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Augustus' Moral Reforms and the Senate

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Augustus' Moral Reforms and the Senate Augustus’ Moral Reforms and the Senate: An Analysis Date: 30.06.16. Supervisor: Dr. Jaap-Jan Flinterman Degree: Classics and Ancient Civilizations: Ancient History Word Count: 22, 910. Statement of Originality This document is written by Student ------ who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Graduate School of Humanities is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. 1 Contents Page Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter One: Outline of the Laws .......................................................................................................... 6 Methodological Issues ........................................................................................................................ 6 Content of the laws ........................................................................................................................... 12 Chapter Two: Historiographic Interpretations ...................................................................................... 19 Demographic ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Economic .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Ideological......................................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter Three: The function of Augustus’ moral reforms .................................................................... 31 The Lex Julia de ordinibus maritandis and the Lex Papia Poppaea ................................................ 32 Ideological ..................................................................................................................................... 33 Practical......................................................................................................................................... 41 The Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis ............................................................................................. 47 Ideological ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Practical......................................................................................................................................... 52 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 63 Translated Primary Sources .............................................................................................................. 63 Secondary Sources ............................................................................................................................ 64 2 Introduction Oh, that I had never married and died without children!1 Augustus apparently made this plea after the adultery of his daughter Julia, and it is indicative of the problems marriage and childbearing caused him both in public and in private. During his reign, Augustus oversaw the transition from Roman Republic to Principate, and made fundamental changes to the social and political structure. One of Augustus’ key innovations was his legislative programme of moral reforms which encouraged marriage and childbearing, and criminalized adultery. The function of these laws is essential for understanding Augustus’ reign, and the nature of his relationship with the senate and wider elite. By analysing the legislation, it is possible to determine the interaction of social and political, public and private, Princeps and senate that characterized the new phase of Roman history. However, despite their importance, the implications of the legislation have not been fully examined. The historiographic debate has reached something of an impasse, and this must be addressed. In the Res Gestae, Augustus states: By new statutes passed on my initiative I restored many good examples of our forbearers that were disappearing from the current age, and I personally handed on to posterity examples of many things for them to imitate.2 This statement is a direct reference to the moral reforms that he introduced. In The Cambridge Ancient History, Crook argues that the Res Gestae illustrates the ‘simple truth about what [Augustus] conceived his legislation to have been for.’3 This is indicative of the debate concerning the function of the legislation, which has come full circle to conclude that Augustus should be taken at his word. Instead of attempting a comprehensive analysis of their overall social and political function, ancient historians have increasingly focused their attentions on individual effects of the laws. As such, there is a methodological gap for a new analysis which considers how the complex motivations and aims of each of the laws were part of a single, wider strategy to enhance Augustus’ position. 1 Suet. Aug. 65. 2 Res. Gest. 8: Cooley 2009, 35 highlights that the biographic inscription of Augustus’ achievement was ‘clearly a political document; this is not the place to look for an objective account of Augustus’ career’. 3 Crook 1996b, 133. 3 This thesis will, therefore, correct the oversight in the debate, examine the function of the moral reforms which Augustus passed, and place them in the wider context of his power as Princeps. As a precise definition is a prerequisite for further study, Chapter One will outline the contents of the legislation that will be referred to as ‘Augustus’ moral reforms.’ The laws are not extant, and so the chapter will examine the methodological issues with attempting to reconstruct them from a variety of sources, and the implications that this has for our ability to interpret the laws. After the legislation has been outlined, Chapter Two will analyse the existing historiographic debate and interpretation of why the legislation was introduced. The aims of the laws are not immediately apparent, and so this has led to vastly disparate conclusions. Split into sub sections concerning demographic, economic and ideological interpretations, the chapter will examine the oversights in the existing debate. Chapter Three, and the remainder of the thesis, will then present my new analysis of the practical and ideological functions of the legislation. The laws will be examined individually to illustrate how they interacted to shape Augustus’ relationship with the senatorial elite. Indeed, the rhetoric in the primary source material will be cross referenced with the evidence of their effects, to indicate how they had specific ideological and practical functions. Whilst the primary narrative sources provide several case studies of how the laws were applied, these have been thus far neglected by ancient historians. Therefore, by analysing these examples, it will be possible to accurately determine the precise functions of the laws. As the conclusion shall illustrate, the moral reforms were designed to have a dual purpose to strengthen the collective position of the senate and elite, but undermine the individual influence of senators. This conclusion has significant implications for our understanding of the nature of Augustus’ power and the survival of the Principate into the third century. However, the group that will be referred to as the Senate, and senatorial elite, is not self-evident, and so the term must first be defined. Hopkins and Burton offer a succinct outline of the distinction between the senate and the senatorial order.4 In the Republican period, the two were interchangeable, but Augustus’ moral reforms were among the first to indicative a specific ordo which included the immediate family of men that were in the senate. As such, whilst the term ‘senate’ shall be used to refer to the traditional administrative body, the ‘senatorial elite’ shall be used to refer to this emerging ordo, comprising of the immediate family of senators. The wider term elite also encompasses the equestrian ordo, who were themselves potential future senators, and influential members of Roman upper 4 Hopkins and Burton 1983a, 193. 4 class society. Indeed, the equestrians must be included in the analysis of the senate as a social and political body, as they exhibited the same behavioural patterns, and had an increasing role in the practical governance of the Principate.5 That is not to say, however, that the remainder of the Roman population will not feature in this analysis, but they shall be considered through their relationship with the elite bodies. The parameters of this study follow the period of Augustus’ sole rule from the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE to his death in 14 CE. However, the legislation cannot be analysed in isolation, and so it will be necessary to consider the conditions of the Roman civil war and end of the Republic, as well as the reign of Augustus’ adopted son and successor Tiberius. Many of the case studies that will be examined occurred during Tiberius’ 14-37
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