Table Of ContentLACTOR 17
THE AGE OF
AUGUSTUS
EDITED BY M.G.L. COOLEY
LITERARY TEXTS TRANSLATED BY B.W.J.G. WILSON
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS BY
R.A.ABDY
A.E. COOLEY
J.F. GARDNER
S.J. HARRISON
I.M.R. LEINS
B.M. LEVICK
J.W. RICH
J.H.C. WILLIAMS
THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS
@ The London Association of Classical Teachers, 2003
ISBN: 0 903625 30 X
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements 6
Bibliography and Abbreviations 7
Preface 9
Notes on liternry sources 10
Augustus and the coinage 12
A guide to monetary values 15
Glossary 16
Figure 1 The Roman Empire in the time of Augustus 18
Figure 2 Distribution of the Legions, AD 14 20
Figure 3 Sketch map of Rome 21
PART 1 BY SOURCES
SECTION A RES GF.STAE DIVI AUGUST/ 23
ln1roduc1ion1 0 the Res Ges1,1e
Re.,·G e.1weT ext and Notes
SECTION B LIST OF CONSULS, 31 BC to AD 14 36
SECTION C THE CALENDARS 46
SECTION D LIVY 54
Preface DI
Summaries of books 131-142 D2-D9
SECTION E VELLEIUS PATERCULUS 58
History of Rome. 2.88-124
SECTION F TACITUS 82
A1111a/I..1 I -I 5
SECTION G AVGUSTAN POETRY 95
Poetry as Histurical Source Material
Introduction 10 Virgil. Horace. Propertius. Ovid and Greek Anthology
Augustan poetry (arranged chronologically) G 1-56
PART 2 BY THEMES
SECTION H TRIUMVIRATE TO PRINCIPATE 180
Triumvir Hl-H8
Actium and aftermath H9-Hl7
The Seulement of :!8/27 BC Hl8-H25
The Senlement of :?3 BC H:?6-H.'.!7
Pontifex Maximus H28-H32
Augu,1us. I I BC-AD 14 H33-H43
Augustus as judge H44-H52
4
SECTION J IMPERIAL FAMILY 203
General JI-J3
Julius Caesar J4
Gaius Octavius J5-J7
Augustus J8-J24
Octavia J25
Livia J26--J28
Marcellus J29-J32
Tiberius J33-J42
Drusus J43-J47
Julia the Elder J48-J54
Julia the Younger 155
Gaius Caesar J56--J62
Lucius Caesar J63-J65
Germanicus J66
Agrippa Postumus J67
SECTION K ROME AND ITALY 228
General descriptions of Rome KI-K5
Administration of Rome K6--K1 2
Buildings of Rome, A-Z Kl 3-K53
Aqueducts of Rome K54-K63
Italy K64-K73
SECTION L RELIGION 258
Tradition and revival Ll-L7
Emperor-worship L8-Ll9
Ludi saeculares L20-L28
SECTION M ADMINISTRATION OF EMPIRE 280
General description Ml-M5
Egypt M6--Ml4
Gaul Ml5-M22
Spain M23--M28
Friendly kingdoms M29-M34
Judaea M35-M52
The Greek East M53-M68
'Romanisation' and new cities M69-M75
Controls on provincial governors M76-M79
Honours M80-M85
SECTION N WAR AND EXPANSION 311
General NI-N8
Lists of triumphs N2
Africa N9-NIO
Alps NII-Nl7
Arabia Nl8-N22
Armenia N23-N25
Balkans N26-N28
( lllyricum/Dalmatia/Pannonia >
Britain N29-N30
Egypl N31-N32
Ethiopia N33--N35
Germany N36-N38
India N39-N40
5
Parthia (Iraq) N4I-N46
Spain N47-N49
Thrace N50-N5I
SECTION P CONSPIRACIES, SCANDALS, FREE SPEECH 331
Conspiracies & scandals Pl-P18
Freedom of speech P19-P24
SECTION R MAECENAS AND THE ARTS 341
Maecenas RI-Rl3
Lives of Horace and Virgil Rl4--Rl5
Culture & the ans Rl6-R27
SECTIONS SOCIAL LEGISLATION 353
Note on legal authors
Marriage restrictions and rewards SI-S9
Punishment for adultery SIO-S29
Sumptuary legislation S30
Manumission S31-S36
SECTION T AUGUSTAN SOCIETY 373
Agrippa Tl-Tl4
Senators Tl5-T29
Equestrians T30-T33
Augustus as heir T34--T36
Individuals T37-T42
Concordance 390
Index of Persons 398
Index of Places 404
Index of Themes 407
Family Trees 411
6
Acknowledgements
It is a great plea'iure to be able to thank all those who have given generou,I~ of their
time and expertise in enabling this book to appear. John Rich did much of the initial
work on selecting the material; in particular the A level set pm;sages. produced a couple
of years ago, remain essentially his. Brian Wilson undertook the enom10u, ta,k of
translating the literary texts. I thank him not only for his translations. but for hi~ great
patience in having to put up with two different editors in tum. and for hi, great
encouragement in the project.
Stephen Harrison helped with the selection of the poetry and prL" 1ded the
introduction and commentary to the poems. Jane Gardner selected. tran,lated and
commented on the legal sources: without her expertise these source'.'>C llulJ nPt ha\e
been included. Barbara Levick provided the commentaries on Tacitu" and \"elleiu-..
Miriam Griffin did likewise for the passages of Seneca the Younger. almo,t literally
by return of post. Katherine Clarke provided expert guidance on Strabo: Andrew
Wilson did the same for Frontinus.
Jonathan Williams. Jan Leins and Richard Abdy from the Department of Coin, and
Medals at the British Museum between them selected, translated, commented Pn and
photographed the coins.
Thanks are due to Cambridge University Press for permission to reproduce three
maps from The Cambridge Ancient History volume X2 and to Oxford Uni,·er,it~ Press
and Amanda Claridge for allowing material from Rome, An Oxford Archw:uluiiuil
Guide (OUP 1998) to be used.
Ken Hughes' careful copy-editing greatly improved the accuracy and present..ition
of the text. The mistakes which remain result from my oversight. ignoran-:e L1r
stubbornness and for these I sincerely apologise.
Finally, greatest thanks are due to my wife, Alison, who selected. translated and
commented on the inscriptions, read a draft of the entire manuscripl. but more than thi,
provided ever timely criticism. support and encouragement.
7
Bibliography and Abbreviations
AE L 'Annee epigraphique
BMC H. Mattingly. Coins of the Roman Empire in the
British Museum. volume I: Augustus to Vitellius,
( London 1923)
BMCRR Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum,
3 volumes
CAHX2 A.K. Bowman, E. Champlin and A. Linton, edd ..
Cambridge Ancielll History Volume X The Augustan
Empire, 43 BC-AlJ 69 (2nd edition, Cambridge 1996)
CJL T. Mommsen et al. edd., Corpus lnscriptionum
Latinarum (Berlin 1866- )
EJ V. Ehrenberg and A.H.M.J ones, Documents
Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. 2nd
edition (Oxford 1976)
JG lnscriptiones Graecae ( 1813-
IGRRP /nscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes
(1906- )
/LS H. Dessau, lnscriptiones Latinae Selectae
(1892-1916)
/nscr. It. A. Degrassi, lnscriptiones /taliae 13 (Rome 1947,
1963)
/RT J.M. Reynolds and J.B. Ward-Perkins, lnscri11tionso f
Roman Tripolitania
OCD S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth, edd .. The Oxford
Classical Dictionary (3rd edition, Oxford 1996)
RJC C.H.V. Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage,
volume I from 31 BC to AD 69, (London 1984)
Rich. Dio J.W. Rich, Cassius Dio, The Augustan Settlement
(Roman History 53-55.9) (Warminster 1990)
RPC A. Burnett. M. Amandry and P.P. Ripolles. Roman
Provincial Coinage/: From the Death o.f Caesar to
the Death o.fVitellius (London and Paris, 1992)
RRC M.H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage I,
(Cambridge 1974)
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
SIG3 W. Dittenberger, Sy/loge lnscriptionum Graecarwn
Syme,AA R. Syme. The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford 1986)
Syme, RR R. Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford 1939)
Zanker, Power of Images P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of
Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988)
ZPE Zeitschr(ftf iir Papyrologie und Epigraphik
8
EditorialC onventionsf or Texts of Inscriptions
square brackets enclose words or letters which are missing m the L1nginal
text and have been restored by the editor or translator.
[ .... ) dots in square brackets represent letters missing in the original 1e,1.
( ) round brackets are used to expand words abbreviated in the origm:tl le\!.
dots outside brackets mark where the translator has omitted part ,,f the text.
[5) Smaller font numbers inside square brackets give line number, ,,f the
inscription.
9
Preface
The primary aim of this volume is to provide source material for the Augustus modules
in Ancient History A level. It is also hoped that this selection will prove useful to
undergraduates studying Augustus.
The material has been arranged in two parts. The second part consists of a thematic
selection of material. The first part includes material which it was thought better to
present whole rather than in pieces. I hope that cross-references and the occasional
repetition of very short passages will make this the most helpful arrangement.
Much recent work on Augustus has emphasised the archaeological and visual. It is
with considerable regret that this LACTOR does not include photographs (with the
important exception of the coins) or architectural plans. Various practical considerations
prevented this, especially the size, cost and time-scale of this volume. The gap,
however, will be filled by images on the LACTOR website (address on inside front
cover).
Like other LACTORs, this volume deliberately excludes some material easily
available elsewhere. Therefore Cassius Dio is not included, nor is Suetonius'
biography of Augustus. This volume does. however, include material which, though
readily available in translation, will be far more useful in a single volume.
May 2003 M.G.L.C ooley
King Henry VIII School, Coventry
JO
Notes on Literary Sources
On poets, including Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Propertius. see Section G. On Lh·)·,
Velleius and Tacitus, see Sections D, E and F. Legal sources translated in Section S
are introduced there. Minor authors are given brief introductions where pa ....a..g e ...f rom
their works are given, e.g. for Zosimus, see L23.
Frontinus (Sextus lulius Frontinus) lived from about AD 30 to AD I 04. and \\ :1' gi,en
important positions by the emperors Vespasian, Domitian, Nena anJ Trajan.
including three consulships. In AD 97, Nerva appointed him Water Commi,;sioner.
and while in this post he wrote a book about the history. admini,tratil,n and
maintenance of the aqueducts he was responsible for (de aq11isu rbis Romat· - The
Aqueducts of Rome). This book includes a wealth of technical information. tai.:b
and figures about the system in his day a'>w ell as exact quotations of earlier qatutes.
Aulus Gellius, born between AD 125 and 128, seems to have published hi~ .-\m, \'11:hrs
around AD 180. He explains the title as emanating from his decision w \\ rice up
notes he made from his reading on a great variety of subjects. during the long\\ inter
nights in Attica, but says he only completed the project 30 year, later a, an
instructive entertainment for his children. His value lies in his repeating material
which he read, but which is not now preserved elsewhere.
Horace: poet, 65-8 BC. See pages 97-98 for full notes.
St. Jerome's Chronicle is a chronological compendium of world hi-.101: JuJaeo
1
Christian, Greek, Roman) from the birth of Abraham (placed in 201ti BC, 1,, -\D
378). Ba. .e d on a similar work by Eusebius, Jerome added in many face, c,,n.:emeJ
with Roman history, literature and scholarship. He claims as source~ Suec,,mu, .m. d
other (unspecified) Roman historians, but also admits it was a job done in .1 hurr:.
He shows an ·apparent indifference to exact dating' (J.N.D. Kelly. Ja1•1•1• 14-5 ,.
Nonetheless, he also preserves many interesting snippets of information.
Josephus (Flavius Josephus), AD 37/8-c. lOO, was a prominent Jew \\ ho. alter the
Jewish Revolt, gained the favour of the Flavian emperors and ,ettled m Rome.
writing books on Jewish themes in Greek. His Jewish War deals main!~ \\ ith e\ ents
he participated in. but the earlier part provides a summary of earlier Je\\ i,h
conflicts. His Jewish Antiquities present Jewish history from the CreatIL>nt L,j u,1
before the revolt to non-Jewish readers.
Livy: historian, 59 BC-AD 17. See page 54 for full notes.
Macrobius was probably the praetorian prefect of Italy in AD 430. His Sarnn:,1lrai ,
set as a dialogue taking place at the celebration of the festival of Samm of \D 383
at which the greatest pagan scholars of the time discuss a variety of topic~. in(·I u di ng
the calendar and famous people's jokes. Sources include other miscellame, and
collections of sayings.
Cornelius Nepos, c. I I 0-24 BC, lived in Rome from the 60s. Amongst variou, \\ ,,rk,.
some of his biographies of famous men survive, including one of Atticu~ \\ h(im
Nepos claimed to know well. Nepos published his biography before Atticu~· Jeath
and then a second version afterwards.
Ovid: poet, 42 BC-AD 17. See page 99 for full notes.
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), c. AD 23/4-79, was a prominent equestrian.
in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum, and author. His 37-book Na111ral
History. in his words, 'tells the story of nature, that is to say, life." It include,.
