THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY
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THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY |
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HISTORY OF ROME-THE IMPERIAL PEACE CHAPTER I VI. ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION
Thus
far we have seen Domitian mainly in his relations with the Senatorial class:
they regarded him, with reason, as a persecutor and their description of him
as a tyrant has prevailed. There is, however, another side to consider, how he
administered the Empire.
In
the capital his first task was to feed the populace and keep it contented, and
this he achieved. Three times he distributed congiaria amounting in all to 225
denarii a head, the last one apparently in 93; he also gave games, wild-beast
hunts, races and a mimic naval battle, and for these purposes he erected two
schools for gladiators, and constructed a naumachia by the Tiber. But he was
eager to offer the people more refined amusements than these; the Capitoline Agon which he founded included contests (in the Greek manner) not only in sport
but in literature, and for these he built a Stadium and an Odeum in the Campus
Martius. Building suited well his taste for display and magnificence; besides,
the death of Titus and the fire of the year 8o had left much work unfinished
and much to repair and reconstruct. In consequence the achievement of his
principate in building was solid and splendid. He restored the Saepta, rebuilt
the
temples of Sarapis and of Isis (in front of which he
placed obelisks specially broughtfrom
Egypt), the Pantheon, and the
Baths
of Agrippa, and the Porticus Octaviae (with its libraries), all of which had
been damaged; to fill the libraries he sought for books far and wide, even
sending scribes to Alexandria to copy rare
ones. In addition to work on the Colosseum he completed the Baths
that Titus had begun and his temple to Vespasian, which now became the temple
of the deified Vespasian and the deified Titus, and he also dedicated in the
Campus Martius a colonnade, the Divorum Porticus, containing two shrines to
their memory. Between the Forum Augusti and the new Forum Pacis, he swept away
the untidy Argiletum and constructed a Forum of his own, which was later
appropriated by Nerva. On the Quirinal he built a temple to the Gens
Flavia, and on the Capitol, from which he had escaped in 69, disguised and in
humiliation, he erected in gratitude a huge temple to Juppiter the Guardian
with an image of the god holding his lap. Most splendid of all was
the restored temple of Juppiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol, which with its
columns of Pentelic marble, its doors plated with gold, and its gilded tiles,
was one of the wonders of the world. But Domitian was determined, like Nero,
to be properly housed; in Rome the architect Rabirius spent eleven years
refashioning the imperial palaces, and on the Alban Mount, in the early years
of his reign, there arose a magnificent villa, with theatre and amphitheatre
close by, overlooking the waters of the Alban Lake, upon which, in summer, the
imperial barge could float in unbroken calm and silence. Detractors complained
that Rome was shaken by the weight of the lorry-loads that rumbled through the
city and that vast sums were poured out on his private pleasure. Yet much of
the money was not spent upon these or on display alone; apart from the temples,
prosaic but useful work was certainly carried out by his engineers upon the
water-system of Rome, and granaries for the storage of corn and spices and
pepper were built. Still it cannot be denied that this huge programme of
building was costly: the gold-work of the Capitoline Temple alone accounted for
12,000 talents, and during the twelve years between 81 and 93 (for that year sseems to mark the completion of the programme) enormous sums must have been
expended.
On
that important aspect of an emperor's policy, the financial, we have little
accurate information though plenty of assertion. Domitian had no intention of
doing things shabbily: his constant
instruction
to his agents was "ne quid sordide facerent". But to add to the cost of
buildings and shows, there were the increased pay of the soldiers and wars
between 81 and 93 to finance, while no new sources of revenue had been tapped.
Money must have been needed; whence did it come? To Pliny the Younger, writing
in the reaction that followed Domitian's death, Domitian was a monster of
rapacity, whose lavish grants to the populace were drawn from murder and
confiscation. Suetonius, more detached and writing a little later, notes a
deterioration in Domitian's character and is inclined to explain it by the
hypothesis that contrary to his natural disposition lack of funds made him
predatory and fear made him cruel, and this explanation seems more reasonable.
From
the start, however, he had all his father's financial shrewdness. Though in
Italy and Rome he was lenient enough at first, elsewhere taxes were
gathered in strictly. The Nasamones in Africa are said to have revolted because
of the exactions of the collectors, and the poll-tax upon Jews was rigorously
enforced, giving rise to many malicious prosecutions. Other sums, too, went to
enrich the Imperial chest. Frontinus declares that Domitian appropriated to it
the income that accrued from the aqueducts; Pliny avers that any means was
employed to rake money into the Fiscus—prosecutions under obsolescent laws
(such as the Lex Voconia of 168 B.C.), trials for maiestas with subsequent
confiscations, the encouragement of slaves to lay information against their
masters, and so on. On one point we can certainly trace a definite hardening,
for those condemned to relegatio no longer retained their property but
forfeited it to the Fiscus. Apart from that the evidence is not overwhelming,
for in the last years of the reign, when prosecutions followed each other fast,
most of Domitian's building programme had been carried out, the wars in the
North were over, and expenses should therefore have fallen. It may well be
that under Domitian the process of centralizing the finances of the Empire
initiated by Claudius was being carried still further, but we
must not overlook the possibility that these trials and confiscations were not
the result of an economic need, but were rather part
of
a definite political purpose, that purpose being the complete crippling,
financial and moral, of the aristocratic opposition. In the present state of
the evidence, however, it would be unwise to pronounce definitely, for we have
no means of judging the Emperor's intentions: we can only view, through the
glass of a hostile tradition, his actions. In fairness to Domitian it must be
noted that, however great the financial stringency, he did not take the fatally
easy step (that Nero had taken and that Trajan was to take) of debasing the
coinage; indeed recent researches suggest that he raised it somewhat above the
Neronian levels.
LEGISLATOR AND CENSOR But
in spite of all that Domitian spent on pleasing the populace he was never its
servant, like Nero; he would allow it spectacles and shows, but he disapproved
of mimes and farces and forbade actors to appear in public. It was a step that
Tiberius would have applauded, and it is amusing to watch the
efforts Pliny makes to minimize a measure of which he approved but which a
tyrant had ordained. It well illustrates the rigorous and reformatory side of
his character, and leads to a consideration of Domitian's own legislation and
of his attitude towards jurisdiction. An archaic severity pervades
Some
phrases in contemporary poets imply that he enforced
the
provisions of the Lex Julia de adulteriis, and where his religious sense was
shocked as well he showed himself implacable. A case of adultery by Vestal
Virgins had been overlooked by his more charitable father and brother, but in
83 when three Vestals were found guilty, their lovers were relegated and they
themselves merely allowed to choose their mode of death. Seven years later he
had grown austerer still: the Chief Vestal, Cornelia, was guilty; her lovers
(save one, Valerius Licinianus) were beaten to death with rods, and Cornelia
was condemned to be buried alive. It was, indeed, the traditional punishment,
but the infliction of it sent a thrill of horror through the City, and men
whispered that Domitian had merely gratified his cruelty.
As
an upholder of the hierarchical order of society he tried to discourage
over-indulgence to slaves and easy manumission; thus he warned the court of the
recuperatores that they must not grant to a claimant the free status to which
he pretended, except on convincing proof, and he went so far as to restore to
his former master an escaped slave who had actually risen to centurion's rank.
Two decisions of his, preserved in the Digest, show a harshness of temper
typical of him and quite out of touch with the humaner trend of the times; the
first, a senatus consultum, ordained that if a man could prove that there had
been fraudulent or collusive manumission of a slave, he could own that slave in
future; the second laid down that if a slave, on some charge, had been put in
chains awaiting trial, the usual pardons and remissions granted by the Senate
on days of public rejoicing should not apply to him; he could not be loosed
even though his master should offer bail, and the trial must be carried through. It was a measure that wrung a protest from the equitable Papinian, yet it is
likely enough that throughout Domitian plumed himself on being a supporter of
the Augustan Roman tradition, and many of his actions hark back to the first
princeps. He paraded an anxiety to uphold the dignity and status of the
different orders. As in Augustus' time, authors of lampoons against noted men
and women were severely punished and their writings burnt. A certain Rustius
Caepio had directed in his will that a sum of money should be paid to senators
as they entered the Curia; it was a practice
possible and frequent in small municipalities, but Domitian cancelled the
order, as not befitting the dignity of the Senate of Rome. Herein he was
undoubtedly right, as in his other provisions for public order and decency; to
the Equites he again secured their coveted fourteen rows of seats in the theatre,
and he insisted that Roman citizens must, on public occasions, wear the
distinctive Roman dress, the toga.
At
the beginning of his reign he displayed a lenity and generosity over
money-matters which Suetonius candidly admits. There was to be none of the
cheese-paring policy of his father; the Fiscus was full and there was no need
to hunt out long-standing debts; those more than five years old were cancelled,
and in future an informer must bring his charge within a year and was liable to
exile if he failed to prove his charge. Malicious accusations, even though they
might bring gain to the Fiscus, he severely discouraged. By constant
attendance at the courts, like Tiberius or Claudius before him, he secured the
impartial administration of justice against influence or bribery; indeed judges
who took bribes found themselves degraded. He refused to accept a legacy if the
testator had left children alive, and in his treatment of the problem of
subsiciva, he showed the same liberal attitudes. To evict occupiers after long
undisturbed possession, as his father and Titus had done, was extremely unfair;
to leave things as they were would subject them to the vexatious attentions of
informers. He took the wise and generous step of granting the subsiciva in freehold
to the occupiers, and solved the problem for good.
A
second incursion into agrarian matters was not so helpful. Like others in his
time he was struck by the predominance of vine over wheat in Italy and
elsewhere, and feared a possible shortage of corn supplies. His remedy was
drastic; by an edict he forbade the planting of any more vines in Italy, while
in the provinces existing vineyards were to be reduced by one half and the
ground given over to wheat-growing. Suetonius adds that he did not follow the edict
up vigorously: it would certainly have had to face considerable opposition and
possibly it was not introduced in some provinces at all, but it is thought
that in Northern
A STERN MASTER About
his administration of the provinces there is little that can be affirmed, for
evidence is singularly lacking, and it may be that Nerva and Trajan have
absorbed some of the credit due to him. Following the condemnation of his
memory many of his monuments were overthrown and mention of him erased, and
this makes knowledge difficult. Suetonius i records his deliberate opinion that
'he gave such attention to controlling magistrates in the City and governors in
the provinces that they were never more just or more moderate; since his death
we have seen many of them accused on every kind of charge.' In this strict
control of his helpers he resembled his model Tiberius. The only recorded
trial, however, is that of Baebius Massa, the proconsul of Baetica, prosecuted
by the whole province, which chose Pliny and Herennius Senecio as its
advocates. Massa had been an informer, but Domitian put no obstacles in the
way, and in 93 he was duly tried and condemned. Similar was his treatment of
an avaricious aedile; he made the tribunes hale him before the court of the
Senate on a charge of extortion.
The
regular routine work was conducted smoothly: in Italy roads were mended and
improved, and in the provinces, especially in Asia Minor, the road-system was
kept in a high state of efficiency; the repairs recorded here show how
all-important was swift communication between the Danubian and the Eastern
armies. Over the whole Empire generally the work of romanization was going on
steadily, and there is no need to note Domitian's contribution in each
province, for he was simply carrying on the task left him by his father. As
might be expected from his disposition, he showed a marked sympathy for the
cities of Greece. He allowed Corinth to mint money again, he held the office of
Archon Eponymus at Athens, in 84 he undertook to repair the temple of Apollo at
Delphi, and in 93 he rebuilt for Megalopolis at his own expense a colonnade
that had been burnt downs. Equally keen was his interest in the historic cities
of Greek Asia Minor, such as Rhodes and Ephesus; he apparently
extended
the boundaries of the temple of Ephesian Artemis, and in that city there stood
his own temple with a colossal cult-statue. Apart from one or two isolated
dedications, as that from the Koinon of the Lycians or from Smyrna, little
remains in the peninsula to record his principate. To the south-east, the
little client-kingdom of Chalcis was absorbed into the province of Syria in the
year 92, and the principality of Emesa suffered the same fate; Judaea remained
quiet. In Egypt we find a canal being dug to connect the Nile with Alexandria,
a few dedications and the tariff-table at Coptos, but that is all. On many
even of these monuments the abhorred name has been obliterated: others probably
endured even worse treatment, flung down and shattered to pieces.
The
personnel sent out to govern these provinces was good; many who afterwards
attained high places under Trajan or Hadrian had already been employed by
Domitian. To mention a few names—T. Avidius Quietus, P. Calvisius Ruso Julius
Frontinus, C. Caristanius Fronto, Tacitus himself, and the two Asiatic
senators, Tib. Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and C. Antius A. Julius Quadratus, all
held commands or governorships in his reign. Good fortune has preserved for us
an admirable edict issued by one of his governors, L. Antistius Rusticus, who
was legate of the enlarged province of Galatia-Cappadocia between 84 and 94.
Owing to a severe winter and scarcity of corn the price of wheat had soared
high in the city of Antioch-by-Pisidia, and in answer to a petition from its
Senate Rusticus orders a general declaration of all grain in store to be made
by all the inhabitants, who must be prepared (after making reasonable
deductions) to sell the surplus at a price to be fixed by him. The price, 'as
it is most unfair that men should make a profit from the hunger of their
fellow-citizens,' is fixed at a little above the normal. The only complaint that
could justly be made was that Domitian gave some of the highest offices to
knights and freedmen; thus he included
knights
as well as senators in his consilium, he placed his Praetorian Prefect,
Cornelius Fuscus, at the head of the legions in the Dacian War, and doubtless
his emergency order to a procurator, C. Minicius Italus, to take charge of the
province of Asia upon the death of a proconsul, caused scandal among the nobility.
But to that the answer is that most of these were energetic and trustworthy
men, and that their choice was a concession to efficiency like the sending of
the Greek-born Senators to positions of trust in the Eastern, though not in the
Western, provinces. As his successors approved his choice of governors, so they
continued in office his capable secretary Cn. Octavius Titinius Capitol, who
held the post of Latin secretary under both Nerva and Trajan.
DOMINUS ET DEUS A final topic remains, his deification. Both Suetonius and Dio assert that he styled himself "Master and God" and liked to be so addressed. Inscriptions, naturally enough, bear no trace of this, but the fact that in 89 Martial can speak of an edictum domini deique nostri,' and the scornful remarks of Pliny and Dio Chrysostom later leave no doubt that in the second half of his reign Domitian did accept a form of address which implied his divinity and mastership. In fact he was moving, though with greater deliberation and more calculated policy, along the path that Gaius and Nero had already trodden. As god-monarch of the Roman realm, placed above all both in appearance and in facts, he needed no Senate to partner him but only ministers and servants; hence the opposition of the Senatorial order and its pitiless supression. Terrorism certainly flourished during rhe last years; even soldiers could be used as spies and agents-provocateurs. An interesting passage in Epictetus deals with the theme of how confidence begets confidence it proceeds: "That is how imprudent men are trapped by soldiers in Rome. A soldier in civilian dress comes and sits by you and begins by abusing Caesar, whereupon you, regarding the fact that he began the abuse as a sort of guarantees
of
trustworthiness, say all that you yourself feel; the next moment you are bound
and being led away".
Such
a passage implies quite definitely that the masses as well as the nobles could
fall victims on charges of treason. And Domitian's assertiveness seems to have
introduced a new practice: for three generations men had been accustomed to
take an oath by the genius of the Princeps, but always voluntarily and not as
an official form; during his reign we find for the first time men swearing in
public documents by the genius of the living Emperor, while those who wished to
flatter him began to make sacrifices to his genius. It looks as though Domitian
seized upon this voluntary action and turned it into a test of loyalty: a man
suspected or accused might now save himself and prove his loyalty by offering
sacrifice before the image of the princeps; if he refused he could then be
charged with atheotes. Dio Cassius notes the increasing number of
trials for this offence in the last years, and this charge not only served
possibly to get rid of obstinate and Republican-minded people, but it brought
Domitian into conflict with the Jews and the Christians, neither of whom could
acknowledge his divinity. An Emperor who demanded worship from his subjects
might one day, like Gaius, demand it of the Jews too, and revoke existing
edicts of tolerance. Jewish tradition relates that, about 95, the Senate was
deliberating on a decree expelling all Jews from the boundaries of the Empire,
and that a famous rabbi, Gamaliel II, with some friends, made a hurried winter
journey to Rome to avert the threatened persecution. Christian tradition too
branded Domitian as a persecutor, who sought out the kindred of Jesus Christ
and punished adherents of the new religion. It is curious, certainly, that
Flavius Clemens was claimed as an adherent both by Jews and Christians, and
that archaeological evidence suggests that both Domitilla and Acilius Glabrio,
who were punished apparently for atheotes, were, if not Christian, at least
favourably inclined towards the sect. We cannot doubt that in the last
three or four years both Jews and Christians, as well as Romans, had much to
fear from an Emperor who could demand worship of himself as a proof of loyalty.
But the dagger of Stephanus put an end to their fears as to the fears of
others. The last ruler of the Flavian house perished without an adult heir.
For twenty-seven years the family had directed Roman affairs: it remains to
estimate their achievement.
THE FLAVIAN ACHIEVEMENT Martial,
writing some years after Domitian was safely out of the way, dismisses his
reign curtly as almost counterbalancing the good that Vespasian and Titus had
done:
Flavia gens quantum
tibi tertius abstulit heres,
Paene
fuit tanti non habuisse duos.
his verdict merely shows that he had not lost the art of pleasing those in
power: indeed, once 'liberty' was the order of the day some of the unlikeliest
people invested in busts of Brutus and Cassius'. To agree with Martial would be
utterly unjust. Domitian's cruelty to a certain class was real and terrible,
but it was limited in its incidence: he paraded absolutism, giving to the
imperial position the airs of divinity and the pomp of a despot; apart from
that he did little to undo and much to forward the work of his father, and that
work was a great one. To take defence first: for some two hundred years Rome
had been accustomed to enlarge her territories by the conquest of the barbarian: now, in the background, forces were moving and gathering that would call a
halt to Roman aggression and test her defences; in the two succeeding chapters
the reader will see something of the strength of the peoples that lay outside,
to the East and North of Rome's boundaries. The frontiers needed attention:
the development of a more scientific defence-line, the provision of better
communications, the disciplining of the legions under experienced commanders
(of which an account will be found in the fourth chapter), were among the most
enduring things that Vespasian and his sons did.
While the empire was protected against attacks from without the Flavians strove hard to improve its internal stability. Finance was set on a better basis, the administrative machine was made to run more smoothly, and an aristocracy of office, recruited from good provincial as well as Italian stock, was created to help control it. There were few famous Republican families left by the end of
the first century, and still fewer believers in a Republican system: the
Flavians established the Principate more firmly, and in the new aristocracy
they and their successors found a class that was willing to co-operate with
them. It is worth observing with what care Vespasian chose his officers: whether
it was Petilms Cerialis, or Julius Agricola, or Q. Paconius Agrippinus, all had had
previous experience of the provinces to which they were sent. He was not afraid
to employ men of Eastern origin to help administer the Eastern regions: Tib.
Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and C. Antius Julius Qltadratus were adlected by him
to the Senate, and afterwards held important posts. Traditional Roman
sentiment may have felt some resentment at such appointments, especially at the
loud fanfares with which they were celebrated in the East—'in all time',
records one inscription, 'he was fifth from the whole of Asia to enter the
Senate, and from Miletus and the rest of Ionia the first and only'—but of
the generous wisdom of such a policy we can feel no doubt. And Vespasian knew
well how to reward good service with office and honours and was shrewd enough
to point the contrast between his predecessors' treatment of such officials and
his own'.
Within
the framework of the Empire thus defended and served by more capable officials
the process of romanization was going steadily on. The foundation of colonies,
the granting of municipal rights, the encouragement of education (whether by
the creation of professorial chairs and endowment of new schools, or by the
immunities and privileges granted to teachers), were all instruments of this
process, and this work was simply continued and developed by succeeding
emperors.
Most
important, perhaps, of all the Flavian achievement, was the restoration of
confidence. Had the anarchy of 69 not been quickly suppressed, Mediterranean
civilization might have been badly shaken: 'the empire was adrift and in
danger,' judges Suetonius: it was brought back to safety. The steps taken to
control the armies are related more fully elsewhere; here we
need only record that they succeeded. Vespasian and Titus had both led armies,
and Domitian was wise enough to go in person to the scene of action and so had
the troops devoted to him. What danger there may have been that the Empire
should become the prize or plaything of armies or generals was averted, and the
legal basis of the Principate remained civilian. To all the provinces and
peoples comprising the Empire the Flavian dynasty restored that confidence in
the lasting strength of Rome, in her aeternitas, which had tottered for a
while; such was the
message
of the coins that promised AETERNITAS and linked that promise to the Princeps.
A striking example of this sentiment has survived in an inscription from
Acmonia in Phrygia. The town had received by the will of a rich citizen a
considerable benefaction: Senate and People ordain how the money is to be
spent; then comes the clause—'and this decree is to be guaranteed by the
eternity of the empire of the Romans.' Belief in the eternal lasting power of Rome
was restored, and with it belief in the foresight and loving care
(providentia) of the emperor. This unceasing anxiety for the welfare of the
peoples of the empire was an aspect on which some early rulers, such as
Augustus and Claudius, had already laid stress; from now on it grew more
prominent still. It was that principis sollicitudo of which Suetonius speaks
in recording Titus' activities after the eruption of Vesuvius; from the time of
the Flavians Providentia (or its Greek equivalent Pronoia) comes to be looked
on as a natural attribute of the good Princeps; to that loving care all,
Senate, People and subjects look for safety and deliverance. Materially and
morally, in strength and in confidence, the Flavians restored a shaken realm,
and that is their great achievement.
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