A History of Rome to 565 A. D.

by Arthur E. R. Boak

I. The Princeps

The settlement of 27 B. C. During his sixth and seventh consulships, in the years 28 and 27 B. C., Octavian surrendered the extraordinary powers which he had exercised during the war against Antony and Cleopatra and, as he later expressed it, placed the commonwealth at the disposal of the Senate and the Roman people. But this step did not imply that the old machinery of government was to be restored without modifications and restrictions or that Octavian intended to abdicate his position as arbiter of the fate of the Roman world. Nor would he have been justified in so doing, for such a course of action would have led to a repetition of the anarchy which followed the retirement and death of Sulla, and, in disposing of his rivals, Octavian had assumed the obligation of giving to the Roman world a stable form of government. Public sentiment demanded a strong administration, even if this could only be attained at the expense of the old republican institutions.

But while ambition and duty alike forbade him to relinquish his hold upon the helm of state, Octavian shrank from realizing the ideal of Julius Caesar and establishing a monarchical form of government. From this he was deterred both by the fate of his adoptive father and his own cautious, conservative character which gave him such a shrewd understanding of Roman temperament. His solution of the problem was to retain the old Roman constitution as far as was practicable, while securing for himself such powers as would enable him to uphold the constitution and prevent a renewal of the disorders of the preceding century. What powers were necessary to this end, Octavian determined on the basis of practical experience between 27 and 18 B. C. And so his restoration of the commonwealth signified the end of a régime of force and paved the way for his reception of new authority legally conferred upon him.

The imperium. Nothing had contributed more directly to the failure of the republican form of government than the growth of the professional army and the inability of the Senate to control its commanders. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary for the guardian of peace and of the constitution to concentrate the supreme military authority in his own hands. Consequently on 13 January, 27 B. C., the birthday of the new order, Octavian, by vote of the Assembly and Senate, received for a period of ten years the command and administration of the provinces of Hither Spain, Gaul and Syria, that is, the chief provinces in which peace was not yet firmly established and which consequently required the presence of the bulk of the Roman armies. Egypt, over which he had ruled as the successor of the Ptolemies since 30 B. C., remained directly subject to his authority. As long as he continued to hold the consulship, the imperium of Octavian was senior (maius) to that of the governors of the other provinces which remained under the control of the Senate. In effect, his solution of the military problem was to have conferred upon himself an extraordinary command which found its precedents in those of Lucullus, Pompey and Caesar, but which was of such scope and duration that it made him the commander-in-chief of the forces of the empire.

The titles Augustus and Imperator. On 16 January of the same year the Senate conferred upon Octavian the title of Augustus (Greek, Sebastos) by which he was henceforth regularly designated. It was a term which implied no definite powers, but, being an epithet equally applicable to gods or men, was well adapted to express the exalted position of its bearer. A second title was that of Imperator. Following the republican custom, this had been conferred upon Augustus by his army and the Senate after his victory at Mutina in 43 B. C., and in imitation of Julius Caesar he converted this temporary title of honor into a permanent one. Finally, in 38 B. C., he placed it first among his personal names (as a praenomen). After 27 B. C. Augustus made a two-fold use of the term; as a permanent praenomen, and as a title of honor assumed upon the occasion of victories won by his officers. From this time the praenomen Imperator was a prerogative of the Roman commander-in-chief. However, during his principate Augustus did not stress its use, since he did not wish to emphasize the military basis of his power. But in the Greek-speaking provinces, where his power rested exclusively upon his military author[pg 207]ity, the title Imperator was seized upon as the expression of his unlimited imperium and was translated in that sense by autocrator. From the praenomen imperator is derived the term emperor, commonly used in modern times to designate Augustus and his successors.

The tribunicia potestas, 23 B. C. From 27 to 23 B. C. the authority of Augustus rested upon his annual tenure of the consulship and his provincial command. But in the summer of 23 B. C. he resigned the consulship and received from the Senate and people the tribunician authority (tribunicia potestas) for life. As early as 36 B. C. he had been granted the personal inviolability of the tribunes, and in 30 B. C. their right of giving aid (auxilium). To these privileges there must now have been added the right of intercession and of summoning the comitia (jus agendi cum populo).[15] In this way Augustus acquired a control over comitial and senatorial legislation and openly assumed the position of protector of the interests of the city plebs. He was moreover amply compensated for the loss of civil power which his resignation of the consulship involved, and at the same time he got rid of an office which must be shared with a colleague of equal rank and the perpetual tenure of which was a violation of constitutional tradition. The tribunician authority was regarded as being held for successive annual periods, which Augustus reckoned from 23 B. C.

Special powers and honors. At the time of the conferment of the tribunician authority, a series of senatorial decrees added or gave greater precision to the powers of Augustus. He received the right to introduce the first topic for consideration at each meeting of the Senate, his military imperium was made valid within the pomerium, but, in view of his resignation of the consulship, became proconsular in the provinces. It was probably in 23 B. C. also that Augustus received the unrestricted right of making war or peace, upon the occasion of the coming of an embassy from the king of the Parthians. In the next year he was granted the right to call meetings of the Senate. Three years later he was accorded the consular insignia, with twelve lictors, and the privilege of taking his seat on a curule chair between the consuls in office. These marks of honor gave him upon official occasions the precedence among the magistrates which his authority warranted. On the other hand, in 22 B. C. Augustus refused the dictatorship or the perpetual consulship, which were con[pg 208]ferred upon him at the insistence of the city populace; and in the same spirit he declined to accept a general censorship of laws and morals (cura legum et morum) which was proffered to him in 19 B. C.

The principate. It was by the gradual acquisition of the above powers that the position which Augustus was to hold in the state was finally determined. This position may be defined as that of a magistrate, whose province was a combination of various powers conferred upon him by the Senate and the Roman people, and who differed from the other magistrates of the state in the immensely wider scope of his functions and the greater length of his official term. But these various powers were separately conferred upon him and for each he could urge constitutional precedents. It was in this spirit of deference to constitutional traditions that Augustus did not create for himself one new office which would have given him the same authority nor accept any position that would have clothed him with autocratic power. Therefore, as he held no definite office, Augustus had no definite official title. But the reception of such wide powers caused him to surpass all other Romans in dignity; hence he came to be designated as the princeps, i. e. the first of the Roman citizens (princeps civium Romanorum). From this arose the term principate to designate the tenure of office of the princeps; a term which we now apply also to the system of government that Augustus established for the Roman Empire. The crowning honor of his career was received by Augustus in 2 A. D., when the senate, upon the motion of one who had fought under Brutus at Philippi, conferred upon him the title of “Father of His Country” (pater patriae), thus marking the reconciliation between the bulk of the old aristocracy and the new régime.

Renewal of the imperium. His imperium, which lapsed in 18 B. C., Augustus caused to be reconferred upon himself for successive periods of five or ten years, thus preserving the continuity of his power until his death in 14 A. D.