All Hail Augustus!
By Lesley Smith
It’s August, so “All hail the mighty Emperor of Rome, Augustus” – architect, philosopher, visionary and founder of the Roman Empire as we imagine it. Of course, there were Romans before and after Augustus, many of whom were luminous figures, while others were a flaming nuisance, like Nero and his appalling relatives Caligula and Tiberius, all of whom were members of the dynasty established by Augustus himself. So, apart from establishing a horrible family in power, what does an emperor have to do to have a month still carrying his name more than two thousand years later?
Born Gaius Octavius, he was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar, and became his heir. Adoption was very much encouraged in ancient Rome, and considered honourable, as it should be today. When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC, the young Gaius Octavius inherited the loyalty of Caesar’s legions – they hadn’t been assassinated, and there were a lot of them. Initially he allied with two other supporters of Julius Caesar to punish the assassins, but then fell out with them, and after the defeat of his former ally Mark Antony at the battle of Actium in 31 BC, he was left as the sole leader of Rome. Although he claimed to uphold traditional Republican attitudes, he gradually seized more and more power for himself (sounds strangely familiar!) and in 27BC the Roman senate granted him the title of Augustus, and his formal reign began (although in January, rather than August – no sense of timing). Then he and his chariot really got rolling. The title imperator (emperor) meant commander-in-chief, and was an established honour for leading generals, but he was appointed imperator for life, and with the continued support of the armies he was able to take the title, and make it his own, bringing in sweeping reforms to government and society.
• His armies carried out a series of successful campaigns (with a few notable exceptions), expanding the Roman empire in various directions and restructured the army to support the expansion. This led to the establishment of the Pax Romana – Roman Peace – a period of relative peace, prosperity and stability across the Roman Empire for the next two centuries (although it may not always have seemed that way in some of the conquered provinces).
• He improved the infrastructure of Rome, from running water and sewage systems, to coating the red brick buildings with glittering white marble, transforming the drab buildings into the glamorous centre of the Roman empire.
• He introduced laws encouraging personal morality (although his family didn’t provide the best example).
• Once he discovered that some of his subjects were worshipping him as a god, he encouraged the development of an imperial cult based around himself (sometimes vanity can be bad thing)
• He did not just create imperial power for himself, but passed it down to his descendants, the Julio-Claudian dynasty (again, with hindsight, perhaps not such a great idea, but it was impressive at the time).
• He provided a model of authority in later history that inspired other great leaders (like Napoleon and Mussolini. Oh dear). His coins even inspired some of the designs of the coins of Offa of Mercia, who built an empire of his own, with its heart in this this area.
On top of this, he ruled for longer than any other Roman emperor, ruling until his death in AD37. On reflection, it is a bit of a mixed bag, but there is no doubt that he achieved a lot, even if not all of it was entirely positive. Enough to earn a month for himself, surely?
Is this relevant to Lichfield? It certainly is. Under his successors, Britain was brought into the Roman Empire. England especially is still criss-crossed by Roman roads, including the modern A5 and A38, and the crossing of those two roads was an important junction. The little village of Wall, just outside Lichfield, still has visible traces of important Roman ruins, as well as less visible mosaics under some of the back gardens. Recent research shows that Wall was more important in the late Roman period than was previously recognised. Even when the Roman armies left, the Roman legacy did not entirely disappear – not just buildings and roads, but people. After centuries of Roman occupation and marriage with the locals, many of you may have Roman blood in you, along with Celts and Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, and all the others that form part of our history. So, all hail Augustus!