OCTAVIAN-AUGUSTUS & THE JULIO-CLAUDIANS 1. Gaius Julius CAESAR, despite the civil war between 49 and 45 BC and his frequent absences fighting outside Italy, had been able to introduce a whole series of economic and administrative reforms, often holding the powers of the office of dictator to get his legislation passed. 2. For a multiplicity of reasons CAESAR had been assassinated on 15 th March 44 BC by Republicans whose slogan was FREEDOM! - but not before he had introduced an innovation by putting his own head on the coinage of the state - the first instance of a living Roman appearing on coins. 3. This practice has implications for our course, since it became the norm for the portrait of the head of state to appear on the state s coinage for at least the next five hundred years.
Coin minted by Lucius Aemilius Buca depicting CAESAR as IM(perator) [military commander] Two coins minted after late January 44 BC depicting CAESAR as life-long dictator [DIC(TATOR) PERPETUUS]
CAESAR had set the precedent and soon after his assassination the head of BRUTUS appeared on the coinage, along with a cap of freedom, two daggers and the wording EID MAR
THE RISE OF OCTAVIAN AND HIS WORK AS AUGUSTUS 1. In his will the assassinated JULIUS CAESAR had named his great-nephew, GAIUS OCTAVIUS as his heir (to his estate, his clients, and his veteran soldiers) and had announced his adoption of GAIUS OCTAVIUS as his son. 2. It hung in the balance whether GAIUS OCTAVIUS would take up his inheritance at all: his mother advised against. 3. Caesar s right-hand man and close associate, MARCUS ANTONIUS, appears to have expected more from Julius Caesar. 4. The future was going to depend very much on how GAIUS OCTAVIUS (at 18) approached his inheritance, especially given this dissatisfaction over the terms of Caesar s will on the part of MARCUS ANTONIUS (aged 39).
MARCUS ANTONIUS GAIUS OCTAVIUS who became GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR OCTAVIANUS
5. Although there was a short period of conflict between GAIUS OCTAVIUS (who initially was wooed by the SENATE to support its cause) and MARCUS ANTONIUS, he was soon working, at least for a time, with MARCUS ANTONIUS and a third Caesarian, Marcus Aemilius LEPIDUS as a member of the formal SECOND TRIUMVIRATE which was legitimized through legislation and which, in essence, meant that the Roman state was now managed for two five-year terms by a JUNTA OF THREE. 6. But, after the disgrace of LEPIDUS, OCTAVIAN and MARCUS ANTONIUS soon ceased seeing eye to eye, drifted apart, and began to prepare for what was perhaps the inevitable conflict between the two Caesarians.
7. a) OCTAVIAN more and more worked on gaining the support of the West ; b) MARK ANTONY had the support of the East and soon gained access to the massive resources of Egypt too - through its queen, CLEOPATRA VII. Two contemporary depictions of CLEOPATRA VII
8. The final confrontation (after years of propaganda) between the two camps came only at the naval battle of ACTIUM at the beginning of September 31 BC. 9. a) A victorious OCTAVIAN was soon left the sole surviving military leader from what had been another civil war, although it was presented as a foreign war against an ambitious foreign queen, namely CLEOPATRA,.who had entrapped a MARCUS ANTONIUS who was bewitched by Egyptian culture and Egypt s queen. b) After Actium and some necessary mopping up operations, all power, through the support of the armed forces, was by 30 BC in the hands of GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR OCTAVIANUS.
10. As the dominant figure politically, OCTAVIAN ruled for the next three years with an iron fist. 11. BUT by 28 BC he appears to have become more and more aware that his fate might be the same as that of his great-uncle and adoptive father, JULIUS CAESAR, if he remained a blatant autocrat. 12. And so he began the complex process of inventing the PRINCIPATE or EMPIRE as a new form of government to replace the REPUBLIC. 13. And, in January 27 BC he himself became IMPERATOR CAESAR AUGUSTUS and began moulding more and more the new position of PRINCEPS ( FIRST CITIZEN ) and, with time, founding a dynasty, the JULIO- CLAUDIAN dynasty.
Various depictions of AUGUSTUS
14. From that time onwards AUGUSTUS work tirelessly for over 40 years to stabilize the state, to reform the administration, and to strengthen the foundations of society as he created the new system, the Empire. 15. And as he created the new system which was in reality a disguised autocracy headed by a First Citizen, he never acknowledged that an autocratic political system had been created, always aiming to create the impression that the Republic had been restored and that he was just a citizen like the rest, even if the leading one - the first among equals [primus inter pares]. 16. a) On becoming Augustus in January 27 BC, he accepted a huge provincial governorship for ten years (which was always renewed) consisting of the two Spains, the three Gauls, Syria, Cilicia [in southern Turkey] and (for a time) Macedonia [+ Egypt] - leading to the terminology the imperial provinces.
b) the remaining provinces were now called senatorial (or public ) and to each of them the SENATE continued to send a governor each year as before. [Any new provinces added by conquest became imperial ] GREEN = IMPERIAL PINK = PUBLIC MACEDONIA
THE WORK OF AUGUSTUS ARMED FORCES 1. a) Once stability returned, Augustus spent ten years creating the Roman state s first permanent professional army, consisting initially of 28 legions (with about 150,000 well-paid men) strategically stationed towards the frontiers of the empire. b) To the legions were attached auxiliary units offering a career to about 150,000 provincial subjects - together giving a professional army of 300,000. 2. The army s loyalty to Augustus was guaranteed, since until AD 6 (that is, for well over twenty years) he paid for it himself from his own resources.
AUGUSTUS was eager to be depicted as commander in chief
CIVIL SERVICE 1. He also began to mould the state s first ever civil service, offering in particular paid positions to members of the Equestrian Order the most important appointees (answerable to Augustus alone) being the two PREFECTS OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARD, who commanded (in the end) a force of some 9000 men in Italy. 2. A very limited number of hand-picked senators served too: as the governors of the provinces assigned to Augustus in January 27 BC and as the commanders of the professional legions. CULTURE 1. The city of Rome was enhanced with an extensive building programme and literary production was stimulated through patronage, although there is little evidence of any pressure being brought to bear on the writers who were sponsored to write on any particular themes.
2. The Augustan Age also saw the production of a superb coinage with a very impressive range of themes, many of them purely artistic and not conveying any particular political message, although some did celebrate the achievements of the new political order. TWO COINS WHICH SEEM TO BE PURELY ARTISITIC AUGUSTUS IN A TRIUMPHAL CHARIOT RECORDING THE FOUNDATION OF NEMAUSUS (NÎMES) WHERE VETERANS FROM EGYPT WERE SETTLED
STRENGTHENING OF SOCIETY 1. An attempt was made through legislation (not very successfully) to strengthen the family as a unit, to encourage the procreation of children, to limit frivolous divorces, to criminalize adultery, and to regulate the flow into society of freed slaves (who became Roman citizens upon manumission ). 2. a) The religion of the state was given new life through the repair of temples and the restoration of neglected rituals. b) Outside Italy non-citizens were not discouraged from dedicating temples, shrines and altars to Augustus, on condition that ROMA was associated with his name - giving rise to the imperial cult (erroneously called emperor worship ) and to surviving dedications to ROMA ET AUGUSTUS.
TERRITORIAL EXPANSION 1. The empire grew under Augustus too (especially as it was extended to the line of the River Danube), but attempts to establish a Roman presence east of the River Rhine were abandoned after the disaster of Quinctilius Varus in AD 9 (when three entire legions [of Rome s 28] were wiped out of existence). 2. Augustus, in his will five years later, recommended that there be no further expansion of the empire.
THE EMPIRE IN AD 9 (FIVE YEARS BEFORE AUGUSTUS DEATH) AND JUST BEFORE THE WESTWARD WITHDRAWAL BACK TO THE LINE OF THE RIVER RHINE THE EMPIRE ABOUT 32 BC AS OCTAVIAN WAS ABOUT TO DEFEAT MARK ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
CONSTITUTIONAL REORGANIZATION 1. As noted earlier, OCTAVIAN ruled initially with an iron fist for three years. 2. But in 28 BC, he announced that any of his acts of questionable constitutionality would become null-and-void at the end of the year. 3. Then in January 27 BC, as one of the two consuls, he presided over the SENATE and announced that he was surrendering control of the empire to the Roman Senate and People. 4. But then the most unstable provinces were almost immediately returned to his control for a ten-year term and various honours were bestowed upon him, including the new name AUGUSTUS.
5. However, dissatisfaction caused by his continuing monopolization of one of the two annual consulships after that led to a readjustment of his position in 23 BC. 6. He resigned the consulship, accepted the powers of a tribune of the Plebs for life (without the office of tribune) and had his formal authority over the imperial provinces made superior to that of other provincial governors (enabling him, if need be, to issue orders legally to the governors of the public provinces which the Senate still oversaw). 7. Later, probably in 19 BC, he accepted the powers of the consulship for life but, again, without holding the actual office of consul.
7. a) It had taken time, but Augustus had gradually accumulated into his own hands a series of traditional, Republican powers (without the offices) and had created the new position of Princeps ( First citizen ). b) The importance of this work lies in the fact that all his successors had a approximately the same constitutional position for the next 200 years. 8. But the problem for Augustus was how to pass these extensive powers, entrusted to him for use in the interests of the state during his lifetime only, to the next generation.
THE SUCCESSION 1. From early on Augustus appears to have wanted a family member to follow him as head of state, but the position was not hereditary and he needed to maintain the pretence that Rome was a Republic. 2. a) Having no son, he used his daughter JULIA in the most unconscionable manner through her various arranged marriages in order to obtain an heir. b) Upon the birth in 17 BC of her second son, LUCIUS, (which gave Augustus a second grandson) he adopted both LUCIUS and his older brother, GAIUS (born in 20 BC), as his sons and, once they had reached manhood, began to have powers bestowed on them in preparation (presumably) for one or other of them to assume the helm of the state after his death.
GAIUS JULIA, MOTHER OF GAIUS AND LUCIUS LUCIUS
3. But in AD 2 LUCIUS died (aged 18) and two years later in AD 4 GAIUS died too (aged 23). 4. Reluctantly (we are told) AUGUSTUS (at the age of 66) now adopted, as his son, his stepson and former son-in-law TIBERIUS (aged 45) who over the next nine years was gradually given the same formal powers that Augustus enjoyed. 5. Consequently, when AUGUSTUS died in AD 14 (at 76), TIBERIUS could move smoothly to become Rome s second PRINCEPS with few formalities required. TIBERIUS at a much younger age
The period of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty had begun. TIBERIUS (14 37) GAIUS CALIGULA (37 41) CLAUDIUS (41 54) NERO (54 68)
THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTY TIBERIUS (AD 14 37) 1. Augustus had done so much over 40 years that there was little of an innovative nature that was left for Tiberius to do during his 23-year principate. 2. He observed essentially Augustus recommendation that there should be no further expansion of the empire territorially. 3. Unlike Augustus, Tiberius lacked diplomacy and he failed miserably to maintain good relations with the SENATE. 4. a) Tensions seem to have become so great that in AD 26, in the 12th year of his time at the helm, he left Rome and took up residence for 11 years on the island of CAPRI, never to return to the city.
b) From Capri he communicated with the Senate by letter and allowed his sole Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Lucius Aelius SEJANUS (of the Equestrian Order ) to accumulate far too much influence which will have made relations with the Senate even worse, not to mention Sejanus non-senatorial status. c) Sejanus rose to such heights (and was called by Tiberius my partner in my labours ) that something that is unclear to us happened in AD 31 and Sejanus was suddenly and violently toppled on Tiberius orders. 5. Like Augustus, TIBERIUS had great difficulty with the succession (finding someone to follow his at his death) not least because of the attitude of Augustus granddaughter AGRIPPINA to him.
6. Upon his own adoption, Tiberius (although he had a son, DRUSUS) had been required to adopt, as his son and primary heir, his nephew GERMANICUS, who was married to AGRIPPINA (Augustus granddaughter). 7. The aim seems to have been that a son of theirs (a great-grandson of Augustus) would one day succeed to the office of Princeps. 8. BUT GERMANICUS died in AD 19 and Agrippina, convinced that Tiberius and his mother LIVIA (Augustus widow) were in some way involved and that Tiberius was now hostile to her fatherless children, did not hide her opposition to him. 9. Her determined stand led to her own downfall and that of her two elder sons, NERO CAESAR and DRUSUS CAESAR.
TIBERIUS (at a younger age)
10. a) On Germanicus death, Tiberius natural son, DRUSUS, had replaced him as Tiberius likely successor. b) But he too died (in AD 23) and Tiberius did nothing to clarify where things now stood - leaving the way open to intrigue, manoeuvring, and backstabbing. 11. Only towards the end of his life did Tiberius indicate that he favoured Germanicus and Agrippina s only surviving son, GAIUS, who (thanks to the efforts of MACRO, the Praetorian Prefect who had replaced Sejanus) was introduced to the Senate at the death of Tiberius (at 78) - and the process began of bestowing the powers of the office of Princeps on him (aged 25).
GAIUS ( CALIGULA ) (AD 37 41) 1. There is little doubt that GAIUS, who created great expectations because of his youth, very soon began to display an arrogance, a paranoia, and an erraticism that was very disturbing to those around him. 2. a) He was either conspired against frequently or believed that this was the situation. b) Victims of his suspicions included his two sisters, AGRIPPINA [the Younger] and JULIA LIVILLA - who were exiled - and his brother-in-law (the widower of his beloved sister Drusilla), Marcus Aemilius LEPIDUS, who was executed.
A COIN OF GAIUS (A SILVER DENARIUS) DEPICTING HIS THREE SISTERS (WITH THE ATTRIBUTES OF THREE GODDESSES) IN BETTER TIMES
3. GAIUS upset the Jewish population of the empire and attempted some sort of military activity beyond the Rhine (with no evident results) and seems to have planned an invasion of Britain (which was aborted). 4. He fell foul, in January AD 41, to an actual conspiracy at the age of 28. GAIUS
CLAUDIUS (AD 41 54) 1. When Gaius was assassinated, the SENATE began to debate whether there needed to be another Princeps, only to have any say about the future usurped by the PRAETORIAN GUARD which quickly proclaimed CLAUDIUS (the grandson of Augustus wife Livia, the nephew of Tiberius, and the paternal uncle of Gaius) as emperor at the age of 48. 2. During his 13 years at the helm, the Court became even more important and, while Claudius seems at all times to have been in charge of policy, too much influence was allowed the palace freedmen (former imperial slaves). 3. Claudius oversaw new territorial acquisitions, not least the addition of southern Britain after the invasion of AD 43.
4. The absence of any constitutional mechanism to determine who would follow a Princeps on his death meant that those with a vested interest (particularly within the Court ) had to engage in manoeuvring and, often, back-stabbing to promote a chosen successor. 5. a) With Claudius, his third wife Valeria MESSALINA (probably at least 26 years his junior) was particularly active bringing about the downfall of any who got in her way as she tried to protect the interests of her and Claudius son, BRITANNICUS. b) Going to extremes, she apparently went [in the end] through some sort of marriage ceremony with a rising political figure, Gaius Silius, and, when Claudius was finally convinced of her betrayal, she was tried and executed.
c) Although Claudius swore never to marry again, it was not long before he took as his fourth wife, AGRIPPINA (the Younger), great-granddaughter of Augustus, who used her position to remove any who got in her way too. MESSALINA (executed AD 48) AGRIPPINA (the Younger)
d) Even earlier and certainly from the time she married Claudius, AGRIPPINA put all her efforts into promoting the interests of her son NERO, Augustus great-great grandson. 6. a) By early AD 50 Claudius had adopted Nero (at 13) as his son, to the disadvantage of his (younger) natural son Britannicus. b) By AD 53 Nero was married to Claudius daughter Octavia. c) In AD 54 Claudius (never in good health) died (possibly poisoned) and NERO was presented to the Senate - and the process of bestowing the imperial powers on him was begun and he became Rome s fifth First Citizen just short of his 17 th birthday.
CLAUDIUS NERO
NERO (AD 54 68) 1. Clearly AGRIPPINA was of the view that she could be the power behind the throne. 2. For a time she was able to work with Sextus Afranius BURRUS (Prefect of the Praetorian Guard) and Lucius Annaeus SENECA (a leading senator, man of letters, and Nero s tutor) in guiding the administration of the state. 3. While there were tensions with Agrippina (whose murder Nero arranged in AD 59 because he found her overbearing), BURRUS and SENECA together offered excellent leadership in the name of Nero (Nero s good years ) until Burrus death in AD 62 and Seneca s withdrawal from public life soon after.
4. a) By AD 65 NERO was becoming more assertive and openly pursuing his own personal interests (acting, lyre-playing, chariot racing) in public to the horror of conservative senators. b) But he seems to have retained the loyalty of the armed forces, not least because much was achieved in his name in terms of promoting Rome s interests in the wider empire and against Rome s enemies even though Nero had no personal relationship with the legions. 5. Even when he ordered three of his leading military commanders (his foremost general CORBULO and the governors of the two heavily militarized Germanies on the Rhine) in AD 66 to commit suicide, there is no serious evidence that he lost the support of the legions.
6. THEN in March AD 68 the governor of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis (with its capital at Lyon in south central France) rebelled, even though he did not have even one legion at his disposal. 7. Less than two months later, NERO had fled from Rome and committed suicide. 8. The issue (to which we ll return, as our course proper begins) is whether there really was a causal link between this uprising, which was quickly crushed, and Nero s fall and death at the age of 30. A gold aureus from late in Nero s reign