A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 18

*The Lares and the Genius Augusti.* Among the divinities whose cult was thus quickened into life were the Lares, the guardian deities of the crossways, whose worship was especially practiced by the common folk.

Between the years 12 and 7 B. C. each of the two hundred and sixty-five _vici_ into which the city of Rome was then divided was provided with a shrine dedicated to the Lares and the Genius of Augustus, that is, the divine spirit which watched over his fortunes. This worship was conducted by a committee of masters, annually elected by the inhabitants of these quarters. In this way the city plebs while not worshipping the princeps himself, were yet encouraged to look upon him as their protector and guardian.

*The imperial cult.* A new religion which was to be symbolic of the unity of the empire and the loyalty of the provincials was the cult of Rome and Augustus, commonly known as the imperial cult. The worship of the G.o.ddess Roma, the personification of the Roman state, had sprung up voluntarily in the cities of Greece and Asia after 197 B. C. when the power of Rome began to supplant the authority of the h.e.l.lenistic monarchs for whom deification by their subjects was the theoretical basis of their autocratic power.

This voluntary worship had also been accorded to individual Romans, as Flamininus, Sulla, Caesar and Mark Antony. As early as 29 B. C. the cities of Pergamon in Asia and Nicomedia in Bithynia erected temples dedicated to Roma and Augustus, and established quinquennial religious festivals called _Romaia Sebasta_. Other cities followed their example and before the death of Augustus each province in the Orient had at least one altar dedicated to Roma and the princeps. From the East the imperial cult was officially transplanted to the West.

In the year 12 B. C. an altar of Rome and Augustus was established at the junction of the rivers Rhone and Saone, opposite the town of Lugdunum (modern Lyons), the administrative center of Transalpine Gaul apart from the Narbonese province. Here the peoples of Gaul were to unite in the outward manifestation of their loyalty to Roman rule. A similar altar was erected at what is now Cologne in the land of the Ubii between 9 B. C. and 9 A. D. Both in the East and in the West the maintenance of the imperial cult was imposed upon provincial councils, composed of representatives of the munic.i.p.al or tribal units in which each province was divided.

The imperial cult in the provinces was thus the expression of the absolute authority of Rome and Augustus over the subjects of Rome, but for that very reason Augustus could not admit its development on Italian soil; for to do so would be to deny his claim to be a Roman magistrate, deriving his authority from the Roman people, among whom he was the chief citizen, and would stamp his government as monarchical and autocratic. Therefore, although the poet Horace, voicing the public sentiment, in 27 B. C.

acclaimed him as the new Mercury, and both munic.i.p.alities and individuals in southern Italy spontaneously established his worship, this movement received no official encouragement and never became important. However, from the year 12 B. C. onwards, there were established religious colleges of _Augustales_, or priestly officers called _Sevri Augustales_, in many Italian munic.i.p.alities for the celebration of the cult of Augustus either alone or in conjunction with some other divinity such as Mercury or Hercules. As these Augustales were almost exclusively drawn from the cla.s.s of freedmen who were no longer admitted to full Roman citizenship, Augustus avoided receiving worship from the latter, while a.s.suring himself of the loyalty of the _liberti_ and gratifying their pride by encouraging a munic.i.p.al office to which they were eligible.

*The leges Juliae and the lex Papia Poppaea.* However, Augustus was not content to trust solely to the moral effects of religious exercises and resorted to legislative action to check the degenerate tendencies of his age. The Julian laws of 19 and 18 B. C. aimed at the restoration of the soundness of family life, the encouragement of marriage, and the discouragement of childlessness, by placing disabilities upon unmarried and childless persons. These measures provoked great opposition, but Augustus was in earnest and supplemented his earlier laws by the _lex Papia Poppaea_ of 9 A. D. which gave precedence to fathers over less fortunate persons among the candidates for public office. A commentary on the effectiveness of his earlier laws was the fact that both the consuls who sponsored this later one were themselves unmarried. To prevent the Italian element among the citizens from being swamped by a continuous influx of liberated slaves, Augustus placed restrictions upon the right of manumission and refused freedmen the public rights of Roman citizens, although granting these to their sons. By example as well as by precept he sought to hold in check the luxurious tendencies of the age, and in his own household to furnish a model of ancient Roman simplicity.

*The Secular Games, 17 B. C.* To publicly inaugurate the new era in the life of the state begun under his auspices, Augustus celebrated the festival of the Secular Games in the year 17 B. C., for which Horace wrote the inaugural ode, his _Carmen Saeculare_.

V. THE PROVINCES AND THE FRONTIERS

*The Dyarchy.* The division of the provinces between Augustus and the Senate in 27 B. C. had the effect of creating an administrative dyarchy, or joint rule of two independent authorities, for the empire. However, the original allotment of the provinces underwent some modification subsequent to 27 B. C. In 23 B. C., Augustus transferred to the Senate Narbonese Gaul where the rapid progress of colonization had made it "more a part of Italy than a province." In exchange he took over Illyric.u.m, where the progress of the Roman arms had been interrupted by the outbreak of the war with Antony and where the Romans were confronted by warlike and restless peoples of the hinterland. Somewhat later Cilicia also became an imperial province and in 6 A. D. Sardinia was placed under an imperial procurator because of disturbances on the island. Southern Greece, previously dependent upon the province of Macedon, was placed under the government of the Senate as the province of Achaea. New administrative districts organized by Augustus out of territories conquered by his generals remained under his control.

*Survey and census of the empire.* The main expense of the military and civil establishment of the empire was defrayed by the revenues from the provinces. As a basis for an accurate estimate of their resources for purposes of taxation and recruitment Augustus caused a comprehensive census of the population and an evaluation of property to be taken in each newly organized district, and provided for a systematic revision of the census in all the imperial provinces. In addition a general chart of the empire was compiled on the basis of an extended survey conducted under the direction of Agrippa.

*The foreign policy of Augustus.* As we have seen, Augustus since he was commander-in-chief of the Roman armies and in charge of the administration of the most important border provinces, was entrusted by the senate with the direction of the foreign relations of the state. Here his aims conformed to the general conservatism of his policies and were directed towards securing a defensible frontier for the empire which should protect the peace that he had established within its borders. His military operations were conducted with due regard to the man power and the financial resources of the state. To secure the defensible frontier at which he aimed it was necessary for Augustus to incorporate in the empire a number of border peoples whose independence was a menace to the peace of the provinces and to establish some client kingdoms as buffer states between Roman territory and otherwise dangerous neighbors.

*The settlement in Spain.* The northwestern corner of the Spanish peninsula was still occupied by independent peoples, the Cantabri, Astures and the Callaeci, who hara.s.sed with their forays the pacified inhabitants of the Roman provinces. To secure peace in this quarter Augustus determined upon the complete subjugation of these peoples. From 27 to 24 B. C. he was present in Spain and between these years his lieutenants Antistius, Carisius and Agrippa conducted campaigns against them in their mountain fastness, and, overcoming their desperate resistance, settled them in the valleys and secured their territory by founding colonies of veterans. A subsequent revolt in 2019 was crushed by Marcus Agrippa.

*The pacification of the Alps, 258 B. C.* A similar problem was presented by the Alpine peoples, who not only made devastating raids into northern Italy but also in the west occupied the pa.s.ses which offered the most direct routes between Italy and Transalpine Gaul. In 26 B. C. occurred a revolt of the Sala.s.si, in the neighborhood of the Little St. Bernard, who had been subdued eight years before. In the following year they were completely subjugated, and those who escaped slaughter were sold into slavery. In 16 B. C. the district of Noric.u.m, i. e., modern Tyrol and Salzburg, was occupied by Publius Silius Nerva, in consequence of a raid of the Noricans into the Istrian peninsula. In 15 B. C., the step-son of Augustus, Nero Claudius Drusus, crossed the Brenner Pa.s.s and forced his way over the Vorarlberg range to Lake Constance, subduing the Raeti on his way. On the sh.o.r.es of Lake Constance he met his elder brother, Tiberius Claudius Nero, who had marched eastwards from Gaul. Together they defeated and subjugated the Vindelici. On the north the Danube was now the Roman frontier. A number of isolated campaigns completed the subjugation of the remaining Alpine peoples by 8 B. C. Raetia and Noric.u.m were organized as procuratorial provinces, while the smaller Alpine districts were placed under imperial prefects.

*Gaul and Germany.* Caesar had left the land of Gallia Comata crushed but still unsettled and not fully incorporated in the empire. It fell to the lot of Augustus to complete its organization, which was accomplished between 27 and 13 B. C. Subsequent to the transfer of the Narbonese province to the Senate _Gallia comata_ was divided into three districts; Aquitania, Lugdunensis and Belgica, which, however, during the lifetime of Augustus, formed an administrative unity, under one governor with subordinate _legati_ in each district. The colony of Lugdunum was the seat of the administration, as well as of the imperial cult. No attempt was made to latinize the three Gauls by the founding of Roman colonies; but they remained divided into sixty-four separate peoples, called _civitates_, with a tribal organization under the control of a native n.o.bility. As early as 27 B. C. Augustus took a census in Gaul, and on this basis fixed its tax obligations. The rich lands of Gaul were as important a source of imperial revenue as its vigorous population was of recruits for the Roman auxiliary forces.

But the Gauls were restive under their new burdens and were in addition liable to be stirred up by the Germanic tribes who came from across the Rhine. An invading horde of Sugambri in 16 B. C. defeated a Roman army and, upon a renewed inroad by the same people in 12 B. C., Augustus determined to cross the Rhine and secure the frontier of Gaul by the subjugation of the Germans to the north. The Germans, like the Gauls at the time of the Roman conquest, were divided into a number of independent tribes usually at enmity with one another and hence incapable of forming a lasting combination against a common foe. Individually they were powerful and courageous, but their military efficiency was impaired by their lack of unity and discipline.

Drusus, conqueror of the Raeti, was appointed to command the Roman army of invasion. He first secured the Rhine frontier by the construction of a line of fortresses stretching from Vindonissa (near Basle) to Castra Vetera (near Xanten), the latter of which, with Mogontiac.u.m (Mainz) were his chief bases. Then, crossing the river, in four campaigns (129 B. C.) he overran and subjugated the territory between the Rhine and the Elbe.

His operations were greatly aided by his fleet, for which he constructed a ca.n.a.l from the Rhine to the Zuider Zee, and which facilitated the conquest of the coast peoples, among them the Batavi, who became firm Roman allies.

On the return march from the Elbe in 9 B. C., Drusus was fatally injured by a fall from his horse. His brother Tiberius succeeded him in command and strengthened the Roman hold on the transrhenene conquests. Drusus was buried in Rome, whither Tiberius escorted his corpse on foot, and was honored with the name Germanicus.

*Illyric.u.m and Thrace.* To the east of the Adriatic the Roman provinces of Illyric.u.m and Macedonia were subject to constant incursions of the Pannonians, Getae (or Dacians) and Bastarnae, peoples settled in the middle and lower Danube valley. Marcus Licinius Cra.s.sus, Governor of Macedonia, in 30 and 29 B. C. defeated the Getae and Bastarnae, crossed the Balkans, carried the Roman arms to the Danube and subdued the Moesi to the south of that river. However, it required a considerable time before the various Thracian tribes were finally subdued and a client kingdom under the Thracian prince Cotys was interposed between Macedonia and the lower Danube. Meantime, the Pannonians had been conquered in a number of hard fought campaigns which were brought to a successful conclusion by Tiberius (129 B. C.) who made the Drave the Roman boundary. The contemporaneous conquest of Pannonia and of Germany between the Rhine and the Elbe was one of the greatest feats of Roman arms and reveals the army of the empire at the height of its discipline and organization. In 13 B. C., during a lull in these frontier struggles, the Senate voted the erection of an altar to the peace of Augustus (the _ara pacis Augustae_), in grateful recognition of his maintenance of peace within the empire.

*The revolt of Illyric.u.m and Germany.* For several years following the death of Drusus no further conquests were attempted until 4 A. D., when Tiberius was again appointed to command the army of the Rhine. After a.s.suring himself of the allegiance of the Germans by a demonstration as far as the Elbe and by the establishment of fortified posts, he prepared to complete the northern boundary by the conquest of the kingdom of the Marcomanni, in modern Bohemia, between the Elbe and the Danube. In 6 A. D.

Tiberius was on the point of advancing northward from the Danube, in cooperation with Gaius Saturninus, who was to move eastwards from the Rhine, when a revolt broke out in Illyric.u.m which forced the abandonment of the undertaking and the conclusion of peace with Marbod, the king of the Marcomanni. The revolt, in which both Pannonians and Dalmatians joined, was caused by the severity of the Roman exactions, especially the levies for the army. For a moment Italy trembled in fear of an invasion; in the raising of new legions even freedmen were called into service. But the arrival of reinforcements from other provinces enabled Tiberius after three years of ruthless warfare to utterly crush the desperate resistance of the rebels (9 A. D.). The organization of Pannonia as a separate province followed the reestablishment of peace.

Until the last year of the war in Illyric.u.m the Germanic tribes had remained quiet under Roman overlordship. But in 9 A. D., provoked by the attempt of the new Roman commander, Publius Quinctilius Varus, to subject them to stricter control, they united to free themselves from foreign rule. In the coalition the Cherusci and Chatti were the chief peoples, and Arminius, a young chieftain of the Cherusci, was its leading spirit. Varus and his army of three legions were surprised on the march in the Teutoberg Forest and completely annihilated. Rome was in panic over the news, but the Germans did not follow up their initial success. Tiberius was again sent to the post of danger and vindicated the honor of Rome by two successful expeditions across the Rhine. But no attempt was made to recover permanently the lost ground. The frontier of the Elbe was given up for that of the Rhine with momentous consequences for the future of the empire and of Europe. The coast peoples, however, remained Roman allies and a narrow strip of territory was held on the right bank of the Rhine.

The reason lay in the weakness of the Roman military organization, caused by the strain of the Illyrian revolt and the difficulty of finding recruits for the Roman legions among the Italians. The cry of Augustus, "Quinctilius Varus, give back my legions," gives the clue to his abandonment of Germany.

*The eastern frontier.* In the East alone was Rome confronted by a power which was in any way a match for her military strength and which had disastrously defeated two Roman invasions. The conquest of this, the Parthian kingdom, appeared to Augustus to offer no compensation comparable to the exertions it would entail and therefore he determined to rest content with such a rea.s.sertion of Roman supremacy in the Near East as would wipe out the shame of the defeats of Cra.s.sus and Antony and guarantee Roman territory from Parthian attack. He was prepared to accept the natural frontier of the Euphrates as the eastern boundary of Roman territory. Between the Roman provinces in Asia Minor and the upper Euphrates lay a number of client kingdoms, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, and Commagene. At the death of Amyntas, king of Galatia, in 25 B. C., his kingdom was made into a province, but the others were left under their native dynasts. Across the Euphrates lay Armenia, a buffer state between the Roman possessions and Parthia, which was of strategic importance because it commanded the military routes between Asia Minor and the heart of the Parthian country. To establish a protectorate over Armenia was therefore the ambition of both Rome and Parthia. During the presence of Augustus in the East (2219 B. C.), Tiberius placed a Roman nominee on the Armenian throne, and received from the Parthian king, Phraates IV, the Roman standards and captives in Parthian hands, a success which earned Augustus the salutation of _imperator_ from his troops. Later Phraates sent four of his sons as hostages to Rome. But the Roman protectorate over Armenia was by no means permanent; its supporters had soon to give way to the Parthian party. Gaius Caesar between 1 B. C. and 2 A. D. restored Roman influence, but again the Parthians got the upper hand and held it until 9 A. D., when Phraates was overthrown and was succeeded by one of his sons whom Augustus sent from Rome at the request of the Parthians.

*Judaea and Arabia.* To the south of the Roman province of Syria lay the kingdom of Judaea, ruled by Herod until his death in 4 B. C., when it was divided among his sons. Subsequently Judaea proper was made a province administered by a Roman procurator. To the east of the Dead Sea was the kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs, who controlled the caravan routes of the Arabian peninsula and who were firm Roman allies. With their aid a Roman army under Aelius Gallus in 25 B. C. sought to penetrate into the rich spice land of Arabia Felix, but suffered such losses in its march across the desert that it was forced to return without effecting a conquest. At the same time Gaius Petronius defeated the Ethiopians under Queen Candace and secured the southern frontier of Egypt. Through the ports of Egypt on the Red Sea a brisk trade developed with India, from which distant land emba.s.sies on various occasions came to Augustus. Further west in Africa, Augustus added the kingdom of Numidia to the province of Africa, and transferred its ruler, Juba II, whose wife was Cleopatra, daughter of Antony the triumvir, to the kingdom of Mauretania (25 B. C.).

The conquests of Augustus established in their essential features the future boundaries of the Roman Empire. At his death he left it as a maxim of state for his successor to abstain from further expansion.

VI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF ROME

*The problem of police.* One of the great problems which had confronted the Roman government from the time of the Gracchi was the policing of Rome and the suppression of mob violence. To a certain extent the establishment of the praetorian guard served to overawe the city mob, although only three of its cohorts were at first stationed in the city. As a supplement to the praetorians Augustus organized three urban cohorts, each originally 1500 strong, who ranked between the legionaries and praetorians. Between 12 and 7 B. C. the city was divided for administrative purposes into fourteen regions, subdivided into 265 _vici_ or wards. Each region was put in charge of a tribune or aedile. A force of six hundred slaves under the two curule aediles was formed as a fire brigade. But as these proved ineffective in 6 A. D. Augustus created a corps of _vigiles_ to serve as a fire brigade and night watch. This corps consisted of seven cohorts, one for every two regions, and was under the command of an equestrian prefect of the watch (_praefectus vigilum_).

*The Annona.* Another vital problem was the provision of an adequate supply of grain for the city. A famine in 22 B. C. produced so serious a situation that the Senate was forced to call upon Augustus to a.s.sume the responsibility for this branch of the administration. At first he tried to meet the situation through the appointment of curators of senatorial rank, but after 6 A. D. he created the office of prefect of the grain supply, filled by an equestrian appointee of the princeps. His duty was to see that there was an adequate supply of grain on hand for the market at a reasonable price and in addition to make the monthly distribution of free grain to the city plebs. The number of recipients of this benefit was fixed at 200,000.

In this way Augustus was forced to take over one of the spheres of the government which he had intended should remain under the direction of the Senate and to witness himself the first step towards the breakdown of the administrative dyarchy which he had created.

VII. THE PROBLEM OF THE SUCCESSION

*The policy of Augustus.* In theory the position of the princeps was that of a magistrate who derived his powers from the Senate and the Roman people, and hence the choice of his successor legally lay in their hands.

However, Augustus realized that to leave the field open to rival candidates would inevitably lead to a recrudescence of civil war.

Therefore he determined to designate his own successor and to make the latter's appointment a matter beyond dispute. Furthermore, his own career as the son and heir of Julius Caesar warned him that this heir to the princ.i.p.ate must be found within his own household, and his precarious health was a constant reminder that he could not await the approach of old age before settling this problem. And so, from the early years of his office, he arranged the matrimonial alliances of his kinsfolk in the interests of the state without regard to their personal preferences, to the end that in the event of his decease there would be a member of the Julian house prepared to a.s.sume his laborious task. Yet the unexpected length of his life caused Augustus to outlive many of those whom he from time to time looked upon as the heirs to his position in the state.

*Marcus Marcellus and Agrippa.* Augustus had one daughter Julia, by his second wife Scribonia. He had no sons, but Livia Drusilla, whom he took as his third wife in 36 B. C., brought him two stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus.

Yet not one of these but his nephew, Marcus Marcellus, was his first choice for a successor. Marcellus received Julia as his wife in 25 B. C., the next year at the age of nineteen he was admitted to the Senate, and in 23 B. C., as aedile, he won the favor of the populace by his magnificent public shows. When Marcellus died in 23 B. C., Augustus turned to his loyal adherent Agrippa, to whom Julia was now wedded. In 18 B. C. Agrippa received proconsular _imperium_ and the _tribunicia potestas_ for five years, powers that were reconferred with those of Augustus in 13 B. C.

*Tiberius.* But in the next year Agrippa died, and Augustus, regarding his eldest stepson Tiberius, the conqueror of Noric.u.m, as the one best qualified to succeed himself, forced him to divorce the wife to whom he was devoted and to marry Julia. At that time he was given the important Illyrian command and in 6 B. C. the tribunician authority was granted him for a five year term. But Tiberius, recognizing that he was soon to be set aside for the two elder sons of Agrippa and Julia, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, whom Augustus had adopted and taken into his own house, and being disgusted with the flagrant unfaithfulness of Julia, retired into private life at Rhodes, thereby incurring the deep enmity of his stepfather.

*Gaius and Lucius Caesar.* Gaius and Lucius Caesar a.s.sumed the garb of manhood (the _toga virilis_) at the age of fifteen in 5 and 2 B. C., respectively. To celebrate each occasion Augustus held the consulship, and placed them at the head of the equestrian order with the t.i.tle _principes iuventutis_. They were exempted from the limitations of the _cursus honorum_ so that each might hold the consulate in his twentieth year. In 1 A. D. Gaius was sent to the East with proconsular imperium to settle fresh trouble in Armenia. There in the siege of a petty fortress he received a wound from which he died in 4 A. D. Two years previously Lucius had fallen a victim to fever while on his way to Spain. In the meantime Augustus had experienced another blow in his discovery of the scandalous conduct of Julia. Her guilt was the more unpardonable in view of the efforts of her father to restore the moral tone of society. She was banished to the island rock of Pandataria, her companions in crime were punished, the most with banishment, one with death on a charge of treason (1 B. C.). Her elder daughter, also called Julia, later met the same fate for a like offence.

*Tiberius.* At the death of Gaius Caesar, Augustus turned once more to Tiberius, who had been permitted to leave Rhodes at the intercession of Livia. In 4 A. D. he was adopted by Augustus and received the _tribunicia potestas_ for ten years. In 13 A. D. his tribunician power was renewed and he was made the colleague of Augustus in the _imperium_. Tiberius himself had been obliged to adopt his nephew Germanicus, the son of Drusus, who married Agrippina, the younger daughter of Agrippa and Julia. a.s.sociation in authority and adoption where necessary had become the means of designating the successor in the princ.i.p.ate.

VIII. AUGUSTUS AS A STATESMAN

*The death of Augustus.* In 14 A. D. Augustus held a census of the Roman citizens in the empire. They numbered 4,937,000, an increase of 826,000 since 28 B. C. In the same year he set up in Rome an inscription recording his exploits and the sums which he had expended in the interests of the state. A copy of this has been found inscribed on the walls of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, and hence is known as the Monument of Ancyra. On 19 August, 14 A. D., Augustus died at Nola in Campania, at the age of seventy-six.

*An estimate of his statesmanship.* Opinions have differed and probably always will differ upon the question whether or not Augustus sought to establish a disguised form of monarchical government. Still, in his favor stands the fact that, although when a young man confronted or allied with rivals who sought his destruction he seized power by illegal means, after the fate of the state was in his hands and he had reestablished an orderly form of government, he conscientiously restricted himself to the use of the powers which were legally conferred upon him. So ably did he conciliate public opinion that the few conspiracies formed against his life and power had no serious backing and const.i.tuted no real danger to himself or his system. To have effected so important a change in the const.i.tution with so little friction is proof of a statesmanship of a high order.

His princ.i.p.ate marks the beginning of a new epoch in Roman history and determined the course of the subsequent political development of the empire. And the system he inaugurated finds its greatest justification in the era of the _pax Romana_ which it ushered in.

*The weakness of his system.* Yet it must be admitted that this system contained two innate weaknesses. Firstly, it was built up around the personality of Augustus, who could trust himself not to abuse his great power, and secondly, the princeps, as commander-in-chief of the Roman army, was immeasurably more powerful than the second partner in the administration, the Senate, and able to a.s.sert his will against all opposition. Now, as has well been observed, the working of the princ.i.p.ate depended upon the cooperation of the Senate and the self-restraint of the emperors, consequently, when the former proved incapable and the latter abused their power, the inevitable consequence was an autocracy. That Augustus realized this himself towards the end of his life is highly probable, yet as the one who brought order out of chaos and gave peace to an exhausted world his name will always be one of the greatest in the history of Rome or indeed of the human race.

CHAPTER XVII