Augustus

ingenium Augusti

• conservative• ambitious• self-confident• disciplined• frugal• cold and calculated

issues• accusations of cowardice• sixty legions (military industrial complex/ retirement)• people want someone to seize power• hatred of rex/ legal issues• conspiracies/ political enemies• fear of civil war/ succession

taking control• loyalty of Agrippa• Battle of Actium• victory in Egypt – displayed

remains of Alexander the Great

• three triumphs (Balkans, Actium, and Egypt)

• “imperator”• death of Ceasarion “Two

Caesars is one Caesar too many.”

• continuous consulships• role of Maecenas:

squashing conspiracies, and propoganda

consolidating military and political power – working within constitutional

precedent• reduce 60 legions to 28 legions (retirement paid for by

the wealth of Egypt)• most hard core Republicans gone• “princeps”• attempts to reduce the Senate – creation of

committees• 27 BC Settlement with the Senate – proconsular power

over provinces with legions• granted tribunician power (potestas tribunatis)• granted at large proconsular authority• Praetorian Guard

27 BC Settlement

consolidating religious power• “Augustus” (revered

one)• construction of the

temple to Apollo (Sybilline Books moved their from the temple of Juppiter)

• Agrippa constructs the Pantheon

• Pontifex Maximus after the death of Lepidus

• “The Divine Augustus”, “Prince of Peace”, “Son of God”

military expeditions

• re-establish Roman control of Spain, Gaul, Armenia, and the Alps

• recovery of lost legionary standards from Parthia

• declared war with Germania (flimsy casus belli)

• Varus betrayed by Herman. Varus led 17th, 18th, and 19th legions into a trap laid by Herman in the Teutoburg Forest (survival of English?)

social reform• abhorred declining morality,

declining birthrates• laws to encourage children• laws to discourage

unmarried life• laws against adultery

(hypocrisy?)• patron of the arts:

Maecenas, Horace, Vergil, Ovid

• The Art of Love and the exile of Ovid

problems of succession• civil war?• sickly• Marriage of daughter Julia to Octavia’s son, Marcellus• death of Marcellus• “You have made Agrippa so powerful, he must now become your son in

law or be killed.” (Maecenas)• Agrippa marries widowed Julia – have many children• step-sons Tiberius and Drusus (Livia’s sons from her first marriage) put in

charge of military expeditions• death of Drusus in Germania (Tiberius races across hostile territory)• unhappy marriage of Tiberius and widowed Julia (Agrippa dies/ Tiberius

forced to divorce Visania) – self imposed exile of Tiberius, banishment of Julia and lovers

• Tiberius recalled from exile after the deaths of Julia’s sons, Lucius and Gaius. Tiberius adopts Germanicus (Drusus’ son)

• “ahh, to have never married, and childless to have died” (Iliad) banishment of granddaughter Julia and grandson Agrippa Posthumous

• Immediate murder of Agrippa Posthumous following the death of Augustus.

legacy• Pax Romana• Res Gestae• establishment of permanent civil

service throughout empire (made up of competent professional freedmen)

• “I found it a city of brick and left it a city of marble”: building of roads, infrastructure, relay stations – communication networks, aqueducts, temples, baths

• established professional firefighting and police force

• Roman Army paid by government treasury

• Praetorian Guard