an ancestor of Romulus, the eponymous legendary founder of Rome. It was partly to celebrate this tradition that Vergil wrote his Aeneid.
Augustus: This designation meaning “the Sublime one” or “the Revered one,” associated as it was with Romulus, gave the whole carefully crafted new self-image an aura of sanctity, and hinted at Augustus’s claim to be the second founder of Rome. Augustus himself was to be deified on his death as were most of his successors. The jovial Emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79) famously quipped on his deathbed, “Oh dear, I think I’m becoming a god.” (Suetonius, Vespasian, 23.4.) The deification of the emperor became the basis of the Imperial Cult, which was eventually extended to worship of the genius (attendant spirit) of the living emperor and, especially in the Eastern provinces, of the living emperor himself as well.
Augustus’s Autobiography (Res Gestae Divi Augusti)
In his carefully crafted autobiography, Augustus managed to paint a composite picture of himself as a powerful populist leader and at the same time as the restorer of the republic in order to win the support of the plebs urbana (urban plebs) while conciliating the senatorial aristocracy at the same time. Here are a few choice extracts:
Victorious but merciful general: “I frequently waged civil and foreign wars by land and sea, and as victor I spared the lives of all citizens who sought pardon” (§3).
Recognition and modesty: “I twice celebrated a triumphal ovation and a curule triumph on three occasions, and was hailed as imperator twenty-one times, with the Senate decreeing more triumphs to me, all of which I refused” (§4.1).
Holder of Republican offices: “When I wrote this I had been consul thirteen times, and was holding tribunician power for the thirty-seventh time”(§4.4). “When offered the consulship [in 22 BCE] every year for the rest of my life, I did not accept it” (§5.3).
First Settlement: In 27 BCE, “having come to be in complete charge of everything by universal consent, I transferred the state (res publica) from my power (potestas) to the control (arbitrium) of the Roman Senate and People.” In return for this, he was named “Augustus” by the Senate. “After this time I surpassed everyone in influence (auctoritas), but had no more power (potestas) than the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy” (§34).
Dictatorship refused: “The dictatorship was offered to me by both the people and the senate both when I was present and when I was absent from Rome in [22 BCE], but I did not accept it” (§5.1). In fact, in 22 BCE, there were food riots, with the urban masses calling on Augustus to become dictator to solve the problem. That was also the first year when Augustus for the first time declined the consulship, which so worried his loyal plebs that they refused to elect a second consul that year, ostensibly keeping the vacant seat open for Augustus. This concern erupted in riots in that year and also in 21 and 19 BCE. (Dio Cassius, 54.1, 54.6, 54.10.)
Benefactor of the poor: Augustus contrasts his refusal of the dictatorship in 22 BCE with his acceptance of the task of saving the corn supply during the corn shortage in that year, which he achieved “within a few days” and “at my own expense and effort” (§5.2). Augustus proudly records his bounty to the plebs Romana, or ordinary people of the capital: 500 sestertii to each member of the plebs under Julius Caesar’s will in 44 BCE; 400 each from the spoils of war in 29 BCE; and another 400 sestertii, in 24 BCE, this time at his own expense; twelve rations of grain apiece at his own expense in 23 BCE; and 400 sestertii each for the third time in 11 BCE. The recipients of his bounty never numbered fewer than 250,000 people. But in 5 BCE, he gave 240 sestertii apiece to 520,000 members of the urban plebs. At the time of his triumph in 29 BCE, he gave 1,000 sestertii to 120,000 of his soldiers settled as coloni in Italy. And in 2 BCE, he gave 60 denarii (240 sestertii) apiece to the more than 200,000 members of the plebs then in receipt of public grain (§15).
Soldiers and veterans: Augustus paid out about 600 million sestertii for land in Italy to settle soldiers on as coloni in Italy and 260 million for provincial land. And he paid a further 400 million paid to soldiers on their retirement to their home towns (§16). Augustus founded colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, and Spain plus 28 colonies in Italy (§28).
Tribunician power: In 23 BCE, Augustus was voted the tribunician power for life together with sacrosanctity of his person, which he had for some years and was a protection traditionally accorded tribunes of the plebs (§10.1). For more on tribunician power, see under the discussion of the Republican constitution, above.
Pontifex Maximus: Augustus was offered by the people the position of Pontifex Maximus (chief priest) of the Roman civic religion, which had been held by Julius Caesar, but he makes the point of stressing that he refused to accept it until the death of Lepidus (his former colleague in the Triumvirate), whom he studiously avoids naming but accuses of having taken the opportunity of civil war to “seize” the priesthood. Augustus’s acceptance of the priesthood occurred in 12 BCE, “…with such a multitude pouring in to my election from the whole of Italy as has never been said to have occurred before” (§10.2).
Pax Augusta : “During my principate, the senate decreed three times that the Temple of Janus should be shut” to signify the attainment of peace by victory throughout the Roman Empire, which had only occurred twice before since the foundation of Rome over seven hundred years earlier (§13). Augustus’s rule did indeed usher in about two centuries of peace, which is, therefore, sometimes labelled the Pax Augusta, or more usually Pax Romana.
Public works: Augustus provides us with an impressive list of his public works, including his rebuilding of the Senate-house and his restoration of 82 temples in one year (28 BCE) together with several new temples, including one to the Divine Julius (Caesar). We also read of the repair of aqueducts, including the doubling of the supply to the Marcian aqueduct (§19–20).
Games: Augustus paid for eight gladiatorial games, three athletics displays, 27 dramatic shows and 26 beast-hunts, and a massive mock sea battle involving 3,000 men in addition to the rowers of ships involved. Above all, there were the Secular Gamesof 17 BCE, a magnificent religious festival (§22). The Roman satirist Juvenal, writing about a century after Augustus, famously remarked that the Roman populace were keenly desirous of only two things: “bread and circuses” (panem et circenses). (Juv. 10.81.) Augustus’s pandering to this desire is a mark of his populist side.
Pater Patriae : In 2 BCE “the senate, the equestrian order and the entire Roman people” gave Augustus the title Pater Patriae (Father of the Country)—the highest possible accolade that a Roman could be given.
Summary of bounty: Tacked on to his autobiography is an Appendix added after Augustus’s death summarising his bounty: 600 million denarii to the treasury, the Roman plebs, and veterans; another impressive list of temples and other public works; an incalculable outlay (impensa innumerabilis) on games, dramatic shows, hunts and the mock sea battle; donations to towns destroyed by earthquake or fire; and grants to individual friends and senators to make up their property qualification.
Did Augustus Wield Sole Power?
Constitutional position—“first settlement”: Augustus is at pains to stress the constitutional nature of his rule. He admits that he had complete power until 27 BCE but then claims to have handed back the res publica, the government of the state, to the Roman Senate and people—and, thereby, to have “restored the Republic”, whose corporate designation was Senatus Populusque Romanus (The Roman Senate and People), represented by the acronym SPQR. As mentioned above, there is no implication here of democracy. From 31 to 23 BCE, Augustus was consul, every year—the top Republican magistracy, which however it was unrepublican to hold so many times in succession. Under the so-called “first settlement” (a modern label) of 27 BCE, in return for “restoring the Republic,” Augustus was accorded the title of “Augustus” borne as a name. Then comes the mock-modest boast, the most memorable phrase in the whole autobiography: “After this time I surpassed everyone in influence (auctoritas), but had no more power (potestas) than the others who were my colleagues