The work of the last generation of historians has represented a large step towards a better understanding of the early imperial court. Several major studies have extended the detailed knowledge of the freedmen personnel, the equestrian amici principis, and of links among the senatorial elite. Above all, study of contacts between emperors and their subjects, the decision-making process and the distribution of resources and patronage, show the network of imperial personnel in operation and reveal something of the structures within which they operate. In discussing the nascent court of the Julio-Claudian period, it is necessary to generalize more broadly about the function of the court in the structure of imperial power. The social rituals of a court may act as a facade to screen the realities of power. Between Augustus and Nero the patterns of court life were developing, and still far from fixed. The court was a system of power which tended to its own perpetuation.

The imperial court

The two major literary sources, apart from the Histories of Dio, are Suetonius' lives of Augustus and Tiberius: the Lives are immensely important, but they are organized thematically rather than chronologically. In any case, the new formula for Agrippa was only the first stage in a bigger reformulation, the 'constitutional settlement' of 23 BC Augustus made many other political dispositions in the eastern provinces. In AD 13 the constitutional powers of Augustus and Tiberius were renewed again for ten years, and the imperium of Tiberius was at last declared equal to that of Augustus: he was collega imperil. Factual power would depend on whether the system had become sufficiently ingrained in Roman political life to survive, without seriously imaginable alternative, the rule of successors less skilful and less ruthless than Augustus; and in that respect his long reign had helped to make success somewhat more likely than not.

Political history, 30 B.C. to A.D. 14

Those who urge the historian to look behind the 'facade' and confront the 'reality' of Augustus' power mostly imply that he should acknowledge that Augustus' ultimate possibility of coercion lay in control of the army. The triumviral age had been the culmination of changes: nevertheless, it was the achievement of Augustus to create a volunteer, professional army, its size determined by himself, 'depoliticize' it, and establish for it an ethos of loyalty to himself and the 'divine family'. One of the reasons why Augustus' formal authority cannot be detached from his actual power is that armies can only with difficulty and exceptionally be recruited and held without a legitimate claim. Tacitus offers an appraisal of Augustus, in contrasting paragraphs: what can be said in his favour and what against. For Tacitus, as for many historians after him, the bad outweighed the good. The shape of Roman Empire was Augustus' contribution.

Augustus: power, authority, achievement

The triumviral period was to be one of the great men feeling their way, unclear how far a legion's loyalty could simply be bought, whether the propertied classes or the discontented poor of Rome and Italy could be harnessed as a genuine source of strength, how influential the old families and their patronage remained. Philippi is a very long way east, and the battles there were fought very late in the year. Even before Philippi, eighteen Italian cities had been marked down to provide land for the triumvirs' veterans; and it fell to Octavian to organize the settlement. Octavian firmly held Tarentum and Brundisium, the two great harbours of southern Italy, and it would be no easy matter for Antony to transport large quantities of troops in several waves and land them on hostile beaches. Octavian himself entered Alexandria without resistance, and in a careful speech announced his forgiveness of the city.

The triumviral period

Les dieux augustes, connus essentiellement par l’epigraphie, dotes du titre imperial d’Augustus/a comme epithete, constituent un aspect du « culte imperial » et temoignent d’une triple acculturation politique, religieuse et sociale. L’ « augustalisation » se rapporte a l’empereur mais ne fait pas de lui un dieu incarne ou un protege des dieux. Elle exprime une synergie entre les dieux et l’empereur leur mediateur aupres des hommes. Le terme exclusif d’Augustus/a, renvoie a Romulus, aux auspices de l’imperator, a l’auctoritas, qui legitiment le Prince. Rares en Orient les dieux augustes sont surtout repandus en Occident, d’Auguste au debut du IVe s. Les dieux romains choisis pour l’augustalisation sont moins les divinites politiques attendues que des dieux protecteurs et bienfaiteurs des cites et des particuliers. Sous les dieux a noms romains apparaissent nombre de divinites indigenes reinterpretees (interpretatio romana) qui avec les dieux purement indigenes conservent des racines locales. Par sa souplesse l’augustalisation integre a l’Empire toutes ces identites provinciales. Propre aux milieux romanises, l’augustalisation est avant tout pratiquee par les elites municipales qui, a travers leur evergetisme, la diffusent dans les campagnes et surtout dans la population urbaine, renforcant ainsi leur legitimite. Les augustales et les riches affranchis, prompts a les imiter, la repandent dans le reste de la population. Hauts fonctionnaires et militaires restent en retrait. Presents dans tout l’espace urbain les dieux augustes se concentrent dans les centres civiques et autres loci celeberrimi, ou s’affiche le pouvoir. Scenographie urbaine et ceremonies expriment le consensus d’une societe hierarchisee autour des empereurs agents des dieux. L’augustalisation sacralise et legitime le pouvoir et groupe autour de lui une societe acculturee aux identites multiples.

Les dieux augustes dans l'Occident romain : un phénomène d'acculturation

Andre Magdelain, L'inauguration de l'«urbs» et l'«imperium», p. 11-29. ; ; La dualite du pouvoir civil (domi) et militaire (militiae) est primordiale et se fonde sur la distinction augurale de l'urbs et de l'ager. Distinction des auspicia et des auguria. Valeur sacrale de l'inauguration de l'urbs, alors que l'ager n'est pas inaugure. Inauguration des temples (templa augusta). Le rite de l'inauguration s'ajoute pour la ville et les temples a ceux de l'effatio et liberatio. Etude des expressions auspicium auguriumque et auspicium imperium. Le sol urbain inaugure a l'interieur du pomerium (en deca des murs) ne tolere que le pouvoir civil exempt de souillure guerriere. Ce pouvoir s'appelle initialement iudicium par opposition a l'imperium extra-urbain.

L'inauguration de l'urbs et l'imperium

Auspicia ad patres redeunt

Jus imperium auctoritas : études de droit romain

Note sur la loi curiate et les auspices des magistrats

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L'inauguration de l'urbs et l'imperium

L'inauguration de l'urbs et l'imperium

Auspicia ad patres redeunt

Jus imperium auctoritas : études de droit romain

Note sur la loi curiate et les auspices des magistrats