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By Root 660 0

the private man lived decently according to the standards of the time, and the public man did terrible things, but usually for the public good.

It is argued that Augustus was merely the last in a line of unruly, Republic-busting dynasts who came and went throughout the first century B.C. Like a surfer, he rode a wave of change that was already rolling.

There is something in this. If the Actium campaign had had a different outcome, the trend toward autocracy might well have continued unabated. But would the careless and unfocused Antony have been able to build such an enduring edifice? One doubts it.

Augustus once wrote in an edict: “May I achieve the reward to which I aspire…of carrying with me, when I die, the hope that these foundations I have established for the state will abide secure.” His hope was fulfilled. Of all Rome’s emperors, he reigned the longest; and his work lasted, with modifications, for many generations. His successors all called themselves Augustus and cited his example (however differently they in fact behaved). State institutions continued to evolve in ways he did not predict, but in the main along the lines he set down.

Augustus devoted his long reign to perfecting and implementing two core policies—constitutional reform, and imperial expansion under one-man rule. But no less important was his management of the provinces. Working with his friend and partner, Agrippa, he spent many years touring the empire. He disciplined, if he did not entirely eliminate, the rapacity of imperial proconsuls; he encouraged urbanization and the Roman way of life; and he extended Roman citizenship to many thousands of provincials throughout the empire.

This had a hugely important consequence. It generated loyalty and gratitude to Rome. It made people feel that they were not victims of the empire, but its stakeholders. They were members of an imperial commonwealth. It was this shared consciousness that helped to bind Europe and the lands of the Mediterranean basin together for half a millennium and more.

How many statesmen in human history can lay claim to such a record of enduring achievement?

NOTES

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ABBREVIATIONS

Full publication data for modern works appears in the Sources section.

Aesch Prom

Aeschylus, Prometheus Unbound

App

Appian, Civil Wars

Res Gest

Augustus, Res Gestae

Barrett

Anthony A. Barrett, Livia

Aul Gell

Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae

Caes Gall

Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War

Carcopino

Jérôme Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome

Carter

J. M. Carter, The Battle of Actium

CAH

Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 10

Old CAH

Cambridge Ancient History (1923–1939), vol. 10

Castle

E. B. Castle, Ancient Education and Today

Dio

Cassius Dio, Roman History

Celsus

Celsus, De Medicina

Cic Att

Cicero, Letters to Atticus

Cic Brut

Cicero, Letters to Brutus

Cic De Or

Cicero, De Oratore

Cic Fam

Cicero, Letters to His Friends [ad Familiares]

Cic Phil

Cicero, Philippics

Connolly and Dodge

Peter Connolly and Hazel Dodge, The Ancient City, Life in Classical Athens and Rome

CIL

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

Dupont

Florence Dupont, Daily Life in Ancient Rome

Florus

Florus, Epitome of Roman History

Fuller

J.F.C. Fuller, The Decisive Battles of the Ancient World and Their Influence on History

Grant Cleo

Michael Grant, Cleopatra

Grant Glad

Michael Grant, Gladiators: The Bloody Truth

Green

Peter Green, From Alexander to Actium

Green Erot

Peter Green (trans.), Ovid, The Erotic Poems

Hom Il

Homer, Iliad

Hom Od

Homer, Odyssey

van Hoof

Anton van Hoof, Autothanasia to Suicide: Self-killing in Classical Antiquity

Hor Cent

Horace, Centennial Hymn

Hor Ep

Horace, Epistles

Hor Odes

Horace, Odes

Hor Sat

Horace, Satires

ILS

Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ed. H. Dessau

Jackson

Ralph Jackson, Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire

Jos Ant

Josephus, Antiquities

Levick

Barbara Levick, Tiberius the Politician

Livy Per

Livy, Periochae

Livy

Livy, Preface