The Flavians and the Plebs

The Flavians and the Plebs

• The Flavians' policy towards the plebs can best be summarised as a populist stance
• This has most famously been reflected in Juvenal's famous quote "panem et circenses"
•  The Flavians utilised handouts, architecture and propaganda on a massive scale, most symbolically in the Colosseum
• However, there was a need to address widespread problems that lingered after Nero's reign and the Civil War of 69 AD
• Furthermore, the Flavians needed to rebuild faith and trust in Imperial Rule

"They shed their sense of responsibility long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob that used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything, curtails its desires and reveals its anxiety for two things only, bread and circuses" - Juvenal

Vespasian and the Plebs

• Tacitus emphasises the acute danger Rome faced of serious famine and food shortages in 70AD:
• "Rome was tottering so dangerously that no more than ten days' corn supply was in the granaries, when supplies from Vespasian relieved the situation"
• This explains his initial absence from Rome at the time of his accession, choosing instead to wait in Alexandria to settle affairs before arriving in Rome in late 70AD
• Josephus marks this moment:
• "the people. exhausted by the miseries of civil war, were even more eager for his coming. For they believed they could now finally be freed from their suffering and could again enjoy their former peace and prosperity"
• As we have already seen, Vespasian's domestic policies were characterised by rebuilding Rome after the Civil War. This greatly earned him the affection of the plebs
• His building works, most notably the Colosseum, were a symbolic exchange from emperor to people - hence why he deliberately built the theatre on the site of Nero's old palace
• However, some of his policies, such as the Urine Tax, were considered harsh and Vespasian earned the reputation of a miser (cheapskate)

Titus and the Plebs

• Titus was remembered most notably for the 100 days of inaugural games held at the opening of the Colosseum in 80 AD
• These spectacles were unprecedented and earned Titus a reputation as an extremely generous emperor
• As we have seen, how he handled the disasters in Pompeii in 79 AD, the fire in 80 AD and the plague in 81 AD also demonstrated a close affinity between the princeps and the people
• "In these many great calamities he showed not merely the concern of an emperor, but even a father's surpassing love" - Suetonius

Domitian and the Plebs

• Though hated by the Senate, Domitian seems to have earned some degree of respect and admiration of the plebs
• As we shall see, he conducted a massive building programme not seen since the days of Augustus
• Religious festivals, mass entertainment and handouts were also utilised to placate the masses
• However, this greatly diminished Rome's public treasury, and Domitian instituted a "fiscus ludacus" - Jewish tax to "fix" the problem
• Furthermore, placation does not necessarily mean adoration. As Suetonius relates upon his death - "The people received the news of his death with indifference"

The Flavians and the Plebs Activity

• List the different ways the Flavians provided for the people
• Vespasian
• Tacitus:
• With Rome starving, Vespasian “sent his fastest ships, laden with corn, even though the seas were still rough.” No more then ten days of food were left in Rome “when Vespasian relieved the situation.”
• Presumably as a result,  Josephus writes that the people were so happy about his arrival that “they poured out of the city in such numbers that the city itself joyfully found itself empty of citizens! For those who stayed within the city were fewer than those who went out”, and anyone left came out as well once he did arrive. Everyone was delighted to see him, “uttered every type of acclamation”, and greeted him as “savior”, “benefactor”, and “the only worthy emperor of Rome.” He could barely get through the crowds and everyone was celebrating in their neighborhoods.
• Josephus was freed by Vespasian so a lot of this is likely heavily exaggerated; the people certainly seem to have been glad of his arrival, but maybe not to the extent that they all left the city to meet him
• Suetonius
• Rebuilding on a grander scale than before in many cities throughout the empire which had been burned or destroyed by earthquakes
• When an inventor visited Vespasian with a new invention that would make it easier to haul large stones, he turned the inventor down, saying "I must always ensure that the working classes earn enough money to buy themselves food" – i.e. showing the link between the building projects and jobs
• 'Behaved generously to all to all classes’- this was specifically seen with how he ‘was the first to pay teachers of Latin and Greek rhetoric a regular salary of 100,000 sesterces’.
• 'rewarded prizes to leading poets from the imperial exchequer’.
• He ensured the rebuilding of Rome after the civil wars of 68/69AD. He allowed anyone who pleased to take over vacant sites, and was the first to carry rubble off of the Capitol (perhaps an ancient photo-op moment?)
• builds the Flavian Amphitheatre (later the Colossseum). Suetonius explains that the reason was that this had been a pet project of Augustus’s. This is in stark contrast to Nero: Vespasian builds the amphitheatre on the site of the Domus Aurea.
• keen to parade his humble origins. “He had anything but a craving for outward show”.
• Nevertheless, he kept a reputation for stinginess, being called Cybiosactes by the people of Alexandria after one of their meanest kings. After his death, the famous comedian Favor mocked him while wearing his funeral mask, asking that he be pitched into the Tiber rather than paying the expenses for his funeral
• Vespasian often joked, but “most of his humour centred on the way he did business; he always tried to make his swindles sound less offensive by passing them off as jokes.” - When a statue to him was made at huge expense, he held out his hand and said “the pedestal is waiting.”
• His Urine Tax in particular was extremely unpopular, “Titus complained of the tax Vespasian had imposed on urinals. Vespasian handed him a coin which had been part of the first day’s proceeds; ‘does it smell bad, my son?’ he asked. ‘No, father.’ ‘That’s odd: it comes straight from the urinal!’”
• Vespasian needed 40 billion sesterces to “put the commonwealth back on its feet”, so his stinginess and emphasis on heavy taxation may have been justified. Shows however that just because something is good for the people does not mean that they will like him for it!
• Titus
• How he dealt with disasters during his reign reflected his legacy
• Fire in Rome
• Cassius Dio: he repaired and rebuilt areas destroyed by fire out of his own existing resources rather than taxes
• Suetonius: he auctioned his own property to pay for rebuilding rather than taxes “this has ruined me!”
• Plague
• Suetonius: Titus attempted to control the plague by every possible means, both human and divine – ensuring all proper religious ceremonies were performed
• Vesuvius Eruption 79AD
• Suetonius:
• He set up a board of ex-consuls to relieve distress in Campania and devoted the property of those that had died in the eruption and left no heirs to the rebuilding of the cities affected.
• claims that his concern resembled that of a father rather than an emperor
• “Titus maintained that no-one ought to go away disappointed after an audience with the Emperor.” never let a petitioner leave without some hope that his request would be favourably considered. Emperors had to deal with a huge amount of daily correspondence and petititions from all ranks of society, which was why they employed freedmen to look after this aspect of their work. It would have been hard for people to gain access to the emperor, especially plebeians, so Titus is showing great political skills here in ensuring that people leave with a sense that they are getting somewhere.
• Domitian
• Chronicle of 354
• “He gave three handouts of 75 denarii. By this emperor many public works were constructed”, including 7 halls, pepper warehouses, the granaries of Vespasian, the Temple of Castor and Minerva, the Capena Gate, the Temple of the Flavian Family, the Temple of the Divi, the Temples of Isis and Serapis, the Temple of Minerva and Chalchis, the Odeum, the Old Minucia, the Stadium, the Baths of Titus and Trajan, the amphitheatre up to its shields, the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, the Capitolium, the Senate House, 4 gladiatorial schools, the Palatine Palace, the Meta Sudans and the Pantheon. (Jeez so many temples, in hindsight I could've just written "lots and lots of temples")
• Suetonius
• He restored many important buildings that had been gutted by the fire including the Capitol
• Made a number of social innovations - cancelled the distribution of food parcels, restoring the custom of holding formal dinners - (less practival but would gain him more popularity)
• Added two new teams of chariot drivers
• Castration was now strictly prohibited. The price of eunuchs remaining in slave dealers’ hands was officially controlled.
• "raised the legionaries' pay from 900 to 1,200 sesterces a year"
• On three occasions distributed three gold pieces a head (compared to Nero’s 40 this is quite measly). The at the Feast of the Seven Hills, large hampers of food for Senators and Knights were distributed but smaller ones for the Plebs. And like Gaius, he scatters gifts for the Plebs to scramble for. But when most of the tokens fall in the plebeian seats, he makes sure that the Knights and Senators get 500 tokens for each class too.
• A number of significant public buildings, e.g. the Stadium on the Campus Martius, a new Forum (later called the Forum of Nerva, the next emperor), and an artificial lake for sea battles.
• When there were grain shortages in Italy, Domitian suspected it was because farmers were cutting crops in favour of wine production. He therefore introduced a vine-edict banning the planting of any more vineyards in Italy to encourage grain production, and set aside land in the provinces to recover the losses. Suetonius suggests he did not get very far with this edict, but it still earned him ridicule - – his “Vine Edict” as it was called earned him the nickname of a “Vine-Eating Goat” and earned him unpopularity with the elites who’s vineyards had been upended by the edict. 
• What types of games were held for the people?
• Vespasian
• Suetonius:
• "When the Theatre of Marcellus opened again after Vespasian had built its new stage, he revived the former musical performances"
• Proved himself a devoted patron of the arts and science.
•  Awarded prizes to leading poets and to artists as well, notably the ones who refashioned the Venus Of Cos and the Colossus.
• He presented Apelles the tragic actor with 400,000 sesterces, Terpnus and Diodorus the lyre players with 200,000 sesterces, and several others with 100,00 sesterces the lowest being 40,000. 
• He ordered a great number of formal dinners on a lavish scale to support the dealers in provisions. 
• On the Saturnalia (Roman Christmas) he gave party favours to the male dinner party guests and he did the same for women on the Kalends of March. 
• Titus
• Suetonius:
• “no emperor could have been less of a robber than Titus” – alluding to his unmatched generosity from entertainment
•  “At the dedication of the Amphitheatre and the Baths, which had been hastily built beside it, Titus provided a most lavish gladiatorial show; he also staged a sea fight on an old artificial lake, and when the water had been let out he used the basin for further gladiatorial contests and a wild-beast hunt, 5,000 beasts of different sorts dying in a single day” – somebody call PETA! “On one occasion before a gladiatorial show he promised to forgo his own preferences and let the audience choose what they liked best… Yet he openly acknowledged his partisanship for the Thracian school of gladiators, and would gesture and argue vociferously with the crowd on the subject, though never losing his dignity” – (trying to give off his man-of-the people image)
• Cassius Dio
• even suggests the Colosseum floor itself was flooded to stage a naval battle that was meant to mimic the battle between Corinth and Corcyra before the Peloponnesian War. Here is the full passage (though you don’t need to know all of it!):
•  “Most that he did was not characterized by anything noteworthy, but in dedicating the hunting-theatre and the baths that bear his name he produced many remarkable spectacles. There was a battle between cranes and also between four elephants; animals both tame and wild were slain to the number of nine thousand; and women (not those of any prominence, however) took part in despatching them. As for the men, several fought in single combat and several groups contended together both in infantry and naval battles. For Titus suddenly filled this same theatre with water and brought in horses and bulls and some other domesticated animals that had been taught to behave in the liquid element just as on land. He also brought in people on ships, who engaged in a sea-fight there, impersonating the Corcyreans and Corinthians; and others gave a similar exhibition outside the city in the grove of Gaius and Lucius, a place which Augustus had once excavated for this very purpose. There, too, on the first day there was a gladiatorial exhibition and wild-beast hunt, the lake in front of the images having first been covered over with a platform of planks and wooden stands erected around it. On the second day there was a horse-race, and on the third day a naval battle between three thousand men, followed by an infantry battle. The "Athenians" conquered the "Syracusans" (these were the names the combatants used), made a landing on the islet and assaulted and captured a wall that had been constructed around the monument. These were the spectacles that were offered, and they continued for a hundred days; but Titus also furnished some things that were of practical use to the people.”
• “He would throw down into the theatre from aloft little wooden balls variously inscribed, one designating some article of food, another clothing, another a silver vessel or perhaps a gold one, or again horses, pack-animals, cattle or slaves. Those who seized them were to carry them to the dispensers of the bounty, from whom they would receive the article named.”
• Domitian
• Suetonius
• In honour of Jupiter Capitolinus he founded a festival of music, horsemanship and athletics to be held every five years, and awarded far more prizes than is customary nowadays.
• “in the Amphitheatre but also in the Circus, where besides the usual two- and four-horse chariot races he staged a double battle, with both infantry and cavalry; in the Amphitheatre he presented a sea fight as well as wild-beast hunts and gladiatorial shows, some by torchline and where women as well as men took part” Held Saecular games, fixing their date by Augustus’ old reckoning and ignoring Claudius’ more recent celebration of them.
• “the Quaestorian Games which he had revived, and he allowed the people to demand a combat between two pairs of gladiators from his own troop”
• Cassius Dio
• “He put on extravagant spectacle, of which we have no record of anything happening that was historically significant except for a girls’ foot race. After that he put on innumerable contests as part of what he presented as victory celebrations." 
• "These included battles in the Circus, both infantry and cavalry, and at a newly constructed location he staged a naval battle also.” (At this location, he forbade the contestants of spectators from leaving during a violent storm, and many resultingly became sick and died while he changed into thicker cloaks – as consolation, he held a dinner party.) 
• “There were often all-night games, as well, and on some occasions he would stage fights between women and dwarfs.” 
• A lake was dug at his orders close to the Tiber, and used for almost full-scale naval battles. 
• (Why is he fixated on such elaborate, sometimes novel, and definitely excessive forms of entertainment? Well who has just been regarded as Rome’s most generous emperor for his 100 days of games to inaugurate the Colosseum? Jealous brother much!!!)
• What do you think accounts for the Flavians' success in maintaining the support of the people?