14. It is composed round a central narrative that records the rise to power of Augustus and the establishment of his rule, em

(chapters vii–xxiii). The period witnessed a violent transference of power and of property; and the Principate of Augustus s

n Empire. The era may be variously computed, from the winning of sole power by the last of the dynasts through the War of Act

ghter and to utter a prophecy of empire concerning Galba, to whom the power passed when the dynasty of the Julii and Claudii

atus’, was the work of fraud and bloodshed, based upon the seizure of power and redistribution of property by a revolutionary

of authority, all that made no difference to the source and facts of power . Domination is never the less effective for being

ted the proscriptions and when he sanctioned clemency, when he seized power by force, and when he based authority upon law an

e lieutenants of a military leader or subservient agents of arbitrary power . For that reason ‘Dux’ became ‘Princeps’. He did

When the individuals and classes that have gained wealth, honours and power through revolution emerge as champions of ordered

and Gibbon knew better. 1 The narrative of Augustus’ rise to supreme power , supplemented by a brief analysis of the working

evices by which a revolutionary leader arose in civil strife, usurped power for himself and his faction, transformed a factio

ustius began his annalistic record with Sulla’s death and the rise to power of Pompeius the Great. Pollio, however, chose t

rned again in the Republic of Augustus as the ministers and agents of power , the same men but in different garb. They are the

office at Rome. Pompeius fought against it; but Pompeius, for all his power , had to come to terms. Nor could Caesar have rule

d only the ruling city: only Rome, not Italy. 1 In the Revolution the power of the old governing class was broken, its compos

mulation deserved and found wide acceptance. 4 The menace of despotic power hung over Rome like a heavy cloud for thirty year

ambitions of the dynasts provoked war between class and class. Naked power prevailed. 4 The anger of Heaven against the Ro

expelled the kings from Rome, they were careful to retain the kingly power , vested in a pair of annual magistrates; and thou

tion. 1 The Senate again, being a permanent body, arrogated to itself power , and after conceding sovranty to the assembly of

e prominent of the consulars. 2 The consulate did not merely confer power upon its holder and dignity for life: it ennobled

main deriving from the local aristocracies, the holders of property, power and office in the towns of Italy, the proportion

imates and Populares, nobiles and novi homines, but by the strife for power , wealth and glory. The contestants were the nobil

houses commanded political influence in their own right, exercising a power beyond the reach of many a senator. Of such domin

supposes inimicitia, inherited or acquired: a statesman could not win power and influence without making many enemies. The no

ast lay in rank and prestige. The knights preferred comfort, secret power and solid profit to the burdens, the dangers and

outstripped many an ancient senatorial family, giving them a greater power than the nominal holders of dignity and office. 4

d tetrarchs. Such were the resources which ambition required to win power in Rome and direct the policy of the imperial Rep

e Roman constitution, beside the consulate, was another instrument of power , the tribunate, an anomalous historical survival

ften sinister and fraudulent, no better than their rivals, the men in power , who naturally invoked the specious and venerable

example and preclude a successor to his domination. Sulla resigned power after a brief tenure. Another year and he was dea

tribunate, destroyed Sulla’s system but left the nobiles nominally in power . They were able to repel and crush the attempt of

, to derogate from oligarchic practice and confer exorbitant military power on a single general, to the salvation of Rome’s e

, drawn from a dozen dominant families, hold a monopoly of office and power . From time to time, families rise and fall: as Ro

t little; and though noble houses suffered defeat in the struggle for power , and long eclipse, they were saved from extinctio

rule of the Etruscan Tarquinii collapsed, the earliest heirs to their power were the Valerii and the Fabii. 1 To the Fasti of

s, did his best to restore the patriciate, sadly reduced in political power in the previous generation, not so much through M

only by taking in adoption sons of the resplendent Aemilii. 3 But the power of the Cornelii was waning. Their strength now la

lerably arrogant towards the nobiles his rivals, or grasping personal power under cover of liberal politics. There were two b

ed by the rise and domination of the party of Marius, the Metelli got power and influence again from the alliance with Sulla.

and highly trusted by him, led armies through Asia and shattered the power of Mithridates. Combining integrity with capacity

Philippus; and he formed a connexion with the Metelli. 1 The lust of power , that prime infirmity of the Roman noble, impelle

timates were solid only to outward show and at intervals. Restored to power by a military despot, enriched by proscription an

apacious ambition of the patrician Servilii and ruthless to recapture power for her house. 5 Her brother, Q. Servilius, hus

politics. 3 Roman noble houses, decadent or threatened by rivals in power and dignity, enlisted the vigour of novi homines,

nsulate, was a perpetual menace; and the Metelli, for survival or for power , would ally themselves with the strongest militar

bborn spirit and political craft which his ancestor used to break the power of a monarchic patrician family, the Scipiones. G

the great roads of Asia, dispersing the kings of the East, displaying power and founding cities in his name. From Thrace to t

Egypt the eastern lands acknowledged his predominance. The worship of power , which ages ago had developed its own language an

est Africa and Mauretania, all Spain, and both provinces of Gaul. The power and glory of the master of the world were symboli

lla, as was expedient, had married a Metella: the aspirant to Sulla’s power , NotesPage=>031 1 Velleius 2, 29, 2. On Po

nd the financiers and Crassus waited, patient in rancour. To maintain power , the government needed consuls. The men were not

his own auctoritas, the wealth and influence of Crassus, the consular power of Caesar, and the services of a number of tribun

r the next two years as well. 2 Despite patronage at home and armed power in the provinces, the ascendancy of Pompeius was

which he refers in Ad Att. 4, 5, 1. PageBook=>038 The basis of power at Rome stands out clearly the consulate, the arm

cised indirect control over the rest; and he arrogated to himself the power of the whole board of tribunes. Proconsulare impe

e two pillars of the edifice. The principes strove for prestige and power , but not to erect a despotic rule upon the ruins

enemies and reinforced the party of Caesar. Caesar had risen to great power through Pompeius, helped by the lieutenants of Po

ul and proconsul, of the domination of Pompeius, who now, for supreme power , seemed likely to throw over his ally. On Decem

d closely with one another and with the Catonian faction. Rising to power with support from the Metelli, though not without

e consulates in twenty-three years, the Metelli soon found that their power was passing. Death took off their consuls one by

ouses. The Pompeii had once been hangers-on of the Scipiones. But the power and splendour of that imperial house, the conquer

n. Ahenobarbus was a great political dynast in his own right, born to power . The Pact of Luca blocked him from his consulate,

was the oligarchy of Sulla, manifest and menacing in its last bid for power , serried but insecure. Pompeius was playing a dou

ned by the loss of his ally and of popular support, would be in their power at last, amenable to guidance or to be discarded

e of Cato spurred on the nobiles and accelerated war. Helped by the power , the prestige, and the illicit armies of Pompeius

l the ambition of a Roman noble: but it was not his ambition to seize power through civil strife and hold it, supreme and alo

of the political crisis is less obscure. Caesar and his associates in power had thwarted or suspended the constitution for th

riven a wedge between the two dynasts, winning over to their side the power and prestige of Pompeius. They would be able to d

ts of all the East, and then to return, like Sulla, to victory and to power . 4 Caesar, it is true, had only a legion to han

ass, the attempt would be all in vain, the mere creation of arbitrary power , doomed to perish in violence. It was rational

bout the res publica ’it was only a name: Sulla, by resigning supreme power , showed that he was an ignorant fellow’. 3 Caes

ective, applicable alike to the domination of Sulla and the arbitrary power exercised by Cicero during his consulate for the

build up a faction for himself and make his own way along the road to power , beginning as a military demagogue. If Caesar m

ancient ideals, it seemed that Caesar, avid for splendour, glory and power , ready to use his birth and station to subvert hi

s, he could see, was an anachronism in a world-empire; and so was the power of the Roman plebs when all Italy enjoyed the fra

warfare or politics ever after. As Caesar’s enemies were the party in power , being the most active and influential of the con

age to Caesar’s grand-nephew, see below, p. 128. PageBook=>063 power and noted for their attacks upon Caesar, when Cae

al in composition. The fact that he took up arms against the party in power , had been a Marian and a popularis, was feared fo

y of Rome, patrician houses which seem to have formed an alliance for power with the plebeians when the latter were admitted

of Caesar by Servilia, who worked steadily to restore the dignity and power of her family. In her dynastic policy she ruthles

Lepidus had influence but no party, ambition but not the will and the power for achievement. Caesar, offering the consulate,

ative Gades like a monarch: in Rome the alien millionaire exercised a power greater than most Roman senators. Certain of the

erests and eager, from selfish or disinterested motives, to break the power of money in the Roman State. Not so Crassus and C

cided in the provinces. In earlier days the Roman noble augmented his power and influence through attaching the aristocracy o

th the Domitii and saw the recent laurels of Pompeius wane before the power and glory of Caesar, the Germans shattered, the R

loyal to Pompeius as representative of Rome, but only so long as his power subsisted. Enemies and rivals were waiting to exp

and Curio: the survivors expected an accession of wealth, dignity and power . Had not Sulla enriched his partisans, from senat

eople cf. further below, p. 262 f. 4 P-W IV, 2802 f. On his wealth, power and ostentation, cf. Plutarch, Pompeius 40; Josep

y. 7 The Cilnii were dominant in Arretium, hated for their wealth and power . Centuries before, the citizens had risen to driv

at Rome. More important than the kings were their rivals and heirs in power , the patricians, themselves for the most part of

sometimes recalled their local and alien provenance. 4 In strife for power at Rome, the patricians were ready to enlist alli

patrician houses for their own political ends and for Rome’s greater power ; though NotesPage=>084 1 Suetonius, Tib. I

termination. 3 The plebeian houses might acquire wealth and dynastic power at Rome, but they could never enter the rigid and

origin without shame or compunction. About the early admissions to power and nobility at Rome much will remain obscure and

personal ties with the leading men in the towns of Italy he acquired power and advanced partisans to office at Rome. 1 But

e admittance to the proconsul after his great exploits in Gaul. 3 The power and wealth of the Pompeii no doubt raised up many

ps be inferred from his municipal legislation. 6 Whoever succeeded to power after a civil war would be confronted with the ta

Liberators neither Antonius nor the Caesarian party were securely in power . The earliest contemporary evidence (Ad Att. 14,

d have been too strong. The Liberators had not planned a seizure of power . Their occupation of the Capitol was a symbolical

reek city, to be mastered from its citadel. The facts and elements of power were larger than that. To carry through a Roman r

enate and his triumph over noble adversaries, they too had a share of power and glory. Discontent, it is true, could be detec

rtain defects of character and judgement that time and the licence of power were to show up in deadly abundance. The frank an

s. Yet they were nothing new or alarming in the holders of office and power at Rome. In the end it was not debauchery that ru

rty-politician. He was consul and chief man in the Caesarian faction: power and patronage rested in his hands. Antonius resto

ctly superior to what Rome had learned to expect of the politician in power . His year of office would have to go far in viole

himself in the place of the Dictator and succeed to sole and supreme power at Rome as though the fate of Caesar were not a w

reby absolved from ambition, considered or reckless, and the lust for power . There were surely alternatives to Caesar’s autoc

ce of Macedonia. But the proconsul was vulnerable if a faction seized power in Rome and sought to pay back old scores. In 42

aesar Octavianus. It will be understood that the aspirant to Caesar’s power preferred to drop the name that betrayed his orig

at. He was only eighteen years of age: but he resolved to acquire the power and the glory along with the name of Caesar. Whet

inherited the remnant of his private fortune mattered little for the power rested with the leaders of the Caesarian party. F

y. The disloyal Caesarian was soon to be brought to book. To maintain power with the populace and the veterans, Antonius was

of the moderns sometimes obscure the nature and sources of political power at Rome. They were patent to contemporaries. For

towns of Italy. Once a compact and devoted following was won, and his power revealed, he could build up a new Caesarian party

re consistent in his politics, had to wait longer for distinction and power . The sentiments which the young man entertained t

he support of anomalous allies and illicit armies, attempted to seize power in the city. So far, the raising of a private a

cent on the maternal side from the Cilnii, a house that held dynastic power in the city of Arretium from the beginning. 4 N

y. The hazards were palpable, and so were the rewards land, money and power , the estates and prerogatives of the nobility for

ns, who were alienated by the pretensions of Antonius, alarmed at his power . In the first place, the consuls- designate, Hirt

ction, but by preventing the actions of others. Even a nonentity is a power when consul at Rome. A policy they had, and they

the summer Servilius embarked upon a tortuous policy, to enhance his power and that of his clan. His family connexions would

confessed the ruinous alternatives: ‘if Octavianus succeeded and won power , the acta of Caesar would be more decisively conf

ition of unscrupulous principes is strongly denounced. 2 The lust for power ends in tyranny, which is the negation of liberty

ature of glory, no doubt showing how far, for all their splendour and power , the principes Crassus, Caesar and Pompeius had f

n both were abolished. For the sake of peace and the common good, all power had to pass to one man. That was not the worst fe

Senate: either of them could be exploited in politics, as a source of power or as a plea in justification. NotesPage=>15

the interests of the party in possession. Further, the discretionary power of the Senate, in its tendering of advice to magi

conviction that popular sovranty was a good thing in itself. Once in power , the popularis, were he Pompeius or were he Caesa

the historian Sallustius. After Pompeius and Crassus had restored the power of the tribunate, Roman politicians, whether they

ple’s rights or the Senate’s, were acting a pretence: they strove for power only. 1 Sallustius soon went deeper in his pessim

of good citizens and bad became partisan appellations; wealth and the power to do harm gave to the champions of the existing

fence of the existing order by individuals or classes in enjoyment of power and wealth. The libertas of the Roman aristocrat

libertas could not be monopolized by the oligarchy or by any party in power . It was open to their opponents to claim and demo

ination of a faction’. 3 The term was not novel. Nobody ever sought power for himself and the enslavement of others without

rchs out of sheer patriotism. 2 Octavianus, to secure recognition and power , was ready to pospone for the moment a sacred ven

llicit ventures of Octavianus and D. Brutus. This meant usurpation of power by the Senate or rather, by a faction in the Sena

r at least loyal support from the provincial governors, usurpation of power at Rome was doomed to collapse. Gallia Cisalpina

sinius Pollio in Hispania Ulterior, but his province was distant, his power unequal. A scholar, a wit and an honest man, a fr

Mutina. That was enough. It lay neither in the plans nor even in the power of Caesar’s heir to consummate the ruin of the mo

revival of the Pompeian faction in the city of Rome and the gathering power of Brutus and Cassius in the East, the Caesarian

otiations he now took his stand as an equal: but the apportionment of power revealed the true relation between the three lead

a period of five years three men were to hold paramount and arbitrary power under the familiar pretext of setting the Roman S

order (tresviri rei publicae constituendae). When a coalition seized power at Rome, it employed as instruments of domination

years in advance which provide some indication of the true balance of power and influence. Antonius constrained the young C

ption of private enemies. Many a long-standing contest for wealth and power in the towns of Italy was now decided. The Coponi

onius and his associates have behaved as they did, could security and power be won in any other way. The consequences of comp

leader, and thus win for her absent and unsuspecting consort the sole power which he scarcely seemed to desire. Octavianus,

as a champion of Libertas against military despotism, of the consular power against the Triumvirate (BC 5, 19, 74; 43, 179 ff

ulers of the world. Already coins of the year 43 B.C. bear symbols of power , fertility and the Golden Age. 3 It was in this

. A rope cut, and Pompeius would have the masters of the world in his power a topic fertile in anecdote. The Peace of Puteo

ring an ally in the West of much more value than Lepidus to check the power of his ambitious rival for the leadership of the

lost the better part of two years, sacrificing ambition, interest and power . Of an appeal to arms, no thought in his mind the

amily alliances, though the day was long past when that alone brought power at Rome. His brother-in-law the consular P. Servi

or rather, he already gave signs of becoming equal if not superior in power to Antonius. These aristocratic careerists, like

taly. But the seizure of Sicily and Africa disturbed the balance of power and disconcerted Antonius. Three dynasts had held

r war in the end, Octavianus could face him, as never yet, with equal power and arms, in full confidence. The young man bec

fluence in the towns of Italy: in both he advertised and extended his power . L. Vinicius was one of the new consuls: he had n

Italy, massacre for revenge or gain and the establishment of despotic power . 3 With the past returned all the shapes and mini

ect upon the death of Alexander the Macedonian, the long contests for power among the generals his successors, the breaking o

ly from historical record to emerge after nine years in splendour and power . He had probably gone eastwards with Antonius soo

rologers and magicians from Rome,3 that was only a testimony to their power , an attempt of the government to monopolize the c

ut the acts of the young dynast even now can hardly have foretold the power and splendour of the future monarch. Antonius was

ate at Tarentum when that office lapsed, Antonian consuls would be in power at Rome. Antonius had already lost the better par

the Ptolemaic kingdom in splendour and wealth, though not in military power . She had reconstituted her heritage, now possessi

s, dynasts and cities of the wide East, had shown the way to imperial power . Beside princes of blood or title, the personal f

the eastern dependencies. Titles of kingdoms, not all of them in the power or gift of Antonius, were also bestowed upon the

the dependent kingdom of Media. Since the Punic Wars the new imperial power of Rome, from suspicion and fear, had exploited t

nours in the East but not to monarchy alone: in any representative of power it was natural and normal. Had the eastern lands

t and more dangerous forms of domination he may have succumbed to the power of her imagination and her understanding. Yet tha

cause of the War of Actium ; 4 they were a pretext in the strife for power , the magnificent lie upon which was built the sup

arded the name of Triumvir. But he possessed auctoritas and the armed power to back it. He entered the Curia, surrounded by s

s professed to have resigned the office of Triumvir, but retained the power , as was apparent, not only to Antonius, but to ot

ore, it might be represented, for peace. For war his prestige and his power were enormous. It is in no way evident that the m

arm Octavianus resolved to secure national sanction for his arbitrary power and a national mandate to save Rome from the mena

least the dynastic house of the patrician Claudii, had enhanced their power by inducing men of repute and substance in the It

al: it arose from the conflicting ambitions of two rivals for supreme power . The elder, like Pompeius twenty years before, a

ne and by fear, broke out and prevailed, imposing upon the strife for power an ideal, august and patriotic character. But not

ome a temporary crisis, merely temporary in use and validity; and the power conferred by the consent of tota Italia far surpa

ed to Antonius. Rival factions in the towns could now emerge, seizing power at the expense of absent enemies and establishing

in Italy, the military colonies were the chief support of Octavianus’ power ; and the local magnates, whether Roman colonists

ius Pulcher enhanced the impression of a pacified West as well as the power and glory of Caesar and the Caesarian party. 4

f Africa. 5 Maecenas controlled Rome and Italy, invested with supreme power , but no title. 6 There must be no risks, no dange

have been artfully staged. Neither of the rivals in the contest for power had intended that there should be a serious battl

owever, he was eager to attach to his own clientela. 6 As heir to the power of Antonius in the East he confirmed their titles

e had been established, there was only one faction left—and it was in power . The pleasing legend Libertalis P. R. Vindex ap

h and seventh consulates he transferred the Commonwealth from his own power to the discretion of the Senate and the People. B

ates that it was through general consent that he had acquired supreme power —‘per consensum universorum potitus rerum omnium.

ll significance. Being consul (and perhaps able to invoke tribunician power )1 Octavianus possessed the means to face and frus

though that despotic office had expired years before: in law the only power to which he could appeal if he wished to coerce a

ue. Ostensible moderation was only a step to greater consolidation of power . And of power, no surrender. Only words and forms

moderation was only a step to greater consolidation of power. And of power , no surrender. Only words and forms were changed,

would be expedient to overlay the hard and astringent pill of supreme power with some harmless flavouring that smacked of tra

nly been called principes, in recognition of their authority or their power . 1 The name was not always given in praise, for t

r the princeps was all too often a political dynast, exerting illicit power , or ‘potential for personal rule :2 ‘principalis’

might be expected, with definite reference to the victories or to the power of Augustus. His attention to ancient monuments i

State, that was due to the ruinous ambition of politicians who sought power illegally and held it for glory and for profit. R

vert or suspend the constitution, down to his third consulate and the power he held by force NotesPage=>316 1 Cicero,

f Caesar, or for that matter of Antonius, save as criminal types. The power and domination of Augustus was in reality far too

es are few and modest, little more than coercion of tribunes and more power for the Senate and for censors: not irrelevant to

, who proclaimed a firm determination to fight to the end against any power that set itself above the laws, would have known

erted the sacred rights of property; it was Roman and Republican, for power rested upon the laws, with every class in the Com

ge: Augustus was none the less a revolutionary leader who won supreme power through civil war. All that he needed from Cicero

ina. In politics his mentors had been Philippus and Balbus. To retain power , however, he must base his rule upon general cons

ver in the provinces; and he spent his money with ostentation and for power . The military colonies in Italy and abroad were a

cement. Such was Caesar Augustus. The contrast of real and personal power with the prerogatives of consul or proconsul as l

ely as the legalization, and therefore the strengthening, of despotic power . Such at least was the conception of Tacitus when

nge, the source and origin of his domination. When a faction seized power at Rome, the consulate and the provincial armies

any system of government, the identity of the agents and ministers of power . That task has all too often been ignored or evad

art from that, Augustus’ portion was closely comparable in extent and power . The settlement of 27 B.C. gave him for his pro

charge of three military provinces. But Augustus was not surrendering power . Very different his real purpose, disguised at th

ing all Spain, but instead two or three legates, inferior in rank and power . Hence security for the Princeps, and eventually

es, his enemies. Consulars with armies were rivals to the Princeps in power as well as in military glory. It would be expedie

from public life, disdaining office. Augustus, in virtue of arbitrary power , offered the consulate. 1 Piso’s acceptance seale

lf is not so much a man as a hero and a figure-head, an embodiment of power , an object of veneration. A god’s son, himself th

Augustus’ all but fatal illness the secret struggle for influence and power in his entourage grew complicated, acute and mena

ance had inherited in full measure the statecraft of houses that held power in Rome of their own right, the Claudii and the L

Princeps and his nephew. Agrippa received for himself a share in the power . There would be some warrant for speaking of a ve

her the sign of a concentrated ambition, of a single passion for real power , careless of decoration and publicity. 2 PageNo

instrument of the tyranny that had usurped their privileges and their power . M. Vipsanius Agrippa was a better Republican tha

prestige and honour and would reveal all too barely the realities of power . That would never do. M. Vipsanius Agrippa was an

mposed, they are not even appropriate to a later date, when Agrippa’s power had been accorded status and definition before th

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

Augustus. No system was thus established of two partners in supreme power , twin rulers of all the world, as a schematic and

pa thereby unequivocally designated to assume the inheritance of sole power , to become all that Augustus had been. The nobile

to be a loyal partner. Now that one man stood supreme, invested with power and with auctoritas beyond all others, he could i

t between Dictator and Princeps. The Caesarian party was installed in power : it remained to secure domination for the future.

become palpable reality as the result of a violent redistribution of power and property. The aristocratic Republic had disgu

y. The aristocratic Republic had disguised and sometimes thwarted the power of money: the new order was patently, though not

ation in Italy, crushingly imposed by all parties in the struggle for power after Caesar’s assassination and augmented yet mo

sul of Crete or Cyprus; and the Prefect of the Guard knew what little power resided in the decorative office and title of con

cero spoke for the existing order even had he the will, he lacked the power to secure admission to the Senate for numerous It

independence, but all too often rapacious, corrupt and subservient to power . Their manner and habit of speech was rustic, the

in large measure by circumstances by the time Augustus acquired sole power , the Revolution had already proceeded so far that

and Balbus were dead, but the younger Balbus went on in splendour and power to hold the proconsulate of Africa and a triumph,

elves, down to the last survivor, Caesar’s heir. Engrossing all their power and all their patronage, he conveniently revived

nineteen novi homines appear as against nine nobiles. 2 After seizing power in 32 B.C. Octavianus has sole control of patrona

f politics is played in the same arena as before; the competitors for power and wealth require the same weapons, namely amici

richest man in all the world. Like the earlier dynasts, he spent for power and ostentation to gratify soldiers and plebs, to

uption had been banished from electoral contests: which confirmed its power in private. With the fortune won from confiscatio

l estates, they were now deprived of the ruinous profits of political power , debarred from alliances with those financial int

arty represented a kind of consensus Italiae. Municipal men rising to power and influence followed traditional devices and se

g magistrates of the Roman People, were perpetuated in the exorbitant power of imperial freedmen, first the servants and then

an that was suspected and rumoured about Livia poison and murder. Her power and her following can be detected in the time of

ltivation of Antonia’s favour was L. Vitellius, a knight’s son, but a power at the court of Caligula and three times consul,

Sulla and Caesar might have desired but could never have created. The power of the People was broken. No place was left any m

Not in Rome but with the provincial armies lay the real resources of power and the only serious danger. It was not until a c

a was gone, Taurus perhaps was dead by now; and Maecenas, no longer a power in politics, had a short time to live. But there

ncipes. Other competent men now emerge and succeed to the heritage of power and command, both nobles and novi homines. They h

4 On all sides the monarchic Princeps robbed the other principes of power and honour. In the interests of an ordered common

individual senator, the Senate as a body preserves dignitas but loses power as the Princeps encroaches everywhere, grasping m

al authority and government of the Roman Senate the real and ultimate power needs to be discovered. NotesPage=>406 1 T

r, in a more or less public fashion, about matters of weight; and the power exerted by such extra- constitutional forces as t

e. Knights were eligible for administrative posts that in dignity and power surpassed many magistracies or proconsulates; the

er 23 B.C. Maecenas gradually lost ground. When life ebbed along with power , the descendant of kings who had led to battle th

ted for the end with fortitude and faced it like a soldier. Next in power and next in crime was C. Sallustius Crispus, who

ndirectly. The statute of 23 B.C. may not have given the Princeps the power of making war and peace. 2 That was not necessary

e Lex de imperio Vespasiana, as many do, that Augustus was given this power , explicitly. 3 Josephus, AJ 17, 229. PageBook

mmated in a peaceful and orderly fashion, so that the transmission of power appeared to be no different from its first legiti

feelings and good sense of a Roman aristocrat. Illicit and exorbitant power , ‘regnum’ or ‘dominatio’ as it was called, was no

oups of nobiles, the peers and rivals of Tiberius, gain splendour and power from his eclipse. Depressed and decimated by war

ds, construct new alliances in short, acquire a handsome share of the power and the profits. The most open political prize wa

i ac fortunae Caesarum proximi’. 2 Too much, perhaps, to hope for the power themselves but their descendants might have a cha

ear Tibur (ILS 921, &c). PageBook=>423 So Livia worked for power . But it is by no means certain that Silvanus was

2 but the other great branch of the Cornelii, the Lentuli, rising in power and prolific, yet highly circumspect, perpetuated

replace Augustus, was to be cheated, prevented from transmitting the power to the Claudii only. He was constrained to adopt

he true sentiments of Senate and People when the Claudian returned to power , no testimony exists. 2 In his own order and clas

campaigns he passed to Illyricum. In the interval of his absence, the power of Rome had been felt beyond the Danube. The pe

ition, as might be expected. In the six years following the return to power of Tiberius, along with descendants of the old no

y, making his dispositions for the smooth transference of the supreme power . As in 27 B.C., it was necessary that the Princip

onstrated and admitted that there could be no division of the supreme power . NotesPage=>438 1 Velleius 2, 125, 5. His

mies were alert to prosecute their advantage. Tiberius Caesar had the power they would not let him enjoy it in security and g

the Principate than the public conferment of legal and constitutional power . Deed and phrase recur at the beginning of Nero’s

HE NATIONAL PROGRAMME PageBook=>440 SO far the manner in which power was seized and held, the working of patronage, th

Augustus claimed that a national mandate had summoned him to supreme power in the War of Actium. Whatever the truth of that

professed and inculcated, if not adopted. It is not enough to acquire power and wealth: men wish to appear virtuous and to fe

usly debated whether Alexander himself, at the height and peak of his power , could have prevailed over the youthful vigour of

zen body. 3 This generosity, which in the past had established Rome’s power in Italy on the broad basis that alone could bear

decent worship of the Roman gods. That was the moral source of Rome’s power : nam quantum ferro tantum pietate potentes stam

iolence and reform alike were stayed and superseded. The rich were in power conspicuous in their serried ranks were hard-head

ugustus of history and panegyric stands aloof and alone, with all the power and all the glory. But he did not win power and h

f and alone, with all the power and all the glory. But he did not win power and hold it by his own efforts alone: was the ost

om Roman knights of the towns of Italy, it found itself rewarded with power in the Senate and in the councils of the Princeps

istocracy, avidly grasping the spoils of conquest, wealth, luxury and power , new tastes and new ideas, had discarded without

que iacet. 3 Laws were not enough. The revolutionary leader had won power more through propaganda than through force of arm

e. There was Sallustius, it is true, attacking both oligarchy and the power of money, with advocacy of moral and social refor

sibly abated but did not utterly cease. A more enduring instrument of power was slowly being forged. Augustus strove to reviv

ly celebrated. Worship might not be paid to the man but to the divine power within him, his genius or his numen: praesenti

nt could respect the magistrate and the imperator without worshipping power in the eastern fashion. Such at least was the the

ct peoples of the Empire and recapitulate the sources of his personal power in relation to towns, provinces and kings. The su

personal power in relation to towns, provinces and kings. The sum of power and prestige was tremendous. Who could have entur

l requital. The Pompeii were dead, but Titius lived on, in wealth and power . The town of Auximum in Picenum had once honoured

xcessive and intolerable forms of propaganda. Though the realities of power were veiled, none the less senators had an opport

enal’s day, and they mattered not at all. The Empire had broken their power and their spirit. The satirist did not dare to de

Juvenal 8, 1. 2 lb. 3, 60 ff. PageBook=>491 The nobiles lost power and wealth, display, dignity and honour. Bad men,

r permanent factions. The Scipiones had been an age of history. Their power had passed to the Metelli. Both houses waned befo

their allies. The Metelli had backed Sulla: they made a final bid for power when, with the Scipionic connexion, they supporte

ng the sacrifices of the blood-stained Principate, not the closest in power , in prestige, or in family to the Princeps. Allie

ntonii: to rule at Rome, he needed their descendants. The heir to his power was a Claudian. PageNotes. 493 1 Ann. 2, 37 f

aurus, to the blind old censor, to the Decemvir. Yet by a paradox the power went, not to the brilliant and ambitious branch o

diverse fortune. The Aemilii had been perilously close to the supreme power , with M. Aemilius Lepidus the Triumvir and L. Aem

t, to the contemporaries of Pompeius, have seemed destined to achieve power in the end. Inheriting from his father not only g

of afterwards. 3 The Fabii and the Valerii regained distinction and power through the patronage of Caesar and of Augustus.

distinction. With Trajan, a Spanish and Narbonensian faction comes to power . New men had ever been pressing forward, able, we

nsul in 40 B.C., is a portent, it is true but a portent of the future power of Spaniards and Narbonensians. By the time of Ca

ττων έσὠζετο. PageBook=>505 The nobiles were pushed aside from power , stripped of their estates and steadily thinned b

d there were old scores to pay off. Moreover, the secret struggle for power and distinction went on as before, enhanced by th

d to a slower rhythm, were none the less advancing remorselessly. The power of the nobiles was passing to the novi homines, t

ald the Empire’s invasion of the Roman government, they seize supreme power but do not hold it for long. Africa and the easte

l as political. It was not merely that the Principate engrossed their power and their wealth: worse than that, it stole their

nd restored to Libertas. The Roman People grieved at the decline in power and splendour of the ancient families whose names

of success. One man only of all whom the Revolution had brought to power deserved any public repute, and that was Agrippa,

racters should be colourless and innocuous. Their descendants enjoyed power and repute, their enemies kept silence; and the g

d and thrusting, stripped off all pretence in the race for wealth and power . The nobilis, less obtrusive, might be no better.

the enemy of their class, acquired in return for the cession of their power and ambition. Pride and pedigree returned: it mas

orian Tacitus, commenting on the stability of the new régime when the power was to pass from Augustus to Tiberius, remarks th

perished long ago, with might substituted for right. The contest for power in the Free State was splendid and terrible: ce

natio. Pompeius was no better. After that, only a contest for supreme power . 2 Tacitus does not even admit a restoration of t

ry of unrestricted imperium, was familiar with the notion of absolute power . The Principate, though absolute, was not arbitra

ld be invoked as a catchword against unpopular rulers, to stamp their power as illicit, in a word, as ‘dominatio’, not ‘princ

an of the Roman Empire and Governor of the Whole World’. 1 That the power of Caesar Augustus was absolute, no contemporary

had become Princeps and had converted a party into a government. For power he had sacrificed everything; he had achieved the

neca, L., the Elder, 292, 356. Annaeus Seneca, L., the Younger, his power and patronage, 502; On monarchy, 516; as a viticu

inistrative reforms, 401 ff., 410 f.; moral reforms, 443 ff. His real power , 2 f., 322 f., 370, 404 f.; in relation to the Ro

8; as a guarantee of liberty, 518; and concord, 9, 263, 519. Money, power of, 14 f., 62, 130 f., 351, 379 f., 501, 504. Mon

157 f., 420, 504, 506 f.; in the party of Marius, 19, 65; restored to power by Sulla, 17 ff.; attitude towards Pompeius, 30 f