Augustus: Managing an Empire Part 2

During roughly the same timeframe as the previous article, adjustments of some magnitude were happening in the family of Augustus. There were consequences for its members and also for Rome. Julia, the daughter of Augustus had married Agrippa in 21 BC and had two sons: Gaius, born in 20 BC and Lucius in 17 BC. Augustus and Livia didn't have any male children, so upon the arrival of Lucius, Augustus adopted them both--"an heir and a spare." After this they were known as Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar. The situation was reminiscent of Julia acting as nothing more than an incubator for the offspring of two fathers.

This was an obvious move to secure the chances of an Augustan dynasty. This move also seemed at the time to leave Livia's sons, Tiberius and Drusus, of the running permanently. It was largely thought at the time that Livia would do just about anything to advance her sons' standing. However, there is no historical evidence to suggest she ever did anything impudent in this regard. The sheer fact that Livia remained in high favor and regard by Augustus throughout his life would seem to support this--rumours of stepmother-like doings not withstanding.

Whatever Livia, Tiberius, and Drusus thought privately, the lives they led left no room for complaint. Tiberius, aged 25 and Drusus, aged 21, had already shown talent and ambition and were well rewarded fo it. Augustus arranged for both his stepsons to be able to hold office before the minium ag and he trusted them with multiple challenging duties. Tiberius was known as somewhat dour and withdrawn, but Drusus was overwhelmingly popular and outgoing.

Undated letters of Augustus speak of affection for them both. Both Tiberius and Drusus had an aptitude for military life and leadership--qualities that Augustus expanded upon and exploited.

Events in Gaul soon caused or supplied the pretext to begin the imperial grand strategy. Germanic tribes had won a battle over Marcus Lollius in 17 BC in Gaul. Although the battle wasn't essential, and was even redressed, a legionary standard had been lost. But, out of all proportion, Augustus acted as if this attack was an extreme emergency. He left for Gaul immediately and brought Tiberius with him.

However, upon arrival, there wasn't anything for him to do. Marcus Lollius, a corrupt, status-seeking man who was also a favorite of Augustus, was already preparing a military strike. In addition, when the tribes learned Augustus himself was coming to Gaul, they vanished into their own territory. Still, Augustus would stay in Gaul for three years. Why?

There are not enough historical records left to us to answer definitively. One rumor circulating at the time in Rome was that he left the capitol to cultivate an affair with Marcenas' wife Terrentia. This is possible but would be strange, because it is most probable that Livia traveled with her husband on this campaign as she did on his other jaunts around the empire.

There was news of a plot against Augustus while he was in Gaul. The plot implicated a grandson of Pompey the Great, and a young man named Gnaeus (possibly Lucius) Cornelius Cinna. Cassius Dio wrote that Augustus spent many sleepless nights trying to decide if he should execute the young men or not. Apparently Livia convinced him that he should show clemency to quiet his critics and dissuade future machinations against him.

It is most probable that Augustus spent this time planning future military campaigns. Aggression began in 16 or 17 BC when the governor of Illyricum launched an assault against two Alpine tribes. After this, in 15 BC, Tiberius and Drusus commanded a two-pronged maneuver into what would become the modern Switzerland, Lichtenstein, western Austria, and southern Bavaria. Drusus and Lucius must have achieved an overwhelming victory, for their goals were met in one summer campaign. The following year, Roman forces annexed the maritime Alps. Thus the province of Raetia was born.

One of the ways that the peace was kept here, was that Tberius and Drusus deported thousands of men of fighting age from the area. Although the humanity of this move can obviously be argued--there was a definite
"method to their madness." When Roman armies achieved victory over 'barbarian" tribes it was most often with an overwhelming amount of force. However, there were always enough men left to hide and then proceed to launch future guerilla attacks. So when the geographer Strabo visited the area a generation later, he reported a "state of tranquility," --it was likely the "tranquility" of being barren.

During the time he was in Gaul, Augustus also reorganized the army by demobilizing a great number of men whose period of service was up and settled them in Gaul and Spain. As these men were rewarded fo their years of service, there would probably have a recruitment campaign to make up for the retired men. The length of a legionary's duty was extended to sixteen years and to twelve years for a member of the Praetorian Guard. It was alos during Augustus' time spent in Gaul that the mint in Lugdunum (modern Lyon) appears to have begun operating as a major mint issuing both gold and silver coins to pay legions in campaigns in Gaul and Germany.

"Not only had stage one of the military strategy been swiftly and brilliantly completed, but in the process stage two had been launched. This was because Raetia's northern border was the river Danube, and a little additional fighting led to the acquisition of the neighboring territory of Noricum to the east (roughly the rest of Austria). Noricum abutted Pannonia, whose tribesmen had been defeated in Octavian's Illyrian wars; although the Pannonians had been neither conquered nor occupied, for the time being they were quiet." Anthony Everitt, Augustus, p,266.

Moesia, on Pannonia's eastern border had already been conquered--although another generation (perhaps a little more) passed before it was deemed beneficial to make it a formal province. Pannonia was still very much an issue. In fact, control of Pannonia was still tenuous at best in 14 AD-the year Augustus died. The three Pannonian legions were headquartered to the south-west of the province; fairly close to the border of Italy. There were auxiliary detachments in the forts of Aquincum (Budapest) and Arrabona on the Danube, however, the first legionary camp was set-up at Carnuntum, just about the time Augustus left this mortal coil--14-15 AD.

It was not until the wars of Domitian (r. 81-96 AD), that the Pannonian Danube frontier was strengthened. To do this, client kingdoms were once again relied upon just as they had been on the Rhine. The Suebi had taken control of the area north of the upper Danube, when the Marcomannic king, Maroboduus, sought exile in Rome in 19 AD. The Romans installed a king over the Suebi who lasted until 50 AD, and his successors still showed allegiance to Rome in 69-70 AD. The legions were also stationed well south of the Danube in Moesia; but here the first legionary camp on the Danube, installed in 15 AD, was followed by three others in the middle of the century.

However, the things that Drusus and Tiberius had achieved were real and permanent. Augustus was very happy with his adopted sons and commissioned a huge celebratory monument, the Tropaeum Alpium (Treaty of the Alps) to distinguish this accomplishment. This monument was a great stone edifice, fifty feet tall, and supported a wide circular tower that was surrouned by columns and had a large stepped roof. A statue of Augustus would probably have been placed at the apex--looking out over his conquered territory like a god surveying his mortal charges from on high. The remains of this monument can be viewed at La Turbie, near Monaco, still remarkable after the passage of more than 20 centuries. More here . The image is of the remains of the Tropaeum Alpium. The research resources I used for this article were Anthony Everitt's, Augustus, 2006 and Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbours, 1967. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Augustus: Managing an Empire Part 1

In his official autobiography, Res Gestae, Augustus pridefully stated: "I englarged the territory of all provinces of the Roman People on whose borders were people who were not yet subject to our imperium. This line of thinking does not quite gibe with what he said after returning to Rome from his negotiations with King Frahata of Parthia in the east in 20 BC., which was that he had no intentions of adding to Rome's provinces. Augustus declared "the existing number was exactly sufficient," also writing his judgment of this to the Senate.

We can see that the statement made in his autobiography is much closer to the truth. For Augustus was truly an aggressive imperialist and expanded Rome's imperium more than any other ruler in a comaparable timeframe in all of Rome's previous history.

And the Roman people gave their blessing to this imperial expansion--even expected it. It is true that Republican law had made it illegal for the Senate to declare war without a provocation. Also Rome had secured much of its eastern empire without totally meaning to do so, such was the case in 133 BC, when the king of Pergamum died and willed his entire kingdom to Rome. The conviction that Rome had an imperial destiny was fixed in the minds of the Roman people, much like "Manifest Destiny" in the United States and British imperialism 2,000 years later. Indeed, empire was one of the methods that the Augustan regime legitimized its existence in the Roman mind.

The reign of Augustus was actually the last great age of Roman expansion. Slightly before he died, Augustus left his successor (and stepson) Tiberius the advice not to expand the frontiers of the empire. After Augustus there were only two major military campaigns that led to permanent acquisitions. These were Britain in 43 AD under Claudius and Dacia in 105-106 AD under Trajan. Trajan's other conquests in Armenia, Mesopotamia and south to the Persian Gulf in the campaigns of 113-117 AD were falling apart before his death, and were formally renounced after his death. However, a new province--Mesopotamia (again) was finally brought into the orbit of Rome after the Parthian wars of Marcus Aurelius' co-emperor, Lucius Verus, in 162-166 AD and of Septimius Severus in 194-198.

"But even the relativlely peaceful period up to the 220s was filled with constant change and development in the disposition and function of the army, and the nature of the frontiers. At the beginning of the period indeed it could hardly be said that recognizable frontiers existed. In the West there were still three legions in the interior of Spain, finally conquered only in 26-19 BC. Legionary camps were grouped along the Rhine, but no permanent forts had yet been established beyond it. The land between the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube was not yet occupied, while the first legionary camp on the Danube itself-Carnuntum in Pannonia-was established only in about AD 15; on the lower Danube towards the Black Sea, Roman control was still episodic in the early years of Tiberius." Fergus Millar, The Roman Empire and its neighours, p.104.

As far as the idea of Roman frontiers is concerned, this brings to to mind how very blurry and indefinite those frontiers must have seemed at the time. There was no accurate navigational equipment at the time, and most explorers (who were usually merchants and traders) didn't quest very far from the Meditteranean.

The Romans thought that all of the world's landmass was contained in a semi-circular disk made up of only Asia and Europe. They thought the island of Britannia to be at the northwestern edge of this disk and that the whole landmass of the world was completely encompassed by a vast sea--Oceanus. As the Roman Empire already took such a great portion of the land, they believed was all that was there, it must have been greatly enticing for Roman rulers to believe that they would one day be the masters of it all.

The first world maps that we know of came from fifth-century Athens. The Romans, with their imperial obligations valued the importance of cartography. Julius Caesar had commissioned a world-map that most likely was a part of a triumphal monument he had constructed on the Capitoline Hill. Augustus wanted a more refined and detailed map, so he commissioned his indispensible deputy, Agrippa, to make the orbis terrarum or "globe of the earth." This depicted hundreds of cities linked together by Rome's marvelous network or roads. It was fashioned from reports by Roman governors, generals and travelers. The result that emerged from this was a largely recognizable picture. However, the distances between places and the shapes of them became less accurate the further they were from Rome.

The most important job of the orbis terrarum was to assist military commanders, imperial governors and administrators. It was also an impressive synbol of Roman power. The map was displayed--either by painting or engraving--on the wall of the Porticus Vipsania, a collonade erected by Agrippa's sister as a permanent public display. Papyrus or parchment copies of the orbis terrarum were also made for travelers.

It would appear that a well-defined "program" was also mapped out in the years after Actium by Augustus and Agrippa. The two spent many years abroad putting down revolts, inspecting (and reforming if necessary) local administrations, and superseding these tasks, consolidating and expanding the empire. Augustus was in Gaul and Spain from 27 - 24 BC, in Greece and Asia between 22 and 19 BC, and again in Gaul from 16 to 13 BC. Agrippa went east from 23 to 21 BC and Gaul and Spain in 20 to 19 BC. During this time the eastern provinces and client kingdoms were reorganized, and the frontier of Egypt was expanded southwards; contact with the Ethiopians resulting from this. Gaul and Spain were pacified, and negotiations with the Parthians were successfully concluded.

The orbis terrarum revealed three problems that had yet to be vanquished. 1) With the Alps being controlled by a group of untamed tribes, it was impossible to reach the eastern provinces by land around the top of the Italian peninsula. 2) Macedonia's frontier was hard to defend and ill-defined. 3) The Germanic tribes were putting up constant challenges along the river Rhine which formed the Gallic frontier from the North Sea to the Alps from the western side.

The best solution to these problems would be to gain control of the Alps and then proceed north and create a defensible frontier lined with legions along the river Danube. By doing this Italy and Macedonia would be protected from direct assault from buffer provinces in the north.

There was a problematic area if the Rhine and Danube rivers were to indicate the empire's permanent boundary. A salient was created by the heads of the two rivers at the apex, where modern Basel, Switzerland is. Germanic tribes hostile to Rome could use the salient to run interior lines, allowing them a huge military advantage. Thus the final procedure of the plan would be to invade Germany and create a new frontier at the river Elbe. This would take care of the salient and form a border that would be a roughly straight line between the North Sea and the Black Sea. There was an added advantage to this plan because the annexed territory would protect Gaul from eastern invaders. The well-thought out completeness and the interdependent elements of this three part plan would suggest that it was the brainchild of the steadfast, loyal Agrippa--the man solely responsible for winning all of Augustus' wars for him.

The link here will explain the image--I tried to find what some scholars think the actual orbis terrarum may have looked like and will continue searching. I think I have enough time to do one more article here on my new "schedule"--hopefully it will be here in a two or three days. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! The research materials I used for this article are Anthony Everitt's Augustus published in 2006 and Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its neighbours published in 1967.

Augustus: Life at Court

Now that we are going back to Augustus I would like to post some information from Anthony Everitt's Augustus (p.256), that give a little more insight into his character and what life at his household and court was like: "The princeps took a friendly interest in professional entertainers of all kinds and got to know some of them personally. However, there were limits of propriety on which he insisted; he banned gladitorial contests sine missione, that is where a defeated fighter could not be reprieved and so had to be killed by his opponent. Augustus wanted to see bravery, but disliked pointless bloodshed. He also severely punished actors and other stage performers for licentious behavior. Women were not allowed to watch athletic contests (competitors did not wear clothes), and Augustus banned them from sitting alongside men at other entertainments; they were banished to the back rows."

In these articles about our powerful subject-Augustus-it has been stated before that he tried to project a public image of virtue, diligence, enterprise, thrift, modesty, and clemency. However, there are very few (if any) public personaes that strong rulers have promulgated that transmit the whole truth, and Augustus is in this group. Outside of Rome and the public eye, Augustus and his family lived a luxurious-even extravagant lifestyle.

There is a rocky island called Pandateria in ancient times (modern Ventotene) around 30 miles west of Naples, where Augustus built a grand palace, the site of which is currently being excavated. There is a huge building with many rooms here that previously housed servants, slaves, and guards. From here, the ground curves and narrows into a small valley, where fountains would have gurgled sumptuously among a colonnaded portico with plenty of seats that would have created a delightful sylvan area for family and guests to engage in conversation. The main house stood on a rocky promontory, where it overlooked steep cliffs. This massive, horseshoe shaped building would have had a beautiful central garden area. A breathtaking vista of sea and sky would have been offered by a viewing platform at the very tip of the promontory.

Among the magnificent splendour, Augustus could play host to his guests-all of them wealthy and powerful-but some of far more agreeable temperment than others-even disreputable folk-thus the need for privacy away from the prying eyes and chatting mouths of Rome's citizenry. Men like his strong, loyal, and capable general and friend, Agrippa, or the sybaritic but civilized Maecenas wouldn't have had any of what we would think of as "image" problems these days with Rome's populace. The same could not be said of a man such as Publius Vedius Pollio, the son of a wealthy freeman. Vedius had tanks where he kept giant eels. He also had the very evil and unpleasant habit of putting slaves in these tanks who had made him angry-the eels had been trained to become maneaters.

Augustus was the dinner guest of Vedius one evening when a slave broke a valuable crystal goblet at dinner. The enraged Vedius ordered the hapless young man thrown to the eels. Falling to his knees before Augustus, the boy begged for his life. Augustus then tried to reason with Vedius to have mercy on the slave. Vedius ignored Augustus, which in turn made the sole ruler of the Roman Empire angry. Augustus told Vedius: "Bring all your other drinking vessels like this one, or any others of value that you possess for me to use." Once this was done, Augustus ordered every last one to be smashed. This put Vedius in his place as he certainly couldn't order Augustus thrown to the eels! The slave-boy was pardoned from what would have been a gruesome fate.

Augustus publicly endorsed strict private morals, and history shows yet another fascinating aspect of this multi-faceted man. Going from the records from his time, Augustus apparently had a diverse and strong sexual drive. Ovid wrote that his house "though refulgent with portraits

of antique heroes, also contains, somewhere,

a little picture depicting the various sexual positions

A friend and slave dealer, Toranius, is said to have aided the emperor in his sexual conquests and would have women stripped of their clothes so Augustus could inspect them and choose among them. As an elderly man Augustus is said "still to have harbored a passion for deflowering girls, who were collected for him from every quarter, even by his wife!"

The cena or main meal of the day started about 3 in the afternoon for most Romans. This was so much more than our lunch or average dinner hour of modern times. The cena wasn't only for family and guests were often invited. Many various clubs and societies held regular feasts. The patrician class invited one another to an annual cena. Augustus and Livia would have their cena after a regimen of excercise and a bath.

The triclinium was a dining room with three communal couches covered by mattresses, arranged along three sides of a room with a table in the middle. This is the area where dinner parties were held, and for larger functions the same layout was repeated. Reclining to eat a meal was a highly-valued luxury, and up to three diners per couch lay alongside one another, with their heads nearest the table and their left elbows propped on cushions. Women would sit on chairs but by the time of Augutus it was becoming popular for them to recline with the men. Children would sit on stools in front of their fathers' places if they were allowed to be present.

Augustus held extravagant dinner parties and great care was taken with the guests social standing and providing a good variety of personalities at these meals. However, the Emperor himself was often not interested in eating and would arrive late and leave early-and of course no displeasure was expressed about his habit!

The meal would begin with the gustatio tasting, during which appetizers were served. These could be anything from pickled fruit, vegetables, cabbage in vinegar, heavily spiced concoctions such as nettles, sorrel, cider, and snails, clams, and small fish. A favorite delicacy was stuffed and roast dormice. A wine-and-honey mixture accompanied the gustatio. The main course would be a variety of meat dishes-anything from wild boar, turbot, chicken, sow's udders, and pork (50 different ways of preparing pork were known). The Romans added a sauce called garum or liquamen to almost everything. This was made from slowly decomposed mackerel intestines (yummy;-). The closest modern sauce to garum (alhtough still quite different) would be Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Dessert would be honey-soaked cakes, fruit and nuts.

Of course, wine was served with the meal, but heavy drinking would commence only when the meal was over. The Romans took this part of the evening quite seriously too. A roll of the dice would determine the rex bibendi ("king of what is to be drunk"). The rex bibendi was put in charge of mixing the wine and coming up with the number of toasts which everyone had to drink.

Augustus was a superb host and many times brightened his guests' evening with performances by story-tellers, circus acts, musicians, and actors. He also had the ability to make his guests feel individually valued and was able to engage with the shyest of them.

One publicly proclaimed virtue that Augustus did follow through with in his private and public life was hard work. Most Romans went to bed early but their ruler would still be found attending to matters of state. He would retreat to his study and dictate letters to secretaries, read dispatches and give advice or orders to be followed. Finally, by 11 p.m. he would retire but as a light sleeper woke up 3 or 4 times during the night; sleeping a maximum of 7 hours. Many times he found it hard to go to sleep again and would send for readers or story-tellers until he was able to drift off.

To anyone who reads or follows this blog- I apologize for such a lengthy interim between posts here! I am putting myself on a kind of schedule for the things I enjoy and like to blog about. For this blog and My Favorite Monsters, hopefully there won't be any more long periods between articles--two to three weeks at a very maximum--and hopefully much less. I am also going to work on my fiction writing on this schedule so I also hope to start posting at Beyond the Baryon Wall when I have a complete story written. The research credit for this article goes to Anthony Everitt's Augustus, in the "Life At Court" chapter (pp 245-260). The image at top is of the Arch of Constantine. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 10

A person of great importance enters into our story here around this time. While Agrippa was subduing the last remnants of resistance to Rome in the west, Augustus was busying himself with the boundaries and rulers of the client kingdoms of the east, along the empire's eastern frontier. His final aim was to have some sort of answer to the Parthian "problem." Augustus decided to use a two-pronged approach with King Frahata of Parthia-one diplomatic, one military or "carrot and stick" diplomacy in other words.

The diplomatic approach fell into Augustus' lap. A pretender to the Parthian throne had kidnapped one of King Frahata's sons and made off to Rome with him. Augustus sent the boy back to his father, thus making the first overture, on the condition that Parthia returned any surviving prisoners of war and the Roman standards lost by Crassus and Antony. While he was attempting to make this deal with King Frahata, a military expedition was formed against the strategically important kingdom of Armenia.

Augustus wanted to depose the anti-Roman King Ardashes and replace him with a client king. If Rome could achieve this and Armenia became a satellite of the empire, the Parthians would have a contentious northern border added to other unfriendly neighbors. Tiberius, aged 22 years and Augustus' stepson was the general he chose to lead his legions against the Armenians in 20 BC. Tiberius was powerfully built and above average height. His body was not only well proportioned but he also had a handsome face with penetrating eyes. Tiberius had long hair at the back of his skull and neck, which was a habit of the Claudian clan.

Tiberius didn't take to religion at all, but he did have faith in astrology, and the motions of the stars and planets in the heavens led him to believe the world was ruled by fate. Tiberius shared the same horror of thunder as Augustus. He would put a laurel wreath on his head when the skies threatened, which Romans believed made them safe from lightning. Tiberius was a scholarly/philisophical type and admired Greek and Latin literature. He adored ancient myths and legends. Tiberius truly sought out and liked to be in the company of professors of Greek literature. He took great pleasure in asking these men arcane and unanswerable questions: such as "Who was Hecuba Queen of Troy's mother?," "What song did the Sirens sing?" "By what name was Achilles called when he was disguised as a girl?"

Tiberius had an elaborate sytle of speaking that was hindered by so many affectations that his spontaneous speeches were thought to be much better than the ones he had prepared.

Turning again to Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 226: Augustus arranged for Tiberius to enter public life in his late teens; the young man undertook high-profile prosecutions and special commissions, among the latter, the crucial task of reorganizing Rome's grain supply. He acquitted himself well. The princeps was pleased, for he was keen for Tiberius and his brother, the eighteen-year-old Drusus, to share the burden of government. They were to be the packhorses of the regime, for the princeps had not given up his dynastic ambitions. In 20 B.C., Agrippa's union with Julia produced a boy, Gaius. If he survived the multiple potentially lethal ailments of infancy, he could become the heir to the empire, and on this occasion Augustus' old school friend would be hardly likely to object."

Tiberius' first major assignment turned out to be quite easy-for the Armenians deposed and killed Ardashes before the Romans arrived! Tiberius put the crown on the head of the new king ( a pro-Roman exile) himself.

With the takeover of Armenia by a pro-Roman king, King Frahata decided it was much better for him to be at peace with the Romans, and he returned the standards and prisoners. Of course the Roman public would have liked to see the Parthians taken to task militarily, but Augustus, ever the deliberate and forward planning politician had won a great diplomatic victory.

The relationship between the two empires went from absolutely frosty to a level between detente and entente and stayed that way for quite awhile. Augustus gilded the lily just a bit about this event in the official account of his life: "I compelled the Parthians to restore the spoils and the standards of three Roman legions to me and to ask as suppliants the friendship of the Roman people."

Once again unsettling news came from Rome. Now that both Agrippa and Augustus were away the public left one of the consulship seats open in 19 BC and wanted Augustus to take the post. Egnatius Rufus, a man described as "better qualified to be a gladiator than a Senator," volunteered to fill the post himself. When Rufus had served as aedile in 21 BC, he became very popular by creating Rome's first fire service, and payed for it with his own money using 600 slaves. He had been elected praetor the following year. In the eyes of Roman law this was illegal because the rules called for an interim of years between successive elective posts. Rufus's bid for the office was blocked. However, this wasn't the last of the story. It is not known if there is a kernel of truth to this but he was arrested and prosecuted for conspiring to assassinate Augustus. Egnatius Rufus was convicted of this crime and executed.

In Augustus on page 227: Whether there was any truth in this is unknown, but it would not be surprising if the authorities decided to eliminate a great nuisance by inventing a capital charge. Augustus put an end to further agitation and speculation by nominating a second consul for the year.

Thanks once again to anyone following or commenting on this blog. I will try to keep up with this as best I can. I am trying to get over some bad fatigue now and am trying to work on a couple of other projects when I am not tired-but I am trying to make time for everything. All the best to anybody stopping by! The image is a gold aureus picturing Tiberius as emperor on the obverse and his mother, Livia on the reverse.

Augustus Ascendant Part 9

The years 23-17 BC are interesting to study because they show the "ways and means" of how Augustus intended to rule the empire he controlled. His control of the empire would probably seem very awkward to a modern dictator. Rome of course, knew inststantly, pretty much, of what was going on and how he intended to rule. But the Roman Empire was so enormous in extent, how could Augustus put his "stamp" over the whole immense territory?

Obviously there was no such thing as fast communication in those days. All hell could be breaking out in one area of the empire and it could be weeks-at the very least-before Rome knew anything about it. Augustus intended to mold the empire to his liking as much as he could. Even though travel was slow and often dangerous Augustus spent years away from Rome-with Agrippa's help. Sometimes one man would take the place of the other in whatever area they were in-and the other would watch over the political situation in Rome.

For years after Actium (31 BC) the eastern provinces had a much greater say in their own governance than other areas. In 25 BC, Galatia (in central Anatolia) was made a province of Rome. Augustus sent Agrippa east in 23 BC. There are no historical records left that tell us exactly what his mission was. Agrippa made the island of Samos his headquarters. Conceivably, Agrippa could have been sent to gather intelligence on the Parthians. Augustus didn't want to make war with the Parthians again but he did want to negotiate the return of the army standards that Crassus lost in 53 BC, and also those lost by Mark Antony in 36 BC.

Augustus wanted to achieve a stable peace-a detente or even an entente with the Parthians. It was a time to consolidate the empire and not resume holtilities with a formidable foe. Around this time, Augustus was either going to join Agrippa or take over for him. But he was prevented from doing this-not only because the plague of the previous year continued to rage through Italy, until the point farmers stopped working their fields and food shortages developed-but the river Tiber also overflowed and flooded the city! This started an even greater cascade of problems when the people of Rome demanded that Augustus assume dictatorial powers to deal with the problem-they even threatened to burn down the Senate House (with the Senators inside) if this didn't happen.

Now another event had happened that showed how precarious Augustus' role in the state he had created was. If the princeps did what the mob demanded, the whole fiction of the "restored Republic" would be blown right open. It would also ruin his relations with the Senate into the future, as they of course would see it as a return to the days of Julius Caesar. Once again Augustus showed his tremendous skill at coming up with a different solution that didn't please everybody 100% but was enough.

Augustus swore before the mob that he would rather be stabbed to death than be made dictator. He did have himself made commissioner of the grain supply and quickly put an end to the food shortages. Augustus also arranged for the yearly appointment of two former praetors to oversee the distribution of grain in the future.

Finally, in the autumn of 22 BC, Augustus left for a restful trip to the east, probably in the company of Livia. But no more than they made their first stop in Sicily, that news of yet more unrest in Rome reached them. It seems that the Roman people were determined to have an absolute leader at this time in their history, as opposed to the pride of being free in the past. They had elected only one consul this year, hoping that Augustus would fill the seat of the vacancy. He refused to do this, but he did have Agrippa return to Rome to restore order. In 21 BC, after his return to the Capitol, Agrippa married Augustus' daughter, the 18-year-old Julia. Agrippa must have felt very secure in his power and position indeed, for he did so despite her father's abscence!

Then Agrippa was off yet again for more military campaigning. He went to Gaul, Spain and Aquitania and other places. Then he went to northern Spain and began once again to try to bring to heel the same tribes that Augustus hadn't been entirely successful in pacifying. Agrippa was victorious at this in 19 BC, as he had been so successful in his generalship in other tasks.

I hope to post again here pretty soon. I have been having some connection problems so hopefully this will sort itself out like it did before. Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone following or commenting here! The image is of a theater in Merida, Spain promoted by Agrippa and built between 16 to 15 BC. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Extra note-the information for this post came (once again) from Anthony Everitt's excellent Augustus pages 221 to 225. I found a treasure of a book -Fergus Millar's The Roman Empire and its Neighbours from 1966. I would like to start using information from this book in between the Augustus information because it so beautifully explains the background functioning of Rome's government and how different posts and departments of government changed over the years. The Millar book I had picked up for a whopping dollar at a library sale. It is too bad I hadn't looked through it earlier for this blog-but am so glad I finally did. Due to the economy-libraries, yard sales, discount book stores and the like have some incredible prices on books. I picked up a first edition (like new) of David McCullough's John Adams for 3 dollars and fifty cents. In a way it is sad-I seem to notice that the history books are usually the "cheapest" -I assume this is because people (especially in the United States) are not interested in historical subjects. I am just writing this to let people know you might find some incredible deals out there for books right now.

Augustus Ascendant Part 8

Both men had to think about a variety of possibilities where the future was concerned. If Augustus died in a few years Agrippa could take over. He did not have the popularity with the ruling class that Augustus did because of his humble birth and sharp tongue, but his extreme competence and leadership capabilities mad up for that. If both men lived for another 15 to 20 years, Marcellus could take over if he showed enough skill learning how to govern in the meantime. They also had an "insurance policy" due to Livia's two intelligent sons: Tiberius and the 15 year old Drusus, would also be trained in public adminsitration.

No matter what maneuvers were taking place behind the scenes the professional relationship between Augustus and Agrippa appeared to be very strong. In 19 BC, the two men's powers were renewed, but this time Agrippa was granted the tribuncia potestas that Augustus held.

Then, catastrophe struck in Augustus' unusually charmed life. Marcellus became ill and died in the autumn of 23 BC before his games were over. He was only 21 years old. The physician, Musa, treated him with the same regimen used on Augustus during his illness, but this time it didn't work. Augustus delivered the eulogy at his funeral. His body was placed in the great circular family mausoleum that was then under construction. Marcellus' gravestone and that of his mother (Octavia) survive to this day. Julius Caesar himself had laid the foundation for a new theater on the far side of the Capitoline Hill from the Forum. This theater was named the Theater of Marcellus in his honor ( a portion of its outside wall can still be seen.)

Poor Octavia never recovered from this blow. The formerly good-natured, sweet and maternal woman began to hate all mothers-especially Livia, whose son Tiberius would now inherit all that should have belonged to Marcellus. She refused to have a portrait of her son and would not let anyone mention his name in her prescence. In essence, Octavia became a recluse and was in mourning the rest of her life. However, she did attend a special reading by the poet Virgil of extracts from his new epic about the foundation of Rome, the Aeneid.

From Augustus on page 220: "Its here in the Trojan prince, Aeneas; the poem tells the story of his escape from the sack of Troy and his arrival at Latium, where he rules over a kingdom this is the precursor of Rome. At one point in the narrative, Aeneas visits the underworld, where he meets not only the great dead but also the shades of the unborn. He notices a good-looking but downcast youth, and asks who he is. The phantom of Aeneas' dead father tells him that it is the future Marcellus:"

Fate shall allow the earth one glimpse of this young man-

One glimpse, no more...Alas, poor youth! If only you could escape from your harsh fate!

Marcellus you shall be. Give me armfuls of lilies.

That I may scatter their shining blooms and shower these gifts

At least up the dear sould, all to no purpose though

Such kindness be.

The "Fate" line in the above poem should not be spaced that way- I don't know what happens -this has occured more than once. I will try to figure it out-please read the poem "as one" in other words. To continue with the quote from Augustus on page 220: "Virgil's style of recitation was "sweet and strangely seductive" when he reached the line "Tu Marcellus/eris," "Marcellus you shall be," Octavia is said to have fainted, and was revived only with some difficulty."

By far the most likely explanation of the death of Marcellus is that he was one of many Romans killed in the wave of the epidemic that swept the city. Rumors appeared that Livia had poisoned him because she wanted Tiberius to succeed Augustus. This wasn't a well-planned move If-it was true. For now Augustus arranged for his daughter, Julia, Marcellus' widow, to marry Agrippa. Octavia's daughter, Marcella, was the principle victim because of this dynastic plan, for she had to divorce Agrippa to allow her first cousin to be able to marry him. As Anthony Everitt points out in Augustus on page 221: "In the regime's innermost circles, no room was left for sentiment, and the Julian family's women were disposed of according to the political imperative of the hour. Apparently the princeps took the decision on the advice of Maecenas, who told him him, "You have mad him [Agrippa] so powerful that he must either become your son-in-law, or be killed."

Livia was never to live down her reputation as a murderous stepmother. As suggested before, this is probably completely untrue and unfair. In fairy tales, the ancient world already had the expectation that stepmothers were unkind. The Romans also had a very exaggerated fear of death by poisoning, and this undoubtedly added to the rumors against Livia. Poison panics often coincided with plagues. Food poisoning was also well documented in ancient Rome. Years after the death of Marcellus, a close friend of Augustus, Nonius Asprenas, gave a party after which one hundred and thirty people died! This was most like from food poisoning, but Asprenas was charged with murder and taken to court. However, he was acquitted after Augustus showed his support for him. Livia had to bear the vicious gossip and slanders in silence.

Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone who has ever commented on this blog or follows it! I hope to post again here fairly soon-it feels like I am starting to get a cold/flu -so hopefully I can fight this. The image is a painting (and damn me -I wrote down the painter-and timeframe it was painted in-but of course can't find it-does anybody know? If I can find it I will come back and give credit-when will I learn?) The painting is an artist's rendering of Octavia fainting at Virgil's poetry reading at the mention of her son's (Marcellus) name. All the best to anyone stopping by!

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!