The Secret History: The Official Position of Imperator Caesar Divi filius from 31 to 27 BCE (original) (raw)

The genesis of this paper can be traced back to peripheral inquiries made at the time of my doctoral research on the so-called potestates extraordinariae of the Roman Republic (submitted at Ghent University, 2002) and my study on The Lex Valeria and Sulla's Empowerment as Dictator (82-79 BCE), CCG 15 (2004)-see, esp., p. 58-68 (and n. 111 of p. 65). The main findings of this inquiry were first presented at a conference on the subject of Res publica restituta: Le pouvoir et ses représentations à Rome durant le principat d'Auguste, held at the University of Nantes, 1-2 June 2007. I am especially obliged to Emeritus Professor John Rich of the University of Nottingham whose written thoughts on earlier versions have been most useful in terms of further sharpening and refining its argument. Responsibility for all views expressed in this study and any remaining flaws and errors is mine alone. All dates are BCE, unless otherwise stated. Precisely because of the artful way in which Caesar's adopted son used his name of Imperator Caesar Divi filius in the decade or so before the settlement of 27, I have taken the conscious decision to refer to him chiefly as Caesar Octavianus. Since Dio Cassius does so, too, on several occasions in his books on the triumviral era, admittedly in passages where he was possibly drawing on hostile sources (viz. XLVI 47.5, XLVII 20.3, XLVIII 14.4-5 & XLIX 41.2), this choice is not without justification.