Caesar in the Early Days

¶ … Caesar

In the early days of January, 27 B.C.E., Octavian made an appearance before the Roman Senate and made it known to all those in attendance that his power in Rome was supreme and undeniable. It was at this meeting that Octavian honored himself by assuming the name of Augustus Caesar, an action that was well-accepted by most members of the Senate, due to the fact that Octavius had chosen a good number of them himself. In addition, the entire Senate took a pledge of allegiance to Augustus Caesar and made him emperor of Rome. In essence, this act not only made Augustus the most powerful man in the known world but also set the stage for fundamental changes in Roman culture which would determine the destiny of Western civilization.

The accomplishments and successes of Augustus far outweigh any of his failures or lack of judgment. First of all, the idea of Rome and Italy as one unified entity greatly appealed to Augustus, an Italian by birth whose personality was deliberately devoted to the exaltation of Italy in partnership with mighty Rome. This formula set a great precedent which was to affect all of western civilization in the centuries to come. One important aspect of this unification involved exactly how to increase the number of Roman citizens and create a strong and impressive army. In this respect, Augustus continued Caesar's policy of founding citizen settlements on provincial as well as Italian soil. But to make a provision for the demobilization of troops was a task of the highest priority. Although he must avoid looking like an autocrat, his authority depended wholly upon the army which must be adequately rewarded. Moreover, it must be maintained at sufficient strength in order to defend the empire. Thus, Augustus decided that he must have a regular army with long-term service and of about 300,000 men strong, half being Roman citizens forming twenty-eight legions while the other half consisted of auxiliaries of various origins who would become Roman citizens upon their discharge. This concept of a unified army, much like the melding of Greek culture into that of Rome, guaranteed that Roman dominance would prevail for many centuries to come and thus make it extremely difficult for any outside force to conquer or occupy the streets of Rome well into the days when the so-called "barbarians" were at the gates of the city in the 5th century a.D.

Outside of his concerns about the military might of Rome, Augustus was greatly involved in the creation of a political/governmental system which would work to the full advantage of not just himself but the ordinary Roman citizen. This system was designed to leave the empire under the strong unitary government it needed while boosting Republican stature and dominance. To steer this perilous path between renewed anarchy and unconcealed despotism, might have seemed like an impossible assignment, but so great were the political and diplomatic gifts of the "princeps" or leader, as Augustus called himself, that he carried it out successfully, thus creating the Roman imperial system that has come to be known as the principate.

Out of all the accomplishments of Augustus, his virtual reconstruction of the Roman Senate stands out, for as a result of his revisions, the total membership of the senate was gradually reduced from a thousand to six hundred. But there were more retirements than these figures imply, since the new total included numerous new senators whom Augustus had brought in personally.

But Augustus' real administrative breakthrough was to make the second element in the social and financial hierarchy, being the knights, into salaried employees of the State, both in civil jobs and in the army, for these men had already, over a long passage of time, been showing their talents for business and administration. But apart from their employment as judges, which was often highly contested by some senators, they had never before been systematically mobilized to occupy official posts. The knights, then, broadened the scope of Augustus' assistants in a very valuable way because they represented a whole class of new men from the towns of Italy and the provinces who felt somewhat unattached to the ideals of the traditional Republican leadership and were thus susceptible to the appeal of the new regime headed by none other than Augustus.

Unfortunately, this new system was doomed to failure, not so much on account of Augustus but due to a number of shortcomings associated with the future of Rome. Under this system, the government of Rome was inundated with new masses of persons who soon realized that they too could become important members of society with power and influence. Thus, the system in essence took on far too much responsibility and expanded beyond its own capabilities which eventually, resulting from a vast broadening of its base structure, brought about the collapse of the entire system, aggravated by greed and avarice. In less than five hundred years from the time that Augustus initiated this new system, the Roman Empire tottered on the brink of destruction, due to not realizing that expansion often brings about severe problems which the system itself could not handle nor maintain.

Governmentally, Augustus witnessed the institution of both a senatorial court, presided over by the consuls, and an imperial court in which he himself was the judge. Each of these institutions was based to some extent on Republican precedents, but each also represented something substantially new. Augustus took his duties as president of his court very seriously and from his or the senate's primary jurisdiction, there was no right to an appeal, but another new innovation provided that appeals from other courts could now be heard either by the senate or, far more frequently, by Augustus himself.