The Constitutional Settlements: How Augustus created the Empire Part Two

Advice from his friends:

Agrippa speaks (Dio 52.2.1-4)

"Be not surprised, Caesar, if I shall try to turn your thoughts away from monarchy, even though I would derive many adventures from it, at least if it was you who held the position. For if it were profitable to you also, I should advocate it most earnestly; but since the privileges of a monarchy are by no means the same for the rulers as for their friends, but, on the contrary, jealousies and dangers fall to the lot of rulers while their friends reap...all the benefits they can wish for. I have thought it right, in this question as in all others, to have regard not for my own interests, but for yours and the state's..."

"For surely no one will assert that we are obliged to chose monarchy in any and all circumstances... If we choose it, people will think that we have fallen victims to our own good fortune and have lost our senses because of our successes, or else that we have been aiming at monarchy all the while."

"All men, of course, claim the right to rule, and for this reason submit to being ruled in turn; they are unwilling to have others overreach them, and therefore are not obliged, on their part, to overreach others. They are pleased with the honours bestowed upon them by their equals, and approve of the penalties inflicted upon them by the laws."

Solution: Hybrid Government System:

• Mix between Monarchy and Republic He decided to carefully maintain the republican framework:
• The Senate and the assemblies kept meeting
• Magistrates were elected every year
• Octavian was within this framework by being elected Consul year after year until 23 BC when a different modus operandi was devised

A carefully staged Constitution

• Augustus was not just any Consul
• Senate meetings in early 27 BC were undoubtedly the result of much previous negotiation and discussion, and were a perfect and deliberate example
• On 13th January, Octavian solemnly renounced all of his remaining special powers, including his command over the provinces, the armed forces stationed there, and control of all the finances
• In essence, that meant returning these powers to the Senate amounted to a formal restoration of the Republic. Three days later, in just as memorable a ceremony, the Senate handed back half the provinces, specifically those where most of the legions were deployed; this meant mainly the provinces on the frontiers
• There were alternatives, but Augustus pointedly refers to them in the Res Gestae only, and just as pointedly, he concludes each of them with a repeated refusal: non recipi - "I did not accept"
• For instance, "both the Senate and the people offered me the dictatorship" - non recipi. "They offered me the consulship for life" - non recipi. Three times "the Senate and the people agreed that I should be appointed supervisor of laws and morals without a colleague with supreme power - non recipi any office inconsistent with the custom of our ancestors"

Terminology: Augustan Power:

• His title wasn't King or Dictator, but princeps, first citizen. The term had long been in use; the oldest Senator who had held office of consul, or censor was the princeps of the Senate and usually one of the first, if not the first, to speak
• In the republic, princepes were known to have been the noblest and most influential members of the aristocracy who, because of their merits and ability to influence others, were held in the highest esteem