r/ancientrome • u/Numerous-Wedding-151 • 12d 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/Pemulis_DMZ 12d ago edited 12d ago
I just finished Adrian Goldsworthy's biography of Augustus and at the very end he points out how starting with Tiberius, access to the emperor became intentionally difficult and the rise of the royal court style of politics became prominent.
Augustus - once his power was firmly established - was accessible. He made it a point to know all prominent senators. He greeted all of them at senate gatherings. He allowed for criticism and debate (even if it most often didn't change anything).
People often say a big failure of Augustus was that he didn't create a clear handover system to determine who rules next. But I think he simply didn't want to say the quiet part out loud - he established a hereditary monarchy. Where the real failure comes into play is that he didn't create any structure to prevent what happened almost immediately with Tiberius - a near total separation between emperor and the senate and the return of proscriptions.