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Augustan Administration

The Augustan Principate brought order to Roman and provincial administration, coopting the senatorial and equestrian orders into imperial service

Constitutional Position and Powers Reviewed

Position Constitutional powers were voted and renewed in 5 or 10 year increments Other honors added to auctoritas (prestige, standing) but not formal potestas (power) or imperium (commanding authority) Powers and Authority Tribunicia potestas (23 B.C.)
Initiate legislation Veto legislation and acts of other magistrates Protect and intercede on behalf of the people

Imperium proconsulare maius (23 B.C.)

Governed a vast provincia through legates Had the power to overule and direct senatorial governors in other provinces

Imperium consulare (19 B.C.)

Function as consul in Rome without holding the position Accept and reject candidates in elections
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25b. The Augustan Principate

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Augustus and the Upper Classes

Senators Augustus was princeps senatus, first among equals (primus inter pares)continued to treat senators with respect (unlike Caesar) Senate continued to function, debate, pass resolutions
Augustus established a rotary committee of senior senators to prepare the agenda and bills

Served as governors in senatorial provinces Coopted into a range of administrative positions in Rome and in the imperial provinces
Equestrians

Served in both military and administrative positionsunlike the Republic, when they had been the rich not involved in government (other than on jury panels) Procuratores: agents, usually financial Over imperial properties throughout empire As financial agents in imperial provinces Military commanders Development of an equestrian cursus

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25b. The Augustan Principate

City Administration
City divided into 14 administrative regions Prefects
Praefectus Urbi: consular senator, commanded 3 urban cohorts (police), gained judicial jurisdiction Praefecti praetorio: two equestrian commanders of the 9 praetorian cohorts (imperial bodyguard), gained jurisdiction Praefectus vigilo: equestrian commander of 7 cohorts of freedmen (night watchman and firemen), gained jurisdiction Praefectus annonae: equestrian in charge of grain supply

Senatorial boards
Consulars, curatores with assignments to care for the grain dole, water supply, banks of the Tiber, etc.

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25b. The Augustan Principate

25b. The Augustan Principate

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Provincial Administration

Senatorial Provinces (tan) Governors of peaceful provinces freely chosen Propraetors and, in richest and most prestigious provinces (e.g. Africa and Asia), proconsuls Procurators over imperial properties; also eyes and ears of the emperor Imperial Provinces (olive) Legati Augusti propraetore senators chosen from former consuls and praetors as governors and commanders of legions Praefecti and procuratores chosen from leading equestrians
Prefect of Egypt Prefects of Judea, Noricum, Rhaetia, etc. Procurators as financial agents

Familia Caesaris
Despite the employment of numerous senators and equestrians, Rome still lacked a sufficient civil service Members of the imperial household, slaves and freedmen, served as the imperial bureaucracy Leading freedmen served as the heads (praepositi or praefecti) of bureaucratic departments
A rationibus: in charge of accounts, minister of finance Ab epistulis: in charge of correspondence A libellis: in charge of petitions A studiis: in charge of literary and rhetorical affairs, speechwriter?

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25b. The Augustan Principate

25b. The Augustan Principate

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A Developing Hierarchy
Imperial Family Senatorial Order
Ranked by level of cursus honorum (consulars, praetorians, etc.) and imperial service Imperial patronage: August had the right to bestow the latus clavus (broad stripe) which allowed a man to pursue a senatorial career; also gave electoral commendations, imperial appointments

Equestrian Order
Military and civil careers Equestrian cursus: commanders and procurators; then prefects of fleet, vigiles, annonae, praetorians, Egypt Imperial patronage: the latus angustus, appointments

Ordo Decurionum
Domi nobiles, municipal magistrates, and town councilors

Familia Caesaris The plebs, urban and rural: ingenui (freeborn), liberti (freedmen), and servi (slaves)

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25b. The Augustan Principate

Gza Alfldi, The Social History of Rome

25b. The Augustan Principate