THE CITY OF ROME
IN THE TIME OF AUGUSTUS
- - Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, "Life of Augustus" (Penguin paper; Loeb Classical LIbrary)
- - Cassius Dio, History of Rome: The Age of Augustus (Penguin pb)
- - Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin pb)
- - Horace, various works, including Odes, Epistles, Satires, The Centennial Hymn (Carmen Saeculare) [all tr. in Penguin series and Loeb Classical Library series]]
- - Augustus (63 B.C.--14 A.D.) The Exploits of the Divine Augustus [Res Gestae Divi Augusti] (in Lewis & Reinhold, Braund, and M. Reinhold; and a separate edition by P. Brunt and J. Moore [Oxford pb])
- - Atlante di Roma (Venice 1991) [ Atlas of Rome (NY 1992) tr. by C. Heffer and D. Kerr]
- - Aldrete, Gregory S., Daily Life in the Roman City. Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia (Westport CT: Greenwood Press 2004).
- - Aldrete, Gregory S., Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 2007).
- - Ball, Larry F., The Domus Aurea and the Roman Architectural Revolution (Cambridge: CUP 2003).
- - Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton PUP 1987) paper
- - Boyle, A. J., Ovid and the Monuments. A Poet's Rome (Bendigo: Aureal 2003).
- - Braund, David C., Augustus to Nero: A Sourcebook on Roman History 31 B.C. - A. D. 68 (Totowa NJ: Barnes & Noble 1985) [Library: DG 277.5 .B73 1985]
- - Champlin, Edward, Fronto and Antonine Rome (Cambridge: Harvard 1980).
- - Claridge, Amanda, Rome. An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford and New York 1998).
- - Coarelli, Filippo (ed.) Roma e dintorni [Guide archeologiche Laterza]
- - Coarelli, Filippo, Il Campo Marzio (Roma 1997).
- - Dorey, T.A. (ed.) Latin Biography (NY: Basic Books 1967) essays on Nepos, Plutarch, Suetonius
- - Dorey, T.A. (ed.) Latin Historians (NY: Basic Books 196 ). essays on Caesar, Sallust, Livy
- - Dudley, Donald, Urbs Roma: A Source Book of Classical Texts on the City and its Monuments (NY Phaidon 1967).
- - Earl, Donald, The Age of Augustus (London: Paul Elek 1968 [NY Exeter Books 1980]).
- - Favro, D., The Urban Image of Augustan Rome [Review: L. Haselberger JRA 13 (2000) 515-528.].
- - Garzetti, A., From Tiberius to the Antonines: A History of the Roman Empire AD 14-192 (London: Methuen 1974) [DG 276 .G3713 1974]
- - Gatti, G. Topografia ed edilizia di Roma antica (Rome 1989).
- - Grimal, Pierre (tr. G.M. Woloch), Roman Cities (Madison: U Wisconsin 1983) paper
- - Hibbert, Christopher, Rome: The Biography of a City (NY: W.W. Norton 1985; paper ed. Penguin 1987).
- - Krautheimer, Richard, Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics (Rome, Constantinople, Milan) (Berkeley/LA: University of California Press 1983) paper.
- - Lewis, N. & M. Reinhold (edd.), Roman Civilization: Sourcebook II: The Empire (NY Harper & Row 1955) paper
- - Llewellyn, Peter, Rome in the Dark Ages (NY Praeger 1970).
- - Macadam, Alta (ed.), Blue Guide: Rome and Environs 4th ed. (NY Norton 1989) paper
- - Mazzolani, Lidia Storoni, The Idea of the City in Roman Thought (1967; Bloomington: University of Indiana 1970)
- - Ogilvie, Richard, The Romans and their Gods in the Age of Augustus (NY Norton 19 ) paper
- - Partner, Peter, Renaissance Rome: 1500-1559 (Berkeley/LA: U Cal 1976) paper 1979/
- - Petit, P. Pax Romana (London: Batsford 1976).
- - Reinhold, Meyer (ed.), The Golden Age of Augustus: A Sourcebook (Sarasota & Toronto: Samuel Stevens & Co.) paper
- - Richardson, Lawrence, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Baltimore and London 1992).
- - Robinson, O.F., Ancient Rome: City Planning and Administration (NY: Routledge 1992; paper 1994).
- - Rodriguez Almeida, Emilio, Forma Urbis Marmorea. Aggiornamento Generale 1980 (Roma 1981).
- - Rowell, Henry Thompson, Rome in the Augustan Age (Norman: U Oklahoma 1962 paper).
- - Starr, Chester G., The Roman Empire: A Study in Survival (Oxford 1982) paper
- - Steinby, E. M. (editor), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae I (Roma 1993); II (1995); III (1996); IV (1999); V (1999); VI (2000)
, The Achievements of Augustus
(written in 13 A.D.) [selections]
- (1) At the Age of nineteen, on my own initiative, and at my own expense, I raised an army, by means of which I liberated the
Republic which was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction [He means Brutus and Cassius, and then Antony and his friends]... (2)
Those who assassinated my father [Julius Caesar] I drove into exile, avenging their crime by due process of law. And
afterwards, when they waged war against the state, I conquered them twice on the battlefield [Philippi, April 42 B.C.].
- (4) Twice I celebrated ovations (40, 36); three times curule triumphs (August, 29); and I was acclaimed imperator twenty-one
times. When the Senate decreed additional triumphs to me, I declined them on four occasions. I deposited on the Capitol laurel
wreaths adorning my fasces, after fulfilling the vows which I had made in each war. For my successes... the Senate decreed
fifty-five times that thanksgiving be offered to the immortal gods; moreover the number of days ... was 890. In my Triumphs
there were led before my chariot nine kings or children of kings...
- (5) ... in the midst of a critical scarcity of grain I did not decline the Supervision of the Grain Supply, which I so administered
that within a few days I freed the whole people from imminent panic and danger by my expenditrues and efforts...
- (9) The Senate decreed that vows for my health should be offered up every fifth year by the consuls and priests. In fulfillment of
these vows, Games were often celebrated during my lifetime, sometimes by the four most distinguished colleges of priests,
sometimes by the consuls. Moreover, the whole citizen body, with one accord, both individually and as members of
municipalities, prayed continuously for my health at all the shrines.
- (12) ... When I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul in [13 B.C.] the Senate, to commemorate my return, ordered an Altar
of the Augustan Peace [Ara Pacis Augustae] to be consecrated  in the Campus Martius, on which it decreed that the
magistrates, priests, and Vestal Virgins should make an annual sacrifice [started 9 B.C.].
- (15) To the Roman Plebs (Commoners) I paid 300 sesterces each in accordance with the Will of my father. In [29 B.C] I
gave each 400 sesterces in my own name from the spoils of war. A second time, in [24 B.C.] I paid out of my own private
inheritance a largesse of 400 sesterces each. In [23 B.C.] I made twelve distributions of food out of grain which was purchased at my own expense. In [12 B.C.] I gave 400 sesterces to each individual. These largesses of mine reached never less than 250,000 persons. In [5 B.C.] I gave 240 sesterces to each of 320,000 persons of the Urban Plebs. In [29 B.C.] I gave, out of the spoils of war, 1000 sesterces apiece to my soldiers settled in colonies... about 120,000 persons. In [2 B.C.] I have
240 sesterces apiece to those of the Plebs who at that time were receiving public grain; the number involved was a little more than 200,000 persons.
- (19) I BUILT the following structures: The Senate House, and the Chalcidicum (Records Office) adjoining it; the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, with its porticoes; the Temple of the Deified Julius [, in the Forum]; the Lupercal; the Portico at the Circus Flaminius (which I allowed to be called the Porticus Ocatvia, after the name of the man who had built an earlier portico on the same site); the State Box at the Circus Maximus; the Temple of Jupiter the Smiter and the Temple of Jupiter
the Thunder, on the Capitol; the Temple of [Romulus] Quirinus; the Temple of Minerva and the Temple of Queen Juno and the Temple of Jupiter Freedom on the Aventine Hill; the Temple of the Lares, at the top of the Sacred Way; the Temple of the Penates, on the Velia; the Temple of Youth and the Temple of the Great Mother [Cybele], on the Palatine. [total: seventeen buildings]
- (20) I REPAIRED The Capitol, the Theater of Pompey.... the conduits of the aqueducts which were falling into ruin in many places because of age, and I doubled the capacity of the Aqua Marcia by admitting a new spring into its conduit. I completed the Forum Julium and the Basilica which was between the Temple of Castor and the Temple of Saturn [Basilica Julia].... In [28 B.C.] I repaired 82 temples of the gods in the City, in accordance with a resolution of the Senate, neglecting none which at that time needed repair. In [27 B.C.} I reconstructed the Via Flaminia, from Rome to Rimini, and also all the bridges except the Milvian Bridge and the Minucian Bridge.
- (21) On my own private property I built the Temple of Mars the Avenger and the Forum Augustum, from the spoils of war. On ground bought for the most part from private owners I built the Theater...of Marcellus. On the Capitol, in the Temple of the Deified Julius, in the Temple of Apollo, in the Temple of Vesta, and in the Temple of Mars the Avenger I consecrated gifts from spoils of war, which cost me around 100,000,000 sesterces....
- (22) I gave gladiatorial shows 3 times in my own name, and 5 times in the names of my sons or grandsons; at these shows about 10,000 fought. Twice I presented to the people in my own name an exhibition of athletes, invited from all parts of the world, and a third time in the name of my grandson. I presented games in my own name 4 times, and in addition 23 times in the place of other magistrates.
On behalf of The Quindecimviri Sacris Faciundis ('The Fifteen'), as Master of the College with Marcus Agrippa as my
colleague, I celebrated the SECULAR GAMES (May 31-June 3, 17 B.C.). In [2 B.C.] I was the first to celebrate the Mars Games, which subsequently, by Senatorial Decree and statute, the consuls have regularly celebrated in succeeding years. I provided hunting spectacles of African wild beasts 26 times, in the Circus or in the Forum or in the amphitheaters, in my own name or in the names of my sons or grandsons; in these exhibitions about 3,500 animals were killed.
- (23) I presented to the People an EXHIBITION OF A NAVAL BATTLE across the Tiber, where the Grove of the Caesars is now. I had the site excavated, 1800 feet in length and 1200 feet in width. In this exhibition 30 warships, triremes or biremes, and in addition a great number of smaller vessels, engaged in combat. On board the fleets, exclusive of rowers, there were about 3000 combatants.
- (24) When I was victorious I replaced in the temples of all the communities of the Province of Asia the ornaments which my opponent in the war had seized for his [Marcus Antonius'] private use, after despoiling the temples. About 80 silver statues of myself, on foot on horseback and in chariot, stood in the City. These I myself removed, and out of the proceeds I set up golden offerings in the Temple of Apollo in my own name and in the names of those who had honored me with the statues.
- (27) I added Egypt to the empire of the Roman People....
- (34) In [28 and 27 B.C.] after I had put an end to civil war, having attained supreme power by universal consent, I transferred the State from my own power to the control of the Roman Senate and People [SPQR]. For this service of mine [on January 13 and 16, 27 B.C.] I received THE TITLE OF AUGUSTUS by Decree of the Senate; the doorposts of my house were publicly decked with laurels; the CIVIC CROWN was affixed over my doorway; and a Golden Shield was set up in the Julian Senate House, which (as the inscription on this Shield testifies) 'the Roman Senate and People gave me in recognition of my valor, clemency, justice, and devotion'....
© John Paul Adams 8/8/1996, 08/15/2006, 06/29/2007
January 26, 2010 12:49 PM
John Paul Adams, CSUN