It should be specially observed that the Princeps did not possess consular power, as is sometimes erroneously stated. Occasionally it was decreed to him temporarily for a special purpose, but it did not belong to him as Princeps.
While the Emperor avoided the names rex and dictator, he distinguished himself from ordinary citizens by a peculiar arrangement of his personal name. (1) All the Emperors from Augustus to Hadrian, with three exceptions, dropped the name of their gens.(2) They never designated the tribe to which they belonged. (3) Most of them adopted the title Imperator as a praenomen. This designation had been first used as a constant title by Caesar the Dictator, being placed immediately after his name and preceding all other titles. Thus it might have been regarded as a second cognomen; and the younger Caesar claimed it as part of his father's name, and, to make this clear, adopted it as a praenomen instead of his own praenomen Gaius.
All the agnate descendants of the dictator bore the name Caesar, which was a cognomen of the Julian gens. But when the house of the Julian Caesars came to an end on the death of the Emperor Gaius, his successor Claudius assumed the cognomen Caesar, and this example was followed by subsequent dynasties. Thus Caesar came to be a conventional cognomen of the Emperor and his house.
Augustus was a title of honor; it did not, like imperator or consul, imply an office, and hence an Emperor's wife could receive the title Augusta. But it was not, like Caesar, hereditary; it had to be conferred by the senate or people. At the same time it was distinctly a cognomen; and it has clung specially to him who first bore it as a personal name. It was always assumed by his successors along with the actual power; and it seemed to express that, while the various parts of the Emperor's power were in their nature collegial, there could yet only be one Emperor.
In much later times Augustus and Caesar were distinguished as greater and lesser titles. The Emperor bore the name Augustus; while he whom the Emperor chose to succeed to the throne was a Caesar. Moreover, there might be more than one Augustus, and more than one Caesar.
We must carefully distinguish two different uses of Imperator in the titulary style of the Emperors. (1) As a designation of the proconsular imperium, it was placed, as we have already seen, before the name as a praenomen. (2) Imp. with a number, standing among the titles after the name, meant that he had been greeted as imperator so many times by the soldiers in consequence of victories. Yet the two uses were regarded as closely connected. For the investiture with the proconsular imperium was regarded as the first acquisition of the name Imperator, so that on the first victory after his accession the Emperor designated himself as imperator.
The order of names in the imperial style is worthy of notice. In the case of the early Emperors, Caesar comes after the name; for example, Imp. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus. With Vespasian begins a new style, in which Caesar generally precedes the propel cognomen; thus, Imp. Caesar Vespasianus Augustus. Augustus retained its place at the end
The Princeps had the right of appearing publicly at all seasons in the purple-edged toga of a magistrate. On the occasion of solemn festivals, he used to wear the purple gold-broidered toga, which was worn by victorious generals in triumphal procession; and although in Italy he did not possess the imperium militiae, he had the right to wear the purple paludamentum (purpura) of the Imperator even in Rome, but this was a privilege of which early Emperors seldom availed themselves. The distinctive headdress of the Princeps was a laurel wreath. As Imperator he wore the sword; but the scepter only in triumphal processions. Both in the senate-house and elsewhere, he sat on a sella curulis;and he was attended by twelve lictors, like the other chief magistrates. His safety was provided for by a bodyguard, generally consisting of German soldiers; and one cohort of the praetorian guards was constantly stationed at his palace.
Under the Republic the formula of public oaths was couched in the name of Jupiter and the Penates of the Roman people. Caesar the Dictator added his own genius, and this fashion was followed under the Principate. The oath was framed in the name of Jupiter, those Emperors who had become divine after death, the genius of the reigning Emperor, and the Penates. The Princeps also had the privilege of being included in the vota or prayers for the welfare of the state, which it was customary to offer up in the first month of every year. And it was regarded as treason to encroach on either of these privileges—to swear by the genius, or offer public vows for the safety, of any other than the Emperor. After the battle of Actium, the birthday of Augustus had been elevated to a public feast; and hence it became the custom to celebrate publicly the birthday of every reigning Emperor, and also the day of his accession.
Like other men of distinction, the Princeps gave morning receptions, which, however, differed from those of private persons, in that every person who wished, provided he was of sufficiently high rank, was admitted. It was part of the policy of Augustus to treat men of his own rank as peers, and in social intercourse to behave merely as an aristocrat among fellow-aristocrats. There was formally no such thing as court etiquette, and the Emperor’s Palatium was merely a private house. But the political difference which set the Princeps above all his fellow-citizens could not fall to have its social consequences, however much Augustus wished to seem a peer among peers. Those persons, whom Augustus admitted to the honor of his friendship—and they belonged chiefly to the senatorial, in a few cases to the equestrian ranks—came to form a distinct, though not officially recognized, body under the name amici Caesaris, "friends of Caesar". From this circle he selected his comites or "companions", the retinue which accompanied him when he travelled in the provinces. The amici were expected to attend the morning receptions, and were greeted with a kiss. They wore a ring with the image of the Emperor. They were received in some order of precedence; and gradually they came to be divided into classes, according to their intimacy with the Emperor; and admission into the circle of amici became a formal act. To lose the position of a “friend” of Caesar entailed consequences equivalent to exile. Invitations to dine with the Emperor were also probably limited to the amici. Thus at the very beginning of the Principate there were the elements of the elaborate system of court ceremonial which was developed in later centuries. The position of the comites was more definitely marked out. They received allowances, and had special quarters in the camp. They had also precedence over provincial governors. The distinction of having been a comes of Caesar is often mentioned on inscriptions among official honors.
It was not lawful under the free commonwealth to set up in any public place the image of a living man. The image of the Princeps might be set up anywhere; and there were two cases in which it was obligatory that it should appear, namely in military shrines, along with the eagle and the standards, and on coins. Sometimes it appeared on the standards themselves. In regard to coinage, Augustus held fast the royal privilege which had been accorded by the senate to Caesar (in 44 B.C.); and the right of being represented on the money of the realm was exclusively reserved for the Emperor, or those members of the imperial house on whom he might choose to confer it.
Chapter III.
The Joint Government of the Princeps and Senate
SECT. I. — POLITICAL POSITION OF THE PRINCEPS — THE PEOPLE
In the last chapter it was shown how Augustus established the Principate, and we became acquainted with the constitutional theory of this new phase of the Roman republic, which was really a disguised monarchy. We also learned the titles and insignia which were the outward marks of the ambiguous position of the monarch who affected to be a private citizen. It remains now to examine more closely his political powers, and see how the government of the state was divided between the Princeps and the senate according to the system of Augustus.
The proconsular imperium of the Emperor differed from that of the ordinary proconsul in three ways. Firstly, the entire army stood under the direct command of the Emperor. Secondly, his Imperium was not limited (except in the case of Augustus himself) to a special period. It was given for life. And thirdly, it not only extended directly over a far larger space—the Emperor’s ‘province’ including a multitude of important provinces—than that of an ordinary proconsul, but being maius or superior