Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (review)

Roman historians have for generations discussed the transition from Republic to Empire and focused on turning points in Augustus' administration, such as those in 27 and 23 B.C., and on the political/cultural program of the Augustan Age. Severy emphasizes changes occurring around 12 and 2 B.C., including the growing role of family, connected to the regime's social legislation and the evolution of a private imperial family into an institution of the Roman state. After surveying "Family and State in the Late Republic" in her first chapter and establishing the background of an oligarchic system where aristocratic men held political and military power, the author begins to analyze the evolution of the government and society after the civil wars had ended in 30 B.C. She considers Augustus' moral legislation on marriage and adultery and the marriage patterns that separated Augustus' family from the rest of the aristocracy and gave them a special status. The males of this family group also began to monopolize imperial military commands, and Augustus' household, including women, slaves, and freedmen, became involved in imperial administration.

Severy states that after Augustus became pontifex maximus in 12 B.C., he "began to present himself as the man uniquely responsible for Rome's relationship with the gods" (138), and his family became "part of the religious framework of the entire community" (96), and that community was "part of a household under the spiritual protection of its pater, Augustus." The author explores the representation of the imperial family in the sculptures of the Ara Pacis built in 9 B.C. (104–12) and Livia's public role in the construction and dedication of the Aedes Concordiae Augustae in 7 B.C. (131–38). According to Severy, it is the emperor's acceptance of the title of Pater Patriae in 2 B.C. that is the major step in the evolution of the Roman "public thing" into part of the family of Augustus (160–61). The coming of age in the same year of the emperor's younger adopted son, Lucius, "underscored the possible dynastic implications of his paternal role." The dedication of the Forum Augustum and its temple of Mars Ultor also occurred in 2 B.C., and this site too was associated with ceremonies that tied young males to the emperor, as well as to models of Roman virtue from the past.

Severy documents very effectively the increasing role of the imperial family in running the new government and in insuring a smooth transition of their authority to the next generation. Although she is adamant that interpreting Augustus' marriage arrangements and adoptions in the 20s and 10s B.C. as being related to a dynastic transfer of power is "anachronistic" and are better read as "practical social strategies" and as "utilizing the resources of his family to consolidate his position," there is no reason to believe that dynastic considerations could not have also been involved in the process. In addition, the book's organization is a little erratic in that each of the first seven chapters has a section of summary conclusions at the end, yet chapter 8 has none, and chapter 9 inexplicably has two separate sections. In her discussion of the Ludi Saeculares of 17 B.C. Severy states that there was no "role played by or even a recorded appearance made by any member of Augustus' family" (57). She does not explain why she does not consider Augustus' son-in-law, Agrippa, who played a major part in these games, to be a member of his family.

Although the author mentions in her introduction coins from the early years of Tiberius' administration that depict Livia as the goddesses Salus or Pax (6), when she reaches that period in her final chapter she discusses only the Salus type and omits the related issues which connect Livia to Pax, and to Pietas and Justitia as well. In addition...