SKIDMORE HI 363 - From Triumvirate to Principate

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SECTION H FROM TRIUMVIRATE TO PRINCIPATE This section contains sources relating to the establishment of the principate, the term used to describe Augustus' position asprinceps. Full consideration of the period of the triumvirate, November 43 BC to 33/32 BC, lies outside the scope of this book. Nonetheless, since putting 'Octavian' behind him was a crucial part of the 'Settlement of 28/27 BC' some sources dating to the triumviral period are included. The sources are arranged by the chronology of the events described. Triumvir (HI-HS) H1 Augustus' signet ring Initially the deified Augustus used a signet ring engraved with a sphinx. He had found two such rings in his mother's collection, so alike as to be indistinguishable. During the civil wars, when he was away from Rome, his friends used one of them to sign letters and decrees which the exigencies of the moment required to be issued in his name. His correspondents used to make a nice little quip to the effect that "the sphinx is riddling again." Later Augustus sought to avoid the sphinx's unpleasant associations by signing documents with an image of Alexander the Great. [Pliny. Natural Hisrory 37.101 Sphinx: the mythical riddler appears also on coins from Pergamum under the legend 'AUGUSTUS'. Suetonius (Augustus 50) adds that later still, the seal with Alexander the Great was replaced by one with his own head. Augustus deliberately associated himself with Alexander the Great: see Index 'Alexander'. H2 Caesar's heir, aureus, 43 BC Obv.: Bare head of Octavian right, bearded. C CAESAR COS PONT AVG (Gaius Caesar, consul, pontifex, augur) Rev.: Head of Julius Caesar, wearing laurel wreath, right. C CAESAR DICT PERP PONT MAX (Gaius Caesar, perpetual dictator, pontifex maximus) [RRC 49012, BMCRR Gaul 741 This coin is dated to late 43 BC, when at the age of nineteen Octavian became consul for the first time on 19 August, after his march on Rome in July. It is one of his earliest portraits. 'he twin busts of Octavian and Julius Caesar and the shared name emphasise the close connection between them on which Octavian was trying to capitalise. He wears a beard as a sign of mouming for his adoptive father. His name on the obverse reveals the important point that in the 40s he styled himself Gaius Caesar. He was well aware of the talismanic value of this adopted name in securing the support he needed to succeed to Julius Caesar's inheritance. I33 Octavian's delight at a comet appearing after Julius Caesar's asassination His own words are evidence of his delight: "Coincident with the very days in which I was celebrating my games," he wrote, "a comet shone for a whole week in the northern sky.Triumvirate to Principate 181 It rose about an hour before sunset, shining brightly and clearly visible in all lands. The common people believed it was a sign that Caesar's spirit had been received into the conclave of the immortal gods, and as a symbol of that event the likeness of a star was added to the bust of Caesar, which we shortly after dedicated in the Forum". So much for his public sentiments. Privately, however, he had a different interpretation and rejoiced to think that the birth of the comet referred to himself and that he had been born under its protection. Certainly, to tell the truth, it did appear to have a salutary effect everywhere. [Pliny, Natural History, 2.941 Presumably Pliny quotes here from Augustus' (lost) autobiography. The games (between 20 and 30 July, 44 BC) were in honour of Venus Genetrir (Venus the Ancestress, that is the claimed ancestress of the Julian family). After Julius Caesar's official deification in 42 BC Octavian used 'Divi filius' (son of the Deified), as part of his official title (see e.g HI8 and note on Section B -31 BC). H4 The battle of Mutina in Ovid, Fasti On the next day, the fourteenth, mariner, head for the harbour 625 And safety. Storms from the west are coming, mixed with hail. Yet come what may, this is the self-same day that Caesar struck The armies of Mutina with a hail-storm of his own -his soldiery. [Ovid, Fasti 4.6254281 This passage and (H5) from Ovid's poem on the Roman calendar mark the anniversary on 14 April of the battle of Mutina (43 BC), the occasion when the 19-year old future. Augustus won his first military victory (see also Propertius' poem G1527), and the official proclamation two days later of his title of imperator, 'Commander'. Both dates are marked on the Augustan calendar at Cumae (C40). H5 Octavian hailed as imperator in Ovid, Fasti This fifteenth day is that which Cytherean Venus once commanded To speed more quickly, hurrying her horses on a looser rein downhill To sunset, that the more quickly should the next day dawn and bring 675 To young Augustus victory and the accolade of imperator. [Ovid, Fasti 4.6734761 H6 Law and morality during the Civil Wars Gnaeus Pompeius was then elected consul for the third time with a programme for the reform of public morality, but the remedies proved worse than the disease they were designed to eliminate. He turned out to be both author and subverter of his own legislation, losing by force of arms what by force of arms he had sought to impose. This was immediately followed by twenty years of constant civil war with the total breakdown of law and order. The most abominable crimes went unpunished; the most admirable deeds proved a recipe for disaster. At long last, in his sixth consulship 128 BC], Caesar Augustus felt his position to be sufficiently secure to revoke the laws he had introduced as Triumvir and to introduce the new constitution which we now enjoy in peace under the principate. But the result was that our slavery intensified. We lived under constant surveillance by informers, for whom the rewards available under the legislation of Papius and Poppaeus proved a great incentive. As a result, anyone who failed to win the privileges of parenthood found his property deemed vacant and forfeit to the state in its capacity as the parent of all its citizens. The corrosive effects of this evil and its disastrous consequences for so many estates came to afflict the life of the whole community, whether in Rome, Italy, or elsewhere. [Tacitus, Annals 3.281182 Triumvirate to Principate Tacitus is led to digress on law and morality in relating a proposal to amend legislation on family matters, Annals 3.25: see S9. Gnaeus Pompey: Pompey the Great was consul for the third time in 52 Bc: he legislated against bribery


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SKIDMORE HI 363 - From Triumvirate to Principate

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