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APPROPRIATION AND ADAPTATION: REPUBLICAN IDIOM IN RES GESTAE 1.1*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2014

Louise Hodgson
Louise Hodgson*
Affiliation:
Durham University
*
l.l.hodgson@dunelm.org.uk
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Extract

Augustus opens the Res Gestae with his age: ‘nineteen years old’ (annos undeviginti natus). This places the reader firmly in the autumn of 44, rather than the aftermath of Caesar's assassination on the Ides when Octavian had been eighteen, presumably because the credibility of Octavian's claim to have liberated the res publica rested on his military intervention against Antony and the senate's commendation of it. Velleius Paterculus' summation (which echoes Augustus' formulation in the RG) is clear enough: although the domination of Antony was universally resented, no one was willing to take action against him ‘until Gaius Caesar, shortly after his nineteenth birthday, with marvellous daring and supreme success, on his private initiative (privatum consilium) showed a courage on behalf of the res publica which exceeded that of the senate. He summoned his father's veterans first from Calatia then from Casilinum; other veterans followed their example, and in a short time they united to form a regular army’. By raising an army, Octavian made himself politically relevant, but his move was strikingly illegal in two respects: he was too young (the entrance of politicians into public life had been subject to regulation since the formalization of the cursus honorum in 180 b.c.; Octavian, entering public life at the age of nineteen, was too young to have set foot on the lowest rung of the ladder, the quaestorship, for which the minimum age was thirty) and he was a private citizen with no authorization whatsoever to do anything of the sort. None the less, he advertises both aspects in the opening sentence: why?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , May 2014 , pp. 254 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2014 

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Footnotes

*

Earlier versions of this paper were given at Durham University and at the Classical Association Conference in April 2011. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Bruce Gibson and the anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments, criticisms and corrections. The AHRC provided financial support during the writing of this paper.

References

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14 Galinsky (n. 4), 48; Cooley (n. 1), 106.

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30 Cic. Lig. 3, Sest. 43, Phil. 4.14, Att. 7.11.1; Livy 8.23.5.

31 Caes. BGall. 5.1, Livy 30.22.1.

32 See above, n. 5.

33 Cic. Phil. 3.5; cf. Galinsky (n. 4), 45, Ridley (n. 2), 162.

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36 Plut. Ti. Gracch. 21.1–3; cf. Astin (n. 11), 229, Binot, C., ‘Le rôle de Scipion Nasica Sérapion dans la crise gracquienne, une relecture’, Pallas 57 (2001), 185–203Google Scholar, at 195, Flower, H.I., The Art of Forgetting (Chapel Hill, 2006), 72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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38 Cf. also Cic. Planc. 88.

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43 Cic. Cat. 1.2–4.

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45 Cic. Cat. 1.3.

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62 Wirszubski (n. 4), 104.

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67 Cf. Ridley (n. 2), 162.

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69 Cf. Wiseman (n. 5), 116; Raaflaub (n. 5), 50; Braunert (n. 4), 357.

70 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 517–18; cf. Cic. Mur. 38, Pis. 7, Phil. 1.36, Att. 1.18.4, Fam. 10.12.4.

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80 Eo nomine senatus decretis honorificis in ordinem suum me adlegit C(aio) Pansa et A(ulo) Hirtio consulibus consularem locum sententiae dicendae simul dans et imperium mihi dedit; cf. Brunt and Moore (n. 2), 38–9; Cooley (n. 1), 112–13.

81 Populus autem eodem anno me consulem, cum consul uterque in bello cecidisset, et triumvirum rei publicae constituendae creavit; cf. Brunt and Moore (n. 2), 39; Cooley (n. 1), 113–14.

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86 Seager (n. 5), 53.

87 ORF fr. 55.

88 ORF fr. 55.

89 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 104.

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92 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 102.

93 Cic. Rep. 1.68–9; Taylor (n. 90), 9; Seager (n. 5), 56.

94 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 109.

95 Seager (n. 5), 54.

96 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 443.

97 Ibid. 444.

98 Seager (n. 5), 57.

99 Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 562.

100 Wirszubski (n. 4), 1; Hellegouarc'h (n. 5), 559; Brunt (n. 56), 291.

101 Vell. Pat. 2.61.1; Cooley (n. 1), 108; Woodman (n. 4), 126.

102 Cf. Luce, T.J., ‘Livy, Augustus, and the Forum Augustum’, in Raaflaub, K.A. and Toher, M. (edd.), Between Republic and Empire (London, 1990), 123–38Google Scholar; see also Galinsky (n. 4), 53–4.

103 Galinsky (n. 4), 53.

104 Cf. Ramage (n. 3), 13 on the date of composition.

105 Ibid. 19.

106 Ibid. 20.

107 Ibid.