From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (34 page)

The Senate as a whole was thus restored to a position of considerable prestige and influence, if not of power, but individual senators also were needed in large numbers for administrative duties, and they must be men of greater principle than many of the magistrates and provincial governors of the late Republic. Augustus therefore took steps to control entry into the Senate which was normally recruited from members of the Senatorial Order, that is men of senatorial birth, who wore a broad purple stripe on their tunics (the laticlave). He made membership of the Order, however, depend on more than birth: other necessary qualifications were normally the performance of a period of military service as a
tribunus militum
or
praefectus alae
, possession of a sum that was probably fixed at 1,000,000 sesterces, and above all
personal integrity.
^23a
But in practice entry to the Senate was not so restricted, since Augustus himself exercised the right to grant the
latus clavus
to young men of non-senatorial birth; by thus encouraging men of equestrian stock to turn to an official career, he infused some fresh blood into what was mainly a hereditary body. Men who were thus suitably qualified could then seek one of the minor offices known as the vigintivirate;
²⁴
after that when they were twenty-five they could, if elected, become quaestors (who numbered twenty) and thus enter the Senate. After this apprenticeship the more efficient could then ascend the higher rungs of a senatorial career. All, except patricians, must hold either the tribunate of the plebs or aedileship (six in number); then, if they had reached thirty, they could stand for the praetorship (normally twelve posts). Since the regular minimum age for holding the consulship was forty-two, an interval followed in which many ‘praetorian’ posts were open: a man might become commander (
legatus
) of a legion,
legatus
on the staff of a provincial governor, governor of a lesser imperial province (
legatus Augusti pro praetore
) or proconsul of a senatorial province. Then for the successful came the consulship, to be followed for some by the governorship of a more important imperial province (as
legatus Augusti pro praetore
), a curatorship in Rome (e.g.
operum publicorum
) or even the Prefecture of the City or, if the appointment was senatorial rather than imperial, the proconsulship of Africa or Asia. The chances of a man reaching the consulship in fact slightly increased as Augustus’ reign progressed, because the custom had been growing for consuls to retire before the end of their year of office to make room for
consules suffecti
. This practice was regularized in 5 B.C., the year in which Augustus had himself resumed the holding of a consulship, and later (probably in 2 B.C.) the office was specifically limited to six months, and the suffects took over on 1 July each year. The reason for this was to increase the number of consulars available for public service.

Augustus could also have regulated the quality of the higher officials through the elections, but in fact for many years he seems to have let the consular elections take a fairly normal course. He will naturally have exerted some influence on them, but he seems to have made little use of the powers of nominating or commending candidates (
nominatio
and
commendatio
) which were exercised by later emperors. The fact that he passed bribery laws in 18 and 8 B.C. shows that bribery was rife, and men do not spend money when an issue is a foregone conclusion. Moreover, the majority of consuls between 18 B.C. and A.D. 4 were
nobiles
, whereas after that until the end of the reign many more
novi homines
and members of recently ennobled families reached the consulship. Thus it appears that for a long time Augustus normally let the elections take their course, but later secured the election of candidates from a wider circle.
²⁵
This is connected with the introduction of a system known as
destinatio
, by which candidates were ‘destined’ or recommended for
office by a complicated preliminary voting procedure. This may have been introduced in 5 B.C. and have been in the hands of the Senate, but more probably it was set up by the
lex Valeria Cornelia
in A.D. 5, when the preliminary voting was entrusted to ten special centuries of senators and Equites, whose decision gave a strong lead to the Comitia Centuriata. As the Equites preponderated and many of them would be prosperous men from the Italian municipalities, namely the class of men that Augustus wanted to see elected to praetorships and consulships, he would favour this new machinery which would secure the election of this type of man without any direct interference in the elections by himself.
²⁶

Augustus, however, needed more than senators to help him in the task of administering the Empire. He turned therefore to the equestrian Order and by employing its members in the public service, from which they had largely been excluded during the Republic, he secured their loyalty to the State and helped to heal the breach that for so long separated them from the Senate. But public servants must be worthy, and so he re-organized the Order, for which the necessary qualifications became free birth, possession of a census rating of 400,000 sesterces, military service and good character. Membership gave the right to receive a public horse (
equus publicus
) and a gold ring, and to wear a narrow purple stripe on the tunic (
angustus clavus
). Augustus revived the annual parade and inspection of the Equites in Rome, at which he could expel any unworthy members. He could also add new members to the Order by granting the
equus publicus
: the most common source of recruitment comprised veteran senior centurions, the richer men from the country towns, and even some freedmen. The Order also included sons of senators until they reached the age of twenty-five. After the qualifying military service (perhaps as a
praefectus
or
tribunus
of an auxiliary cohort), the prospect of a good career opened up in a series of administrative posts. In view of the traditional business interests of the equestrian order, Augustus used them as financial agents (procurators) in his provinces, and also as governors (procurators) of the less important imperial provinces (e.g. Judaea).
²⁷
After that the most successful could hope for one of the great Prefectures: the Fleet, the Watch (
vigiles
), the Corn Supply (
annona
), Egypt, or the Praetorian Guard.

By employing the services of the senatorial and equestrian Orders in this way Augustus laid the foundations of a Civil Service. For unlike the amateur magistrates of the Republic, these men became professionals, serving for long periods and receiving a salary. The majority were the servants of the emperor, and few of the smaller groups that were appointed by the Senate to serve in the senatorial provinces and posts would be likely to secure office unless the emperor approved. Thus an efficient system was established which was free from many of the weaknesses that had marked the administration of the late Republic and had often led to misgovernment and corruption. This aspect of
the work of Augustus was not the most spectacular, but it was one of the most important: by preserving and adapting what was best in the Republican system and by supplementing it with new machinery, he avoided a revolutionary break with the past and at the same time created a means not only to hold the Empire together but also to promote its well-being.

The higher grades of the administrative service naturally required the help of what have been called the Clerical (
scribae
) and Sub-clerical grades. As under the Republic, magistrates and provincial governors needed secretaries, accountants, messengers and others. Augustus too, as controller of a vast administrative service required help of this nature, and for it he turned to his own household. Like any wealthy Roman he had many freedmen and slaves to keep his accounts and to manage his property, and many, even of the slaves, enjoyed a not intolerable social and economic status when they began to handle a great variety of public business for him. They were in fact indispensable and before long some of the freedmen secretaries attained great influence and prestige when they reached what may be regarded as the administrative grade.
²⁸

Thus in general the Senate, individual senators and the equestrian Order were ready to co-operate with the Princeps in establishing and working the ‘new order’. What then of the People and its Assemblies? With the assumption of so many powers by Augustus and the increase in the functions of the Senate, the People were in fact almost squeezed out. They occasionally legislated, but were here subject to his tribunician authority. They formally elected the magistrates, but these had already in fact been chosen by ‘destinatio’ after A.D. 5. They conferred
tribunicia potestas
on the emperor, but this was a mere formality. They had lost their judicial powers. But the city mob was far too irresponsible to exercise political power: rather, it wanted ‘panem et circenses’.
²⁹
Thus, as no serious measures were taken to make it more representative of the Empire as a whole or infuse into it a new spirit, it was better that the functions that it had previously exercised should pass to other hands. But if the city plebs was a liability, the ordinary men of the Italian municipalities proved their worth by supplying the lower officers of the legions; these centurions provided the backbone of the armies, and many of them ultimately reached an equestrian career and further opportunities for public service.

The famous claim of Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble epitomizes his attempts to make the city a worthy capital of the restored Empire. The boast is not unjustified if applied to the monumental centre, but elsewhere high tenement houses (which Augustus did, however, limit to sixty feet) rose up in blocks (
insulae
) amid winding narrow streets. He did not
plan any slum-clearance or town-planning for the city as a whole, but he did provide it with fine public buildings, baths, theatres, libraries, temples, granaries and warehouses, restoring old buildings (he gives the number of restored temples as 82) and constructing new ones. A large part of this immense expense was borne by himself and his friends and relatives, such as Agrippa and Tiberius. In the Forum there was much rebuilding, especially around the new temple to the deified Caesar, which Augustus dedicated in 29 B.C.; next to it arose the new Arch of Augustus, on the walls of which were engraved the Fasti, the lists of the chief magistrates and triumphant generals of the Roman Republic, an ever-present reminder of the men and families that had made Rome great. To the north of the old Forum and over against the new Forum of Caesar, which he completed, Augustus at great expense bought the site for a new Forum Augusti. In the centre of its back-wall stood the temple of Mars Ultor, vowed at Philippi where Caesar was avenged; and in niches in the semi-circular exedrae which flanked the temple stood statues of the past
triumphatores
, whose
elogia
proclaimed their careers and deeds. On the Palatine, where Augustus lived in a house of modest size, he built a temple to Apollo, which he had vowed in 36 B.C. In the Campus Martius building was undertaken on a lavish scale. In the south a Portico was named in honour of his sister Octavia, who added a library to it in memory of her son Marcellus. Near to it Augustus constructed the fine Theatre of Marcellus, which he dedicated to the memory of his nephew and son-in-law in 13 B.C. Agrippa, who laid out a park called the Campus Agrippae, built Baths and the Pantheon; the latter, put up in 27 B.C., was later destroyed, and the existing Pantheon with its rotunda is the work of Hadrian. This complex of buildings was balanced by the Mausoleum which Augustus began to build as early as 28 B.C. as a memorial for himself and members of his family. This circular construction, covered with a conical tumulus, would remind men more of the Etruscan past than of the splendours of Greek mausolea; in front of it later were set up the two bronze pillars on which were inscribed the
Res Gestae
of Augustus, a restrained, clear and proud document in which he rendered to his contemporaries and to posterity an official account of his stewardship. Not least of his achievements was peace, and this was commemorated in the noble monument that stood near the imperial Mausoleum, the Ara Pacis Augustae
³⁰
(cf. p. 348 f.).

Public buildings require upkeep and some time after 11 B.C. Augustus transferred this responsibility to two praetorian or consular
curatores operum publicorum
. Under the Republic the Senate and magistrates had been responsible for all public services, but commitments overseas had led to much neglect at home, which Augustus began to repair, though he went about this very slowly and did not generally take action until some breakdown threatened. The water supply was at first improved by Agrippa who built two new
aqueducts; as aedile in 33 he had not hesitated to make a personal inspection of Rome’s main sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, by boat. On his death in 12 B.C. Augustus put Agrippa’s staff of 240 trained slaves in the charge of three
curatores aquarum
, of whom the chief was a consular. Thus Rome gained a Metropolitan Water Board, which was maintained by the Senate with occasional help from the Princeps. Measures were also taken to prevent the Tiber flooding the city: a permanent board was set up later in A.D. 15, comprising five
curatores riparum Tiberis
under a consular. To maintain the food supply, Augustus was given a
cura annonae
in 22 B.C. after he had relieved a famine at his own expense. Further difficulties led to the appointment in A.D. 6 of two consulars, but a few years later a permanent food commissioner was established, the
praefectus annonae
of equestrian rank. Though Augustus at one time contemplated abolishing the corn dole, he limited himself to reducing the list of recipients to 200,000 (in 2 B.C.); the distribution since 22 B.C. had been in the hands of
praefecti frumenti dandi ex senatus consulto
.

Then the danger of fire must be faced, especially as the ambitious Egnatius Rufus had won popularity in 26 by organizing a private fire-brigade (cf. p. 182). At first Augustus put some public slaves under the command of the aediles (21 B.C.), but in A.D. 6 he established seven cohorts (each of 1000 freedmen) of Vigiles,
³¹
commanded by an equestrian
praefectus vigilum
. Each cohort assumed charge for two of the fourteen
regiones
, into which Augustus had divided the city in 7 B.C., when partly in order to help with fire-fighting he revived the
vicomagistri
, four of whom were elected by each of the 265 wards or parishes (
vici
). Another public service that the Republic had lacked, as men like Clodius and Milo knew only too well, was a police force. Augustus made good this deficiency by creating three
cohortes urbanae
(each a thousand strong), commanded ultimately by the
praefectus urbi
(an office which did not become permanent until perhaps A.D. 13). Unlike most other prefects who were equestrians, the Prefect of the City was a consular, who held office for long periods and exercised some powers of summary jurisdiction; later in the Empire this office became one of very great importance.
³²
The Urban Cohorts were a semi-military body, and if they needed further support to keep order, the Praetorian Guard (see p. 205 f.) could be summond to help.

Thus the amateur system of the Republic was superseded by more permanent establishments and the municipal organization of Rome was set on a sounder basis. But Augustus did not neglect Italy. The numerous colonies of veterans that he had established on land which he, unlike his predecessors, had bought, would help to maintain law and order. Colonia Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), for instance, assisted in keeping the Alpine Salassi in check and the Alpine passes open. To reduce brigandage and promote easy travel for soldiers, civilians and merchandise, Augustus, who in 27 had repaired the Via
Flaminia and its bridges at his own expense, established in 20 B.C. a permanent board of senatorial
curatores viarum
of praetorian rank to maintain the main roads. The expense fell partly on the Aerarium and partly on roadside towns, which also had to provide relays of horses and carriages for the new state-post (
cursus publicus
) which Augustus established. Italy, which now included Cisalpine Gaul, had a large population, which has been put as high as ten million free inhabitants, and some 474 municipalities; it was divided into eleven administrative districts. After the turmoil of the civil wars it now entered on a period of peace, security and prosperity, and many more men from its leading municipal families began to enter the equestrian and senatorial orders in Rome. Thus the class that had contributed so largely to the support of Octavian the faction-leader received their reward: a
concordia ordinum
was achieved, and furthermore it was based upon a
consensus Italiae
. The Augustan revolution was both military and political, but it was also social, and the non-political class of Italy shared in its success.