Augustus had already been more than once invested with the consulship.
His first was in 709; the second, which he immediately afterwards
resigned, was ten years later; two years afterwards came his third; the
others, down to the eleventh, followed year by year: he was altogether
thirteen times consul. It was soon after the end of the war of Actium,
that he behaved as if he wanted to lay down his power as dictator. This
was, as every body knew, a farce; nor could he have been taken at his
word, as the whole army had sworn obedience to him, and besides the
soldiers, no citizens were under arms. And no man in his senses could
have wished him to resign his authority: for, if under far more
favourable circumstances, when very many eminent men were living, and
people were still quite accustomed to the republic, the free
constitution had not been able to stand its ground, and the state was
ruled by individuals; how should it now have held its own, if Augustus
had given up his power: some one else, and very likely some more
unworthy person, would have been placed at the helm; and thus there
would only have arisen new civil wars. The senate therefore may have
been quite in earnest when beseeching him; and Augustus may also have
put on a serious face, as he hoped thus to have his former cruelties
forgotten. To show the exact date of the rise of his power might be
impossible, or at least very difficult. The name of _Imperator_ was
now—this was a peculiar form of flattery—given him as a _prænomen_; so
that instead of C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus, he was now called Imperator
Julius Cæsar Octavianus: from thence, _Imperator_ was always the
_prænomen_ of the Roman emperors; as we may see from the coins. In the
second century, this was forgotten: in official style indeed one said
Imperator Antoninus Augustus, but otherwise Imperator M. Antoninus
Augustus as well. Octavian in fact wished to have Romulus as a kind of
_agnomen_; but as some took umbrage at this, it was resolved on the
motion of L. Munatius Plancus—who now distinguished himself by his
flatteries, just as had been done among the Greeks with regard to their
Macedonian rulers—to call him Augustus, which the Greeks at once
translated into Σεβαστός. The dictatorship was offered to him; but he
declined it: this may have been owing to superstition, from which he was
not free. It is possible that Sylla’s and Cæsar’s ends frightened him;
but perhaps also, the thing seemed to him to be too straightforward, and
it pleased him as it were to play with it. But he was named consul every
year, if he chose: they wanted to make him sole consul; but he refused
it, and rather wished to have two consuls to help him: this again was
opposed by the senate; “one besides him was already too much.” At the
same time, the proconsular power out of Rome was given him over the
whole of the empire, and he could always exercise it by deputy; so that
he was enabled to give away the provinces at his pleasure. With the
censorship, he got the privilege of excluding from the senate, or
calling into it, any one whom he chose. By virtue of his office of
tribune, he could annul the decrees of the senate, and interfere with
every act of all the magistrates: moreover it gave him the _provocatio_
from all judicial decisions, which is the source of the modern appeal.
He was tribune for life, and as such had the right of calling the senate
together, of making motions, and of putting matters to the vote: this
first began in the seventh century, and no one was now startled at
it.[27] To Lepidus he left indeed the name of _pontifex maximus_; but
after his death, he had that dignity also conferred upon himself, and
thus he engrossed the whole authority of the spiritual law. Moreover, he
had, by means of the tribunician and censorial powers, the supreme
control over the _ærarium_; so that, by an artificial accumulation, all
the powers of government, with the exception of the administrative ones
of the præetors and consuls, were concentrated in his person.
When Augustus, after the battle of Actium, tried to give a new form to
the state, he, for the sake of appearance, went back in everything to
the ancient form. Cæsar took into his own hands half of the elections,
and at last even all of them; but Augustus restored the elections which
were held by the _comitia_, though the _Candidati Cæsaris_ now stood, of
whom it was an understood thing that they were to suffer no _repulsa_.
The poets of that time, for instance Horace, speak of the _ambitio
Campi_, and of the uncertainty of the elections, in language which one
could only have used in the days of the republic; and there is some
truth in it: for Augustus did not give himself the trouble, or did not
take it upon himself to meddle with all the elections. This was so much
the case, that owing to Egnatius Rufus in particular a tumult arose; as
the latter, in defiance of the person who represented Augustus, and in
violation of the _leges annales_, stood for the prætorship, just after
he had been ædile; and also, immediately after his prætorship, for the
consulship: to such a degree was the show of liberty kept up! Yet, after
all, assemblies of the people were in reality confined to those
elections. Of _plebiscita_ no mention is made in earnest in the reign of
Augustus: for we cannot reckon that to be one, which Pacuvius, a
tribune, brought forward to have the month of Sextilis called August. Of
laws, there were several passed: the form in which this was done, was
that a decree of the senate was laid by the consuls before the
centuries, and approved of by the latter. This, as there is reason to
believe, may have lasted until some time in the reign of Tiberius, to
judge from the _Lex Julia Norbana_: afterwards we do not hear any more
of laws properly so called.
Cæsar had already introduced a host of adventurers into the senate, and
Antony a great many more; and it was just the same in the times of the
triumvirate. Augustus now caused it to be made known, that those who
felt that they were not fit for the senate, had better to leave it of
their own free will; so that he might not have to strike them off the
list: whoever acted thus should be treated in the most considerate
manner. A few only, not more than about fifty, did so. As this was not
enough, he put out a great many more: but not to hurt their feelings,
and because he feared for his life from their offended vanity, he left
to them the _latus clavus_ and the first seats in the theatre; which was
a great consolation for those wretches. He raised the _census
senatorius_, which for an indefinite period had been double the _census
equestris_, to a million sesterces: at the same time, he behaved
liberally, and to those whom he wished to keep in the senate, he made up
what was wanting from the public means. The senate had until then its
regular sittings three times a month, and extraordinary ones only when
summoned; Augustus reduced these to two, and gave it holidays during the
months of September and October. Even now, the whole of October is still
the vacation time at Rome; after the end of September, no more business
can be done: under the emperors, all the courts of law had vacations in
the autumn, which was a thing quite unknown in the days of the republic.
In the senate, nothing else could be taken in hand but what the consul
laid before it, as to him belonged the _jus relationis_. Augustus,
however, was also _princeps senatus_; and as such he revived the claim
he had by the old forms to the _jus relationis_, a right which had been
dropped in the later times of the republic. He now formed for himself
another and more select council of state, which had previously to
discuss all those matters that were to be brought before the senate.
Anything like a debate in the senate is no more to be thought of: all
that was proposed, was sure to pass; there was nothing else done but
making fine phrases and compliments.
The extraordinary powers which Augustus had, he caused to be given him,
after the battle of Actium, first for ten years; then, for five; then,
once more, for five; then, three times, for ten years: in the very
beginning of the third decennium, he died. The tribunician authority he
had given him for life. The senate had formerly been, for their Roman
subjects, the supreme court to judge political crimes; and this
privilege Augustus left to it, so as to shift the odium thereof from
himself upon the senators: it afterwards became their chief business.
With the taxation, the senate had nothing whatever to do, as Augustus
had the control over the finances of the whole empire, and could raise
or lower the taxes. In Italy itself there was no land-tax, even as with
us there is none on the seignorial estates; but indirect taxes were
paid, and of these there was a variety, as, for instance, on legacies
and bequests, and when slaves were made free. Even as the hereditary
Stadtholder of Holland was Captain General and high Admiral, so was
Augustus master of the whole army, that is of the forty-three or
forty-seven legions, and of the innumerable _auxilia_, about 400,000 men
in all: over these, the senate had not the slightest power, not even
over the enlistment of them. The provinces in which no troops were
regularly stationed, and which therefore did not belong to the military
department, (Italy, as the country of the sovereign people, was excepted
from all these regulations,) came under the care of the senate: these
were Asia, Africa (so far as it was not subject to Juba), Gallia
Narbonensis, Hispania Bætica, Achaia, Macedon, Bithynia, Cyprus, Crete,
and Cyrene.[28] For himself, Augustus kept by far the larger and richer
share, namely, Spain, all but Bætica; Gallia Lugdunensis and Aquitaine;
the countries north of the Alps, Rhætia, and Vindelicia; Dalmatia,
Pannonia, (Thrace had a king,) Mœsia; Pontus, (Cappadocia had a king,)
Cilicia, Syria, and Egypt: the revenues of these provinces may have
hardly been sufficient to keep the armies which lay there in fortified
camps. The senate had two proconsular and ten pro-prætorian provinces;
but it was not until five years after a man had been consul or prætor,
that he could be admitted to cast lots with those who were to preside
over the provinces. Augustus made some wholesome changes with regard to
the arbitrary rule which was exercised in the provinces; certainly in
his own provinces, yet very likely also in those of the senate. Until
then, all governors had unchecked power to take whatever they pleased:
he was the first to assign fixed appointments to these functionaries.
His governors, whom he chose indiscriminately from the senators, _viri
consulares_, _prætorii_, and knights, were called _legati Augusti_: as
we learn from coins and inscriptions, their official title was _legati
pro Consule_, _Prætore_, and so forth. The senatorial governors were as
before, for one year; those of Augustus, for an indefinite period; for
four, five, or even ten years. This was a very happy change for the
provinces; yet the ones which had an imperial governor, were much better
off than those which were senatorial: in these last, we are sorry to
meet with _actiones repetundarum_; even as late as the second century;
in fact their whole establishment was but a pageant for which the
subjects had to pay dearly. There was a double _ærarium_, that of the
senate, and that of the emperor: how far the latter had also the
disposal of that of the senate, is more than we can tell. Among the
proofs of Augustus’ thoughtfulness, are to be reckoned measures like the
_Lex Ælia Sentia_, by which a stop was put to those disgraceful
emancipations which brought down the franchise to the very lowest
slaves. The way in which the Roman citizens were spread far and wide,
was prodigious: the franchise reached much beyond the frontiers of
Italy, and Narbonnese Gaul, and a great many places in Spain, had
likewise the privileges of citizenship. Such provincials could not,
however, get into the senate. Yet even to this rule there were
exceptions: as early as in the days of Cæsar, some of them had been
brought into it; and under Augustus there were yet more, especially from
Provence, where Latin was spoken very early, so much so indeed that the
country itself was called _Italia altera_.[29] The number of the _capita
civium_, as is given at that time,—somewhat more than four
millions,—seems to us frightfully small; for we are not to look upon it
as that of the fathers of families, as all free men who in their
sixteenth year had put on the _prætexta_ must be reckoned therein. One
quite shudders at the falling off of the population, and by this again
we learn how great was the rage and fury of the civil wars.
Among the praiseworthy regulations which he made, are also those about
the police of Rome. The state of the capital was awful. Since the days
of Sylla and the proscriptions, no one at Rome was sure of his life, nor
was there any kind of police: to see this, we have only to read the
orations of Cicero _pro Cluentio_, _pro Milone_, _pro Sexto Roscio
Amerino_; in Suetonius, we meet with accounts of bandits (_grassatores_)
openly showing themselves in Rome with their short swords. Augustus,
with great determination, put that down. We see what consequences will
arise, when old institutions are allowed to go on without being modified
according to the wants of the times: that which at first was wise and
expedient, in after days becomes perverted and mischievous. Augustus
made a new division of the city. Rome had kept all its municipal
arrangements even as Servius Tullius had left them: it had four regions,
and also the liberties of the Aventine, as a sort of suburb: the real
suburbs were quite neglected. These four regions had _vici_, and this
perhaps was also the case with the other districts: all police matters
there were under the charge of the _ædiles plebis_, which was quite
insufficient. Augustus, without troubling himself about what was old
town, new town, _pomœrium_, and so forth, now divided the whole extent
of the city, as it was then really inhabited, into fourteen regions:
over each region he placed a magistrate, and it had likewise a number of
_vici_, every one of which was presided over by a _magister vici_. This
division proved excellent, and by it security was restored in Rome.
Owing to the extension of the empire, the Roman magistrates, who at
first had been the magistrates of a city, could now no longer give their
time to city business; and therefore several _magistratus minores_ had
been established: but these offices had no authority, and they were in
the hands of freedmen, as no man of any rank would have anything to do
with them. Some years after the battle of Actium, Augustus instituted a
_præfectus urbi_ in whom the whole of the city administration was
concentrated: this place he bestowed according to his own pleasure; L.
Piso held it for twenty years. The good done by this magistracy, and his
most happy choice of the person who filled it, was one of the chief
causes which gained for him the affection of the inhabitants of the
capital. Moreover he set up a sort of _Gensd’armerie_, _vigiles_,
_cohortes urbanæ_, which had to act and to be at hand whenever it was
wanted; as when there was a riot, a fire, in short, anything serious.
The men were in barracks, thus forming a sort of garrison which he might
keep without its making any show. He also established a _præfectura
ærarii_, very likely, not only for his own _ærarium_, but also for that
of the senate: at least, the imperial treasury afterwards absorbed the
other which had formerly been managed by quæstors. For all these offices
he chose, from a εὐπρόσωτος αἰτία, _equites Romani_, not senators: these
last, cringing and fawning as they were, still had a mighty opinion of
their own dignity.
By a _lex Julia_, the courts of justice had been entirely restored into
the hands of the knights. This law he maintained; but he prodigiously
increased the lists of the jury (the decuries), inasmuch as for petty
cases he admitted persons of less fortune than the _census equester_
required.
Italy had accidentally grown into one mass. At first, it had not reached
beyond the south; but by little and little it had been stretched further
to Cisalpine Gaul: Etruria and Umbria thus belonged to it, whilst the
Rubicon was the boundary between it and the provinces. Augustus now
extended it, as was right, to the Alps, and this Italy he divided into a
number of regions. What was the meaning of these regions, cannot be made
out; but one would almost believe that they must have had some reference
to the quæstors, of whom, at that time, there were forty to collect the
revenue, and also ten prætors. Whether presidents besides were given to
such districts, like the consulars appointed by Hadrian, and the
_correctores_ under Severus; is a thing of which there is no trace to be
met with in the reigns of Augustus and his immediate successors. By this
I do not, however, mean to say, that they had not some sort of
authorities over them; for the supposition that the region must have had
a corresponding office is so very natural. At a later period, we find in
inscriptions and in books very many notices, which bear upon the
subject; but at this time, none whatever.
Augustus had a huge private fortune. He possessed whole principalities,
of which Josephus gives us a very striking example in the will of Herod,
who bequeathed his property to the family of the Cæsars: such kings and
tetrarchs very often left all that they had to the emperors. The
stewards of the countries which belonged to these last, were the
_procuratores Cæsaris_: they were generally knights, but never senators;
they might even be imperial freedmen, though perhaps this was not yet
the case under Augustus. In the provinces, the emperor was so absolute,
that Augustus, for instance, changed the whole registration of land in
Gaul without asking any body’s leave, were it only for form’s sake. The
soldiers all swore fealty to the emperor, certainly also to the
_imperium populi Romani_; but no one was bound to the consul. The
establishment of the prætorian cohorts was no innovation. There had been
such troops from the earliest times, being a sort of guards or
orderlies, like the “_guides des généraux_” during the French
revolution: they are to be met with in the Punic wars, and also in the
civil wars, on both sides; and they had arisen out of the former
_evocati_. Augustus had taken them back with him, and had founded
twenty-eight military colonies, as a means of checking any popular
movement; and that he might likewise curb these veterans themselves, he
formed the _cohortes prætoriæ_, which in Italy represented in fact the
armed Roman people: they were chiefly enlisted, or raised by
conscription, from the districts of Latium which had been the
strongholds of the Marian party. At first, he kept them scattered in
Italy, so as to cause no alarm; but by degrees they were drawn nearer
and nearer, until at last the _castrum prætorium_ before the city was
built. Under Augustus there were about eight thousand of them.
Formerly the provincials were called to arms only in cases when a
province was threatened; henceforth from the subjects of all the
provinces of the emperor, many of whom had the lesser Roman franchise,
cohorts were formed, which we hear of under the name of _auxilia_, and
which may have made up about the half of the army. _Socii_ are no more
spoken of at all. The legions, with regard to the organization of which
in those days one is quite in the dark, had to serve a regular term of
sixteen years; afterwards, they still remained for some time under the
_vexilla_ as a reserve, and then they were to have land assigned them.
This system of allotments was Augustus’ work, as was also the increase
of pay. Hitherto the soldiers had got the old pay of a hundred and
twenty _denarii_, or twelve hundred _asses_, yearly; Cæsar doubled, and
Augustus trebled it. This was, after all, not much, about sixty dollars
of our money; and as the price of everything at Rome had then immensely
risen, it was not a large pay for fellows like these who had the throne
in their gift. Still, owing to the number of soldiers, it was a burthen
which the state could hardly bear, as even Tiberius, who was a very able
ruler, already acknowledged.