Restoration Of The Republic And Moral Reforms

Question 1

Restoration of republic and values

Answer 1

Idea of his restoration of the republic and traditional moral values

Idea of restoration key - presentation as such - texts such as

Horace’s ode implied that Rome had become corrupt, needed moral reform

Virgil’s Aeneid suggested that Augustus would be ‘he who shall bring back / the golden age’, implying him to be the restorer of such an institution

Suetonius suggests his opposition to moral and social impurity ‘native roman stock to be tainted with foreign’

Question 2

Oposition to reforms

Answer 2

Brought in laws unpopular with the upper echelons of Roman society such as his moral reforms in his ‘duty of husbands’ and law on ‘constraining adultery’ (RES GESTAE)
Senate didn’t like but also had to enforce them

Ovid praises these, comparing him to Romulus

Question 3

Religious

Answer 3

had a large involvement in religious reform,
Res Gestae: Restored 82 temples, indicating a need for these moral reforms in his eyes

Suetonius notes how he reportedly found and ‘destroyed’ ‘2000’ volumes of prophetic verse, essentially rewriting tradition for his own gain, after having attained PONTIFEX MAXIMUS in 12 BCe

Question 4

Not dictator

Answer 4

In the Res Gestae, claims that his titles never circumvented those ‘traditional’ within Rome

Velleius Paterculus notes how he ‘refused’ to accept the offer of taking dictatorship within rome multiple times