Augustus_ The Life of Rome's First Emperor - Anthony Everitt [157]
Power was for use, not for ornament. Augustus did not allow Tiberius and Drusus to celebrate even well-deserved triumphs, although they received triumphal insignia (that is, they had the honor of a triumph although none was actually held). In theory, the brothers did not qualify for the honor, for they were not army commanders themselves, but deputies or legati of their stepfather. But a more important principle was at stake. Only the princeps should be a triumphator, for no one else was allowed to rival him for military glory. The last senator to hold a triumph had done so in 19 B.C. Agrippa, the greatest general of the day, loyally held back, refusing to accept three triumphs when offered. However, Tiberius had no cause for resentment: this year he was consul for the first time, at the age of twenty-nine.
Splendid ceremonial aside, some important public business was put in hand. Augustus and Agrippa had their imperium renewed for another five years, and for the first time Agrippa was awarded imperium maius, the overriding authority that allowed him to give orders to provincial governors. This was a momentous event, for it placed him for the first time on completely equal terms with the princeps.
Despite the reforms of the past fifteen years, the Senate was still not working as well as it should. The adoption in 18 B.C. of a million sesterces as the new wealth minimum for membership had had the unintended consequence that qualified men who wished to avoid service were able to plead poverty (not always honestly) and so win exemption from senatorial status. Not enough suitable men were making themselves available for the vigintiviri, the junior administrative jobs that opened a political career.
During his absence from Rome, Augustus had arranged for a decree allowing him to open the vigintiviri to selected equites. Now that he was back in the city, he reviewed the entire membership of the Senate and compelled senatorial malingerers—that is, young men of the senatorial class who possessed the necessary property qualification but tried to conceal it—to take their proper places.
Fighting apathy in the ruling elite was an uphill struggle, and Augustus’ adjustments made little real difference. The great offices of state and senior army appointments gave status to those who held them. But the fact that power was gathered into one man’s hands, not widely distributed as it had been under the Republic, was the real reason that many young men were less interested in a public career than their forebears had been. There was nothing Augustus would or could do about that.
A long-overdue departure at last took place. Self-seeking, self-indulgent old Lepidus had spent a quiet quarter of a century in retirement. Augustus had dropped him as triumvir but left him with his private fortune and his position as pontifex maximus. In 13 B.C. he died, full of years if not of honor.
Now that Lepidus had gone, Augustus succeeded him as pontifex maximus. Finally, he had reached the commanding heights of the Roman religious establishment. He was in a stronger position than ever to accelerate his efforts to restore traditional religious values. Most educated Romans were skeptics and rationalists yet still harbored a belief that Rome’s greatness was in some way due to its piety. If the pax deorum, the goodwill of the gods, were not maintained, then disaster could be just around the corner.
As we have seen, Augustus’ temple building and restoration program was only one aspect