Augustus Ascendant Part 5

Augustus was an extremely adroit politician and his new regime was a great coup that had wide support. He was careful not to push his luck too far and tactfully left Rome for almost three years to give the new constitutional arrangements time to take hold without seeming forced. Augustus continued to be elected consul, but left administration to hsi consular colleagues, among them the essential Agrippa.

During this time, Augustus' huge new province needed some looking after. Gaul had fallen into disarray during Rome's civil wars and Augustus brought it firmly back under control. Once he established order and conducted a census, he went to Spain. Spain presented a much harder egg to crack. The native tribes in the northern of the two Spanish provinces had never been completely conquered.

The Astures (whence the modern Asturias) and the Cantabri (in the region of modern Bilbao and Santander) tribes in particular were putting up an effective resistance. Augustus led the campaign against them, but this time without the help of Agrippa's indispensable generalship. These tribes employed guerilla tactics. They would strike out from their mountain hideouts and smartly avoid the full-scale battle for which the legion was designed. The Romans-who of course were superb soldiers-just weren't well adjusted to this style of fighting. They would march in a given direction and find themselves confronted with an enemy hidden in valleys and woods and would fall prey to ambushes.

Augustus was superstitious, and was a huge believer in omens. He had a piece of sealskin he used as an amulet for protection from thunder and lightning, which he was afraid of. The amulet proved its worth and confirmed his superstitious nature during the Spanish campaign. A flash of lightning struck so close that it scorched his litter and killed a slave who was walking ahead lighting the way with a torch. In gratitude for his survival in this close scrape with the grim reaper, he built the Temple of Jupiter Tonans (the Thunderer) on the edge of the Capitol overlooking the Forum. This temple was famous for its splendor and the famous works of art in it. Augustus--very pious in his own way-would visit this temple often in the years to come.

Augustus again became sick as he so often did when involved in a crisis-especially a military one. Augustus went to the Pyrenees and convalesced in Tarraco (modern Tarragona). During this period of illness, which lasted for about a year, Augustus wrote an autobiography, which he dedicated to Maecenas and Agrippa. No ancient sources tell us what Augustus was ill from, although Dio does say it was caused "from the fatigue and anxiety caused by these conditions." Most unfortunately, this autobiography has been lost to history. Augustus' deputy quickly brought the conflict in northern Spain to an end, which victory was credited to the military genius of Augustus--of course!

On page 213 of Anthony Everitt's Augustus: "During the late Republic, the wives of senior Roman officials did not travel abroad with their husbands. Augustus himself ruled that the legates he appointed to the provinces at his disposal should not spend time with their wives or, if they insisted on doing so, then only outside the campaigning season (generally March to October)."

"However, we have it on good authority that Livia accompanied her husband on his travels to west and east. She was probably with him in Gaul and Spain, although she will have stayed safely in the rear when Augustus was with the army, and tended him when he was ill."

Livia was an able businesswoman and over the years accumulated numerous properties and estates across the empire. Her tours around the Meditteranean as Rome's first lady allowed her to inspect her acquisitions and check that they were being well managed. In Gaul she owned land with a copper mine. Her property portfolio also included palm groves in Judea and estates in Egypt, including papyrus marshes, arable farms, vineyards, commercial vegetable gardens, granaries, and olive and wine presses."

As mentioned before, Augustus' wavering health may have been the reason he made the first major move to arrange a dyanstic succession in 25 BC (when he was only 38). He had his daughter and only child, Julia, by his second wife Scribonia, married off to his nephew, Marcellus. Julia was fourteen and Marcellus twenty. Augustus was in Spain at the time so Agrippa presided over the wedding. It would have been so interesting had Agrippa been the sort of fellow to leave his thoughts about this obvious monarchial type succession plan to history, but as Anthony Everitt states in Augustus: "...what he thought of the young man's promotion is unknown, for he kept his own counsel."

The image is of what remains of the Theater of Marcellus at nighttime. More about this theater will be explained in a later post. I may have time to do one more post today-not sure. Thanks again so very much to Jon, human being and anyone else commenting or following this blog!

Augustus Ascendant Part 4

There was no mystery as to why his governorship of the also newly minted "province" of Gaul, Spain and Syria put him in command of twenty legions. These legions did indeed have a reason to be amassed in these areas: the northern of the two Spanish provinces hadn't completely submitted to Rome yet; Gaul continued to have uprisings now and then; and Syria was next to the unreliable Parthians. In contrast, the "senatorial" provinces, to be governed by proconsuls in the old fashion, were tranquil places; only three of them required armies, and in total, they commanded five or six legions. In this way, by far most of the empire's military might remained under command of Augustus, and as long as they and their commanders remained loyal, he was safely ensconced in power.

Patronage was another important part of Augustus' rule. He had inherited Julius Caesar's clientela, of which were stretched out over the whole empire. Augustus had greatly enlarged this group of people even before the Battle of Actium, after which he inherited Mark Antony's clientela also. Augustus had a command and authority throughout the empire that was excercised by an intricate web of personal contacts and loyalties that no other Roman could even remotely hope for. In communities large and small, leading men who were loyal to him were usually rewarded with citizenship.

A quote from Anthony Everitt's Augustus from pages 210 to 211: "Augustus was pleased to boast: "When I had put an end to the civil wars, having acquired supreme power over the empire with universal consent, I transformed the Republic from my control into that of the Senate and People of Rome." That was literally correct-the machinery of constitutional government came creakily back into operation-but for anyone with eyes to see, the truth of the matter was obvious. The princeps admitted it himself, stating baldly: "After this time, I exceeded everybody in authority."

"This was acceptable because Augustus held no unconsititutional or novel office. Broadly speaking, he was acting without precedent. Also, he gave back to the political class its glittering prizes. Once more it became worthwhile to compete for political office (even though the princeps tended to select the candidates). The ambitious and the able could win glory on the floor of the Senate or in the outposts of the empire."

"It would be wrong to suppose that Romans failed to understand what was going on. They were not deceived. They could see that Augustus' power ultimately rested on force. However, his consitutional settlement gave him legitimacy and signaled a return to the rule of law. For this most people were sincerely greatful."

"Augustus' "restored Republic" was a towering achievement, for it transformed a bankrupt and imcompetent polity into a system of government that delivered the rule of law, wide participation by the ruling class, and, at the same time, strong central control. It installed an autocracy with the consent of Rome's -and indeed of Italy's independent-minded elites. Some Roman historians, among them Tacitus a century or so later, mourned the death of liberty, but at the same time politicians, citizens, and subjects of the empire recognized that the new consitutional arrangements would bring stability and the promise of fair and effective public administration."

"If Julius Caesar had lived he would probably have desired a far more radical scheme, imposing a brutally abrupt transition from a republican past to an imperial future. Augustus may have been less brilliant than his adoptive father, but he was wiser. He understood that if his new system was to last, it should be seen to grow out of what came before. Rather than insist on a chasm, he built a bridge."

The image is a painting of Maecenas presenting the Liberal Arts to the Emperor Augustus by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696-1770. Thanks again to Jon, human being and anyone else following or commenting on this blog-I appreciate it so much! I hope to post again here soon-all the best to anyone stopping by!

Augustus Ascendant Part 3

From Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 206: "The end of the civil wars brought a substantial peace dividend. A grand total of sixty legions under arms in 31 B.C. was reduced to the minimum necessary to guard the empire from external invasion. Octavian set the number at twenty-eight legions, or about 150,000 men, all of whom were Roman citizens. These ere brigaded with about the same number of auxiliary troops, noncitizens recruited from the less Romanized and less military secure provinces (for example, Gaul and northern Africa). These auxiliaries often served near or in their homelands-a sensible policy, for it gave the provinces an active role in their own defense."

The army had a permanent prescence in the areas where it was most needed: along the frontiers in the east and northern Africa, Spain, northeast Gaul, and the Balkans. These reserves were sufficient, however, there weren't any men to send to areas where any conflict might occur. During his short life to this point, Octavian had learned a great deal about public finance, and to reduce public spending it seems he was willing to take a gamble on a just-adequate military.

Then he looked into civilian matters. Suetonius believes that Octavian pondered deeply about restoring the Republic after Actium. However, this flies in the face of everything we know about his sure and steady climb to absolute power. Dio thought that a debate was held where Arippa argued for a republican constitution, and Maecenas spoke of the benefits of a monarchy. This debate probably never happened, but Octavian did manage to cleverly mesh these two opposing principles. As always, Octavian took his time to decide how to go about this-three years in this case.

Octavian and Agrippa held the consulships together in 28 BC-this was Octavian's sixth time as consul. The pair annulled all of the acts of the triumvirs and promised that there would never be a return to the civil bloodbaths of the past. The consuls also assumed censoria potestas, the power of censors. The censors had been two senior and very trusted officials elected every five years. They had three major tasks: first to hold a lustrum or general ritual purification of the people; second to perform a census of Roman citizensl third to supervise the conduct of citizens-especially members of the Senate.

Going back to Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 207: "The census held by Octavian and Agrippa revealed that there were 4,063,000 citizens (we do not know whether the number included women and children). A more ticklish job was to identify and weed out senatorial undesirables. The number of senators was reduced from one thousand to a somewhat more manageable eight hundred. As Suetonius records, this was a highly unpopular procedure. At the meeting when the outcome of the review of the Senate was announced, Octavian is said to have worn a sword and steel corselet beneath his tunic. Senators were allowed to approach only after their togas were searched."

The new regime still wasn't ready to put the ship of state on a long-term course. However, an incident occurred shortly after this involving Marcus Licinius Crassus, the grandson of Julius Caesar's onetime colleague, that showed the rules of the new political order should be put in effect sooner rather than later.

Marcus had returned to Rome after a very successful campaign on the Macedonian frontier. He wanted not only a triumph but also a spolia opima. This very esteemed honor was granted to a general who had killed the enemy commander with his own hands and took his armor, the spolia opima or splendid spoils. This was done by only two other men in the history of the state before Crassus.

The problem was that absolute control of the legions was essential to Octavian's hold on power, and he didn't feel he could allow an independent man to gain such a high military reputation. A technicality was cited to prevent Crassus from dedicating the armor of his defeated opponent in the tiny Temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol, but he was allowed his triumph. Afterwards, though, history tells us nothing about him, so we are left to wonder if his iverreaching-at least in the eyes of the new regime brought his military career to an early end.

Finally in 27 BC, Octavian, aged thirty-six, was ready to unveil his constitutional blueprint. On 1 January he began his seventh consulship with Agrippa once again as his colleague. From Augustus on page 208: "On the Ides (the thirteenth of the month) he made a most extraordinary speech to the Senate-perhaps the most important speech of his life. Dio gave him words that cannot have been very far from those he actually uttered: I lay down my office in its entirety and return to you all authority absolutely-authority over the army, the laws and the provinces-not only those territories which you entrusted to me, but those which I later secured for you.

"For most of Octavian's listeners, the statement came as a shock. No one knew exactly how to react, and his cautious audience either believed him or pretended to. While he was speaking, senators broke in with shouts and interjections."

After Octavian sat down, the protests continued. He made a great display of reluctance, but allowed himself to be "argued" into accepting a very large "province" for ten years. This so-called province consisted of Gaul, Spain and Syria. Octavian would have proconsular authority over these lands: he would be able to appoint legates, or choose deputies to rule them in his stead while he remained consul at Rome. All the other provinces of the empire would come under direct senatorial management the same as before: the Senate would appoint former consuls and praetors to govern them.

The Senate certainly wasn't lax in showing its gratitude towards Octavian for this. The doorposts of his house were adorned with laurel and the lintel with oak leaves for rescuing Roman citizens from death. Octavian would later boastfully recall how a golden shield was put in the Senate House, "in recognition of my valor, my clemency, my justice and my piety."

Then there was the most glorious honor bestowed upon him-a change of name. One idea was to call Octavian by the name of Rome's original founder-Romulus. However, Romulus had made himself a king, and even worse-one tale had him murdered by angry senators-the same fate Octavian's first patron met! A much better idea was to call him Augustus, meaning "Revered One." Thus it was agreed and Octavian's official name was now Imperator Ceasar Augustus. A more modest title was adopted for casual use: princeps, "first citizen." These new names ushered in a new political era for Rome and a makeover for Octavian-the formerly bloodsoaked triumvir was now Augustus, the law-abiding princeps.

These acts of largely political theater were acted out primarily to assure the Senate that he was not leading Rome down the same path as his adoptive father-an autocracy-or even something similar to a Hellenistic monarchy. Octavian-now Augustus believed-and perhaps he was on the money with this thought-that if enough senators felt he was following in Julius Caesar's footsteps he would be the star of his own Ides of March.

Augustus also had to keep the ruling class happy so they would apply their skills to the arduous task of the day-to-day running of the empire. From Augustus on page 208: "The Senate was not quite the body it had been. New men from the Italian countryside had filled many gaps left the the old governing families that had been weakened in the civil wars or had lost their money and estates. Many came from regions that had received citizenship as little as fifty years before. Theirs was an Italian rather than a Roman identity. Even more controverially, leading men from southern Gaul and Spain, provinces that had long since adopted the Roman language and culture, were recruited as senators. All these arrivestes saw their fate as inextricably linked to the new regime. So did a good number of impoverished aristocrats, for the astute Augustus took good care to fund them generously and thereby constrain their freedom to oppose him. He bound other noble clans to him by arranging marriages with his relatives."

However much power Augustus managed to accrue, members of the Senate still felt a deep patriotic belief in Rome's constitution, and would never accept one-man rule. These men presumed the Roman empire and its rule and administration to remain a collective undertaking-even if it were led by one man.

In the end Augustus didn't really give back any real power to the Senate and the people of Rome, and in the final analysis he owed his preeminent position to the army. To a lesser extent he also owed his newly minted position to the people, who could be relied on to reelect him to the position of consul as many times as he wished.

This will probably be the last article on this blog for this year. I hope to do much more here next year. Thanks again to Jon and anyone else who reads or follows this blog for your fantastic thoughts and comments! I hope you all have a beautiful and joyous 2010!

Augustus Ascendant Part 2

Octavian was now the undisputed master of Rome-he just downplayed a role so many others would have and did play up. Perhaps the more keen-eyed observers would have noticed the prescence of two teenagers, riding on his chariot's right and left trace horses during his triumph. These were the sons' of the two closest women in his life. Gaius Claudius Marcellus was his sister Octavia's 14-year-old son and the other young man was Tiberius Claudius Nero, his wife Livia's 13-year-old eldest son.

Octavia, who appears to have been a very loving and giving person anyway-loved her son "cheerful in mind and disposition" deeply. Octavian's interest in the youth certainly echoed Julius Caesar's interest in his years earlier as he was also a handsome and intelligent boy. Tiberius was no slouch in many areas either, but he had to play second fiddle in Octavian's plans because he was not related by blood-being Livia's son by her first husband.

Octavian was not only in complete control of the Roman empire-but was already starting to think about the long-term survival of his regime and his dynasty! Part of this planning and scheming was not just because it was Octavian's intelligence and nature to be this way-but due to his always unsteady health it was not too early to think of succession plans. If Octavian's nephew lived up to his promise, Octavian couldn't ask for a more suitable heir-and would keep control of the empire "in the family" at the same time.

Here is a quote from Anthony Everitt's Augustus on page 204 that explains more: "There was another thing: Octavian liked and trusted youth. He and his "band of brothers," his two trusted former school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas, had set out together on their great enterprise to avenge Caesar's murder and win power in their late teens. The challenges they faced called forth their talent; now Octavian was looking forward to promoting the new younger generation that was about to emerge. Perhaps as early as 29 B.C., he arranged for the minimum age of officeholders to be reduced: in the case of a quaestor, from thirty years to twenty-five, of a consul, from forty-two to thirty-seven. Senators' sons were expected to familiarize themselves with administration; they were allowed to wear the purple-striped toga, which was the uniform of a senator, encouraged to attend Senate meetings, and given officer posts during their military service."

It wasn't for lack of trying that Octavian and Livia didn't produce an heir of their own. They had each had children by former spouses, and some sources from the classical era put it down to physical incompatibility, but it is more likely that a physical illness led one or the other to become infertile. The boys were still too young to help govern the new regime. Octavian's childhood friends, Agrippa and Maecenas still had huge responsibilities in this area.

Agrippa had been described as "more of a rustic at heart than a man of refined tastes." However, here it must certainly be stated that Agrippa admired fine art and even argued that all paintings and sculptures should be nationalized rather than be viewed by a chosen few in private collections! Not only that, but Agrippa collected art himself and spent the incredible sum of 1.2 million sesterces on two paintings-one of them featured the Greek hero Ajax and the other Aphrodite. A man who practiced what he preached, Agrippa had these paintings put in public baths he built.

Greatly dissimilar to Agrippa it was said Maecenas could almost "outdo a woman in giving himself up to indolence and soft luxury." He was very taken with silks and jewels. Maecenas was also an epicure and made popular a new delicacy-the flesh of young donkeys-to Rome's upscale dining tables. He was supposedly the first man to have a heated swimming pool in Rome. Interesting also, is the fact that he was married to the gorgeous but conceited Terentia. The couple was forever fighting, but Maecenas remained in love with her and would always seek reconciliation. Apparently Terentia caught Octavian's eye and eventually had an affair with him. This doesn't seem to have set relations back between the two men and Maecenas was hardly monogamous himself-although he certainly never tried to seduce Livia! Although one of his affairs was with a freedman and friend of Octavian, a famous actor, Bathyllus.

It would seem from every possible historical source that Octavian only slept with women, but he didn't take the slightest offense to the various sexual habits among members of his inner circle. It would seem that Maecenas didn't take any offense at Octavian's making fun of his effulgent style of writing either. Macrobius, a writer of the fifth century A.D., quotes on example: "Goodbye, my ebony of Medullia, ivory from Etruria, silphium from Arretium, diamond of the Adriatic, pearl from the Tiber, Cilnian emerald, jasper of the Iquvians, Pesenna's beryl, Italy's carbuncle-in short, you charmer of unfaithful wives."

Howver crazy his private life, Maecenas was amazing during times of crisis-showing tireless energy and unwavering skill at giving superb political advice. What was even better for both Octavian and the regime in many ways is that he didn't seek public office and honors, preferring to remain in the background. Maecenas did champion the greatest poets of the age also, and made sure that rare talents like Virgil and Horace were able to publish their works without censorship and stayed in favor with the new order.

Agrippa, for his part detested Maecenas' effeminate and luxurious manners. Agrippa was a very non-cynical, direct and loyal man in an era when men of unquestioned loyalty were sometimes hard to find. Without Agrippa's excellent generalship it is doubtful-impossible maybe that Octavian could possibly have got as far as he got. He received the corona rostrata for his role in the Naulochus campaign. Without Agrippa, the war against Sextus Pompeius would have been lost and he was also the strategist behind the victory at Actium. For Actium, Agrippa got the right to display an azure banner. Also of more fiscal value, Agrippa had the freehold country estates in Egypt. Agrippa was so trusted (as well he should have been), he was for all practical purposes Octavian's deput-almost his equal even, but always in Octavian's somehow larger shadow.

A historian that lived close to Agrippa's time says Agrippa "was...well-disciplined to obedience, but to one man only, yet eager to command others, in whatever he did he never admitted the possibility of delay. With him an idea was implemented as soon as it was thought of." The image portrayals left to us by history of Agrippa show a man with very stern and determined features. He definitely even looks like a man whose anger was to be feared-possibly even by his friend and master?

Agrippa did have official posts unlike the "unofficial" minister of culture-Maecenas-in a post that didn't exist. Agrippa was as unpurusing of the adornments of authority as Maecenas was, although for a completely different reason. Maecenas simply didn't care to hold the actual reigns of power (being satisfied with influence), Agrippa cared for it with great zest-but only for its reality.

There are no historical records of Agrippa's private opinions on political matters. However, as Anthony Everitt states in Augustus: "...we may surmise that he watched Octavian's growing affection for Marcellus with unease. As the young man grew up, Agrippa could well find an inexperienced heir interfering in his freedom of action, interposing himself between him and Octavian. That would not do."

The information for this post came from pages 203 to 206 in Anthony Everitt's Augustus. I really enjoyed this whole bit written here-and believe there is much more to come. I intentionally didn't "condense" information from this part as I found it so interesting. This is everything I have ready to go and I wanted to post it this evening in case I am offline (or not online much) for the next few days. I hope to post again soon-but am not promising anything -on anything I do as I have been struggling with health stuff more than usual-now it seems an overwhelming sense of exhaustion has taken hold of me along with everything else! Thanks again Jon and others for the great comments! I hope anyone stopping by has a beautiful Christmas (and if you don't celebrate Christmas a beautiful holiday season)-and a wonderful and joyous 2010!

Augustus Ascendant Part 1

The new regime not only needed to redefine the past in the most glorious way possible, but it was also very important to establish Octavian as the natural ruler of Rome. They had to develop a cult of personality and an inconography of power. There was two ways this would be done. First, Octavian designated the complex of houses on Rome's Palatine Hill, where he and Livia lived as an emblem of his authority. A ramp connected them to a temple of Apollo, which was a major part of the complex. Octavian had vowed to build the temple during the wars against Sextus Pompeius, but its construction only got under way after Actium and was dedicated in 28 BC.

These days almost nothing remains of it, but the Apollo temple must have been a beautiful sight in its day. The doors were gilded and inlaid with ivory, and its walls were of solid shining-white marble (the walls of Roman temples were usually of brick and concrete with marble cladding). A chariot of the sun stood on top of the roof of the temple and it was surrounded by or connected to a portico of giallo antico, a speckled yellow marble from quarries in Numidia.

Octavian had more in mind for the temple than religious purposes. From his stay in Alexandria, and combining a plan he had had before Julius Caesar's assassination, Octavian put two public libraries there-one for books in Greek and the others for those in Latin. Medallian portraits of famous writers were placed on the walls. Here authors have public readings and the chief librarian, a polymath named Gaius Julius Hyginus, taught classes.

The Sibylline Books-mentioned much earlier on this blog also-were taken from their traditional home in the cellars of the Temple of Jupiter and stored under a gigantic statue of Apollo that stood in front of the new temple. As mentioned earlier, these books were a very highly valued collection of prophecies written in Greek hexameters. These books were consulted during times of crisis for Rome, not to learn the future but to find ways to placate the wrath of the gods. These precious books and their prescence so near Octavian's house was a very big sign of his unique role in the state.

Octavian's image also got a huge facelift. The goal was to give him an aura of divinity or at the very least a semidivine, heroic status. Tales were intentionally circulated about his miraculous childhood and of the prophecies that had foretold of his current greatness. Dio had preserved a false sounding story that is very similar to one told about Alexander the Great's mother and was probably put forth to encourage a direct comparison: When Julius Caesar decided to make Octavian his heir he was influenced by "Atia's [his mother's] emphatic declaration that the youth had been engendered by Apollo: for while sleeping in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this that caused her at the end of her pregnancy to bear a son."

There were more tales of prophecies along these lines. They were all probably made up and one of them had to have been false. This was a story that Quintus Lutatius Catulus saw a god throw what looked like a figurine of Rome in the form of a goddess into the lap of Octavian's toga as he led a procession to the temple of Jupiter. Catulus died before Octavian's fourth birthday-so obviously he was a bit young to be leading a procession to the temple of Jupiter that Catulus could possibly have seen! There was a method to these stories. The three men who supposedly told the most major of the prophecies-Nigidius, Cicero, and Catulus were all dead so they couldn't be asked about the veracity of them. More importantly, these men had all been distinguished republicans, who had opposed Julius Caesar. So the supposed prophecies of Octavian's greatness by them gave his regime founded on violence and illegality, a sheen of respectable Roman republicanism.

August of 29 BC saw Octavian celebrating three magnificent triumphs. One was over Dalmatia, where he had campaigned successfully in 35 and 34 BC; over Cleopatra (meaning Actium), and over Egypt (meaning the capture of Alexandria). If there were any doubts of Octavian's political dominance they would have been stamped out after witnessing these triumphs.

Within days of these, the Senate House opened for debate with a name change from Curia Hostilia to Curia Julia. A new speakers' platform had been built adorned with rostra, ships' prows, from Actium, and the temple to the now deified dictator, built on the spot in the Forum where he had been cremated on his quickly rigged-up pyre, was dedicated.

Here too-a change began in relation to the aforementioned dictator. Octavian had once been proud to call himself divus filius, because it established his power and authority in the eyes of his adoptive father's devoted soldiers and ordinary citizens. However, since the Sicilian War Octavian had not used the title so much and now, from this apogee of celebration and triumph, his propaganda starts to make even less noise about Julius Caesar that in past times. The reason was that Caesar had been a radical, who had crossed the Rubicon and liquidated old Rome. This was completely in opposition to the traditions and values that the new regime wanted to associate itself with-tradition rather than innovation. Of course the idea of the Republic being restored under Octavian and his "traditonal" values was nothing more than lip service and window dressing.

This took longer to correct and "edit" than I thought it would. I had some saved to drafts which helped a bunch-but my back and pain meds are slowing me down as usual. If possible, I would like to take a break and post a bit more tonight-can't promise anything-and even if I do it will be much shorter than this post. I am now in the mood of just getting all information I have posted and "here" instead of saving any for future posts-although for some reason not starting out "new" so to speak seems to help me for some reason. Thanks again so very much to Jon and anyone else who has commented on this blog. I think the information I am into now is so interesting and will try to keep this blog up as much as my health and other things allow. I hope everyone who stops by is having a beautiful holiday season so far! The image is of Emperor Hadrian's Tomb in Rome.

Intermezzo Part Five

The following information in this article is from Anthony Everitt's Augustus from pages 196 to 200. Octavian looked upon the body for a time, then paid his respects by crowning the head with a golden diadem and placing flowers on the trunk. He was asked, "Would you like to visit the mausoleum of the Ptolemies?" To this he sneered, "I came to see a king, not a row of corpses." The Alexandrians may have warmed a bit to Octavian and his admiring curiosity-but this newfound warmth towards their conqueror may have lessened when he accidentally knocked off part of Alexander's nose!

Octavian's friend Areius may have shown him the Mouseion or Place of the Muses. This was a group of buildings on the palace grounds. They included lecture halls, laboratories, a park and a zoo. These were all richly endowed by the Ptolemies and were a center of scientific research and literary studies. The Library of Alexandria was famous over the whole known world at the time. It had about 300,000 books, or scrolls as it were and was opn to anyone who could read. Julius Caesar is wrongfully accused of burning the whole library down during his short Alexandrian war of 48-47 BC-in fact only a part of it was destroyed at that time.

Octavian's stay in Alexandria probably got many wheels turning in his head about what a capital should be, both architectually and culturally. The genius of the Ptolemies had been to show how intellectuals and artists could flower and grow with a "soft" guilding hand by the state. Octavian returned to Rome with his mind made up to create a city whose public image and monuments emanated an appropriate magnificence.

Egypt now lost the independence it had held dear (with a few intervals) for thousands of years and would not reclaim until the 20th century A.D. Octavian gave the new possession, as was proper, to the Senate and People of Rome. However, in many ways Egypt had become his private fiefdom. There was a bit of irony here, as not only was Octavian considered the "lord of the two lands" (that is upper and lower Egypt), but also king of kings-the same high-flown title that Mark Antony had accorded Cleopatra. It didn't take the Egyptians long to accept and pay homage to their pharaoh from the Alban Hills of Italy. Modern archaeologists have made a recent discovery of the Egyptian jackal-headed god, Anubis, as a Roman soldier guarding the entrance to a tomb.

There was a very good reason to give Egypt higher priority than other provinces in the empire. Egypt was the Meditteraneans major producer of wheat, it was Rome's breadbasket. This made it too important to let a senator govern the kingdom as a proconsul. Octavian made his friend, the poet Gallus its first prefect. At first, Gallus seems to have done a great job as an energetic and effective leader, but his new exalted status as a kind of lieutenant pharaoh mad him drunk with power. He also engaged in "indiscreet talk when drunk" about his boss-Octavian.

Gallus even had statues made of himself and a list of his achievments inscribed on the pyramids! This was too much and a colleague sent word to Rome about his activities. In 27 BC Gallus was dismissed. Octavian only denied him entry to his house and the right to enter the provinces of which he was the proconsul. This wasn't enough for the Senate, which exiled him and confiscated his estates. Octavian thanked the Senate for supporting him in the harsh measures he had taken against his friend. Octavian stated: "I am the only man in Rome who cannot limit his displeasure with his friends. The matter always has to be taken further." There are different accounts left to us from history about how Gallus dealt with his disgrace. One has him so humiliated by it that he committed suicide. Another story says he died while having sexual intercourse. The fate of Gallus was a warning to those who orbited the center of power, not to take anything for granted or get out of line.

Enough time had elapsed between the Battle of Actium and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra for the Meditteranean world to deal with the final conclusion of the civil wars and now to contemplate the unchallenged ascendancy of Octavian. Honors came to him from every corner of the empire, including the right to use the title Imperator, this was the name soldiers used to acclaim victorious generals, as his permanent first name. Octavian declined other awards and honors in a calculating show of modesty.

There was one senatorial decree that gave Octavian the greatest satisfaction above all others. This was the formal closing of the gates of the very modest Temple of Janus. This temple stood in the Forum and had perhaps been used as a bridge over a stream that used to flow across the square (covered a long time now and turned into a drain). Janus was the god of gateways. This god had two faces-one always facing towards the future and the other-the past. The temple had doors on either end; closed in times of peace and open in times of war. Seeing how the Romans were a very warlike people, empire-building people-these doors were almost always open. It was a great compliment and acclamation to Octavian that these doors were shut. A great symbol of the much talked about-and much delayed arrival of peace throughout the entire empire under one supreme leader.

Octavian did not get back to Italy until 29 August 30 B.C. He was consul again, and had been regularly holding the consulship since his triumviral mandate rendered in 31 B.C. Like his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, Octavian knew that he couldn't govern alone, and he made sure Rome knew that reconciliation was very much back in fashion. In his official autobiography, Octavian claimed: "Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon."

The claim of clemency should be taken with a grain of salt. Yes-many were forgiven, but some were not. Octavian was not near as free in his let bygones be bygones attitude as his great-uncle was-perhaps remembering what had happened to him by many he trusted on the Ides of March.

Revenge was even taken on the dead. Mark Antony's name was removed from the Fasti, the state register of official events, and many other steps taken such as removing statues of him-his birthday was even made a dies nefastus, an unlucky day, on which public business could not be carried out. There was more going on here than just Octavian's wish to see all memory of Mark Antony expunged from the face of the earth.

There was a propaganda machine cranking up that meant to rewrite history. Actium, which had really been no more than a minor naval engagement with the romantic twist of the star-crossed lovers Antony and Cleopatra breaking through the blockade, was being transformed into a great battle between the hardy and upright moral Rome and the effeminate and devious East, between Good and Evil itself. The poets who associated with Octavian's childhood friend Maecenas, worked on his imaginative rewritings of history.

Horace composed a memorable and-although it was well written-the poem did not have even one accurate statement in it! Virgil, who was the greatest poet of the age, wrote the most complete verse of what all of this was about, in his great national epic of Rome's beginnings, the Aeneid. In this epic, Julius Caesar's ancestor, Aeneas, has Octavian prophetically engraved on his shield at the head of tota Italia, all Italy. The nova or comet that had shone so brightly in the night sky for a week after Julius Caesar's assassination shines above Octavian as he sets out to put the corrupt and craven East in its place:

High up on the poop [he] is leading
The Italians into battle, the Senate and People with him,
His home gods and the great gods: two flames shoot up from his helmet
In jubilant light, and his father's star dawns over its crest.

The image is a marble bust of Octavian at a very young age. I do hope to post the next segment soon. I need to think of a new series name! The "intermission" is over now-if it indeed could ever have been considered one. I am glad I had some of this saved to drafts already. I can't do this near as much as I would like but it helps enormously when I can because of my back and lousy typing. The rest of this week until Monday starts again might be a bit of a mess depending on what happens, but I don't want to say what will or won't get done- as when I do I am often wrong! Please hope and pray if you want for a positive result for me with my disability hearing on the 17th-Thursday. I may not even know the answer for another 3 to 5 months-but my case will be "decided" Thursday whatever happens. The extra time is because there are not enough staff to type up decisions made-like a whole four people for the whole of Maricopa County-maybe even the whole state-forgot which. Thanks again to Jon and anyone else who has commented here or reads this blog-I appreciate it so very much-and hope to keep going with this blog as best I can in the future!

Intermezzo Part Four

However, fate or history-are they one and the same? had something else in mind. Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a young aristocrat on Octavian's staff, and yet another member of the male sex said to be "by no means insensible to Cleopatra's charms," warned her that Octavian was about to leave Egypt and that she and her children were to be sent away within three days. For Cleopatra this signaled the end of the road. She arranged for an asp-the Egyptian cobra-to be smuggled in to her in a basket of figs. Cleopatra then dismissed all of her attendants, except for two faithful ladies-in-waiting, and closed the doors to the mausoleum.

There are different versions of what happened next but the end result was the same-she died. One version has her saying "So here it is," and removing the figs to reveal the snake, and holding out her arm to be bitten. Another has her provoking the asp to anger with a golden spindle until it jumped out of a jar and bit her. She was 39. Plutarch tells us that she was discovered "lying dead upon a golden couch dressed in her royal robes. Of her two women, Iras lay dying at her feet, while Charmion, already tottering and scarcely able to hold up her head, was adjusting the crown which encircled her mistress's brow."

Now we come to the hard part-trying to decide how much of this romantically tragic ending is true? The reason being is that propaganda and some things not considered by historians and commentators. Maybe the queen's leaving the stage was in Octavian's interest? Executing a woman was not fashionable in Rome, and Cleopatra's appearance at his triumph in Rome might not have been the glittering prize it would first seem to be.

Octavian could well have remembered how Cleopatra's half-sister, Arsinoe, had won the onlookers sympathy when led in chains in one of Julius Caesar's triumphs. Could it not have been much to Octavian's advantage to have Cleopatra kill herself? Here is one scenario: When Cleopatra didn't show any tendencies toward suicide, Dolabella, a man probably half the queen's age and far from being the type of trustworthy and loyal servant that the aforementioned Iras and Charmion were, was instructed to put a "bug" in Cleopatra's ear and leak his employer's travel plans in the hope that this would push her over the edge-and it did.

As for the exact way Cleopatra exited this life it is best to agree with Dio's judgment that "no one knows clearly in what way she perished." First of all the story of the asp in a basket of figs is problematic. The typical size of such a reptile would be eight feet long-a bit large for a basket of figs and one would assume very difficult to handle! Secondly, a single bite by an asp is not necessarily fatal, and even when it is, as much as two hours can pass before the victim of the bite perishes.

We can suppose that Octavian arranged to have Cleopatra murdered, and had his propaganda machine crank out the suicide story. The problem with this theory is that there is absolutely no evidence for it. We can only judge from the facts and aftermath of the queen's death. A second look has shown us that it might have been much to Octavian's advantage to have the queen out of the way-somehow-as she would probably not have been the centerpiece of any triumph he would hold in Rome.

Octavian certainly showed no hesitation whatsoever in have the boys Caesarion and Antyllus caught and executed. Sadly, the boys' last big celebration-their coming of age ceremony was also their death sentence, for it made them as qualified for blame as culpable adults. The younger children, the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus, were spared. Some historians apparently have questions about whether the youngest-Ptolemy Philadelphus- survived the journey to Rome. After being in Octavian's triumph, they joined a large group of children being cared for by Octavian's sister-the kind and maternal Octavia.

When Cleopatra Selene had grown up, she married the scholarly King Juba of Numidia, by whom she had a son and a daughter. In all likelihood, she took her brothers with her to North Africa. History tells us nothing more about them and we can suppose that they led intentionally quiet lives-doing all they could to avoid Rome's dangerous and unfair spotlight.

Octavian was somewhat different from many Romans-he enjoyed being a tourist but didn't loot expensive and beautiful objects. He only took one item, a single agate cup, away from the palace of the Ptolemies. He visited some of the sights in Alexandria, which would have been exquisite and brilliant in white limestone and marble. The most important of the sites to Octavian especially was the tomb of Alexander the Great, which stood at the crossroads of the city's two main avenues. Alexander had died in 323 BC. His embalmed body was placed in a gold and crystal coffin and was the new city's most sacred monument. Today, not a trace of the corpse or the building that housed it, the Soma, remains, although it very well could have stood on the site of today's Mosque of the Prophet Daniel.

Octavian was now the same age-33-as Alexander when he died. He was a great devotee of the conquering Macedonian. Octavian wanted to see the mummy and honor it; so it was temporarily removed from its coffin and burial chamber and displayed to the public.

The image is just an example of some Roman coinage. I almost got all the way caught up tonight-and just couldn't quite make it to the end. I will now need some time to get some article-sized information written. If tonight turns out to be another night of insomnia, I might even be able to work a bit on it this eve/am-but I would really like to sleep for once! I may be offline tomorrow-but do hope to be back soon. Again I appreciate the wonderful and insightful comments so much from Jon and others who have commented!