Augustus Flashcards
Funny
Actium
Suet: drove Antony to kill himself … to save cleopatra for his triumph … bit to death by Asp … Antony’s oldest son by Fulvia … dragged from the statue of Julius Caesar … put him to death
Virgil: arm of Antony … and his Egyptian spouse
Res Gestae: demanded (Octavian) to command the army
Actium
Suet: at site of the battle … Temple of Apollo … decorated with the spoils
Strabo: temple of Apollo … decorated … one tenth … ships
Military Victory/peace
Res Gestae: closed the gates of the Janus Quirinus three times
Augustan Arch: Imperator Caesar, son of the deified
Denarius of Augustus 27-23 BC: ‘victorious Caesar’
Constitutional reforms
27 BC:
- Gave title Augustus (Revered One), and Princeps
-Res Gestae: Lists off a bill to allow him to redistribute the provincial governorships
- Res Gestae: Exceeded in influence … no more powers than others
- Also lists of a bill to increase Praetorian pay
- Cassius Dio: shows how sincere he was (In wanting to restore the powers)
Also civic crown, shield of virtue
23 BC:
- Imperium Proconsular Maius - given the power to control the army past the pomerium, and would never have to hand over power even though not Consul
- Tribunician powers - Res Gestae: tribunician powers for as long as I lived
- Tacitus: expression of ‘the supremacy of the position’
- Velleius Paterculus: Force … restored to the laws … majesty … to the senate
Restoration of the republic
Suet: After being promoted as Pontifex maximus ‘destroyed’ ‘2000’ lines of prophetic verse to rewrite history
Virgil: He who shall bring back the golden age
Res Gestae: restored ‘82 temples’ and never ‘circumvented’ any of the Roman ‘traditions’
Religious reforms
Res Gestae: ‘restored … 82 temples’
Tacitus: ‘he did not stand in their way’ when people of Pergamum decided that they wanted to build a temple dedicated to him
Tacitus: there were no honours left for the gods now
Administrative changes
Tacitus: emperor … widened the sacred precincts of the city
Suetonius: Divided city … districts … allot … annual magistrates
Suet: Some laws … abjourned … new ones he created | Velleius Paterculus: old laws amended … new ones he made … general good
Building programmes
Suet: found the city of bricks … left it clothed in marble
Res Gestae: restored … 82 temples … theatre of Pompey
Strabo: whilst so plentiful is the flow of water from aqueducts
Relations with senate and people
Plebs
Tacitus: seduced the soldiery with gifts, the people with corn
Res Gestae: Reinforced the treasury with my own funds
Res Gestae: In my own name gave a show of gladiators
Equestrians
Suet: nominated others from the equestrian order
Senate
Rocky, but not always negative
Tacitus: how many remained who had seen the republic?
Tacitus: Forbidden senators … entering Egypt (without his express permission)
Suetonius: resolved to every six months choose a new council
Challenges
Pliny: gives an expansive list of challenges, yet is the only one to do so to a large extent
Velleius Paterculus: plot by Lepidus he ‘unearthed swiftly’
Suetonius: ‘number of conspiracies … younger Lepidus’
Seneca mentions plot that was dealt with mercy
Succession
Suet: Twice … thought seriously of restoring the republic
appointed successors through marriage with Julia his daughter
Aureus of Augustus and Agrippa: displayed the two together before Agrippa died
Julius and Lucius: also commemorated on coinage: lives drawn short in 4 and 2 AD respectively ‘by their stepmother’ according to Tacitus (i.e. Livia)
Tiberius: Velleius Paterculus: showed early promise of becoming a great man - did succeed in 14 AD, though was after a lot of reluctance
Tacitus: ‘appointed Germanicus … forced Tiberius to adopt him’
2nd const set
23 BC:
- Imperium Proconsular Maius - given the power to control the army past the pomerium, and would never have to hand over power even though not Consul
- Tribunician powers - Res Gestae: tribunician powers for as long as I lived
- Tacitus: expression of ‘the supremacy of the position’
- Velleius Paterculus: Force … restored to the laws … majesty … to the senate
