Greg ROWEThe Auctoritas of Augustus

Res Gestae 34, 3 is commonly understood as Augustus’ crowning definition of his power. The Greek reads, axiómati pánton diénegka; the Latin is restored, ‘post id tem[pus a]uctoritate [omnibus praestiti]’; and the passage is translated, ‘I excelled all in influence’ (Brunt and Moore). For M. Grant, the shift from Republic to Principate was a shift From Imperium to Auctoritas. For K. Galinsky in Augustan Culture, auctoritas resembles the leadership style advocated by management guru Tom Peters.

But there is a difficulty. Auctoritas in the sense of the emperor’s personal influence is a hapax; it is never used in this sense in connection with Augustus or any other emperor.

In this talk I propose interpreting the Greek differently, restoring the Latin, ‘a]uctoritate [omnium praestiti]’, and translating, ‘I prevailed by the express will of all’. Augustus would thus be referring not to his own auctoritas, but to the auctoritas of his subjects. The clause would be a variation on an argument running through the Res Gestae, that the Emperor ruled by consensus.

In support I argue that:

  1. This is a possible interpretation of the Greek.
  2. Collective  expressions of Italian communties were termed (publicae) auctoritates (as in Cicero, Verr. I). Under Augustus and Tiberius, auctoritas was used to refer to local decrees (EJ 329) or to informal preliminaries to decrees (EJ 69; 333).
  3. In the Res Gestae, auctoritas otherwise refers to decrees of the Roman senate (12, 1; 20, 4).
  4. Augustus makes a running argument in the Res Gestae that he enjoyed a consensus of support and recognition, and the auctoritas passage belongs in this context (9-10; 14; 25). The auctoritas passage falls between two declarations of universal consensus (34, 1: ‘per consensus universorum’; 35: ‘senatus et equester ordo populusque Romanus universus’) and says much the same thing; it refers to the will or opinion of public bodies, especially the councils and assemblies of Italian towns.
  5. Auctoritas appears in inscriptions in conection with the emperors only in connection specific measures (e.g. placing termini: ILS 964; 5963) and formal collective decisions (ILS 4966: ‘senatus c(oire) c(onvocari) c(ogi) permisit e lege Iulia ex auctoritate Aug(usti)’). Nowhere does auctoritas connote overarching imperial influence.

Interpreting auctoritas in Res Gestae 34, 3 as the express will of subjects is only a proposal. Either interpretation -the Emperor’s influence or the will of his subjects -is possible. But the proposal fits both external comparanda and the internal logic of the Res Gestae better -and has the virtue of shifting attention from a single abstract noun to the concrete political system in which Augustus exercised his undoubted influence.

 

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