Augustus’ achievement of power
Answer all THREE QUESTIONS.
1. To what extent was Augustus’ achievement of power a continuation of the phenomenon we have been examining throughout this course? How was Augustus different? By the time of his death in AD 14, what had changed since the epoch of Scipio Aemilianus? (30%)
2. Elaborate the information that can be derived from any FOUR of the passages below and discuss any problems or advantages that might arise from the use of such evidence. (40%)
(a) Lucius Cornelius Scipio, son of Gnaeus, grandson of Gnaeus. Great virtues and great wisdom hold this stone with tender age. Whose life but not his honour fell short of honours, he that lieth here was ne’er outdone in virtue; twenty years of age to burial places was he entrusted. Seek ye not honour; which unto this man was not entrusted. Scipionic Epitaph
(b) Of these [funeral orations] some are, to be sure, extant, which the families of the deceased have preserved as trophies of honour and for use on the death of a member of the same family, whether to recall the past glories of their house, or to support their own claims to noble origins. Yet by these laudatory speeches our history has become quite distorted; for much is set down in them which never occurred, false triumphs, too large a number of consulships, false relationships and transitions of patricians to plebeian status, in that men of humbler birth professed that their blood blended with a noble family of the same name, though in fact quite alien to them. Cicero Brutus 62
(c) Polybius records that in the space of a single day the walls of all the cities on the Roman side of the river Baetis were razed to the ground on Cato’s orders, and yet these were very numerous and full of excellent fighting men. Cato himself tells us that he captured more cities than he stayed days in Spain. And this is no idle boast, since in fact the number taken amounted to four hundred. Plutarch Cato the Elder 10
(d) Scipio, beholding this city, which had flourished 700 years from its foundation and had ruled over so many lands, islands, and seas, as rich in arms and fleets, elephants, and money as the mightiest empires, but far surpassing them in hardihood and high spirit (since, when stripped of all its ships and arms, it had sustained famine and a mighty war for three years), now come to its end in total destruction? Scipio, beholding this spectacle, is said to have shed tears and publicly lamented the fortune of the enemy. After meditating by himself for a long time and reflecting on the inevitable fall of cities, nations, and empires, as well as of individuals, upon the fate of Troy, that once proud city, upon the fate of the Assyrian, the Median, and afterwards of the great Persian empire, and, most recently of all, of the splendid empire of Macedon, either voluntarily or otherwise the words of the poet escaped his lips: “The day shall come in which our sacred Troy and Priam, and the people over whom Spear-Bearing Priam rule, shall perish all” Being asked by Polybius in familiar conversation (for Polybius had been his tutor) what he meant by using these words, Polybius says that he did not hesitate frankly to name his own country, for whose fate he feared when he considered the mutability of human affairs. And Polybius wrote this down just as he heard it.” Appian, The Punic Wars 132
(e) … it is also the People who bestow offices on those who deserve them, and these are the noblest rewards of virtue the state can provide. Besides this, the People have the power to approve and reject laws, and most important of all, they deliberate and decide on questions of peace or war. Furthermore, on such issues as the making of alliances, the termination of hostilities and the making of treaties, it is the People who ratify or reject all of these. And so from this point of view one could reasonably argue that the People have the greatest share of power in the government, and that the constitution is a democracy. Polybius 6.14
(f) There are indeed four such balloting laws in existence. The first is concerned with the election of magistrates; this is the Gabinian Law, proposed by a man who was unknown and of low degree. That was followed two years later by the Cassian Law, which referred to trials before the people; it was proposed by Lucius Cassius, who was a nobleman, but – I say it without prejudice to his family – stood apart from the aristocracy, and, by favouring popular measures, was always seeking the fickle applause of the mob. The third law is that of Carbo, which applies to the adoption or rejection of proposed laws; this Carbo was a factious and mischievous citizen, who could not gain his personal safety from the aristocracy even by returning to his allegiance to their party. Cicero On the Laws 3.16
(g) Tiberius was fighting for a measure which was honourable and just in itself, and he was able to summon up an eloquence which would have done credit to a far less worthy cause. The result was that whenever he mounted the rostra and pleaded the case of the poor with the people crowding in around him to listen, the effect of his words was overwhelming and no other orator could stand against him. ‘The wild beasts that roam over Italy’, he would tell his listeners, ‘have their dens and holes to lurk in, but the men who fight and die for our country enjoy the common air and light and nothing else. It is their lot to wander with their wives and children, houseless and homeless, over the face of the earth. And when our generals appeal to their soldiers before a battle to defend their ancestors’ tombs and their temples against the enemy, their words are a lie and a mockery, for not a man in their audience possesses a family altar; not one out of all those Romans owns an ancestral tomb. The truth is that they fight and die to protect the wealth and luxury of others. They are called the masters of the world, but they do not possess a single clod of earth which is truly their own.’ Plutarch Life of Tiberius Gracchus 9
(h) Finally, when will you make an end? Will our family ever cease from madness? Will it ever be possible to observe moderation? Shall we ever cease to insist on causing and suffering trouble? Shall we ever be ashamed of embroiling and harassing our country? But if any change is impossible, sue for the tribunate after I am dead; do whatever you like, as far as I am concerned, when I shall no longer be aware of it. When I am no more, you will offer funerary sacrifices in my honour, and invoke the god of our family. Are you not ashamed at that time to ask for the prayers of those as gods, whom you abandoned and deserted when they were alive and present with you? May great Jupiter forbid you to persist in that course or to allow such madness to enter your mind. But if you persist, I fear that through your own fault you may bring such trouble upon your whole life that you can never make peace with yourself. ‘Letter of Cornelia’ 1.2
(i) Sulla now thought that the reputation which he had won in war entitled him to turn to politics. He left the army and entered upon public life. However, when he stood as candidate for the city praetorship, he was not elected and, according to his own account, this was because of the attitude of the people, who knew that he was a friend of Bocchus and looked forward, if he were made aedile before becoming praetor, to being treated to some particularly fine hunting shows and combats with wild animals from Libya; they therefore appointed other candidates as praetors so as to force him to stand for the aedileship. It appears however from subsequent events that Sulla is disguising the real reason for his failure. For he was elected praetor in the following year, having won the support of the people partly by flattery and partly also by bribery. Plutarch Life of Sulla 5
(j) Or is there anyone who is unaware that when inquiry is held into a murder, the act is either categorically denied, or that its commission is defended as right and justified? – unless indeed you hold that PubliusAfricanus was mad when, on being maliciously asked in a public meeting by Gaius Carbo, tribune of the plebs, what was his opinion concerning the death of Tiberius Gracchus, he replied that he thought he had been deservedly slain. Indeed, neither the great ServiliusAhala nor PubliusNasica nor Lucius Opimius nor Gaius Marius nor the Senate, in my consulship, would be held other than detestable, were the murder of criminal citizens in itself a detestable act. Cicero On behalf of Milo 8
Discuss ONE of the following options: (30%)
(a) Discuss the irregularities in the career of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (and the historical ramifications of those irregularities)
OR
(b) The different theories as to the motivation of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
OR
(c) The political program of Gaius Gracchus
OR
(d) The historical significance of the career of Gaius Marius
OR
(e) The reforms and career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
OR
(f) The irregularities in the career of Pompey the Great (and the historical ramifications of those irregularities)
OR