Historical and Constitutional Background

After he gained control of the Roman world, Augustus sought to institute a form of government capable of addressing the Empire's organizational needs while at the same time guaranteeing permanent security.

The first two centuries of the imperial era have been termed the PaxRomana: the Roman peace. Historians have referred to this time as one of immeasurable majesty and as the happiest period mankind had known. By the second century ad, the Roman frontiers had been strengthened and pushed to their greatest extent; peace reigned everywhere in the Empire; and an efficient administration secured order and provided for the good government of the inhabitants. Under the prevailing peace, Roman civilization reached its highest level of achievement and displayed a remarkable power of expansion.

During the early imperial age, the social classification of the Romans into the senatorial, equestrian and lower classes remained largely untouched. Besides the traditional classes, the municipal aristocracy in Italy and the provinces formed an increasingly important middle class that was remarkably heterogeneous. This system of social classification determined both the political and economic order, and the constitutional relationships of political power within the Roman state. The social distinction between the upper and lower classes found a clear expression in the notions of honestior and humilior. The honestiores (‘honourable') were comprised of the privileged members of the governing class (senators, equestrians, civil servants, soldiers and members of the provincial town councils), whilst those belonging to the lower classes of society were collectively referred to as humiliores (‘humble'). The humiliores had a distinctly inferior standing in the eyes of the law and were subject to heavy and degrading punishments. By contrast, the honestiores were exempted from punishments of a shameful nature and the pronouncements of death and other severe penalties against reputable citizens were very rarely enforced.

From the early years of the Principate age, the Roman citizenship was granted with increasing frequency to individuals or whole communities.

In the later half of the second century ad, several forces began to gather to complete the transformation of the Empire from its previous structure under Augustus. The most important among these forces originated from the conditions present in the socio-political milieu of the times: the increasing reliance of the emperors on the army as a means of maintaining control of the state; the creation of a vast administrative apparatus that, in the long run, could not be supported by the resources of the Empire; the perpetuation of a class structure that failed to give the producing classes rewards equal to the burdens imposed on them; and the sharp decline of public spirit in a state where servility to imperial authority had replaced active participation in public affairs. With the final abandonment of the principle of diarchy (the double rule of the emperor and the senate) during the reign of Septimius Severus (ad 193-211) and the further militarization of the administra­tion, the army discarded its position as the Empire's servant and became its master.

1.4.1.1     State Organization in the Principate Age

As noted before, after Augustus gained control of the Empire he faced the task of establishing a constitution that would reconcile two apparently contradictory elements: the republican outlook of the leading sections of the Roman citizen body, which still clung to the traditions and institutions of the republican age; and the need for a strong central power to maintain peace and order within the state. The solution he devised involved a unique compromise: outwardly, it restored the republic but actually engendered a new monarchical power that permeated all aspects of government. However, the new political system was heavily encumbered by its contradictions between facade and reality. Despite any success of Augustus' programme, neither he nor his successors resolved the contradictions inherent in the elective theory supporting the new regime and its dynastic practice. In the course of time, the absolutism inherent in the imperial system became progressively more pronounced and, inevitably, the relics of the republican state (senatorial indepen­dence of action and the sovereignty of a people legislating and electing magistrates in popular assembly) withered away.

After the establishment of the Principate, the popular assemblies continued to operate but their significance as independent political organs was greatly dimin­ished.

In contrast with the assemblies, the senate received (in theory at least) a considerable accession in dignity as well as extensive electoral and legislative powers. The prestige of the senate was enhanced further by its employment as a court of justice dealing with cases involving offences committed by senators and state officials. Officially, the senate had become a full partner in the government. Theoretically, it was even more: the ultimate source of the emperor' power, as his imperium and legitimacy on accession was derived from the senate's approval of his nomination. In fact, however, the senate was much under the control of the emperor who regulated its composition, dominated its proceedings and prescribed its tasks. The elections of magistrates always corresponded with the wishes of the emperor; legislative proposals brought before the senate by the emperor or his representatives were accepted without much debate; the conduct of foreign policy was in the hands of the emperor, who also controlled all the politically important provinces; and the management of public finances was gradually assumed by the emperor following the establishment of the imperial treasury (fiscus). In the end, the division of government between the emperor and the senate was more apparent than real. The emperors owed all their powers to the senate, yet once these powers were given the senate became virtually impotent and unable to retract them (even if it had desired to do so). Although by the third century AD the senate had lost most of its competence, its prestige remained high and membership of that body was still regarded by many as the culmination of a political career.

During the Principate, the traditional republican magistracies continued to exist and their apparent importance was shown by the fact that the emperors would occasionally undertake the consulship, and assume the powers of a tribune and a proconsul.

By the side of the enfeebled and manipulated republican institutions, a new administrative apparatus with increasing authority burgeoned around the person of the princeps-emperor. The powers of the emperor were those held by the higher magistrates of the Republic, but these powers were now combined and concentrated in one person. In the course of time, these powers were extended and the emperor in the end became a governing statesman and ruler with such enormous resources at his disposal that he could personally tackle the tasks of the state. A great deal of the emperor's authority rested upon his tribunicia potestas: the power that the tribunes had held under the republican constitution. This allowed him to convene the senate and the popular assemblies, and to submit proposals to them; enabled him to veto acts of other state organs (intercessio); imparted him inviolability (sacrosanctitas), so that any indignity offered to him could be punished as a crime; and allowed him to appear in the role of the protector of the common man's interests. Moreover, the emperor's proconsular power (imperium proconsulare) granted him control over the frontier provinces where the bulk of the army was stationed and secured his supremacy in military and foreign relations matters. The tribunicia potestas and the imperium proconsulare were supplemented by a number of separate powers conferred by special grants. These grants must originally have been awarded by special statutes and resolutions of the senate, but the practice seems soon to have been adopted of embodying them in a single enactment which was put before the people for approval at the time when the tribunicia potestas and the imperium proconsulare were conferred.^{[48] [49]} A great deal of the emperor's might stemmed also from his auctoritas: his supreme moral authority and social influence. Armed with such wide powers, the emperor could not fail to exercise a strong guiding influence in the administrative, legislative and judicial fields. This influence asserted itself from the first; yet for at least 200 years there was always a formal and at times a real recognition of the theory on which the Principate was founded—the theory of a dual control exercised by the princeps-emperor on the one hand and by the traditional organs of the republican constitution on the other. As already noted, the principal organ by which the republic was represented was now no longer the people but the

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senate.

As the true master of the state, the emperor marshalled a huge administrative machine: a vast civil service composed of trained, paid and permanent officials. These new officials gradually assumed those duties the emperor deemed impossi­ble or undesirable for the old republican magistrates to perform. The imperial officials differed from the magistrates of the Republic in some important respects: they were chosen by the emperor himself, without the approval of the senate or the popular assemblies, and reported directly to him; they were appointed for an indefinite period, although the emperor could dismiss them at any time at his pleasure; and they were not invested with imperium or potestas—their only powers were those delegated by the emperor who could approve, reverse or modify their decisions as he thought fit. The most important imperial officials were the praetorian prefect (praefectus praetorio) and the city prefect (praefectus urbi). The former was originally the commander of the special military units that served as the emperor's personal bodyguard (the praetorian guard). The office evolved into one of the most powerful in the state, and the praetorian prefect became the emperor's chief adviser and executive officer in military and civil matters. From the late second century onwards, he also assumed important judicial functions. The city prefect was responsible for maintaining public order in Rome with the Roman police (the urban cohorts) at his disposal. He had extensive jurisdictional powers as he headed the chief criminal court in Rome and the surrounding area, and also dealt with civil matters connected with his criminal jurisdiction. Other important officials of this period were the prefect of the grain supply (praefectus annonae), and the prefect of the watch (praefectus vigilum). The latter was the head of Rome's fire brigades (cohortes vigilum) and his duties included policing the city by night and dealing with fires and any other natural emergencies that might arise. Another category of officials with a varying extent of power embraced the procurators (procuratores). Acting as agents of the emperor, procurators carried out a number of tasks within the civil administration, such as the collection of taxes, the management of state revenues and the supervision of public buildings and factories. The most common duty for a procurator was to serve as governor of a minor province or territory. When dealing with important administrative and legal matters the emperors consulted a body of advisors (consilium principis) composed of trusted friends, senior state officials and experts. By the middle of the third century AD, this body had assumed most of the functions and duties of the Roman senate. The adminis­trative apparatus of imperial Rome included a complex network of offices (scrinia): these were manned initially by slaves and freedmen, and then by members of the equestrian class in later eras (from the second century AD). The scrinium a rationibus dealt with matters relating to public finance; the scrinium a libellis responded to petitions from private citizens; the scrinium ab epistulis handled the emperor's official correspondence; the scrinium a cognitionibus investigated judicial disputes referred to the emperor; and the scrinium a memoria performed the secretarial work on all decisions, letters, appointments and orders issued by the emperor. State revenues derived from taxation and other sources were deposited in the central state treasury (fiscus) managed by the procuratores a rationibus or fisci.

Probably the weakest point of the constitutional regime of the Principate was that it did not provide for an orderly system of succession to the imperial throne. This weakness stemmed from the contradiction between the emperor's constitu­tional position as a Roman magistrate whose tenure derived from the senate and the people, and his de facto status as a monarch whose maintenance of power ultimately depended on army support. Aware that he could not legally nominate a successor, Augustus (and then the Antonines) adopted the most apparently effective means of ensuring the peaceful succession to imperial power: the designation of a successor by the incumbent emperor, the adoption of the individual designated as the emperor's son, and then the training of the successor for his future duties (by sharing in the government of the state). The system of adoptive emperorship broke down in the late second century AD, and thereafter emperors were made and unmade at the will of different field armies that each backed its own general to power. However, the upheaval of the later Principate age meant the imperial title was itself a very dubious achievement as the generals raised to the throne were confronted with one crisis after another. Whether these generals failed or by drastic measures succeeded, they were almost certain to provoke an attack or their own downfall by usurpation.

1.4.2