SPQR + Religion Flashcards

quotes for essays

1
Q

Senate - Augustus - respect

A

Respect:
- Majesty restored to the senate (VP 2.89)
- ‘paid off the debts of a senator friend’ Macrobius (2.4.23) (c.f. Tacitus 2.37)

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2
Q

Senate - Augustus - sycophancy

A

Sycophancy
- Gave the senate the weaker provinces, kept the stronger provinces ‘under his authority’ - 2nd settlement
- Senate voted him to be ‘tribune for life’ and princeps senatus - able to bring any matter before the senate first (controlling agenda) (CD 53.32-3)

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3
Q

Equestrian (noble)- Augustus - sycophancy

A

Sycophancy
- ‘the rest of the nobility found a cheerful acceptance of slavery the smoothest road to wealth and office’ (Tacitus 1.2)

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4
Q

Equestrian - Augustus - criticism

A

Criticism
- Augustus cross examined every knight on his personal affairs (Suet 39)
- punished those with ‘scandalous’ lives (39)

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5
Q

Plebs - Augustus - popular

A

Popular
- ‘they compelled him, as it seems, to accept autocratic powers’ (CD 53.11)
(Or ‘the dictatorship was offered to me by both senate and people’ – Aug.RG.5)

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6
Q

Plebs - Augustus - restoration

A

Republic restoration
- ‘I transferred the republic from my own control to the will of the senate and the Roman people’ (Aug RG 34)
- ‘Restored the rights and laws to the people’ (Aureus (28BC))

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7
Q

Plebs - Augustus - principate

A

Principate
- ‘the power of both people and senate passed entirely into the hands of Augustus’ CD

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8
Q

Senate - Tiberius - respect

A
  • Suetonius 30 – ‘gave the appearance of restoring popular liberties by seeing that the senate and the magistrates enjoyed their former dignity and authority’
  • Suetonius 30- ‘referred all public business, however important or unimportant, to the senators.’
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9
Q

Senate - Tiberius - sycophancy

A

Sycophancy
- ‘they threw themselves at his feet imploring him to change his mind’ (Suet 24) - to the point they lost their patience that he would not accept to be princeps
- Tacitus 3.65 – ‘The greatest figures had to protect their positions by subserviency; and [all] competed with each other’s offensively sycophantic proposals’.

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10
Q

Senate - Tiberius - cruelty

A

Cruelty
- ‘asked the Senate to choose 20 of the most prominent members.. Of these, barely two or three survived’ (Suet 50)

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11
Q

Senate - Tiberius - challenge

A

Challenge
- Senators and society treated Sejanus as the emperor, had only contempt for Tiberius (CD 58.4)

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12
Q

Equestrian - Tiberius - cruelty

A

Cruelty
- ‘her father, a distinguished knight, and her brother a former praetor, saw condemnation ahead and killed themselves.’ (Of a family with links to Pompey and had divine lineage) (Tac 6.18)

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13
Q

Soldiers - Tiberius

A

Army
- Army in Germany refused to acknowledge him since they didn’t chose him (Suetonius 25)
- Soldiers ‘wanted a new leader, a new order of things, and a new republic.’ (VP 2.125) (c.f. Tac 1.35 - ready to put Germanicus in place if he so wanted)

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14
Q

Plebs - Tiberius - positive actions

A

Positive
- reorganised the defective grain supply and the slave barracks (Suet 8)
- Velleius Paterculus 2.129 – ‘How often did he honour the people with Largesses ‘ 2.30 –‘What public buildings did he construct’ (unreliable)

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15
Q

SPQR - Tiberius - cruelty

A

Cruelty
- ‘treason charges became so commonplace that they…cost the lives of more Roman citizens than any civil war.’ (Seneca Younger On benefits 3.26) (exaggeration)

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16
Q

Senate - Caligula

A

Cruelty
- ‘he put to death great numbers of them on the strength of [the letters containing charges of maiestas’ [after he had purportedly destroyed them] (CD 59.4)
- ‘Being anxious that one particular senator should be torn in pieces… hand him over for lynching to the rest of the senate’ (Suet 28)
- especially hated the senate (Joe 19.1)

17
Q

Senate+People - Caligula - sycophancy

A

Sycophancy
- ‘the senate and a mob of people…immediately and unanimously conferred absolute power upon him’

18
Q

Equestrian - Caligula - cruelty

A

Cruelty
- He ‘had ten thousand devices against such of the equestrian order…they were at once slain and their wealth plundered’ (Joe 19.1)
- ‘Many men of decent family were branded…sent down the mines…thrown to wild beasts…sawn in half and not necessarily for major offences’ (Suet 27)

19
Q

Plebs - Caligula - sycophant

A

Sycophant
- ‘slave to the plaudits of the multitude’ (Joe 202)
- Allowed elections by the people and plebs, gave ‘a great number of gifts…delighting the rabble’ (CD 59.9)

20
Q

Plebs - Caligula - Positive

A

Coin showing tax remission with a freed slaves cap (pileus) (minted 3x) Suetonius 16.3 and Tacitus Annals 1.78.2, 2.42.4 show other tax breaks – with Tacitus showing that it was used to subdue protest over taxation

21
Q

Plebs - Caligula - Hated

A

Hated
- ‘Now he was spat upon… His statues and his images were dragged from their pedestals, for the people in particular remembered the distress they had endured.’ (CD 59.30)

22
Q

Senate - Claudius - kind

A

Kind
- ‘abolished the charge of maiestas’, pardoned those who had called for democracy, even gave them ‘honour and offices’ (Joe 60.3)

23
Q

Senate - Claudius - respectful

A

Respectful
-‘consuls came down from their seats to speak with him. He got up and walked forward to meet them’ (CD 60.6)
- Claudius reserved seats for senators in the circus, and still allowed them to sit anywhere (CD 60.7)

24
Q

Senate - Claudius - cruel

A

Cruel
- Executed 35 senators and 300 equites flippantly. ‘Executed his father in law Appius Silanus, the two Julias, the daughter of Drusus and the daughter of Germanicus, all on uncertain charges.’ (Suet 29)

25
Q

Senate - Claudius - demeaning

A

Demeaning
- Allowing a Gallic tribe, the Aedui to become senators (Tac 11.25) (also on bronze inscription in Lugdunum)

26
Q

Equestrian - Claudius cruel and unequal

A

Cruel
- Forced equestrians who had performed under Gaius’ rule to perform in order to censure them for their ‘past conduct’ (CD 60.7)
Unequal
- As censor, kept a young reprobate, a notorious seducer of married women and girls, but banned some who left Italy without permission (Suet 16)

27
Q

Plebs - Claudius - positive/reasonable

A

Good
-‘if [Claudius] became emperor he would protect them from civil wars’ (Joe 227)
- ‘did not expel the Jews’ (CD 60.6), but heavily restricted their ability to meet and eventually expels them in 49AD (c.f. Tacitus)

28
Q

Plebs - Claudius - popular

A

Popular
- Crowds demanded imperial rule from Claudius specifically (Suet 10)

29
Q

Soldiers - Claudius - reliant

A
  • Praetorians chose Claudius (Joe 168) - best for them to stay influential
  • Rewards them with ‘15,000 sesterces’ annually (Suet 10)
30
Q

Revival/strengthening - religion under Augustus

A
  • ‘Augustus showed great respect towards all ancient and long-established foreign rites, but despised the rest’ (Suet 93)
  • respect for priests, made more and gave them more privileges (Suet 31)
  • Held many religious positions, ‘I have been pontifex maximus, augur, a member of the fifteen commissioners for performing sacred rites, one of the seven for sacred feasts, an arval brother, a sodalis Titius, a fetial priest’ (RG 7)
31
Q

Revival/strengthening under Tiberius

A
  • ‘He abolished foreign cults at Rome’ ‘banished all astrologers[except those who abandoned] that art’ (Suet 36)
  • ‘he consecrated the temples, ruined by age or fire, the restoration of which had been undertaken by Augustus.’
32
Q

Revival/restoration under Claudius

A

-‘returned to the cities the statues which Gaius had summoned from them’ (CD 60.6)
-‘Claudius not only revived obsolescent traditions but invented new ones’ (Suet 22)
- ‘he expelled [the Jews] from the city’ (Suet 25)
- ‘he never admitted a priest…without first taking a personal oath that he thought him worthy’(Suet 22)

33
Q

Imperial Cult under Augustus

A
  • ‘did not prevent the building of a temple at Pergamum to himself and the City of Rome’ (Tac 4.37)
  • ‘renamed the month of Sextilius ‘August’ (Suet 31)
  • ‘temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus by the union of all the Celtic people’ (Strabo 4.3.2)
  • People of Narbonne ‘bound themselves to worship his divinity for ever’ (Inscription on the altar to the nomen of Augustus (12-13BC))
34
Q

Imperial Cult under Tiberius

A
  • ‘he vetoed all bills for the dedication of temples and priests to his divinity’ (Suet 26)
  • ‘he forbade such offerings to be made to any human being’ ‘he forbade the consideration of any measure which proposed honours for himself’ (CD 58.8)
  • shall sacrifice a bull on behalf of the safety of our rulers and gods and the eternal continuance of their rule’ Details 8 day civic festival.. Tib. Responds ‘i myself am satisfied with more moderate honours suitable for men’ (Inscription at Gytheion)
  • Allows for a temple to Augustus in Spain, ‘precedent set for all provinces’ (Tac 1.78)
35
Q

Imperial Cult under Caligula

A
  • ‘actually built in Rome itself one temple of his own’ (CD 59.28)
  • ‘asserted his own divinity’ (Joe 19.1)
  • ‘pretend that he was Jupiter…pose as Neptune…impersonated Hercules, Bacchus, Apollo…often taking the role of Juno, Diana, or Venus…might seem really to resemble them’ (CD 59.26)
  • ‘he established a shrine to his own godhead, with priests…a life size golden image’ (Suet 22)
  • ‘the most revered or artistically famous statues of the gods, including that of Jupiter at Olympia…have their heads replaced by his own’ (Suet 22)
36
Q

Other Religion - Augustus - control

A

Augustus using it a method of control
- ‘Augustus collected all the copies of Greek and Latin prophetic verse…and burned more than two thousand. He kept only the Sybilline Books, and edited even these’ (Suet 31)

37
Q

Other religion - Tiberius - not caring

A

Tiberius not caring
- ‘He lacked any deep regard for the gods or religious scruples’ (Suet 69)
- ‘After the death of Augustus he showed equal respect for the gods and for his adoptive father’s memory’ (Suet 70)

38
Q

Other religion - Claudius - devout/superstitious

A

Claudius being superstitious
- ‘if a bird of evil omen perched on the Capitol, Claudius would go..as pontifex maximus, order labourers and slaves to withdraw’ (Suet 22)