American Philological Association

The Significance of the Speech of Maecenas in Dio Cassius, Book LII Author(s): Mason Hammond Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 63 (1932), pp. 88-102 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283208 . Accessed: 18/08/2013 06:24
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VII.- The Significance oftheSpeech of Maecenas in Dio Cassius, Book LII

MASON HAMMOND
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The speechof Maecenas, as PatulMeyermaintaiined, presents a picture of the Augustanconstitution whichis perhapseven moreregularized than was the government underwhich Dio himself lived. It is not, however, necessary to conclude from thisthat Dio was describing not the Augustan constitution but an ideal monarchyin opposition to the contemporary senatorialprogram. Rather, he summarizedthe facts and implicatioils of the reforms introduced by Augustusas theyappeared to him afterthe developments of two centuries.

The accepted view of the significanceof the speech of Maecenas in the fifty-second book of Dio Cassius' Roman Historyis still that so ably advocated by Paul Meyer in a dissertation published in 1891.1 Meyer maintainedthat Dio wrote this speech as a polemic against the pro-senatorial policies of the then emperor,Severus Alexander,and as an expositionof his own political program. Althoughhe based his proposalslargelyon previousconstitutional arrangements, he also embodied original suggestions,many of which were actually realized later among the innovationsof Diocletian.2 Dio himself(LII, 41, 1) openly states that althoughOctavian "preferred to adopt the advice of Maecenas he did not, however, immediatelyput into effectall his suggestions, fearing to meet with failureat some point if he purposed to change
I Paul Meyer, De Maecenatis oratione a Dione ficta, Berlin, 1891. Cf. also M. Wellmann in Pauly-Wissowa, Reihe I, VI, 1719-1720. In the notes, Meyer's thesis is referredto by page only, without title. Throughout the notes, unless otherwise indicated, Mommsen (T.) refers to his Staatsrecht3(references in parentheses are to the French translation); Greenidge (A.H.J.) to his Roman Public Life, London, 1901; Rostovtzeff (M.I.) to his Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, New York, 1926. 2 P. 4: qua ex re apertissime apparebit suorum praeter cetera temporum a scriptore respici, atque quemadmodum rempublicam administratam velit elucebit. Cf. also his conclusioni, p. 93. For a summary of the points in which Meyer thinks that Dio anticipated Diocletian, cf. pp. 72 f.

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the ways of all mankind at one stroke; but he introduced some reforms at the momentand some at a later time,leaving still others for those to effect who should subsequentlyhold the principate, in the beliefthat as timepassed a betteropportunity would be found to put these last into operation."I It was, ofcourse,entirely in accordwiththe canons ofhistorical in antiquityto insertat crucial points speechesin composition whichthe writer might presenteithersentiments whichseemed appropriateto the occasion or his own opinions. There come to mind immediatelysuch examples as the discussion upon the three types of government placed by Herodotus (iII, 8082) in the mouthsofthe Persian nobles,or the Melian dialogue by whichThucydidesillustrates the hybris whichled to Athens' downfallin the Sicilian expedition(v, 84-111). The year 29 B.C. markedforDio the end of the republicand the beginning ofthe empireunderwhichhe himself was living. He naturally paused to summarize whatappeared to himto be the significant featuresof the new formof government. There is no reason to assume that in so doing he had any record of an actual discussion between Octavian, Agrippa, and Maecenas. He may not have soughteven to adapt the speechesto the known opinionsofthe two advisors,sinceactuallyit was notMaecenas but Agrippa who became the chief promoterof the policies of empire.4 That the speech represents Dio's own attitude towardsthe ernpire, no one will doubt who has read Meyer's comparison
I The translations are thoseof Cary in the Loeb edition,vol. vi, London and New York, 1917. 4 In 21 B.C. Maecenas said to Augustusof Agrippa: "you have made him so greatthat he musteitherbecomeyourson-in-law or be executed,"Dio LIV, 6, 5. Again, althoughMaecenas had sharedthe praefecture of the city withAgrippa in 31 B.C. (Dio LI, 3, 5), Augustusgave this post to Agrippa alone in 21 B.C. (Dio LIV, 6, 4), and to Taurus in 16 B.C., ib. 19, 6, whereDio attributesthe neglectof Maecenas to the fact that his wife was a sisterof the conspirator Caepio (22 B.C., ib. 3, 4, Suet. Aug. 66, 3). On the otherhand, Dio devotes some time to the regardin whichAugustusheld Maecenas whenhe recordsthe latter's death in 8 B.C. (LV, 7), and the usual view is that the retirement of Maecenas was voluntary, due to his literary tastes. Cf. the articleby-Steinin Pauly-Wissowa,Reihe I, VI, 207 ff. 7

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of it withthe sentiments of approval or disapprovalwhichthe in his work.5 Nevertheless, historian expresses elsewhere while Dio has perhaps been too much underratedas a historian,it suggestsa more originaland stronger initellect than the rest of his writing justifiesto see in this resume,and hence in his whole pictureof the empire,a sortof successorto Xenophon's a treatiseoIn how to rule, disguisedas history. (Cyropaedia, assertsthat the veryfact of the debate is inconMeyer first sistent with Dio's own later statement that Augustus still wishedto give up his powersafterhe had presumably accepted the advice of Maecenas.6 Dio, however, merely tells how of resignation Augustus made ani offer to the senate when he had first to urge his retention of primedcertainof his friends the principate.7 Meyer further points out that whereas the firstpart of the speech of Maecenas (LII, 14-18) balances that of Agrippa (2-13) and deals with such generalitiesas mightbe expectedin a rhetorical piece, the rest of the speech (19-40), with its very specific recommendations, many of which were not even fullyrealized in Dio's own day, reads ratherlike special pleading aimed at contemporary politics.8 Dio himself (18, 6) is quite conscious that the disquisition onithe details of the government violates the strictrhetorical but after the successful was the obvious balance; all, argument place in whichto includea generalsketchof what he regarded in the new constitution. It is niotnecessaryto as significanit in detail the firstpart of the speech witlh comiipare Agrippa's propositions. They both have a Platonic colorimlg.Agrippa points out the disadvamltages of tyrannyand Maecenas supportsthe necessity that the " best men" (15, 1) shouldcooperate in the rule. In so far as Maecenas advocates an-aristo5 pp. 73-87. 6 P. 2; cf. Dio LII, 1, 1; LIII, 2, 6. 7 Meyer cites Suet. Aug. 28, 1 to support his contention that Augustus intended to resign, but Suetonius miierely states that Augustus was reluctant to relilaiii in power because of the reproaches of the supporters of Antony, to which allusioin is iiiade by both Agrippa alnd Maeceinas, Dio LII, 2, 4 f.; 18, 1. P. 31.

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cratic form of governmentrather than a democratic, he describes the general aims of Augustus, even though the founderof the principatemightnot have sympathizedwholly with Tiberius and his successorsin the complete elimination of the Roman people frompoliticsand the substitution of the of the state.9 Likewise, the advice senate as representative that the emperorconsultwiththe best men of the state about legislation, war, and the selection of officials, reflectsthe relationof Augustusto the senate and the senatorialconsiliurm viewed in the lightof later developments.10There is nothing in this introductory section of the speech which Dio might not have derived fromthe constitutionof the empire as it presenteditselfto him at the beginningof the thirdcentury. It will be simplerto take up the remainderof the speech in Dio's order rather than to consider it under the various heads of public law, administration,finance, religion,and or personal material under which Meyer discontemporary cusses it. Maecenas' openingproposal,that the senate should be revised,accords with the lectiones actually held by Augustus.1" It is uncertainhow far Augustus himselfapproved of extendinginclusionin the senate and equestrianorderto the best men not only of Italy but of the allies and subject nations,but certainlyby the end of the first centurythis had become customaryand Dio is himself an example, a hundred years later, of a Greek who had risen to the highestsummit
9 Ann. i, 15, 1; Mommsen,iII, 2, p. 1255 (vii, pp. 488 ff.). Greenidge(p. 372) suggeststhat this passage may refer only to the praetorian electionsand that the consularremainedpopular. For the change fromthe orderPopulus

of the senate, cf. Gardthausen,Augustusund seine Zeit, Leipzig, 1891-1904,

I, p. 563; ii, p. 306, note 3; Mommsen, iII, 2, p. 1257 (vii, p. 490). 10 For the consilium, cf. E. Cuq, "Le consilium principis," Memoires presentes a I'Acad. des Inscrr. et Belles-lettres, Ire serie, ix (1884), pp. 311 ff.;

Senatusque Romanus to Senatus Populusque Romanus as indicating the primacy

Mommsen,ii, 2, pp. 988-992 (v, 279-284). The legislativecommittee of the senate formedby Augustusceased, probablyupon the retirement of Tiberius to Capreae, and was not revived until a committeeof twentysenatorswas establishedto assist the youngSeverusAlexander. 11A summaryof the evidence and problemsconnectedwith the lectiones may be foundin E. G. Hardy's editionof the Monumentum Ancyranum, Oxford, 1923,pp. 54-60. Cf. Mommsen, Res gestae divi Augusti2, Berlin,1883,pp. 35 f.

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of a senatorialcareer,the consulship."2 The extensionof the to all subjects of the empirewould neverhave met citizenship 13 but by Dio's time with the approval of the Julio-Claudians it had been realized throughthe famous edict of Caracalla.14 With regardto the republicanmagistracies, Maecenas recommends an age in accordance with the Augustan practice, twenty-five years.15 In limitingelectionto the major republican offices and in placing the selectionof candidates in the hands of the emperor himselfin order to prevent political conflictamong the people and rivalry among the senators, Maecenas reflectsthe practice, if not the theory, of the empire."6 The rapid reductionof these posts to mere honors
12 Augustus adopted a narrow policy with regard to the senate. Hirschfeld's emendation of the opening words of the second column of Claudius' speech on the chiefs of the Aedui, accepted by Bruns, Fontes Iuris Romani 7, Tulbingen, 1909, p. 196, note 2, is not sufficientlysure to prove that he admitted Italians; cf. E. G. Hardy, Roman Laws and Charters, Oxford, 1912, part ii, pp. 141 f. The phrase there used, florem coloniarum et municipiorum, refers to the communities only of Italy, not of the whole emrpire,cf. Furneaux ad Ann. i, 79, 1. Claudius first urged the extension of senatorial rights to the Romanized provincials in this famous speech, Ann. xi, 23, 1 ff.; Hardy, op. cit. ii, pp. 133-154; Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Berlin, 1892-1906, No. 21; Bruns, Fontes, p. 195, No. 52. Augustus did, however, seek to extend the equestrian order through the oppida (the Italian towns only ?), Suet. Aug. 46. The great extension of these privileges came with the Flavians. 13 Augustus was chary of granting the citizenship, Suet. Aug. 40, 3. Even the edict of Claudius on the Anauni (Hardy, op. cit. II, pp. 119-132; Dessau, I.L.S., No. 206; Bruns, Fontes, p. 253, No. 79), only recognizes a right confirmed by long usage if not by legal grant and does not indicate any departure from the Augustan policy, though the venality of his court made it easy to acquire the citizenship corruptly, Dio LX, 17, 5; Acts 22, 28; Sen. Ludus 3. LIX 14 On the date and scope of this edict, cf. C. L. Sherman, T.A.P.A. (1928), 33-47, with references; Rostovtzeff, p. 369 and notes; A. LeFranc, L'Edit de Caracalla, Bordeaux, 1907. 15 On the age of admission to the senate in relation to that of admission to the decuriae, cf. J. Stroux, "Ein Gerichts-reform des Kaiser Claudius," Sitzb. Bayer. Akad. Phil.-Hist. Klasse viii (1929), 29. 16 The emperor controlled the elections in the senate by nominatio, the recommendation of candidates, and commendatio,the demand for their election, as well as by his probable right to grant the latus clavus, the token of a senatorial career, Greenidge, pp. 349, 399; Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquites grecques et romaines, Paris, 1877-1919, i, p. 1243, s.v. clavus; PauilyWissowa, Reihe I, vii, 7, s.v. clavus.

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withoutactual powerand especiallywithoutmilitary resources likewiseoccurredin the first century.17 More important are the proposalsbearingupon the imperial administration. The praefectus urbi, who dates indeed from Augustus, is here given the plenitude of his second century powersand jurisdiction."8 The creationof a special subcensor to perform those censorial functions which the emperor had fromthe firstabsorbed is possibly a recollectionof the committees censoria cumn potestatewhich Augustus created to reviewthe rosterof knightsand attemptedto establishin the senate as well."9 There is no need to see in either of these offices suggestionsof Dio's own which anticipated the reign of Diocletian.20 Furthermore, the paymentof regularsalaries to public officialsstarted under Augustus and had become fully established by the time of Dio.2" The reorganization of Italy and the empireon the basis of a much greatersubdivision of territoryand a separation of the commissariat from the public and military businessis, in the wordsofMeyer, abhorrentto the Augustan age and exceeds somewhat the developmentsof even Dio's own days. But in the second centurythe policy was already well recognizedof breaking the provincesdown into smaller administrative units and of assimilatingthem all to the same generalform.22Even from the time of Augustus, not only the imperial but also the senatorial governorstended to retain their posts for terms longerthan a year. The imperiallegates apparentlyaveraged
17 Greenidge, pp. 363-371; Willems,Le droit public romain7, Louvain, 1910, pp. 453-464. 18 It is disputed whether the praefectus urbi was a permanentofficer before the accession of Tiberius,cf. Furneaux ad Ann. VI, 10, 5; Greenidge, p. 408; Mommsen,ii, 2, p. 1060 (v, p. 362). 19For boards to revisethe rolls of knights and juries,see Suet. Aug. 37, 39; Dessau, I.L.S., No. 1954; forsenatorialcommittees to revise the senate, Dio LV, 13, 3. 20 pp. 15 f. 21 Dio LIII, 15, 4 f.; cf. Mommsen,I, pp. 293-306 (I, pp. 330-345). 22 Pp. 46-53; Greenidge, pp. 424 f.; forItaly, cf. Mommsen,ii, 2, pp. 10811086 (v, pp. 387-394).

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the three to five years recommendedby Maecenas (23, 2).23 but Moreover,the extensionnot only of imperialprocurators senatorial in Bithynia, into like Pliny of special imperiallegati, provinces had already become common.24 In fact, modern and further back the beginnings tendto push further historians of the Diocleof what are held to be peculiar characteristics Diocletian that is to think reason and there monarchy tianic the not as an innovatorbut as the restorer, regardedhimself second Augustus.25 Maecenas furtherrecommends the appointment of two praetorianpraefectsfromthe ranks of the equestrians with guard and the military powerin Italy over both the praetorian other troops. The sharing of this post between two men became the regularrule afterSejanus so nearlysucceeded in making it the stepping stone to the imperial power.26 The presenceof troopsotherthan the guard and the urban cohorts in Italy dated fromthe time of Septimiusonly and was part of the tendency,which he accelerated,to assimilate Italy to provinces.27 Maecenas also provides the normofthe ordinary for the equestrian praefects of the watch and of the grain supply, who are to hold their posts not for life, like the praetorianpraefects,but for a stated term. The fiscal proa pictureby no means to Meyer's satisfaction, gram presents, Augustan. Both the aerariumand the fiscusare to be in the hands of salaried officialsof the equestrian class so as to power and to provide separate the financialfromthe military a trained civil service which will assure the subjects of an century, equitable administration. While already in the first
23 For the legati Augusti, Pauly-Wissowa, Reihe I, xxiii, 1146, s.v. lega,tus; in general, cf. Furneaux, Annals of Tacitus2, Oxford, 1896-1907, I, pp. 112-118, where examples are given. 24 Cf. Ann. xiv, 18, 2 (Acilius Strabo); Abbott and Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, Princeton, 1926, p. 359, No. 55 (Dexter); Dessau, I.L.S., No. 2927 (Pliny). 25 Rostovtzeff, Pp. 454 ff. 26 Greenidge, P. 409; Mommsen, ii, 2, p. 866, note 8 (v, p. 141, note 6). 27 Meyer, p. 54; Rostovtzeff, p. 353; M. Platnaiier, Septimius Severus,

Oxford, 1918, pp. 161 f.

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for the aerarium, with the appointmentof imperialpraefecti between the senatorialand imperialtreasuries the distinction began to be blurredout and, as Meyer says, the aerariumlost its importance,it maintained a separate existence into the third centuryand the praefectswere senators,not knights.28 Nevertheless,in Dio's own eyes, there was little distinction between aerarium and fi1cu8and perhaps Septimius or his successorshad already soughtto abolish the former. sections (25, 6-27) contain recommendations The following based on the facts as Dio found them. The opening of the senate to worthyknightswas begun by Augustus,thoughthe mentionof "bearers of faggotsand charcoal" may well be a allusion and the phrase "knights who began contemporary their service as centurions" perhaps alludes to Septimius' of the rightto wear the gold ring.29 extensionto these officers began The provisionof public educationforthe noble children training probablyunderAugustus,at least as respectsmilitary for noble youths both at Rome and in the municipalities.30 Later, under the Flavians, the famous Quintilian was the first to hold at Rome a publiclypaid chair of rhetoric.31The Platonic tone of the recommendationsfor encouragingthe recalls Augustus' connobilityto participatein public affairs efforts towardsthis goal.32 The creastant,but unsuccessful, was in some tion of a standingarmy to protectthe frontiers ways the most importantfeature of the Augustan reforms,
28 P. 56; Greenidge, pp. 394 f.; Mommsen,ii, 2, pp. 1012 f. (v, pp. 307308); Ann. xiii, 29 forits history until Nero. 29 Meyer, p. 8. For the extensionof the rightto wear the gold ring,see Platnauer,Septimius, p. 164, fromHerodian iII, 8, 5. 30 Rostovtzeff iii (first (Rostowzew)," R8mischeBleitesserae,"Klio, Beiheft series),Leipzig, 1905, pp. 55-93, with citation of Maecenas' advice (26, 1) on p. 65. 31 Meyer,p. 6; forQuintilian, see St. Jerome, Chronica Eusebii underA.D. 89 32 A shortageof candidates forpublic office was one of Augustus' constant problems, cf. C. Cichorius,Romische Studien,Leipzig, 1922, pp. 288 ff.;Gardthausen, Augustusi, p. 602; ii, p. 327 ff. He failed to set the example of makingroad buildinga "liturgy" fortherichand had to establisha government department forthe purpose,Dio LIII, 22; 1 Dessau, I.L.S., No. 889.

(Migne, P.L. xxvii, 599).

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for he sought therebyto cure the evil which had inade the empire necessary,the rivalryof generals who could control independentforces. AlthoughMeyer considersthat the en" is not consonant of those " mostin need oflivelihood listment with the Augustan ideal of an army which drew for its main the tendency upon the Italian bourgeoisie, legionarystrength for the army to depend largely on the lower classes had its roots back in the abolition of the census qualificationby Marius and must have receiveda considerableimpetuswhen, fromthe time of Vespasian, the provincialswere more and of permamoreadmittedinto the legions.33 The construction the Augustan from departure nentcamps was a secondcentury schemeof mobileforces.34 (25, 28) to the fiscal problems,deals Maecenas, returning withthe possible sourcesof revenues. The sale of the public propertyto provide a "farm loan fund" may representa conflationof the sale of the imperial heirloomsby Marcus Aurelius and the inventionof the "alimentary" loan funds under Nerva and his successors.3" At all events, Augustus himselffor a time used the public lands not for revenue but to rewardhis veteransand, afterhe gave this up, the imperial estates increased rather than diminishedso that here Dio departsperhapseven fromthe practiceof his own day, despite somehistorical justification.36Maecenas thenadvises a proper budget systemand a regularanidfair collectionof the taxes. Whatever view one holds about the existence of a central of Claudius, it seems hardly fiscusat Rome beforethe reigni could have maniagedhis provincesor that Augustus p)ossible have lefta fullaccount of the fundsin his chargeat his death
33P. 55. H. M. D. Parker, The Roman Legions, Oxford, 1928, p. 179, shows that the change attributed usually to Vespasian was less abrupt than is commonly assumed. 34Parker, ib. p. 171; B. W. Hendersoin, Five Roman Emperors, Cambridge, 1927, p. 116. 35Vita Marci 17, 4 f.; Dessau, I.L.S., Nos. 6509, 6675, gives the alimenltary tables; cf. Greeilidge, p. 425; Rostovtzeff, p. 313; Moiimnisen,iI, 2, pp. 1079 f.

(v, pp. 385 f.). 36 Pp. 61 f.; Rostovtzeff, inidex,s.v. E8tates, growthof.

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withoutsome organizedbureau.37 But universaltaxation on of the burden among all the propertyand a fair distribution under Roman communities sway was not fullyattained even in Dio's own time.38 Diocletian first abolished the exemption of Italian land from the land tax.39 On the other hand, whereas it was the practice under the later empire to make communitiescorporatelyresponsiblefor the payment of the taxes, Dio advocates the earliersystemof payment by individuals. Moreover,the provincialcensusinstituted by Augusand equitable systemof tus undoubtedlyenvisaged a uniform taxation throughoutthe empire.40 Finally, as Dio saw, the administrativereformsof Augustus brought to a world exhausted by the capriciousexactionsof republicangovernors a welcome reliefin the carefuland honest collectionof dues by at stated seasons.41 accreditedofficials While Dio did not, perhaps, see the entire eliminationof in the municipalities, popular government this was certainly the directionwhich was being taken throughoutthe empire during the second centuryand one which had already been attained in Rome itself by the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.42 Dio had, moreover,ample material on which to base his stricturesagainst extravagant public building and athletic competition.43The horse races in particular had
37 P. 59. The breviarium totiusimperiiis mentionedby Suet. Aug. 101, 4, and Dio LVI, 33, 2. He also published an annual balance sheet, Dessau, derRomische Geschichte Kaiserzeit, Berlin,1924,i, pp. 186 ff.;cf. Dio LIX, 9, 4; Suet. Gaius 16, 1. 38 When Augustusinstituted the inheritance tax in Italy, he answeredthe objectionsof the senate by suggesting a property tax and they balked at the inquisitioninto theirholdingswhichthis would have entailed,Dio LVI, 28, 4. 39 Greenidge,p. 424; Victor, de Caesaribus 39, 31; further in references

Willems, Le droit public romain, p. 620, note 6.

40 41

Greenidge, p. 429; Mommsen,ii, 2, pp. 1091-1095 (v, pp. 399-404). P. 61. Collectionsfromsuch sources as estates and mines and perhaps othertaxes were,however, stilllet out to individualconductores, cf.Rostovtzeff, pp. 339 f.; Fronto,Epistles, Loeb ed. I, p. 233 (ad Marcum 5, 34). 42 P. 36; cf.Greenidge, pp. 371-373,423, 437-438; Mommsen, ii, 2, pp. 916 f. (v, pp. 198 f.); Abbott and Johnson, op. cit. pp. 85, 186. 43 Johnson, op. cit. pp. 149 f.,200-201; Abbottand Johilsonl, op. cit. 200-201;
S. Dill, Roman SocietyfromNero to Marcus Aurelius2, London, 1925, pp. 218-222.

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already become iiot inerelya wastefulanid corruptformof but a source of civil strife.44Dio therepublic entertainment to Rome and that the forefeltthat they should be confined other games should elsewherebe strictlylimited. His next the abolitionoflocal coinages,ifnot absolute recommendation, near completion, in his own day, was at least sufficiently him.4" The restrictioiis which especiallyin the West,to justify he suggestson the sendingof embassiesby the provincialsto Rome touches upon a problem mentionedin the inscriptions recentlydiscovered at Cyrene. One of these edicts records the creation of a special senatorial board to expedite trials was a considerableburden whose prosecutioin de repetundis, of provincial aiid expense to the provincials.46The reference petitions to the governorbeforethey are forwardedto the fromCos, whereina emperormay be foundin an inscription on this procedure.47 insists under of Asia Augustus governor Maecenas is quite in accordance with the Augustan practice the senate.48 embassiesbe broughtbefore that foreign in urging Yhen he furthersuggests that all legislation be enacted throughthe senate, he propounds what had by the time of Hadrian become recognizedlegal doctrine. With the cessawhichhad occurredin fact by the tion of comitiallegislation, century, reignof Tiberiusand in theoryby the end of the first had in effect the decrees of the senate, originallyhortatory, becoimie fullylegislative.'9 Practice had actually gone beyond the stateinentof Dio since not only had the decrees of the
pp. 140 f.; Friedlknider, 44Abbottand Johnsonl, op. cit. p. 145; Rostovtzeff, Leipzig, 1920, iI, pp. 32-40. Roms9, Sittengeschichte 45 P. 39 f.; H. Mattiiigly, Roman Coins,London, 1928,pp. 112, 115, 194. Abh. der 46 Pp. 37-39; J. Stroux and L. Wenger,"Die Augustus-Inschrift," Bayer. Akad. Phil.-Hist. Klasse, XXXIV (March, 1928), 112 ff. 1891, No. 26. 47 Paton and Hicks, Inscriptions from Cos, Oxford, 48 Dio LV, 33, 5; LVI, 25, 7. Client princeswere heard by the senate, e.g. Antiochusof Commagene,Dio LII, 43, 1; Archelausof Cappadocia, Ann. ii, power,as of Thrace,Ann. iI, 67, 3. But the treaty-making 42, 5; Rhescuporis Dio LIII, 17, 5; Strabo well as that of declaringwar, restedwith the emperor, Vespasiani). p. 202, No. 56, liiies 1 ff.(Lex de itriperio xvii, 3, 25; Bruns,Fointes,
49

pp. 377 f. Greeniidge,

P. F. Girard, Manuel 6l6mentairede droit romain7, Paris, 1924, pp. 58 ff.;

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senate becomemereratifications of the orationes by which the emperor introduced the more important measuresbut also the constitutions of the emperor himself becameunder Hadrian the primary sourceof law.50 Here,therefore, Dio was reactionary in his program. The right of the senateto tryits own members was usuallyadmitted underthe early emperors and was repeatedly assertedby the constitutional rulers ofthesecondcentury, so frequently, indeed, as to raise doubtsabout its real validity.5'Despite the insinuations of theancient authorities, neither norTiberius Augustus appears to have prosecuted libellousutterances against themselves foractionand, on the whole,they without further grounds ofplotting allowed, as Dio suggests, charges against themselves to be brought the senate.52In the reignof Claudius before suchtrials to be heard weremore likely bytheemperor alone.53 The curious thatintrials before thesenateonlythose proposal who had held an office equal to, or higher than,that of the accusedman shouldbe allowedto voteuponhim,maynever have beenemployed. actually The emperor's as portrayed inthespeech jurisdiction accords sufficiently closelywiththe imperial practice. Appealsfrom his praefects and cases involving equestrian, military, and outstanding private offenders are to comebefore him. While the original and basis of the appellateand pridistinction maryjurisdiction of the emperor are not thoroughly clear, it is certain that he did exercise, apparently even in Rome, boththeseforms of jurisdiction.54 The use of a judicialcon50 Girard,op. cit.pp.

pp. 249-251). 52 Cf. any modern discussion of the application of the maiestas law, e.g. F. B. Marsh, The Reignof Tiberius, Oxford, 1931,pp. 289-295. 5 The best commentary on Claudius' judicial excessesis the promisemade by Nero, accordingto Tac. Ann. xiii, 4, 2: non enim se negotiorum omnium iudicem fore, ut clausis unamintradomum accusatoribus etreispaucorum potentia gras8aretur. " Greenidge, pp. 381-394; Mommsen,II, 2, pp. 958-988 (v, pp. 246-279). The primary jurisdiction in Rome may have dependedon the tribunicia potestas

51Greenidge,p. 387, especially note 1; Mommsen,II, 2, pp. 960-962 (v,

61 ff.

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silium,distinctfromthat legislativecommitteeof the senate and magistrates which had a short life under Augustus and Tiberius, may be illustrated from all periods of the empire.55 Secret voting in these consilia was the method at least under Nero.56 The post of freedmana cognitionibus dates fromthe early empire.57 The speech ends with a long and varied exhortationon and the settingof a good example forthe subjects moderation (34, 6-50), Maecenas sums up the whole virtue of a good golden rule (39, 2): " If you of your own rulerin the following accord do all that which you would wish anotherto do if he became your ruler, you will err in nothingand succeed in and in consequence you will find your lifemost everything, happy and freefromdanger." Perhaps the most important portionofthis part ofthe speechis the advice againstreceiving the state worship divinehonorsand statuesand on maintaining and limitingthe use of magic to soothsayingand augury (35 f.). However one regards emperorworship,whetheras the gratitudeofthe people towards a spontaneousgrowthfrom theirsavior or as a studiedattemptto rest the imperialpower on an extra-legalappeal directto the populace, it is generally admittedthat Augustuswas excessivelymodestin the amount of such honorwhichhe allowed to be paid to himself.58Moreover, he did try to revive and fosterthe state worship,to restrainatheism, and to abolish sorceryand magic.59 With the advice of Maecenas is strictly therefore, regardto religion,
theWalls. Dio (LIII, 17,6), is probably was notapplicablewithin iftheimperium if he intendedhis statementthat the emperors"had the right anachronistic . . . even of being able to put to death both knightsand senatorsinside the to apply to Augustus. Cf. in generalE. de Ruggiero,Dizionario pomoerium" ii, 1, p. 319, s.v. cognitio. Epigraphico, Roma, 1995 ff., pp. 266-268 (I, pp. 311-314). Cf. in generalCuq, 65 Mommsen,Strafrecht,
Le consilium principis. S6 Suet. Nero 15, 1.
II, 1, p.

2, p. 965, note 2 (v, p. 254, note 2); de Ruggiero,op. cit. 320. 58Greenidge, p. 441, cf. Mon. Anc. iv, 51-54. In general,cf. L. R. Taylor, Conn., 1931,chaps. viI-viIi. The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, Middletown, 59Gardthausen, I, pp. 863-886. Augustus
57 Mommsen,ii,

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" Augustan." So also is the concluding that Octavsuggestion ian should use not the title "king" but those of "Caesar," or "Augustus" so that he may "imperator" as a praenomen, the odium of enjoy the reality of kingshipwithoutincurring the name.60 In conclusion,little exceptioncan be taken to the evidence whichMeyer has adduced on each particularitem. But those points in which he claims that Dio anticipated even the practices of his own day, e.g. the capital jurisdictionof the the position of the senate, the praefectwu urbi, the subcensor, powers of the emperor,the militaryadministration in Italy, the establishmentof salaries throughoutthe public services, the abolition of local coinages, the various details in the provincial administration, the status of Italy, the fiscal arrangements,etc., may be regardedas at least implicitin the empire whichhe saw and perhaps,iffuller information wereavailable, many of them would be found more fully developed at an earlierdate than Meyer assumes.6" In that case it would not be necessaryto credit Dio with an imaginationwhich could anticipate the future. Rather he, like Diocletian afterhim, merelyrendered moreconsistent and uniform existing practice. If on the one hand the speech cannot be used as evidencefor the characterwhich Augustus intendedto give to the principate, it may still have great value in so far as it shows how that principateappeared whenviewedthrough the perspective of two centuriesof development. Dio's interpretation, given here in broad outline, is that under which his predecessors, Tacitus, Suetonius, and the jurists,wrote. It is that which the Antoninesrealized, Platonic in its exaltationof the wisest and best, monarchical in the reductionof the senate to an impotent organ,constitutional in the outwardshowofcooperation between emperor and senate. And, curiouslyenough, modernhistorianshave regardedthe work of Augustusunder
60 Cf. the famous remark attributed by Dio, LVII, 8, 4, "I am master of my slaves, general of my troops, and prince of the rest." See also Ann. ii, 87, 2.

61pp.

13-15, 17, 19, 26, 33, 39, 47, 49, 51, 54, 60, 72, summarized on pp. 72 f.

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each of these three aspects; Mommsen propounded an ingenious legalistic theory of a "dyarchy" between emperor entitledhis thirdchapter "The Miliand senate, Rostovtzeff tary Tyranny of the Julio-Claudians," and Eduard Meyer suggestedthat perhaps Augustus really did mean to restore the "republic" in some such fashion as Cicero, combining Plato and Pompey, had conceivedof it.62 Moreover, if the speech be regarded not as a political ofthe actual principate, exposition pamphletbut as a summary because it proves how strong it acquires further significance was the sense of the continuityof the empire. Modern historians see in the upheavals of the year 69 A.D. or 193-197 A.D. real revolutionsin the formof government. Dio could under which he lived back to trace the institutions sincerely of the empireand could gatherinto one whole,as the founder logical outgrowthsfrom the original seeds, all the various changes that had occurredtherein. This beliefin the underof storm centuries lyingunityof the empireremainedthrough characteristic and troublethe most abidingand strengthening of Roman politicalthought.
62 Mommsen, chap. III; E. Meyer,Caesars ii, 2, p. 748 (v, p. 5); Rostovtzeff, 1919,pp. 177-191. Stuittgart, Monarchie2,

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