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©2011 Benjamin Wesley Hicks ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2011 Benjamin Wesley Hicks ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE PROCESS OF IMPERIAL DECISION-MAKING FROM AUGUSTUS TO TRAJAN by BENJAMIN WESLEY HICKS A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Classics written under the direction of T. Corey Brennan and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Process of Imperial Decision-Making from Augustus to Trajan by BENJAMIN WESLEY HICKS Dissertation Director: T. Corey Brennan Previous studies of Roman imperial decision-making have largely viewed the structure of imperial government either through the lens of the later Principate or of the consilium principis. This dissertation instead focuses on the early Principate, the era when the first emperors established patterns that shaped the growing imperial governmental and bureaucratic apparatus. It examines decision-making as a process, tracing the handling of problems of state and law from the provincial governor to the implementation of the emperor‘s decisions. The evidence of Pliny the Younger‘s letters from Bithynia-Pontus make him the subject of the first component of this study, which uses social network theory to examine the flow of information both within an imperial province and between emperor and governor, wherein the governor acted as a filter through which information flowed to the emperor. Turning to the actual deliberation on decisions, this same consideration of social networks reveals that the consilium principis, whose position between court and petitioner allowed it to function as the node between two ―cliques,‖ played a central role in mediating the tensions between ruler and subject while fulfilling a particularly Roman need to legitimate the acta of magistrates through consultative decision-making. ii The final major portion of the decision-making process involves the implementation of those self-same decisions. Precedent and informational insecurity proved a significant challenge to Roman imperial governance. The relatively broad swath of imperial power, which combined legislative, judicial, and executive authority, resulted in a system where both decisions and their implementation in any instant case could produce a precedent. As becomes evident in the examination of legal and epigraphic sources, the bureaucratic means to cope with the potential snares of this system developed slowly with the growth of imperial record-keeping mechanisms stemming from the precedent of a magistrate‘s semi-private collection of his commentarii rather than the public records of the aerarium and tabularium. This study concludes that the imperial decision-making apparatus as a whole grew out of Roman, distinctly republican precedents adapted to fit the reality of empire and supports its findings with an appendix of representative imperial decisions. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a very real debt of gratitude to my advisor, Corey Brennan, for his guidance over the past several years and particularly for his endurance in dealing with the difficulties of international communication while on leave from Rutgers. His scholarly advice has in large measure formed the core of my own work both in this dissertation and throughout my graduate career. I also thank the rest of my dissertation committee— Serena Connolly, Gary Farney, and Michael Peachin—for their criticism and commentary, willingness to read drafts on short notice, and good humor with the logistics of holding a defense through video teleconferencing. I express my gratitude to my friends who were fellow sufferers of the trials and tribulations of graduate life over the years, particularly Liz Gloyn, Andy Baxter, Dan Staley, Ben Kravitz, and Michael Erb. I thank also those friends who gave me much needed breaks from the stress of writing: Matthew and Kristen Buterbaugh, Daniel Macheret, and Priya Govindan. This listing is surely incomplete, and there are far more friends than I can here name whose support meant the world to me as I completed this project. I give my thanks to all the friends who crossed my path not named in this acknowledgment. The friendship of so many wonderful people leaves me utterly humbled, and their support helped me to keep going throughout the process of writing this dissertation. I most especially reserve my personal thanks for my fiancée, Alicia Graham, whose love and support mean the world to me and whose editing assistance was invaluable. My last thanks, however, are for those to whom this dissertation is dedicated. iv PARENTIBVS OPTIMIS v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of the Dissertation ii Acknowledgments and Dedication iv Table of Contents vi List of Tables vii List of Illustrations viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Governors, Emperors, and the Flow of Information 12 Chapter 2: Emperors and Consultative Decision-Making 42 Chapter 3: The Implementation of Imperial Decisions and the Problem of Precedent 70 Conclusion 93 Appendix A: Statistical Analysis of Decisions Appendix 98 Appendix B: Index of Imperial Decisions Cited in this Work 105 Bibliography 242 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Use of Formal and Informal Authority in Imperial Decision-Making 100 Table 2. Consultation with the Senate as Part of the Decision-Making Process 102 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Simplified Social Networking Model of Bithynia-Pontus‘ Imperial Agents and Subjects 41 Figure 2. Social Networking Model of the Consilium and Its Relationship to the Court and Petitioners 69 viii 1 INTRODUCTION Even during the infancy of the Principate, the emperor became the central figure for Roman governance, both in the city proper and Rome‘s provincial holdings. Yet, most studies of his role as administrator and decision-maker have focused on the emperor from the mid-second century CE and later.1 Further, scholars have construed the emperor as administrator primarily by focusing on imperial rescripts and letters to communities. There is much to recommend this approach, as legal business undoubtedly constituted much of an emperor‘s activity at any given point.2 However, this approach also makes distinctions about governmental activity that the Romans themselves did not, and it focuses on the rescript to the detriment of the entire process of decision-making. More importantly, it mostly excludes ―closed‖ decisions (i.e., those made by a smaller consilium or the internal workings of the imperial governing apparatus) as compared to ―open‖ decisions (i.e., those made in public, in an open cognitio or through a decree). The emperor did, of course, became a crucial point of appeal—indeed, practically the only relevant one—specifically because the combination of powers vested in him made his acta legitimate in and of themselves. We see this power confirmed in the lex de imperio Vespasiani through an explicit legal construction that cites Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius as precedent, granting to Vespasian: 1 For bibliography on the emperor and the rescript, see n. 26. 2 On the emperor‘s legal business and its volume, see M. Peachin, Iudex vice Caesaris: Deputy Emperors and the Administration of Justice During the Principate, Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien; Bd. 21 (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1996), 79-88. Peachin‘s estimate of the average emperor answering around five libelli is a good ballpark number to indicate that legal concerns were rapidly assimilated to the imperial role. And indeed, legal matters also included within their rubric the reception of embassies, which became the sole province of emperors unless they deigned to delegate that authority to the Senate. On internal diplomacy in the Roman Empire and its assimilation to the administrative process, see most recently W. Eck, ―Diplomacy as Part of the Administrative Process in the Roman World,‖ in Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Roman World, ed. Claude Eilers (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 194-207. 2 That whatsoever he will regard as deriving from the advantage of the state or the majesty of affairs divine or human, public or private, he shall have the legal right and the authority to undertake and execute it, as did the Deified Augustus, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.3 utique quaecunque ex usu rei publicae maiestateque diuinarum humanarum publicarum priuatarumque rerum esse censebit, ei agere facere ius potestasque sit, ita uti diuo Aug(usto), Tiberioque Iulio Caesari Aug(usto), Tiberioque Claudio Caesari Aug(usto) Germanico fuit. 4 This sweeping power dates early in development of the Principate if we assume as does Brunt that the formulation above dates no later than Gaius‘ investiture in 37 C.E.5 It effectively allowed the emperor and his agents to undertake whatever action they saw fit for the good of the state, irrespective of normal usages. Thus an appeal to the emperor had the potential to bear fruit in a disputed situation of virtually any sort and as well as the potential to overturn any magisterial decision. Perhaps unsurprisingly we find both private individuals and the agents of the imperial bureaucracy looking towards the figure of the princeps for advice, no matter how mundane. Given the range of matters brought before him, the emperor required access to expert advice from a consilium. Indeed, this ―consultative‖ habit was seemingly normative for Roman magistrates.6 Livy, in recounting the tyrannical habits of Tarquin the Elder notes that one of his flaws was to not employ a consilium. 7 Indeed, the 3 Translations used in this dissertation are my own unless otherwise noted. 4 CIL 06.31207 = ILS 244. 5 P. A. Brunt, "Lex de imperio Vespasiani," JRS 67 (1977): 98. 6 On the deep importance of the consilium as an institution for Roman society, see É. Cuq, "Mémoire sur le consilium principis d‘Auguste à Dioclétien," in Mémoires presents par divers savants à l’Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1884), 9:315.
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