Part 9

[140] Cf. Suet. _Aug._, 21; Flor. IV, 12, 62; _Oros._, VI, 21, 19, says that deputies of Indians and Scythians came to Augustus at Tarracona in 728 or 729; Dio, LIV, 9, that deputies from India came to him at Samos in 734. Strabo gives the name of the Indian king as Porus. Cf. XV., 1, 4 and 73. Cf. also Ver. _Georg._, II, 170; _Aen._, VI, 794; VIII, 705; Hor. _Carm._, I, 12, 56; _Carm. Saec._, 55, 56; _Carm._, IV, 14, 41.

[141] For a general statement, cf. Suetonius, _Aug._ 21. For the Scythians, cf. Note 140 , above. For the Bastarnæ, cf. Livy, _Ep._ CXXXIV; Dio, LI, 23, 24. For the Sarmatæ, cf. Flor. l. c.; Strabo, II, 5, 30; Tac. _Ann._, VI, 33; Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, II, 108, 246; VI, 7, 19; VI, 5, 16; VI, 13, 40. Vergil refers to them as Gelones. Cf. _Aen._, VIII, 725. Cf. also Hor. _Carm._, II, 9; III, 8, 23. For the Albani and Iberi, cf. Dio, XLIX, 24. For the Medes, cf. c. 27 and notes.

[142] For Phraates and Tiridates, cf. Justin, XLII, 5; Dio, LI, 18. Tiridates had supplanted Phraates and in turn was driven out by him. He then, in 724, came to Augustus for aid. But the latter was anxious to regain the lost standards from Parthia, and simply played off Tiridates against Phraates by setting him over Syria. Dio, in the passage cited, makes mention of a son of Phraates who was captured by Tiridates and given up to Augustus. This was possibly the Phraates here mentioned, though there are difficulties in the way of this explanation. For Augustus implies the voluntary coming of a reigning king, not the delivery of an abducted prince. We know that in 731 Tiridates was in Rome asking that Parthia be assigned to him, and that at the same time Phraates sent an embassy begging the restitution of his son. Cf. Dio, LIII, 33. Augustus laid the matter before the senate, and by their advice restored the prince in exchange for the standards, but did not yield to the plea of Tiridates.

[143] Cf. c. 27.

[144] A people east of the Tigris, and west of Media Atropatane. Nothing is known of Artaxares. For the Adiabeni and their kingdom, cf. Strabo, XVI, 1, 19; Tac. _Ann._, XII, 13; Josephus, _Ant._, XX, 2, 1.

[145] Augustus several times was on the point of invading Britain. Cf. Dio, XLIX, 38, for 720; LIII, 22, 25, for 727, 728. The poets have many prophecies of victories in Britain. Cf. Ver. _Georg._, I, 30, written in 724; III, 25; Hor. _Epode_, VII, 7; _Carm._, I. 35, 29, of the year 727, 728; _Carm._, III, 5; I, 21, 15; III, 4, 33; IV, 14, 48. But nothing came of these plans. Cf. Strabo, IV, 5, 3, for embassies from Britain. Coins of Dumnobellaunus have been found. Cf. J. Evans, _Coins of the Ancient Britons_ (London, 1864), p. 198, and the following plate 4, Nos. 6-12.

[146] The great defeat of Lollius in 738 was by the Sicambri, joined with the Usipites and Tencteri. Cf. Dio, LIV, 20; Vell., II, 97; Suet., _Aug._, 23. There was a temporary peace. Cf. Horace, _Carm._, IV, 2. 36; 14, 51. They rebelled in 742, and were put down, first by Drusus and later by Tiberius. Cf. Dio, LIV, 32, 33, 36. In 746 they were completely subjugated and removed into Gaul. Cf. Dio, LV, 6; Vell. II, 97; Suet., _Aug._, 21; _Tib._, 9; Tac. _Ann._, II, 26; XII, 39; Strabo, VII, 1, 3. Probably the coming of Maelo was during this surrender of 746.

[147] The Marcomani were a branch of the Suevi. Cf. Tac., _Germ._, XXXVIII; _Ann._, II, 44, 62.

[148] The four sons were Seraspedes, Rhodaspedes, Vonones and Phraates, with the wives of two of them and four children. Cf. Strabo, XVI, 1, 28; VI, 4, 2; Justin, XLII, 5, 11; Vell., II, 94; Tac., _Ann._, II, 1; Oros., VI, 21, 29; Suet., _Aug._ 21, 43; Jos., _Antiq._, XVIII, 2, 4. They were sent to be out of harm’s way during troubles in Parthia, according to all but Josephus, who says they were removed so as not to hinder the succession of Phraataces, an illegitimate son. When Phraates died, Phraataces in vain asked Augustus for the return of the princes. This was c. 750. Cf. Dio, fragments, Ursin. 39. The two elder princes died in Rome. Cf. C. I. L., VI, 7799. Vonones was sent back by Augustus. Cf. c. 33, Note 149; Phraates was returned by Tiberius in 788. Cf. Tac., _Ann._, VI, 31; Dio, LVIII, 16. Probably the princes were sent to Augustus in 744. Cf. Mommsen, _R. G._, p. 141.

[149] The comment of Mommsen here seems too severe. He says: “The writer magnifies his splendors beyond what is exact: for the Parthians and Medes asked Augustus, not so much to appoint kings for them, as to restore to them those to whom the kingdom had fallen by hereditary right.” Such a criticism seems to overlook the force of the word _petitos_, as applied to _reges_: they got the kings they “asked for.”

Phraataces was reigning in 754. Cf. Dio, LV, 10; Vell. II, 101. He was succeeded by Orodes for a short time. Then came the choice of Vonones. Cf. Jos. _Ant._ XVIII, 2, 4; Tac. _Ann._ II, 1. Josephus gives no date. Tacitus implies 770. Augustus, however, returned Vonones, and the date must be much earlier, probably c. 760. A Parthian embassy was in Rome between 757 and 759. Cf. Suet. _Tib._, 16. Coins also show the name of Vonones in 761. Cf. Gardner, _Parthian Coinage_, p. 46. His reign was very brief. Cf. Tacitus and Josephus, ll. cc.

[150] Cf. c. 27.

[151] This chapter is possibly the most weighty in the whole inscription, inasmuch as it sets forth the view of his policy which Augustus wished the world to hold. How far his statements in the opening and closing sentences represent his own actual notions of his relations to the sovereign power in Rome is a matter of debate. For a full discussion Mommsen, _Röm. St._ II, p. 723, ff., may be read, and Gardthausen, _Aug._ Iᵉʳ Th. IIᵉʳ Bd., pp. 485-540 and IIᵉʳ Th., pp. 277-299.

The question is: Did Augustus in any real sense restore the republic, or did he conceive of himself as monarch, but find it politic to suppress all outward marks of royalty? Was his chief concern to maintain the peace and prosperity of the Roman people, with as little alteration as possible of the old constitutional forms, or was his object the building up of power for his own sake? This is confessedly one of the riddles of history. The best that can be done is to study his actions, estimating their worth and tendency, and leaving the motives of the great statesman where he hid them,—locked in his own bosom.

Undoubtedly, all through the _Res Gestæ_, as is pointed out in the introduction, and as has been noticed from time to time in these notes, one of his great aims is to represent himself as a conservative, moving within constitutional limits. Coins of the period emphasize the view set forth in the opening sentence of this chapter with regard to the restoration of the republic. Cf. Eckhel, VI, 83: _imp. Cæsar divi f. cos. VI, libertatis p. R. vindex_; “The imperator, Cæsar, son of the divine (Cæsar) consul for the sixth time, (726) restorer of the freedom of the Roman people.” Cf. C. I. L. VI, 1527: “the whole world pacified, the republic restored.” Also, C. I. L. I, p. 384; the date referred to is Jan. 13, 727: “The senate decreed that an oaken crown should be fixed above the door of the imperator, Cæsar Augustus, because he restored the Roman republic.” Contemporary Roman writers simply echo the views of Augustus. Cf. Ovid, _Fasti_, I, 589, for Jan. 13, 727, Velleius, II, 89, says: “When the civil wars were finished in the twentieth year, (724) and the foreign wars brought to a close, peace was brought back, power restored to the laws, authority to the tribunals, majesty to the senate, the _imperium_ of the magistrates reduced to its old time form, the original and ancient form of the state restored.” Cf. Livy, _Epit._, CXXXIV. The Greek Strabo, also a contemporary, writes, XVII, 3, 25: “The country committed to him the headship of her sovereignty, and made him lord of peace and war for life.” Later writers, even the Romans, are equally free in their judgments. Dio, LII, I, says: “From this time (725) the affairs of Rome began to be in the control of one man (μοναρχεῖσθαι).” Cf. Suet. _Aug._, 28; Tac. _Ann._, III, 28. Dio’s account of the conference in which Agrippa advises a real abdication by Augustus, and Mæcenas urges a bold assumption of supreme power (LII, 1-40) is regarded as fictitious.

The facts in the case are these: In 711 the Titian law gave the triumvirs a five years’ lease of power. In 716 this was renewed not by formal legislation, but “by universal consent.” Cf. App., _B. C._ V, 95. This triumviral power Augustus wielded till his sixth consulship, 726, though there was a pretence of its cessation in 721. Cf. c. 7, N, 1, and Mommsen, _Röm. St._, II, 698. In this and the following years he divested himself gradually of one extraordinary power after another. He could not at once fall back to the position of an ordinary magistrate. The armies, the laws, the provinces, the revenues had all been in his control. These he must gradually restore Cf. Dio, LII, 13; LIII, 4, 9, 10. In 726 he began his return to older customs by alternating with Agrippa, his colleague, in the consulship, in having the fasces borne before him by the lictors for a month. Cf. Dio, LIII, 1. The restoration of the censorship was part of the same programme. Dio, LIII, 2, says that by an edict he declared all the revolutionary and extraordinary acts of the triumviral period should cease to be effective with the expiration of his sixth consulship (726). The inscription of Jan. 13, 727, above alluded to, C. I. L. I, p. 384, marks that date as that on which the business of restoring the provinces was finally given over to the senate.

From this time on the senate divided the control of the provinces with him. Augustus took the troublesome provinces and the frontier ones, leaving to the senate the older and more peaceable. Over these provinces he received a proconsular imperium for ten years, which was renewed at the expiration of that term. In c. 7 he says that he found the tribunitial power a sufficient basis for all the measures which he wished to put through. Now the proconsulship and tribuneship were both ordinary and constitutional offices. Augustus’ occupancy of each affords an illustration of the way in which he held ordinary offices in an extraordinary way. For by the old customs a proconsul must exercise his _imperium_ in his province, and never at Rome. Augustus could not be in ten provinces at once, and must be at Rome most of the time. Hence a violation of the constitution was necessary. The tribuneship, instituted for the protection of plebeians could be held only by a plebeian. But Augustus was a patrician. For this reason he did not take the tribuneship in the ordinary way, nor by the ordinary title, but designated himself as _tribunicia potestate_, “of tribunitial authority.”

The title _princeps_, “prince” is never used by Augustus as an official designation in laws and inscriptions, but indicates simply his primacy of rank and is so used throughout the _Res Gestæ_. Cf. cc. 13, 30, 32.

[152] Cf. C. I. L. 1, p. 384; X. 8375; Livy, _Ep._, 134; Cass. ad. an. 727; Oros. VI, 20, 8; Vell. II, 91; Suet. _Aug._ 7; Dio, LIII, 16.

[153] Cf. coins in Eckhel, VI, 88; Cohen, _Aug._ nos. 43-48, 50, 207-212, 301, 341, 356, 385, 426, 476-8, 482. All these show either the crown or the laurels and many of them have both. With the crown is generally _ob civis servatos_, “for preserving the citizens.” The civic crown being the reward of any soldier who saved a citizen’s life, Augustus was pre-eminently deemed worthy of it, because he had saved so many by putting an end to the civil wars, and by his clemency. Cf. Dio, LIII, 16; Suet. _Claud._ 17; Sen. _De Clem._ I, 26, 5; Ovid, _Tr._ III, 1, 39, 41, 47; _Fasti_ IV, 953; III, 137; Val. Max. II, 8, 7; Juv. VI, 52, 79; X, 65; XII, 91; Tac. _Ann._ XV, 71.

[154] No ancient writer mentions this shield, but a number of coins and inscriptions portray it. Cf. C. I. L. IX, 5811, wherein two Victories carry a shield inscribed: “The senate and Roman people have given to Augustus a shield on account of his valor, clemency, justice and piety;” the very words of the _Res Gestæ_. For coins, cf. Eckhel, VI, 95, 103, 121; Cohen, _Aug._ nos. 50-53, 213-216, 253, 264-267, 283, 286-297, 332. The Victory, which is frequently associated with the shield, probably indicates that the latter was placed by Augustus near the altar of Victory erected by him in the Curia Julia.

[155] Cf. Note 151.

[156] This title was given Feb. 5, 752. Cf. C. I. L. I, p. 386; II, No. 2107. As in the case of the title, prince of the youth, conferred upon Gaius and Lucius, and of the continuance of his supreme power by universal consent (cf. cc. 14 and 34), the appellation, father of the fatherland, was given by general acclamation, leaving to the senate only the formal ratification of the popular will. Suet. _Aug._ 58, expressly states this. Cf. also Ovid, _Fasti_, II, 128.

The Augustan Forum was dedicated this same year, 752. Cf. c. 21, Note. In all probability the quadriga had been in existence some time before this, inasmuch as it appears on a coin of uncertain date with the inscription: “the senate and Roman people to Cæsar Augustus, parent and presever.” If the quadriga had been made at the time this inscription was ordered, the coin would surely have borne the formal title, “father of the fatherland,” not the designation, “parent.” Cf. Eckhel, VI, 113.

[157] The seventy-sixth year of Augustus began Sept. 23, 766. Chapter 8 mentions his third census, which was completed one hundred days before his death, hence May 11, 767. The _Res Gestæ_ must have been written, then, in the interval between this date and his start for Campania, on his last journey, as we know he left this document in the hands of the Vestal Virgins. Cf. Suet. _Aug._ 97.

SUPPLEMENT.

For a discussion of this supplement, see the Introduction.

[158] Equivalent to 2,400,000,000 sesterces, about $120,000,000. This does not exactly correspond with the sum of the items mentioned in the _Res Gestæ_. These sum up 2,199,800,000 sesterces.

[159] A mere summary of c. 19, with a bit from c. 20, the only principle of arrangement being to put temples first, and the rest haphazard. The difference in the Greek and Latin is curious. No attempt is made to reproduce _pulvinar_ in Greek, although in c. 19 it had been rendered ναόν.

[160] A summary of c. 20.

[161] A summary of cc. 22, 23.

[162] For aid given to Naples, cf. Dio, LV, 10; to Venafrum, in Campania, C. I. L. X, 4842.

[163] For aid to Paphos, cf. Dio, LIV, 23; to a number of towns in Asia, Dio, LIV, 30; to Laodicea and Tralles, Strabo, XII, 8, 18; to Thyatira and Chios, Suet. _Tib._ 8.

[164] Cf. Suet. _Aug._ 41. The estate necessary to qualify a senator he raised from 800,000 sesterces to 1,200,000, and where senators were worthy, though poor, he made up their fortunes to that sum. Cf. Dio, LI, 17; LII, 19; LIII, 2; LIV, 17; LV, 13; LVI, 41.

Transcriber’s Notes:—

The printer is thought to be Anvil Printing Company (see front matter).

In Footnote 58, Cf. Dio, XLIT is taken as a typo for Cf. Dio, XLIV.

On Page 28 the number of Roman citizens is given as four million, two hundred and thirty thousand. In the associated footnote this is given as 4,233,000.

Typographical errors in the Greek (All corrected). Page 10 πρυκατηλειμένας changed to read προκατηλειμένας Page 13 ψηψίσμασι changed to read ψηφίσμασι Page 23 τόν changed to read τὸν Page 25 οίας changed to read σίας Page 33 ῷ changed to read ᾦ Page 37 θαλὰσσης changed to read θαλάσσης Page 43 ἑξὴκοντα changed to read ἑξήκοντα Page 45 οὕς changed to read οὓς Page 51 ἐπιγαφῆς changed to read ἐπιγραφῆς Page 53 Ἂ[ρεω]ς changed to read Ἄ[ρεω]ς Page 55 ᾷ changed to read ᾳ Page 57 Ὑρὲρ changed to read Ὑπὲρ Page 57 Γαίῷ changed to read Γαίῳ Page 57 Ιαύῳ changed to read Γαίῳ Page 57 Σε[ι]λανῳ changed to read Σε[ι]λανῷ Page 59 τρ[ί]σχ[ε]ί[λ]ιοι changed to read τρ[ι]σχ[ε]ί[λ]ιοι Page 61 ῷ changed to read ᾧ Page 61 Αιβύη changed to read Λιβύη Page 61 τοῦς changed to read τοὺς Page 61 οὅ changed to read οἳ Page 67 μείοζονος changed to read μείσζονος Page 69 ρᾴ changed to read ρα Page 69 αἵ changed to read αἳ Page 69 ἔμοῦ changed to read ἐμοῦ Page 73 ποτομοῦ changed to read ποταμοῦ Page 77 ἐθνη changed to read ἔθνη Page 85 εν changed to read ἐν

Typographical errors in the Latin (All corrected). Page 39 turmœ changed to read turmæ and optious changed to read optios