Augustus to Nero (Routledge Revivals)

A Sourcebook on Roman History, 31 BC-AD 68

David Braund

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138781894
• eBook ISBN: 9781317669579
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The years from the battle of Actium to the death of Nero stand at the very heart of Roman history. Yet the sources of this key period, particularly the inscriptions, papyri and coins, are not readily accessible. Crucial new discoveries remain buried in learned periodicals, and now that the study of the ancient world is widespread among those without Latin and Greek, the lack of translations is proving a serious handicap.

Augustus to Nero, first published in 1985, contains numerous texts not only for students of traditional political history, but also of those interested in social and economic history. An introductory essay establishes a broad methodological framework within which each text may be understood. The focus throughout is on less well-known literary evidence: for example, the significant poetry of Crinagoras and Calpurnius Siculus. Inaccessible sources are here collected and translated: brief notes are supplied to help the reader.

1	THE IMPERIAL FAMILY

[1] EJ 1

See P.A. Brunt and J.M. Moore (eds.), Res Gestae Divi Augusti: the Achievements of the Divine Augustus (1967)

Appended is a copy of the achievements of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the world to the power of the Roman people, and of the expenditures which he made for the state and the Roman people, as engraved on two bronze columns set up at Rome.

1. At the age of nineteen I obtained an army at my personal initiative and personal expense, through which I restored the state, which was oppressed by the domination of a faction, to liberty. (2) On that account the Senate, with honorific decrees, took me into its order in the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius,¹ awarding me a consular place to express my opinion, and gave me imperium. (3) It instructed me, as propraetor, together with the consuls, to ensure that the state suffered no harm. (4) And in the same year the people appointed me consul, since both consuls had fallen in battle, and triumvir for the organization of the state.

2. Those who butchered my father I drove into exile, exacting vengeance for their crime through lawful courts; and subsequently, when they made war upon the state, I defeated them twice in pitched battle.

3. I often waged war by land and sea, wars civil and foreign, all over the world, and in my victory I spared all those citizens who sought pardon. (2) Foreign peoples who might safely be pardoned I preferred to preserve rather than destroy. (3) About 500,000 Roman citizens served under oath to me. Of these I settled in colonies or sent back to their municipalities rather more than 300,000 on completion of their service and to them all I assigned lands or gave money as a reward for their military service. (4) I captured 600 ships, quite apart from those which were smaller than triremes.

4. I have triumphed twice in ovations and three times in curule triumphs and have been called imperator 21 times; although the Senate decreed more triumphs for me, I declined them all. The laurel from my fasces I deposited on the Capitol, having fulfilled all the vows I had sworn in each war. (2) For the successful achievements by land and sea of myself or my legates acting under my auspices, the Senate decreed on 55 occasions that thanksgivings be made to the immortal gods. And the days during which thanksgivings were made by decree of the Senate amounted to 890. (3) In my triumphs nine kings or children of kings were led before my chariot. (4) I have been consul 13 times at the time of writing and am in my 37th. year of tribunician power.²

5. The dictatorship, offered to me in my absence and presence by the people and Senate, I refused in the consulship of Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius.³ (2) I did not decline, during a great poverty of grain, the supervision of the corn supply, which I administered in such a way that within a few days I freed the whole community through my expenditure and care from the fear and danger that was pressing. (3) The annual and perpetual consulship that was then also offered to me I refused.

6. In the consulship of Marcus Vinicius and Quintus Lucretius and then in that of Publius Lentulus and Gnaeus Lentulus and thirdly in that of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero,⁴ when the Senate and people of Rome agreed that I be appointed sole curator of laws and manners with the greatest power, I accepted no magistracy offered in contravention of ancestral tradition. (2) What the Senate then wanted me to do I did through my tribunician power, in which power I demanded and received a colleague five times, of my own volition.

7. I was triumvir for the organization of the state for ten consecutive years. (2) I have been princeps senatus, up to the day of writing, for 40 years. (3) I have been pontifex maximus, augur, one of the 15 for the performance of sacred rites, one of the 7 for feasts, Arval brother, Titian sodalis and fetial.

8. I increased the number of patricians in my fifth consulship by order of the Senate and people.⁵ (2) I revised the roll of the Senate three times and in my sixth consulship⁶ I performed a census of the people with Marcus Agrippa as my colleague. I carried out a lustrum after 42 years, in which 4,063,000 Roman citizens were registered. (3) Then for a second time with consular imperium I carried out a lustrum alone in the consulship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius,⁷ in which 4,233,000 Roman citizens were registered. (4) And for a third time with consular imperium I carried out a lustrum, my colleague being Tiberius Caesar, my son, in the consulship of Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius,⁸ in which lustrum 4,937,000 Roman citizens were registered. (5) Through new laws introduced on my initiative I restored many exemplary practices of our ancestors which were falling out of use now in our age and I have myself handed down to our descendants examples to be imitated in many areas.

9. The Senate decreed that vows be made for my health by the consuls and priests every fifth year. Due to these vows they have often staged games in my lifetime, sometimes the four greatest priestly colleges, sometimes the consuls. (2) Further, privately and by municipality, all citizens have unanimously and continuously prayed for my health at all the couches.

10. My name has been included by decree of the Senate in the Salian hymn and it has been laid down in law that I be sacrosanct in perpetuity and in my lifetime possess tribunician power. (2) So that I would not become pontifex maximus in place of my living colleague, I refused that priesthood when the people offered it to me because my father had held it. Some years later, when the incumbent, who had assumed the office at a time of civil unrest, had died, when a multitude of unprecedented size gathered from all Italy at my election, I accepted that priesthood in the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius.⁹

11. The Senate consecrated the altar of Fortuna Redux in front of the temples of Honour and Virtue at the Porta Capena in honour of my return; it instructed the priests and Vestal virgins to perform an annual sacrifice at this altar on the day on which, in the consulship of Quintus Lucretius and Marcus Vinicius, I returned to the city; and it named that day the Augustalia from my cognomen.¹⁰

12. By the authority of the Senate some of the praetors and tribunes of the plebs, together with the consul Quintus Lucretius and the leading men, were sent to Campania to meet me. (2) When I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul after successful achievements in those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quinctilius,¹¹ the Senate decreed that the altar of Augustan Peace should be consecrated in the Campus Martius in honour of my return; it instructed the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins to perform an annual sacrifice at that altar.

13. Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors had closed when peace had been won through victories throughout the empire of the Roman people by land and sea, the Senate decided to close three times in my principate, though history states that from the foundation of the city to my birth it was closed a total of two times.

14. My sons, whom Fortune snatched away from me in their prime, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the Senate and people of Rome, in my honour, designated consuls at the age of 14, so that they would enter the Senate after five years; and the Senate decreed that they should take part in public affairs from the day on which they were introduced into the Forum. (2) And each of them was presented with silver shields and spears and called princeps of the youth by the equites.

15. To the Roman plebs I paid 300 sesterces per man under my father’s will and in my own name, as consul for the fifth time,¹² and I gave 400 sesterces from war-booty; and for a second time, in my tenth consulship,¹³ I paid out from my patrimony 400 sesterces per man in largesse; and in my eleventh consulship,¹⁴ I distributed twelve rations of grain purchased at my personal expense; and in my twelfth year of tribunician power,¹⁵ I gave 400 sesterces per man for the third time. My largesses were never distributed among less than 250,000. (2) In...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Bibliographical Note
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. 1–293: The Imperial Family
• 2. 294–351: The Imperial Household
• 3. 352–422: Senators
• 4. 423–474: Equites
• 5. 475–534: The Armed Forces
• 6. 535–601: The Imperial Administration
• 7. 602–693: Kings, Cities and Towns
• 8. 694–849: Society and Economy
• Index of Personal Names
• Index of Sources