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Octavian/Augustus
Let now your visionary glance look long
On this your race, these your Romans.
Here Caesar, of Iulus' glorious seed,
Behold ascending to the world of light!
Behold, at last, that man, for this is he,
So often foretold to your listening ears,
Augustus Caesar, kindred of Jupiter.
He brings a golden age…
Vergil, Aeneid. 6.784-800.
[Draft]
In his fictional autobiography of Augustus, Massie had Vergil tell Octavian about Rex Nemorensis [1]:
from http://janusquirinus.org/
There stands the Temple of Diana, guarded by its sole priest, a man who can never safely sleep, but must, night after night, prowl round the shadowy temple, a drawn sword in his hand. He is, as you know, Caesar, a priest and a murderer ... who won the right to guard the holy place of the Goddess by slaying him who was priest before. ...His life is a symbol perhaps of the decay and corruption of the world which can only be pardoned by the benign action of the Gods and by love. Without Diana there is no fertility; without fertility neither joy nor life. Yet this paradox remain: that Diana’s temple, the home of the Great Goddess who brings forth life, is guarded by a murderer’s sword, and that the priest himself must die, ingloriously, ignorant perhaps even of the nobility and importance of his achievement... The world has gone beyond Cincinnatus, and you cannot lay aside your toga and return to the plough. You are bound for life to prowl with naked unsheathed sword round the Temple that is Rome.
from http://janusquirinus.org/
Fiction perhaps, but the essence of it is true. On January 13, 27 BCE, Octavian astonished the Roman world by coming before the Senate and announcing his intention of laying down all his powers, constitutional and extraconstitutional. He said he desired to live as a private citizen.
from http://janusquirinus.org/
It was an extraordinary scene and is open to a cynical interpretation; but why not take him at his word. True, he was only thirty-six years of age at this time, but he might very well feel that he had paid his debt to the state and had earned a release. Whatever his motive, he was not allowed to carry out the suggestions of retirement and withdrawal from control [2].
from http://janusquirinus.org/
Augustus did not dodge. “Augustus stood like a soldier, ‘in statione’ ... he would not desert his post until a higher command relieved him, his duty done and a successor left on guard. Augustus used the word ‘statio’: so did contemporaries.” [3]
from http://janusquirinus.org/
“In the simplest analysis Octavian/Augustus fought his way to the position of Princeps without scruple or pity” [4]. “But his rule was justified by merit, founded upon consent and tempered by duty.” [5]. Even Augustus’ most vocal critics could not place his political achievements in doubt [6]. "Peace, prosperity, and justice were the noble, if unexciting, objectives of Augustus's mature years...his rule brought nothing but good to the millions of ordinary citizens of the Roman world" [7]. “The Roman State, based firmed on a united Italy and a coherent Empire, was completely renovated, with new institutions, new ideas and even a new literature that was already classical. The doom of Empire had borne on Rome, with threatened ruin. But now the reinvigorated Roman People, robust and cheerful, could bear the burden with pride as well as with security.” [8]. That “enabled Rome and the Empire to withstand the waywardness of many of the emperors who came after Augustus.” [9].
from http://janusquirinus.org/
One might call it a sham that Augustus refounded the res publica. 'Yet the "Restoration of the Republic" was not merely a solemn comedy, staged by a hypocrite' [10]. Augustus "provide[d] the Roman state with a form of permanent governmental supervision. Many...had come to grief in the effort" [11]. "For all his genius, Caesar could not find a way out" [12]. Augustus did and well. "And what statesman of later ages could enter into competition with him?" [13].
from http://janusquirinus.org/
I have put up sections on his achievements, his Rome, his portraiture, his humour, his sayings, what people over ages say about him (eventually, including books out of copyright), and links to other sites which discuss Augustus and his age. Some time soon, I will also have a sourcebook which covers Roman politics, administration, art, religion, social history, literature, and philosophy in the Augustan age. For a short biography on-line, see De Imperatoribus Romanis.
from http://janusquirinus.org/
[13] Eck, 2003. My italics.
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