found wide acceptance. 4 The menace of despotic power hung over Rome like a heavy cloud for thirty years from the Dictators

break and dissolve into separate kingdoms or else a renegade, coming like a monarch out of the East, would subjugate Rome t

it, industry and protection. The nobilitas did not, it is true, stand like a solid rampart to bar all intruders. No need for

large estates in Italy. Among senators were great holders of property like Pompeius and Ahenobarbus with whole armies of ten

barbus with whole armies of tenants or slaves, and financial magnates like Crassus. But the wealth of knights often outstrip

and a tenacious instinct for survival. Some of the patrician clans like the Furii, whose son Camillus saved Rome from the

of talent and integrity, but the eternal exemplar of luxury. Secluded like indolent monsters in their parks and villas, the

of Pompeius in the eastern wars comprised not only personal adherents like Afranius and Gabinius but nobiles in the alliance

d the following of Caesar. The arrogant and stubborn censor, mindful, like Cato, of a great ancestor, turned his attack on t

y the inscr. ILS 6976 from Nemausus, and later by provincial notables like Cn. Domitius Afer (cos. suff. A.D. 39) and domiti

refused to join the long roll of Pompeius’ victims, to be superseded like Lucullus, to be discarded and disgraced as had be

e legions of Spain and the hosts of all the East, and then to return, like Sulla, to victory and to power. 4 Caesar, it is

played for gain and a place on the winning side for discerning judges like Caelius assessed the true relation between Pompei

onspicuous of all is the group of nobiles of patrician stock. Caesar, like Sulla, was a patrician and proud of it. He boaste

system, by active rivals and by the rise of dynastic plebeian houses like the Metelli, they remembered their ancient glory

I A, 1592 ff. It is not really very plausible. Ventidius was perhaps, like Mamurra, a praefectus fabrum in Caesar’s service.

icero would have been very different. Balbus ruled his native Gades like a monarch: in Rome the alien millionaire exercise

gmented by time and success. 3 Pompeius constantly employed freedmen, like the financier Demetrius of Gadara. 4 Caesar rival

siness men and provincials, kings and dynasts. Some fell in the wars, like Gabinius and Curio: the survivors expected an acc

To support this view one need not appeal merely to general statements like ‘cetera multitudo insiticia’ (‘Sallust’, Ad Caesa

y of his city or influence a whole region of Italy3 he might be able, like the Roman noble, to levy a private army from tena

rs he may have encouraged or defended certain of his personal friends like M. Caelius Rufus and Cn. Plancius, bankers’ sons

e centurions in Bell. Afr. 54, 5. PageBook=>090 proconsul who, like him, had crushed the Gauls, the traditional enemi

rosperous region, could show Marian and Caesarian connexions in towns like Puteoli, Cales and Nuceria. The Granii of Puteoli

Catonian party, Pompeians such as Q. Ligarius and obscure individuals like D. Turullius or Cassius of Parma, whose former hi

riend Matius took a grim pleasure in the most gloomy reports; 4 some, like Balbus and Oppius, dissembled; others again were

ds. If the process goes far enough, a faction may grow into something like a national party. So it was to be in the end. But

ters of patricians for their brides. The men of action in the party like Salvidienus and Agrippa, the earliest of the grea

tavianus marched on Rome, however, no news was heard of P. Servilius: like other consulars averse from Antonius but unwillin

cero gave it up, gladly. Caesar did not insist. Time was short agents like Balbus were of more use to a busy and imperious a

ater, the meeting of the Senate in the Temple of Tellus, when Cicero, like other statesmen, spoke for security and concord.

delivered: it is an exercise in petty rancour and impudent defamation like the invectives against Piso. The other speeches a

onstitution possessed a singular unanimity of advocates; that phrases like concordia ordinum and consensus Italiae were no p

m from the rule of a tyrant or a faction. 1 It follows that libertas, like regnum or dominatio, is a convenient term of poli

t were sincere. From personal loyalty they might follow great leaders like Caesar or Antonius: they had no mind to risk thei

public enemy. This diplomatic concession perhaps enabled moderate men like Pansa to rebuff Cicero’s proposal to confer upon

. Regrets there may have been to see a fine soldier and a Roman noble like Antonius reduced to such company and such expedie

protection already or now purchased it. 5 The ambition of generals like Pompeius and Caesar provoked civil war without in

ntrigue and ambition a second consulate from the Triumvirs (41 B.C.), like his first from Caesar: after that he is not heard

omitius Ahenobarbus and M. Licinius Lucullus,3 by political adherents like the inseparable Favonius and by his own personal

the Roman youth there pursuing the higher education, sons of senators like L. Bibulus, his own stepson, and M. Cicero,5 alon

oung Pompeius was despotic and dynastic in his management of affairs, like his father trusting much to alien or domestic adh

blicans. Lacking authority with the armies and a provincial clientela like that of Pompeius or the Caesarian leaders, he mig

iumphed over incalculable odds. He had loyal and unscrupulous friends like Agrippa and Maecenas, a nucleus of support alread

os. suff. 37); he owed his advancement to the patronage of Calvisius, like himself of non-Latin stock. 3 The name of Statili

if not superior in power to Antonius. These aristocratic careerists, like the dynastic Livia Drusilla, the greatest of them

s of history, not merely of recent wars and monarchic faction-leaders like Sulla, Pompeius and Caesar, but of a wider and ev

to him (cf. esp. 1. 11, ‘a te principium, tibi desinet’). This looks like the original dedication: but a poem in honour of

f no note in the arts of peace were certain military men and admirals like Insteius from Pisaurum, Q. Didius and M. Oppius C

her to agree with Messalla that the Republic was doomed, or to trust, like Murcus, the alliance with Pompeius (whose whole f

Divus Iulius 52, 2. 5 Pliny, NH 33, 50 an allegation that Antonius like an oriental monarch used vessels of gold for dome

yer’s thesis of a marriage in 37/36 B.C. Difficulties of formulation ( like the meaning of the word ‘uxor’) complicate the qu

glorious neutrality. Yet Antonius could count upon tried military men like Sosius and Canidius. No names are recorded in t

sintegrating. Loyalty would not last for ever in the face of evidence like the defection of Plancus and Titius. Well prime

tavia, had served his purpose adequately. Men could see that divorce, like marriage, was an act of high politics. Now came a

adequate if it was the instrument of Rome’s enemy. And so Octavianus, like Cicero twelve years earlier when he so eloquently

the conflicting ambitions of two rivals for supreme power. The elder, like Pompeius twenty years before, a great reputation

ratus of oriental luxury. That was absurd; and they knew what war was like . On a cool estimate, the situation was ominous en

at least of acquiescence. The better sort of people in Italy did not like war or despotic rule. But despotism was already t

s an imposing total of Roman knights to be found in provincial cities like Gades and Corduba. 2 Old Balbus and his nephew we

upation to its conqueror during his long rule. The menace of Parthia, like the menace of Egypt, was merely a pretext in his

e of any who deal in that commodity. No ruler could have faith in men like Plancus and Titius. Ahenobarbus the Republican le

wise counsellors. PageBook=>314 into Heaven. That was too much like Caesar the Dictator. Moreover, the young Caesar w

macy of one man in the State were admitted, it was not for a princeps like Pompeius. For the rest, it might pertinently be

gh, for advancement had been swift and dazzling. Yet the novi homines like Q. Laronius, M. Herennius, L. Vinicius are not

us, worshipped the memory of the Liberators. 3 The choice of Sestius, like the choice of Piso, will attest, not the free wor

Active partisans clamoured to be rewarded, legates of recent service like M. Lollius and M. Vinicius; and a new generation

ards a popular entertainer. Despite such powerful advocacy, Maecenas, like another personal friend of the Princeps, Vedius P

and as a model and an ornament in the New State. The way of his life, like the fantastical conceits of his verse, must have

y that it shattered the constitutional façade of the New Republic men like Agrippa had no great reverence for forms and na

Therefore, even when Agrippa subsequently received proconsular power like that of Augustus over all the provinces of the Em

ilanus. Others, spared after the victory, retained rank and standing, like Sosius and Furnius. 3 NotesPage=>349 1 Res

>350 Scaurus and Cn. Cinna were not especially favoured Scaurus, like some other Republicans and Pompeians, never reach

esar in Spain, Mamurra in Gaul. It might also be conjectured that men like Ventidius, Salvidienus and Cornelius Gallus had b

ania and Bruttium. Not only do ancient cities of Latium long decayed, like Lanuvium, provide senators for Rome there are rem

rs for Rome there are remote towns of no note before or barely named, like Aletrium in the Hernican territory on the eastern

origin. One even bears an Umbrian praenomen; and men with gentilicia like Calpetanus, Mimisius, Viriasius and Mussidius cou

ach to his cause even the most recalcitrant of the nobiles; and some, like Cn. Piso (cos. 23 B.C.), joined perhaps from a di

independence. 6 Certain of the most original or most lively talents, like Cassius Severus, were doomed to opposition. It wo

political adherents, a number were unamiable, or at least unpopular, like Titius, Tarius and Quirinius. That was no bar. Ot

d imperator. Augustus both created new patrician houses and sought, like Sulla and Caesar before him, to revive the ancien

allus, Pollio’s ambitious son. What would have happened if Augustus like that great politician, the censor Appius Claudius

exploited by members of the reigning dynasty, by prominent partisans like Agrippa and Maecenas, and by other adherents like

prominent partisans like Agrippa and Maecenas, and by other adherents like the obscure admiral M. Lurius. 2 As proconsul o

rovinces. 7 His granddaughter, the beautiful Lollia Paullina, paraded like a princess. It was her habit to appear, not merel

the prudent Cocceii, and even meritorious adherents not yet consular, like the Aelii Lamiae. 9 NotesPage=>382 1 He wa

such as Sempronia and Servilia down to minor but efficient intriguers like that Praecia to whose good offices Lucullus owed,

embers of his house are depicted, not always quiet and unpretentious, like sombre and dutiful servants of the Roman People,

epmother, whose name he took and carried for a time (ib., 4, 1), and, like his father, was much in demand as a match. After

dissipated in politics. The principes of the dying Republic behaved like dynasts, not as magistrates or servants of the St

m. 1 Then in 18 B.C. the imperium of Agrippa was augmented, to cover ( like that of Augustus since 23 B.C.) the provinces of

assing into the militia equestris and knights promoted to the Senate, like Velleius Paterculus, often had a useful record be

ies or in the government of provinces, legates of Pompeius and Caesar like Afranius and Labienus and generals of the revolut

e regular administration for private initiative or mere magistracies, like the offices of aedile and censor. Two incidents h

on, that he intended to devolve upon them certain unpopular functions like that renewed purification of the Senate which he

earliest friends of Augustus. Some attained senatorial rank. Others, like the modest Proculeius, remained within their stat

rt of Roman voluptuary waited for the end with fortitude and faced it like a soldier. Next in power and next in crime was

d procurators. 3 If not themselves absent on provincial commands, men like Lollius, Quirinius and Piso will have had somethi

their place: the name of Livia is never mentioned by an official poet like Horace. The precaution seems excessive. In a Re

ial poet like Horace. The precaution seems excessive. In a Republic like that of Pompeius, Livia would have been a politic

ask of service and subordination, Tiberius concealed a high ambition; like Agrippa, he would yield to Augustus but not in al

New State would have reached the consulate in his thirty- third year, like his peers in that generation of nobiles. Privileg

the esteem of Tiberius. 6 NotesPage=>424 1 The family of Piso, like that of Messalla, is a nexus of difficult problem

urn to power of Tiberius, along with descendants of the old nobility, like the patricians M. Aemilius Lepidus, P. Cornelius

ornelius Dolabella and M. Furius Camillus, or heirs of recent consuls like the two Nonii L. Arruntius and A. Licinius Nerva

ly with interlocking matrimonial ties, houses of the ancient nobility like the Calpurnii and the numerous branches and relat

Both were damned by the crime of ambition and ‘impia arma’. Augustus, like the historian Tacitus, would have none of them; a

Roman, such a word was ‘antiquus’; and what Rome now required was men like those of old, and ancient virtue. As the poet had

ew indeed of the great ladies would have been able or eager to claim, like Cornelia, the epitaph in lapide hoc uni nupta f

ling in the Roman youth, Augustus revived ancient military exercises, like the Lusus Troiae. 3 PageNotes. 445 1 The stud

nspicuous in their serried ranks were hard-headed and hard- faced men like Lollius, Quirinius and Tarius Rufus. With such ch

e. Among the intimate friends of Augustus were to be found characters like Maecenas, childless and vicious yet uxorious, and

the charge of studied antiquarianism. But the religion of the State, like the religion of the family, was not totally repug

f the efficacy of mere legislation in such matters, a virtuous prince like Tiberius, himself traditional in his views of Rom

n before the law. Gades might export dancing-girls or a millionaire like Balbus. But there were many other towns in Spain

ed obedience, the veterans the habit of a regular and useful life not like Sulla’s men. Even freedmen were not treated as ou

ses. But history did not need to be antiquarian it could be employed, like poetry, to honour the memory of ancient valour, r

which the Princeps recorded his arduous and triumphant career. Livy, like Virgil, was a Pompeian: he idealized the early ca

atural that the ruler should be an object of veneration, with honours like the honours due to gods. In Egypt, indeed, August

timent becomes more and more lavish and ornate. Not only is Augustus, like his predecessors, a god and saviour; not only doe

naked realities of politics. It is in no way surprising that Pollio, like Stendhal, became the fanatical exponent of a hard

s; and it will be a fair inference that Pollio, the eminent consular, like the senator Tacitus more than a century later, wa

romantic view of history. 1 Pollio knew what history was. It was not like Livy. Augustus’ historian of imperial Rome empl

families, Taurus flaunting in the city of Rome a bodyguard of Germans like the Princeps himself, Agrippa the solid and consp

ribonia, a female descendant of Pompeius; 6 hence a family foredoomed like the Silani, with four brothers all to perish by v

on government based largely on family ties has been built up, nobiles like Ahenobarbus, Piso and Paullus Fabius Maximus gove

Arelate, Narbonensians both, and L. Verginius Rufus from Mediolanium, like them the son of a Roman knight. 2 But for this de

ge of Roman virtue and aristocratic independence of temper was to die like a gentleman. If he wished to survive, the bearer

when men of his own class abandoned their Roman tradition and behaved like courtiers and flatterers of an oriental monarch.

ristocrat either, but a new man, presumably of provincial extraction, like his father- in-law and like the best Romans of hi

man, presumably of provincial extraction, like his father- in-law and like the best Romans of his day. PageNotes. 507 1

mitis, moribus quietus, ut corpore ita animo immobilior’ (2, 117, 2), like his generalized allegation of extortion in Syria

e the nobiles who passed unscathed through these trials, from caution like L. Marcius Philippus (cos. 91 B.C.) and his son,

ius Philippus (cos. 91 B.C.) and his son, or from honest independence like Piso. With the Principate comes a change. For t

d by merit, founded upon consent and tempered by duty. Augustus stood like a soldier, ‘in statione’ for the metaphor, though

life, Augustus composed his Autobiography. Other generals before him, like Sulla and Caesar, had published the narrative of

ly regarded. PageBook=>524 While the Princeps lived, he might, like other rulers, be openly worshipped as a deity in

pped as a deity in the provinces or receive in Rome and Italy honours like those accorded to gods by grateful humanity: to R

eive the honours of the Founder who was also Aeneas and Romulus, and, like Divus Julius, he would be enrolled by vote of the