Imperial Image - Scholarship

Goldsworthy - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

With Caesar's name came the expectation that Augustus would make his own political path but it didn't have to be instant.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Because of Caesar's deification, Augustus was the closest thing to a god that existed in that time which was combined with his own titles made his name a vehicle for mystification.

Jonathon Williams - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Augustus learned from Caesar's assassination that even if he still had all of the power, he needed to convince the Senate and the people that the power lay with them.

Robert Stanier - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

As Octavian's name and titles were built upon, as he gained Caesar's name, then the Divi Filius title when Caesar was officially deified and the Imperator during the rising tensions in the Second Triumvirate, his rise in statues and increased military prowess was clear to the people of Rome.

Goldsworthy - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Augustus made conscious decisions to decrease his use of Caesar's image to further his own, as to distance himself from the dictator. He still has respect for his 'father' but it is shown more privately.

Beard - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Caesar was the way that Augustus gained power and influence and without him he wouldn't have gotten anywhere.

Karl Galinsky - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Augustus pursued the image of being Caesar's heir but showed their difference with his respect of the old ways and traditions.

Peter White - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

Almost all of Augustus' public activities were defined and shaped by Caesar's patronage.

Alexander Pollok - Augustus' relationship with Caesar

The Aeneid ties the Julio-Claudian dynasty back to the heroes and founders of Rome, with it ending with Aeneas' father describing Augustus being his most recent descendant.

Anthony Wallace-Hadrill - Actium and its portrayal

The portrayal of Actium through the works of Horace, Virgil and Propertius makes the Romans forget that Anthony was even a part of it. It turns a battle for power (between Octavian and Anthony) into a battle for the Roman values against barbarism and corruption by presenting Cleopatra as the great evil thing they fight against.

Beard - Actium and its portrayal

Augustus exploited the idea that it was a battle between their correct Roman values and traditions and the oriental excess that Anthony and Cleopatra represented. He made it so the public would forget that they were fighting against a fellow Roman which was deemed as unnatural.

Zanker - Relationship with Apollo

The relationship with Apollo proved to be ideally suited to Augustus. Apollo stood for morality, discipline, purification and punishment of any form of excess. After battles, Apollo took his role as singer, lyre player, and god of peace and reconciliation.

Zanker - Military victories of Tiberius and Drusus

Their victories were Augustus' victories as he possessed all the powers of commander in chief.

Goldsworthy - How Augustus justified warfare

Augustus fought to bring order and stability to the Republic.

Frank Cretella - Augustus as a Political Leader

Augustus founded the Principate on the idea that he had restored the traditions of the republic and he was nothing more than a serving citizen.

Gallinsky - The Secular Games

They were not an annual thing but only occurred after one of the corner stones of the Augustan program. The health of the new saeculum was not automatic but relied upon the moral effort of the Romans.

Zanker - Culture Hero

The Augustan Era is rightly called a 'Golden Age' of Roman art. He used public buildings to make statements about the immorality of private luxury.

Gallinsky - Culture Hero

The Augustan Golden Age is different to the Saturnalian Golden Age as it was not God given but based on hard work. It was not based on propaganda, instead Augustus set an agenda which fostered creativity.

Gallinsky - Culture Hero

Augustus made Rome look the part of world capital.

Zanker - Moral Reforms

The art of his period appealed to the style of the Greek Classical period. He suggests that Augustan Romans viewed the Classical period as one of superior moral behaviour and encouraged that his reign was of similar moral superiority. This is not universally accepted by modern scholars.

Diane Farro - Pater Patriae

A benevolent father, he exerted control over the Roman people at every level and made plans for the future care of Rome.

Zanker - Pater Patriae

He was not just Pater Patriae but also Pater Orbis, father of the world, as Ovid called him.

Jodie Martyndale-Howard - The Kalabsha Gate

Augustus wanted to adopt the local statue and by following the traditional style in terms of clothing and symbolism, he is portrayed as Pharaoh.

Beard - Poets

They produced a memorable and brilliant image of a new golden age for Rome and its empire with Augustus at the centre of it.

Brunt and Moore - Res Gestae

All events and actions described by Augustus were true as they could have easily been disproved by any one else that was there but he simply did not include some things and was very selective. Augustus talked more about an event's significance than the actual event itself

Galinsky - Res Gestae

A lot of the Res Gestae was not meant to be documentary but were meant to be understood in a larger meaning and significance of things.

Beard - Res Gestae

His own glossy account of things neglect to mention the murderous illegalities of his early career.

Christian Witschel - Res Gestae

The Res Gestae tried to propose the idea of a sole leader which, in Roman times, was not how society functioned. Within the Roman society there were many different groups and the Res Gestae targets them all so that everyone could find out what they wanted about the emperor rather than just having one audience.

Cooley - Res Gestae

Augustus' Res Gestae almost became part of the culture of the ruling elites and shaped how writers wrote about his era during this time and after it.

Wallace-Hadrill - Ovid

Wallace suggests that Ovid's whole Metamorphoses is a metaphor for the changing of Rome and Augustus.

Wardle - Suetonius

Wardle comments on Suetonius' habit of exaggerating a characteristic of Augustus by suggesting that Augustus repeated specific actions that would present him in a certain way to the reader.

Horsfall - Suetonius

Suetonius was not worried about people questioning where he got his details from so Horsfall says that we should not worry about how Suetonius learned everything as what he said was neither improbable or unusual.

Jenkyns - Poets

Due to the lack of Romans who could read and the amount of time it took for works to be collected, poets were insignifant in propaganda at the time. Poets could have been used to show significance and were more used to show Augustus' importance and power to future generations.

Goldsworthy - Poets

Literature was a respectable and highly fashionable leisure interest for the Roman elite and the mark of a truly civilised man.

Anthony Wallace Hadrill - On Propertius 4.6 Temple to Palatine Apollo

As the poetic accounts of Actium move further in time from the actual event, the realistic details give way to more and more symbolism with Propertius' work 2 decades after Actium and barely even accounting for the enemy of the battle other than referencing how they had been fated to lose by multiple gods.

Galinsky - Laurel and Oak wreath and Apollo

Both laurel and oak were originally associated with victory and war, with laurel also being Apollo's sacred tree. Apollo also being the patron of non-military pursuits and Propertius stating that Apollo put down his arms suggests that Augustus wanted to move past the civil wars and Actium.

Zanker - The Mausoleum

It could have been simply a show of Augustus' devotion to Rome and Italy. However, the connotations go much further, with it representing Augustus' immense power. It was built beside the temple of Apollo in the heart of the ancient city of Romulus. This left no doubt as to who would determine the fate of Rome from this point.

Beard - The Mausoleum

Its early completion was partly a precautionary measure as there had been many scares over Augustus' health, and partly an agressive assertion of his power, of his aspirations of his dynasty and his devotion to Rome.

Jenkyns - Statuary

All of Augustus' statues have the same face, suggesting he is godlike in his immortality. The image is royal but not exactly calm, it is majestic but still strict and severe looking.

Beard - Statuary

The same faces on his statues are implied to have been a sort of mask of power.

Jenkyns - His image

Augustus' presentations of himself conflict as he shows himself to be one of the people by calling himself "princeps" and the "first citizen", he lived in a modest house and all of his clothes were homestrung, but he also has monuments built for him, the title "Augustus", and various works written in honour of him.

Nicholls - The Forum of Augustus

The forum shows what Augustus could build if he wasn't constrained by simply restoring something. It was a case of matching continuity to the past with quite radical dynastic overtones. Augustus is saying that he is the completion, justification, continuation, and combination of Roman history.

Nicholls - Ara Pacis

The imagery on the Ara Pacis continues the idea of the Augustan Golden Age of peace and plenty that some of the Augustan poets had started. It can not simply be said that this was made by Augustus as a piece of propaganda as Augustus did not have control over the whole design so we have to remember that many others were also extremely enthusiastic about Augustus' policies.

Klaridge - Ara Pacis

Most of the figures are symbolic rather than representing specific people on a specific occasion.

Zanker - Prima Porta

The Parthian motif is elaborately expressed on the famous statue from Livia's villa in Prima Porta. The marble statue was a copy of a bronze statue that must have been made immediately after the victory over the Parthians, which is made clear from the association of the imagery on the breastplate and certain motifs from Horace's Carman Saeculare. The event is turned into a paradigm of salvation.

Smith - Sebasteion

The emperors are shown as active members of the traditional Olympian pantheon. The heroes make clear points of comparison between the old gods and the emperors. Some connections are also made between Aphrodite, her son Aeneas and the Julian emperors in Rome. Their most important activity is their victory over the barbarians, and they are presented in the hellenistic herioc style.

Thommen - Sebasteion

Imperial triumphs by the princeps achieved stability and peace throughout the provinces. Augustus depicted with Nike was not uncommen in Augustan art but the Sebasteion panel had a unique narrative with it.

Dr Matt Hosty - Poets

When the narrative is not going the way you want, send in the poets

Dr Matt Hosty - His Image

Augustus was a great manipulator of image

Dr Danny Pucknell - His Image

There is a difference between Augustus the person and the office - 1 person 2 bodies

Wallace-Hadrill -

Augustus is an orator trying to lead or convince his people, which is very different to an evil, manipulative figure

Zanker - Apollo

Augustus was keen to spread the idea of him having a patron god in Apollo, he was equally careful to suggest that he was supported by Apollo, partly due to his piety, rather than saying that he was actually Apollo

Gallinsky - His Image

People in Rome and the Empire were not so much interested in politics as the peace and stability Augustus brought, hence the focus on these things in the Augustan image