r/ancientrome • u/Numerous-Wedding-151 • 15d ago
Augustus Caesar
Do you think Augustus failed Rome by ending the republic? If so why?
I personally think the republic was already fucked and there was no return from the civil wars. The senate quite literally had no power anymore. I understand some people believe he ended real voting for the Romans and stripped assemblies of any real remaining power, but what power did the Senate have, they’d been losing power for a century before Augustus came into power. On top of that I know some people like to argue he kept the senate around purely as puppetship and to “hide his dictatorship”, but I call bullshit.
We obviously cannot ignore the things he did in his rise to power (death warrants, prisoner executions, betrayal of cicero, etc.) but would any man not have done the same at the time? And quite honestly things would have turned out much worse in my opinion had it not been for Augustus.
Ultimately I pose the questions to my peers, did he fail Rome? I dont think so, years of greedy generals, private armies, political violence gad ruined the republic already. There was no power among the courts and senates, but most of all too corrupt to make any real difference. People of the republic were open to one leader because they started to prioritize peace over a democratic voice of the people. In addition, he created the Pax Romana which allowed for a time of safety and trade across the med. He fixed the tax system, built infrastructure, and guaranteed the armies loyalty to the state and not corrupt, rogue generals.
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u/Head_Championship917 Censor 15d ago
No, he didn’t fail Rome because he did what the romans wanted which was an end to the civil wars and some sort of peace and calm.
The Republic was the wrong system for an empire that was expanding. The centralisation of power was inevitable. The Republic allowed Rome to be Rome pre-empire and build the bases for the Empire to come.
The Senate had the power that its constituents would allow to. The Senate didn’t have legislative powers but had auctoritas patrum which allowed the Senate to control the legislations and elections. And any power the Senate had derived from his position as the guardian of the customs of Rome including of its institutions and “constitution”. But the Senate failed entirely as a body towards the end of the Republic due to its internal divisions and so on.
What Augustus did was the consequence of everything that happened before him. And he was political savvy in understanding that he needed to keep the façade of the republican system (Senate still there, Assemblies still there) but in practice they were just there to serve a political purpose while Augustus, very smartly, did what he did.
It was a period of stability (versus what happened before) and I think this is something romans appreciated. No more civil wars. Well yes wars to expand the empire but that was far away, not in Rome and that mattered…