The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
vows for the safety, of any other than the Emperor. After the battle of Actium, the birthday of Augustus had been elevated to a public feast; and hence it became the custom to celebrate publicly the birthday of every reigning Emperor, and also the day of his accession.
Like other men of distinction, the Princeps gave morning receptions, which, however, differed from those of private persons, in that every person who wished, provided he was of sufficiently high rank, was admitted. It was part of the policy of Augustus to treat men of his own rank as peers, and in social intercourse to behave merely as an aristocrat among fellow-aristocrats. There was formally no such thing as court etiquette, and the Emperor’s Palatium was merely a private house. But the political difference which set the Princeps above all his fellow-citizens could not fall to have its social consequences, however much Augustus wished to seem a peer among peers. Those persons, whom Augustus admitted to the honor of his friendship—and they belonged chiefly to the senatorial, in a few cases to the equestrian ranks—came to form a distinct, though not officially recognized, body under the name amici Caesaris, "friends of Caesar". From this circle he selected his comites or "companions", the retinue which accompanied him when he travelled in the provinces. The amici were expected to attend the morning receptions, and were greeted with a kiss. They wore a ring with the image of the Emperor. They were received in some order of precedence; and gradually they came to be divided into classes, according to their intimacy with the Emperor; and admission into the circle of amici became a formal act. To lose the position of a “friend” of Caesar entailed consequences equivalent to exile. Invitations to dine with the Emperor were also probably limited to the amici. Thus at the very beginning of the Principate there were the elements of the elaborate system of court ceremonial which was developed in later centuries. The position of the comites was more definitely marked out. They received allowances, and had special quarters in the camp. They had also precedence over provincial governors. The distinction of having been a comes of Caesar is often mentioned on inscriptions among official honors.
It was not lawful under the free commonwealth to set up in any public place the image of a living man. The image of the Princeps might be set up anywhere; and there were two cases in which it was obligatory that it should appear, namely in military shrines, along with the eagle and the standards, and on coins. Sometimes it appeared on the standards themselves. In regard to coinage, Augustus held fast the royal privilege which had been accorded by the senate to Caesar (in 44 B.C.); and the right of being represented on the money of the realm was exclusively reserved for the Emperor, or those members of the imperial house on whom he might choose to confer it.
Chapter III.
The Joint Government of the Princeps and Senate
SECT. I. — POLITICAL POSITION OF THE PRINCEPS — THE PEOPLE
In the last chapter it was shown how Augustus established the Principate, and we became acquainted with the constitutional theory of this new phase of the Roman republic, which was really a disguised monarchy. We also learned the titles and insignia which were the outward marks of the ambiguous position of the monarch who affected to be a private citizen. It remains now to examine more closely his political powers, and see how the government of the state was divided between the Princeps and the senate according to the system of Augustus.
The proconsular imperium of the Emperor differed from that of the ordinary proconsul in three ways. Firstly, the entire army stood under the direct command of the Emperor. Secondly, his Imperium was not limited (except in the case of Augustus himself) to a special period. It was given for life. And thirdly, it not only extended directly over a far larger space—the Emperor’s ‘province’ including a multitude of important provinces—than that of an ordinary proconsul, but being maius or superior above that of all others, it could be applied in the senatorial provinces which they governed; and thus it really extended over the whole empire. As a consequence of his exclusive military command, it devolved upon the Emperor exclusively to pay the troops, to appoint officers, to release soldiers from service. The soldiers took the military oath of obedience to him. He alone possessed the right of levying troops, and anyone who levied troops without an imperial command, committed an act of treason. He granted all military honors except triumphs and the triumphal ornaments. Moreover, while an ordinary proconsul lost his Imperium on leaving his district, the Emperor lived in Rome without surrendering the Imperium, although Rome and Italy were excepted from its operation. The Emperor possessed also supreme command at sea, and had the praetorian guards, formed of Italian volunteers, at his disposal, as a stationary garrison at Rome. In connection with the proconsular power is the sovereign right which the Emperor possessed of making war and peace; but this was probably conferred upon Augustus by a special enactment, and was afterwards one of the prerogatives defined by the Lex de imperio.
The rights which the Princeps derived from the tribunician power, as such, were as follows: (1) He had the right to preside on the bench of the tribunes of the people. (2) He had the right of intercession,—which he often practiced against decrees of the Senate. (3) He possessed the tribunician coercitio. His person was inviolable; and not only an injury, but any indignity in act or speech offered to him was punishable. (4) He had also the right to interfere for the prevention of abuses, and to protect the oppressed. (5) It is possible that his power to initiate legislation may partly come under this head.
Besides these powers springing from the tribunician potestas, the Princeps possessed, as we have seen, other prerogatives defined by the Lex de imperio.
Though the sovereign people was now represented by the Princeps, it had still some political duties to perform itself. The popular assemblies still met, elected magistrates, and made laws. The following points are to be observed.
(1) Augustus formally deprived the people of the judicial powers which had belonged to it.
(2) The comitia tributa continued to be a legislative assembly, and the right of making laws was never formally taken away from it. But by indirect means, as will presently be explained, legislation almost entirely passed into the hands of the Emperor; and after the reign of Tiberius laws were not made by the comitia. For a long time, however, the form of conferring the tribunician power in an assembly of the people, was maintained. The assembly for this purpose was called comitia tribuniciae potestatis.
(3) The election of magistrates was the most important function of the popular assemblies under Augustus. Constitutionally, the consuls and praetors were elected in the comitia of the centuries, while the tribunes, aediles and quaestors were chosen in the comitia of the tribes. But after the foundation of the Empire the distinction between the comitia centuriata and the comitia tributa seems to have disappeared; and it is only safe to speak generally of “an assembly of the people”.
The chief function of the comitia curiata had been to pass leges de imperio; and there was room for it to exercise its powers on the five or six occasions on which the proconsular imperium was conferred on Augustus. But it is not clear whether on these occasions an assembly of the people was consulted at all; much less whether, if so, the assembly took the special form of a curiate assembly.
But whatever may have been the theory, and however tenderly republican forms were preserved by Augustus, the people practically lost all its political power. And this was quite right. In ancient times, before the introduction of representative government, popular assemblies worked very well for governing a town and a small surrounding territory, but were quite unsuitable for directing or deciding the policy of a great empire. Moreover, with extended franchise, it was impossible that all those who were entitled to vote in the assemblies could avail themselves of the privilege; and, as a matter of fact, the comitia in the later republic were chiefly attended by the worst and least responsible voters, and were often the scenes of riot and bloodshed.
SECT. II. — THE PRINCEPS AND SENATE.
The government of the Empire was divided between the Emperor and the senate, and the position of the senate was a very important one. Augustus