The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
was consecrated by his son with special solemnity. The game of "Troy" was represented in the Circus Maximus by boys of noble family, divided into two parties, of which one was commanded by Caesar's stepson, Tiberius Nero, the future Emperor. A statue of Victory was set up in the Senate-house. The occasion was further celebrated by games and gladiatorial combats, in which a Roman senator did not disdain to take part.
But these festivities were less significant for the inauguration of a new period than the solemn closing of the temple of Janus, which had been ordained by the senate, probably early in the same year (Jan. 11). The ceremonies instituted for such an occasion by King Numa had not been witnessed for more than two hundred years, for the last occasion on which the gates of Janus had been shut was at the conclusion of the First Punic War. Strictly speaking, peace was not yet established in every corner of the Roman realm. There were hostilities still going on against mountain tribes in northern Spain, and on the German frontier. But these were small matters, mere child's play, which shrank to complete insignificance by the side of the Civil War which had been distracting the Roman world for the last twenty years. Peace (the famous Pax Romana) had in every sense come at length, and it was fitting that the doors of war should be closed at the beginning of an empire, of which the saying that “Empire is peace”, was preeminently true.
The powers which Caesar possessed as a triumvir were unconstitutional, and were, by their nature, intended to be only temporary. Besides the ordinaryimperium domi of a consul and an extraordinary imperium (militiae) in the provinces, the triumvir had the power of making laws and of appointing magistrates, which constitutionally belonged to the comitia of the people. When peace was restored to the world, it might be expected that Caesar would at once restore to the people the functions which had been made over to him for a time.
It was quite out of the question to restore the state of things which had existed before the elevation of Caesar, the Dictator. The rule of the senate had been proved to be corrupt and incompetent, and annual magistrates were powerless in the face of a body whose members held their seats for life. The only way out of the difficulty was to place the reins of government in the hands of one man. This had been done directly in the case of Caesar the father; and it had been the indirect result of the triumvirate in the case of Caesar the son. But the latter resolved to establish his supremacy on a constitutional basis, and harmonize his sovereignty with republican institutions. A dictatorship could be created only to meet some special crisis; and a "triumvir to constitute the state" was clearly absurd when the state had once been "constituted". Neither the office of a dictator nor the powers of the triumvirate were theoretically suitable to form the foundation of a permanent government; and the logically-minded Caesar was not likely to leave the constitutional shape of his rule undefined or to be content with an inconsistent theory.
He did not, however, at once lay down the triumviral powers which had been conferred on him by the Lex Titia (43 B.C.). For a year and a half after his triumph he seems to have remained a triumvir—or at least in possession of the powers which belonged to him as triumvir—but it is not clear how far during that time he made use of those unconstitutional rights. He was consul for the fifth time in 29 B.C. and again in 28 B.C., and it is probable that he acted during these years by his rights as consul, as far as possible, and not by his rights as triumvir. There was, however, much to be done in Rome and in Italy, that might truly come under the name of "constituting the state". Two of the most important measures carried out in these years were the increase of the patriciate and the reform of the senate. In 30 B.C. a law (Lex Senia) was passed, enabling Caesar to replenish the exhausted patrician class by the admission of new families; and he carried out this measure in the following year. In 28 B.C. he exercised the functions of the censorship, in conjunction with Agrippa, who was his colleague in the consulship. They not only held a census, but performed a purgation of the senate, and introduced some reforms in its constitution. Caesar also caused all the measures which had been taken during the civil wars to be repealed; but the compass and the effect of this act are not quite clear (28 B.C.). In the same year he marked his intention to return to the constitutional forms of the republic by changing the consular fasces, according to custom, with his colleague Agrippa, and thus acknowledging his fellow-consul to be his equal. He also began to restore the administration of the provinces to the senate.
In 27 B.C. Caesar assumed the consulate for the seventh time, and Agrippa was again his colleague. It seems that he had already partly divested himself of his extraordinary powers, but the time had at length come to lay them down altogether, though only to receive equivalent power again in a different and more constitutional form. On January 13 he resigned in the senate his office as triumvir and his proconsular imperium, and for a moment the statement of a contemporary writer was literally true, that “the ancient form of the republic was recalled”. And thus Caesar could be described on coins as "Vindicator of the liberty of the Roman people" (libertatis P. R. vindex). In the next chapter we shall see in what shape Caesar and his councilors, while they nominally restored the republic, really inaugurated an empire which was destined to last well-nigh fifteen hundred years.
Chapter II.
The Principate
The task which devolved upon Caesar when he had resigned the triumvirate and the proconsular power which had been conferred on him in 43 B.C., was to restore the republic and yet place its administration in the hands of one man, to disguise the monarchy, which he already possessed, under a constitutional form, to be a second Romulus without being a king. He still held the tribunician power which had been given him for life in 36B.C.
On January 16, in the year of the city 727, three days after Caesar had laid down his extraordinary powers, the Roman Empire formally began. Munatius Plancus on that day proposed in the senate that the surname Augustus should be conferred on Cesar in recognition of his services to the state. This name did not bestow any political power, but it became perhaps the most distinctive and significant name of the Emperor. It suggested religious sanctity and surrounded the son of the deified Julius with a halo of consecration.
The actual power on which the Empire rested, the imperium proconsulare, was conferred upon, or rather renewed for, Augustus (so we may now call him) for a period of ten years, but renewable after that period. This imperium was of the same kind as that which had been given to Pompeius by the Gabinian and Manilian laws. The Imperator had an exclusive command over the armies and fleet of the republic, and his "province" included all the most important frontier provinces. But this imperium was essentially military; and Rome and Italy were excluded from its sphere. It was therefore insufficient by itself to establish a sovereignty, which was to be practically a restoration of royalty, while it pretended to preserve the republican constitution. The idea of Augustus, from which his new constitution derived its special character, was to supplement and reinforce the imperium by one of the higher magistracies.
His first plan was to combine the proconsular imperium with the consulship. He was consul in 27 B.C., and he caused himself to be re-elected to that magistracy each year for the four following years. The consular imperium, which he thus possessed, gave him not only a locus standi in Rome and Italy, but also affected his position in the provinces. For if he only held the proconsular imperium he was merely on a level legally with other proconsular governors, although his "province" was far larger than theirs. But as consul, his imperium ranked as superior (maius) over that of the proconsuls. He found, however, that there were drawbacks to this plan. As consul he had a colleague, whose power was legally equal; and this position was clearly awkward for the head of the state. Moreover, if one consul was perpetual, the number of persons elected to the consulship must be smaller; and consequently there would be fewer men available for those offices which were only filled by men of consular rank. The consuls too were regarded as in a certain way representative of the senate; and the Emperor, the child of the democracy, might prefer to be regarded as representative of the people. His thoughts therefore turned to the tribunate, which was specially the magistracy of the people. But it would have been more awkward to found supremacy in civil affairs on the authority of one of ten tribunes than on the powers of one of two consuls. Accordingly Augustus fell back on the tribunicia potestas, which he had retained, but so far seems to have