The Ancients - The Birth of the Roman Empire

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

16 January 27 BC is a date sometimes associated with the beginning of the Roman Empire. It was on that day that Octavian received the name Augustus, effectively becoming the first emperor of Rome. Augustus ordered the gates of Janus to be closed, marking an end to the period of Civil War that had characterised Rome for decades before. Entering into a new era of peace, how did Augustus monopolise peace as a concept, and allow Rome to hold onto this new era and way of life across it's Empire? This week Tristan is joined by Dr Hannah Cornwell, author of Pax and the Politics of Peace, to talk about this transitional period, it's reflections in art and monumental architecture, and ultimately, how the Roman Empire came to be.Order Tristan’s book today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perdiccas-Years-323-Alexanders-Successors/dp/1526775115/ref=zg_bsnr_271237_68/260-7675295-7826601?pd_rd_i=1526775115&psc=1If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hithttps://access.historyhit.com/?utm_source=audio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Podcast+Campaign&utm_id=PodcastTo download, go to Android or Apple store:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.historyhit&hl=en_GB&gl=UShttps://apps.apple.com/gb/app/history-hit/id1303668247If you’re enjoying this podcast and looking for more fascinating The Ancients content then subscribe to our Ancients newsletter. Follow the link here:https://www.historyhit.com/sign-up-to-history-hit/?utm_source=timelinenewsletter&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Timeline+Podcast+Campaign

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's podcast, we're talking all about the beginning, the birth of the Roman Empire, capital E.

Because if you type that into your Google, you might see one particular date that emerges straight away, which is the 16th of January, 27 BC. So what happened on this particular day? Why is it sometimes, I stress sometimes, associated with the beginning of the Roman Empire? Well, to explain this, I was delighted to get on the podcast Dr. Hannah Cornwell from the University of Birmingham. Hannah, she's a lecturer in ancient history and she has a particular focus on Roman political and social history of the late Roman Republic and early empire,

the turn of the first century BC, that time period, focusing in on imperialism, peace and diplomacy. Now I mention imperialism, peace and diplomacy right there because we start by looking at this particular date, the 16th of January 27 BC. But for us in the podcast today, we can't do a whole podcast just on this one date because it's a springboard into talking about events that followed during the age of Augustus. In particular, we're going to be focusing in on Augustus' actions at Rome, particularly in the 10s BC.

We're going to be looking at his politics around this idea of peace, of pax, and how he used this to foment his imperial position at the heart of this new Roman Empire. We're going to be talking about the return of the Roman standards from the Parthians. We're going to be looking at certain pieces of art and architecture such as the Augusta Prima Porta, the Ara Parcus, the Fortuna Redux Altar, the Parthian Arch. We're going to be looking at festivals such as the Ludi Circularis, this idea of a new age, and why this was all so significant in Augustus's long-term strategy, his politics, into forming his imperial dream with him at the head. So without further ado, let's talk all about this and more. Here's Hannah.

Hannah, it is great to have you on the podcast today. Tristan, thank you very much for having me. You're very welcome indeed. I mean, I never realised just how much this concept of peace it was for Augustus in this transitional phase of the Roman Empire, how important it was to him. Yeah, absolutely. People may or may not have heard of the Altar of Augustan Peace, which is a monumental marble altar at Rome, which was actually only dedicated and set up between 13 and 9 BC. So it's further into his reign. But because he establishes himself as the ruler of not just the city of Rome, but the Mediterranean, the Roman world, after a period of intense civil war, the ability to end civil war and establish what

effectively is worldwide peace is something that he really runs with for a lot of his subsequent reign. Well, you mentioned the author of Augustine Peace. That's going to be what we're basically building up to in the whole of this podcast episode. We'll get up to that at the end. But let's kind of wheel backwards to the beginning of this reign. And also, of course, we're recording this in January. And sometimes we see this date, the 16th of January, 27 BC, being thrown about as being this really important moment in the beginning of the Roman Empire, capital E.

I mean, tell us, what's the significance? What happens on this day in ancient history? Well, this is the day that Augustus becomes Augustus. capita we. I mean, tell us what's the significance? What happens on this day in ancient history? Well, this is the day that Augustus becomes Augustus. This is when he gets the name. So it's a sort of new chapter in terms of his presentation and how he's perceived by Rome, by the provinces. But it's only really part of the story. Indeed, the process of transition from civil war to Augustus effectively restoring constitutional government takes place over a period of a couple of years. where he records all his glorious achievements on behalf of the Roman state. He says that in his sixth and seventh consulships, which is 28 to 27 BCE, he returned or transferred the res publica, the Roman state, from being within his power to the Senate and the people. So this is, in a sense, can be framed as a restoration of the republic, but it's perhaps more effectively the restoration of constitutional government after a period of several decades of civil war and political unrest.

he's putting in a lot of new decrees, legislations. He effectively passes a decree which annuls illegal or unjust actions that he and his fellow triumvires, so Marcus Antonius and Marcus Lepidus, that had carried out over the past decade to try and sort of a new slate, wiping the sins of the past, starting anew, returning government to the sonatus populus que romanus. And then in 27 BC, at the beginning of the year in January, on the 13th of January, there are specific honours and awards given to him because of what he has done to return the laws and rights of the Roman people. And then on the 16th of January, as a response,

the Senate has this meeting to try and decide how can we further honour him. We need to give him a new name. And there's a debate about whether he should be called Romulus as the new founder of Rome. And that's a bit problematic, given the whole story of Romulus and his brother Remus. The whole fratricide thing after a period of civil war is going to be a bit difficult from a PR point of view. So they decide that Augustus, which is a completely new name, is the way that he's going to be framed.

And it's quite interesting, Hannah. I mean, you mentioned there 28 BC and before 27 BC. And of course, this is a few years after the Battle of Actium. And I guess there's a bit of background to this background in itself. With Octavian, who will be Augustus, let's say between 30 and 27 BC, in the wake of defeating Marcus Antonius, Mark Antony, is he already trying to promote this idea of peace during the early stages of his reign? Yeah, absolutely. So yes, Actium is often held up as the sort of the turning point, the big battle where Octavian, as we often call him, although he would prefer that we call him Imperator Caesar by this point, defeats Antony and Cleopatra. They run on off to Egypt, but that's only part of the story because

in fact, it's only in 30 BCE that Antony and Cleopatra are finally defeated at the Battle of Alexandria and that they both commit suicide, at which point he can take complete control of the state because there's no one else left to really take on that role in management. And in 29 BC is when he has his triple triumph in August, the 15th of August. He has this three-day, consecutive three-day triumph, which is unprecedented. And he celebrates his victories over Dalmatia and then over Egypt and Actium. So there's this build-up of him first of all finishing the civil wars as he claims in his Res Gestai he extinguishes civil wars and then there's this period of I suppose in a sense rebuilding he comes back to

Rome he is consul he's sort of setting everything back in motion to restore the sort of pre-Civil War settings of government but at the same time he's also sort of promoting himself through monuments and in coinage which is a really helpful type of evidence for us as historians to understand contemporary of the moment issues that are being promoted on an annual basis, as it were. So somewhere between 29 and 27 BC, at Actium, where he had his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, he in fact establishes a new city, which he calls Nicopolis, which is victory city. And he sets up a monumental altar there dedicated to Mars and Neptune. And there's a monumental inscription on that in Latin. And bearing in mind, this is a Greek community, the dominant language is Greek, but he uses Latin

as the language of Rome, the language of the victors, on which he commemorates his victory. And specifically in the middle of this one line long inscription, he says that peace had been achieved by land and sea. So this is a central concept. Having fought on behalf of the public, he has effectively brought peace by land and sea, so effectively to the world. And he goes on to promote this in coinage that's also minted in the Eastern Mediterranean in Turkey as a coin of 28 BC, which we can again date because he tells us that he was consul for the sixth time that's a helpful way of dating at this point and on one side of the coin there's his portrait with him wearing a laurel wreath as the victor and he claims to be the avenger of the

liberty of the Roman people so you know he's the one who's championing the liberty of the Roman state because he is victorious and on the other side of the coin is a personification of peace, of pax in Latin. And she's holding a herald's wand as a symbol of negotiation and peace. And she's trampling on a sword to show that peace is stamped out at war. So this is how he's presenting himself in the years following Actium and just before he becomes Augustus. Is it quite interesting, Hannah? I mean, before we really go on into, let's say, the 19 BC onwards, how this piece, there's no opponent, as it were, still standing. It's not like we've made peace with this other nation or these other people. The other people are gone. There is just one person left now who is the owner of all of this peace, as it were.

Yeah, absolutely. And that marks the contrast to what came before. So peace became quite an important concept during the civil wars of the 40s and the 30s because there was intense competition amongst the leading Romans. And they were, in fact, having to make peace and negotiate with each other. In fact, in 40 BC, both Imperator Caesar, young Caesar, as my colleague in Australia, Catherine Welsh is very keen that we don't call him Octavian, we call him Caesar because that's his name. But in 40 BC, Imperator Caesar has an ovation, so a mini triumph, as does Marcus Antonius, Mark Antony. They both have ovations in 40 BC because they made peace with each other. And this is like the one time in the whole long

history of Roman triumphs that mini triumphs are awarded because peace was made rather than, and peace between two Romans rather than conquering a foreign place and nation. But absolutely right, sort of before actium and alexandria and the defeat of antony and cleopatra peace is relative it's relational you make peace with someone but the romans were always very keen to be in the position that they were giving peace to people so in a superior position never receiving it whereas absolutely once one person is in control of the state there's no one to make peace with apart from to offer peace as a condition to everyone who falls within his sphere of influence and power. And Tacitus, a Roman historian who's writing in the second century AD, at the beginning of his histories, sort of perhaps somewhat cynically says that it was necessary for peace after the Battle of Actium,

that one man rule, that in order to achieve peace, you effectively need monarchy, allegedly. Though Augustus would never call it monarchy. He's a leader, he's the princeps, but he is not a king. Right, right. Okay, the power of peace, as you say, and I think we'll be keeping down this line of talk of chat as the podcast goes on. I mean, okay then. So we've talked about the backgrounds to 27 BC. We talked about this date in particular. And if we move forward in Augustus's reign, let's say between 27 and 19 BC,

because I do appreciate we're doing a bit of a jump here, but at this time, Augustus, he's not often in Rome, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. So in Rome in 29 and 28 as triumfato, as consul. And then he does spend considerable amount of time outside of Rome in the provinces, technically on campaign. So despite the fact that allegedly peace has been achieved after civil wars, internally, the Roman Empire, capital E, is not entirely stable. And Spain is a constant, has been for centuries, a constant area of trouble for the Romans.

And so one of his campaigns in the mid-20s is in Spain. And in fact, tying back into the theme of peace, after his campaigns in Spain and also in Gaul this is when he shuts the gates of Janus the gates of war which are opened when there is war and closed when there is peace and he claims once again in his sort of autobiography that he three times he closed the gates of peace something never achieved beforehand only twice in the history of Rome had anyone closed the gates of peace. And now he's done it three times, which you could say is evidence that peace wasn't a permanent state. They close in 29 and then again in 25 after his campaigns in Spain. And it's also after he is successful in pacifying Spain and Gaul that

the Senate decree the author of Augustan peace to him on his return, but he doesn't come back until the end of the 20s. So there is a lot of time when he is away from Rome and overseeing his area of governance of the empire. Also in 28-27, when he effectively restores constitutional government, He has effectively volunteered himself so generously to take control of various provinces that are deemed to be the most problematic and therefore need an army. And because the army is loyal to him,

because after the defeat of his opponents, he has control of almost 50 legions, which he then reduces down to 28. But he takes control of the hotspots, so Gaul, Spain, Syria, and the other provinces are left to the management of the Senate by lots. So lots are drawn to assign pro-consular governors to these areas. So it's not necessary that Augustus has, at least ostensibly, complete autonomous control of the Roman Empire. He is also assigning duties to other members of the

political elite who have traditionally held these roles. And he also actually, even though he is away fighting in Spain and campaigning in Spain, because he also oversees other provinces, he kind of rules through legates. So he appoints other people who operate under his power, under his imperium, which is a constitutional right to command armies. So a lot of his sort of claims of victories and triumphs are often carried out by someone else in reality, and he claims the victory because they did it under his auspices. And we also see this, I suppose, in the case leading up to 19 BC, which is what's happening in the far east of the Mediterranean,

where Rome comes into conflict with the Parthian Empire. The Parthian Empire in the east has been an ongoing opponent of Rome for the better part of a century, with not many shining successes on Rome's side in recent years. Both Crassus in the 50s and then Marcansany in the 30s lost military standards to Parthia. And so Augustus' big claim to defeating the Parthians, in inverted commas, is to negotiate diplomatically. So no campaign, no military actual activity, but through negotiation, diplomacy, and perhaps the threat of violence and force, to negotiate with the Parthian king to return the Roman military standards and also Roman captives from the previous conflicts where Rome had been defeated by the Parthians. But this is presented as a great military success.

Even though he doesn't have a triumph, there are monuments set up at Rome which commemorate the return of the standards, sort of triumphal arches. The altar to a fortune returned also is erected in 19 BC. And there is also the famous depiction on a larger-than-life marble statue of Augustus called the Prima Porta, because it was found in the villa at Prima Porta of his wife, Livia, which depicts a Parthian handing over the Roman standards to a Roman. Although Augustus himself was not physically present at the handing

over of the standards, it was his stepson, Tiberius. So once again, acting through someone else, but Augustus is the one who can claim the success. Well, we'll delve into all of those monuments, which you just highlighted there. Absolutely. Because we are now at 19 BC and Augustus, as you mentioned, he's returned to Rome. I mean, but first of all, Hannah, when he does return to Rome in 19 BC, you mentioned he's been controlling much of the empire through these legates and then taking the glory. But how secure is his position by this time in 19 BC when he's back at Rome? A good question, because we tend to think that once we get to 27 BC and he becomes Augustus and there are no opponents, that's it.

We have effectively an emperor, although he didn't call himself an emperor, although his first name was Imperator, so he kind of called himself emperor. Let's not get into the complicated naming processes of Augustus. But by that point, he claimed to have returned the government of the Roman state to the Senate and the people. He held the office of consul, and he did that consecutively, really, down to 23 BC. And in that year, he appears to have been actually very ill. And he goes through the motions of effectively preparing to hand over the state to other people. He gives his signet ring to his son-in-law, Agrippa, who was also his right-hand man during the earlier campaigns

at Actium and during the civil wars, and the documents of state to someone else. But he seems to make a miraculous recovery. But in 23, he decides that he's no longer going to be consul. He's going to set aside that particular way of presenting and shaping himself in relation to the Roman state. And instead, he takes on the powers of the Tribune of the Plebs, which was a political office held on an annual basis throughout the Republic. Effectively, there were 10 tribunes each year, whose duties it was to protect the interests of the people. And they had various rights in order to allow them to do that. Now, Augustus is never tribune. He doesn't hold the office, but he has all the powers associated with the office. And he has that on an annual basis, renewable for the rest of his life.

And that's another helpful way of dating both coins and inscriptions from Augustus onwards into the empire. Sort of, if you've got the number of times an emperor has held tribunician power, you should be able to figure out the year. So he changes in 23 BC, sort of how he's shaping himself, his constitutional powers, and his

relationship with the people. He's also given other powers, other forms of imperium to enable him to still operate as a military commander and overseer. So there's that shift in 23, which is often in the scholarship referred to as one of the constitutional settlements, sort of 2827 being the first one, 23 being the second one. So he's sort of, he's refocused how he's presenting himself. And then in 19 BC, it's a year in which he returns to the city that's celebrated with, as we've already mentioned, this altar to Fortuna Redux, the returning fortune, also the year that the Parthian standards are returned. And so there's this sort of celebration and build up, the idea of Augustus returning,

various ideals and values of the Roman state returning, which Horace, a Roman poet, mentions in effectively a hymn or a song he's commissioned to compose, but for an event a few years later in 17 BC, something called the Lude Secularis or the secular games, which effectively celebrates the new age, a new generation. And so all these things kind of nicely line up just about so that with Augustus returning and with the return of the standards, Rome can truly celebrate the fact that they're starting a new age and everything is wonderful and shiny, thanks to Augustus, allegedly. I mean, well, let's focus then on that altar,

the Fortuna Redux. Correct me if I say it wrong in my Latin. I'm not a classicist. I am not a classicist at heart. But this altar, do we know much about it apart from its purpose? I mean, does it survive? Do we have any images of it? Or what do we know about it? Unfortunately, compared to the altar of Augustine piece, which is slightly later, we have less evidence, physical evidence for it. We know Augustus mentions it in his raised guest die, the fact that it was awarded to him for his return his success for a return we have coins that appear to depict the altar but it's quite simply depicted in a sort of quite a classical style of altars which is a sort of table with volute scrolls at the top and there are references to it and to its dedication in the imperial calendars. And we know where it was. It was situated at the Porta Capena next to the

temple of Virtus et Honus. So virtue, which is really about military bravery and honour. So it certainly has military connotations. But unfortunately, we don't have much else than that. We know it existed. And the concept of both fortune, fortuna, which is also associated with sort of, you know, longstanding quality of temples to fortuna in the Republic and fortuna of the Roman people. And here this idea of fortuna in a sort of military successfully sort of concept being returned because Augustus has also come back successfully from overseeing the provinces. returned because Augustus has also come back successfully from overseeing the provinces. Is this a symbol of things to come with Augustus and the returning of the standards? You mentioned, of course, this is a diplomatic success, but even like straight from the beginning, it's trying to portray this as a military success, as a complete victory.

No, absolutely. Even after Augustus is apparently successful after civil war, there is still a continued emphasis on showing that success and continuing to demonstrate military superiority. And we see this in the poetry of the period. In fact, prior to the return of the standards, the poetry seems to suggest this idea that Augustus is going to conquer Parthia and India and Britain, and that conquest is big on the agenda. And then afterwards, it's more about showing the fact that the Parthians have submitted themselves to Rome through the return of the standards to try and sort of get around the fact that they weren't actually conquered. But yes, a big emphasis on this being a demonstration of Rome's military superiority, Rome's success. There is evidence on the coinage of an arch, which seems to celebrate the return of the standards. It is depicted, well, unfortunately, the depiction is not consistent over the coins. And this is often because when something is, when a building or monument is voted for by the Senate, for example, the minting of an image on a coin is a way of almost demonstrating

the fact that this is going to happen, but it's not necessarily what the monument actually looked like. But it does seem based on the evidence we have from the coins and the archaeological evidence that it was a triple arch, so a sort of central arch with two side arches, and that it was likely that there was a triumphal chariot with Augustus in it. So even though he didn't have a triumph, it's sort of presenting that idea of victory. And then on the two little side arches, statues of Parthians sort of handing up the standards to Augustus, and made very distinctive by their eastern dress and the fact that they have bows and arrows slung to them. The actual physical standards themselves were a big part of Augustus's display. And he tells us, again, in his Res Gestae, his autobiographical account, that he dedicated these

in a sort of shrine in the Temple of Mars Altor, Mars the Avenger, a temple he originally vowed in relation to Julius Caesar and avenging his assassination. But that also becomes associated with avenging the Roman state in general through their victory of Apathea. And Ovid, in fact, so one of the poets of the Augustan age, in one of his poems, The Fasti, which is the calendar, in the fifth book, which is the month of May, he describes the forum of Augustus and the Temple of Mars Altar. And he refers to Mars Altar as being twice avenging, which seems to be a reference to the avenging of the murder of Julius Caesar, but also the return of the Parthian standards, which he also makes a feature of his description.

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Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. well i feel we're piecing the bits of the puzzle together as we're going on because i feel it's all going to fall into place particularly when we mentioned the the ludi secularis in a bit and that festival and how it all pieces together one other thing i need to ask about though i've got it here it's like ask about the Vesta connection. What's the Vesta connection in all of this? Vesta is one of the deities of the Roman state, the goddess of the hearth. There's a temple to Vesta in the Roman forum

and the flame of Vesta, the fire of Vesta, which is watched over by her priestesses, the Vestal virgins, which who people may have heard of. There was a belief that as long as the fire, the flame of Vesta was kept burning, Rome would continue. But if the flame was extinguished, woe betide Rome. But there does appear to be a sort of an association between the Temple of Vesta, which is very close to the art which celebrates the return of the Parthian standards, but also in the poetry, this sort of idea of Augustus celebrates the return of the Parthian standards but also in the poetry this sort of idea of Augustus and the return and him being sort of as it were the priest of Vesta as

well and our sources also tell us that he kind of moved her shrine inside his house he was Pontifex Maximus the chief priest so I suppose it was within his remit, but he kind of draws a strong link between his household, his half, and the half of Rome, which is Vesta. So all these sort of points joining up, as you were saying, various different ways that Augustus very cleverly, very cannily, you know, whatever we think about him as a politician, a military leader, the man knew how to sell something. And this he does very effectively in Rome with numerous displays through different media. And let's then talk about one display in particular. Now, if we go to 17 BC, you've kind of mentioned it already, which is this festival, I believe it's a festival, the Augustan Ludi Siculares. Hannah, what is this? Take it away. So the Ludi Circularis was a, as you say, a festival. Ludi really means games, celebrations.

And the Roman state has many different games throughout the year. In fact, they seem to sort of add more and more games and celebrations and effectively public holidays as Rome expands. But the Ludi Circularis were intended to celebrate a new cyclum, a new age, a new generation, which is effectively 110 years, possibly 100. There seems to be a bit of variation. But this is to celebrate a new generation. The idea is that within that time period, there's no one left living who remembers, who's alive from that generation. So it's a new start. And it does genuinely fall within Augustus' brain. He's not just sort of making this up.

We base it on previous dates for earlier Lude Seculares. But he does seem to have shifted it slightly to align with his programme. But it is a large festival in Rome that goes on for many days. We have documents, we have inscriptions that record decisions of the Senate about the running order, the costs, various sacrifices to different gods, and all centred on Augustus and his family in many instances. The poet Horace, who I mentioned,

was commissioned to write a poem, a hymn actually, to be sung by a chorus of young Roman boys and young Roman girls, so the new generation, which was the closing ceremony effectively of this sort of this big festival, which was to be sort of sung, we think as a sort of procession moving from the Palatine Hill to the Capitoline Hill. It mentions the gods Apollo and Diana, Apollo being a particular deity that Augustus associates himself with, particularly from Actium onwards. But it also mentions this idea of return. Horace seems to focus, because we're starting a new age, that all these values that the Romans hold dear to them are coming back. Virtue, modesty, pax, fortuna are returning because we have this new age where everything is suddenly sort of abundant and fertile. And this is why there are also so many sacrifices

of various animals as well, to both the gods above and the gods below to sort of really emphasise that the gods are on Rome's side and the concept of the Pax Deorum, peace of the gods or peace with the gods, is something that was so integral to the Roman state for, well, for its entire existence, that they wanted to have divine sanction for their actions.

So making sure you sacrifice to all lots of gods as a way of ensuring they're on your side and also gives you lots of nice meat for public feasting as well. So this is really a massive festival where Augustus can really put his stamp on his successes and sort of look forward to what is to come. And this idea of return, I mean, there's so many questions I could ask about this, but is he trying to link this festival as well, once again, this idea of this new age? He is linking it to what we've mentioned earlier, to the return of the standards and the monumental architecture already constructed because of that.

Yes, yeah, I think so. I mean, this, in a sense, you might look at, if we imagine him to have a grand plan, which he must have done in some sense. But yes, from 20 BC onwards, they're already negotiating the return of the standards. They are already, no doubt, planning the Lude Secularis. They know it's coming up. And these monuments are beginning to go up in Rome, or possibly be added to, such as returning the standards, even potentially with the arch, which depicts the return of the standards, might be repurposed from an earlier monument. It's hard to tell. But there's certainly a lot of activity going on in the couple of years leading up to the Lude Seculares, from the return of the standards, the dedication of the altar to fortune,

the returner. So yes, there's a sort of, not that he's necessarily preempting, but it's like he's sort of gearing everyone up. Then we have the Ludo-Ceculares. And it's also at this point in this year in 17 BC, that he adopts his grandsons from his daughter, Julia, who he married to Agrippa and the Gaius and Lucius. And the younger Lucius was born in 17 BC. How convenient. Obviously, it wasn't planned, but he adopts them in this year, which is a way of also extending his household. He now has legal heirs who are also his biological grandsons. And this nicely ties into the idea of a new age, because this is perpetuating the Augustan household. We've mentioned all these events,

particularly between 19 and 17 BC now, Hannah. Just kind of to wrap up this section, as it were, how do these events, they all come together. Why are they so important for Augustus? Why is it so clever from him, really, in him being able to cement his position in this idea of the new age? And also, I guess, in the concept of peace as well. Big questions questions but you're the expert gosh very big questions yes I suppose in a sense this is a way of Augustus maintaining and continuing and demonstrating his worth to the Roman state when he came to power off the back of the civil wars he was able to play off the fact that he had extinguished civil wars and he was bringing stability and peace to the Roman state

after a period of considerable unrest, destruction, death. I mean, a really violent period in Rome's history. And now with the celebration of the new age, this new golden age, he's able to further perpetuate that and demonstrate with the return of the standards that this peace that he proclaimed when he sort of first came to power is evident. It's, you know, it's happening. It's real.

It's continuing because of his successes, both within the wider empire and also at home. So it's a way of, I suppose, continuing and reminding the people, nicely aligned up with something that would have happened anyway, that he is integral and crucial to the success of Rome. Is it fair to say, and please get me if I'm wrong, but is he, is this kind of in the process that he's trying to monopolise peace, as it were? Yes, thank you, Tristan. Yes, I think it's exactly that as well. It is, we're moving to a point where peace is going to become an imperial or indeed an Augustan quality or indeed property. Whilst we spoke earlier about peace and how important it was in the wake of Actium and his celebrating it in the monument at Nicopolis and the coin where

he had peace trampling on a sword. There's not that much evidence that peace was worshipped as a goddess in the Roman state before Augustus. There are no temples, there are no shrines. There's one coin minted in the last year of Julius Caesar's life that is the first official depiction of Pax with a nice label telling us who this is.

Otherwise, there would be no way of telling. And then we have this coin of Augustus, again, a labelled presentation of peace. But as yet, there's no official concrete cult with a priest and worship and sacrifice to peace. But after this period of return and after further successes in the wider empire this is when the senate technically vote and dedicate the altar of augustine peace and it's quite important to stress it is technically in our sense of the a senatorial monument even though it's likely that augustus must have had a fairly large hand in you know planning it but it's it's actually technically not a monument he sets up but one that is set up by the senate. So whether we understand this as a Senate

basically buying into or accepting the rhetoric that Augustus has been laying down over the past couple of decades about his relationship with peace, it's certainly a way of presenting him within the state rather than above it, because the way he's depicted in the reliefs on the arch, but it's also ties in ideas of Rome's foundation

Rome's relationships with the gods the idea of the new golden age which has been set up with the ludae secularis is further perpetuated in the concept of Augustan peace or the Pax Augusta in the monument and this idea of almost impossible abundance that we see displayed there and elsewhere. I know it's a bit later on, but can you see similarities, shall you say, between the construction of this altar to Augustan Peace and the other altar we mentioned earlier, that one of Fortuna Redux? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, Augustus pairs them, in a sense, in his raised guest, his autobiographical account. And they awarded you know because of his successes in the wider empire and they're both awarded by the senate so certainly sort of this altar of fortuna redux fortuna the returner is is almost

like sort of the prequel so we're getting the return of fortune and then we're getting the establishment of peace so i think there is this sort of build-up and in in the raised guest i after he talks about the altar of augustine, he then goes on to talk about his successes in achieving peace by land and sea, which is where he mentions the closing of the gates of Janus three times. Even though that sort of happened before, chronologically before both altars were dedicated, he sees that as the culmination, as an expression of his achievement of peace. And so if we focus you mentioned you kind of mentioned what's being depicted on this altar the mythology and all of

that so i appreciate there's quite a lot being depicted on the arapakis but i mean what are some of the main features that are depicted on this altar right so i suppose that one of the main things to stress is when we were previously talking about the altar of Fortuna Radux, and I said the images that we might have depict a sort of an altar table, quite simply, with some sort of volute scrolls at the top. And in fact, what we have of the Arapacus, and we have a substantial amount of it, the actual altar table itself for sacrifices is shielded behind a sort of monumental marble exterior wall. And it's on this exterior wall that we have a highly complex series of scenes and depictions. And there are two registers, there's a sort of lower register and upper register. And it's in the upper register that

we have all the figural scenes. The enclosure of the altar is almost a square, it's not quite, one side is longer than the other and it's on the long side that we have depictions of a religious procession and it's within that scene i mean we have the senate and priests depicted we have women men and children of the roman people depicted and within that we have augustus as a priest alongside and followed by his son-in-law agrippa who is also a priest so he is in the act of sort of sacrificing or acting as a priest, which is highly appropriate on an altar, which is meant to have an annual sacrifice

because of Augustus' achievements. And then on the two shorter sides, there are various scenes, which again are quite difficult to interpret because some of them are fragmentary and other times it's trying to figure out what the intention was behind the depictions. But we have on one side seems to depict the early myths of Rome. So there's Aeneas, made famous by Virgil's poem The Aeneid, the Trojan hero who comes to Italy and effectively founds a proto-Rome.

So there's an image of him sacrificing on an altar. So he's a parallel to Augustus. And then there is another scene which is very fragmentary, but appears to depict the god Mars. And so if anyone has gone to Rome and seen the altar of Augustan piece in the museum, it's kind of been restored to depict the discovery of Romulus and Remus and the wolf, another of Rome's great foundation myths. And on the opposite side of the altar to that, there is a famous depiction of a woman holding two babies surrounded by abundance of flowers. And this is often understood to be a depiction of Mother Earth, possibly Pax herself, but she's very complicated to decode. And sort of

sitting opposite her, as it were, appears to be a depiction of the goddess Roma. So the personification of the city of Rome as a sort of victorious figure with a helmet, shield and spoils. So this idea of peace and victory as sort of, you know, sort of sitting opposite each other and part of the whole rhetoric. But what is actually, I think, really important, and people often sort of forget with the altar of Augustan peace, that the largest part of the altar and the thing that you would probably, in a sense, be faced with when you actually go and see it as a viewer is the lower register, which is this sort of monumental vegetative floral frieze and a canvas scrolls filled with lots of different flowers and wildlife and birds, swans, frogs.

There's even a little nest with birds and a snake about to eat them. So this is a whole sort of life death thing going on. But what's fascinating, they've done studies on this freeze of vegetation. And it's often described, it's impossible, because everything's flowering at the same time, which is not how things work in real life, things flower in different seasons. But this is a depiction of, you know, the ideal world where everything is in abundance at once and perpetually. So it's really hammering home this idea of the new golden age and what Augustine peace has brought to the Roman people. I'm presuming as well, I'm guessing all of those amazing scenes, they would have been coloured too, just once again to hammer that through, wouldn't it? So that's a really, really

good point to remember. We tend to think about the Roman world and indeed the Greek world as being sort of white marble but most of it was painted and indeed yes the the altar of Augustan peace was painted and again if anyone is lucky enough to go to Rome and to see the altar they do have some quite helpful displays that show what the colours would have looked like because they were able to sort of you know figure out the pigments that were left behind and there are some quite good videos actually which sort of restore the colour as well. And it does actually make everything pop so much more. These are sort of vibrant displays. And so it begs the great question then, Hannah, I mean, what can this alter? What can it tell us about the evolution of Pax, the creation of Augustan peace during this period? Well, I think it indicates that this is a complex notion that they're trying

to almost define or play out or tease out in this monument. And I think it's really important to stress that, as we were previously saying, there wasn't a cult to peace evident before this altar. But what's really striking is that it's not just an altar to peace, but it is to Augustan peace. It is qualified in relation to the name that Augustus himself had been given in 27 BCE. This is a name that has significant religious connotations. We still use the word August, revered. And interestingly enough, Augustus name in greek is not a transliteration of augustus his name in greek is sebastos so the concept the word is translated to mean revered divine but the fact that this piece is qualified as being specific to him and that we see actually

throughout the wider empire a perpetuation of much smaller altars, but still altars to Pax Augusta, demonstrates this sort of acceptance and acknowledgement that it is only through Augustus that peace is allegedly possible. But within the altar itself, I mean, yes, we've got this idea of abundance, fertility, prosperity, which Augustus has brought through peace. But also that peace is something achieved through victory, with the depiction of Roma victrix. And also on the processional friezes, we appear to have, there are a couple of small children that traditionally were interpreted as being Gaius and Lucius, his grandsons slash sons, because they have to be on the monument, of course. So how can we have a monument to Augustus, which doesn't also depict his family? But they're rather strangely depicted for Roman children.

They're not wearing little togas or bull-eye protective amulets. They've got sort of long hair. One appears to actually not even be wearing any trousers or possibly leggings. One's got a talk around his neck. And originally people sort of said, oh, well, this must be them dressed up for the Trojan Games, which was another festival that celebrated Rome's past and had young Roman youths participating in. But more recently, and far more convincingly, I think the argument is that these are foreign children. These are the sons of foreign powers who have been given as pledges of empire. So another way of, as with the return of the Parthian standards, these are effectively hostages or hostages of peace in

effect. And they are brought up though in the Augustan household. So they're a way of securing loyalty, I suppose, or ensuring that various client kings are also buying into this idea of Augustan peace. So once again, stressing this idea, Hannah, of, you know, this new great age, we've got peace. But remember, we've gained peace through military success, through war. Absolutely. That is the take home. When we talk about peace, I think particularly, we tend to think about it through the lens, perhaps of, you know, Christianity and various religious practices where it's, you know, peaceful about it through the lens, perhaps of, you know, Christianity and various religious practices where it's, you know, peaceful, it's all nice, and sort of that there is no violence to it. But the Roman world peace is something that is only achieved through victory,

and perhaps perpetuated through victory. Much, much later, Tacitus, who I previously mentioned, writing in the second century, he puts a speech in the mouth of a Roman general in, I don't know, 69, when Germany and Gaul are in revolt. This is the year of the four emperors after Nero has died, and there's a big battle for control of Rome again. But he has a Roman general speaking to Gallic tribes about why they should not fight against Rome and why they should be a part of Rome. And the emphasis is that, you know, there is no, you can't have peace without the army and you can't have army without taxes. And this is something that everyone needs to buy into, you know, in order to have peace, in order to have Rome's protection, we need to

have an army and that needs to be paid for and you need to contribute to it. Hannah, this has all been so interesting, what we've been chatting about over the last hour or so. And all these different events, the monumental arts, architecture, the festivals. I mean, is it fair to say that, I mean, would you argue that one of the key ways that Augustus is able to, shall we say, curate, create the Roman imperial period, create the Roman imperial period are through his works, his working around the idea and the evolution of peace, his monopolisation of Pax of Peace. Yes, I think that's very fair to say. And it's something that his successors will continue. The idea of the Pax Augusta is perpetuated by his successors. We see through through various artworks so it's it really sets the standard for a way of talking about imperial power imperial power is imperial

peace which is a way of you know um nicely packaging the idea of empire and control in a way that is potentially more palatable to people because of the prosperity it allegedly brings well there you go actually one last thing before we completely wrap up because of the prosperity it allegedly brings. Well, there you go. Actually, one last thing before we completely wrap up, because you did mention it earlier, and I feel it would be wrong given how famous it is not to mention it. And that is, of course, the Augusta Prima Porta. Now, because that's also a very interesting work of art, shall we say, in this whole topic. Absolutely, yes. As we previously mentioned, a statue that was found in Livia, Augustus's wife's villa, just outside of Rome, a place called Prima Porta. And it depicts Augustus as a military

leader. Once again, he's wearing a breastplate, he's standing in a pose, which suggests that he is in the act of addressing troops. And it is on the breastplate that this scene of the return of the standards is depicted. As you previously mentioned, we should expect to see these sort of monuments in colour. And indeed, whilst we see the original copy of the Prima Porta as white marble, it was indeed coloured. And there have been various attempts to restore it to colour. If anyone's been to the Ashmolean Museum, you might have seen a rather garish looking Prima Porta, which is just in the primary colours, just red and blue and brown in his hair, which looks absolutely hideous to us. In fact, it's not really what the original would have looked like. There's a far more rich colour palette to it. And I'm quite convinced that

his hair should be golden, like the god Apollo. But yes, so this is another scene in which there's another piece of evidence where we can see how diplomatic negotiation is also presented in military language. That he is, his person, the person of Augustus, his body is that of a dux, of an imperator, of a military commander. He's not wearing a toga. He's not a priest. He is there as the military ruler of Rome. least he is there as the the military ruler of Rome well once again there you go absolutely fascinating chat all about peace in this time at the real start of the Roman imperial period Hannah last but certainly not least you've written a book all about this this huge period in ancient history well I've written a book I'm not sure how huge it is but yeah I've written a book on Pax and the politics of peace republic to to Principut, which really looks at the end of the Roman civil wars and the Augustan period and why and how peace becomes such a prominent concept.

Well, Hannah, it just goes to me to say thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me. I've had a great time talking about Augustus. Augustus. I hope you've enjoyed this episode with Dr. Hannah Cornwell, all about Augustus, Pax and the birth of the Roman Empire. If you're looking for more ancients content, then why not sign up to our newsletter, our weekly newsletter,

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