Suetonius’ quote describing Augustus’ transformation of Rome from brick to marble (Suetonius Life of Augustus 28.3), while in many examples reflecting real historical occurrences as described below, is more soundly to be taken as a general claim that the emperor revamped and aggrandised the imperial city into a state much more impressive at the end of his reign than it was at the start.
Here the quantifiable physical difference which Augustus made to the city of Rome is assessed, alongside comparisons between his policy of construction and that of earlier periods. This analysis will take the form of a feature-by-feature consideration, reflecting more widely on how Augustus' choices and approaches relate to his personal traits and his reign’s principles.
The Temple of Apollo
The association Augustus developed with Apollo led him to dedicate a temple in his honour. His victory over Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium was heralded as Apollo-inspired, and his later coins show subtle connections being made between Augustus and the god, with the two sharing noticeably similar crowns.
Located next to Augustus’ own house on the Palatine Hill, emphasising his personal connection to the god, the Temple of Apollo was indeed the first in Rome to be mainly constructed with Carrara white marble. The marble used to construct this temple is impressively recounted by Virgil (Aeneid 6.69) and Propertius (Elegies 2.31).
Well-preserved terracotta plaques from the temple site depict the ancient myth of Hercules trying (and failing) to steal the Delphic tripod altar from Apollo, whilst seeking absolution for a murder he had committed. When connected with Plutarch’s assertion that Antony believed himself descendant from Hercules (Life of Antony 4.1), these plaques create a vivid image of the way in which Augustus sought to portray the struggles between himself and Mark Antony, played out by their respective divine representatives.
Other temples
Augustus' autobiographical Res Gestae (20) suggests that the emperor rebuilt 82 temples in 27BC alone. Whilst this is probably an exaggeration, it clearly shows the intention and effect of the extensive Augustan religious building policy, alongside his larger-scale construction works at the temples of Quirinus, Jupiter on the Aventine and Capitoline Hills, Minerva, and so on (Res Gestae 19).
On the Palatine Hill, the Temple of Magna Mater, mother goddess and protector of the supposed Julian ancestor Aeneas (Virgil Aeneid 9.82-84), was rebuilt in local traditional tufa blocks (and not the marble his works are usually associated with) in reverence to the antiquity of her cult. This reflects a feature common to Augustan architecture: the delicate balancing of familiar Etruscan/Italian styles in layout and design with more elaborate Hellenistic styles, such as the use of marble (or the marble-like travertine) and Greek decoration, especially of the Corinthian order.
This served to soften the extreme both physical and political changes of the age, with Augustus making efforts to ensure any dynamically imperial 'progressions' were within the context of respect for (and celebration of) accustomed wisdom and practice.
Augustus' house and mausoleum
The style of Augustus' home was basic and relatively small. Being extraordinarily wealthy, the choice to build in such a simple style reflects traditional republican modest values in an era in which extravagance had been overplayed. Nonetheless, unique embellishments such as laurel branches and a crown decorated the house with a kind of symbolic ostentation (Res Gestae 34). Again, it was essential to manipulate the balance in order to introduce new and dominant features gently.
His mausoleum, too – relatively well preserved today – had an Etruscan-style tumulus, which also alluded to Sulla, Caesar and the Trojans, and yet was used to inter several family members as well as Augustus himself, forcing the connection between the grandest elements of Roman history and Augustus' own dynastic intentions.
Private shrines
Prominence was given to the restorative improvement of the cults of local Lares (protective deities of households, crossroads, etc.), and their re-branding as Lares Augusti – linguistically in association with augustness, only indirectly relating to the emperor.
This saw a change from the simple, inexpensive shrines of old to individualised marble altars. A small percentage of these grander altars survive, and inscriptions upon them detail their funding by local government officials.
The presence of laurel branches on many of these dedications (sacred to Apollo, and associated with Augustus’ own house as mentioned above) shows how these cults served to subtly involve worship for the imperial family (if not yet of the imperial family) in private religious life. This was further emphasised by references to the Genii (guardian spirits) of Augustus and the Julian family.
That all of these altars had identical dedicatory titles is perhaps evidence of a formal Rome-wide governmental decree organising the cultic restoration, although the aforementioned individualisation implies some local control over the design.
Forum of Augustus
The Forum of Augustus, completed in 2BC, was one of Augustus’ and Rome’s most impressive constructions, inspiring superlative compliments from Pliny (Natural History 36.24). It featured a large open square surrounded by refined colonnades. Inside was a temple dedicated to Mars the Avenger –
(the father of Romulus) in association with Venus (the ancestor of the Julian family),
The link between the Julian family and Mars the Avenger emphasised Augustus’ connection with Romulus, in a time when he sought to promote the image of his reign as a renaissance and concentration of all that made Rome great (e.g. Res Gestae 8). It also brings to mind his own 'avenging' of Julius Caesar.
Flanking the Temple of Mars the Avenger were statues depicting some historically significant men of Rome and the Julian family, such as Appius Claudius Caecus, Sulla, and Aeneas of Troy. From the bases of these statues inscriptions have survived, giving brief biographies which to some degree accentuate Augustus’ own similarities and comparisons to them. The reference to the title pater in the great general Quintus Fabius Maximus’ biography, for example, is reminiscent of Augustus’ title pater patriae, awarded in the same year this Forum was completed (Res Gestae 35). The summary of Caecus’ comparatively few building achievements, meanwhile, highlights just how much Augustus himself was building.
Finishing Caesar's work and establishing a dynasty
Augustus also emphasised his ancestral stature (with the dynastic effects that implies) by finishing work begun by his adoptive father Julius Caesar. The Curia Julia, built of concrete and marble, certain constructions within the Forum Romanum, and several other buildings were all started by Caesar but completed by Augustus.
Another well-preserved Augustan monument, the Theatre of Marcellus, dedicated posthumously to
Augustus’s eponymous son-in-law (Cassius Dio Roman History 54.26.1), supports these dynastic effects from the opposite perspective: that of succession, displaying the magnificence of the Julian family as distinct from any other.
Theatrical constructions such as this also provided welcome entertainment for the public, whilst the remarkably confident use of concrete in its construction gave an image of Roman technical strength, allowing the theatre to stand alone without the support of a hillside, as had been necessary for all preceding equivalent Greek theatres.
The marble Ara Pacis similarly references various members of the imperial family in picture form, creating associations between the deeds of Augustus and all individuals depicted, empowering and aggrandising his relations by virtue of their connection to him. The Ara Pacis also strongly vocalised Augustus' will to bring peace to Rome (e.g. Res Gestae 13), making sure that any observer would associate peace and stability with the authority of Augustus and his family.
Augustus' family
Augustus replaced the established process of the Senators building the grandest public buildings, at their own expense, with one in which Augustus himself, his closest allies, and his family members were responsible for construction and maintenance in the city. This symbolised and solidified the creation of a unified system under the guidance of one individual.
Among others, Augustus’ closest ally Agrippa was a prominent builder, his most famous construction being the magnificent Pantheon, later restructured by Hadrian. It is unsure whether Agrippa's original had the same impressive rotunda dome visible today, but excavations have shown many Augustan-age marble features in the Pantheon, and some of the layouts of the two designs were similar. Indeed, the front of the building still shows Hadrian’s prominent reference to Agrippa as its rightful builder.
While this inter-familial patronage may have restricted the Senatorial opportunities and contributed to the changing of the traditional path to success in Roman society, from other approaches the opportunity for success was widened. Augustus’ age, for example, saw the first monumental
construction in Rome to be instigated by women.
Aqueducts and water supply
Augustus (and the aforementioned Marcus Agrippa) also organised the construction or redevelopment of several aqueducts in Rome, which constituted great urban improvement. The late first century AD Water Commissioner Frontinus is our main source for these projects.
One such aqueduct, the Aqua Alsietina, was, due to its lesser quality of water, apparently
constructed solely to supply Augustus’s naumachia, a large basin used for the entertaining production of naval battle re-enactments (Frontinus De aquaeductu 11; Res Gestae 23). Only a small part of the Alsietina’s canal on the Janiculum Hill has been identified today, although other aqueducts such as Agrippa’s Aqua Virgo have left substantial remains which support the technical descriptions of Frontinus.
That Augustus had the freedom to build the Alsietina reflects not only the luxury of the Roman surplus of water, but also Augustus’s personal control over it. Iindeed, a small, poorly-managed income was gained by city of Rome (of course in Augustus’ name) from the rental of water supply sites by buildings located nearby (Frontinus De aquaeductu 99; 118). This represents the typical double-sided consequencex of so many of Augustus’s actions: the idea seems vaguely popular (the improvement of water supply), and yet in reality there is personal gain and consolidation of power achieved (i.e. Augustus controlled and exploited the entire supply).
Wider context
Not only did great number of building works undertaken by Augustus serve to beautify the city of Rome, they also provided regular long-term employment for many Roman people, and this was certainly useful for his public perception and reputation. Savvy public-mindedness was shown by Augustus in the construction of his Forum, described above: its shape was apparently altered by his decision to allow residents to stay who would have otherwise been relocated by the original layout (Suetonius Life of Augustus 56). He was, after all, a caring and benevolent dictator, as all dictators wish to be.
Augustus’s building work helped, along with his political sense, to cement his position as the sole dominant figure in Roman life. With it he ensured personal connections to both human and divine greatness, and took every opportunity to display his own and his family’s achievements, even when, paradoxically, he was displaying his own modesty and lack of ostentation.
His style required tact and balance, which he demonstrated with expertise. It was essential to portray the rebirth of Rome both architecturally and socially, and this he achieved by creating a sense that his own input – colossal and original at times as it was – was part of a continuation of a tradition of ancestral greatness; that his role was an enhancer, a nurturer, and not a revolutionary.
Sources
Cassius Dio, Roman History, tr. E. Cary (Harvard 1927)
Frontinus, De aquaeductu, tr. C. E. Bennett (Harvard 1925)
Plutarch, Life of Antony, tr. B. Perrin (Harvard 1923)
Propertius, The Elegies, tr. A. S. Kline (2008, unpublished)
Res Gestae, tr. T. Bushnell (1998)
Suetonius, Life of Augustus, tr. C. Edwards (Oxford 2000)
Virgil, Aeneid, tr T. C. Williams (Boston 1910)
Kevin Stoba - Kevin Stoba is a careful-thinking contrarian with a boldly radical bent and an indefatigable tendency to doubt.
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