The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
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to leave his place of exile, and during the two following years he lived at Rome in retirement, until, in consequence of the death of Gaius he was called upon to take part again in public life. On June 27, 4 A.D., Augustus adopted both Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus, and caused the tribunician power to be conferred for ten years on Tiberius, who was sent forthwith to conduct a campaign in Germany. At the same time Tiberius was required to adopt his nephew Germanicus. As for Agrippa, he soon ceased to be a possible rival. His conduct was such that Augustus was obliged to banish him to the island of Planasia.
Thus, after the frustration of many plans, Augustus was in the end compelled to recognise as his son and heir the aspirant whom he liked least, but who was perhaps fitter than any of the others to wield the power. When he adopted Tiberius, he expressed his feelings in the words: "I do this for the sake of the republic."
Nine years later (13 A.D.) Tiberius was raised higher than any previous consort. It was enacted by a special law, introduced by the consuls, that he should have proconsular power in all the provinces and over all the armies, coordinate with the proconsular power of his "father", and that he should hold a census in conjunction with Augustus. It is significant that the proconsular power was conferred by a law. In all previous cases, Augustus had bestowed it by virtue of his own proconsular imperium. But now the power of Tiberius in the provinces is no longer secondary, but is coordinate with, and limits, that of Augustus himself, and does not expire with the death of Augustus. It is therefore conferred by a lex. At the same time Tiberius received a renewal of the tribunician power, no longer for a limited period, but for life; and the senate selected him to hold the foremost place in the senatorial committee, which at the request of Augustus had been appointed to represent the whole senate.
Chapter V.
Administration of Augustus in Rome and Italy — Organisation of the Army
SECT. I. — RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REFORMS OF AUGUSTUS.
Augustus sought to secure his government by conciliating the higher classes and keeping the populace amused. In these aims he may be said to have succeeded. His government on the whole was popular, and people were content. His policy, constantly guided by Maecenas, was liberal and humane, and that minister found means to secure the safety of his master without the help of informers or spies. The Romans regarded Maecenas as an ideal minister, and by his death in 8 B.C. the Emperor lost a councillor whose tact and insight could not easily be replaced. He is reported to have cried that if either Agrippa or Maecenas had lived, the domestic troubles which darkened the later years of his life would never have befallen him.
It was harder to conciliate the aristocracy than to satisfy the lower classes; and notwithstanding his personal popularity, notwithstanding the promptness of the senate to fall in with his wishes and accept his guidance, Augustus could not fail to perceive a feeling of regret for the Republic prevailing among the higher classes, and he probably felt that, if his own personal influence were removed by death, the survival of the Principate would be very uncertain. He could not mistake obsequiousness, or even personal friendship to himself, for cheerful acquiescence in the new system. His safety was occasionally threatened by conspiracies, of which we have very little information; but they do not seem to have been really serious. We need only mention that of Fannius Caepio (23 B.C.) and that of Cn. Cornelius Cinna (4 A.D.). Caepio's conspiracy is remarkable from the fact that A. Terentius Varro Murena, who was colleague of the Emperor in the consulate, was concerned in it. Murena was the brother of Proculeius, an intimate friend of Augustus, and of Terentia, wife of Maecenas and reputed to be the Emperor's mistress. Augustus took the matter very seriously, but it seems that the people were not convinced of Murena's guilt. Both Murena and Caepio were executed. In the other case, Cinna and his associates were pardoned by the advice of Livia, who perhaps had learned a lesson from the clement policy of Maecenas. It was a great triumph for Augustus when, in the year of Murena’s conspiracy—the same year in which he was himself dangerously ill, and in which he gave the Principate its final shape—he won over two of the most distinguished men of republican sentiments, Cn. Calpurnius Piso and L. Sestius Quirinus, andinduced them, after his own abdication of the consulate in June, to fill that magistracy for the rest of the year. But there were still a certain number of irreconcilables, ready, if a favourable opportunity offered, to attempt to restore the Republic.
The solid foundations of the general contentment which marked the Augustan period were the effects of a long peace; the restoration of credit, the revival of industry and commerce, the expenditure of the public money for the public use, the promotion of public comfort and the security of public safety. In describing the details of the home administration, it is fitting to begin with thecares which Augustus bestowed on the revival of religion and the maintenance of the worship of the gods.
The priestly duties of maintaining religious worship in the temples of the gods devolved properly upon the patrician families of Rome. These families had been reduced in number and impoverished in the course of the civil wars; an irreligious spirit had crept in; and the shrines of the gods had fallen into decay. Horace, who saw the religious revival of Augustus, ascribes the disasters of the civil wars to the prevailing impiety :
Delicta maiorum immeritus lues,
Romane, donec templa refeceris.
We have already seen that after the conquest of Egypt, Augustus caused a law to be passed (the lex Saenia) for raising some plebeian families to the patrician rank. His care for the dignity and maintenance of the patriciate was closely connected with his concern for the restoration of the national worship. He set the example of renewing the old houses of the gods, and building new ones.
Apollo, whose shrine stood near Actium, was loved by Augustus above all other deities, and the Emperor was pleased if his courtiers hinted that he was directly inspired by the god of light or if they lowered their eyes in his presence, as if dazzled by some divine effulgence from his face. To this god he erected a splendid temple on the Palatine. The worship of the Lares engaged his particular attention, and he built numerous shrines for them in the various districts of Rome. Many religious games and popular feasts were also revived.
The state religion, as reformed by Augustus, was connected in the closest way with the Principate, and intended to be one of its bulwarks. Divus Julius had been added to the number of the gods. The Arval brothers sacrificed for the welfare of the Emperor and his family; the college of the quindecimviri and septemviri offered prayers for him; and there were added to the calendar new feasts whose motives depended on the new constitution. Moreover the Princeps was Pontifex Maximus, and belonged to the other religious colleges, in which members of his house were also usually enrolled. It has been remarked that the vitality of the old religion is clearly illustrated by the creation of new deities likeAnnorta,—the goddess who presided over the corn-supply on which imperial Rome depended.
The restoration of the worship of Juno was assigned to the care of Livia, as the representative of the matrons of Rome. Not only had the shrines of that goddess been neglected, but the social institution over which she specially presided had gone out of fashion. Along with the growth of luxury and immorality there had grown up a disinclination to marriage. Celibacy was the order of the day, and the number of Roman citizens declined. Measures enforcing or encouraging wedlock had often been taken by censors, but they did not avail to check the evil. Augustus made the attempt to break the stubbornness of his fellow-citizens at first by penalties (18 B.C..) and afterwards by rewards. Alex de maritandis ordinibus was passed, regulating marriages and divorces, and laying various penalties both on those who did not marry and on those who, married, had no children. An unmarried man was disqualified from receiving legacies, and the married man who was childless was fined half of every legacy. These unlucky ones were also placed at a disadvantage in competition for publicoffices. Nearly thirty years later (9 A.D.), another law, the lex Papia Poppaaa, established a system of rewards. The father of three children at Rome, was relieved of a certain portion of the public burdens, was not required to perform the duties of a judex or a guardian, and was given preference in standing for magistracies. These privileges