CLAS/HIST 4091/5091 The Roman Empire

Lecture 5. Empire Without End? Augustan Rule

I. Triumphal Control

-Triumph = God for a day: Quo Vadis (MGM 1954)

-Triumphs only celebrated by Emperor / Family after 19 BC

(others = ornamenta triumphalia)

II. Provincial Control

A. Senatorial Provinces

-Rome and Italy controlled by Senate (not provinces)

-10 provinces under senate: ruled by proconsul (ex-consul or ex-praetor)

-Africa and Asia most prestigious = ex-consuls; others = ex-praetors

B. Imperial Provinces

-18 provinces under emperor: ruled by legati / praefecti Augusti

C. Client Kingdoms (e.g. Thrace, Mauretania, Cappadocia, Arabia)

D. Senate = civilized / Greco-Romanized provinces vs. Emperor = frontier / military provinces

III.Conquest and Control

1. Egypt: 30 BC: prefect; Ethiopia / Arabia (20s BC)

2. Asia: clients; Galatia = willed to Rome 25 BC; legate

3. Syria: clients; Judaea = Herod, died 4 BC; procurator

4. Armenia and Parthia: clients; standards recovered (20 BC); Gaius in Parthia 1 BC

5. Spain: 26-19 BC; legates

6. Alps: Tiberius and Drusus (stepsons) 17-14 BC; prefects

7. Balkans: Tiberius 13-9 BC; Moesia

-Pannonian rebellion (AD 6-9) quelled by Tiberius; Pannonia and Dalmatia; legates

8. Germany: Drusus 12-9 BC; See Varus below

IV. Military Control

A. Republican Army: mandatory conscription; 6 yrs; no fixed pay; no fixed quarters, no discharge bonus; 60 legions in 31 BC (300,000 men)

B. Augustan legions

-Reduced to 28 legions (25 after AD 9)

-Fixed term (16 years, then 20)

-Fixed pay (225 denarii per annum; fixed discharge bonus (3,000 denarii); Aerarium militare financed with 5% inheritance tax

-Fixed camps

C. Fleets (Misenum, Ravenna) 20,000 men

D. Praetorian Guards: (general’s bodyguard) 9 cohorts (9,000 men)

V. Empire Without End (Imperium Sine Fine)

A. Aeneid 1.280ff imperium sine fine

B. Peace or Expansionism

-Horace Oes 4.15

-Temple of Mars Ultor

-Res Gestae: “I extended the frontiers of all the provinces”

VI. The Limits of Empire

-Quinctilius Varus and Ariminius at Teutoborg Forest, AD 9 (site discovered in 1989 at Kalkriese)

-Tac. Ann. 1.11: consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii = Augustus' advice to Tiberius to "confine the empire within its present limits"