| Stated goals of Augustus: end the civil wars (return peace to
Rome) and follow tradition (mos maiorum);
Also, clearly, position of Augustus was to be elevated to heroic
proportions; various guises, such as princeps senatus, pater (familias),
Augustus
Problem (political component): Rome never had a written constitution
(Twelve Tables was the closest thing), so reasonable people could
disagree on what counted as tradition.
Problem (religious component): Rome's religious system was never
fully systematized and little attempt was made to codify practice in writing,
so reasonable people could disagree on what counted as tradition.
Problems for scholars of Augustan Rome: (1) The Principate clearly
marks a major shift in the culture and political organization of Rome,
but this shift was accomplished in a largely traditional idiom (that's
why it was successful). (2) The appropriation of elements of
the Augustan ideology in modern Europe (Augustan England, Fascist Italy)
introduces severe problems of interpretation for present scholars.
It is wrong to think of any ancient society as a police state; technology
did not allow it. Augustus demonstrated a deep knowledge of the social
and economic tensions of the late Republic, and used them to mobilize support.
| example: He reorganized the college of the Lares Compitales by
making them more central within the system of city religion (done during
reorganization the administrative divisions of city of Rome). The
Lares Compitales had been a source of social unrest, and had been outlawed
in 64 and 22 |
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Divification of Augustus: brings up many problems.
| most notably, Caesar seems to have been killed in part for religious
hubris
on the other hand, there was an established tradition in the Hellenistic
Greek world of deifying kings
language in Latin deus vs. divus; in Greek, just
theos
political element: subject peoples tended not to care as much
about subtleties
strategic aim of Augustus' program: gradually determine what people
would accept, rather than imposing a new order overnight
decentralized process of manufacturing ideology: Augustus and
Maecenas laid the foundation, but left it to others (including the poets)
to execute; they allowed for significant freedom of expression, and mostly
exerted their influence indirectly
thus, Augustan ideology changed over time, and many poems written under
its influence demonstrated internal tensions
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Undoubtedly Augustus was very successful; one goal for scholars is to determine
why this was the case, while avoiding the fallacy that whatever he did
was a cause of success.
There were multiple causes behind the growth of Augustan ideology, so
the model of centralized planning and supervision is misleading; example:
imperial cult in provinces
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