Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

VI - Augustus

In this page:
Antony and Octavian, the Political Heirs of Caesar
The Second Triumvirate: Antony, Lepidus and Octavian
Partition of the Empire
Civil War (Iseo Campense)
Octavian becomes Augustus
Pax Romana
Iconography

Antony and Octavian, the Political Heirs of Caesar

Immediately after the death of Caesar the Senate took control of the events and granted an amnesty to those who had killed him. At Caesar's funeral however the consul Marcus Antonius (Antony) gained the favour of the crowd by presenting himself as the political heir of Caesar and by reading Caesar's will he so inflamed the Romans against those who had killed him, that they were forced to leave Rome.
Antony
But here is a parchment with a seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet: 'tis his will:
Let but the commons hear this testament -
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read -
And they would go and kiss Caesar's wounds
and dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And dying mention it within their wills
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.
Fourth Citizen
We'll hear the will: read it Mark Antony.
All
The will, the will! we will hear Caesar's will.
William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Julius Caesar - Act III
In his will Caesar had nominated his heir, and it was not Antony. Caesar had married three times and his only daughter Julia, whom he had married to Pompey, died before him. He had a son from Cleopatra, named after him Caesarion, but he was just three years old when Caesar died.
The heir of Caesar was Gaius Octavius, the son of Atia, his niece, a young man aged 19 who was still at the first steps of the political/military ladder. He had been adopted by Julius Caesar in 45 and he had changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian). When Caesar was killed, Octavian was in Greece where he superintended (in a relatively minor capacity) the preparation of a campaign against the Parthians. He quickly returned to Rome to claim his heritage, but Antony challenged from a legal standpoint his adoption by Caesar. Octavian, who could rely on a substantial fortune, regardless of the heritage, gained the favour of the lower classes by celebrating games and distributing money: the conflict with Antony ended in an open war which however was inconclusive.

Foro di Augusto: (left) one of the exedrae (semicircular wall) 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. 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, at the time a very ill-famed quarter of 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 the government of the various provinces of the empire to the triumvirs.

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 similar to that of Colosseo, with two tiers of arches and an attic.
The travertine stone of the arches is so damaged in some places that 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 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 (in Shakespeare's words) 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.
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 eastern provinces, Octavian Italy, Gaul and Spain and Lepidus 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 a group of buildings adjoining Teatro di Marcello to his beloved sister Octavia: 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 (and brother).
Antony aimed at establishing an independent kingdom in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin 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 may wish to read Alexandrian Kings, a poem about this event by Constantin Cavafy).

Villa Torlonia - Egyptian Room: Antony meets Cleopatra by Luigi Fioroni (according to Plutarch he first saw her at Tarsus in Cilicia)

The political 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 September 31 near Actium on the coast of Epirus a naval battle decided who would have been the sole ruler of the empire.
Although the sea-fight was still undecided and equally favourable to both sides, suddenly the sixty ships of Cleopatra were seen hoisting their sails for flight and making off through the midst of the combatants. (..) The enemy looked on with amazement, seeing that they took advantage of the wind and made for Peloponnesus. Here, indeed, Antony made it clear to all the world that he was swayed neither by the sentiments of a commander nor of a brave man, nor even by his own, but, as someone in pleasantry said that the soul of the lover dwells in another's body, he was dragged along by the woman as if he had become incorporate with her and must go where she did. For no sooner did he see her ship sailing off than he forgot everything else, betrayed and ran away from those who were fighting and dying in his cause.
Plutarch - The Parallel Lives - Loeb Classical Library edition
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

(from left to right) Details of the obelisks in Piazza della Minerva and in Piazza del Pantheon; the clothing with a particular knot of Madama Lucrezia near Palazzetto Venezia; detail of the obelisk in Piazza di Montecitorio

Egypt became a Roman province under the direct control of Octavian. "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. Ptolemy 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. Isis, Osiris' wife, acquired features of some Greek goddesses, e.g. Aphrodite, Selene, Hera, etc. and in particular she was regarded as patron of seamen.

(left/centre) Musei Capitolini: granite column from Iseo Campense and behind it a hall with Egyptian statues from the temple and detail of another column; (right) Museo Nazionale Romano: funerary altar to Tiberius Claudius Callistus, warden of the temple

A gigantic temple to Serapis and Isis (Iseo Campense), was initially built during the second triumvirate, but it was completed only many years later; destroyed by a fire in 80 AD it was rebuilt by Emperor Domitian. Some elements of its decoration were found in Rione Pigna, which is named after a gigantic bronze pine-cone which probably stood opposite the temple; they can be seen in museums or by wandering about in the neighbourhood, i.e. a cat (more likely a small monkey) at Palazzo Grazioli, a gigantic foot (Piè di Marmo) near Collegio Romano and part of the statue of Isis (Madama Lucrezia), which became one of the talking statues of Rome. The street leading to the temple was flanked not by trees, but by obelisks. Two of them are still in nearby Piazza della Minerva and Piazza del Pantheon; four other obelisks have travelled a bit: two are still in Rome at 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 Egyptian experts to Rome to help in the layout of a gigantic sundial for which an ancient obelisk was brought to Rome.
You may wish to see a page on all the obelisks of Rome.

Vatican Museums: statue of the River Nile which was found at Iseo Campense with one of the River Tiber

The Tyber; the Heads of Romulus and Remus are said to be of Mich. Angelo; I confess I did not observe them, those Boys being very Indifferent. The Nile was brought to Rome from Egypt long ago. Pliny Says it was in the Temple of Peace in Vespasian time, but was afterwards removed; he describes it as being of a very hard Egyptian Marble, of an Iron Colour. These two Statues are larger than the Life considerably, and not of a good Taste; The Remains of the Children on the Nile make an Ill Effect, and were never other than those kind of Additional Works generally are, that is, very Bad.
Jonathan and Jonathan Richardson - Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy - 1722
The colossal group of the Nile is one of the most striking objects of this part of the museum. The principal figure is in a reclining posture, and represents a man in the ripe autumn of life, with a flowing beard and a grave expression, while around him sixteen children are sporting in every possible variety of attitude; some climbing on his knees; some clasping his neck; some nestling in his lap; some bestriding his arms; and some playing with his feet.
George Stillman Hillard - Six Months in Italy in 1847-1848

Octavian Becomes Augustus

On August 13, 29 Octavian celebrated the triumph related to the conquest of Egypt: a memory of that day survives in Italian Ferragosto (Feriae Augusti), which indicates the 15th of the month, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.
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 religion of the early Romans. This was based on the interpretation of the flight of birds (see the story 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 (Sebastos in Greek), 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: it 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 public 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 an 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. He decided to live in a house on the Palatine Hill, where Rome was founded. The house of a wealthy man, but not a grand imperial palace. He lived there with Livia Drusilla, his third wife, with whom he had fell in love in 39 BC when she was already married and pregnant of Drusus, her second child (the first one was Tiberius). She divorced from her husband and Augustus divorced from Scribonia, his second wife, on the very day she was giving birth to Julia, Augustus' only biological child.

Detail of a hall of Casa di Livia, a section of Augustus' house; the fresco shows some key features of Roman painting: finely depicted fake architectures showing a good knowledge of perspective laws, imaginary animals, dark red backgrounds and small scenes of life (see a page on the paintings of Pompeii)

In the last years of the Ist century BC 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 thick and muddy forest, where they could not fight in the way they were accustomed to. The newly acquired province of Germania Magna 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 AD 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 aka Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 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.

British Museum: (left) cameo with the portrait of Augustus (formerly in Florence); (right) head of a bronze statue of Augustus which was erected in Southern Egypt. It was looted by Nubian tribes and it was found in 1910 at Meroe, their capital in today's Sudan

On the last day of his life he asked every now and then whether there was any disturbance without on his account; then calling for a mirror, he had his hair combed and his falling jaws set straight. After that, calling in his friends and asking whether it seemed to them that he had played the comedy of life fitly, he added the tag:

"Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands
And from the stage dismiss me with applause."

Suetonius - The Life of Augustus - Loeb Edition

Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna: upper part of "Gemma Augustea", a Ist century AD cameo believed to celebrate Augustus

In August 14 AD he passed away at Nola, near Naples. The image used as background for this page shows Augustus of Prima Porta, perhaps the best known portrait of Augustus as a military commander (he often chose to be portrayed as Pontifex Maximus). More than 200 busts and statues of Augustus have been found throughout the empire. His official portraits combined the idealization of Hellenistic art with Republican ideas of individual likeness to produce a whole new type of portrait that was at once innovative and yet based in familiar aspects of traditional Roman art.

Archaeological Museum of Florence: Ist century AD jewels with portraits of Augustus

Iconography

The following links show works of art portraying characters and events mentioned in this page; they open in another window:
Brutus and Caesar's ghost by William Blake (1806).
Head of Cleopatra by Michelangelo.
Cleopatra with the asp by Guido Reni (1575-1642).
Cleopatra with the asp by Guercino (1591-1666).
The battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro (1672).
Cleopatra's arrival and Cleopatra's banquet by Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770).
Cleopatra and the Peasant bringing the asp in a basket of figs by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863).
Antony and Cleopatra by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1883).

Constantin Cavafy wrote several poems making reference to the events narrated in this page:

IN ALEXANDRIA, 31 B.C.
From his village near the outskirts of town,
still dust-covered from the journey in,
the peddler arrives. And "Incense!" "Gum!"
"The best olive oil!" "Perfume for your hair!"
he hawks through the streets. But with all the hubbub,
the music, the parades, who can hear him?
The crowd shoves him, drags him along, knocks him around.
And when he asks, now totally confused, "What's going on here?"
someone tosses him too the huge palace lie:
that Antony is winning in Greece.

ANTONY'S ENDING
But when he heard the women weeping,
lamenting his sorry state -
madam with her oriental gestures
and her slaves with their barbarized Greek -
the pride in his soul rose up,
his Italian blood sickened with disgust
and all he had worshipped blindly till then -
his passionate Alexandrian life -
now seemed dull and alien.
And he told them "to stop weeping for him,
that kind of thing was all wrong.
They ought to be singing his praises
for having been a great ruler,
so rich in worldly goods.
And if he'd fallen now, he hadn't fallen humbly,
but as a Roman vanquished by a Roman."
Translation by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.

Previous pages:
I - The Foundation and the Early Days of Rome
II - The Early Republican Period
III - The Romans Meet the Elephants
IV - Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
V - Pompey and Caesar

Next page:
VII - From Tiberius to Nero