A Constitution for Rome

[oca2073]

My attempt at a Rome TL, where Rome remains a Republic under a new, revised constitution that is compatible with it being an empire. The PoD is Pharsalus, where Caesar is (narrowly) defeated by Pompey. Not an expert on Classical, Roman history. Any mistakes, inaccuracies, implausibilities, constructive feedback would be welcome.

 

[oca2073]

Pompey Magnus, refusing to heed to the pressure of the senators present or his men, tarried with his army for a while longer and adamantly refused to give battle. When Caesar’s forces advanced to force a battle, Pompey retreated and deliberate opened up a route for Caesar’s men to flee. In the ensuing battle which eventually took place two months after OTL Pharsalus, Caesar was narrowly defeated, though Pompey’s legions took heavy casualties as well.

With Caesar and Pompey recognizing that neither of them could defeat the other in the current situation, they agreed to a compromise. Caesar would be given full amnesty for his years in Gaul (the amnesty would be extended to all his men), as well as an immediate consulship. Afterwards, he would be given an unprecedented five provinces: Syria, Asia, Cyrenaica et Creta, Bithynia et Pontus, and Cilicia et Cyprus. Pompey also agreed to sponsor Caesar with troops for a future campaign against the Parthians. And so this current Roman Civil War came to an end. Caesar was to be given a belated triumph in Rome for his victory against the Gauls where he would be declared imperator for a day.

 

[Prof_Chemical]

im not sure the romans in question are sensible enough for a ceasefire and diving up of influence spheres both men were at all or nothing stage. just having both armies wiped wont stop the conflict. and say if for some reason they could agree to a peace and coexistence, surely each would just wait for the cards to align in their favour. whoever has the bigger powerbase will come out on top. idk caesar would campaign in parthia with an internal enemy in the rear. but i still want to follow this because i like the premise

 

[oca2073]

im not sure the romans in question are sensible enough for a ceasefire and diving up of influence spheres both men were at all or nothing stage. just having both armies wiped wont stop the conflict. and say if for some reason they could agree to a peace and coexistence, surely each would just wait for the cards to align in their favour. whoever has the bigger powerbase will come out on top. idk caesar would campaign in parthia with an internal enemy in the rear. but i still want to follow this because i like the premise

Well they both know they can’t effectively destroy the other at this point. Pompey just managed to defeat Caesar, but his side took by far the greater losses. Caesar still has great support among the public in Rome and certain Senators. Brutus for example doesn’t want Caesar exiled and stripped of all power and wealth at this point. I believe he only chose to follow Pompey reluctantly. Other moderates recognize that a fight to the death would just mean the Optimates become too powerful. Caesar is willing to go with the compromise because it gives him mostly everything he wants. And because Pompey defeated Caesar, he no longer thinks he’s an implacable foe to him, his ego and arrogance made him underestimate Caesar and offer generous terms.

Way I see it, for Pompey: by sending Caesar east, he would be depriving him of his power base in the West, including some of his legions, which he could secure himself.

Caesar is satisfied with the compromise and he plans on winning some more military glory and loyalty from the legions, including Pompey’s legions in the East, before he might make another play at Rome. Parthia is viable because it’s both far, thus Pompey can’t backstab him, and is a highly visible enemy to the Roman public. Plus the loot would be far more substantial than Gaul and he is emulating his great hero Alexander.

 

[oca2073]

Caesar’s term as consul expired after a year. He had managed to push through some populist reforms before his term was up. Heading east to prepare for the Parthian campaign, all of Rome’s client states in the East sent support and troops, with the exception of Egypt which was experiencing hardship and troubles due to the war of succession happening there. Previous Roman attempts to intervene and restore political stability had been ineffective. So Caesar sent Mark Antony to Alexandria with a single legion to settle the question using any means, and most importantly, make sure Egypt would make substantial contributions for Caesar’s upcoming Parthian campaign.

Antony was at first much frustrated at being sent to Egypt to deal with smarmy Egyptians and their troublesome, succession questions. The Alexandrian court was very uneasy at the presence of Antony and the Roman forces. But fearing Roman might and retribution, they could do nothing.

At this time, Antony secretly met with Cleopatra the Seventh who was disputing the throne of her brother. Rolled up in a carpet when she was brought to see him, she immediately seduced the Roman general with the intention of persuading Antony and his Romans troops to support her claim. As Antony was in the midst of a feud with the young Ptolemy over court decorum and the substantial grain, men, weapons, supplies that was demanded by Caesar as tribute, Antony mounted a coup d’etat, capturing the young Ptolemy and crowning Cleopatra.

Egyptian forces led by Ptolemy’s other sister Arsinoe soon converged on the capital, which Antony could barely defend with several thousand men. With supplies running low, Caesar finally arrived with three legions from Syria, and the two Roman forces attacked the Egyptian forces together, routing them. Soon afterwards, Ptolemy was murdered and Cleopatra acknowledged Queen by Rome. Although furious, Pompey could do little as Caesar had proconsular authority in the East, and it would look very bad to the Roman public if he were to try and support a foreign King that had refused Rome tribute. Cleopatra had cleverly reaffirmed Egypt as a client state of Rome and sent the full tribute demanded by Caesar, and thus won Roman support from the Senate.

The final preparations were finally complete and several of Pompey’s legions were loaned to him. Caesar began to hire a great deal of missile mercenary troops. Caesar had studied Crassus’ mistakes and had no intention of repeating them in the upcoming campaign. Antony parted reluctantly with Cleopatra to answer Caesar’s summons in 45 BC.

 

[oca2073]

When Caesar began his campaign, he sent Mark Antony with nearly half of his force to invade from the north, through Armenia. However this was just a feint, and as Antony retreated North into hilly terrain which restricted Parthian cavalry, Caesar advanced east. In a kind of pincer movement, both men sent their light cavalry ahead of their main force to cut off the Parthians from retreat. When a battle was finally fought near Edessa, Caesar showed the Parthians an extensive new combined arms tactic where Roman archers would be integrated with legionary century formations. Testudo formations would protect Roman archers while they exchanged fire effectively with the Parthian horse archers. With extensive use of camel cavalry, Caesar further disrupted Parthian heavy cavalry attacks.

The Parthians were forced into retreat, having taken greater losses than the Romans despite having by far a smaller host. Caesar did not advanced quickly though, as he did not want to overstretch himself to be vulnerable to attack from the rear. He took his time, laying waste to Parthian fortresses, and rebuilding them into Roman ones, while using his light cavalry extensively as scouts to prevent ambushes and hit and run attacks from the Parthians. By the end of 44BC, he had secured all territory west of the Euphrates.

Caesar next planned a blitz through Parthian territory while using the natural geography of Mesopotamia, namely its great rivers to secure his flanks and rear. He took six months to build a substantial flotilla of ships which he could use to patrol the Euphrates and Tigris. Antony was sent north once more to rendez-vous with Armenian troops, whose King had finally decided to join the war. Antony and the Armenians attacked from the North along the Tigris, while Caesar advanced along the Euphrates.

Both armies met with only sporadic resistance and converged together when the Tigris and Euphrates converged closer together also. Here, Caesar ordered a general halt. Troops were sent back to the upper end of both Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in order to build fortifications all along the major river crossings. This was meant to secure them and to prevent the Parthians from using these points to cross and surprise the Romans at their flanks and rear. Caesar of course could cross at any time, as he had demonstrated his troop’s proficiency at building temporary bridges, plus he had naval supremacy all along the rivers.

At this point, the Parthians realizing they could not cross the Tigris and Euphrates without taking heavy losses and alerting Caesar, attempted to negotiate a ceasefire. Caesar rejected all terms. He was determined to use this campaign to cement everlasting military glory for himself after his loss to Pompey and his failure to gain control of Rome. His conquest of the Parthian Empire would be thing that he would be remembered for, in emulation of his hero Alexander the Great.

Parthians were split now as to how to proceed. One side advocated a convergence of troops to attack Caesar’s main army. The other advocated retreat and a scorched earth policy, opening the dams, flooding the fields, burning the crops. Orodes the Second decided to proceed with an attack first, with the scorched earth policy as a backup plan in case battle failed. Meanwhile, Caesar called for more reinforcements from Rome.

Unknown to him, Pompey had just died, and Marcus Junius Brutus had essentially become the head of the Optimates, who immediate rushed to supply more legions for Caesar’s campaign, also persuading the Senate to extend Caesar’s governorship of the East, or else the Roman mob would be very, very unhappy. He was only talked out of joining the war himself and leading the new troops by his mother.

Meanwhile, Caesar defeated the Parthians again. Retreating, Orodes implemented his scorched earth policy, opening all the dams. But Caesar resisted the temptation to advance, fearing his troops were overextended, and so nothing came of the scorched earth policy, except the Parthians themselves were forced to retreat under duress to secure supplies, and could not easily return.

 

[oca2073]

Caesar waited a year and in 42 BC, new legions from Rome had arrived under the command of general Lepidus. Having consolidated all the cities he had conquered so far and with new troops, Caesar felt confident enough to advance. He crossed the Tigris, leaving behind Mark Antony to defend his previous position, and clashed with some Parthian skirmishers before laying siege to Artemita. Seeing only sporadic resistance, he ordered Antony to march on Seleucia and besiege it, but to advance no further even if he took the city. Lepidus’ troops he kept in reserve, to cover either himself or Antony if need be.

Once Artemita had been taken, Caesar finally got word that Osroene and Abidabene had switched sides in the conflict. Caesar had offered the two Parthian vassals their independence from Parthian rule, and once it looked like his victory would be assured, they rebelled against the Parthians. More confident now, Caesar crossed another river and laid siege to Ctesiphon itself, which was the Parthian capital though the Parthian court had long fled. Meanwhile on the other side of the river, Antony took Seleucia.

Lepidus meanwhile, Caesar instructed him to cross the Tigris to start clearing Parthian forts on the other side. Antony’s troops were instructed to start repairing the dams immediately and draining the marshes so the main troops would eventually be able to advance.

By late 41 BC, despite fending off constant Parthian attacks to his rear, Caesar forced Ctesiphon’s surrender. However, Caesar got word that cities in the Upper Tigris and Euphrates were revolting against the Roman garrisons and so Mark Antony had to be dispatched to put down the revolts. Caesar sent his flotilla of ships down the Tigris in anticipation that the Parthians would use this opportunity to reinforce the remaining cities between the two rivers that they still controlled. But Orodes seemed to have given up Mesopotamia for good. He was facing the possibility of revolt from Medea and Persian vassal states and so was unable to spare any troops for a major counterattack.

In late 40 BC, once the rebellions had been dealt with, Caesar advanced swiftly through Mesopotamia, whose marshes had been drained by superb Roman engineering efforts. He quickly put various cities, including Babylon under siege and made a diplomatic agreement with Characene, to support their attempts at revolt against the Parthians. In 38 BC, once he had taken all major cities in Mesopotamia, Caesar crossed the Tigris again and captured more territory, advancing all the way to the Zagros Mountains virtually unopposed.

 

[Md139115]

By time this campaign is done, Caesar is possibly going to be the richest Roman to ever live with all the plunder he's getting.

 

[oca2073]

By time this campaign is done, Caesar is possibly going to be the richest Roman to ever live with all the plunder he's getting.

True, but his time is basically done.

 

[oca2073]

Word reached Rome in 37 BC that Caesar had successfully subdued Mesopotamia and the Roman mob was elated. Caesar achieved even higher mythical status, if that was even possible, and he was openly worshipped in the altars as among the greatest of all Roman men ever, a second Romulus. Caesar reorganized Mesopotamia as a new Roman province, with the intention of taking several years to consolidate it and secure Roman control. However, he demurred and played games of delay with the Parthians, taking an extremely long time to respond to peace offers. Meanwhile, Caesar had sent thousands of Roman soldiers to the Persians and Elamites to help informally with their attempt to throw off Parthian rule.

The campaign had been expensive, but the rewards even greater in value. Mesopotamia was a breadbasket, equalled perhaps only by Egypt. Caesar passed time, exploring the ruins of Babylon, before establishing Ctesiphon as the capital of the new province.

When it finally became clear that the Medians, Elamites, Characenes, Persians would NOT succeed in overthrowing Parthian rule, and the Parthians looked clear to reassert control, Caesar immediately withdrew Roman forces from their civil war and accepted terms of peace. The exhausted Parthian Empire could not afford to wage another campaign to retake Mesopotamia for some years yet, and so peace suited both sides, as Caesar also needed time to consolidate Mesopotamia. Caesar also had the returned Crassus’ legionary standards delivered to Rome, which further increased his stature among the Roman plebeians and the legions.

However at this time, Caesar’s health had begun to decline dramatically, although Caesar was determined to hide the fact, that it was probable he no longer had the physical health to go on campaign. According to later biographers, Caesar was quite melancholic of not being able to emulate Alexander’s achievements in any meaningful way, he had even failed to advance Roman control up to the Persian Sea. To keep the Parthians quiet, no word of his infirmities reached outside his inner circle during his last days.

Caesar also realized that he would probably not survive a journey back to Rome, and so he resolved to die in Babylon, just like Alexander did. He wrote his last will on his deathbed, making substantial changes, and died in late 35 BC.

His vast estate was divided in three, one part he willed to Mark Antony, one part to his grand nephew Octavian, and one part to the people. His body was taken back to Rome for burial, where the Roman mob went ballistic with grief. The Senate refused to deify Caesar, recognizing only that he was a great man with plenty of virtues, but also some faults, and so a riot ensued. With little choice, the Senate recognized Mark Antony as proconsul of Mesopotamia and the eastern provinces. Lepidus was also granted some provinces, but he apparently was loyal to Antony completely.

 

[oca2073]

With Caesar’s great victory in Mesopotamia, and much of the legion’s loyalty now transferred to Mark Antony, the Senate felt truly threatened and so had to turn to opposing strongmen as their backers. This took the form of Marcus Junius Brutus, commander of the legions of the Optimates faction and Caesar’s new heir Octavian, who commanded some of Caesar’s old legions from Gaul. Antony on the other hand ruled practically undisputed from the East with the majority of the Republic’s legions, all of whom were once Caesar’s men.

Antony left Lepidus in charge of Mesopotamia and went back to where his heart really was: Cleopatra and Egypt. He had not seen her a decade, and the son he had by her was nine years old. Cleopatra and Antony rekindled their affair and married in secret, with Cleopatra bearing a set of twins.

Meanwhile Brutus and Octavian had essentially formed an alliance, with both asserting that they loved Caesar greatly AND that they supported the Senate, because Antony clearly disrespected it, issuing virtual diktats to the Senate, for example, that the Senate would not dare refuse, such was the strength of his position in the East. It was a difficult balancing act, because Caesar and the Senate had not historically been in good terms.

Brutus and Octavian informally divided up the territory of Rome between themselves. With Antony already secure in the East, Octavian got Gaul, Illyria, Spain, while Brutus claimed Italy, Sicily, Corsica et Sardinia, Africa, and Macedonia. Antony had de facto control of Asia, Cyrenaica, Cilicia, Syria, and Mesopotamia, including the loyalty of all of Rome’s eastern client states.

In this interim period, the young Octavian went on frequent campaign to make a military name of himself. He subdued the remaining Gallic and Germanic tribes west of the Rhine, defeated the Illyrian hill tribes, conquered the Gallaecians in Northwest Hispania, and extended Roman control to Pannonia, alongside his capable friend Agrippa. (it was mostly Agrippa doing the campaigning). These victories greatly extended the territory of Rome and made him popular with the Roman mob and he received numerous triumphs arranged by the Senate, who wanted to hoist him up as a counterweight to Antony.

Antony perceived this challenge, and his response was apparently to double down with his alliance with Cleopatra. After an aborted attempt to conquer Arabia, which failed due to logistics and his unfamiliarity with the geography, Antony made a secret will that entrusted all of Rome’s eastern provinces to his and Cleopatra’s children.

It is unknown whether, as Octavian’s propaganda paints him, that Antony really was abandoning all loyalties to Rome to set up a new Hellenistic dynasty with Cleopatra, which would rule the East, whether he had really turned his back on his Roman roots. The will stated that Antony wished to be buried in Alexandria, that he had married Cleopatra in secret, that his firstborn son would receive Mesopotamia and all of Persia, Medea and Parthia (as if Mesopotamia, Caesar’s conquered province was just his to give away), his second son would receive Asia, Cilicia and Syria, and his daughter would receive Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica. Oh, and the entire royal family was declared gods and goddesses, Antony planned to create a second Senate in Alexandria. The will’s contents outraged Rome, (though Octavian had no legal right to seize the will from the temple) because Antony also had no legal right to make such donations. However apparently drunk with power in the East, enslaved to a decadent Eastern lifestyle, it had clearly addled his brains and made him insane, Octavian argued. Egypt at this time had also ceased its annual grain tribute to Rome, causing widespread hunger and hardship in Italy. All of this made Antony suddenly a most hated figure in Rome.

After the Senate agreed to war, Brutus and Octavian mobilized and gathered their legions. Showing foresight, they had constructed a fleet in the years prior to challenge Antony’s naval dominance. Next shocking the entirety of the Rome, as soon as Rome declared war on Antony as a traitor to Rome and turncoat, all of Rome’s client states announced their support for Antony. This included Nubia, Mauretania, Lycia, Cappadocia, Bosporus, Judea, Galatia, Thracian tribes, Armenia and Egypt of course. The Second Roman Civil War is often considered a misnomer, precisely because it can also be seen as an attempt by various vassal states to break Rome’s dominance, to end the hegemony of Rome, and so they sided with Antony’s budding Hellenistic Dynasty. They also regarded him as the rightful heir of Caesar, whom they trusted and were loyal to while he campaigned in Parthia. The year was late 27 BC.

 

[oca2073]

The crucial factor was Lepidus. Antony had overestimated the loyalty of his second in command, and so Lepidus’ defection shocked him. Lepidus was in direct command of seven legions, garrisoned in Mesopotamia, so there was no possible escape for him to join Octavian and Brutus. Yet he had defected. All of his legions did likewise, refusing to fight against Rome and the Senate. Antony was forced to spend a year chasing Lepidus in Mesopotamia before he finally pinned down his forces with the help of the Armenians, and in the battle annihilated his army, though it was costly to Antony’s forces as well.

Reorganizing Lepidus’ surviving legionaries into his own army, Antony marched back west to confront Brutus and Octavian. Almost all of Rome’s client states had rallied behind him at this point, and while Octavian and Brutus had also managed to gather and organize their forces due to the delay that Lepidus had given them, on paper Antony’s fleet and armies outnumbered them by nearly two to one. Octavian and Brutus had just over 200,000 men to Antony’s near 400,000.

However Antony’s hold on his legions was shaky. While they had been fiercely loyal to Antony prior to the will’s contents being made public, their loyalty was now wavering. Antony’s forces were also scattered (between all his various allies), difficult to gather into one place, and his various allies were prone to arguing amongst themselves as to how the war should be fought.

Recognizing the importance of naval supremacy, Antony resolved to fight a naval battle first, where he thought his advantage was stronger. He had more galleys than Octavian and Brutus, and crucially much heavier warships. Unfortunately for him plague and a storm did much damage to his navy on the near eve of battle. And the brilliant Agrippa had formulated a new set of naval tactics specifically to counter Antony’s and the old Hellenistic way of packing heavy warships together in a line to overwhelm the opposition. Using scattered forces, greater manoeuvrability, and new innovations such as the harpax grappling hook that could allow lighter warships to fix heavier ones in place, as well as collapsible fighting towers which allowed archers to range down on enemy warships from a height, Agrippa forced Antony’s fleet into a tight pack, struggling to turn against their more nimble opponents. He launched fire ships, wrecking havoc. As the battle raged to its most decisive, Cleopatra’s fleet fled, probably because it contained a large sum of Antony’s treasury and they could not risk the gold falling into enemy hands or being sunk, but it soon led the remainder of Antony’s fleet and that of allied client states to retreat. The battle off Crete (26 BC) was over, Antony’s firstborn son by Cleopatra was killed in the fighting.

It certainly helped that Antony’s plans had been revealed to Octavian and Brutus beforehand due to disaffected commanders. This allowed Agrippa to plan the battle meticulously and exploit Antony’s weaknesses in position and to preposition his forces exactly where he expected Antony to be. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, half of Antony’s Roman legions defected to Octavian and Brutus. Nevertheless, there was still a land battle. With their forces more or less even on paper now, the forces met near Sardis (25 BC). Antony had one last chance to turn the tide, but he was defeated. While the two sides were numerically even, Brutus and Octavian’s forces contained crucially more Roman legions, with Antony making up for that with the unreliable armies of Rome’s client kingdoms.

Defeated and with no prospect of victory now, Antony retreated to Egypt. The rest of Antony’s legions defected, the armies of the client kingdoms were scattered. Octavian immediately gathered a suitable army to chase him down, with Brutus remaining in Asia Minor as he had been wounded during the fighting.

 

[oca2073]

Octavian laid siege to Alexandria in early 24 BC with Antony’s attempts to counterattack and halt his forces using mostly native Egyptian armies, being unsuccessful. Octavian managed to bargain with Cleopatra, promising to spare the lives of her remaining two children if she gave up Antony and abdicated, threatening to hunt them down and kill them otherwise. However Antony killed himself as soon as he realized his lover planned to betray him. When Cleopatra realized that Octavian planned to have her at his triumph, she killed herself too.

Octavian spent the remainder of the year, conquering and consolidating the rest of Egypt, before he left Agrippa to finish the rest of the job, returning to Rome with Brutus for a grand triumph. However it was a victory slightly muted by the fact that in the chaos of the civil war, the Parthians had taken the opportunity to retake the entirety of Roman Mesopotamia. There now remained the task of deciding what was to be done about Rome’s various client states that had so blatantly betrayed her, and were now begging for Rome’s forgiveness. Octavian and Brutus basically agreed upon this point, none of them could be trusted. From then on, Rome only bothered with client states that were so significantly small, that they could not hope to challenge Roman power. Rome after all was quite traumatized at the betrayal of so many of their client states, and above all, the unprecedented betrayal of one of their own to another strong foreign power. The Senate was strong-armed into refusing the client states’ attempted peace treaties and the Roman public clamoured for war and punishment.

With 50+ legions between them, Octavian completed his conquest of Egypt, invaded Judea, and annexed the Roman client states of Asia Minor: Lycia, Galatia, Cappadocia, while Brutus subdued Numidia and Mauretania. Because his armies were having trouble, Brutus enlisted the help of Gaetulian tribes, granting them land in the former kingdom of Mauretania in exchange for their military support and becoming a client state of Rome. Meanwhile, the Gaetulian tribes agreed to recognize Roman sovereignty over much of Mauretania. In addition, Rome secured another client state in the far west, Autololes tribes were forced into submission.

Octavian and Brutus then combined forces to subdue the Thracian tribes extending the Roman frontier to the Danube, while Octavian sent Agrippa to deal with Mithridates of Bosporus. After Agrippa annexed the entirety of the Taurica peninsula and deposed Mithridates and installed a new king, SPQR accepted the renewed oath of the remainder of the Bosporus kingdom in perpetual suzerainty of Rome. The only client kingdom that had not declared for Antony was Kartli Iberia, and it was allowed to remain a client state with only minor annexations as punishment. Armenia similarly, was too far off and was allowed to drift into the Parthian sphere of influence. The conquest of the other vassal/client states was completed over the course of over a decade, finally ending in 14 BC.

 

[Miguel Lanius]

Interesting TL so far! Sadly I don't know that much of Rome's history during the time, so my comments do not carry much weight.

Why is Kartli Iberia even being punished? They didn't do anything to Rome.

Is the will true or a lie fabricated by Octavius?

 

[oca2073]

Interesting TL so far! Sadly I don't know that much of Rome's history during the time, so my comments do not carry much weight.

Why is Kartli Iberia even being punished? They didn't do anything to Rome.

Is the will true or a lie fabricated by Octavius?

The Donations of Alexandria were a real event. In this TL it was taken to an extreme because Antony is much more powerful and secure in the east. Octavian may have exaggerated the details somewhat to sell his case for war to the Senate and the people. As for Kartli, it was because they didn't side with Octavian against Antony either.

 

[oca2073]

Brutus and Octavian dominated the Republic in the years after Mark Antony’s death, commanding the fierce loyalty of their respective legions, and representing the main two parties, the Optimates and the Caesarean faction. Since Octavian was Caesar’s surviving heir, and Brutus also had looked to Caesar as a father, the two parties had good relations on this basis, and so the Republic enjoyed peace

The Senate too, contented itself with the knowledge that neither man could become too powerful, and so the basis of a Republic could be preserved, there being no single man of supreme power. Brutus in particular, always deferred to the Senate, and restrained Octavian to do the same, as he would stand to lose much (aristocratic support), if he did otherwise.

Octavian attempted to circumvent this with popular support, by proposing populist policies which always got voted down by the Senate, but this tactic was increasingly ineffective. During a time of peace and prosperity which lifted the pockets of the common folk, they had far fewer economic frustrations to vent, and respect for Republican institutions like the Senate grew. Among many plebeians, Brutus was held in roughly equal esteem to Octavian due to his historied family name, and having shared in his accomplishments, such as the defeat of Mark Antony and the seductress witch Cleopatra.

Brutus’ death in 12 BC changed matters dramatically. Octavian moved quickly to secure the loyalty of Brutus’ legions through bribes, from money that he had accumulated throughout his campaigns, especially Egypt. His control being absolute, soon the Senate could no longer deny Octavian supremacy and de facto imperium, there being no other equally renowned statesmen of equal stature to challenge him.

His actions brought about the wrath of the Optimates, who having no other means to challenge him, planned for his assassination. The plot was betrayed however by one of Octavian’s many informers in the Senate and the conspirator’s attempt to relay their intentions to Brutus’ former legions, and Octavian took the opportunity to purge most of the Optimates, sending them into exile and appropriating all their property. With this done, the Senate passed the first settlement, awarding Octavian, now Augustus with a wide range of new, official powers.

Still Augustus was wise enough to rule in a cautious, restrained manner, neither using his powers to engage in outward tyranny or excesses, nor did he punish those who dissented against him using speech, nor did he implement radical policies that would have alienated the Senate. Instead policies like instituting a Cursus Publicus, new infrastructure works in the provinces, especially roads, and a new police and firefighting service for Rome, met with general support.

His foreign policy was cautious, and there were no new attempts to expand the empire, with the exception of southern Germany, where Augustus sent his intended successor, Drusus to defeat the Germanic tribes, and established two new provinces, Raetia and Noricum. This was done to establish a more effective buffer for Italy to protect it. But there was absolutely no attempt to recover the lost province of Caesar, Mesopotamia from Parthia for example. Augustus also demanded and got the submission of Libyan tribes to become a client state of Rome, although he had to wage a short war to subjugate them, and conceded some desert lands traditionally belonging to Egypt to Libyan rule. Rome also got four new client states in the Pontos Euxeinos, greek city states of Tyras, Nikonion, Ordesus, Olbia, all of whom became client states in exchange for legal rights given to their merchants when doing business with Rome, and to secure Roman protection against Scythian raiders.

This paved the way for a second settlement in 2 BC which increased Augustus’ powers. Augustus was careful and subtle enough to make sure that this gradual slide and transition to absolute rule, would appear almost unnoticeable and completely non-alarming to the general public and to Senators.

Augustus accumulated vast wealth in his life due to his control of imperial provinces, provinces that had been established out of former client states of Rome, which were never put under Senatorial control. While Augustus had shared these conquests with Brutus, with Brutus gaining Numidia, Asia Minor, Taurica, Thracia, Cyprus and Augustus gaining Cyrenaica, Egypt, Judea, Syria, and Mauretania. Brutus’ death and the subsequent shift in loyalties of the legions in these provinces, led to Augustus appointing military governors directly for all these provinces, as they were nominally still under military administration.

This vast wealth led to connections within the Senate, the opportunities of patronage, blackmail, bribery, subtle threats of force were enough to cow the Senate into making concessions. In exchange Augustus never attempted to make himself dictator, though he had absolute power in most matters of the Republic and was called Princeps, an extension of the title of princeps senatus. So the outward facade of the Republic was maintained, along with all of the Senate’s gravitas and authority, which satisfied most senators.

Augustus died in AD 9, leaving his vast estate to Drusus. Drusus, being a very capable commander, had already won the respect of the legions in recent years during his campaigns in Germania. This allowed him to maintain control of Augustus’ provinces, as well as most of his troops. So all the ingredients were there, for the principate that Augustus had established, to essentially continue on.

 

[oca2073]

Was Nero Claudius Drusus an idealist? That is a question that has boggled historians and biographers throughout the centuries, among many others. Like: what served as the inspiration for his great many ideas? How could one man have so much influence over all subsequent Roman history?

Drusus was born in 38 BC, and had two fathers, (his paternity being in question), his natural father Tiberius Claudius Nero and Augustus. He was born at around the same time that his mother Livia divorced his natural father and married Augustus, then Octavian. Octavian at that time had been an upcoming statesmen who officially represented the Caesarean faction in Rome with Caesar away campaigning in Mesopotamia. Caesar had given signs suggesting that Octavian would be his heir, and helped elevate the young Octavian to the Senate. The ambitious Octavian knew that Livia with her patrician Claudii roots was a political opportunity that could not be passed over since Octavian himself was not truly of the Senatorial class. A year after Drusus’ birth, when the traditional waiting period was passed, Octavian married Livia. Nevertheless there was uncertainty as to whether Drusus was actually the biological son of Octavian, which doubtlessly helped his future political career.

Drusus was raised in his early years in the household of his biological father with his elder brother Tiberius. Tiberius Claudius Nero seemed to be a devoted Caesarean loyalist in his later years despite having openly opposed Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC. Caesar’s subsequent defeat to Pompey and the political compromise that was struck, and later Caesar’s successes in the East had placed Nero back in support of the Caesarean side. This was especially true after Caesar’s death when he was deeply opposed to the renegade Mark Antony. Octavian and his Caesarean Party had been in an alliance with Brutus’ Optimates, so that further secured Nero’s support for Octavian personally. He showed no resentment at Octavian marrying his former wife, considering it a necessary sacrifice for the political cause. At age five, with his natural father dead, Drusus moved into Octavian’s household with Tiberius.

Both brothers began their political career just as Octavian and Brutus had defeated Mark Antony, and thus they benefited from starting their careers on the winning side. Moving quickly up the cursus honorum under the patronage of Octavian who recognized their potential, they were military tribunes during the early years of Rome’s wars of conquest against its client states that had supported Mark Antony. By the conclusion of the wars, both Tiberius and Drusus were distinguished legatus in command of multiple legions, having served under Agrippa, Octavian, or Brutus in Thracia, Mauretania, and Taurica, and played an important role in the conquest and annexation of these territories.

Both men entered the Senate and held Praetorship and Consulship, before taking up proconsulships in Gaul and Thracia. After successful proconsulships, they were given imperium and put in overall joint command by the Senate to conquer Raetia and Noricum which they completed by 12 BC. With Brutus now dead, and Augustus busy securing the loyalty of all of Brutus’ former legions and territories with vast bribes, he dispatched Drusus and Tiberius to take control of those legions and set them up as their new commanders. Tiberius and Drusus spent the final years of Augustus’ reign, helping to consolidate his hold on Brutus’ provinces and legions.

Drusus’ chance of succession was invariably helped by Drusus’ role in uncovering a conspiracy that was brewing against Augustus. The Optimates made the mistake of communicating their intentions with Brutus’ legions, to try to gage whether they had their support. Drusus was able to send word to Rome in time, and the Optimates were all arrested on charges of conspiring to assassinate Augustus. While Augustus let them live, he stripped them of much of their property and their senatorial rank, and sent them into exile.

Besides this fact, Augustus always favoured Drusus over Tiberius, which led to many rumours that Drusus was actually Augustus’ biological son, rumours that neither Drusus nor Augustus were able to dispel, to their great annoyance. It got to the point where Augustus decided not to have Drusus marry his only child Julia, for fear of incest rumours.

If he had republican sentiments, Drusus kept them well out of sight. He never quarrelled, let alone opposed Augustus and his policies during his life and faithfully carried them out. It was in fact Tiberius who expressed misgivings at times with Augustus’ ruthless consolidation of power, and his determination to keep most of Rome’s newest provinces and its legions out of the control of the Senate, using corruption and patronage on a wide scale.

Evidently, Drusus was clever enough to know that he would never succeed Augustus if he expressed these sentiments beforehand, but his remarkable turnaround was nevertheless unprecedented and quite unexpected. The Senate was expecting a long, gruelling fight against Drusus, similar to the war of attrition that they had waged with Augustus over the Senate’s authority and his “tyrannical influence” over the body, and how he had essentially privatized much of Rome’s provinces and her legions. But they were wrong.

 

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Drusus’ first act as princeps, a title given to Augustus in the first settlement, and included the right to appoint a successor in the second, was to make no act to try and deify his predecessor, which somewhat shocked the Senate, who had been expecting to be strong-armed into it, since Augustus had pushed to deify Julius Caesar immediately after Brutus’ death. He instituted a reconciliation process with the exiled Optimates, reinstating them in the Senate, and restoring to them a portion of their confiscated property.

Tiberius was sent east to Egypt to quash a local rebellion and bring the desert oases that had traditionally sworn allegiance to the Ptolemies under firm Roman control. Also Tiberius was instructed to bring Egypt’s Erythraeum Sea coast under Roman rule.

What Drusus did not do was make any concessions to the Senate with regards to the provinces and legions that he held and had inherited from Augustus. He intended to use them to negotiate, from a position of great strength, a new truly constitutional relationship between the Princeps and the Senate, that would restore the Roman Republic anew. The Senate was receptive, because for many, anything would be better than a repeat of the Augustan years.

Similarly Drusus’ position was not as secure as Augustus’ had been. He was less popular and well known among the Roman public. His position to enforce absolute authority and rule as Augustus had de facto done, was much more tenuous, and even Augustus’ own reign could be considered as tenuous. That is the the non-idealist interpretation of Drusus, that he was merely a political animal who recognized the limitations of his own power and current position, fearing that he could be replaced by the legions if he failed to cement his legitimacy before the Senate. Essentially “Republicanism” was an act to cement control and legitimacy for himself.


Drusus’ (very far-sighted) aims were publicly stated before the Senate:


1. Establish a constitution that would be able to last, in current and foreseeable conditions of the future, to ensure political stability. The old constitution clearly would not do the job, now that Rome had become a fully fledged empire.

2. Strike a balance between necessary autocracy to maintain stability, necessary democracy to secure the confidence of the public, and necessary aristocratic rule to curb the excesses of tyranny and populist demagoguery.

3. Inspire and restore both the Roman public and Roman senatorial class in devotion, civic loyalty, pride in the Republic, which had been the main reason Rome become great in the first place in Drusus’ view.

4. Remake the cursus honorum to allow honourable, capable men to advance on their merits, exert themselves in service to the state, yet be discouraged to wield any unconstitutional power, namely a system of checks and balances between high ranking public officials.


A constitution was agreed upon and ratified in AD 14.

 

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Article I (On the Nature of the Roman Constitution) (there were seven articles in total)

The Roman constitution begins with Drusus testifying that he experienced a divine dream one night where all the past important figures of the republic spoke to him directly from the grave. They urged him to reform the republic, to save it from its death throes of one man rule, and to restore it to the greatness of its former days as measured by the devotion of the Roman people to their state.

This was followed by the revelation of this Constitution itself, directly decreed by Jupiter Optimus Maximus himself for the Roman people, and faithfully recorded and codified intact in its original form by Drusus as it was conveyed to him. As a consequence, Romans must abide by this sacred constitution as faithfully as they can. The support of the gods would be conditional upon respect and obedience to it, as the constitution was divinely intended for the Roman people and the Roman state by Jupiter himself. The reason why Jupiter chose to speak to Drusus personally in particular, was because it was he who then held the most power in the Republic.

As such the articles and stipulations of this document constituted divine, a priori state law, that could not be altered by ordinary means. The only legitimate means to alter this document, as allowed by Jupiter in the future, would be approval by all the sacred bodies stipulated in it, by a margin of two votes to one. There were seven such sacred bodies, representing the Seven Hills of Rome. These were: the Senate, the Consilium Principis, the Centuriata Assembly, the Curiata Assembly, the College of Pontiffs, the College of Tribunes, and the active Equestrian Order.

Article I also importantly defined the term "Romans" as referring to all Roman citizens of the Republic, rather than any inherent race or tribe. This was a defining statement on civic nationalism that had already been a developing and popular concept as the Roman Republic expanded, but now it would be the only legitimate definition of "Roman".

The only other specification made in Article I was Jupiter's express order: that no Roman citizen could be deified under any circumstance by another Roman citizen, as the gods had been personally insulted by the introduction of such practices. It was expressly stated that living mortals, could not become gods unless by the will of the gods themselves. This had been the case with Quirinus, as identified with Romulus. Caesar also maintained his divine status (since the constitution did not apply retroactively). But from now on, one could never become a god in this way (by the will of living mortals, the Senate, public proclamation) since the Roman gods as a rule, would no longer accept it.

 

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Article II which is chiefly concerned with clarifying the legal status and rights of citizens vs non-citizens in the Republic begins by stating that only Roman citizens can participate in political life in the Roman Republic. Essentially for the right to make any political decisions for the Republic, to hold any office, you had to be a citizen. Citizenship could not be bought or obtained by simply attaining a certain status within a local administration. Previously, settlements granted the Latin right gave decurions and other local administrators citizenship upon attaining office.

To stop the abuse of marriage as a means of conveying citizenship upon one's spouse, Article II states that a spouse that only gained citizenship through marriage to a citizen loses it upon a divorce. To further sanctify citizenship, the punishment for falsifying or abetting the falsification of citizenship was always death.

However after making citizenship more sacrosanct, and harder to obtain, Article II goes on to increase the common rights of all inhabitants of the Republic, specifically provincials. They held equal rights to property, trade, and ability to make legal contracts on the same footing as citizens. These rights were extended to all females as well. Essentially, Latin rights were being extended to all inhabitants of the Republic with this Constitution, and a legal distinction could now only be made between citizenship and provincial "common" status. Previously, there had been many in between classes of citizenship that conveyed some rights, but not all, such as the Latin right. Now, the Constitution clarified that those rights were held in common to all, but citizenship still provided for additional rights, and you were either a citizen or not.

To have access to these "common" rights, one simply had to be born in the territory of the Roman Republic, and not be a foreigner. Though foreigners from client states would be allowed those rights when residing and doing business in the territory of the Roman Republic. In exchange, client states could sign treaties providing the Republic with foederati troops.

An important note on the great extension of "common rights" was that one's inherent rights, whether citizenship or merely "common rights" were preserved no matter where you migrated or relocated to. Essentially, there was now no allowable difference in legal status between settlements or their inherent rights. Previously, Roman colonies were settlements that only citizens relocated to in the provinces, Latin settlements were areas that only those who held latin rights relocated to, and those that relocated to a "lesser settlement" had their rights reduced to that of the settlement they had moved to. Article II provided for that all settlements, had similar structures of local administration that was based on their size and relative (economic) importance, with no legal distinctions/differences. There was no longer any acknowledged special autonomy given for particular conquered nations/tribes/cities within Roman territory either.

These citizenship reforms, latin rights for all and equal legal status for all settlements, were intended by Drusus to greatly reduce the inequality between citizens and non-citizens, allowing provincials and non-Roman settlements to flourish, and all settlements to compete with each other on their merits. But crucially it preserves the incentive for provincials to perform military service in exchange for citizenship by joining the Auxilia. In exchange for these massive concessions that Drusus extracted from the Senate, it appears that he had to greatly limit the power of the Princeps in return, and make it completely accountable as we shall see in Article IV.

The other notable "common right" extended to all was freedom of religious belief that does not directly challenge the law of the Republic.

The second half of Article II enumerates the exclusive rights that citizens did possess, that were not "common rights". Citizenship was a requirement to participate in any Republican election, the right to vote was automatically granted to adult male citizens who crucially had to be literate, citizens were guaranteed free speech rights for speech that did not represent any unlawful call for action. Citizens had greater legal rights and protections than non-citizens, including the right to be tried by citizen judges who were formally qualified, rather than local administrators. If you were a non-citizen you just had to accept the ruling of local magistrates like decurions. Citizens were also given tribunal protection when in Italy, which is detailed in Article VII. Citizenship was a requirement to stand for any electoral office, or to hold any office in the Republic. This included provincial administration posts which were off-limits to non-citizens. Citizens had the right to apply to join the legions and to try and become a citizen judge. A new right: underaged citizen minors could not be executed and arbitrary and cruel punishments could not be inflicted upon any citizen by the state, which precludes physical torture. (with the important exception of citizen soldiers). And lastly the Roman Republic in Article II reserved the right to intervene abroad on behalf of any citizen, if their dignity and just rights are undermined, no matter the jurisdiction. They did not claim the same right for non-citizens.

The last parts of Article II detailed the legal age of majority for all inhabitants, which was set at age 16 for males and age 15 for females. Only those who were of age could join the military, legally marry and have their marriage recognized by law, and vote if you were a citizen male.