Though an energetic administrator and leader, Augustus suffered from nearly chronic ill-health. Thus, succession remained a worry that never left him. Out-and-out familial succession would shatter the political balance of the Principate, so he wanted to show-manage it. His original hope had been for his comrade and colleague Agrippa to succeed him as Princeps, and then the latter's children would succeed to the position. When Agrippa died at the age of fifty- one in 12 BCE at the height of his power, though, plans had to be reconsidered. Augustus then had to turn to Livia's sons. Livia was his wife, and had been given to him by her first husband T. Claudius Nero. Augustus had gone on to adopt her sons, Tiberius Drusus, as his own. Tiberius was an able general and good administrator, but totally without popular charisma. Drusus was also able, and had panache, yet he died in 9 BCE. Tiberius had been married to Agrippa's widow Julia, so that he could attain Agrippa's position. This did not work; the two did not get along, and Tiberius preferred his first wife Vispania, the daughter of Agrippa. Another problem was that Augustus' longevity allowed a third generation to emerge—the grandsons Gaius and Lucullus. Augustus began to groom these two for succession to the Principate, and Tiberius reacted by a self-imposed exile on Rhodes for seven years at the turn of the Common Era. In 2 and 4, though, Gaius and Lucullus died prematurely, so that Augustus returned his favor to Tiberius. The former formally adopted the latter as son just before the Pannonian revolt, where Tiberius saved the day for the Romans. In 13 CE, Augustus engineered the Senate's accordance to Tiberius of maius imperium, so that in 14 CE when Augustus died, Tiberius was able to ascend to the Principate through a senatorial ceremony, where he received al of his adoptive father's powers.

Fifty-five years old at the time of his ascent, Tiberius was quite experienced as a general, politician, and administrator. After years of military campaigns to expand the frontiers, he was not interested in further war, and there were no big expeditions during his reign (14-37 CE). Provincial government was increasingly professional and regular, and the army was well maintained. Tiberius was hobbled, however, by a poor public personality. He was cold and aloof, as were Claudians in general. As well his sharp intellect and cryptic speech alienated many. Additionally, he was fiscally conservative, so there were fewer shows, spectacles, or manifestations of imperial generosity—the Rome mob liked him les than they had Augustus. As had been for the latter, Tiberius' major concern was the succession, as he was already relatively advanced in age. He had a grown son—Drusus, as well as a younger option, Germanicus. Germanicus was a rising general, and was sent into the German woods yearly between 14-17 for flashy though unsubstantial campaigns, to bolster the Roman reputation in the region. In 17 he was recalled to Rome, as Tiberius did not want further conquest in the region. Germanicus received a triumph and maius imperium in all the East, hinting at his position as heir apparent. War loomed with Parthia, but through negotiation, Germanicus averted the crisis and gained new lands for Rome. At this point, brashness led to his downfall. On his return from the Euphrates, Germanicus visited the Principate province of Egypt without permission, where he got into an argument with the Syrian commissioner Piso. Germanicus ordered the latter to leave the area, but the former died shortly thereafter. His wife Agrippina brought the family to Rome and had a large funeral, which Tiberius did not attend, leading some to believe him responsible for Germanicus' death. Piso was soon convicted, and committed suicide. This whole episode left disquiet and resentment within the imperial family. Worse, it deprived Tiberius of a capable heir, and when his favorite Drusus died in 23, no direct male heir remained.

Distraught at Drusus and Germanicus' death, and tired of a career going back to the 20s BCE, Tiberius semi-retired to Capri in 27. He did this on the advice of Sejanus, an administrator upon whom the Princeps had come to rely closely, and whom he made Praetorian Prefect in the mid-20s. During this period, it was increasingly difficult to maintain the illusion of the Princeps as solely first citizen of the Republic, as the Senate was reduced to awaiting the mail from Capri before it could make any major decisions. At the same time, Sejanus used Tiberius' absence to aggrandize his own position, eliminating several opponents through treason trials. In 31, Tiberius' sister-in-law Antonia informed the semi-retired ruler of Sejanus' depredations and usurpations, and later in the year, a Tiberian letter to the Senate denounced Sejanus as a traitor. The latter was tried and convicted by the Senate. He was then executed, his name further blackened by his widow's assertion that he had seduced Drusus' wife and planned his death. Tiberius became increasingly autocratic, eliminating perceived threats to his position through treason trials and executions, targeting mostly Sejanus' allies. Tiberius died in 37, at the age of 78.

Commentary

As alluded to above, in 29 BCE, the big question was two-fold: 1) Could Octavian restore a normalcy that had been lacking at least from the 80s BCE? while his enemies were dead, so was the republic, and the roman government had not worked properly since the time of the Gracchi. Thus 2) Could a bloody ex-triumvir sovle an insoluble constitutional problem, so that the sense of restored stability would not prove ephemeral? The chief problem facing Octavian was how and whether to rule. The government had not worked since Marius. Powerful proconsuls had routinely turned their armies on Rome, just as had Octavian. The latter had two models: Sulla, who had tried to rewrite the constitution, and Caesar, who had become a perpetual dictator. Niether approach had worked. The roman aristocracy had no original political ideas—for them the solution was the republic which had been failing for over half a century. In essence, the Roman republican government was inadequate to the needs of an empire. It was amateurish and nothing more than an expanded city government. Provincial administration in particular was outrageously limited and shoddy, with the need for dangerous proconsuls built into the provincial system. Still, this was the only approach the Senate could suggest, and their new-found confidence after 30 BCE was misplaced.

Miraculously, the ancient world got a break, and peace was sustained. Octavian, soon to be Augustus, was indeed good at politics, and created the Principate, an entirely new approach to government. It was somewhat disorienting to Romans, and was designed to be so, and to gradually confuse them away from older notions of rule. It was a truly sui generus institution for its era—the Principate was like nothing else, not admitting of comparative terms in its description. Adding to its intrisically confusing nature was its gradual imposition—it was created over time, with many of the most significant aspects of it either done behind closed doors or in such a manner permitting a creeping role expansion of the Princeps into Emperor.

Of course, one could have argued at the time that the republic had simply been re-established more strongly than ever before. In theory, Augustus was no more than a powerful magistrate, among consuls and proconsuls. He himself was consul each year—along with titularly equal colleagues—and had a large province to administer. After the second settlement of 23 BCE his maius imperium, and tribunicia potestas were the bases of his legal authority, and they had republican precedents of sorts, only now they were pushed farther, to contribute to an Augustan Auctoritas that was as sui generus as was the Principate, and that made him the most powerful Roman alive, with the greatest personal authority and legitimacy. The republic was seemingly reestablished: annual elections for the consulship were seriously contested, while Augustus' power was magisterial, deriving from the masses in good republican tradition, and he consulted with the Senate. There was no sign of tyranny, and it appeared that he let the Principate run without interfering.

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