pp. 162 - 168 (7)
p. 165 Assassination
The Age of Augustus (31 B.C.E.-14 C.E.)

In 27 B.C.E., Octavian proclaimed the "restoration of the Republic." He understood that only traditional republi­can forms would satisfy the senatorial aristocracy. At the same time, Octavian was aware that the Republic could not be fully restored and managed to arrive at a compro­mise that worked at least during his lifetime. In 27 B.C.E., the senate awarded him the title of Augustus—"the revered one." He preferred the title princeps, meaning chief citizen or first among equals. The system of rule that Augustus established is sometimes called the principate, conveying the idea of a constitutional monarch as co-ruler with the senate. But while Augustus worked to maintain this appearance, in reality, power was heavily weighted in favor of the princeps.

In the new constitutional order that Augustus created, the basic governmental structure consisted of a princeps (Augustus) and an aristocratic senate. Augustus retained the senate as the chief deliberative body of the Roman state. Its decrees, screened in advance by the princeps, now had the effect of law. The title of princeps—first cit­izen of the state—carried no power in itself, but Augustus also held the office of consul each year until 23 B.C.E., when he assumed the power of a tribune, which enabled him to propose laws and veto any item of public business. By observing proper legal forms for his power, Augustus proved to be highly popular. As the Roman historian Tacitus commented, "Indeed, he attracted everybody's goodwill by the enjoyable gift of peace. . . . Opposition did not exist." No doubt, the ending of the civil wars had greatly bolstered Augustus's popularity. At the same time, his continuing control of the army, while making possible the Roman peace, was a crucial source of his power.

Augustus was especially eager to stabilize the military and administrative structures of the Roman Empire. The peace of the empire depended on the army and so did the security of the princeps. While primarily responsible for guarding the frontiers of the empire, the army was also used to maintain domestic order within the provinces. Augustus maintained a standing army of twenty-eight legions or about 150,000 men. Roman legionaries were re­cruited only from the citizenry and, under Augustus, largely from Italy. Augustus also maintained a large contingent of auxiliary forces—around 130,000—enlisted from the subject peoples. Augustus was also responsible for establishing the praetorian guard. Although nomi­nally a military reserve, these "nine cohorts of elite troops," roughly 9,000 men, had the important task of guarding the person of the princeps. Eventually, the prae­torian guard would play a weighty role in making and deposing emperors.

The role of the princeps as military commander gave rise to a title by which this ruler eventually came to be known. When victorious, a military commander was acclaimed by his troops as imperator. Augustus was so acclaimed on a number of occasions. Imperator is our word emperor. Although this title was applied to Augustus and his successors, Augustus himself preferred to use the title of princeps.

Augustus inaugurated a new system for governing the provinces. Under the Republic, the senate had appointed the provincial governors. Now, certain provinces were al­lotted to the princeps, who assigned deputies known as legates to govern them. These legates were from the sen­atorial class and held office as long as the emperor chose. The senate continued to name the governors of the remaining provinces, but the authority of Augustus en­abled him to overrule the senatorial governors and estab­lish a uniform imperial policy.

    Augustus also stabilized the frontiers of the Roman Empire. He conquered the central and maritime Alps and then expanded Roman control of the Balkan penin­sula up to the Danube River. His attempt to conquer Ger­many failed when three Roman legions were massacred in 9 C.E. in the Teutoburg Forest by a coalition of Ger­man tribes. The defeat severely dampened Augustuses en­thusiasm for continued expansion in central Europe. Thereafter, the Romans were content to use the Rhine as the frontier between the Roman province of Gaul and v German tribes to the east. In fact, Augustus's difficulty had convinced him that "the empire should not be tended beyond its present frontiers." His defeats in Germany taught Augustus that Rome's power was not unlimited.

Augustan Society

Roman society in the Early Empire was characterized by a system of social stratification, inherited from the Re­public, in which Roman citizens were divided into three basic classes: the senatorial, equestrian, and lower classes. Although each class had its own functions and opportu­nities, the system was not completely rigid. There were possibilities for mobility from one group to another.

Augustus had accepted the senatorial order as a ruling class for the empire. Senators filled the chief magistracies of the Roman government, held the most important mil­itary posts, and governed the provinces. One needed to possess property worth 1,000,000 sesterces (an unskilled laborer in Rome received 3 sesterces a day; a Roman le­gionary 900 sesterces a year in pay) to belong to the senatorial order. The equestrian order was expanded under Augustus and given a share of power in the new imperial state. The equestrian order was open to all Roman citi­zens of good standing who possessed property valued at 400,000 sesterces. They, too, could now hold military and governmental offices, but the positions open to them were less important than those of the senatorial order. Those citizens not of the senatorial or equestrian or-rs belonged to the lower classes, who obviously consti­tuted the overwhelming majority of the free citizens. The diminution of the power of the Roman assemblies ended whatever political power they may have possessed earlier in the Republic. Many of these people were provided with free grain and public spectacles to keep them from creating disturbances. Nevertheless, by gaining wealth and serving as lower officers in the Roman legions, it was sometimes possible for them to advance to the equestrian order. Augustus's belief that Roman morals had been corrupted during the late Republic led him to initiate social legislation to arrest the decline. He thought that increased luxury had undermined traditional Roman fru­gality and simplicity and caused a decline in morals, evi­denced by easy divorce, a falling birthrate among the up­per classes, and lax behavior manifested in hedonistic parties and the love affairs of prominent Romans with fashionable women and elegant boys.

Through his new social legislation, Augustus hoped to restore respectability to the upper classes and reverse the declining birthrate as well. Sumptuary legislation limited expenditures for feasts. Other laws made adultery a criminal offense. In fact, Augustus's own daughter Julia was exiled for adultery. Augustus also revised the tax laws to penalize bachelors, widowers, and married per­sons who had fewer than three children. The laws were enforced, but there is little evidence that they had much effect. The Augustan Age was a lengthy one. Augustus died in 14 C.E. after dominating the Roman world for forty-five years. He had created a new order while placating those who yearned for the old by restoring and maintain­ing traditional values, a fitting combination for a leader whose favorite maxim was "make haste slowly." By the time of his death, his new order was so well established that few agitated for an alternative. Indeed, as the Ro­man historian Tacitus pointed out, "Actium had been won before the younger men were born. Even most of the older generation had come into a world of civil wars. Practically no one had ever seen truly Republican gov­ernment. . . . Political equality was a thing of the past; all eyes watched for imperial commands.' The Republic was now only a memory and, given its last century of war­fare, an unpleasant one at that. The new order was here to stay.

p. 165 - The Assassination of Julius Caesar

When it quickly became apparent that Julius Caesar had no intention of restoring the Republic as they conceived it, about sixty senators, many of them his friends or pardoned enemies, formed a conspiracy to assassinate the dictator. It was led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, who naively imagined that this act would restore the tradi­tional Republic. The conspirators set the Ides of March (March 15), 44 B.C.E. as the date for the assassination. Caesar was in the midst of preparations for a campaign in the eastern part of the empire. Although informed that there was a plot against his life, he chose to disregard the warning. This account of Caesar's death is taken from his biography by the Greek writer Plutarch.

Plutarch, Life of Caesar

Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected. For many strange prodigies and appartitions are said to have been observed shortly before this event. . . . One finds it also related by many that a soothsayer bade him [Caesar] prepare for some great danger on the Ides of March. When this day was come, Ceasar, as he went to the senate, met this soothsayer, and said to him by way of raillery, "The Ides of March are come," who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past. . . ."

    All these things might happen by chance. But the place which was destined for the scene of this murder, in which the senate met that day, was the same in which Pompey's statue stood, and was one of the edifices which Pompey had raised and dedicated with his theater to the use of the public, plainly showing that there was something of a supernatural influence which guided the action and ordered it to that particular place. Cassius, just before the act, is said to have looked toward Pompey's statue, and silently implored his assis-tance... . When Caesar entered, the senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutus's confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it, others met him, pretending to add their petitions to those of Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his brother, who was in ex­ile; and they followed him with their joint applications till he came to his seat. When he was sat down, he re­fused to comply with their requests, and upon their urg­ing him further began to reproach them severely for their importunities, when Tillius, laying hold of his robe with both his hands, pulled it down from his neck, which was the signal for the assault. Casca gave him the first cut in the neck, which was not mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of such a bold action was probably very much disturbed; Caesar immediately turned about, and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both of them at the same time cried out, he that received the blow, in Latin, "Vile Casca, what does this mean?" and he that gave it, in Greek to his brother, "Brother, help!" Upon this first onset, those who were not privy to the design were astonished, and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great that they dared not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak a word. But those who came prepared for the business enclosed him on every side, with their naked daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned he met with blows, and saw their swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was encompassed like a wild beast in the toils on every side. For it had been agreed they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves with his blood: for which reason Brutus also gave him one stab in the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest, shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out for help, but that when he saw Brutus's sword drawn, he covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether it were by chance or that he was pushed in that direction by his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompey's statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood. So that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, over the re­venge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet, and breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for they say he received three-and-twenty. And the conspirators themselves were many of them wounded by each other, whilst they all leveled their blows at the same person.