triumvir had the power of making laws and of appointing magistrates, which constitutionally belonged to the comitia of the people. When peace was restored to the world, it might be expected that Cassar would at once restore to the people the functions which had been made over to him * " L' Empire, c'est la paix," a saying of the third Napoleon.

31-27 B.C. THE PAX ROMANA. 9

for a time. It was quite out of the question to restore the state of things which had existed before the elevation of Caesar, the Dictator. The rule of the senate had been proved to be corrupt and incompetent, and annual magistrates were powerless in the face of a body whose members held their seats for life. The only way out of the difficulty was to place the reins of government in the hands of one man. This had been done directly in the case of Caesar the father ; and it had been the indirect result of the triumvirate in the case of Caesar the son. But the latter resolved to establish his supremacy on a constitutional basis, and harmonize his sovranty with republican institutions. A dictatorship could be created only to meet some special crisis ; and a " triumvir to constitute the state " was clearly absurd when the state had once been " constituted." Neither the office of a dictator nor the powers of the triumvirate were theoretically suitable to form the foundation of a permanent government ; and the logically-minded Caesar was not likely to leave the constitutional shape of his rule undefined or to be content with an inconsistent theory.

He did not, however, at once lay down the triumviral powers which had been conferred on him by the Lex Titia (43 B.C.). For a year and a half after his triumph he seems to have remained a triumvir — or at least in possession of the powers which belonged to him as triumvir — but it is not clear how far during that time he made use of those unconstitutional rights. He was consul for the fifth time in 29 B.C. and again in 28 B.C., and it is probable that he acted during these years by his rights as consul, as far as possible, and not by his rights as triumvir. There was, however, much to be done in Rome and in Italy, that might truly come under the name of "constituting the state." Two of the most important measures carried out in these years were the increase of the patriciate and the reform of the senate. In 30 B.C. a law (Lex Ssenia) was passed, enabling Caesar to replenish the exhausted patrician class by the admission of new families ; and he carried out this measure in the following year. In 28 b.c he exercised the functions of the censorship, in conjunction with Agrippa, who was his colleague in the consulship. They not only held a census, but performed a purgation of the senate, and introduced some reforms in its constitution.* Caesar also caused all the measures which had been taken during the civil wars to be repealed ; but the compass and the effect of this act are not quite clear (28 B.C.). In the same year he marked his intention to return to the constitutional forms of the republic by changing the consular fasces, according to custom, with his colleague Agrippa, and thus acknow- * See below, Chap, IIL § 3. 1*

FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM.

Chap, r ledging his fellow-consul to be his equal. He also began to restore the administration of the provinces to the senate.

In 27 B.C. Caesar assumed the consulate for the seventh time, and Agrippa was again his colleague. Tt seems that he had already partly divested himself of his extraordinary powers,* but the time had at length come to lay them down altogether, though only to receive equivalent power again in a different and more constitutional form. On January 13 he resigned in the senate his office as triumvir and his proconsular imperium, and for a moment the statement of a contemporary writer was literally true, that " the ancient form of the republic was recalled." f And thus Csesar could be described on coins as " Vindicator of the liberty of the Roman people " (Jibertatis P. B. vindex). In the next chapter we shall see in what shape Csesar and his councillors, while they nominally restored the republic, really inaugurated an empire which was destined to last well-nigh fifteen hundred years.

* In his Res Gestae Augustus describes his restoration of the Republic as follows : "In my sixth and seventh consulships, after I had extinguished the civil wars, having by universal consent become lord of all, I transferred the republic from my power into the hands of the senate and the Roman people/' See Note A. at end of following chapter.

f In the speech which Dion Cassius puts into his mouth on this occasion, Caesar says, " I restore to you the armies and the provinces, the revenues and the laws " (55. 9).

NOTES AND ILLUSTKATIONS,

THE DEFINITION OF CESAR'S POWER IN 29 AND 28 B.C.

The difficult question as to the legal position of Caesar after his triumph, and the powers which he held between his return to Rome and January 13, 27 B.C., has been fully discussed by Herzog (Geschichte und System der romischen Staatsverfassung, ii. p. 130 sqq.). He rejects the idea, which one would at first sight infer from the statements of our authorities, that Caesar simply retained the powers given him by the Lex Titia, and thinks that if he had done so it would have seemed a usurpation. (He rightly dismisses the view of Dion, that the census was performed by virtue of the inherited title Imperator, and the divergent statement of Suetonius, that it was by virtue of a perpetual morum legumque regimen, specially conferred on him. Augustus himself expressly states in his Res Gestae that this regimen of manners and laws had been offered to him, but refused.) His own view is that after the civil war, in 29 B.C., the extraordinary powers, which Caesar held by the Lex Titia, were legalised by a new formal act — a law defining his imperium consular e, both as extending over the provinces and the armies, and as constitutive with inclusion of the censorial functions. There does not seem to be sufficient evidence for this combination, which chiefly rests on the expression of Augustus {Res Gestae, 6. 13), per consensum universorum [potitus rerum omn\ium.

But whether there was a new lex or not, the powers of Caesar in these years were the same as those which he possessed as triumvir before 29 b.c.

In regard to the censorial functions which he is said by Dion to have exercised in 29 B.C., and which he states himself he exercised in 28 b.c, there is some difficulty. Herzog thinks he cannot have

Chap. i. NOTES AND ILLUSTKATIONS

n done this as consul; for a census did not usually extend over two consular years ; and, moreover, Agrippa, who was his colleague in the census (Dion, 52. 42), was not his colleague in the consulate in 29 b.c. It seems most simple to suppose l that Dion made a mistake about the date, and that both the census and the purification of the senate were carried out in 28 B.C. by the consul* in virtue of the censorial power, which in the ancient republic was part of the consular office.

Temple of Mars Ultor.

Augustus crowned (from the Vienna Cameo).

Chapter II. The Principate

§ 1. The- new constitution of Augustus : its first and its final form. § 2. The title princeps. § 3. Constitutional theory of the Principate. Consecration. No designation. The Principate elective, not hereditary. Mode of election. § 4. Honorary titles. The Princeps has neither censorial nor consular power. § 5. £>tyle of the imperial name. Imperator. Cd&sar. Augustus. § 6. Insignia and privileges of the Princeps. Amici Ccesaris. Comites.

§ 1. The task which devolved upon Csesar when he had resigned the triumvirate and the proconsular power which had been conferred on him in 43 B.C., was to restore the republic and yet place its administration in the hands of one man, to disguise the monarchy, which he already possessed, under a constitutional form, to be a second Romulus without being a king. He still held the tribunician power which had been given him for life in 36 B.C.

On January 16, in the year of the city 727, three days after Csesar had laid down his extraordinary powers, the Roman Empire formally began. Munatius Plancus on that day proposed in the senate that the surname Augustus should be conferred on Caesar in recognition of his services to the state. This name did not bestow any