Reading the Roman Revolution 22: Princeps

If Chapter XXI of Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution was about minimizing Octavian’s military achievements, Chapter XXII was about deflating any claims to restoring the Roman Republic. Syme also had no patience for efforts to compare Augustus to Romulus, Caesar, Pompey the Great, or even Cicero despite admitting “the political doctrine of Cicero was couched in phrases so vague and so innocuous that it could be employed by any party and adapted to any ends.” Syme seemingly evokes contemporary jurisprudence when he quips in reference to Ciceronian reasoning: “True libertas was very different from licence: imperium was indispensable. What fairer blend of libertas and imperium could have been discovered? A champion of the “higher legality” should find no quarrel with a rigid law of high treason.”

Augustus’s efforts to distance himself from official standing especially after the “constitutional settlement” of 28/7 where Augustus authority became embedded in Roman legal language and precedent. The so-called “restoration of the republic” (perhaps best expressed as “pax et princeps” or Make Rome Great Again) was a sham. Augustus packed the consulate with his partisans, held onto key provinces (Spain, Gaul, and Syria), and commanded over 20 legions. While dressed in Republican clothing, these commands and this authority was unprecedented.

In the end, pledges of personal loyalty supported Augustus’s power.

It’s here that Syme’s prosopographical method shines in both tracing the personal connections among the Augustus’s network of elites and presenting these connections as the source for his power. He reminds us: “It is an entertaining pursuit to speculate upon the subtleties of legal theory, or to trace from age to age the transmission of perennial maxims of political wisdom; it is more instructive to discover, in any time and under any system of government, the identity of the agents and ministers of power.”

oOo

The short essay is part of my Reading The Roman Revolution at 80 project. It’s so awesome that I have two hashtags: #ReadingRomanRevolution and #ReadingRonaldat80. I explain the project here. You can read the rest of the entries here.