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The Official Position of Imperator Caesar Divi Filius from 31 to 27 Bce*

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THE SECRET HISTORY: THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVI FILIUS FROM 31 TO 27 BCE* Abstract: In Res Gestae 7.1, Augustus claims to have been Triumvir for Constituting the Republic for ten consecutive years (43-33 BCE), whereas the foundations of the so-called Principate were not estab- lished before 13 and 16 January 27. Since a magnificent aureus from 28 BCE corroborates Augustus’ boastful statement (Res Gestae 34.1) that he returned the Res Publica to the Senate and the People in his sixth and seventh consulships (28 & 27 BCE), the question of his official position from 32 to 27 has become more pertinent than ever. The main aim of this inquiry is to demonstrate that Octavianus/ Augustus, who at this stage was formally called Imperator Caesar Divi filius, continued to govern the Republic as triumvir r.p.c. well after 31 December 32, the historical end date of the second triumvi- ral quinquennium. There is every indication that he only abdicated this plenipotentiary magistracy on 13 January 27, the very day he declared to have completed his triumviral assignment. 1. A SIMPLE QUESTION In what official capacity did Caesar’s adopted son and self-proclaimed political heir stage the momentous transition from the age of civil war to his august New Order? This question has been catapulted to the fore- front again ever since J. Rich and J. Williams published a magnificent * The genesis of this paper can be traced back to peripheral inquiries made at the time of my doctoral research on the so-called potestates extraordinariae of the Roman Repub- lic (submitted at Ghent University, 2002) and my study on The Lex Valeria and Sulla’s Empowerment as Dictator (82-79 BCE), CCG 15 (2004) – see, esp., p. 58-68 (and n. 111 of p. 65). The main findings of this inquiry were first presented at a conference on the subject of Res publica restituta: Le pouvoir et ses représentations à Rome durant le prin- cipat d’Auguste, held at the University of Nantes, 1-2 June 2007. I am especially obliged to Emeritus Professor John Rich of the University of Nottingham whose written thoughts on earlier versions have been most useful in terms of further sharpening and refining its argument. Responsibility for all views expressed in this study and any remaining flaws and errors is mine alone. All dates are BCE, unless otherwise stated. Precisely because of the artful way in which Caesar’s adopted son used his name of Imperator Caesar Divi filius in the decade or so before the settlement of 27, I have taken the conscious decision to refer to him chiefly as Caesar Octavianus. Since Dio Cassius does so, too, on several occasions in his books on the triumviral era, admittedly in passages where he was possi- bly drawing on hostile sources (viz. XLVI 47.5, XLVII 20.3, XLVIII 14.4-5 & XLIX 41.2), this choice is not without justification. Ancient Society 40, 79-152. doi: 10.2143/AS.40.0.2056254 © 2010 by Ancient Society. All rights reserved. 993524_AncSoc_40_05_Vervaet.indd3524_AncSoc_40_05_Vervaet.indd 7799 226/11/106/11/10 114:494:49 80 F.J. VERVAET aureus from 28 BCE in the Numismatic Chronicle, volume 159 (1999)1. This excellent study has conclusively demonstrated that Augustus’ state- ment in Res Gestae 34.1, that his devolution of the Res Publica to the Senate and the People took place in his sixth and seventh consulship, should be taken at face value2. As Rich and Williams point out, this aureus corroborates Tacitus’ statement in Ann. III 28.1-2 that, sexto demum consulatu Caesar Augustus, potentiae securus, quae triumuiratu iusserat aboleuit deditque iura quis pace et principe uteremur, whereas Dio Cassius (LIII 3-10) apparently misrepresents as a single act what was in fact a staged process extending over 28 and part of 273. It was especially from his triumphant return from Egypt in 29 up to the momentous settlements of January 27 that Imperator Caesar Divi f. laid the foundations of a political system that would last for approxi- mately three centuries. Therefore, the question in what official capacity he did so is of tremendous importance4. Before, however, tackling this key issue two preliminary questions require brief discussion, viz. the official terminal date of the second triumviral quinquennium and, next, the characteristics and termini of the so-called extraordinary magistra- cies of the Roman Republic. 2. THE TERMINAL DATE OF THE SECOND TRIUMVIRAL QUINQUENNIUM: AN INEXTRICABLE KNOT? Depending on different valuations of the extant evidence from the sources most scholars argue for 31 December 33, whereas a minority opt for 31 December 32 as the official end date of the so-called ‘second’ triumvirate5. Two powerful factors have caused this discussion to turn 1 Rich & Williams (1999) 169-213. 2 In consulatu sexto et septimo, postqua[m b]el[la ciuil]ia extinxeram, per consensum uniuersorum [po]tens re[ru]m om[n]ium, rem publicam ex mea potestate in senat[us populi]que R[om]ani [a]rbitrium transtuli. For the Res Gestae Diui Augusti, I have con- sistently used the excellent new edition by SCHEID (2007). 3 RICH & WILLIAMS (1999) 194-199 & 212-213. 4 Comp. also the observation in Dion Cassius (1991), p. XL, that «la question n’est pas tant de savoir à quelle date, précisément, le triumvirat a expiré — car dans cette affaire, la légalité est, après tout, formelle — que de connaître le fondement des préroga- tives d’Octavien au delà de cette limite.» 5 For excellent summaries of the interminable debate on the termini of the second triumviral quinquennium, see REINHOLD (1988) 224-225, and, esp., GIRARDET (1990a) 324-325 (with n. 2, 4, 6 & 7) and (1995) 149 n. 13. To name just a few scholars who 993524_AncSoc_40_05_Vervaet.indd3524_AncSoc_40_05_Vervaet.indd 8800 226/11/106/11/10 114:494:49 THE SECRET HISTORY 81 into a seemingly endless debate, if not a complete stalemate. First, there is the disparate nature (and often poor quality) of the extant source mate- rial6. Next, none other than Caesar Augustus himself famously claimed in his Res Gestae (7.1) that he «was Triumvir for Constituting the Republic for ten consecutive years»: [Tri]umu[i]rum rei pu[blicae c] on[s]ti[tuendae fui per continuos an]nos [decem]7. Even though it will be argued in the next chapter of this inquiry that, ultimately, this matter is largely irrelevant to the question of Octavianus’ official position from the expiry of his second statutory term as triumvir r.p.c. to 13 January 27, there is a strong indication that the second triumviral quinquennium indeed ended on 31 December 32, and not precisely one year earlier. In November of the fateful year 43, M. Aemilius Lepidus (cos. 46), M. Antonius (cos. 44) and C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus (cos. suff. 43) had the tribune P. Titius propose and carry a law that invested them with the unprecedented magistracy of triumuir rei publicae constituendae. In order to execute their enormous commission, namely to end the civil argue in favour of 31/12/33: MOMMSEN (1887) II, 718-719; SYME (1939) 277 n. 6; MRR 2, 417; SYME (1958) 184 («to the last day of December, 33 B.C., the official competence of Octavianus reposed on the title ‘III vir r.p.c.’ Throughout the year 32 B.C. he holds no office»); FADINGER (1969) 103; JONES (1970) 37; MILLAR (1973) 58 (cautiously: «when [i.e., 32 BCE] (perhaps) his only official position was that of consul designatus for the third time»); GRAY (1975) 301-305 & 309; HOYOS (1983) 7; LEWIS (1991) 58 & 61; BLEICKEN (1990) 14 & n. 28; RICH (1992) 114; GIRARDET (1990a) 325 (comp. 330 & 338), and, esp., (1995) 147-161; WARDLE (1995) 496; PELLING (1996) 67-68; RICH & WILLIAMS (1999) 188; and MANTOVANI (2008) 10 & n. 21 (Mantovani accepts Girardet’s argument in [1995] as convincing). Since Pelling’s short treatment of the problem is a classic example of how Augustus’ tremendously successful representation of the facts is adopted without question in modern scholarship, it is well worth quoting some of his argument: «At RG 7.1 Augustus claims to have held the triumvir (sic) per continuos annos decem/sunexésin ∂tesin déka (cf. Suet., Aug. 27.1): i.e. clearly, from 27 Novem- ber 43 to 31 December 33: cf. Brunt – Moore ad loc. I agree with those who regard this as decisive. Thus the Fasti Capitolini, inscribed under Augustus, include the triumvirs before the consuls in their entry for 1 January 37 (rather than 36): the second five-year term had retrospectively been fixed as beginning then.» Amongst the far lesser number of historians arguing in favour of 31/12/32 are COLI (1953) 415; GABBA (1970) 5-16 (esp. 11-15); ANELLO (1980) 111-114; BADIAN (1991) 8 n. 8; ERMATINGER (1993) 109; and RIDLEY (2003) 173. As RIDLEY, loc. cit., points out, the first attempt to prove this case was by Ettore CICOTTI, La fine del secondo triumvirato, RF 2 (1895) 80-93 (non vidi). 6 Hence the rather pessimistic appraisal of this debate in Dion Cassius (1991), p. XL: «Les arguments échangés de part et d’autre paraissent avoir autant de poids, et l’imprécision des sources sur cette question ne permet pas de trancher définitivement en faveur de l’une ou de l’autre option.» 7 Augustus’ version of the facts is reproduced by Suetonius in Aug. 27.1: triumuira- tum rei p. constituendae per decem annos administrauit. BLEICKEN (1990) 15 n. 29 rightly deduces that Suetonius must have used either the Res Gestae or Augustus’ memoirs.
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