Roman Public Life

by A. H. J. Greenidge

The electing body was the Roman people, chiefly represented by the Senate but still retaining in its own hands the formal ratification of most of the powers conferred. But the powerlessness of this sovereign is of the very essence of the history of the Principate. As a rule, all that it can do is to recognise an imperium already established by the army, whether this establishment be due to the tacit consent of praetorians or legionaries or to the active use of their swords. The crucial point in the creation of an emperor is his salutation by his army as imperator. Such a salutation did not mean that the general who accepted it was Princeps; it meant only that he was a candidate for the Principate. The act itself was one of revolution; its legality depended upon its success. Did the legions in other provinces accept the candidature, the Senate immediately fulfilled its formal task; did rival aspirants meet in battle, it was always ready to welcome the survivor. To be truly a Princeps was to receive the customary honours and offices from the Senate, and Vitellius was acting in the true spirit of the constitution when he adopted as the formal date of his accession (dies imperii) the day on which his claims had been ratified by the fathers.[1678] Vespasian was acting contrary to that spirit when he regarded as the beginning of his the moment at which he had been saluted imperator by the legions of Egypt.[1679]

Yet although the history of the Empire furnishes an unparalleled series of successful revolutions, it must not be supposed that the importance of the Senate’s formally transmitting the succession was ever questioned or obscured. The Senate’s authority was rendered stable by the many peaceful instances of dynastic succession; it was rendered creditable by such a stand as that made against the tyrant Maximin; it was kept alive by the fact that when, in the days of the “thirty tyrants,” the Empire was breaking up, Italy was still the only formal centre of a world power; it was bound up with the magic name of Rome, and even in the third century was welcomed with relief by an army sick of its own lawless violence.[1680]

But whether we lay more stress on the de facto or the de jure element in the act of election, we must admit that the elective principle was not the sole determinant in the transmission of the Principate. It was crossed by two others, both of which were typically Roman. These were the principles of nomination and of hereditary succession.

Nomination took the form of designation by some significant act. One of the most significant modes in which the Princeps could point to his choice of a successor was to invest an individual with an approximation to those powers which were of the essence of the Principate, and thus to make him in a sense a colleague in the Empire (collega, consors imperii). The powers chosen were the proconsulare imperium, the tribunicia potestas, or both. It was thus that Augustus at different times designated Agrippa and Tiberius for the throne,[1681] that Tiberius pointed to Germanicus and Drusus as his destined successors, that Nerva nominated Trajan, Trajan Pius, and Pius Marcus Aurelius.[1682] Although such a position is described as one of colleagueship in the imperial power, yet it did not confer, as regards the imperium, the most characteristic rights of the Principate. The colleague did not possess joint command over the praetorian guard or the fleet, nor joint administration over all the Caesarian provinces,[1683] unless these rights were conferred by special mandate, as they were on Tiberius during the closing years of Augustus’ life;[1684] nor had the colleague, although in possession of an independent imperium, any right to triumph, except by the will of the Princeps,[1685] for his victory had been due to legions which had taken the sacramentum to another. The name imperator was not borne by this assistant to the throne unless it was specially conferred, as it was by Vespasian on Titus and by Hadrian on Antoninus Pius.[1686] It is uncertain whether the possessor of the tribunicia potestas and of the proconsulare imperium in its lower form had to have these powers reconferred on his accession to the throne. In the case of the imperium, since it fell short of that required for the imperial position, reconferment is probable. But yet the possession of such a power seemed to create a continuity in the Principate, and the state seemed never to have lost its head.

A second mode of nomination was effected by the Princeps designating his intended successor as his heir. It was not merely that this was an effective way of showing one’s will, but it actually pointed to a transmission of the crown property (patrimonium) which accompanied the Principate. Gaius attempted to employ this mode of designation in favour of his sister Drusilla,[1687] and Tiberius showed either that he had left the succession open, or that he contemplated a joint Augustate, by making his great-nephew Gaius and his grandson Tiberius Gemellus joint heirs.[1688]

Adoption was as effective a means of emphasising one’s intentions. Such an adoption by the Princeps might be by testament, but it need not follow the legal forms, and required only a public announcement through a contio whether in the Forum, the Senate, or the camp.[1689] It was thus that Galba named Piso as his successor, but adoption usually accompanied the gift of quasi-imperial power, as in the cases of Tiberius, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.[1690]

We have already noticed the method by which the Princeps, sometimes with the help of the Senate, could announce his wishes as to the succession by the gift of the name of Caesar.[1691] This was a constitutional recognition of a principle of designation which had hitherto been informal.

Three of the modes of nomination which we have mentioned—those by heirship, adoption, and the gift of the name of Caesar—obviously approach very closely to the principle of hereditary succession. Adoption especially created to the Roman mind a tie only less strong than that of natural birth; and, whichever of the three methods was employed, it would have been considered almost inconceivable that a man should pass over his own son or agnatic descendant in favour of a stranger. Just as in the Republic son had succeeded father in office, so in the Principate it was easy to gain recognition for a dynasty; and, as a rule, it was only when the last of a line had, for misgovernment or other reasons, been violently overthrown, that the principle of selection found free play. The magic of the name of Caesar could call even Claudius to the throne; Vespasian, the novus homo, found it easy to transmit his power; the dynasty founded by Severus ran through four generations in spite of the murder of Caracalla and the scandal of Elagabalus’ rule; the death of the two elder Gordians made the accession of the third inevitable; and Carus, the last of the rough soldier emperors, could be succeeded by the gentle Numerian and the extravagant Carinus.

The lack of any definite principle of succession combined with the warring forces within the Empire to make the position of a ruling Emperor one of dazzling uncertainty. The possibility of election by the legions created a rude standard of merit, and it is questionable whether any really incapable man ever sat on the Roman throne. But usurpation was often followed by dethronement, tyranny by death or posthumous disgrace; and although such expulsions, executions, and censures were practically the work of the army, it is of some importance for the constitutional theory of the Principate to determine the legal form which dethronement or condemnation assumed.

As it was the Senate, representing the people, which gave, so it was this power which took away the Principate; and the act of deposition is attested in the cases of Nero, Didius Julianus, and Maximin.[1692] Deposition was followed by death, and then came the condemnation of the reign, one that might follow even when the death of the tyrant had not been directly ordered by the government.[1693] In its extremest form this was a condemnation of the memory (damnatio memoriae) of the late ruler on the ground that he was a traitor (perduellis).[1694] His acta were rescinded, his name erased from the records. A milder form of censure was the mere neglect of his acta in the form that no oath to observe them was sworn by magistrates and senators.[1695] In the latter case there was no wholesale rescission of the acts, and each special case in which the late Emperor had decided was approved on its individual merits.