The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (35 page)

Augustus transformed Rome—that is, both the city of Rome and the larger Roman provincial system—from a patchwork of provincial administrations loosely (or in name only) supervised by Rome to a truly imperial system centered on an imperial capital and administered by a budding imperial bureaucracy. While he revolutionized Roman politics, Augustus fashioned himself a social conservative, and in propaganda, as well as in his personal life, expounded a Rome still founded on old-fashioned and traditional Roman values and mores. The economic boom, relative stability, and cultural resurgence brought forth a literary and artistic boom that became Rome's Golden Age of literature.

Augustus promoted a broad “back to traditional values” program in Rome that went hand in hand with creating the impression of continuity and stability. These included campaigns in religion, social values, and civic pride. He restored temples and resurrected ancient religious offices such as the
flamen dialis
(see Chapter 9, “The Romans Among Themselves,” for more about the flamen). He instituted morality laws and laws penalizing unmarried individuals as well as rewards for marriage and children. Laws against extravagant expenditures were passed in keeping with traditional Roman frugality. Ancient noble families were brought into the civic limelight once more, and the civic unity of Italy was encouraged and celebrated.

Augustus himself modeled his conservative approach in public; the biographer Suetonius marveled at his modest (by that time's standards) accommodations on the Palatine. Augustus and his advisor Maecenas encouraged literature (such as the
Aeneid
of Virgil and Horace's
Odes
) that promoted these values, and Augustan monuments, such as the Ara Pacis Augustae, portrayed him and his family as pious and traditional role models.

 
Roamin' the Romans
When in Rome, be sure to see the reconstruction of the Ara Pacis Augustae, or “Altar of Augustan Peace.” Not only are its reliefs some of the finest sculptures of their kind, but it also includes portraits of the imperial family and important magistrates in solemn religious procession.

Augustus's daughter, Julia, was Augustus's Achilles' heel on the role model front. He married her to Marcellus, Agrippa, and Tiberius in order to procure a direct heir. Notorious for her affairs and sexual appetites, and a loose cannon as the potential mother of Julian heirs from who-knows where, Julia was finally banished by Augustus to the little island of Pandateria in 2
B
.
C
.
E
. He allowed her to return in
C
.
E
. 3, but only so far as the very tip of Italy at Rhegium, where she remained until her death.

Augustus and his colleagues such as Agrippa worked to transform Rome with monumental public works projects and buildings that projected the image of a great world capital and played upon the principate as the fulfillment of a long progression of traditional Roman history. These projects included . . .

• The first imperial forum (the Forum of Augustus).
  
• Great temples such as that of Mars the Avenger, the Pantheon, and the temple of Apollo (the first to be made entirely of the white Carrara marble with which Rome is associated).
  
• Public libraries and baths.
  
• The Theater of Marcellus.
  
• The great Mausoleum of Augustus, which served as the imperial tomb for over 100 years.
  
• Aqueducts and roads.
  
• The
  Ara Pacis Augustae
  (Altar of Augustan Peace).
  

Augustus worked to fully conquer and solidify the borders of the Roman Empire, and discouraged expansionist policies. He worked through his prefect, Gallius, to solidify the southern border of Egypt against African invasions, and came to an eventual settlement with the Parthians through Tiberius over the eastern border and Armenia. With this settlement, he regained the standards lost with Crassus's defeat, and gained an enormous propaganda victory without a great war. His forces subdued, fortified, and reinforced the borders along the Alps, the Danube, and the Rhine, and established military colonies in Spain and Gaul. He attempted to push the frontier in Germany to the more easily defendable Elbe, but the disaster at the Teutoburg Forest
made him change his mind and resolve to keep the border along the Danube and Rhine.

Remains of the Forum Augustum and the Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger), where Julius Caesar's sword was kept.

In conjunction with the building and expansion at Rome, the provinces also saw a period of economic stability, growth, and prosperity. This was encouraged by Augustan building programs, colonization, urban development, and road building, especially in the west.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
P. Quinctilius Varus, Augustus's governor of Germany, was attempting to put down a rebellion in
C
.
E
. 9 led by the chieftain Arminius. Arminius's army surprised three legions in the Teutoburg Forest (between Osnabruck and Padoborn) and massacred them. Varus committed suicide. The disaster stunned the aging Augustus. He wandered the halls calling on the dead Varus to return his legions, and withdrew from attempts to conquer Germany to the Elbe. Later, Tiberius's adopted nephew Germanicus defeated Arminius's forces, but without establishing Roman control in Germany. Arminius was eventually murdered by his own feuding family.

In order to communicate with and manage both the provinces directly under the
princeps
and his involvement in the affairs of state, Augustus and his advisors developed a fledgling bureaucracy, which was to become the vast imperial administrative system of the later Empire. This system was especially important for the class of equites, who served as financial administrators and imperial representatives in the provinces, and the class of freedmen (freed slaves), who took over the keeping of imperial correspondence, records, and accounting.

Freedmen were to become extremely important and powerful in the Empire, and some became more powerful than any senator or equites. They were part of the administration, and had the ability to bring matters to the attention of the emperor (or not), to make sure that things ran smoothly (or not), and to grease the wheels of imperial bureaucracy and finance (or not).

 
Roamin' the Romans
When in France, you'll find a host of magnificent buildings associated with the Augustan boom at Nîmes (Nemausus). These include a temple, the Maison Carrée, and the famous Pont du Gard.

 
Veto!
Remember that Roman daughters were traditionally all given the same name—the feminine form of their father's. If there was more than one daughter, they were distinguished by the “elder” or the “younger.” This makes for confusing reading at times in Roman history, such as the two Agrippinas and two Antonias.

The area in which Augustus's efforts were the least successful was in his attempts to secure a successor from his own Julian line. Here he showed that, beneath the public image and rhetoric, the principate became, especially in the mind of its architect, essentially a hereditary kingship. His convoluted attempts at establishing a hereditary dynasty were to plague the entire history of succession in the Empire.

Augustus had few direct descendants. He had one child, Julia, by Scribonia, whom he had divorced (on the day of Julia's birth) to marry Livia. Other than Julia, his closest heirs were the children of his sister, Octavia. There was a son, Marcellus, who was the product of Octavia's first marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus. He was about the same age as Livia's son, Tiberius. Then there were two daughters, Antonia Maior (the elder) and Antonia Minor (the younger), who were the children of Octavia and Mark Antony.

Technically, of course, Augustus could not name a successor, but he could, as he did with other magistrates, make it known whom
he
would choose. Augustus's first choice was his nephew Marcellus, whom he married to his daughter Julia in order to solidify the family tree in 24
B
.
C
.
E
. Unfortunately, Marcellus died unexpectedly in 23
B
.
C
.
E
.

The death of Marcellus and the near fatal illness of Augustus himself brought his friend, colleague, and general, Agrippa, to the fore. When it looked like he might die, Augustus indicated Agrippa as a successor by giving him his personal signet ring. Over the next 10 years, he groomed Agrippa as the heir apparent. He married Julia to him in 21
B
.
C
.
E
. She bore Agrippa three sons (Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, and Agrippa Postumus) and two daughters (Julia and Agrippina). Augustus adopted his sons in 17
B
.
C
.
E
. Agrippa's powers and responsibilities were gradually increased until they were nearly equal with Augustus's. Then, Agrippa became ill and died suddenly and unexpectedly in 12
B
.
C
.
E
.

Agrippa's sons were too young to rule, so Augustus turned to Tiberius. It was clear, however, that Tiberius was only a stopgap. Augustus forced him to divorce his wife and marry Julia. Tiberius, apparently put out by the whole thing, retired to the island of Rhodes. But Lucius and Gaius both died young, and Augustus had to turn to Tiberius, who was 50, and again adopted him in
C
.
E
. 4. He was, like Agrippa, given powers commensurate with Augustus. Augustus continued, however, to try to ensure some Julian would follow him by having Tiberius adopt Germanicus, the 18-year-old son of Antonia Minor. Germanicus was married to Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa and Julia, so Augustus hoped that finally a nice, clean Julian line would be assured.

 
When in Rome
Adoption
(
adoptio
) was a legal action whereby a Roman citizen entered another family under the
potestas
of its head. In the Republic, both men and women could adopt. Some Romans used adoption to move between classes for political advantage; others, such as the emperors, indicated successors by adopting the man (at times as old or older than himself) whom he wished to succeed him as his son.

 
Roamin' the Romans
In Ankara, Turkey, you can find an inscription of the
Res Gestae
(Accomplishments), Augustus's autobiographical account of his achievements. Augustus had this text put on bronze tablets for display on his mausoleum in Rome. The original is lost; fragments remain from the copies that were put on public monuments in the provinces, of which the copy in Ankara is the best preserved.

It didn't turn out that way. As we'll see, Augustus's torturous attempts to forge a hereditary dynasty created a complex intermingling of families, rivalries, jealousies, and competing ambitions. The combination of unforeseen and early deaths, larger-than-life personalities, and complex infighting led authors (such as Tacitus) to suspect foul play at every turn both before and after Augustus's death. But at least when Augustus died in
C
.
E
. 14, the transition to Tiberius seemed as well-prepared as it could be. Octavian had stepped into a republic in civil, military, financial, and social crisis. As Augustus, he left it a stable, prosperous empire fumbling a bit through its first succession.

• Octavian and Augustus refer to the same person in different stages of career.
  
• The principate refers to the era of Roman government that originated in Augustus's evolving balance of military, civil, and personal powers.
  
• Augustus stabilized Rome internally and externally and was, for the most part, both successful and popular.
  
• Augustus carried out reform efforts in civic, religious, and moral practices that he promoted as a return to traditional ways and values.
  
• Augustus's efforts at securing a direct heir were unsuccessful.