CLAS / HIST 4091 / 5091: The Roman Empire

Reading 1: for Friday Sept. 2, 2011

Reading

Suetonius Augustus secs. 1-60; 97-101 (p. 43-74; 93-97)

Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Deified Augustus) read entire at http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html

Tacitus Annals 1.1-5, read the first four paragraphs at http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.1.i.html

Please print and bring both the Res Gestae Divi Augusti and the pages from Tacitus to class.

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti (the Deeds of Augustus) is the one of the most important sources surviving from Roman times. It is the personal justification of the first emperor for his long career. It formed one of the documents of state which Augustus handed over to his heirs on his death, along with his will, a survey of the empire as he left it, and instructions for the largest public funeral Rome had ever seen. The original copy was inscribed in bronze and attached to two large columns which flanked the entrance to his mausoleum in the Campus Martius. Though the original does not survive, we possess some of the copies that had been disseminated across the empire. We must pay special attention to the Res Gestae given that very rarely do we have the chance to crawl inside an emperor’s mind the way we can through the Res Gestae; we must also be careful to avoid simply accepting Augustus' portrait of himself since this document presents things as its author would have us see them.

Suetonius (writing 120-30s AD) was a Roman provincial from Africa who rose to serve as secretary to the emperor Hadrian. After his dismissal from service, he won fame for his biographies of the twelve Caesars from Julius Caesar to Domitian. He was extremely skilled at assembling information though at times his presentation seems jumbled and disorganized. His Life of Augustus gives us a running list of the first emperor's achievements from which we can determine what seemed important about an emperor in Suetonius' day. Watch for what Suetonius praises and criticizes and see if it coincides with what Augustus himself spotlighted in the Res Gestae.

Tacitus is perhaps the greatest Latin historian ever. When he began writing his Annals c. 115 AD, the principate had been established for well over a century and its problems had become evident. Tacitus is highly critical of the authoritarian, personal and monarchical form of rule that Augustus established. Naturally, his viewpoint provides a counterpoint (and retrospective) on what Augustus offers and a nice foil to his younger contemporary, Suetonius.

As we read we should ask, first of the Res Gestae:

1. What did Augustus think about or try to portray as his place in Roman history?

2. Although various items recur, the document basically falls into three sections: offices and honors held; public expenditures; war and diplomacy. What is the main thrust of each of these?

3. What is the slant of the document? What does it distort and what does it omit?

4. Who is named in the document and who is omitted? Why might this be?

5. Note that Augustus uses the last two sections to describe what he regards as the culmination of his career. What do these mean?

6. What is said of the three pillars of power (imperium, tribunicia potestas, auctoritas)?

7. Why might Augustus have drafted this document?

Then of all three sources:

8. What differing roles are assigned to the Senate / ruling classes in the three documents?

9. What does Suetonius expect from the emperor? How does this differ from what Augustus believed was expected of himself?

10. What is Tacitus' view of the principate? What is Suetonius' view? How do these differ from the picture Augustus presents? Which view do you think is correct (or is this even a valid question)?