e of the First Citizen. No matter: the Princeps stood pre-eminent, in virtue of prestige and authority tremendous and not to b

evealed in signal and continuous calamities: the gods had no care for virtue or justice, but intervened only to punish. 5 Agai

ly directed by ex-consuls. These men ruled, as did the Senate, not in virtue of written law, but through auctoritas; and the n

bition and wedded to quiet, the knights could claim no title of civic virtue , no share in the splendour and pride of the gover

te, Q. Lutatius Catulus and Q. Hortensius, related by marriage. 2 The virtue and integrity of Catulus, rare in that age, earne

confirmed from their own careers the folly of ambition, the vanity of virtue . 1 In the decline of the older generation the s

l the assassins as fanatic adepts of Greek theories about the supreme virtue of tyrannicide, blind to the true nature of polit

ity, not an alien importation. The word means courage, the ultimate virtue of a free man. With virtus go libertas and fides,

igh principle, family tradition and the primacy of civic over private virtue , all these were in the game. Yet in the forefront

nts and loyalty of Italy tota Italia; he was profuse in praise of the virtue and vigour of the novus homo. No evidence, howeve

and perhaps perverse admiration. A blameless life is not the whole of virtue , and inflexible rectitude may prove a menace to t

aristocratic standards, old and new, with their insistence upon civic virtue or personal liberty, accorded a wide indulgence.

citizen should render to the Commonwealth, that is, a manual of civic virtue . Once again the ideal statesman is depicted in ci

o dinner. 3 Freedom of speech was an essential part of the Republican virtue of libertas, to be regretted more than political

strong, was valid in this, that he held his extraordinary command in virtue of a plebiscite, as had both Pompeius and Caesar

me of them had been seized by the adventurer Sex. Pompeius, acting in virtue of the maritime command assigned to him by the Se

asses of the municipia, publicly lauded for the profession of ancient virtue , but avid and unscrupulous in their secret deeds.

g and bitter memories. Yet some of the proscribed were saved by civic virtue , personal influence or local patriotism. The citi

ts own purpose. The return was at once seen to be disappointing. From virtue or from caution, men refused to purchase estates

ate was packed with ruffians, the consulate, once the reward of civic virtue , now became the recompense of craft or crime. ‘

he young adventurer who had made his way by treachery and who, by the virtue of the name of Caesar, won the support of the ple

le, extolling abstention from politics and the cultivation of private virtue ; and some brand or other of Pythagorean belief mi

oriography for ever after. Sallustius wrote of the decay of ancient virtue and the ruin of the Roman People with all the mel

ained the partisans of Antonius. Caesar had invoked and practised the virtue of clemency to extenuate the guilt of civil war.

al of the patrician families; the two colleagues now held a census in virtue of powers specially granted and took in hand a pu

. 3 BMC, R. Emp. 1, 112. 4 Dio 53, 1, I ff. That this was done in virtue of censoria potestas is shown by the Fasti of Ven

. That Augustus exercised such a supervision there is no doubt—but in virtue of his auctoritas. Augustus’ own words (Res Gesta

with rank and authority. Caesar Augustus was to govern a provincia in virtue of imperium proconsulare: as proconsul, he was me

above all legal and written prescription stands auctoritas; it was in virtue of auctoritas that Augustus claimed pre-eminence

of Augustus’ military guard was doubled at the same time—and that in virtue of the Senate’s decree. 1 The significance of t

Piso had held aloof from public life, disdaining office. Augustus, in virtue of arbitrary power, offered the consulate. 1 Piso

Philippi were barely twenty years distant. The corruption of ancient virtue and the decline of ancient patriotism had brought

d recognize merit when he saw it. In Agrippa there was a republican virtue and an ideal of service akin to his own. There

rofit, elicited by patronage, bearing the garb and pretext of ancient virtue and manly independence, but all too often rapacio

hat would have been invidious and superfluous. His will prevailed, in virtue of auctoritas. 3 In the first four years of the

red the Free State. That was left to Augustus’ successor, no doubt in virtue of his final instructions. 1 The year A.D. 14 mar

icy mattered little in comparison with the fact that the Princeps, in virtue of his imperium controlled the greater number of

licly regulated as far as was possible. Tiberius became co-regent, in virtue of a law conferring on him powers equal with the

done in secret, through Sallustius Crispus, a secretary of state, in virtue of the provision of the dead Princeps for this em

s’; and what Rome now required was men like those of old, and ancient virtue . As the poet had put it long ago, moribus antiq

47 f. PageBook=>443 The same proud insistence on the inherited virtue of class and family stands out in Horace’s laudat

, he did not need it. The Princeps enacted the measures of 18 B.C. in virtue of auctoritas and by means of his tribunicia pote

the production of offspring, in a word, to restore the basis of civic virtue , were the Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus and t

me the decline of the native stock was palliated and compensated by a virtue singularly lacking in the city states of Greece b

As in all else, the First Citizen could act without law or title by virtue of his paramount auctoritas. Soon after the War o

, who had shattered Pyrrhus, Antiochus and Hannibal. 5 The ideal of virtue and valour was not Roman only, but Italian, ingra

est secure. The author of the most eloquent commendations of rustic virtue and plain living was himself a bachelor of Epicur

blicists who adapted to Roman language Greek theories about primitive virtue and about the social degeneration that comes from

istocrat of the golden age of the Scipiones was always the paragon of virtue that Cicero and his contemporaries affected to ad

not totally repugnant to sentiment. It was pietas, the typical Roman virtue . Augustus might observe with some satisfaction th

new régime. PageNotes. 454 (No Notes) PageBook=>455 Civic virtue of this kind could exist in the Roman aristocracy

lous, patriotic and proud of its retention of ancestral frugality and virtue . Patavium usurped the proverbial repute of the Sa

very novus homo, however, or provincial aristocrat was an exemplar of virtue and integrity. The Principate of Augustus did not

dius, a Titedius, a Bruttedius. 1 The necessary belief in municipal virtue rapidly extended to cover the provinces as well a

of wealth was conveniently masked as a sovran blend of ancient Roman virtue and Hellenic culture. Under the Principate of A

ean man appeared to surrender to a romantic passion for frugality and virtue , a fervent sympathy with martial and imperial ide

evive the pride of the nation and educate coming generations to civic virtue . The story of the first days of the city, estab

uth of Rome to honour the past, to be worthy of Rome in valour and in virtue . Instead, he composed a didactic poem on the Art

s Caesar hated the monarchy it meant the ruin of Roman and Republican virtue . The Principate was not a monarchy in name. That

content with ‘aurea mediocritas’. 2 The last and only refuge of Roman virtue and aristocratic independence of temper was to di

mself in caution or frivolity and practise with ostentation the sober virtue of quies or political quietism an inheritance fro

ke Sallustius and Pollio, the senator Tacitus, who admired Republican virtue but believed in ordered government, wrote a histo

ein lay the tragedy the Empire gave no scope for the display of civic virtue at home and abroad, for it sought to abolish war

t’. 6 This is a far cry from Marcus Brutus. A new conception of civic virtue , derived from the non-political classes of the Re

rmulated, with its own exemplars and its own phraseology. Quies was a virtue for knights, scorned by senators; and neutrality

ere in the whole document even a hint of the imperium proconsulare in virtue of which Augustus controlled, directly or indirec

f history, 250. Cinna, see Cornelius. Claudia, exemplar of female virtue , 444. Claudia, wife of Brutus, 45, 58. Claudia,

a, daughter of Scribonia, 229, 238; her sons, 422; exemplar of female virtue , 444, 467. Cornelia, wife of C. Calvisius Sabin

he Restoration of the Republic, 324 f.; on moral legislation, 455; on virtue and vice, 105; on Republic and Monarchy, 512 ff.;