Military Policy of Augustus

Frontier "Policy in the Republic"
Frontier Policy:

• There was no clear, cohesive frontier policy in the Republic
• The direction of Rome's expansion had been unsystematic and random, depending largely on where wars had to be fought and enemies defeated

Organisation of the army:

• Furthermore, Rome's legions had not been organised in such a way as to defend Rome's borders, since organisation of deployment largely fell to provincial governors or the generals themselves
• Troops had often been pulled away from vulnerable frontiers to fight the internal civil wars of the late Republic
• As a result, Rome's frontiers were often vastly undermanned and poorly defended

Importance of Secure Frontiers to Augustus

• One of Augustus' crowning achievements was the Pax Romana, an unprecedented era of peace and harmony achieved through military supremacy
• The Pax Romana would last a further 200 years
• Secure frontiers and an era of peace helped to legitimise Augustan rule: the options were Augustan Peace vs Republican Uncertainty

Augustus' Frontier Problems and Policies
Problems:

• There was no real standing army to man the vast frontier regions of the empire
• The Civil Wars meant Rome's enemies had strengthened themselves unchallenged
• Provincials had become more likely to rebel as attention turned away from managing the provinces

Solution:

• Consolidating what Rome already ruled
• Ending the unsystematic expansion that had characterised frontier policy in the Republic 
• Pursuing clearly defined and defensible boundaries, preferably natural barriers
• However, the individual needs of each frontier meant Augustus had to take pragmatic approaches to deal with each

The East
General policy of non-aggression in the east

• The powerful kingdom of Parthia was the major threat to Roman territories in the east

There was a need to regain Roman prestige

• Two military disasters in the late Republic under Crassus (53 BC) and Mark Antony (40-33 BC) had lost Roman military prestige in the region
• Though many in Rome expected (and possibly even wished for) military expeditions to regain military prestige, Augustus adopted a far more prudent approach, favouring diplomacy over war

Importance of Client Kingdoms

• Augustus settled on establishing "client kingdoms" (independent kingdoms owing loyalty to Rome) in the region to act as a "buffer zone" between Rome and Parthia
• A certain Tigranes was installed as a puppet king in Armenia by Augustus and Tiberius in 20 BC whilst Augustus' grandson Gaius also developed a chain of smaller client kingdoms between the two borders in AD 1

The Sources

Res Gestae:

[27.1] I added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people [27.2] I could have made Greater Armenia a province after its king Artaxes had been killed, but I preferred, following the example of our ancestors, to hand over that kingdom to Tigranes, son of King Artavasdes and grandson of King Tigranes, acting through Tiberius Nero, who was then my stepson. When this same people later defected and rebelled, through my son (actually grandson) Gaius I subdued them and handed them over to be ruled by King Ariobarzanes, son of Artabazus, the king of the Medians, and after his death by his son Artavasdes. When he was assassinated, I sent Tigranes, who was sprung from the royal family of Armenia, into that kingdom. [27.3] I recovered all the provinces beyond the Adriatic and further east, including Cyrene, a great part of which were then in the hands of kings, and before that Sicily and Sardinia, which had been occupied during the Slave War

[31.1] From India embassies of kings were often sent to me, not seen before that time with any Roman commander. [31.2] Our friendship was requested through ambassadors by the Barstarnae, the Scythians, Sarmation kings from both sides of the river Don, and kings of the Albanians, the Iberians and the Medes

Velleius Paterculus

[122.1] There are many other shining and outstanding examples of Tiberius Caesar's moderation amongst which one that must command universal admiration is the fact that, though he had without question earned the right to seven triumphs, he was content with three. No one can doubt, for example, that the recovery of Armenia and the installation of a client king, on whose head he had personally placed the royal insignia, I gather with his settlement of the East, deserved a triumphal ovation, and that as victor over the Vindelici and Raeti he had earned the right to enter the city in a triumphal chariot [122.2]

Return of the standards

Arguably Augustus' most impressive achievement was the return of the legionary standards los tot Parthia by Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae

• The legionary standards (eagles) were the sacred symbol of the legions, losing these to the enemy was considered the greatest of military disgraces.
• Augustus negotiated the return of the standards in 20 BC: military force had been unnecessary
• This greatly satisfied public opinion on the matter, and became of great propaganda value to Augustus, who could laud his great military merits and achievements without a single drop of blood

The Sources

Velleius Paterculus

[91.1] While peace was being imposed in the West, in the East the Parthian king handed back to Augustus the Roman standards lost to Orodes when Crassus was crushed, and those yielded to his son Phraetes when Antony's army was repelled

Res Gestae

[29.1] A number of military standards lost by other commanders I recovered, after the enemies' defeat from Spain, Gaul and Dalmatia.

[29.2] As for the Parthians, I compelled them to return the spoils and standards of three Roman armies, and to seek the friendship of the Roman people as suppliants. Those standards I deposited in the inner shrine of the temple of Mars the Avenger

Horace, Odes 4.15

Your time, Caesar, has restored rich harvests

To the fields, and to our Jupiter the standards

Stripped from the Parthian's insolent porches;

Has closed the shrine, vacated by wars,

Of Janus Quirinus; has thrown a bridle on

Licence, wandering from right order;

Has banished crime, and has summoned 

Back the ancient ways

By which the Latin race and Italian

Might grew great, and fame and majesty

Of empire stretched to the lands of morning

From the couch of the setting sun

• On the breastplate of the famous Prima Porta statue of Augustus, a Parthian handing back the legionary eagle to the goddess Roma is depicted

Europe
The frontiers of most concern to Augustus were in the north, where Germanic and other "barbarian" tribes threatened Gaul and Italy. Augustus' solution was to use the great rivers of Europe: the Rhine, Danube and Elbe, to provide an easy to defend, natural barrier to these threats

The Alps and the Danube

• 16-15 BC Tiberius and Drusus led a combined campaign to conquer the territory north of the Alps as far as the Danube. Organised into two districts called Raetia (Switzerland) and Noricum (Austria)
• However, a serious uprising in AD 6 occurring in the region took Tiberius three years to subdue

The Rhine and the Elbe

• Augustus intended to push the boundaries past the Rhine and to the Elbe, since it was a smaller river and thus easier to defend
• 12-9 BC Augustus' stepson Drusus subdued various Germanic tribes and eventually reached the Elbe before being tragically killed when he fell from his horse
• Tiberius continued the work and achieved further successes, establishing the province of Germania
• However, the revolts in AD 6 in the Danube region meant his campaign was cut short

The Sources

Res Gestae

[26.1] I extended the boundaries of all the provinces of the Roman people which were adjoined by peoples not obedient to our empire, [26.21] I pacified the provinces of Gaul and Spain, and also Germany, where ocean surrounds from Cadiz to the mouth of the River Elbe [26.3] I pacified the Alps from the region nearest to the Adriatic to the Tuscan sea without making war unjustly on any nation. [26.4] My fleet sailed across the ocean from the mouth of the Rhine eastwards as far as the territory of the Cimbri, which no Roman had reached up to that time by land or sea. The Cimbri, the Charydes, the Semnones, and other German peoples of that region through ambassadors sought my friendship and that of the Roman people [26.5] By my command and under my auspices two armies were led at about the same time into Ethiopia and into Arabia, which is called the Blessed. Great forces of each enemy people were slain in battle and several towns were captured. In Ethiopia the advance reached the town of Nabata, which is close to Meroe; in Arabia the army penetrated as far as the territory of the Sabaeans and the town of Mariba

[30.1] The Pannonian peoples, which before I became princeps no Roman army had ever reached, I conquered through Tiberius Nero, who was then my stepson and legate, and subjected to the empure of the Roman people, and I extended the boundaries of Illyricum to the bank of the River Danube [30.2] When a Dacian army crossed, it was defeated and routed under my auspices, and my army was later led across the Danube and obliged the Dacians to submit to the commands of the Roman people.

Velleius Paterculus

[121.1] No less courage and success than at the start marked the later campaigns of Tiberius in Germany in subsequent years. He shattered the enemy's power by means of land and sea expeditions, settled major issues in the Gallic provinces, and by enforcement rather than penalties calmed the disputes that had inflamed the people of Vienne. At this point the senate and the people of Rome responded to his father's request that Caesar should enjoy equal power to himself over all the armies and provinces by decreeing that it should be so, since it was manifestly absurd that what was defended by him should not be subject to his authority, [121.2] and that he who was the first to the rescue should not be recognised as having first claim to the honours that might accrue.

Returning to the city he celebrated a long overdue triumph for his victories in Pannonia and Dalmatia, necessarily postponed by the succession of wars [121.3] Its magnificence was hardly remarkable, for it was Caesar's triumph. But remarkable indeed had been Fortune's generosity to him. All those pre-eminent enemy commanders were on display, not reported dead in despatches but shown alive in chains - and it was my good fortune and that of my brother to march in that triumph in the company of outstanding heroes, decorated with outstanding honours.

[122.2] Similarly after his adoption, having broken the power of the Germans in three years of continuous campaigning, that he was entitled to, and was right to accept, the same honour; and that following Varus' disaster, after the most successful outcome of his whole military career with the elimination of the Germans, a triumph should have been arranged for our greatest general. But with Tiberius one finds it hard to decide whether to admire more his limitless acceptance of toil and danger or his limited acceptance of honours.

Suetonius

[21] In part as leader, and in part with armies serving under his auspices, he subdued Cantabria, Aquitania, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and all Illyricum as well as Raetia and the Vindelici and Salassi, which are Alpine tribes. He also put a stop to the inroads of the Dacians, slaying great numbers of them, together with three of their leaders, and force the Germans back to the farther side of the river Albis, with the exception of the Suebi and Sigambri, who submitted to him and were taken into Gaul and settled in lands near the Rhine. He reduced to submission other peoples too, that were in a state of unrest

But he never made war on any nation without just and due cause, and he was so far from desiring to increase his dominion or his military glory at any cost, that he forced the chiefs of certain barbarians to take oath in the temple of Mars the Avenger that they would faithfully keep the peace for which they asked; in some cases, indeed, he tried exacting a new kind of hostages, namely women, realizing that the barbarians disregarded pledges secured by males; but all were given the privilege of reclaiming their hostages whenever they wished

The Varus Disaster
In AD 9, events would change Augustus' policy towards Germany.

• Command of the Rhine campaign was entrusted to Publius Quintilius Varus
• Varus did not understand the complexity of Germany - Augustus' policies had done little to "Romanise" the province
• Varus, along with three legions (17th, 18th, 19th) were betrayed and ambushed
• All three legions were decimated, between 16,000 to 20,000 Roman soldiers were slaughtered
• The disaster was an enormous setback: one of Rome's greatest military losses
• Augustus' policy now shifted to defence: the Rhine would provide the safest boundary to the unconquerable North

The Sources

Suetonius 23

He suffered but two severe and ignominious defeats, those of Lollius and Varus, both of which were in Germany. Of these the former was more humiliating than serious, but the latter was almost fatal, since three legions were cut to pieces with their general, his lieutenants, and all the auxiliaries. WHen the news of this came, he ordered that watch be kept by night throughout the city, to prevent rioting, and prolonged the terms of the governors of the provinces, that the allies might be held to their allegiance by experienced men with whom they were acquainted. In fact, they say that Augustus was so greatly affected that for several months in succession he cut neither his beard nor his hair, and would sometimes he would dash his head against a door, crying "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!" And he observed the day of the disaster each year as one of sorrow and mourning

Tacitus Annals

[Left in Augustus' will to Tiberius] This contained a description of the resources of the State, of the number of citizens and allies under arms, of the fleets, subject kingdoms, provinces, taxes, direct and indirect, necessary expenses and customary bounties. All these details Augustus had written with his own hand, and had added a counsel, that the empire should be confined to its present limits, either from fear or out of jealousy

Spain

One of the only military campaigns Augustus himself took part in was that of the conquest of Cantabria in modern day Spain

• The Cantabrians were the last Spanish peoples to not be under Roman rule
• Augustus himself moved to Segesima (northern Spain) to conduct the war personally
• He was from 29-19 BC intermittently involved in leading the armies in the campaign, until in 18 BC the Cantabrians were finally subdued
• Upon his return to Rome the Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Augustan Peace, was dedicated by the Senate to Augustus as a symbol of their gratitude for the emperor having restored peace across the Empire

The Sources

Suetonius

[20] He carried on but two foreign wars in person: in Dalmatia, when he was but a youth, and with the Cantabrians after the overthrow of Antony. he was wounded too in the former campaign, being struck on the right knee with a stone in one battle, and in another having a leg and both arms severely injured by the collapse of a bridge. His other wars he carried on through his generals, although he was either present at some of those in Pannonia and Germany, or was not far from the front, since he went from the city as far as Ravenna, Mediolanum or Aquileia

Res Gestae

[12] When I returned from Spain and Gaul after successfully settling the affairs of those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius (13 BC), the Senate decreed that the Altar of Augustan Peace should be consecrated for my return near the Campus Martius, and ordered that the magistrates, priests, and Vestal Virgins should there make an annual sacrifice

[13.1] Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors wished to be closed whenever peace had been secured by victories throughout the Roman empire by land and sea, is recorded to have been closed, before I was born, twice altogether since the foundation of the city, but the senate decreed that it should be closed on three occasions while I was princeps.