The provincia of Augustus, or How to Reconcile Cassius Dio’s Vision of the Principate, Augustus’ Own Public Image and Early Imperial Institutional Practices (original) (raw)
2021, Díaz Fernández, A (ed.)., "Provinces and Provincial Command in Republican Rome: Genesis, Development and Governance"
Scholars have been debating the issue of Augustus’ powers over the provinces for a long time, often using Cassius Dio’s book 53 as their starting point. However, Dio's point of view is inevitably influenced by the nature of imperial power and by the constitutional theory of his own time. Epigraphic and papyrological sources directly coming from the time of Augustus tell us a slightly different story, one of greater continuity with the extraordinary commands of the last decades of the Republic; however these sources are produced by Augustus himself (Res Geste) or are the expression of the Senate's point of view. The purpose of this paper is to critically reconsider the main scholarly trends abut Augustus’ provincial powers and assess in what measure they are influenced either by Cassius Dio or by Augustus' Res Gestae. A reconciliation between these two point of view is possible, but only after having understood the value to be attributed to each source.
Related papers
Dominating the Auspices: Augustus, Augury and the Proconsuls
RICHARDSON, J. & SANTANGELO, F. (eds.): Priests and State in the Roman World, pp. 241–67., 2011
This paper tries to make sense of the strange case of the victories of C. Carrinas over the Morini and the Suebi in 30/29 BC, for which a triumph was awarded to both him and Octavian. Although a strict interpretation of the augural law (represented e.g. in Cic. div. 2, 9 and nat. deor. 2, 76–77) regarded the promagistrates as deprived of the auspices, centuries of practice and the triumph of Carrinas himself show that proconsuls were considered as having valid military auspices. What the sources tell us, is that in many cases a proconsul could accept to be subordinated to the auspices of a consul, notwithstanding their parity of imperium. Therefore, what Octavian tried to do was to have the preeminence of his auspices recognised by the senate with the concession of a triumph for Carrinas’ victories. Nevertheless the assembly did not completely conceded to Octavian and had the independent position of the proconsul confirmed by the award of a triumph to him as well. Finally, the case of Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, subordinated to the auspices of Augustus during his proconsulship of Africa in AD 6–8, shows that Caesar’s heir finally found a way to obtain the superiority that he had sought at the end of the triumvirate.
Cassius Dio on imperial legitimacy, from the Antonines to the Severans
This paper was commissioned by Marianne Coudry, Michel Molin and Gianpaolo Urso for a collaborative volume entitled "Cassius Dion: nouvelles lectures / New Studies on Cassius Dio," forthcoming from Ausonius. I was invited to study Dio's evaluation of the legitimacy of emperors of the second century. I first establish a framework of evaluation for Dio's narrative in respect of imperial legitimacy in the Antonine and Severan periods in light of three considerations: a general understanding of the ideological operations of the Principate as regards emperor, upper class, populace and army; normative statements about proper practice in the imperial office offered by Maecenas in book 52; and the programmatic qualification of those statements offered by Dio in the course of book 53. Thereafter I take up first the axes of analysis employed by Dio to evaluate the emperors of the Antonine and Severan periods, on the understanding that Dio assesses their legitimacy principally in terms of their conduct in office and not, for example, in light of the events that brought about their accession. The final section reflects on superordinate problems raised by Dio in respect to the legibility of politics and the historical enterprise in the monarchy. The essay will be published soon. Anyone who wishes the pagination of the published text should please contact me (cando@uchicago.edu).
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.