The Augustan “Golden” Age

4/17/12   CHANGE  OF  SCHEDULE   • MEAD  MUSEUM  VISIT  NEXT  CLASS  (FRI.  4/20)      **  Please  arrive  at  Mead  Museum  on  2me!  **      -­‐  meet  in  vesEbule  area  and  put  your  backpack  in   the  self-­‐serve  lockers  (consider  traveling  light  on   Friday?)    -­‐  once  we  are  gathered,  we  will  go  together  to   the  study  room    -­‐  pencils  only  in  the  study-­‐room    -­‐  no  reading  due  on  Friday  (the  lecture  scheduled   for  Friday  will  be  moved  to  Monday)   Four  steps  to  reform  troubled  senate   • Augustus  does  not  abolish  senate     – Keeps  tradiEons  intact  but  shi^s  focus   – Service  to  the  state    service  to  the  emperor   1)    Purges  senate  roster  four  Emes  (28,  18,  11,  4)   2)  Controls  entry  into  senate   3)  Creates  Senatorial  class:  ordo  senatorius   – Inherited  privileges  and  $$  requirements  for   enrollment   4)  Keeps  cursus  honorum,  but  old  magistracies=  sinecures   – real  work  done  by  new  cadre  of  officials  (prefects   and  legates)  staffed  by  senators  chosen  by  Augustus   The  Augustan  “Golden”  Age   • • • • • • • Peace  (pax  augusta  /  augustana)   Cultural  (arEsEc  &  literary)  producEon   Rome  becomes  city  of  marble,  not  brick   Moral  reform   Religious  revival  and  restoraEon   Reform  of  Senate  &  Army  (old  problems  of  Rep.)   Program  of  reform  always  balanced  by   anEquarianism–  cast  innovaEon  as  return  to  past   Examples  of  new  structure  for  civil  service   • Aug.  controls  state  grain  supply  from  22  BC  on   – Two  senators  chosen  as  praefec4  frumen4  dandi                (prefects  for  distribuEng  grain)   – Prefects  appointed  by  and  responsible  to  emperor   • Chooses  senior  senators  as  lega4  provinciae   – legates  of  province  =  governor  answerable  to  Aug.   • Forms  new  administraEon  staffed  by  senators   as  civil  servants   1   4/17/12   Effects  of  Augustus’  reforms  for  senate   • Structure  of  Republican  Senate  sEll  in  place,   but  means  something  very  different   • Move  from  oligarchy  into  aristocracy  of  service   – Senators  =  servants,  not  masters,  of  the  State   – Offices  of  cursus  honorum  sEll  presEgious,  but   not  where  the  work  gets  done   – Work  gets  done  by  emperor’s  staff  of   administrators  chosen  from  the  senate.   Horace  Odes  3.6  (20’s  BC)   “Though  innocent,  Roman,  you  will  pay  for  the  sins  of   your  fathers  unEl  you  restore  the  crumbling  temples   and  shrines  of  the  gods  and  their  smoke-­‐blackened   images.   You  rule  because  you  hold  yourself  inferior  to  the  gods.    Make  this  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  things.   Neglect  of  the  gods  has  brought  many  ills  to  the   sorrowing  land  of  Hesperia…   Teeming  with  sin,  our  Emes  have  sullied  first  the    marriage  bed,  our  offspring,  and  our  homes.  From   this  source,  the  stream  of  disaster  has  drowned  the   people  and  the  fatherland   Army:  several  major  areas  of  reform   1)  DistribuEon  of  army  across  Empire     – 15  of  28  legions  staEoned  on  Northern  fronEer   – 4  on  Eastern  fronEer  facing  rival  Parthian  empire   – First  stone  forts  for  Roman  army     =  change  of  mentality:    Rome  now  has  limits?   2)  Standing  army–  not  levied  for  each  campaign   – Less  need  for  conEnuous  military  campaigns   – Police  force  at  Rome  and  firefighters,  finally!   3) Veterans:  6  AD,  Aug.  sets  up  reErement  program   Paid  by  aerarium  militare,  military  treasury  (financed   by  iniEal  grant  from  Aug.,  then  5%  inheritance  tax   and  1%  sales  tax)   – Prefects  appointed  to  administer   – The  maiden  takes  delight  early  on  in  learning  Grecian   dances  and  trains  herself  in  seducEon  and  plans   unholy  loves  with  passion  unrestrained…   Openly,  when  bidden,  and  not  without  her  husband’s   knowledge,  she  rises–  whether  it  be  some  peddler   who  summons  her,  or  the  captain  of  some  Spanish   ship,  lavish  purchaser  of  shame.   Not  such  were  those  who  sired  the  youth  that  dyed  the   sea  with  Punic  blood  and  struck  down  Pyrrhus  and   great  AnEochus  and  fierce  Hannibal;    but  a  manly   brood  of  peasant  soldiers,  taught  to  turn  the  earth   with  a  Sabine  hoe…   What  has  injurious  Eme  not  diminished?    Our  parents   were  not  the  men  their  fathers  were,  and  they  bore   children  worse  than  themselves,  whose  children  will   be  baser  sEll…   2   4/17/12   Rome’s  sins  led  to  civil  war?   • End  of  the  civil  wars  =  relief  but  also  GUILT   – Gods  and  temples  have  been  forsaken   – Sin  contaminates  family  (adultery  with  outsiders)   – InfiltraEon  of  Eastern  finery,  dances,  and  make-­‐up   – No  longer  good  old  days  of  Roman  soldier-­‐farmer   – Now,  each  generaEon  worse  than  the  last   • Hunger  for  revival  of  morals  and  religion:     – fix  the  pax  deorum!       – Stop  the  decline  of  the  mos  maiorum!   Augustus’  religious  revival   • Propaganda  ag.  Ant.:  Roman  gods  vs.  EgypEan   • “In  my  6th  consulship  [28BC]  I  repaired  82  temples  of   the  gods  in  the  city,  in  accordance  with  a  resoluEon  of   the  senate,  neglecEng  none  which  required  repair”   • Also  restores  old  priesthoods,  cults,  and  older  rituals   •  Spiritual  &  physical  restoraEon  of  pax  deorum   -­‐Everyone  involved:  street-­‐corner  shrines   -­‐“genius”  Augustus  at  center   •  Again,  both  old  (revival  of  religion)  &  new   (central  religious  role  of  new  princeps)   18-­‐17  BC  Family  &  Social  Reform  :     state  polices  private  morality    1)  Lex  Julia  de  Adulteriis  Coercendis   (Julian  Law  for  Curbing  Adultery):            -­‐  Adultery  =  Crime        -­‐  Father  can  kill  daughter’s  adulterer (husband  can  kill  wife’s  adulterer  if   adulterer  not  respectable  Roman  cit.)   2)  Lex  Papia  Poppaea:  rewards  marriage   &  children;  penalizes  childlessness   MESSAGE?  Family  values  =  heart  of   Augustan  revival  of  peace,  prosperity   &  ferElity   – from  paterfamilias  to  pater  patriae   3