Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars is one of the most important sources for the period following Nero's Death. Among his "Twelve Caesars" are Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian Suetonius includes all sorts of fascinating biographical details about the men he describes--along with plenty of sometimes unverifiable gossip and rumor.For extra credit, please read Suetonius account of any one of the caesars of this period (links above) . Pick an incident from the life of this caesar that shows a way in which Augustus' system (the Principate) can work well, or an incident that shows that system created by Augustus was not working out particularly well.
If you have fallen behind on your blogs, you can add to your extra credit by doing an extra blog entry on a *different* ceasar than you talk about in your first post.
I picked Vespasian to read about and teh line I picked was "He was most generous to all classes, making up the requisite estate for senators [This had been increased to 1,200,000 sesterces by Augustus], giving needy ex-consuls an annual stipend of five hundred thousand sesterces, restoring to a better condition many cities throughout the empire which had suffered from earthquakes or fires, and in particular encouraging men of talent and the arts." From what I read it seemed to me that Augustus' system of the Prinicipate can work well if you have the right person who is in charge.
ReplyDeleteRuth Wilson
ReplyDeleteGalba--"Having thus incurred the hatred of almost all men of every class, he was especially detested by the soldiers...[because he refused to give them a promiced bonus]." If Galba had thought more for himself and OF himself, I think the Agustonian system would have worked a lot better for the people of Rome. As it was he was the puppet of three other men and was inconsistant in all things except for pissing peeps off.
"he swore that he would rather be killed than kill. When two men of patrician family were found guilty of aspiring to the throne, he satisfied himself with warning them to abandon their attempt, saying that imperial power was the gift of fate, and promising that if there was anything else they desired, he himself would bestow it."
ReplyDeleteThis shows augustus system, because Titus had the power to not kill anyone even though the person might threat his life, and kept his word which made the people respect him more; because he kept his word of "he would rather be killed than kill."
"At the beginning of his reign he used to spend hours in seclusion every day, doing nothing but catch flies and stab them with a keenly-sharpened stylus."
ReplyDeleteThis view of Domitian's attitude toward his responsibilities shows that Augustus' system, while useful when an ambitious, hard-working man filled the office of Principate, didn't work well under Domitian. He reveled in his power, but obviously did very little with it that would benefit Rome.
In later paragraphs, Suetonius' details some of the public works Domitian did accomplish, building a stadium and a pool for sea-fights for example, but mostly this was for his own entertainment.
Now he had hoped to be adopted by Galba, and looked forward to it from day to day. But when Piso was preferred and he at last lost that hope, he resorted to force, spurred on not merely by feelings of resentment, but also by the greatness of his debts.
ReplyDeletei believe that this shows Otho would not be very good emperor because he was in debt and only cared about money and not about the3 welfare of Rome
Ruth Wilson
ReplyDelete"In short, the greater part of those who had hated him most bitterly while he lived lauded him to the skies when he was dead; and it was even commonly declared that he had put an end to Galba, not so much for the sake of ruling as of restoring the republic and liberty."
Building off of what Jason has posted above (which was exactly what I was gonna say but cant now!), this quote shows that Otho had some of what was needed to make a good emperor: he had charisma. He showed that he had no motivation to be emperor other than to get out of debt, but if he was all bad, people wouldn't have gone crazy with grief after he died, as Suetonius says in the last paragraph.
Pretty much all of Vespasian's life in comparison to that of his predicessors proves that when the Agustonian system works, it works well. The only vice that Suetonius lays at Bespasian's feet is that of greed and even that has a fairly good excuse: many believed that the earlier excess of the emperors before him had laid the treasury bare. He improved just about every aspect of life and I think the best thing about him is that he didn't have time to waste on Nero's 'art'. "he bitterly offended the emperor by either going out often while Nero was singing, or falling asleep, if he remained." That's worth huge points in my book!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to tell if Titus would have been a great emperor or not. The things he did were indeed wonderful, such as taking the informers to task, having them "soundly beaten in the Forum with scourges and cudgels, and finally led in procession across the arena of the amphitheatre, he had some of them put up and sold, and others deported to the wildest of the islands." However, an emperor that cannot put to death somebody that is openly rebeling and slandering him has no hope for keeping his throne, no matter how charismatic that emperor is. Yes, it was his brother that was causing the problems, but by shoing weakness where his brother is concerned, only opens up the door for all the other usurpers. That isn't the best way to promote stability in one's empire.
ReplyDeleteI believe the manner of his death shows how bad the Augustus' system is when it goes wrong. As with Nero, many, many people died and plenty for no reason at all. "In this way he became an object of terror and hatred to all, but he was overthrown at last by a conspiracy of his friends and favorite freedmen, to which his wife was also privy." If your wife and friends want to kill you in order to save others, what does that say about you?
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