Augustus: The Life and Times of the Founder of the Roman Empire

by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh

The Arabian Expedition.

From Narbo, Augustus next proceeded to Spain in the early part of B.C. 26, and spent the rest of the year in peaceful reforms and in the organisation of the province. But in B.C. 25 he was forced to enter upon a campaign against the Cantabri and Astures, those warlike tribes in the north-west, who, nominally included in the upper province, were continually harassing the more obedient peoples, and showing their dislike of Roman supremacy.[246] The war was tantalising and difficult. The hardy highlanders knew every forest, mountain, and valley, and the Roman soldiers could neither provide against sudden attacks, not get at the enemy in their fastnesses. From fatigue and anxiety Augustus fell ill and was obliged to retire to Tarraco, leaving the conduct of the campaign to Gaius Antistius Vetus, who was able to win several engagements, because after the retirement of Augustus the natives ventured more frequently to appear in the open. Another of his legates, Titus Carisius, took Lance (Sallanco); and finally Augustus founded a colony of veterans among the Lusitani, called Augusta Emerita (Merida), and another called Cæsar-Augusta (Zaragossa) among the Editani, on the site of the ancient Salduba, from which all the great roads to the Pyrennees branch off. The Cantabri were not crushed, but they were quiet for a time. Ianus was closed, and Augustus returned at the beginning of B.C. 24; and the courtier Horace is again called on to celebrate a success, and to welcome the Emperor’s home-coming as of a victor.[247] The Senate voted him a triumph, partly for the Spanish campaign and partly for some successes of his legate, M. Vinicius, in Gaul, who had caused his soldiers to proclaim Augustus imperator for the eighth time. Augustus refused the triumph, but accepted the acclamation of imperator—thus assuming as head of the army that what was everywhere done was, to use the technical expression, done “under his auspices,” and was to be reckoned to his credit. He also accepted honours for his young nephew Marcellus, and his stepson Tiberius. The former was admitted to the Senate with prætorian rank, and with ten years seniority for office, in virtue of which he was at once elected ædile, though only in his twentieth year; the latter was allowed five years’ seniority, and at once elected quæstor in his nineteenth year. A triumphal arch was also erected in honour of Augustus in the Alpine region.[248] The temple of Ianus did not remain long closed, however. Soon after Augustus left Spain the Cantabri and Astures again rose; and in B.C. 24 took place the ill-judged and unfortunate expedition of Ælius Gallus into Arabia. A march of six months’ duration, in which large numbers perished from heat and disease and only seven men in actual fighting, was followed by a retreat lasting sixty days. Gallus had been misled and duped by the satrap of the Nabatæans, and all the hopes of splendid booty were baffled. The expedition had been approved, if not suggested, by Augustus, partly on the pretext of preventing incursions into Egypt; but more, it would seem, because Arabia was regarded as an El Dorado, where vast treasures of gold and jewels were to be found, accumulated from the export of the rich spices of the country, which the inhabitants were believed to keep jealously in a country as yet never pillaged by an invader. As usual, the court poets echo the popular delusions, and eulogise the certain success of the Emperor; Horace harps on the rich “treasures of the Arabians,” their “well-stocked houses,” their “virgin stores.” The Roman arms are to strike terror in the East and the Red Sea, and are at length being employed on what is their proper and natural foe.[249] Augustus, says another poet, is now a terror to the “homestead of the yet unplundered Arabia.”[250] Happily this was an almost solitary instance of such wild schemes, prompted by greed, and promoted by ignorance and delusion. Augustus came to see that the frontiers of his great empire afforded sufficient work for its military resources; but it was not till near the end of his long life that a great military disaster gave him a sharp reminder of the impolicy of pushing beyond them.

New buildings at Rome.

During these years the process of adorning Rome with splendid buildings or restorations of old ones had been steadily going on. For the largest number of these Augustus himself was responsible. In B.C. 28 the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, with its colonnades and libraries, had been dedicated. In the same year the restoration of 82 temples was begun on his initiative, and apparently at his expense. The new temple of Mars Ultor, vowed at Philippi, with its surrounding forum Augustum, was in process of erection, as well as another to Iupiter Tonans on the Capitol, vowed in the course of the Cantabrian expedition to commemorate a narrow escape from being struck by lightning. He also completed the forum and basilica partly erected by Iulius, had begun or projected the porticus Liviæ et Octaviæ, and had erected the imposing rotunda intended as the mortuary of the Iulian gens: while Statilius Taurus had built the first amphitheatre, Plancus a great temple of Saturn, and Cornelius Balbus was about to begin a new theatre. But most splendid of all were the benefactions of Agrippa. Baths, bridges, colonnades, gardens, aqueducts, were all dedicated by him to the use of the public. Above all, by B.C. 25 he had completed the magnificent Pantheon, still in its decline one of the most striking buildings in the world. It was dedicated to Mars and Venus, mythical ancestors of the Iulian gens, but its name may be derived either from its numerous statues of the gods, or from the supposed likeness of its dome to the sky. Its purpose—beyond being a compliment to Augustus—is still a subject of dispute. Nor have we any record of its use except as the meeting-place of the Arval brothers.[251]

The illness and recovery of Augustus, B.C. 23.

Great way, therefore, was already made towards justifying the boast of Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble. For these buildings were lined or paved with every kind of precious marble and stone. But the year following his return from Spain witnessed a crisis in his life as well as in his political position. He seems to have been in a feeble state of health all through B.C. 24, the effect probably of his fatigues and anxieties in Spain. But soon after entering on his eleventh consulship in B.C. 23, he became so much worse that he believed himself to be dying. It became necessary, therefore, to make provision for the continuance of the government. Augustus had no hereditary office, and no power of transmitting his authority. Still it was supposed that he was training his nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, or his stepson Tiberius, to be his successor. The former was curule-ædile, and seems to have conceived the ambition of succeeding his uncle. But when he thought death approaching, Augustus did not designate either of these young men. He handed his seal to Agrippa, and the official records of the army and revenue to Cn. Calpurnius Piso, his colleague in the consulship. He would play his part as constitutional magistrate to the last. To speculate on what might have been is not very profitable. Agrippa had advised a restoration of the republic in B.C. 30. But every year since then had made it more difficult; and, if he had wished to do it, he would probably have found it as impossible as his master had done, and would have had to choose between supporting Marcellus and taking the direction of affairs into his own hands. The difficulty, however, did not arise; for owing either to the goodness of his constitution, or the skill of his physician, Antonius Musa, Augustus recovered.

The new constitutional settlement, B.C. 23.

When he met the Senate once more he offered to read his will to prove that he had been true to his constitutional obligations, and had named no successor, but had left the decision in the hands of the Senate and people. The Senators, however, declined to hear it, but insisted that the powers which he had been exercising should be more clearly defined and placed on a better legal footing. Accordingly a Senatus-consultum was drawn up, to be afterwards submitted to the centuriate assembly, giving him a variety of powers, and forming a precedent which was followed in the case of subsequent emperors. It began with a confirmation of the tribunicia potestas, for life and unlimited as to place, with the right of bringing business of any kind before the Senate (ius relationis). It next gave him the ius proconsulare, both within and without the pomærium, involving a maius imperium in all provinces. Further, it gave him the right of making treaties; the right of summoning, consulting, and dismissing the Senate (ius consulare); the confirmation of all his acta, “Whatever he shall think to be for the benefit and honour of the republic in things divine and human, whether public or private”; finally, exemption from the provisions of certain laws and plebiscita. Some legal difficulty was apparently discovered afterwards as to the right of proposing laws to the centuriate assembly, which was remedied in B.C. 19 by his receiving the full consular power for life, with the right of having lictors, and sitting on the consular bench. This seems to have been a concession to legal purists. He doubtless exercised the full consular powers before; but a distinction was drawn by some between the ius consulare and the imperium consulare, and whatever doubt there might be was now set at rest.