Age of Augustus

1. Age of Augustus Roman Culture in the Age of the Republic, 753-31 BCE

2. Social systems • community (communio) • languages & literacy • public vs. private (domus, villa) places: • forum, temples, markets, lawcourts, arenas, amphitheaters, mausoleums, baths, gymnasiums, taverns, bakeries, brothels, aqueducts, roads, bridges • cultural achievements – see above, plus literature (history, poetry, biography, letters), architecture, city planning, sculpture, wall painting, pottery • social & military organization • respect for the dead – mos maiorum (“traditions of our ancestors”)

3. Social systems • patronage: patrons (patronii) and clients (clientes) • liberation from monarchy • law & equality • class struggle: • patricii (“patricians”) vs. plebes (“plebeians”) • optimates vs. populares (appeal to aristocracy vs. masses) • cursus honorum (“rank of honors”): • quaestor ($), praetor (courts), consul (chief mag.), censor (morals) • senatus / senatores (ex-mags., aristocratic body, 600-800, for life) • proconsules, propraetores (provincial governors: extortion) • tribuni plebum (“tribunes of the plebs”: populism) • quaestiones (“courts”: justice for the aristocracy) • comitiae and concilia (“assemblies” – putative democracy) • roles for women, children, young adults: gendered expectations

4. Value systems • fratricide & bloodshed • civitas (“citizenship”) and cives (“citizens”) • conquest: warfare and diplomacy, aggression and alliance; professional army • sanction from the gods • expansion: strategic colonization; creation of provinciae (“provinces”) – provincial governors, taxation – in territories, monarchies, etc. • “Romanization,” assimilation of other cultures (esp. Greece) & foreign cult-worship • dignitas (“dignity”), fides (“loyalty”), honor (“honor”), pietas (“piety), clementia (“clemency”), libertas (“freedom”)

5. Economic systems • exploitation of natural and manmade resources • slave-based economy: latifundiae (“estates”) • servi (“slaves”) vs. liberti (“freedmen”) • trade: shipping to every corner of empire, access to luxury goods • major commodities: grain, wine, oil, silk, incense, spices, glass, metals • land reform: placating the poor and military veterans • equites (“equestrians” – business class) and publicani (“publicans” – tax-collectors) • professional army: careerism, conquest, extension of roads and Romanization, construction of cities: auxiliarii (“auxiliaries”) vs. legionarii (“legionnaires”)

7. Types of evidence / sources • histories: Polybius – 2nd BCE; Sallust, Caesar, Livy – 1st BCE; Tacitus – 1st CE • poetry : Menander / Terence – 3rd/2nd BCE; Vergil, Horace, Ovid – Augustan • biography: Plutarch, Suetonius – 2nd CE • archaeology: monuments, art (sculpture, wall painting, pottery), coins, small finds (jewellry, religious implements, military hardware) • official and private documents – inscriptions, fasti, graffiti, papyrus, lead curse tablets, accounts, correspondence