Octavian.
Foro di Augusto: (left) one of the two nymphaea (semicircular fountains) and (right) the base framed by two columns where a gigantic statue
of Augustus was placed
Octavian celebrated Caesar in the main temple of the Forum he built forty years later,
close to that of his adoptive father. The temple was dedicated to Mars Ultor,
Mars the Avenger (of Caesar's assassination). Inside the temple the statue of Mars was placed among those of Venus and of Caesar.
A gigantic statue of Octavian himself (or rather Augustus as he was then called) stood on a
base to the left of the temple: the statue is lost, but the base retains the shape
of its left foot. Other statues portraying members of the gens Julia
(Caesar's family) were placed in niches in two semicircular walls surrounding small fountains.
The most impressive remaining element of this forum is the thick and high wall
behind the temple, a sort of curtain which prevented seeing what lay behind it. This
was exactly the purpose of the wall, to hide the vision of the poor dwellings of
Subura, a very ill-famed quarter of Ancient Rome.
The Second Triumvirate
Antony and Octavian, notwithstanding their rivalry, were forced to reach an agreement
by their common need to defeat Junius Brutus and Gaius Longinus Cassius, the leaders
of the plot against Caesar; Brutus had been appointed proconsul of Illyria, Macedonia and Acaia
(Greece) and Cassius of Syria, thus constituting an obstacle to the ambitions of Antony and Octavian.
Another element which led Antony and Octavian to make an alliance was their interest in
frustrating the attempts made by many senators to
restore the Senate's authority.
In 43 they joined their forces with Marcus Emilius Lepidus,
a general and politician, who had been appointed by Caesar commander of the Roman cavalry. Unlike
the first triumvirate, the second one (triumviratus reipublicae constituendae)
was not just a private agreement of mutual support.
The Senate was forced to endorse it and to assign to the three triumvirs the government
of the various provinces of the empire.
Details of Teatro di Marcello
Pompey had built a large theatre and Caesar thought he too should build one.
The site chosen was already the location of a temporary theatre made of timber. Caesar
did not live long enough
to see the completion of the building which was eventually dedicated by Octavian to his
nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, who had died at the age of twenty.
The structure of the building is almost the same of Colosseo, with three
tiers of arches and a decoration of travertine slabs covering the thick masonry structure.
In some locations the travertine is so damaged that its original design is
almost completely lost and it looks like a natural rock.
Partition of the
Empire
In 42 Antony and Octavian moved with their legions across the
Adriatic Sea to today's Albania; from there they marched along Via Egnatia until
they reached the shores of the Aegean Sea. At Philippi in eastern Macedonia they found the road blocked by the armies
of Brutus and Cassius: the two sides did not show a united front: both Antony and Octavian and
Brutus and Cassius had their own army and acted independently. So there were two distinct battles of Philippi:
in the first one, Antony managed to find, after various vain attempts, a dry path in the marsh
which protected the left wing of Cassius' army. His experienced veterans
reached the centre of the enemy camp; in the ensuing confusion some of the allies of Cassius deserted and
Cassius himself committed suicide.
In the meantime Octavian was much less successful than his ally and Brutus, reinforced
by part of the troops of Cassius, still retained a strong position. He felt however
that time was not in his favour and a few days later he decided to engage Octavian in the hope of winning
a decisive battle. But with the site previously held by Cassius now controlled by
Antony, he soon found himself in a critical position; in a few hours he
realized that:
"The ghost of Caesar hath appear'd to me
Two several times by night; at Sardis once,
And this last night here in Philippi fields:
I know my hour is come."
William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Julius Caesar - Act III
and he threw himself upon his naked sword.
Lepidus, the third member of the triumvirate did not contribute to the defeat of Brutus
and Cassius and therefore Antony and Octavian redesigned in their favour the partition of the empire when in 40,
after another period of conflict between them, they reached a lasting agreement and strengthened
their bonds through the marriage of Antony with Octavia, Octavian's sister.
Antony was attributed all the provinces of the eastern Mediterranean, Octavian Italy, Gaul
and Spain and Lepidus just the province of Africa.
(top left corner) Relief of Tempio di Apollo Sosiano; (lower left corner) detail
of Portico di Ottavia; (right) a relief near Tempio di Apollo Sosiano
Octavian dedicated to his beloved sister Octavia, mother of Marcellus, a group of buildings adjoining Teatro di Marcello: two temples were placed at the centre
of a rectangular portico. What we call today Portico di Ottavia was just one
of its two monumental entrances.
Still in the same area Octavian relocated an existing temple to Apollo (Sosiano is a reference
to the consul Gaius Sosius who was in charge when the temple was built).
The details of the design and decoration of these buildings show a high level of
craftsmanship.
Civil War
In 36 Lepidus was forced by Octavian to give up his African province for a nominal
role as Pontifex Maximus in Rome. In practice he was confined in his villa
at Monte Circeo. In the meantime Antony had established his
residence in Alexandria, where in 37 he had married
Queen Cleopatra: he was still married to Octavia, Cleopatra was a widow for the second time as
she had arranged the killing of her second husband.
Antony aimed at establishing an independent kingdom over the eastern Mediterranean
for himself and Cleopatra; he fought against the Parthians and in 34 he conquered Media,
the north-western part of today's Iran.
He celebrated his triumph in Alexandria and during the related ceremonies Caesarion, son
of Caesar and Cleopatra, and the two children Cleopatra had borne to Antony were nominated
kings (you can read Alexandrian Kings, a poem about this event in a page dedicated
to Alexandria).
The underground confrontation between the two remaining triumvirs became an open conflict when
Antony repudiated Octavia. Octavian reacted by denouncing the treason of Antony and he gained
the support of all the western provinces of the empire.
The ensuing war was mainly fought at sea: in 31 at
Actium a
naval battle decided who would have been the sole ruler of the empire; according to the traditional
account at one point Cleopatra abandoned the battlefield. Antony followed Cleopatra
to Alexandria, while his fleet was being destroyed by that of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Octavian's son-in-law. Years later
Octavian celebrated this key victory by founding Nikopolis.
One year later Octavian landed in Egypt and easily seized Alexandria; Antony killed
himself in the traditional Roman way by falling on his sword. Cleopatra, having ascertained
that the apparent clemency of Octavian was only aimed at bringing her alive to Rome to
celebrate his triumph, chose a more elaborate way of escaping her fate. A trusted peasant
brought her an asp (a small viper) hidden in a basket of figs. Her body was not disfigured by wounds
or by swellings.
"...she looks like sleep,
As she would catch another Antony
In her strong toil of grace."
William Shakespeare - Antony and Cleopatra - Act V
Egypt became a Roman province.
(from left to right) details of the obelisks in Piazza della Minerva and in Piazza del Pantheon;
the bare breast and the Egyptian robe of Madama Lucrezia; detail of the obelisk in Piazza di Montecitorio.
"Alexandritis" is the name some old-fashioned citizens
gave to the success met in Rome by everything which came
from Egypt. They regarded it as a dangerous sickness which would eventually undermine
the traditional Roman virtues. The Egyptian fashion replaced in part the Greek one,
although Egypt had been largely Hellenized by three centuries of Greek rule. Ptolomy I, the general who inherited Egypt
from Alexander the Great, promoted the cult of Serapis, a god who combined elements of the
Egyptian god Osiris with those of the Greek mythology.
A gigantic temple to Serapis and his wife Isis (Iseo Campense), was initially built during the second
triumvirate, but it was completed only many years later; destroyed by a fire in 80 AC it was
rebuilt by Domitian.
The alley leading to the temple was flanked not by trees, but by obelisks. Some of its
structures can still be seen inside the buildings of Rione Pigna,
while elements of its decoration are scattered in the area: a cat (more likely a small monkey)
in Palazzo Grazioli, a gigantic foot (Pič di marmo) near Collegio Romano and
part of the
statue of Isis (Madama Lucrezia), which
became one of the talking statues of Rome, near Palazzetto Venezia. Two
of the obelisks are still in nearby Piazza della Minerva and
Piazza del Pantheon; four other obelisks have travelled a bit: two are still in Rome
in Villa Celimontana and near the former Villa Peretti,
while of the other two one is in
Florence and
the other in Urbino.
In Egypt the Romans found a much advanced astronomical knowledge; while Caesar had made use of it
to reform the calendar, Octavian summoned to Rome Egyptian experts to help in
the layout of a gigantic sundial for which an ancient Egyptian
obelisk was brought to Rome.
Octavian becomes Augustus
On August 13, 29 Octavian celebrated the triumph related to the conquest of Egypt: a memory
of that day survives in the Italian holiday of Ferragosto
(Feriae Augusti), now celebrated on the 15th and "covered" by a Christian holiday.
The Romans were tired of internal conflicts and Octavian was given large authorities to ensure
a period of stability; Octavian however, having seen how his adoptive father had lost
support by his almost monarchical behaviour, in 27 gave up most of the powers he had received
and he formally restored the traditional institutions of the Republic.
The first act of the Senate was to nominate him Augustus, a honorific title meaning
consecrated and most likely derived from the original religion of the early Romans. This was based
on the interpretation of the flight of birds (see the example of Romulus and Remus):
the priests were called aruspices (avis=bird, spicio=see) and their response augurium;
no important decision was made without the related augurium (hence to inaugurate).
So augustus was a title having a religious, rather than a military (imperator) or
political (king) meaning; Octavian chose to be referred to as Augustus, because
he thought this title
would have made his almost absolute power better accepted, both in Rome and in the remotest
provinces of the
empire.
Remaining walls and entablature of Basilica di Nettuno
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa did not only assist his father-in-law in war, but also in peace;
his name is associated with several adjoining buildings: his name appears on
the inscription of the
Pantheon (which was entirely rebuilt by Hadrian after a fire) and
certainly appeared also in the nearby Terme di Agrippa, the first large baths
built in Rome with the purpose of providing a location for recreation and social meetings.
He took care also of the erection of a large basilica between these two buildings:
Basilica di Nettuno was not a temple, but a large hall for indoor
meetings with a decoration of marine symbols. Its northern wall is located south of the
Pantheon and it retains fragments of a very elaborate entablature.
Because this part of Campo Marzio was often marshy, Agrippa
drained it by digging a small open air canal which brought the excess of water to the Tiber:
the canal was called Euripo, with a reference to the
very narrow channel in Greece
by the same name. Traces of Euripo can be seen in the underground rooms of
Palazzo della Cancelleria.
Pax Romana
Unlike Caesar who rushed from one corner of the empire to the other to personally
lead the Roman legions against external or internal enemies, Augustus seldom chose to do so.
His stepsons Tiberius and Drusus led several campaigns in Central Europe to consolidate the northern border
of the empire. Tiberius in particular conquered all the territories to the right of the river
Danube (today's Bavaria, Austria and western Hungary and a strip along the river in Bulgaria).
Drusus expanded the Roman influence beyond the Rhine, mainly along the coast of the North Sea.
The eastern border of the empire was secured by a peace treaty with the Parthians, who returned
the Roman insignia they had seized at Carrhae.
A dramatic setback for the Romans occurred in 9 AC when three legions under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus were massacred
in the Teutoburg Forest
by a coalition of German tribes led by Arminius (Hermann or Armin). He was
a young prince who, while pretending to be a loyal ally, organized an uprising
which caught the Romans when they were crossing a terrain (a thick and muddy forest), where they
could not fight in the way they were accustomed to. The newly acquired province of Germania was
abandoned and the Romans gave up their expansion plans beyond the Rhine.
Modern map of the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus on the rear wall of Basilica di Massenzio
In 13 AC Augustus, then aged 75, prepared his succession; he confirmed the appointment
of his stepson and adoptive son Julius Caesar Tiberius as his political heir; he summarized
all he had done for the greatness of Rome in Index Rerum Gestarum, a spiritual
testament which was affixed to the entrance of his Mausoleum
and sent to all the provinces of the empire (the most complete text is in Ankara).
In this summary Augustus included Ara Pacis Augustae,
an altar consecrated to him and to the periods of peace achieved during his rule.
In August 14 he passed away at Nola, near Naples. See Afrodisia, a town which flourished during the reign of Augustus.
Iconography
The following external links show works of art portraying characters and events
mentioned in this page:
Brutus and Caesar's ghost by William Blake (1806)
.
