he various political leaders enter into their own at last. The method has to be selective: exhaustive detail cannot be prov

is said about Cicero and about Livy. Yet, in the end, the Principate has to be accepted, for the Principate, while abolish

sely in their fashion (chapter xxxiii, Pax et Princeps). The design has imposed a pessimistic and truculent tone, to the

from the ‘traditional’ and conventional view of the period. Much that has recently been written about Augustus is simply pa

him raise his eyebrows. Its imperfections are patent and flagrant. It has not been composed in tranquillity; and it ought t

an political terminology and of the realities of Roman political life has sometimes induced historians to fancy that the Pr

land into a nation, with a stable and enduring government. The tale has often been told, with an inevitability of events

n. To one of the unsuccessful champions of political liberty sympathy has seldom been denied. Cicero was a humane and culti

me time professed his attachment to NotesPage=>005 1 As Pollio has perished, Tacitus and Sallust can be drawn upon f

3 His master had less exacting standards. The great work of Pollio has perished, save for inconsiderable fragments or su

and its sequel, the Principate of Caesar Augustus, in a fashion that has now become unconventional, NotesPage=>006

ce in the towns of Italy, the proportion was clearly much higher than has sometimes been imagined. Of a total of six Note

, influenced by the subsequent actions of the proconsul and Dictator, has produced a conventional, anachronistic and highly

in a harmony so swift and sure as to appear pre-ordained; and history has sometimes been written as though Caesar set the t

1 His judgement was vindicated in blood and suffering; and posterity has seen fit to condemn the act of the Liberators, fo

contemporaries and often believed by posterity to be a revolutionary has led to undue emphasis on the non-senatorial or ev

is trait and policy of Caesar was patent to contemporaries. 3 Justice has not always been done to the generous and liberal

2; 9, 10, 2 and 6; 11, 6, 2. 4 Dessau (Hermes XLVI (1911), 613 FF.) has rendered it highly probable that the Caesarian Cu

so BG 7, 65, 2. 2 Ad fam. 10, 32, 5, where it is stated that Gallus has in his possession a dramatic poem written by the

career was laborious, but his origin may have been reputable. History has record of a family of Ventidii, municipal magistr

are hostile to Pompeius and the legitimate government of Rome. Caesar has a mixed following, some stripped from Pompeius, o

es not definitely incriminate him. By October, however, the situation has changed, the story has gained colour and strength

minate him. By October, however, the situation has changed, the story has gained colour and strength (Phil. 2, 91). Even if

the national front and the uniting of Italy. The memory of Antonius has suffered damage multiple and irreparable. The pol

, 3; echoes in Cicero, Phil. 2. 113; 10, 8. PageBook=>120 July has already been narrated. He might invoke the tribun

prime importance when he arrived in Italy. Seven months pass, and he has money, troops and a following. Whence came his ad

own, to loyal Caesarian adherents, to shady adventurers. Good fortune has preserved the names of three of his earliest asso

was the millionaire Balbus. Balbus could keep his counsel,4 and time has respected his secrets. No record survives of his

scanty. For sufficient reasons. History, intent to blacken his rival, has preserved instead the public invectives which des

he sombre Brutus was later to recall with bitter rebuke. 1 Octavianus has sometimes been condemned for cold and brutal trea

ook=>156 It is the excuse of the revolutionary that the Republic has succumbed to tyranny or to anarchy, it is his ide

n matron. 1 The identification of the child of destiny is a task that has exercised the ingenuity and revealed the credulit

beyond question. Whether the discarded Scribonia took another husband has not been recorded. 7 NotesPage=>229 1 Suet

How desperate had been his plight at the time of the War of Perusia has already been described. He was saved in war and d

t of Brundisium to his triumph in the Sicilian War, and the new party has acquired distinction as well as solidity. The pro

g Republicans and Antonians (the two terms were sometimes synonymous) has already advanced a stage; and his following alrea

aigns of 35 and 34 B.C. His was the glory. NotesPage=>240 1 It has sometimes been argued that Octavianus in these ye

ce, and who held Macedonia with the command of Antonius’ Balkan army, has not been recorded. From their base in Armenia t

3 As in the matter of the conference at Tarentum, the role of Octavia has probably been embellished. Compare the judicious

n the three children whom Cleopatra had borne him. Hostile propaganda has so far magnified and distorted these celebrations

(Charisius, GL 104, 18; 129, 7; 146, 34). 6 The whole topic, which has provoked excessive debate, does not need to be di

capital to Alexandria. 4 Her favourite oath, it was even stated (and has since been believed), was ‘so may I deliver my ed

cure. Months passed, with operations by land and sea of which history has preserved no adequate record. Antonius’ admiral S

ot allowed to celebrate his triumph till July, 27 B.C. When a party has triumphed in civil war, it claims to have asserte

tock, destined himself for divinity, but not before his rule on earth has restored confidence between men and respect for t

supreme power—‘per consensum universorum potitus rerum omnium. ’1 It has often been believed that the words allude to the

ould be likely to survive, when an important public event of the year has barely been preserved, let alone understood in fu

been variously, sometimes extravagantly, estimated: Cicero’s Republic has even been regarded as a tract for the times, reco

s auctor’. 2 He called it the Optimus status’ himself: the writer who has transmitted these unexceptionable observations go

l title by which he chose to be designated was ‘princeps’. Auctoritas has a venerable and imposing sound: unfriendly critic

eigned moderation and stealthy aggrandizement after the Civil Wars he has not deigned to allude to this transaction at all.

ernment, the identity of the agents and ministers of power. That task has all too often been ignored or evaded. Augustus

on a single person, only the detachment commanded by Augustus himself has left any record. The campaign was grim and arduou

, 25f. PageBook=>336 The anxiety was public and widespread: it has found vivid and enduring expression in the prefac

ble, it was rumoured, to those notorious charms which the poet Horace has so candidly depicted. 5 Maecenas might be dropp

rippae ablegatio. ’ It is evident that Tiberius’ retirement to Rhodes has coloured earlier history. PageBook=>343 So

LS 913) may illustrate the names ending in ‘-idius’. 3 ILS 5925. He has two gentilicia. Each of them is found at Canusium

ar. 2 What name the enemies of the government found for his behaviour has escaped record. One of them was removed by violen

as against nine nobiles. 2 After seizing power in 32 B.C. Octavianus has sole control of patronage, advancing his own part

323; 409; 457; also 878 (Aquileia). The burial-place of the Statilii has yielded over four hundred inscriptions of slaves

house. A court soon develops, with forms and hierarchies. The ruler has his intimates, amici and comites, so designated b

s and Drusus in converging and triumphant campaigns (15 B.C.). Silius has almost faded from historical record: the two Clau

reign policy of Augustus, see CAH x, 355 ff.: the truth of the matter has often been obscured by the belief that Octavianus

leius, perhaps also ignorance about the condition of Dio’s narrative, has perpetuated wholly unsatisfactory beliefs about t

tica was severed from Hispania Ulterior and transferred to the Senate has not been recorded. Hardly perhaps as late as 2 B.

record of the wars of Augustus is fragmentary and capricious. Design has conspired with accident, for the Princeps intende

the scenes of all public transactions. The era of cabinet government has set in. The Senate was no longer a sovran body, b

f wealthy knights, whether as individuals or as corporations all this has sufficiently been demonstrated. The domination of

to dwell in the East in a private station. However it be (and scandal has probably embellished the topic in the interests o

Arruntius. That is not the only uncertainty here. The MS. of Tacitus has ‘M. Lepidum’. Lipsius altered to ‘M’. Lepidum’, w

empire without the virtues that had won it? 4 A well-ordered state has no need of great men, and no room for them. The l

receive no praise from the poets. 1 Pompeius was no better, though he has the advantage over Caesar in Virgil’s solemn exho

overnment. There is much more authentic religious sentiment here than has sometimes been believed. 4 It will suffice to obs

tes. 455 1 Suetonius, Divus Aug. 90 ff. His protecting deity Apollo has indigenous features. Vediovis, worshipped by the

ast generation was not rich in models to commend or imitate. Horace has never a word to say of Catullus and Lucretius. Th

nt past to be omitted Aeneas appears in the act of sacrifice after he has seen the portent that promises to his family an a

to be suspicious. Though the murderous tyranny of the Julio-Claudians has all but exhausted the Republican and the Augustan

behaved like courtiers and flatterers of an oriental monarch. History has preserved a characteristic remark of this Republi

Under Augustus the stage for the grim tragedy of the Julio- Claudians has already been set, the action has begun. Like Sall

grim tragedy of the Julio- Claudians has already been set, the action has begun. Like Sallustius and Pollio, the senator Ta

4, 32. Ch. XXXIII PAX ET PRINCEPS PageBook=>509 WHEN a party has triumphed in violence and seized control of the S

ry precisely the clients of the Princeps (Klio XXII (1928), 261 ff.), has not always been sufficiently regarded. PageBook