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Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects PDF

227 Pages·1984·10.742 MB·English
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CAESAR AUGUSTUS SEVEN ASPECTS EDITED BY FERGUS MILLAR AND ERICH SEGAL CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Nicosia Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press, New York © The President and Fellows of Wolf son College, Oxford 1934 First published 1984 Reprinted 1985 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Caesar, Augustus. 1. Rome - Politics, and government -30 B.C. - 68A.D. -Addresses, essays, lectures, etc. I. Millar, Fergus II. Segal, Erich III. Syme, Sir Ronald 93/09 DG277 ISBN 0-19-814858-5 Pbk Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Caesar Augustus: seven aspects. Papers presented at a colloquium held at Wolf son College, Oxford. Includes index. I. Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 63 B.C. — 14 A.D. Congresses. 2. Rome - History - Augustus, 30 B.C. - 14 A.D. - Congresses. 3. Roman emperors - Biography - Congresses. 4. Syme, Ronald, Sir, 1903- I. Millar, Fergus. II. Segal, Erich, 1937- DG279.C33 1984 937.07'0924 83-20976 ISBN 0-19-814858-5 (pbk.) Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn PREFACE These seven essays were originally delivered as lectures at a colloquium organised by Wolfson College, Oxford, in April 1983, to honour the eightieth birthday of Sir Ronald Syme O.M. Hence the individual speakers and their titles were selected by the editors with a view to reflecting some of the areas of concern which inform The Roman Revolution. The volume is not, however, intended as a Festschrift, a literary sub-species of which Sir Ronald is known to disap- prove. Neither the editors nor the authors have set out to express either adherence to, or distance from, Sir Ronald's views. Nor has there been any attempt to eliminate differences of interpretation among the seven contributors. The only specific task assigned to each of the authors was to express his own views on a particular aspect of the complex phenomenon of Caesar Augustus. We are deeply grateful to Sir Henry Fisher, President of Wolfson College, and to the staff of the College for their enthusiastic assistance in making the colloquium itself a memorable occasion. We would also like to thank the Oxford University Press for its support, and Mrs Elaine Matthews for preparing the index. F.M. E.S. London May 1983 CONTENTS List of Abbreviations ix I. The Res Gestae and Augustus' Public Image ZVI YAVETZ 1 II. State and Subject: The Impact of Monarchy FERGUS MILLAR 37 III. The Historians and Augustus EMILIO GABBA 61 IV. Augustus, Government, and the Propertied Classes CLAUDE NICOLET 89 V. Senatorial Self-Representation: Developments in the Augustan Period WERNER ECK 129 VI. Augustus and the East: The Problem of the Succession GLEN BOWERSOCK 169 VII.. Augustus and the Poets: 'Caesar qui cogère posset' JASPER GRIFFIN 189 Index 219 ABBREVIATIONS AE Année Épigraphique AEA Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia AJA American Journal of Archaeology AJPh American Journal ofPhilology AM Ν American Museum Notes ANR W H. Temporini (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt BCH Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies BJ Bonnerjahrbücher BMC Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum CAH Cambridge Ancient History CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinorum CQ Classical Quarterly CP Classical Philology CRAI Comptes-rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions DP T. Mommsen, Le droit pénal romain EJ V. Ehrenberg, A. H. M.Jones, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Augustus and Tiberius3 FGrH F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker FIRA2 S. Riccobono, Fontes luris Romani Anteiustiniani2 HRR H. Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae HSCPh Harvard Studies in Classical Philology IG Inscriptiones Graecae IGR Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes IGUR L. Moretti, Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae I. K. Eph. . Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien, Ephesos I. K. Kyme Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien, Kyme ILLRP A. Degrassi, Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae ILS H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae IRT J. M. Reynolds, J. Ward-Perkins, Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania JdAI Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts x ABBREVIATIONS JO AI Jahresheße des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts JRS Journal of Roman Studies MAAR Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome MEFRA Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome, Antiquité MH Museum Helveticum NSc Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità OGIS W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae PIR2 Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome POxy Oxyrhynchus Papyri REG Revue des Études Grecques REL Revue des Études Latines RE Pauly-Wissowa, Realenzyklopaedie der Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft RHD Revue historique de droit français et étranger RhMus Rheinisches Museum RPAA Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia SCO Studi Classici e Orientali SDHI Studia et Documenta Historiae et luris SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum SIG3 W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum3 TAPA Transactions of the American Philological Association ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik ZSS Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftungfur Rechtsgeschichte I. THE RES GESTAE AND AUGUSTUS' PUBLIC IMAGE ZVI YAVETZ In introducing the theme of Caesar Augustus and our image of him, I shall concentrate on three questions: the first concerns Augustus' Autobiography, the second the Res Gestae and its intended audience, and the third the effect of Augustus' self- representation on history and historians·. I A reconstruction of the Autobiography from the surviving fragments1 is a vain labour.2 Nor is a meticulous and rigid scrutiny of the authenticity of each of the fragments going to be any more fruitful. An East German scholar has recently attempted to distinguish between fragments quoted in direct and in indirect speech, between those quoted verbatim and those summarizing the content of a passage, only to reach the not very surprising conclusion that the work cannot be re- covered: 'Im Endergebnis muss die Autobiographie des Kaiser Augustus als verloren gelten.'3 However, even if one admits that most quotations which survive in ancient authors do not originate directly from the Autobiography, but rather from some obscure intermediate source (e.g. an anthology of pro- digio), and even if .the authenticity of some passages is to be completely rejected,4 there is still enough room to establish two basic facts: that the Autobiography in thirteen books, which was dedicated to Maecenas and Agrippa,5 was discon- tinued after the Cantabrian War;6 and that conscious efforts, which are easily detectable, were made by Augustus to project a public image different from that which prevailed in his enemies' propaganda. First, August defended himself against all those who attacked the ignobility of his family;7 he admitted that his father was the 2 THE RES CESTAE AND first of his line to become a senator, but emphasized the fact that his equestrian family was old, wealthy, and respectable.8 Secondly, from an uncertain passage in Tertullian, combined with some passages in Suetonius, Plutarch, and Nicolaus of Damascus,9 it is clear that Augustus intended to tell his readers that his great talents had already been recognized in early childhood. His adoption by his great-uncle was neither an accident nor due to the manipulations of his mother. Fate had great things in store for him. The following pages of the Autobiography must have been dedicated to explaining his behaviour towards some of his previous allies (e.g. Cicero and Antonius), behaviour which could have been condemned not only as inconsistent but even as treacherous. Augustus probably stressed the fact that the end was to avenge his father's murder and to save the Republic.10 In order to carry out these salient tasks all means had been justifiable. To survive five civil wars, he had had to be firm and ruthless, but he must have found out to his distress that he had acquired a reputation as a cruel, vengeful, selfish, and treacherous youth. ' ' This image had to be changed. It was not easy to alter public opinion, and he could not become a 'clementissirnus' overnight; but slanders had to be refuted immediately. One example may suffice. His enemies had spread the story that once Octavian had suspected a praetor, Quintus Gallius, of having approached him with a sword concealed under his robe. Octavian had Gallius tortured like a slave, and ordered his execution, first tearing out the man's eyes with his own hands. Augustus must have felt that the story could not be ignored altogether, and a new version had to be produced. True, Gallius had been suspected of conspiracy, but he had been properly tried and sentenced to banishment; unfortu- nately, however, he had lost his life by some tragic accident on his way to exile.12 There was another set of rumours against which Augustus had to defend himself; these concerned his behaviour during the decisive battles of the civil war. Rumour had it that Octavian had behaved in a cowardly fashion on the battlefield, and that the palm for the victory should have been bestowed upon his aides. Indeed, at Philippi Octavian had been unable to AUGUSTUS' PUBLIC IMAGE 3 participate actively in the preparations for the encounter because of sickness. This could be forgiven; but how to explain away the fact that he disappeared from his litter? The excuse was that one of his friends had been visited by a heavenly vision, telling Octavian to arise from his bed and depart from the camp.13 Credulous and superstitious people might have swallowed this.14 The conservative and old-fashioned Octavian himself did not disdain popular beliefs.15 Elsewhere in his Autobiography Augustus admitted that on the day on which he was almost overthrown by a mutiny in the army he put his left boot on the wrong foot;16 and in a letter to Tiberius he wrote that he dreaded the unlucky sound 'Nonis' ('y°u are not going'); and therefore never took up important business on the Nones.17 It is plausible to assume that in some other parts of the Autobiography Augustus was at pains to explain his not very distinguished performance at Actium.18 But he had no diffi- culty in boasting of his previous brilliant successes against the Illyrian tribes: he had brought back those who revolted and compelled them to pay tribute; he had subjugated others who had been independent from the beginning; he had also con- quered the tribes that inhabited the summit of the Alps, bar- barous and warlike peoples who had often plundered Italy.19 Without going into too much detail, the apologetic, defen- sive, and occasionally polemical undercurrents are obvious in the surviving fragments of the Autobiography.20 His enemies vilified his performance in war - he represented himself as a man of virtus. His enemies depicted him as cruel and savage- he emphasized his dementia. His enemies charged him with defiance of legal procedures - he paraded his iustitia. His enemies condemned his treacherous behaviour towards former friends, benefactors, and even members of his own family - Augustus stressed his loyalty. There were, of course, excep- tions. He had been unable to tolerate Scribonia, and hoped that decent people would eventually understand and justify his behaviour when finally 'wearied by the perversity of her charac- ter': 'pertaesus . . . morum perversitatem eius'.21 But why did he stop writing his Autobiography after the Cantabrian War? Did he consider the second closing of the gates of Janus a suitable date? Perhaps, but so was the first

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