Augustus Ascendant Part 7

There was two ways he decided to deal with this using his unusually canny political insight. Augustus had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, or the protection from physical violence given to a tribune of the people for some years. Augustus decided that he would now appropriate tribunicia potestas in perpetutity. In other words, he would have the powers and protection of a tribune without actually holding the office. These powers were great. Tribunes attended meetings of the Senate and were entitled to introduce laws for approval by the people. In addition a tribune could veto any officeholder's decisions, including those of their fellow tribunes.

For the second way that Augustus decided to make sure he had a firm grip on his imperium, I will quote from Augustus on page 217: Augustus recognized that tribunicia potestas, together with his enormous provincia, gave him almost all the authority he needed to govern without hindrance. He dated his "reign" from when it was awarded, on July 1 23 B.C., and added the potestas to his long list of titles. However, a couple of gaps needed to be filled. Proconsuls, or provincial governors, lost their imperium when they crossed the pomerium-the sacred boundary of Rome-and entered the city. That would mean that when he was in the city the princeps would only have the status of a private citizen. Thanks to his prestige, or auctoritas, his wishes would usually be obeyed, but on occasion there might be some awkwardness. So the Senate voted that Augustus' proconsular imperium should not lapse when he was inside the city walls.

The Marcus Primus debacle had put Augustus in an embarrassing position. In theory, he had absolutely no right to interfere with the governors of senatorial provinces. Now this would also be changed. Augustus was given a general and overriding proconsular authority-imperium maius "greater power." This gave him the right to intervene in any area of the empire at any time. Augustus was a savvy enough politician to excercise this power with caution-once again trying to make it appear that the tradition of a Roman governor holding sway during his term of office still held true.

The reforms of 23 BC cemented Augustus' power-but Agrippa was the man who really hit the jackpot during this period. Agrippa was already considered indispensable and was given imperium proconsulare. This act probably gave him greater power to deal with things as he saw fit in the eastern provinces, which is where Augustus sent him in the autumn of 23 BC. Effectively, Agrippa was now the empire's co-regent.

There isn't enough information left to us to be completely positive, but the rise of Agrippa during this time might have been engineered by the ruling class to check Augustus' power. Perhaps they let him know that he was not to consider the state as his personal property. At the same time-if this is indeed what occurred-Agrippa's ever greater importance insured that a smooth transition of power would take place if Augustus were once again to contract a possibly fatal illness.

Going again to Augustus on page 218: It has even been speculated in modern times that what had taken place was a "secret coup d' etat" in which Agrippa and Livia joined forces. There is hardly anything to back this up-except that Tiberius, Livia's eldest son, was betrothed, perhaps already married, to Agrippa's daughter, Vipsania. This could be interpreted as a sign that the two most important people in Augustus' life felt the need to jointly protect themselves against the dynastically domineering princeps. It also appears that Octavia and Livia did not get on, and that the latter was irritated by the former's promotion of Marcellus. Equally, though, Augustus and his canny wife could have seen the value of neutralizing the prickly Agrippa by making him a member of the family.

However, there are yet other views that Agrippa's departure to the east was a sort of exile-either self-imposed or ordered by Augustus, because Agrippa was offended by Augustus' preferential treatment of Marcellus or that Augustus ordered him away because he realized Marcellus was jealous of the delivery of the seal to Agrippa.

On page 219 of Augustus: It is not necessary to see these two accounts-co-regency and "exile" -as mutually exclusive. Augustus and Agrippa were grown-up politicians. Both of them (and perhaps especially the latter) held a somber commitment to the public interest, not to mention the advantage of their governing party (which they saw as much the same thing). It is possible that they agreed not only about Agrippa's promotion, but also on the desirability of a tactful withdrawal to allow Marcellus to emerge onto the public stage without Agrippa's overshadowing prescence.

I had wanted to post just a bit more in this article tonight-but fatigue and massive typos are telling me to stop now! Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone else who has commented here or follows this blog! Hopefully this massive fatigue is just a phase that will pass. All the best to anyone stopping by!