Blackwell Reference Online

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A recently-published Roman coin from 28 bce symbolizes what the Roman imperial state would be (Rich and Williams 1999). One side of the coin shows young Caesar (“Octavian”) wreathed in triumphal laurel under the legend, “Imperator Caesar, son of the Divine, consul for the sixth time.” The state would be a monarchy. The other side shows young Caesar wearing a civilian toga, sitting on a Roman magistrate's bench, holding out a scroll from a scroll-case under the legend, “He revived the rights and laws of the Roman People” (Figure 6.1a). The state would preserve the legal framework of the republic. Over the last generation there have been profound changes in the way Roman political systems are viewed. The republic has come to be seen as a democracy, in which the Roman people (or the fraction attending assemblies at Rome) alone exercised all-important legislative power - and used it to give unprecedented military commands to Pompey, Julius Caesar, and young Caesar. The principate has come to be seen as a monarchy, in which the emperor was more than the sum of his formally-delegated powers. But fresh documents such as the coin remind us that the principate preserved the institutions of the republic - the Senate and the popular assemblies, the magistracies and the priesthoods - and the emperor's working relations with these institutions are now being seen to have given Roman monarchy ... log in or subscribe to read full text