Age of Augustus

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Age of Augustus

• Roman Culture in the Age of the Republic, 753-31
  BCE

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Social systems

• community (communio)
• languages literacy
• public vs. private (domus, villa) places
• forum, temples, markets, lawcourts, arenas,
  amphitheaters, mausoleums, baths, gymnasiums,
  taverns, bakeries, brothels, aqueducts, roads,
  bridges
• cultural achievements see above, plus
  literature (history, poetry, biography, letters),
  architecture, city planning, sculpture, wall
  painting, pottery
• social military organization
• respect for the dead mos maiorum (traditions
  of our ancestors)

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Social systems

• patronage patrons (patronii) and clients
  (clientes)
• liberation from monarchy
• law equality
• class struggle
• patricii (patricians) vs. plebes (plebeians)
• optimates vs. populares (appeal to aristocracy
  vs. masses)
• cursus honorum (rank of honors)
• quaestor (), praetor (courts), consul (chief
  mag.), censor (morals)
• senatus / senatores (ex-mags., aristocratic body,
  600-800, for life)
• proconsules, propraetores (provincial governors
  extortion)
• tribuni plebum (tribunes of the plebs
  populism)
• quaestiones (courts justice for the
  aristocracy)
• comitiae and concilia (assemblies putative
  democracy)
• roles for women, children, young adults gendered
  expectations

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Value systems

• fratricide bloodshed
• civitas (citizenship) and cives (citizens)
• conquest warfare and diplomacy, aggression and
  alliance professional army
• sanction from the gods
• expansion strategic colonization creation of
  provinciae (provinces) provincial governors,
  taxation in territories, monarchies, etc.
• Romanization, assimilation of other cultures
  (esp. Greece) foreign cult-worship
• dignitas (dignity), fides (loyalty), honor
  (honor), pietas (piety), clementia
  (clemency), libertas (freedom)

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Economic systems

• exploitation of natural and manmade resources
• slave-based economy latifundiae (estates)
• servi (slaves) vs. liberti (freedmen)
• trade shipping to every corner of empire, access
  to luxury goods
• major commodities grain, wine, oil, silk,
  incense, spices, glass, metals
• land reform placating the poor and military
  veterans
• equites (equestrians business class) and
  publicani (publicans tax-collectors)
• professional army careerism, conquest, extension
  of roads and Romanization, construction of
  cities auxiliarii (auxiliaries) vs. legionarii
  (legionnaires)

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Types of evidence / sources

• histories Polybius 2nd BCE Sallust, Caesar,
  Livy 1st BCE Tacitus 1st CE
• poetry Menander / Terence 3rd/2nd BCE
  Vergil, Horace, Ovid Augustan
• biography Plutarch, Suetonius 2nd CE
• archaeology monuments, art (sculpture, wall
  painting, pottery), coins, small finds (jewellry,
  religious implements, military hardware)
• official and private documents inscriptions,
  fasti, graffiti, papyrus, lead curse tablets,
  accounts, correspondence