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27 BC - 14 AD - The Principate

Augustus (Caius Julius Caesar Octavius) was originally called Caius Octavius; son of Caius Octavius and Accia, a daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. The Octavian family originated at Velletri, in the country of the Volscians. The branch to which Octuvius belonged was rich and distinguished. His father had risen to the rank of senator, and had gone to Macedonia, after being chosen praetor, where he was very distinguished as a civil and military officer. Octavius was born during the consulate of Cicero, 65 BC. He lost his father when young, hut was very carefully brought up at Rome by his mother and L.M. Philippus, the second husband of Accia. His talents gained him the regard of his great uncle, Julius Caesar, who declared himself willing to adopt him for his son, in case he should remain without children.

Octavius, Caesar's grand-nephew, was a young man in his nineteenth year when the dictator had named as his heir. His fidelity in carrying out the generous provisions of Caesar's will, his tactful course, and the fact that he bore the name of their late leader drew to him many of Caesar's veterans. The likenesses which we have of Augustus reveal clearly enough the essential traits of his character. The clearly-marked features, the strong mouth, and the compact, well-knit figure all point to firmness of purpose and clearness of conception. They indicate a man of balance and self-restraint, and such a man he proved himself to be, both in his public and private life. They suggest also a man of refined tastes, and the encouragement which he gave to art and literature would seem to bear out this interpretation of his physiognomy.

The revolution against senatorial government, which began under the Gracchi, reached its last stage in the struggle for supreme power between Caesar and Pompey, supported by the senate. Pompey's cause was lost on the field of Pharsalus, and Caesar, by his victories at Thapsus and Munda, made himself master of the Roman world. But before he had completed his reorganization of the government he was assassinated, and the republicans made a last effort to ward off the monarchy. They were defeated, however, at Philippi by the triumvirs Octavianus, Antony, and Lepidus, who divided the world between them. The retirement of Lepidus brought Octavianus and Antony face to face, just as Caesar and Pompey had been made rivals by the death of Crassus, and in the naval battle of Actium Octavianus made good his claim to supreme power. The revolution was complete.

On January 11, 29 BC, the temple of Janus, whose doors stood open in time of war, was closed for the third time in all Roman history. This symbolical act was a fitting and true omen of the return of peace and prosperity to Rome, for twelve years later the poet Horace in singing the praises of Octavian, writes, "Now faith and peace, and good repute, modesty of the olden time and manly worth, so long forgotten, dare to return, and plenty appears to view, rich with her o'erflowing horn."

The problem which Octavian set himself to solve on his return to Rome was to retain his position as master of the state, yet at the same time to keep intact the old forms of the constitution. He accomplished his object by retaining the tribunician power for life and by taking the proconsular imperium for ten years, counting from 27 BC. The proconsular power gave him command of the legions, and, as he was allowed to retain the imperium within the city, his position at home was equal in rank and authority to that of the consul. The tribunician power authorized him to summon the senate or the popular assemblies for the transaction of business, and to veto the action of almost any magistrate. His preeminence was expressed in the titles of Augustus and princeps, or foremost citizen of the commonwealth.

Octavius made no change in the established forms of government. In 27 B.C the senate conferred on him for life the government of all those provinces whose defense called for the employment of the military forces of the empire, together with the supreme command of the army and the title of Augustus. Successively Augustus united in himself the great offices of the state, the consulate, the tribunate, the headship of the sacred colleges. The senate was left with the splendid shadow of power, in reality the mere instrument of the emperor's will. The empire, and especially the provinces, found peace after a half century of civil strife and acquiesced in the rule of an autocrat whose sway was far more kindly than the selfish rule of an aristocratic oligarchy. Under Augustus the economic development of the empire made rapid progress; its parts were brought more closely together by increased means of communication; with peace came also rapid intellectual growth, and Latin literature had its golden age in the reign of Augustus.

Augustus brought the real power into his own hands, he retained the old offices and machinery of government, and kept the republican iorms. The consuls, praetors, and tribunes were still elected as in the past, but Augustus adopted the practice of recommending certain candidates to the citizens, and his recommendation insured an election. The popular assemblies met as before, but the bills submitted to them were drawn up by the emperor, and the candidates bore his approval, so that popular action amounted to nothing more than a formal ratification of the will of Augustus. By these methods Augustus attained the same result which Julius Caesar had reached, the centralization of power in his own hands, but the means which he employed violated the old traditions less, and so did not excite popular opposition.

The Senate had a share in the Government. In one important respect his domestic policy differed from that of Julius. He adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the senate and invested that body with dignity and some real power. This nominal division of authority between the emperor and the senate, for it was largely nominal, has led some writers to style his system a dyarchy, {i.e., a joint government by two powers.

The independence of the senate in this dual arrangement is most apparent in the management of the provinces. The control of Italy and of the settled provinces, like Asia and Macedonia, was intrusted to the senate and magistrates, while the frontier districts, where troops were still necessary, were assigned to the emperor. To no part of the Roman world did the reforms of Augustus bring greater relief than to districts outside of Italy. The governors of imperial provinces were appointed by him on the score of fitness and honesty. They were directSy responsible to him, and held office for reasonably long terms, so that they became familiar with their duties and with the needs of their provinces. Even over the senatorial provinces Augustus exercised some supervision, and the excellence of the government in the imperial provinces could not fail to exert a beneficial influence over those not directly under his control. From this time on a governor received a fixed salary and was no longer obliged to rely upon extortion in seeking a reasonable return for his services, and in case he did practice extortion, an appeal could be taken to the emperor with assurance of redress.

Augustus did a great deal also to improve local conditions in the provinces. In Asia, for instance, he made grants of money to various towns, he improved the system of taxation, constructed public works and opened up the country by building roads. He brought the entire empire also into closer relations with Rome by establishing relay stations along the great military roads at which horses and vehicles were kept to forward official correspondence. These improvements were probably all suggested to him by his personal observation, for during his reign he is said to have visited every province but Sardinia and Africa.

One important feature of his foreign policy was to establish a natural and secure frontier. The Euphrates served this purpose to the east. To the south the great desert of Africa formed a natural boundary, and made the provinces in that quarter of the world safe, except from the occasional incursions of nomad tribes. On the west was the Atlantic, and the Rhine and Danube marked the northern frontier. The most important campaigns carried on during the reign of Augustus were those against the Germans. Tiberius and Drusus, his stepsons, had reduced these people to subjection, but they rose in rebellion against the Romans under a native prince, Arminius, and, falling on the three legions of Varus, the Roman general, in the Teutoberg Forest, destroyed them completely. The Roman standards were captured, and Varus took his own life. The news of the disaster and the disgrace appalled the people at Rome, and so affected Augustus, it is said, that he was heard to cry out in the night: "Varus, Varus, give me back my eagles."

It is more difficult to change social conditions than material ones. Yet Augustus bravely attacked this problem too. He tried to check extravagance by enacting sumptuary laws which limited the amount to be spent for a dinner on ordinary days and on festivals. He tried to restore the old-time integrity of family life, and to prevent the native stock from dying out, by laying restrictions upon divorce, by putting the childless and the unmarried at a disadvantage in the matter of receiving legacies and otherwise, and by granting favors to men with families. His legislation upon these points, however, did little to remedy the evils at which it was directed. He was more successful in restoring the Roman religion to its old position of dignity. He did this by rebuilding the temples, by celebrating religious festivals with great pomp, and by taking certain priestly offices himself, like the position of pontifex maximus, or chief priest. One of the most interesting of the social changes which he effected consisted in establishing a series of new social classes. They were three in number: The senators, who as ex-magistrates owed their position to his recommendation; the knights, whose social and political standing he definitely fixed; and a local aristocracy, known as the Augustalcs, and made up of rich freedmen in the little towns, who in return for contributing to public purposes enjoyed certain privileges. The interests of these three classes were those of the emperor, and their support did much to strengthen his position.

On the credit side would stand the restoration of law and order, the betterment of material, and to some extent, of social conditions, and in particular a great improvement in the state of the provinces. On the debit side stands the permanent loss of selfgovernment, and of the broadening and educative influence which participation in the management of public affairs exerts upon a people.

Augustus had found no more difficult question to settle than that of the succession. His own powers had been given to him for a fixed term of years or for life. Consequently he could not transmit them to any one else at his death. He could, however, during his own lifetime invest the man of his choice with powers independent of his own and thus do much toward securing the succession for him. This was the plan which he adopted. After the death of his nephew Marcellus and his two grandsons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, he turned to his stepson Tiberius, and by adopting him and by conferring upon him the tribunician and proconsular powers, invested him with an independent authority which of course did not lapse at his own death in AD 14.

Titus Livy (50 BC – AD 17) seems to have accepted the rule of Augustus he as a necessity, but he could not, like Horace and Virgil, welcome it as inaugurating a new and glorious era. He writes of it with despondency as a degenerate and declining age; and, instead of triumphant prophecies of world-wide rule, such as we find in Horace, Livy contents himself with pointing out the dangers which already threatened Rome. The work to which the greater part of his life was devoted, the history of Rome from its foundation. Its proper title was Ab urbe condita libri (also called historiae and annales). The work begins with the landing of Aeneas in Italy, and closes with the death of Drusus, 9 BC.

Livy began to write at a time when, after century of disturbance, the mass of men had been contented purchase peace at the price of liberty. The present was at best inglorious, the future doubtful, and many turned gladly the past for consolation. This retrospective tendency was favorably regarded by the government. It was the policy of Augustus to obliterate all traces of recent revolution, and to connect the new imperial régime as closely as possible with ancient traditions and institutions of Rome and Italy.

In his portraits of the typical Romans of the old style, such as Q. Fabius Maximus, in his descriptions of the unshaken firmness and calm courage shown by the fathers of the state in the hour of trial, Livy is at his best; and he is so largely in virtue of his genuine appreciation of character as a powerful force in the affairs of men.

Hasdrubal's devotion and valor at the battle on the Metaurus are described in terms of eloquent praise; and even in Hannibal, the lifelong enemy of Rome, he frankly recognizes the great qualities that balanced his faults. Nor, though his sympathies are unmistakably with the aristocratic party, does he scruple to censure the pride, cruelty and selfishness which too often marked their conduct; and, though he feels acutely that the times are out of joint, and has apparently little hope of the future, he still believes in justice and goodness.

He is as innocent of the leading ideas which shaped the work of Polybius as he is of the cheap theorizing which wearies us in the pages of Dionysius. The events are graphically, if not always accurately, described; but of the larger causes at work in producing them, of their subtle action and reaction upon each other, and of the general conditions amid which the history worked itself out, he takes no thought at all.