 Chapter 1 of J.B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire, Part 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Student's Roman Empire, Part 1 by John Bagnell Bury, Chapter 1 from the Battle of Actium to the Foundation of the Principate. Gaius Julius Caesar, the Triumvir and the founder of the Roman Empire, was the grand-nephew of Gaius Julius Caesar the dictator, his adoptive father. Originally named like his true father Gaius Octavius, he entered the Julian family after the dictator's death and, according to the usual practice of adopted sons, called himself Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. But the name Octavianus soon fell into disuse, and by his contemporaries he was commonly spoken of as Caesar, just as Scipio Emilianus was commonly called Scipio. The victory of Actium, September 2nd, 31 BC, and the death of Marcus Antonius, August 1st, 30 BC, placed the supreme power in the hands of Caesar, for so we may best call him until he becomes Augustus. The Roman world lay at his feet, and he had no rival. He was not a man of genius, and his success had perhaps been chiefly due to his imperturbable self-control. He was no general, he was hardly a soldier, though not devoid of personal courage, as he had shown in his campaign in Ilyricum. As a statesman he was able, but not creative or original, and he would never have succeeded in forming a permanent constitution but for the example of the great dictator. In temper he was cool, without ardor or enthusiasm. His mind was logical, and he aimed a precision in thought and expression. His culture was wide, if superficial. His knowledge of Greek, imperfect. In literary style he affected simplicity and correctness, and he was an astute critic. Like many educated men of his time, he was not free from superstition. His habits were always simple, his food plain, and his surroundings modest. His family affections were strong, and sometimes misled him into weakness. His presence was imposing, though he was not tall, and his features were marked by symmetrical beauty, but the pallor of his complexion showed that his health was naturally delicate. It was due to his self-control, and his simple manner of life, that he lived to be an old man. The successes of Caesar had not been achieved without the aid of others. Two remarkable men, devoted to his interests, stood by him faithfully throughout the civil wars, and helped him by their councils and their labours. These were Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Gaius Kilnius Mycenus. As they helped him not only to win the empire, but also to wield it after he had won it, it is necessary to know what manner of men they were. Of Agrippa we know strangely little, considering the prominent position he occupied for a long and important period, and the part he played in the history of the world. From youth up, he had been the companion of Caesar, and he was always content to take second place. His military ability stood Caesar in good stead, notably in the war with Sextus Pompius, and on the day of Actium. He had first distinguished himself at the Siege of Perugia, 41 B.C., and subsequently, his victories over the Germans beyond the Rhine established his military fame. His success was due to his own energy, for he had no interest, and belonging to an obscure Genes, he was regarded by the nobility as an upstart. He was not, perhaps, a man of culture, but his tastes were liberal. His interest in architecture was signalized by many useful buildings, and Gaul owed him a great debt for the roads which he constructed in that country. In appearance he is said to have been stern and rugged. In temper he was reserved and proud. He was ambitious but only for the second place. Yet he was the one man who might have been a successful rival of his master. Mysanis resembled Agrippa in his unselfish loyalty to Caesar, but his character was very different. Like Agrippa he had not aspired to become the peer of their common master, but while the heart of Agrippa was set on being acknowledged as second, Mysanis preferred to have no recognized position. Agrippa's excellence was in the craft of war, while Mysanis cultivated the arts of peace. Agrippa had forwarded the cause of Caesar by his generalship. Mysanis aided him by diplomacy. He will be remembered how the latter negotiated the treaties of Brindusium and Mycenum. During the campaigns which demanded the presence of Caesar, Mysanis conducted the administration of affairs in Italy and watched over the interests of the absent triumph here. Until his death, 8BC, he continued to be the trusted friend and advisor, in fact the alter ego of Caesar, and he had probably no small share in making the constitution of the empire. But he always kept himself in the background. He was content with the real power, which he enjoyed by his immense influence with Caesar. He despised offices and honors. It is characteristic of a man that he refused to pass from the equestrian into the senatorial order. He could indeed afford to look down upon many of the nobles, for he came of an illustrious atruscan race. In his tastes and manner of life, he was unlike both Agrippa and Caesar. He was neither rough nor simple. A refined voluptuary, he made an art of luxury, and it was quite consistent that ambition should have no place in his theory of life. When affairs called for energy and zeal, no one was more energetic and unresting than Mycenus. But in hours of ease he almost went beyond the effeminacy of a woman. Saturated with the best culture of his day, he took an enlightened interest in literature, of the circle of men of letters, which he formed around himself. There will be an occasion to speak in a future chapter. Such were the men who helped Caesar to win the first place in the state, and who, when he had become the ruler of the world, devoted themselves to his service without rivalry or jealousy. Agrippa became consul for the second time in 28 BC with the triumphor for his colleague, and his friendship with Caesar was soon cemented by a new tie. He married Marcella, the daughter of Octavia, Caesar's sister by her first husband, Gaius Marcellus. The battle of Actium decided between Antonius and Caesar, but it also decided a still greater question. It decided between the East and the West. For the Roman world had been seriously threatened by the danger of Oriental despotism. The policy of Antonius in the East, his connection with Cleopatra, the idea of making Alexandria a second Rome, show that if things had turned out otherwise at Actium, Egypt would have obtained an undue preponderance in the Roman state, and the Empire might have been founded in the form of an Eastern monarchy. Caesar recognized the significance of Egypt, and took measures to prevent future danger from that quarter. It was of course out of the question to allow the dynasty of Greek kings to continue. But instead of forming a new province, Caesar treated the land as if he were, by the right of conquest, the successor of Cleopatra, and of Ptolemy Caesarea whom he had put to death. He did not indeed assume the title of king, but he appointed a prefect, who was responsible to himself alone, and was in every sense a viceroy. And as the lord of the country, he enacted that no Roman senator should visit it without his special permission. The first prefect of Egypt was Gaius Cornelius Gallus, with whose help Caesar had captured Alexandria. The inhabitants of Egypt were disbarred from the prospect of becoming Roman citizens, and no local government was granted to the cities. The treasuries of Cleopatra enabled Caesar to discharge many pressing obligations. He was able to pay back the loans which he had incurred in the civil wars. He was able also to give large donatives to the soldiers and populace of Rome. The abundance of money, which the conquest of Egypt suddenly poured upon Western Europe, helped in no small measure to establish a new period of prosperity. After many dreary years of domestic war and financial difficulties, men now saw a prospect of peace and plenty. But above all, the booty of Egypt enabled Caesar to satisfy the demands of 120,000 veterans. Immediately after Actium, he had discharged all the soldiers who had served their time, but without giving them the rewards which they had been led to expect. These veterans belonged both to Caesar's own army and to that of Antonius, which had capitulated. Seeing that they would be of little importance after the conclusion of the civil wars, they made a stand as soon as they reached Italy, and demanded that their claims should be instantly satisfied. A grippa who had returned with the troops, and Mycenaeus, to whom Caesar had entrusted the administration of Italy, were unable to pacify the soldiers. And it was found necessary to send for Caesar himself, who was wintering in Samus. The voyage was dangerous at that time of year, but Caesar, after experiencing two severe storms, in which some of his ships were lost, reached Rindusium safely. He succeeded in satisfying the veterans, some with grants of land, others with money. But his funds were quite insufficient to meet the claims of all, and he had to put off many with promises. He thus gained time until the immense Egyptian booty gave him means to fulfill his obligations. The greater number of veterans were of Italian origin, and wished to receive land in their native country. As most of the Italians had supported the cause of Caesar, it was impossible to do, on a large scale, what had been done ten years before, and eject proprietors to make room for the soldiers. But the veterans of Antonius, who had, on that occasion, been settled in the districts of Ravenna, Benonia, Capua, etc., and sympathized with his cause, were now forcibly turned out of the holdings which they had forcibly acquired. They were, however, unlike the original proprietors, compensated by assignments of land in the provinces, especially in the east, where the civil war had to populate at many districts. But the land, thus made available, was not nearly enough, and Caesar was obliged to purchase the rest. In BC 30 and BC 14 he spent no less than 600 million cisterces, about 5 million pounds, in buying Italian farms for his veterans. We find traces of these settlements in various parts of Italy, especially in the neighborhood of Atteste, or Este. After the conquest of Egypt, the Antonian troops were transferred to the south of Gaul, and settled there in colonies possessing Yos Latinum, for example in Nemausus, or Neme. The wholesale discharge of veterans, as well as the losses sustained in the wars, rendered a reorganization of the legions necessary. The plan was adopted of uniting those legions, which had been greatly reduced in number with others which had been similarly diminished, and thus forming new double legions, as they were called by the distinguishing title of Gemina. Thus were formed the 13th Gemina, the 14th Gemina, etc. The greater part of the year, following the death of Cleopatra, August BC 30, was occupied by Caesar in ordering the affairs of the Asiatic provinces and dependent kingdoms. Herod of Judea was rewarded for his valuable services by an extension of his territory, and several changes were made in regard to the petty principalities of Asia Minor. There was probably some expectation at Rome that Caesar, in the flesh of his success, would attempt to try conclusions with the Parthian Empire, and retrieve the defeat of Carre before he returned to Italy. Virgil addresses him at this time in high-flown language, as if he were the arbiter of peace and war in Asia, as far as the Indies. But Caesar deferred the settlement of the Parthian question. In the summer of 29 BC he returned to Italy, where he was greeted by the Senate and the people with an enthusiasm which was certainly not feigned. There was a great feeling of relief at the end of the Civil Wars, and men hardly welcomed Caesar as a deliverer and restorer of peace. The only note of opposition had come from a son of Marcus Imeliana's Lepidus, the Triumvir. The father lived in peaceful retirement at Carrecae, but the son was rash and ambitious, and formed the plan of murdering Caesar on his return. He did not take his father into the secret, but his mother, Junia, a sister of Brutus, was privy to it. Mycenus discovered the conspiracy in good time, and promptly arrested Junia and her son. Young Lepidus was immediately dispatched to Caesar in the east, and was there executed. But this incident was of little consequence. Caesar's position was perfectly safe. The honors which were paid to him would have been accorded with an equal show of enthusiasm to Antonius, if Fortune had declared herself for him, but there is little doubt that Caesar was more acceptable. The Senate decreed that his birthday should be included among the public holidays, and it was afterwards regularly celebrated by races. His name was mentioned along with the gods in the Carmen Salieri, and it is probable that, had he really wished it, divine honors would have been decreed to him in Rome, such as were paid to him in Egypt, where he stepped into the place of the Ptolemies, and in Asia Minor, where he assumed the privileges of the atollids. But though he had become a god in the east, Caesar wished to remain a man in Rome. He already possessed the tribunition power for life, but it was now granted again in an extended form. It was also decreed that every fourth anniversary of his victory should be commemorated by games, the Ludii Attiachi, and that the rostra and trophies of the captured ships should adorn the temple of the divine Julius. Triumphal arches were to be erected in the Roman Forum and at Brindusium to celebrate the victor's return to Italy, and a sacrifice of thanksgiving was offered to the gods by the Senate and the people, and by every private person. The triumph of Caesar lasted three days, August 13th, 14th, and 15th. The soldiers who had been disbanded returned to their standards in order to take part in it, and all the troops which shared in his victories were concentrated close to Rome. Each soldier received a thousand cisterces, about eight pounds, as a triumphal gift, and the Roman populace also received 400 cisterces ahead. The triumph represented victories over the three known continents. The first days were devoted to the celebration of conquests in Europe, the subjugation of Pannonia and Damatia, and some successes won in Gaul over rebellious tribes by Gaius Carinas during Caesar's absence in the east. The triumph for Actium, which took place on the second day, represented a victory over the forces of Asia. The trophies were far more splendid than those won from the poor princes of Ilyricum. The poet Proprietius describes how he saw the necks of kings bound with golden chains, and the fleet to Actium sailing up the Wea Sacra. Among the kings were Alexander of Amesa, whom Caesar had deposed after the battle, and Adiotarix, a Galatian prince who before the battle had massacred all the Romans he could lay hands on. Both these captives were executed after the triumph. But the third day, which saw the triumph over Africa, was the most brilliant. Cleopatra, hand by destroying herself, avoided the shame of adorning her conqueror's triumphal car, but a statue of her was carried in her stead, and her two young children, Alexander and Cleopatra, represented the fallen house of Egyptian royalty. Images of the Nile and Egypt were also carried in the triumphal procession, and the richest spoils, with quantities of gold and silver coins, were exhibited to the gaze of the people. The result of the great influx of money into Italy was that the rate of interest fell from twelve to four percent. In one respect, the order of Caesar's triumph departed from the traditional custom, his fellow consul Marcus Valerius Messala Petitus and the other senators who took part in the triumph, instead of heading the procession and guiding the triumphator into the city, according to usage, were placed last of all. This innovation was significant of the coming monarchy. On this occasion the buildings which Julius Caesar had designed and begun, and which had been completed since his death, were dedicated, and his own temple was consecrated by his son with special solemnity. The game of Troy was represented in the Circus Maximus by boys of noble family, divided into two parties, one of which was commanded by Caesar's stepson, Tiberius Nero, the future emperor. A statue of victory was set up in the senate house. The occasion was further celebrated by games and gladiatorial combats, in which a Roman senator did not disdain to take part. But these festivities were less significant for the inauguration of a new period than the solemn closing of the temple of Janus, which had been ordained by the senate, probably early in the same year, January 11th. The ceremonies instituted for such an occasion by King Numa had not been witnessed for more than two hundred years. For the last occasion, on which the gates of Janus had been shut, was at the conclusion of the First Punic War. Strictly speaking, peace was not yet established in every corner of the Roman realm. There were hostilities still going on against mountain tribes in northern Spain and on the German frontier, but these were small matters, mere child's play, which shrank to complete insignificance by the side of the civil war which had been distracting the Roman world for the last twenty years. Peace, the famous Pax Romana, had in every sense come at length, and it was fitting that the doors of war should be closed at the beginning of an empire of which the saying that empire is peace was preeminently true. The powers which Caesar possessed as a triumphor were unconstitutional and were by their nature intended to be only temporary. Besides the ordinary Imperium Dami of a consul and extraordinary Imperium Militai in the provinces, the triumphor have the power of making laws and appointing magistrates, which constitutionally belonged to the comitia of the people. When peace was restored to the world, it might be expected that Caesar would at once restore to the people the functions which had been made over to him for a time. It was quite out of the question to restore the state of things which had existed before the elevation of Caesar the dictator. The rule of the senate had been proved to be corrupt and incompetent. An annual magistrates were powerless in the face of a body whose members held their seats for life. The only way out of the difficulty was to place the reigns of government in the hands of one man. This had been done directly in the case of Caesar the father, and it had been the indirect result of the triumvirate in the case of Caesar the son. But the latter resolved to establish his supremacy on a constitutional basis and harmonize his sovereignty with republican institutions. A dictatorship could be created only to meet some special crisis, and a triumvir to constitute the state was clearly absurd when the state had once been constituted. Neither the office of a dictator nor the powers of the triumvirate were theoretically suitable to form the foundation of a permanent government, and the logically-minded Caesar was not likely to leave the constitutional shape of his rule undefined, or to be content with an inconsistent theory. He did not, however, at once lay down the triumval powers which had been conferred on him by the Lex Titia in 43 B.C. For a year and a half after his triumph he seems to have remained a triumvir, or at least in possession of the powers which belonged to him as triumvir, but it is not clear how far during that time he made use of those unconstitutional rights. He was consul for the fifth time in 29 B.C. and again in 28 B.C., and it is probable that he acted during these years by his rights as consul, as far as possible, and not by his rights as triumvir. There was, however, much to be done in Rome and in Italy that might truly come under the name of constituting the state. Two of the most important measures carried out in these years were the increase of the patriciate and the reform of the senate. In 30 B.C. a law, Lexinia, was passed enabling Caesar to replenish the exhaustive patrician class by the admission of new families, and he carried out this measure in the following year. In 28 B.C. he exercised the functions of the censorship in conjunction with Agrippa, who was his colleague in the consulship. They not only held a census but performed a purgation of the senate, and introduced some reforms in its constitution. Caesar also caused all the measures which had been taken during the civil wars to be repealed, but the compass and the effect of this act are not quite clear. 28 B.C. In the same year, he marked his intention to return to the constitutional forms of the Republic by changing the consular fascis, according to custom, with his colleague Agrippa, and thus acknowledging his fellow consul to be his equal. He also began to restore the administration of the provinces to the senate. In 27 B.C. Caesar assumed the consulate for the seventh time, and Agrippa was again his colleague. It seems that he had already partly divested himself of his extraordinary powers, but the time had at length come to lay them down altogether, though only to receive equivalent power again in a different and more constitutional form. On January 13 he resigned in the senate, his office as triumphor, and his proconsular imperium, and for a moment the statement of a contemporary writer was literally true, that the ancient form of the republic was recalled. And thus Caesar could be described on his coins as vindicator of the liberty of the Roman people, Libertatis populous Romanus Windex. In the next chapter we shall see in what shape Caesar and his counsellors, while they nominally restored the republic, really inaugurated an empire, which was destined to last well-kny 1500 years. The Task which devolved upon Caesar when he had resigned the triumvirate and the proconsular power, which had been conferred on him in 43 B.C., was to restore the republic, and yet place its administration in the hands of one man to disguise the monarchy which he already possessed under a constitutional form, to be a second Romulus without being a king. He still held the tribunition power which had been given him for life in 36 B.C. On January 16 in the year of the city 727, three days after Caesar had laid down his extraordinary powers, the Roman Empire formally began. Munatius Plancus on that day proposed in the senate that the surname Augustus should be conferred on Caesar in recognition of his services to the state. This named not bestow any political power, but it became perhaps the most distinctive and significant name of the emperor. It suggested religious sanctity, and surrounded the son of the deified Julius with a halo of consecration. The actual power on which the empire rested, the imperium proconsulare, was conferred upon or rather renewed for Augustus, so we may now call him, for a period of ten years, but renewable after that period. This imperium was of the same kind as that which had been given to Pompeius by the Gabinian and Manilian laws. The imperator had an exclusive command over the armies and fleet of the republic, and his province included all the most important frontier provinces. But this imperium was essentially military, and Rome and Italy were excluded from its sphere. It was therefore insufficient by itself to establish a sovereignty, which was to be practically a restoration of royalty, while it pretended to preserve the republican constitution. The idea of Augustus, from which his new constitution derived its special character, was to supplement and reinforce the imperium by one of the higher magistruses. His first plan was to combine the proconsular imperium with the consulship. He was consul in 27 BC, and he caused himself to be re-elected to that magistracy each year for the four following years. The consular imperium, which he thus possessed, gave him not only a look as standee in Rome and Italy, but also affected his position in the provinces. For if he only held the proconsular imperium, he was merely on a level legally with other proconsular governors, although his province was far larger than theirs. But as consul, his imperium ranked as superior, myus, over that of the proconsuls. He found, however, that there were drawbacks to this plan. As consul he had a colleague, whose power was legally equal, and this position was clearly awkward for the head of the state. Moreover, if one consul was perpetual, the number of persons elected to the consulship must be smaller, and consequently there would be fewer men available for those officers which were only filled by men of consular rank. The consuls, too, were regarded as, in a certain way, representative of the senate, and the emperor, the child of the democracy, might prefer to be regarded as representative of the people. His thoughts therefore turned to the tribunate, which was specially the magistracy of the people. But it would have been more awkward to found supremacy in civil affairs on the authority of one of ten tribunes than on the powers of one of two consuls. Accordingly Augustus fell back on the tribunicia potestas which he had retained, but so far seems to have made little use of it. In 23 BC he gave up his first tentative plan, and made the tribunicia potestas instead of the consulship, which he resigned on June 27th, the second pillar of his power. The tribunation power was his for life, but he now made it annual as well as perpetual, and dated from this year the years of his reign. Thus in a very narrow sense the empire might be said to have begun in 23 BC. In that year at least the constitution of Augustus received its final form. After this year, his eleventh consulship, Augustus held that office only twice, five and two BC. Subsequent emperors generally assumed it more than once, but it was rather a distinction for the colleague than an advantage for the emperor. But the tribunicia potestas alone was not a sufficient substitute for the consulare imperium which Augustus had surrendered by resigning the consulate. Accordingly a series of privileges and rights were conferred upon him by special acts in 23 BC and the following years. He received the right of convening the senate when he chose, and of proposing the first motion at its meetings, Eus primae relativionis. His procontila imperium was defined as superior, maius, to that of other proconsuls. He received the right of the twelve fascis in Rome, and of sitting between the consuls, and thus he was equalised with the consuls in external dignity, 19 BC. He probably received too the Eus edicendi, that is, the power of issuing magisterial edicts. These rights conferred upon Augustus by separate acts were afterwards drawn up in a single form of law by which the senate and people conferred them on each succeeding emperor. Thus the constitutional position of the emperor rested on three bases, the procontila imperium, the tribunician potestas, and a special law of investiture with certain other prerogatives. The title imperator expressed only the procontila and military power of the emperor. The one word which could have expressed the sum of all his functions as head of the state, rex, was just the title which Augustus would on no account have assumed, for by doing so he would have thrown off the republican disguise which was essential to his position. The key to the empire, as Augustus constituted it, is that the emperor was a magistrate, not a monarch. But a word was wanted, which, without emphasising any special side of the emperor's power, should indicate his supreme authority in the republic. Augustus chose the name Princeps to do this informal duty. The name meant the first citizen in the state, Princeps Cuitatis, and thus implied at once supremacy and equality, quite in accordance with the spirit of Augustus's constitution. But it did not suggest any definite functions. It was purely a name of courtesy. It must be carefully distinguished from the title Princeps Cenatus. The senator who was first on the list of the conscript fathers, and had the right to be asked his opinion first, was called Princeps Cenatus, and that position had been assigned to Augustus in twenty-eight BC. But when he or others spoke or wrote of the Princeps, they did not mean Prince of the Senate, but Prince of the Roman Citizens. The empire, as constituted by Augustus, is often called the Principate, as opposed to the absolute monarchy into which it developed at a later stage. The Principate is in fact a stage of the empire, and it might be said that while Augustus founded the Principate, Julius was the true founder of the empire. According to constitutional theory, the state was still governed under the Principate by the Senate and the people. The people delegated most of its functions to one man, so that the government was divided between the Senate and the man who represented the people. In the course of time the republican forms of the constitution and the magisterial character of the emperor gradually disappeared, but at first they were clearly marked and strictly maintained. The Senate possessed some real power. Assemblies of the people were held, consuls, praetors, tribunes, and the other magistrates were elected as usual. The Principate was not formally a monarchy, but rather a diarchy, as German writers have called it. The Princeps and the Senate together ruled the state. But the fellowship was an unequal one, for the emperor, as supreme commander of the armies, had the actual power. The diarchy is a transparent fiction. The chief feature of the constitutional history of the first three centuries of the empire is the decline of the authority of the Senate and the corresponding growth of the powers of the Princeps until finally he becomes an absolute monarch. When this comes to pass, the empire can no longer be described as the Principate. The Princeps was a magistrate. His powers were entrusted to him by the people, and his position was based on the sovereignty of the people. Like any other citizen he was bound by the laws, and if for any purpose he needed a dispensation from any law, he had to receive such dispensation from the Senate. He could not be the object of a criminal prosecution. This, however, was no special privilege, but merely an application of the general rule that no magistrate, while he is in office, can be called to account by anyone except a superior magistrate. Hence the Princeps who held office for life, and had no superior, was necessarily exempted from criminal prosecution. If, however, he abdicated or were deposed, he might be tried in the criminal courts. And, as Roman law permitted processes against the dead, it often happened that a Princeps was tried in the Senate after his death, and his memory condemned to dishonour, or his acts rescinded. The heavier sentence deprived him of the honour of a public funeral, and abolished the statues and monuments erected in his name, while the lighter sentence removed his name from those emperors to whose acts the magistrates swore when they entered on their office. When a Princeps was not condemned, and when his acts were recognised as valid, he received the honour of consecration. The claim to consecration after death was a significant characteristic of the Princepate, derived from Caesar the Dictator. He had permitted himself to be worshipped as a god during his lifetime, and though no building was set apart for his worship, his statue was set up in the temples of the gods, and he had a flamen of his own. After his death he was numbered by a decree of the Senate and Roman people among the gods of the Roman state, under the name of Debus Julius. His adopted son did not venture to accept divine worship at Rome during his lifetime. He was content to be the son of a god, Dewey Philius, and to receive the name Augustus, which implied a certain consecration. But like Romulus, to whom he was fond of comparing himself, he was elevated to the rank of the gods after his death. It is worth observing how Augustus softened down the bolder designs of Caesar in this as in other respects. Caesar would have restored royalty without disguise. Augustus substituted the Princeps for the Rex. In Rome, Caesar was a god during his lifetime. Augustus, the son of a god while he lived, a god only after death. In one important respect the Principate differed from other magistracies. There was no such thing as designation. The successor to the post could not be appointed until the post was vacant. Hence it follows that on the death of an emperor the Empire ceased to exist until the election of his successor. The Republic was in the hands of the Senate and the people during the interim, and the initiative devolved upon the consuls. The principal, the king is dead, long lived the king, had no application in the Roman Empire. As a magistracy the Principate was elective and not hereditary. It might be conferred on any citizen by the will of the sovereign people, and even women and children were not disqualified by their sex and age, as in the case of other magistracies. Two or rather three acts were necessary for the creation of the Princeps. He first received the Proconsular Imperium, and along with it the name Augustus. Subsequently the Tribunition Power, and also other rights defined by the special law De Imperio. But it must be clearly understood that his position as Princeps really depended upon the Proconsular Imperium, which gave him exclusive command of all the soldiers of the state. Once he receives it he is emperor. The acquisition of the Tribunition Power is a consequence of the acquisition of the Supreme Power, but is not the Supreme Power itself. The day on which the Imperium is conferred, Diaz Imperi, marks the beginning of a new reign. It is important to observe how the Proconsular Power was conferred on the Princeps. It was theoretically delegated by the sovereign people, but was never bestowed or confirmed by the people meeting in the Commitia. It was always conferred by the Senate, which was supposed to act for the people. When the title Imperator was first conferred by the soldiers it required the formal confirmation of the Senate, and until the confirmation took place the candidate selected by the soldiers was a usurper. On the other hand the Imperator named by the Senate, although legitimate, had no chance of maintaining his position unless he were also recognized by the soldiers. The position of the new Princeps was fully established when he was acknowledged by both the Senate and the Army. After Augustus the Proconsular Power of the Princeps was perpetual, and it was free from annuity in any form. The Tribunition Power, on the other hand, was conferred by the people meeting in Commitia. It properly required two separate legal acts, a special law defining the powers to be conferred, and an election of the person on whom they should be conferred. But these acts were combined in one, and a magistrate, probably one of the consuls, brought a Rogation before the Commitia, both defining the powers and nominating the person. The bill, of course, had to come before the Senate first, and an interval known as the Trinum Nundinum elapsed between the decree of the Senate and the Commitia. Hence, under the earlier Principate, when such forms were still observed, the assumption of the Tribunition Power takes place some time after the Diais Imperii. The Tribunition Power was conferred for perpetuity, but was formally assumed anew every year, so that the Princeps used to count the years of his reign as the years of his Tribunition Power. But though the Empire was thus elective, in reality the choice of the new Princeps depended on the Senate or the Army only in the case of revolutions. In settled times the emperors chose their successors, and in their own lifetime caused the object of their choice to be invested with some of the marks or functions of imperial dignity. It was but natural that each emperor should try to secure the continuance of the Empire in his own family—if he had a son, he was sure to choose him as successor, if only a daughter, her husband, or one of her children. If he had neither son nor daughter of his own, he usually adopted a near kinsman. Thus the Empire, though always theoretically elective, practically tended to become hereditary, and it came to be recognized that near kinship to an emperor founded a reasonable claim to the succession. This feature was present from the very outset, for the founder of the Empire himself had first assumed his place on the political stage as the son and heir of Julius, and no one was more determined or strove harder to founder dynasty than Augustus. Augustus assumed other functions and titles, as well as the Proconsular Imperium and the Tribunician Podestas, but they had no place in the theory of the Imperial Constitution. He was named by the Senate, the Knights, and the People Pater Patriae II BC, and subsequent emperors regularly received this title. He was elected Pontifex Maximus by the People in 12 BC, March the 6th, after the death of Lepidus, who had been allowed to retain that office when he was deprived of his triumviral power. Henceforward the chief pontificate was always held by the emperors, and formed one of their standing titles. Augustus also belonged to other religious colleges. He was not only Pontifex, he was also a Septemvir, a Quindecimvir, and an Orga. He was enrolled among the Fetiales, the Avales, and the Titii. Augustus was not a censor, nor did he as emperor possess the powers of the censor's office, though he sometimes temporarily assumed them. The reason why he refrained from assuming these powers permanently is obvious. It was his aim to preserve the form of a republic, and to maintain the senate as an independent body. One of the chief functions of the censors was to revise the list of senators. They had the power of expunging members from that body and electing new ones. It is clear that if the emperor possessed the rights of a censor, he would have direct control over the senate, and it would no longer be even nominally independent. In 28 BC, as we have seen, Augustus and Agrippa held a census as consuls, by virtue of the sensorial power which originally belonged to the consular office. And on two subsequent occasions on which Augustus held a census, once by himself, 8 BC, and once in conjunction with Tiberius, 14 AD, he did not assume the title of censor, but caused consular power to be conferred on him temporarily by the senate. In 22 BC, the people proposed to bestow on Augustus the censorship for life, but he refused the offer, and caused Paulus, Emilius Lepidus, and Munatius Plancus to be appointed censors. This was the last occasion on which two private citizens were colleagues in that office. Three times it was proposed to Augustus to undertake, as a perpetual office, the regulation of laws and manners, Morum Legum Que Regimen, but he invariably refused. Such an institution would have been as openly subversive of republican government as royalty or the dictatorship. Nevertheless, some of the functions of the censor, and especially the Kensus Ecutum, seem from the very first to have fallen within the competence of the prinkeps. It should be specially observed that the prinkeps did not possess consular power as is sometimes erroneously stated. Occasionally it was decreed to him temporarily for a special purpose, but it did not belong to him as prinkeps. While the emperor avoided the names Rex and Dictator, he distinguished himself from ordinary citizens by a peculiar arrangement of his personal name. One, all the emperors from Augustus to Hadrian, with three exceptions, dropped the name of their gents. Two, they never designated the tribe to which they belonged. Three, most of them adopted the title Imperator as a prinomen. This designation had been first used as a constant title by Caesar the Dictator, being placed immediately after his name and preceding all other titles. Thus it might have been regarded as a second cognomen, and the younger Caesar claimed it as part of his father's name, and, to make this clear, adopted it as a prinomen, instead of his own prinomen, Gaius. All the agnate descendants of the Dictator bore the name Caesar, which was a cognomen of the Julian gents. But when the house of the Julian Caesar's came to an end on the death of the emperor Gaius, his successor Claudius assumed the cognomen Caesar, and this example was followed by subsequent dynasties. Thus Caesar came to be a conventional cognomen of the emperor and his house. Augustus was the title of honor. It did not, like Imperato or Consul, imply an office, and hence an emperor's wife could receive the title Augusta. But it was not, like Caesar, hereditary. It had to be conferred by the senate or people. At the same time it was distinctly a cognomen, and it has clung especially to him who first bore it as a personal name. It was always assumed by his successes along with the actual power, and it seemed to express that, while the various parts of the emperor's power were in their nature collegial, there could yet only be one emperor. In much later times Augustus and Caesar were distinguished as greater and lesser titles. The emperor bore the name Augustus, while he whom the emperor chose to succeed to the throne was a Caesar. Moreover there might be more than one Augustus and more than one Caesar. We must carefully distinguish two different uses of Imperato in the titulary style of the emperors. One, as a designation of the proconsular imperium, it was placed, as we have already seen, before the name as a prinomen. Two, imp, with a number standing among the titles after the name, meant that he had been greeted as imperato so many times by the soldiers in consequence of victories. Yet the two uses were regarded as closely connected, for the investiture with the proconsular imperium was regarded as the first acquisition of the name imperato, so that on the first victory after his accession the emperor designated himself as imperator too. The order of names in the imperial style is worthy of notice. In the case of the early emperors, Caesar comes after the name, for example imp Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus. With Vespasian begins a new style, in which Caesar generally precedes the proper cognomen, thus imp Caesar Vespasianus Augustus. Augustus retained its place at the end. The Brinkabs had the right of appearing publicly at all seasons in the purple-edged toga of a magistrate. On the occasion of solemn festivals he used to wear the purple gold broided toga, which was worn by victorious generals in triumphal procession. And although in Italy he did not possess the imperium militiae, he had the right to wear the purple paludamentum purpura of the imperato even in Rome. But this was a privilege of which early emperors seldom availed themselves. The distinctive headdress of the Brinkabs was a laurel wreath. As imperato he wore the sword, but the scepter only in triumphal processions. Both in the senate house and elsewhere he sat on a cella curilis, and he was attended by twelve lictors like the other chief magistrates. His safety was provided for by a bodyguard, generally consisting of German soldiers, and one cohort of the Praetorian guards was constantly stationed at his palace. Under the Republic the formula of public oaths was couched in the name of Jupiter and the Pinates of the Roman people. Sees of the dictator added his own genius, and this fashion was followed under the Principate. The oath was framed in the name of Jupiter, those emperors who had become divine after death, the genius of the reigning emperor, and the Pinates. The Brinkabs also had the privilege of being included in the water or prayers for the welfare of the state which it was customary to offer up in the first month of every year, and it was regarded as treason to encroach on either of these privileges, to swear by the genius or offer public vows for the safety of any other than the emperor. After the Battle of Actium the birthday of Augustus had been elevated to a public feast, and hence it became the custom to celebrate publicly the birthday of every reigning emperor, and also the day of his accession. Like other men of distinction the Brinkabs gave morning receptions, which however differed from those of private persons in that every person who wished, provided he was of sufficiently high rank, was admitted. It was part of the policy of Augustus to treat men of his own rank as peers, and in social intercourse to behave merely as an aristocrat among fellow aristocrats. There was formerly no such thing as court etiquette, and the emperor's palatium was merely a private house. But the political difference which set the Brinkabs above all his fellow citizens could not fail to have its social consequences, however much Augustus wished to seem a peer among peers. Those persons whom Augustus admitted to the honour of his friendship, and they belonged chiefly to the senatorial in a few cases to the equestrian ranks, came to form a distinct, though not officially recognised, body under the name Amici Caesaris, Friends of Caesar. From this circle he selected his comites or companions, the retinue which accompanied him when he travelled in the provinces. The Amici were expected to attend the morning receptions and were greeted with a kiss. They wore a ring with the image of the emperor. They were received in some order of precedence, and gradually they came to be divided into classes according to their intimacy with the emperor, and admission into the circle of Amici became a formal act. To lose the possession of a friend of Caesar entailed consequences equivalent to exile. Invitations to dine with the emperor were also probably limited to the Amici. Thus at the very beginning of the Principate there were the elements of the elaborate system of court ceremonial which was developed in later centuries. The position of the comites was more definitely marked out. They received allowances and had special quarters in the camp. They had also presidents over provincial governors. The distinction of having been a commies of Caesar is often mentioned on inscriptions among official honours. It was not lawful under the free commonwealth to set up in any public place the image of a living man. The image of the prinkeps might be set up anywhere, and there were two cases in which it was obligatory that it should appear, namely in military shrines along with the eagle and the standards, and on coins. Sometimes it appeared on the standards themselves. In regard to coinage Augustus held fast the royal privilege which had been accorded by the senate to Caesar in 44 BC, and the right of being represented on the money of the realm was exclusively reserved for the emperor or those members of the imperial house on whom he might choose to confer it. In the last chapter it was shown how Augustus established the and we became acquainted with the constitutional theory of this new phase of the Roman Republic which was really a disguised monarchy. We also learned the titles and insignia which were the outward marks of the ambiguous position of the monarch who affected to be a private citizen. It remains now to examine more closely his political powers and see how the government of the state was divided between the princeps and the senate according to the system of Augustus. The proconsular imperium of the emperor differed from that of the ordinary proconsul in three ways. Firstly the entire army stood under the direct command of the emperor. Secondly his imperium was not limited except in the case of Augustus himself to a special period. It was given for life. And thirdly it not only extended directly over a far larger space the emperor's province including a multitude of important provinces the net of an ordinary proconsul but being mayus or superior above that of all others it could be applied in the senatorial provinces which they governed and thus it really extended over the whole empire. As a consequence of his exclusive military command it devolved upon the emperor exclusively to pay the troops to appoint officers to release soldiers from service. The soldiers took the military oath of obedience to him. He alone possessed the right of levying troops and anyone who levied troops without an imperial command committed an act of treason. He granted all military honors except triumphs and the triumphal ornaments. Moreover while an ordinary proconsul lost his imperium on leaving his district the emperor lived in Rome without surrendering the imperium although Rome and Italy were accepted from its operation. The emperor possessed also supreme command at sea and had the Praetorian guards formed of Italian volunteers at his disposal as a stationary garrison in Rome. In connection with the proconsular power is the sovereign right which the emperor possessed for making war and peace but this was probably conferred upon Augustus by a special enactment and was afterwards one of the prerogatives defined by the Lex Day imperial. The rights which the princeps derived from the tribunician power as such were as follows. One, he had the right to preside on the bench of the tribunes of the people. Two, he had the right of intercession which he often practiced against decrees of the senate. Three, he possessed the tribunician core sitio. His person was inviolable and not only an injury but any indignity in act or speech offered to him was punishable. Four, he had also the right to interfere with the prevention of abuses and to protect the oppressed. Five, it is possible that his power to initiate legislation may partly come under this head. Besides these powers springing from the tribunician potestas, the princeps possessed as we have seen other prerogatives defined by the Lex Day imperial. Although the sovereign people was now represented by a princeps, it had still some political duties to perform itself. The popular assemblies still met, elected magistrates, and made laws. The following points are to be observed. One, Augustus formally deprived the people of the judicial powers which had belonged to it. Two, the comitia tributa continued to be a legislative assembly, and the right of making laws was never formally taken away from it. But by indirect means, as will presently be explained, legislation almost entirely passed into the hands of the emperor, and under the reign of Tiberius, laws were not made by the comitia. For a long time, however, the form of conferring the tribunician power in an assembly of the people was maintained. The assembly for this purpose was called comitia tribunisics potestatas. Three, the election of magistrates was the most important function of the popular assemblies under Augustus. Constitutionally, the councils and praetorists were elected in the comitia of the centuries, while the tribunes, aides, and crasters were chosen in the comitia of the tribes. But after the foundation of the empire, the distinction between the comitia centriata and the comitia tributa seems to have disappeared, and it is only safe to speak generally of an assembly of the people. The chief function of the comitia cariata had been to pass legacy imperio, and there was room for it to exercise its powers on the five or six occasions on which the procounselor imperium was conferred on Augustus. But it is not clear whether on these occasions an assembly of the people was consulted at all. Much less whether, if so, the assembly took the special form of a curiate assembly. But whatever may have been the theory, and however tenderly republican forms were preserved by Augustus, the people practically lost all its political power. And this was quite right. In ancient times, before the introduction of representative government, popular assemblies worked very well for governing a town and a small surrounding territory, but were quite unsuitable for directing or deciding the policy of a great empire. Moreover, with extended franchise, it was impossible that all those who were entitled to vote in the assemblies could avail themselves of the privilege. And as a matter of fact, the comitia in the later republic were chiefly attended by the worst and least responsible voters and were often the scenes of riot and bloodshed. Section 2, The Princepts and Senate The government of the empire was divided between the emperor and the senate, and the position of the senate was a very important one. Augustus made some changes in its constitution. The number of the senate had been raised by Julius Caesar to nine hundred. Augustus reduced it again to six hundred. He also fixed the property qualification for senators at one million cesterces, about eight thousand pounds. Those who had held the office of Quaster had, as under the republic, the right of admission to the order, and the age was definitely fixed at twenty-five. The senatorial classes were still determined by official rank, councilors, pretorians, etc. Thus the constitution of the senate formally depended on the people as the people elected the magistrates. The influence of the emperor, however, was exerted in two ways. One, the emperor was able to influence the election of magistrates in the popular assembly, and two, he could assume the powers of censor and perform electio-senatus. Augustus purified the senate on several occasions. The censor, or he who possessed the censorial power under the principate, always after 22 BC, though not necessarily the princeps himself with or without a colleague, could not only place by electio a non-senator in the senate, but could assign him a place in a rank higher than the lowest. In fact, election among the questorians, the lowest class, was uncommon. Election either into the tribunician or into the pretorian class was the rule. Election into the highest rank of all, the consulares, was practiced by Caesar the dictator, but not by Caesar the first princeps or any of his successors up to the third century. When it became usual, as it did before the death of Augustus, to elect half-yearly instead of annual councils, the influence which the emperor could exert on the elections gave him much of the power which Caesar the dictator exerted by electio inter consulares. A list of the senate was made up every year. The emperor also exerted a great influence on the constitution of the senate in another way. Admission into the senate in the ordinary course depended on the questorship, and the questorship depended on the vigintiverate. The rule was that only those who belonged to the senatorial rank could be candidates for the vigintiverate. Here, election could not come in, but the emperor assumed the right of admitting as candidates for the vigintiverate persons outside the senatorial class by bestowing upon them the latus clavus. Thus a young knight not born of a senatorial family might, by the emperor's favor, enter on a senatorial career and become a member of the senate. The poet Ovid, who by birth belonged to the equestrian order, is a well-known example. The emperor seems to have had the power of granting a dispensation which allowed persons who had not been vigintiverate to become quaesters. It should be observed that in the senatorial career, curses sonorium, military service generally for a year in one legion was necessary. The usual steps were one, vigintiverate, two, military tribunate, three, quaestership, four, adyleship or tribunate, five, praetorship, six, consulate. Hence the vigintiveral offices were called by Ovid the first offices of tender age. The princeps was himself not only a senator, but the prince of the senate. His name stood first on the list of senators and he possessed the right of voting first. He did not, however, adopt princeps senators as one of his titles, as it was his policy rather to distinguish himself from than to identify himself with the senate. Special clauses of the Lexday Imperio conferred upon him further rights in regard to the transactions of that body. He had the rights of summoning the senate, a right which he might have claimed by virtue of the tribunician power itself, and of introducing bills, relatio, either orally or in the case of his absence, by writing, the proposal being couched in the form of an oratio, or literary, ad sanatum. His tribunician power gave him the right, as we have already seen, of canceling sanatus consulta. The reports of the transactions in the curia were always laid before Augustus when he was not present himself, and he appointed a special officer as his representative to see that the reports were drawn up in full and nothing important omitted. This officer was called curator ectorum, or ab actus sanatus. Augustus introduced the practice of forming senatorial committees to consult beforehand, in conjunction with himself, on measures which were to come before the senate. They consisted of one magistrate from each college, and fifteen senators chosen by lot every six months, and formed a sort of cabinet council. In the last year of his life, when, owing to his weakness and advanced age, he could no longer appear in the curia, a small senate was empowered to meet in his house and pass resolutions in the name of the whole senate. This body consisted of his son, his two grandsons, the councils in office, and the councils designate, twenty senators chosen for a year, and other senators whom the emperor himself selected for each sitting. This political concilium was no part of the constitution, and was in fact, under the early principate, only adopted by Augustus himself and his successor Tiberius. It must be carefully distinguished from the judicial concilium which will be mentioned below. It has been already mentioned that the joint rule of the empire by the emperor and the senate is sometimes called a diarchy. It was a diarchy that might at any moment become openly as it was virtually a monarchy. For the emperor possessed the actual power through his control of the army, and if he had chosen to exert force he might have destroyed the political existence of the senate. But the change of the diarchy into a monarchy was wrought gradually, and was partly due to the incompetence of the senate, which invited the interference of the sovereigns. The Mayus Imperium was changed by degrees into the direct rule of those provinces which were not part of the emperor's proconsular province. But Augustus was thoroughly in earnest in giving to the senate a distinct political position and substantial powers. He carefully abstained from interfering in the provinces which were not within his imperium. He was a man of compromise, and the constitution which he framed was intended to be a compromise between the democratic monarchy, which as the son of Julius he really represented, and the aristocracy. He was anxious to wipe out the memory of the civil wars and to have it forgotten that he had been the champion of the democracy. While he continued to bear the name of the divine Julius, he seems not to have cared to dwell on the acts of the great dictator, and it has often been noticed how rarely the poets of the Augustan age celebrate the praises of Julius Caesar. We may safely say that no statesman has ever surpassed Augustus in the art of withholding from political facts their right names. There are many points in the Augustan system which are not plain in their constitutional bearings, but the general lines are clear enough. The careful balancing between the rights and duties of the two political powers produced some artificial arrangements which could not last, and which were soon altered, either formally or tacitly, at the expense of the senate. But the main principle of the system founded by Augustus, the fiction of the independent and coordinate government of the senate, was not entirely abandoned for three centuries. The division of the labors and privileges of government between the senate and the emperor may be considered under five heads, administration, jurisdiction, election of magistrates, legislation and finances. One, most of the administrative functions which the senate discharged under the republic, especially in its later period, did not belong to that body by constitutional right, but were acquired at the expense of the supreme magistrates to whom they truly belonged. Many of these powers were confirmed to it under the empire. A. The powers which the senate had exercised in the sphere of religion, such as the suppression of foreign or profane rights, it continued to exercise in the imperial period. B. The rights of making war and peace and negotiating with foreign powers were taken away from the senate, but in unimportant cases the emperor sometimes referred foreign embassies to that body. C. The authority of the senate in the affairs of Italy continued unimpaired. D. The affairs of Rome were at first entirely under the management of the senate, but the incompetent administration of that body soon demanded the intervention of the emperor. E. The provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial, and the administration of the latter was in the hands of the senate. But the emperor had certain powers in the senatorial provinces, as will be explained in a later chapter. On the other hand, the senate had a small hold on the imperial provinces, except Egypt, insofar as the emperor appointed only senators as his governors. D. The senate, as the council of the chief magistrates, sometimes exercised judicial functions under the republic, as, for example, in the case of the Bacchic orgies, 186 B.C. But such cases were only exceptional. Augustus made the senate a permanent court of justice in which the council acted as the presiding judge. This court could try all criminal cases, but in practice only important causes in which people of high rank were involved or in which no specific law was applicable came before it. The emperor could influence this court in two ways. One, he was himself a member of it, and two, by the right of intercession, which he possessed in virtue of his tribunician power. Besides the court of the council in which the senate acted as jury, there was the court of the emperor. He could pass judgment without a jury, though he generally called in the aid of assessors, who were called his concilium, a distinct body from the political concilium mentioned above. Every case might come before his court as before that of the senate, but practically he only tried cases of political importance or in which persons of high position were involved. It lay in the nature of things that in these two new courts only special and important cases were tried. Ordinary processes in Roman Italy were decided as in former days by the ordinary courts of the praetors, Quastionis Perpetue, who still continued to exercise their judicial functions. But senators were now entirely excluded from the bench of Eudises, who appeared to have been nominated by the emperor. In the provinces justice was administered by the governors, but they had no jurisdiction over Roman citizens unless it was specially delegated to them by the emperor. Roman citizens could always appeal from the provincial courts to the higher courts at Rome. The appellatio of the princeps seems to have been made legal by a measure of 30 BC. On the principle of the division of power between senate and princeps, appeals from the decrees of the governors of senatorial provinces should have been exclusively directed to the senate. But on the strength of his imperium mayas the emperor often received appeals from senatorial as well as from imperial provinces. Appeal could only be made against the sentence of an official to whom the judicial power had been delegated. It could not be made directly against a jury. But it could be made against the decree of the magistrate which appointed the jury. Under Augustus the senate had no voice in the election of magistrates. The emperor was himself able to control the elections of the comitia in two ways. One, he had the right to test the qualification of the candidates and conduct the proceedings of the election. This right regularly belonged to the councils. But when Augustus set aside the consulate for the tribuniscian power in 23 BC it seems that he reserved this right by some special clause. He was thus able to publish a list of candidates and so nominate those whom he wished to be elected. He used only to nominate as many as there were vacancies. Two, he had the right of commendation, comendatio or sufrajatio. That is, he could name certain persons as suitable to fill certain offices. And these candidates recommended by the emperor, candidati principis, were returned as a matter of course. The highest office, however, the consulate, was accepted from the right of commendation. Four, in regard to legislation the senate was theoretically in a better position under the empire than under the republic. Originally and strictly it had no power of legislation whatever. The decisions of the senate embodied in the senateis consulta did not constitutionally become law until they were approved and passed by an assembly of the people. But practically they came to have legal force. The confirmation of the people came to be a mere form and sometimes the form was omitted. It is possible that it was omitted in the case of the decree which conferred the imperium on Augustus. Under Augustus the senate became a legislative body and in this respect took the place of the assembly of the people. From it and in its name issued the laws, senateis consulta, which the emperors wished to enact just as the laws legis proposed by the republican magistrates were made by the people. The senate alone had the power of passing laws to dispense from the operation of other laws and the emperor himself who was bound by the laws like any other citizen had to resort to it for this purpose. For example in 24 BC a senateis consultum freed Augustus from the Sincian law which fixed a maximum for donations. The special exception of particular persons from the law which defined a least age for holding the magistracies was at first a prerogative of the senate but the princeps gradually usurped it. To the senate also belonged exclusively the right of decreeing a triumph of consecrating or condemning the princeps after death and of licensing collegia. The princeps had no direct right to make laws more than a council or a tribune. Like these magistrates he had by virtue of his tribuniscian power the right to propose or introduce a law at the comitia for the people to pass. But this form of initiating legislation was little used and was entirely given up by the successor of Augustus. It would seem that it did not harmonize with the monarchial essence of the principate. It placed the princeps on a level with the other magistrates and perhaps it recognized too openly the sovereign right of the people which in point of fact the emperor had usurped. But formally the princeps had no right to make laws himself and thus Augustus as princeps was less powerful than Caesar as triumvir. But the restraint was evaded in several ways and as a matter of fact the emperor was the law giver. By special enactments he was authorized to grant to both corporations and individuals rights which were properly only conferred by the comitia. It was the princeps who founded colonies and gave them roman citizenship. It was he who bestowed upon a subject community the dignity of Ayos Latinum or a Latin community to full roman citizenship. It was quite logical that these powers should be transferred to the princeps in his capacity of imperator as sovereign over the provinces and dispenser of peace and war and maker of treaties. He also used to define the local statutes for a new colony. He had the right to grant roman citizenship to soldiers at all events perhaps also to others. Apart from these legis date which were properly comitial laws the most important mode of imperial legislation was by constitutions which did not require the assistance of either senate or comitia. These imperial measures took the form either of one edicts which as a magistrate the princeps was specially empowered to issue or of two acta decretta or epistole decisions and regulations of the emperor which primarily applied only to special cases but were generalized and adopted as universally binding laws. The validity of the imperial acta was recognized in a special clause of the lex day imperio and the oath taken by senators and magistrates included a recognition of their validity but their validity ceased on the death of the princeps and this fact illustrates the important constitutional difference between the principate and monarchy. Five the financial system of the state was modified by the division of the government between the emperor and the senate. There were now two treasuries instead of one the old orrarium saturni was retained by the senate. Under the republic the orrarium was under the charge of the quaesters but by augustus the duty was transferred to two praetors 23 bc praetoris arari. The emperor's treasury was called the fiscus and from it he had to defray the costs of the provincial administration the maintenance of the army and fleets the corn supply etc. It is to be observed that provincial territory in the imperial provinces was now regarded as the property not of the state but of the emperor and therefore the proceeds derived from the land taxes went into the fiscus. From a strictly legal point of view the fiscus was as much the private property of the emperor as the personal property which he inherited patrimonium or acquired as a private citizen rest pervata but at first the latter was kept apart from the fiscus which belonged to him in his political capacity his personal property however soon became looked upon not indeed as fiscal but as in a certain sense imperial crown property as we should say and devolving by right on his successor the expenses which the orrarium was called upon to defray under the principate were chiefly one public religious worship two public festivals three maintenance of public buildings four occasional erection of new buildings and five construction of public roads in roman italy two which however the fisc also contributed indeed it is impossible to distinguish accurately the division between the two treasuries in the senatorial provinces the taxes were at first collected on the farming system which had prevailed under the republic but this system was abandoned before long and finally the collection of the taxes in the senatorial as well as the imperial provinces was conducted by imperial officers but the tendency was to consign the duty of collecting the taxes to the communities themselves and in later times this became the system universally in the arrangements fermenting money also a division was made by augustus between the emperor and senate at first 27 bc both senate and emperor could issue gold and silver coinage at the expense of the orrarium and the imperial treasury respectively copper coinage ceased altogether for a time but when copper was again issued about 12 years later a new arrangement was made the princeps reserved for himself exclusively the coining of gold and silver and gave the coining of copper exclusively to the senate this was an advantage for the senate and a serious limit on the power of the princeps for the exchange value of the copper always exceeded the value of the metal and thus the senate had the power which the princeps did not possess of issuing an unlimited quantity of credit money in later times we shall see that the emperors could not resist the temptation of depreciating the value of silver and thus assuming the same privilege one of the most important functions of the senate under the emperors was that it served as an organ of publication it kept the public in communication with the government the emperor could communicate to the senate important events at home or abroad and though these communications were not formally public they reached the public ear it was usual for a new princeps on his accession to lay before the senate a program of his intended policy and this was of course designed for the benefit of a much larger audience than that assembled in the curia end of chapter three sections one and two recording by trisha g chapter three sections three and four of j.b. buries the students roman empire part one this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org the students roman empire part one by john bagnell burie chapter three the joint government of the princeps and the senate sections three and four section three the princeps and the magistrates we have seen that the republican magistrates continued to be elected under the empire and they were still supposed to exercise their functions independently under the dictatorship of julius Caesar they had been subject to the mayas imperium of the dictator but it was not so under the princepate the princeps has no mayas imperium over them as he has over the procouncil abroad his power is only coordinate but on the other hand it is quite independent the dignity of the consulate was maintained and it was still a coveted post indeed knew though reflected lester seemed to be shed on the supreme magistracy by the fact that it was the only magistracy which the princeps gained occasionally to hold himself to be the emperor's colleague was a great distinction indeed the consuls still gave their name to the year of their office and they retained the right of conducting and controlling the elections in the popular assemblies it has already been mentioned that a new senatorial court was instituted in which they were the presiding judges augustus also assigned the consuls some new duties in civil jurisdiction but he introduced the fashion of replacing the consuls who entered upon office in january by a new pair of consulates effecti at the end of six months this custom however was not definitely legalized and was sometimes not observed in later times four monthly consulates were introduced and later still two monthly the number of praetors had been increased to 16 by julius caesar augustus at first reduced the number to eight he then added two praetorius arari afterwards he increased them again to 16 but finally fixed the number at 12 the chief duties of the praetors were as before judicial but augustus assigned to them the obligation of celebrating public games which formerly had devolved upon the consuls and the adiles a college of 10 tribunes were still elected every year but the office became unimportant and the chief duties of a tribune were municipal the adiles also lost many of their functions augustus divided the city of roam into 14 regions over each of which an overseer or prefect presided these overseers were chosen from the praetors adiles and tribunes the quaestership was a more serious and laborious office salla had fixed the number of quaesters at 20 julius caesar raised it to 40 augustus reduced it again to 20 quaesters were assigned to the governors of senatorial provinces the procouncil of sicily had two two quaesters were at the disposal of the emperor to bear communications between him and the senate the consuls had four quaesters and these were two quaestorius or bani this mattress to see had an importance over and above its proper functions in that it qualified for admission into the senate thus as long as the quaesters were elected by the comitia the people had a direct voice in the formation of the senate and thus to the emperor by his right of commendation already mentioned exercised a great though indirect influence on the constitution of that body the vigintiverate was held before the quaestership it comprised four distinct boards the tresvery capitalis on whom it evolved to execute capital sentences the tresvery monatales who presided at the mint the quattroir veery the east in urbe pergandus officers who looked after the streets of roam and the disembary slitivus euticandus who were now appointed to preside in the sentin viral courts the republican magistrates formed a civil service and executive for the senate the princeps had no such assistance at his disposal as a magistrate he was supposed like a council or praetor to do everything himself the personal activity which is presupposed on the part of the princeps is one of the features which distinguished the principate from monarchy it followed as a consequence of this theory that all the officials who carried out the details of administration for which the emperor was responsible were not public officers but the private servants of the emperor a freedman fulfilled duties which in a monarchy would devolve upon a secretary of state the emperor had theoretically a perfect right to have appointed if he chose freedmen or citizens of any rank as governors in the provinces which he was supposed to govern himself it was due to the sound policy of augustus and his self-control that he made a district rule which his successors maintained only to appoint senators and in certain cases knights to those posts he also voluntarily defined the qualification of equestrian rank for the financial officers procuratorious augusti who represented him in the provinces but the position of the knights must be more fully explained section four the equites the equestrian order was reorganized by augustus and altered both in its constitution and in its political position one constitution in the early republic the equites were the citizen cavalry who were provided with horses for their military service at public cost but in the later republic there had come to be three classes of equites those who were provided with public horses aqueous romanus equal publico those who provided their own horses and those who by estate or otherwise were qualified for cavalry service but did not serve the two last classes were not in the strictest speech roman knights and they were abolished altogether by augustus who thus returned to the system of the early republic hence forward every night is an aqueous romanu equal publico and the whole ordo equestor consists of such to admission the emperor himself assumed the right of granting the public horse which secured entry into the equestrian order the chief qualifications were the equestrian senses free birth soundness of body good character but the qualification of free birth was not strictly insisted on under the empire and freedmen were often raised to be knights a senator's son necessarily became a knight by virtue of his birth and thus for men born in senatorial rank knighthood was a regular stage before entry into the senate there was a special official department ad census equitum romanorum for investigating the qualifications of those who were admitted into either of the two orders ordo uterque as the senate and the knights were called three life tenure another innovation of augustus consisted making the rank of knight tenable for life apart from degradation as a punishment or a consequence of the reduction of his income below the equestrian rating 400 000 cester says a knight does not cease to be a knight unless he becomes a senator or enters legionary service legionary service was so attractive under the empire that cases often occurred of knights surrendering their rank in order to become centurions for equitum probatio it was an old custom that the equites romana equa publico should ride annually on the Ides of july in full military comparison from the temple of mars at the port of capena first to the forum to offer sacrifice there to their patron gods caster and pollux and then on to the capital this procession called the transfectio equitum had fallen into disuse and augustus revived it and combined it with an equitum probatio or review of the knights sitting on horseback in order according to their term a the knights passed before the emperor and the name of each was called aloud the names of any whose behavior had given cause for censure were passed over and they were thus expelled from the order here the emperor discharged duties which before the time of sella had been discharged by the censors he was assisted by three or ten senators appointed for the purpose five organization the equestrian order was divided into term a six in number each of which was commanded by one of the severe equitum roman orum the severe were nominated by the emperor and changed annually like the magistrates they were obliged to exhibit games ludi severales every year it is to be observed that the knights were not organized or treated as a political body like the senate they had no machinery for action no common political initiative no common purse six privileges in dress the roman equis were distinguished by the military mantle called trebia and the narrow purple stripe and gustus clavus on the tunic they also wore a gold ring and this was considered so distinctively a badge of knighthood that the bestowal of a gold ring by the emperor became the form of bestowing knighthood the children of a knight like those of a senator were entitled to wear the gold bula in the theater special seats the fourteen rows were reserved for the knights and augustus five ad assigned them special seats also at races in the circus and at gladiatorial spectacles seven service of the knights as officers the chief aim of augustus in reorganizing the knights was military he desired to procure competent officers in the army from which posts he excluded senators entirely men of senatorial rank however who as has been already mentioned became knights before they were old enough to enter the senate regularly served a militia as it was called the officer posts here referred to are the subordinate commands not the supreme commands of legions and are of three kinds a perfectura cohortus or command of an auxiliary cohort b tribunatus militum in a legion c perfectura la command of an auxiliary cavalry squadron the emperor as the supreme military commander made the appointments to these military equestries service as officers seems to have been made obligatory on the knights by augustus as knights only could hold these posts there was no system of regular promotion for soldiers into the officer class but it often happened that soldiers who had distinguished themselves and had risen to the first rank of centurions who corresponded somewhat to our non-commissioned officers received the equus publicus from the emperor and thus were able to become tribunes and prefects as a rule the officers held their posts for several years and it was considered a privilege to hold the tribunatus semesterous which could be laid down after six months eight service of knights as jury men in 122 bc c grecus had assigned the right of serving as eudises exclusively to the knights 40 years later 81 bc solaree stored it to the senate then in 70 bc a compromise between the two orders was made by the law of l aurelius cata whereby the list of jury men was composed of three classes called decourier the first consisting entirely of senators the second of knights equa publico the third of tribuni arari as the last class possessed the equestrian census and belonged to the equestrian order in the wide sense in which the term was then used although they had not the equus publicus this law of cata really gave the preponderance to the knights the total number of eudises was 900 each class contributing 300 this arrangement lasted till 46 bc when caesar removed the tribuni arari from the third class and filled it with knights in the strict sense augustus excluded the senators altogether from service as eudises and while he preserved the three decourier filled them with knights but he added a fourth decourier for service in unimportant civil trials consisting of men who possessed more than half the equestrian income due scenario only men of at least 30 years of age were placed on the list of eudises and in the time of augustus only citizens of brome or italy nine employment of knights in state offices by reserving the posts of officers and eudises for the knights to the exclusion of the senators augustus was carrying out the design of c gracas and giving the knights an important political position so that they were in some measure coordinated with the senate as a factor in the state but he went much further than this he divided the offices of administration and the public posts between the senators and the knights the general principle of division was that those spheres of administration which are more closely connected with the emperor personally were given to knights the legate ships of legions however were reserved for senators as also the governorships of those provinces which had been annexed under the republic but new annexations such as egypt noricum and ratia were entrusted to knights and likewise the commands of new institutions such as the fleet and the auxiliary troops financial offices the collection of taxes and those posts in roman italy to be mentioned in chapter five which the emperor took charge of were also reserved for knights the selection of the procuratories augusti or tax officers in the provinces from the knights alone was some compensation to them for the loss of the renumerative field which they had occupied under the republic as pubicani as the taxes in the imperial provinces were no longer farmed but directly levied from the provincials the occupation of the knights as middlemen by which they had been able to accumulate capital and so acquire political influence was gone under the principate they were an official class those knights who held high imperial offices were called equites illustres ten elevation of knights to the senate knights of senatorial rank that is sons of senators who had not yet entered the senate formed a special class within the equestrian order to which they as a rule only temporarily belonged and wore the badges of their senatorial birth they could ordinarily become senators on reaching the age of twenty five for knights who were not of senatorial rank there was no regular system of advancement to the senate but the emperor by assuming sensorial functions could exercise the right of electio and admit knights into the senate it seems to have been a regular usage to admit into the senate the commander of the praetorian guards when he vacated that post end of chapter three sections three and four recording by trisha g