Inner Strife and the Dynasts of the Late Republic.

(This post is based on a lecture held by Jan Frode Hatlen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, September 11 2008, but any factual errors in the text are strictly my responsibility.)

(Also, lecture #3 was a discussion lecture where we were given extracts from the Disgest (I’m fairly certain), a poem by Martial and a few lines of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, and then asked to try and describe the nature of Roman slavery on the basis of these sources. As I’m sure you’re able to appreciate, I’m not gonna bother transcribing the few, paltry constructive sentences uttered during those 90 minutes. Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be able to say much sensible even if I tried, as I pretty much spent the “lecture” in an attempt to describe the patron-client relationship as I’ve understood it from Qviller (1999), to the only other person in my group. So let’s just get down to tonight’s business: Lecture #4.)

Victory and Domination

The first half of the second century BCE saw the spread of Roman dominion over the Mediterranean region. (Cf. lecture #2.) During this period Rome herself experienced a well-nigh incomprehensibly immense influx of goods, wealth, slaves and migrants. Rome’s maw seemed bottomless, an impression made more immediate by the fact that those on the actual bottom of Roman society (apart from the slaves, of course, but those were hardly regarded as part of society anyway) hardly saw any of this abundance at all, except as witnesses to the conspicuous consumption of the Roman elité. As the distribution of wealth in Roman society became ever more unequal, the equestrian and senatorial families started to develop a taste for luxury, as well as for Greek architechture. Meanwhile, the increased amount of money entailed that more people could afford to buy slaves, and more slaves meant less work — exacerbating the already dramatic social differences.

At the same time the memory of the ravages of Hannibal was still fresh, as were their consequences. People continued to nurture more or less irrational fears about “a new Carthage”, and the Italian domestic situation was hardly well suited for relaxing their fears. As it turns out, having an unchecked enemy army roaming around the countryside at will for about a decade tends not to work wonders for stability and peace.

In the world of politics the Senate was the dominating force, although they experienced sharp competition from various army commanders (imperators) who were far from shy about exploiting their martial exploits for political gain. After all, what else were the military offices there for? As a result of the newly increased status and power of the imperators, the competition among members of the Senatorial order for these offices grew more intense.

The Role of the Scipio Family in the Republic.

As a more or less representative case study, let’s take a look at how the Scipio family was involved in Roman politics during the Republic.

The Scipio family was immortalised by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior when he defeated Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces at the Battle of Zama (202 BCE). Scipio Africanus was married to a woman named Aemilia Paulla, and together they had (among others) the son Scipio Minor, and the daughters Cornelia Maior and Cornelia Minor. Scipio Minor would have been a fairly unremarkable figure in Roman history, had it not been for the fact that when his mother’s brother, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, divorced his wife Papiria, remarried and put the sons of his first marriage out for adoption, Scipio Minor adopted the youngest son, Lucius Aemilis Paullus. After his adoption by his cousin, Lucius Aemilis Paullus was then renamed to Scipio Aemilianus, and later he became famous for wiping out Carthage during the Third Punic War. Scipio Aemilianus also became involved in politics around the time of his cousins adopted cousins Publius Scipio Nasica Serapio and the brothers Gracchus.

To take the first of these cousins first, Publius Scipio Nasica Serapio was the son of Scipio Africanus’ eldest daughter, Cornelia Maior and Scipio Nasica Corculum. In time he would come to hold the position of pontifex maximus (the head of the Roman college of priest), and as such lead the charge that caused the death of his cousin Tiberius Gracchus.

As you might remember, Scipio Africanus had yet another daughter, Cornelia Minor — often identified as the most politically influential woman in the history of Rome. She was married to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus Maior, and together they had the sons Tiberius and Gaius, and the daughter Sempronia. We’ll get back to the roles played by the Gracchus brothers later; for now we’ll content ourselves with remarking that Tiberius was married to Claudia — the daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher, the princeps senatus. Additionally, Tiberius and Gaius’ sister Sempronia was married to Scipio Aemillianus.

The Late Republic can thus be seen as the family argument of the millenium.

(I’ve probably messed these family ties up badly, though.)

Tiberius Gracchus

Tiberius Gracchus served in the army in Spain, during a campaign the Romans lost. He managed to negotiate safe passage back to Roman areas for his men, but the agreement wasn’t ratified by the Senate, which perceived it as unworthy of Rome (a view advocated by Tiberius’ cousin Scipio Aemilianus). Still, probably because of his officer’s status, Tiberius got away, and anecdotes claim that he traveled home by land. This journey is said to have taken him through the rural interior regions of Italy, where he was able to witness the misery of the rural population first-hand, and that this was the basis for his land reforms.

During the preceding century or so the ager publicus (or public land), the land owned by Rome collectively, had swollen as a consequence of Rome’s expansion in Italy. This land was meant to be available to all, but in reality the upper classes (the Senatorial families and the equites) had appropriated it for themselves. What Tiberius (most likely in collusion with his father-in-law and princeps senatus Appius Claudius Pulcher and the tribune Scaevola) wanted to do was basically to divide the ager publicus among the people. No one, his reform would have decided, would own more than 500 iugera plus 250 iugera per child of the ager publicus, 1 jugera being the amount of land a man with a team of oxen could manage to plough in one day. (Some have argued that an upper limit to the portion anyone was allowed to own of the ager publicus was set to 1000 iugera, but others deem this as unlikely.)

However, the division and allotment of the ager publicus was a complex task, to reform also included the creation of a three-man collegium to oversee the distribution of the land. This collegium would consist of Tiberius Gracchus himself, Appius Claudius Pulcher and Tiberius’ little brother, the 18 year-old Gaius. Additionally, this collegium would reserve the right to distribute the ager publicus land confiscated from the Senators and equites to the poor, in batches of 30 iugera per person, that the beneficiary could never lose.

While this reform was far from revolutionary, or even original (many similar reforms had been suggested earlier), and it wasn’t unusual to go outside the Senate for these kinds of things (Tiberius put forth the proposition in front of the Popular Assembly). What was problematic was the way in which Tiberius went about his reform. Tiberius was a Tribune at this point, as was a man called Octavius. The Senate, skeptical of Tiberius’ plans, persuaded Octavius to veto the reform. Understandably, Tiberius didn’t take this very well. He claimed in front of the Popular Assembly that Octavius had violated his mandate as Tribune — to serve the people — and that he should be removed. The people reacted favourably (to Tiberius, at least), and chased Octavius, thus themselves violating the sanctity, the sacro sanctus, of the Popular Tribune.

The Senate, however, had another card up their sleeve. They blocked the funding of Tiberius’ reforms, thus bringing the implementation of them to a halt. A wealthy friend of Tiberius, though, died and left his vast fortune to the city of Rome. Tiberius made the claim that since this man was such a good friend to him, surely he meant for the money to be used in the reform campaign, and thus he appropriated the money. This further enraged the Senate, as the distribution of public funds was its sole privilege. Tiberius understood that he needed to keep the sacro sanctus of the office of Popular Tribune, so as not to be assassinated by his political opponents.

During his campaign to be re-elected, Tiberius and his supporters barricaded themselves in on the Capitol. On top of rumours about Tiberius wanting to make himself King of Rome, this serves as a pretext for his enemies. During a Senate session, the pontifex maximus Publius Scipio Nasica Serapio (Tiberius cousin, remember?) flies up in a rage, pulls his toga up over his head as if he’s about to make a ritual sacrifice, and brings a horde of Senators with him to the Capitol. Tiberius’ men let them through, possibly intimidated by the sight of a ballistic high priest, and at the tender age of 28, Tiberius himself is beat to death with whatever blunt instruments the Senators have picked up during their march. Then, Tiberius’ body is thrown in the Tiber.

It is after this that the informal division of Rome’s political class into two loose coalitions or parties, known as the populares and optimates, takes place.

Gaius Gracchus.

As mentioned above, Gaius Gracchus was a member of his brother’s land reform collegiate in his youth. After this ended in disaster, Gaius laid low for a few years, until he enter politics more actively from 125 BCE. His goal was quite simply to complete his brother’s reform, but he added a few measures to them in order to gain broader support. First, he wanted to include a grain guarantee for the plebs urbana. Second, he proposed increasing the influence of the unpolitical upper class, the equites (clarification: all members of the upper classes were equites, but those equites involved in politics were referred to as Senators), e.g. by reserving the seats on a court of corruption for them — a court which had previously been headed by the Senators, who also constituted the main (if not the whole) bulk of those charged. Third and final, Gaius supported the extension of the cives romani to all the Allies in Italy.

Gaius was immensely popular. He often brought with him 3000 clients to the Forum, many of whom were freedmen or soldiers, as Gaius was a competent army commander. He was also elected Popular Tribune in 123, and re-elected in 122, but in 121 he lost and his project was stopped by the Senate. In a fit of desperation Gaius decided to try and complete the reforms through violence, but only succeeded in forcing the Senate to proclaim a state of emergency, senatus consultum ultimum, something they’d never done before. Gaius was killed in the following strife.

Marius.

Marius came from an area which had only recently gained the status of Roman territory, and no one from his family had ever been members of the Senate or held high offices. But Marius was a skilled soldier, and through the help of powerful patrons he was able to launch a political career. He was one of the few homines novi up to this time who had managed to reach the position of Consul, and he also broke the unwritten rule that you couldn’t be re-elected for the same office several times. Marius was unpopular in the Senate, but he got re-elected because he was a talented commander, something Rome needed in this period.

His army reforms makes up his most famous legacy. Previously recruitment to the Roman legions was based on the principle of all Ancient city state armies, the farmer-citizen-soldier principle, but Marius abolished this. As a result of the concentration of land ownership fewer farmers were available for military service. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus had tried solving this by creating new farmers, a suggesting which threatened the power of the Senatorial class and was thus defeated. Marius, on the other hand, solved it by opening up army recruitment to the proletariat. From Marius on, soldiers didn’t have to bring their own equipment, as rich and powerful individuals would see to this. Additionally, the poor were given an incentive to serve by promises that when they had served their time they would be awarded land. This allowed the soldiers’ fees to be kept fairly low, while it at the same time saved the “state” money, as many of the soldiers were bound to be eliminated during their service. The reform also made it easier to distribute land outside of politically sensitive Italy. It is not for nothing it’s said that the Gracchi tried to make soldiers from farmers, but that Marius turned soldiers into farmers.

Marius represents an important division mark for the Roman army, as it was professionalized. Soldiers in Marius’ legions had to undergo hard training and carry their share of the camp, earning them the epithet mules marii, the Mules of Marius.

However, Marius’ career was put on hold for a while in 100 BCE, the year of his sixth consulship, when the Tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, a demagogue and political ally of Marius, proposed land reforms similar to those of the Gracchi. The Senate opposed these reforms, and the situation escalated into armed strife, which the Senate asked Marius to put down. Although he sympathised with the radicals, Marius complied to the wishes of the Senate, perhaps out of a sense of duty to the Republic and traditions. This made him unpopular with the people, so he went into exile in the east until the Social Wars brought him back.

Sulla.

Marius had been a solemn, serious man, but when he returned during the Social Wars (91-88 BCE) he was confronted by Sulla, a man both more frivolous and conservative. Just after the Social War, King Mithridates of Pontus (a kingdom on the north coast of modern Turkey) was threatening Roman satellites in the area, and the Romans decided to raise an army against him. The Popular Assembly gave the command of this army to the Marius, while the Senate designated Sulla as imperator, and neither would back down. During the conflict between the two Sulla brought his army with him into Rome itself. This was a breach with one of the most ancient traditions in Rome — the ban against bringing weapons and certain symbols of March into the holy area surrounding Rome that Romulus had once plowed — and set grave precedents for later. This time, however, Marius and his army retreated, and Sulla was able to claim the imperium, wreaking much havoc in the process. Then he traveled east to defeat Mithridates, and on the way there he and his army plundered Athens.

Upon his return, chaos reigned in Italy, and Sulla had many enemies there who wanted to see him dead. Not wanting to be any less of a man, Sulla set about killing his opponents, primarily through proscription. A proscribed man, someone whose name was written on the death lists of Sulla, was basically made lawless and could be killed with impunity. The many hundred proscriptions included a grand nephew of Marius, the teenaged Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar was able to avoid death, though, because he had been appointed Flamen Dialis in 84 BCE. This was a life-long office which prevented the holder from participating directly in politics (I think; I didn’t quite catch this part), and it also allowed the Vestal Virgins to plead for his life with Sulla. Sulla reluctantly agreed to spare the young priest, but set the term that Caesar needed to renounce priesthood first — thus enabling Caesar to participate more directly in politics.

Digressions aside, Sulla’s ruthlessness brought peace, but not harmony, to the Republic. The Senate had appointed him dictator to re-establish peace and order, and to protect the city. This allowed Sulla to restore Roman society to the moral state it had once possessed, i.e. the way he thought it should be. He forbade the practice of being re-elected to the same office numerous times; he enforced the age requirements for offices; he made it more difficult to hold the same office several consecutive times; he abolished many of the rights of the Popular Assemblies and Tribunes; in an attempt to curb the growth of the urban proletariat, he stopped the arrangement of the Gracchi of subsidizing grain; he cracked down on corruption and politically motivated violence; enforced the requirement of having to be promoted through the hierarchy of offices; and he increased the number of Senators from 300 to 600, mostly by filling it up with friends and clients.

The office of dictator hadn’t been used much since the fourth century BCE, when fighting against other cities took place perhaps a couple of days of marching from Rome, and the concentration of this much power in one set of hands was fairly innocent. In the year 80 BCE, however, the distances involved were ridiculously more vast, and although the duration of the office had at first been prolonged to three or six weeks, and later to a couple of months, Rome’s troubles were so serious Sulla remained dictator for two years. He did, however, withdraw from office when he believed his job was done.

Caesar and Pompeius.

As mentioned above, Caesar was a grand nephew of Marius. Pompeius, on the other hand, had been a protegé of Sulla, and had raised a private army to support him when he returned from the east. However, when Sulla’s reign came to an end, Pompeius had left the optimates, and Caesar wasn’t really that important. They got to know each other through Marcus Crassus, another crony of Sulla, at a time when the power of the Senate, under the leadership of Cato Minor and Marcus Tullius Cicero, was on the rise after the dictatorship of Sulla.

Caesar managed to make himself popular and famous by arrange immense burial feasts for his father, who had been dead for a few years at this time. As he gained in influence he was able to broker a deal between Pompeius and Crassus, who had come to dislike each other somewhat, and they thus circumvented the manipulations of the Senate, which had refused to grant land to the veterans of Pompeius. The result of Caesar’s talents as a peacemaker is known as “the first triumvirate”, a secret and informal arrangement where they shared rule of Rome, and agreed to secure each others’ interests. Pompeius’ veterans were secured their land, Crassus was given the resources necessary for him to appease his core clientele, and Caesar received an important imperium with possibilities for financial gains, of which he was in desperate need due to the loans he’d had to take to finance his burial feasts for his father.

Caesar.

However, Crassus was soon removed from the picture. He had decided he wanted to take Parthia — to follow in the footsteps of Alexander — and failed miserably. In addition to his life and those of his soldiers, he lost the field insignia of his legion, perhaps the biggest shame that could happen to a legion. Back in Rome, a conflict between Caesar and Pompeius seemed unavoidable, as Caesar had grown rich from plundering his Gallic provinces and from conquering Gaul proper. This last feat had also made him very popular, and thus a threat to Pompeius. After a short struggle Caesar defeated Pompeius at the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE, whereupon Pompeius escaped to his client, the king of Egypt, with Caesar hot in pursuit. Unfortunately for Pompeius, his client had read the signs on the wall, so when he disembarked his ship in the Nile Delta, he was beheaded by servants of the king.

After this, Caesar’s road to domination of the Roman Empire was relatively easy. He made himself dictator for about a decade in 45 BCE, and then in 44 BCE he upped the ante by making himself dictator perpetuus on January 15. Among the patricians and senators of Rome, the question arose of what the difference between a dictator perpetuus and a king was — kingdom being the big taboo of Roman politics — and on the ides martius, March 15, 44 BCE, he was stabbed to death in the Senate by a conspiracy of senators.

A New Triumvirate.

Caesar’s assassins had little popular support, so it was an easy job for his second-in-command, Marcus Antonius, to turn the plebs against the Senate. During his speech at Caesar’s burial, he pulled out Cesar’s bloody toga and more or less incited a revolt. The mob demanded the heads of the conspirators and burned parts of the Senate house, causing the conspirators to flee in panic.

In Rome, Marcus Antonius expected to inherit Caesar, who had been an unimaginably rich man, but he was soon disappointed. While he indeed inherited a not inconsequential sum of money, Caesar’s grand nephew, 19 year-old Gaius Octavius, is declared as Caesar’s main heir. Gaius Octavius subsequently took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, and began getting involved in politics.

Caesar’s death and the following rout of his murderers left a power vacuum in Rome, into which Octavian, Marcus Antonius and one of Caesar’s generals, Lepidus, now sought to fill. They reached an initial compromise with Brutus and his cronies, and then established what’s known as “the second triumvirate”. Lepidus, the trio’s weakest link, got squeezed out in 36 BCE, and Octavian and Marcus Antonius shortly thereafter went to war against each other, after Marcus Antonius gave Octavian the pretext he needed by as good as marrying the Egyptian queen Clepatra. At the battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BCE, Octavian’s armies defeated Marcus Antonius’ forces, and the following year saw the fall of Egypt to Octavian, and the deaths of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra.

Octavian was now master of the Mediterranean region, and had claimed Egypt, the area’s richest realm, as his personal province. In practice, this made him by far the richest man of his contemporary world, and allowed him to demand terms from the Senate. He distributed the provinces between himself and the Senate in such a way that he got the frontier provinces, with all the legions, while the Senate retained control over safe and legion-less ones. In return for formally renouncing all power and influence, the Senate awarded him with the title “Augustus”. Augustus himself initially wanted the name “Romulus”, but thought better of it after he had been persuaded that the name’s royal connotations would come at such a high political price that it wouldn’t be worth it. In the end, he probably thought it a fair price to pay for securing himself practically supreme power in the Roman Empire while at the same time circumventing the pitfalls his adopted father fell into.

The State Ideology of Augustus.

The ideology of Augustus’s state, the principles on which he legitimised his rule, can be summed up in five points.

(Please note that I’m really scetchy on a lot of these, and that much of what I write is such as I vaguely remember having picked up here or there, or such as I am able to deduct from the names of the principles and what little I managed to scribble down during the lecture. Please, please, please feel free to correct me.)

Princeps inter pares.
Augustus was never formally recognised as anything but a first among equals. Granted, he eventually gathered quite the collection of predominantly honorific titles, was able to harness the prestige that came with these titles, and also obviously ruled as a de facto dictator of the Roman Empire. But in spite of this, he was never officially recognised as dictator and he never proclaimed himself king. His rule depended on him being viewed as nothing but an ordinary patrician and citizen who had had a bit of good fortune — a citizen with enough power to crush anyone who rebelled against him, of course, but still just a citizen.

Pater patriae.
One of Augustus’ titles, pater patriae, made him the “father of the fatherland”. Referencing ancient Roman traditions, this title implied that as a father had absolute power over his family, so Augustus had absolute power over Rome. Augustus and his advisers probably put a more positive spin on it, though, by emphasising the more positive side of the pater potestas, such as a father’s duty to protect and feed his family.

Pax romana and the concordia ordines.
After almost a century of civil strife and unrest, peace was probably one the top of most Romans’ wish lists. Through the pax romana, Augustus guaranteed the integrity of his empire by making it all subject to his personal protection. If an enemy attacked any region of the Empire, the whole Empire would come to that region’s rescue. Furthermore, the concordia ordines — the agreement of the social orders — gave the promise of internal peace as well. No more would contesting nobility and generals ravage the countryside and plunder the cities — Augustus’ legions would see to that. The time of the private army (of anyone but the emperor) was over.

Res publica restituta.
As mentioned above, trying to change the Roman constitution towards a more autocratic one, would have been political suicide for Augustus. Therefore, he endeavored to conserve and restore as much and as many of the Republican institutions as possible. It was vital for him to be seen as the saviour of the republic, rather than as its destroyer.

Restoring (and creating) Roman and religious symbols.
Shortly after he had established his dominance over Roman society, Augustus launched a program for social restoration. At least superficially, he wanted to bring back the morality of a mythical Roman Golden Age, where women were loyal and supporting mothers, and chaste and dutiful daughters, and where men were strong, brave and loyal to Republican ideals. He also wanted to re-establish respect for religion and the gods, and to achieve all this he initiated a lot of legislation. How effective or sincere these programs were is irrelevant. So long as the most blatant violations of them could be seen to be punished, so as not to undermine Augustus’ authority, projecting himself as a defender of morality and critic of the current debauchery could only strengthen his grip on Roman society.

(Phew, four sessions and four or five hours’ work, that. Oh, and please don’t cut my head off if what I’ve written in these last couple of sentences are somewhat less than correct; I think I’ve managed to create this whole section on Augustus’ state ideology from a basis of four or five lines long list of key terms.)

IMPORTANT! The first comment to this post adds some information and corrects me on a few points; I strongly recommend you read it!