The First Settlement (27 BC) and the Second Settlement (23 BC), the constitutional powers granted to Octavian (now Augustus), the political theory of the principate, and the verdicts of Syme, Goldsworthy, and Eck

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to describe in detail the two Augustan Settlements (27 BC and 23 BC), the specific constitutional powers granted, the political theory of "restoring the Republic" while in reality establishing a monarchy, and the modern historiographical debate centred on Syme.

The answer

Why the settlements were needed

By 30 BC Octavian had won the civil wars and held unprecedented power. He had:

• The legions and the army's loyalty
• The wealth of Egypt as his personal province
• A network of personal allies (Agrippa, Maecenas)
• The accumulated propaganda of a victorious general

But raw military rule was politically unsustainable in Rome. The civil wars had been fought, on both sides, in the name of restoring the Republic. Some constitutional framework was required to channel Octavian's power without provoking the senatorial reaction that had killed Caesar in 44 BC.

The First Settlement (13 January 27 BC)

In the senate on 13 January 27 BC, Octavian made a speech announcing the "return" of his extraordinary powers to the senate and Roman people. The arrangement that followed is the First Settlement.

The senate, by carefully arranged response, granted him:

The provincia. A 10-year command over the major frontier provinces: Spain, Gaul, Syria, and Egypt. These provinces contained the bulk of the Roman legions (around 20 of 28 legions). The senate retained the unarmed provinces (Africa, Asia, Macedonia, etc.).

The title Augustus. "Revered One," a religious title suggesting divine sanction without claiming divinity. The name was new: no Roman had been called Augustus before. The poet Ennius had used it in a religious sense ("augusta templa"). The title carried connotations of authority (auctoritas) and proper religious observance.

Recognition of auctoritas. Augustus's accumulated personal prestige was formally recognised. Auctoritas (the moral authority that allowed a senior figure's recommendations to be followed) was a Republican concept; it now became the rhetorical foundation of the principate.

The Golden Shield. A shield was placed in the Curia Julia listing Augustus's virtues: virtus (courage), clementia (mercy), iustitia (justice), and pietas (piety toward the gods, ancestors, and country).

The First Settlement was framed as the "restoration of the Republic." Augustus continued to hold the consulship annually.

The crisis of 23 BC

In 23 BC Augustus faced a political crisis. He became seriously ill (his doctor Antonius Musa eventually cured him). He was forced to surrender his signet ring to Agrippa in case of death. The Murena conspiracy (a plot by the consul Varro Murena) was uncovered and suppressed.

After the crisis, Augustus reorganised his constitutional position. The First Settlement had relied on his continuous consulship, which monopolised one of the two consulships annually and frustrated senators looking for the office. The Second Settlement addressed this.

The Second Settlement (23 BC)

Augustus gave up the continuous consulship. In exchange he received two new powers:

Maius imperium proconsulare. Greater proconsular power. This allowed Augustus to override governors anywhere in the empire, even in senatorial provinces. The power was renewed at intervals.

Tribunicia potestas annually for life. The powers of the plebeian tribune without the office: sacrosanctity (legal protection of his person), the veto (intercessio) over any magistrate, the right to convene the senate and the popular assemblies, and the right to introduce legislation. The tribunician power was renewed annually and counted as a regnal year for dating purposes.

The Second Settlement gave Augustus the constitutional tools to govern the entire empire from outside the consulship. Other senators could hold the consulship without competing with him.

Subsequent powers

The settlements established the framework but Augustus continued to acquire additional powers over time.

Cura annonae (22 BC). Responsibility for the grain supply of Rome.

Cura morum (18 BC and 11 BC). Responsibility for public morals (a moral censorship).

Pontifex Maximus (12 BC). Chief priest of the Roman state, on the death of Lepidus.

Pater Patriae (2 BC). "Father of the country," a high-prestige honorific.

The political theory

The settlements were a sophisticated political achievement. Augustus claimed (Res Gestae 34) that he had "transferred the state from his own power to the discretion of the senate and the Roman people."

In reality the powers were monarchical. Tacitus (Annals 1.1 to 4) records the cool verdict: Augustus "won over the soldiers with gifts, the populace with cheap food, and everyone with the seductions of peace; gradually he placed everything under his own control under the title princeps."

The princeps ("first citizen") was the term Augustus used for himself. It avoided the title rex (king) while claiming the substance of monarchical authority.

The Augustan Settlement at a glance

Historiography

Ronald Syme (The Roman Revolution, 1939) is the canonical sceptical reading. The settlements were a constitutional facade for what was effectively a monarchy. The "restoration of the Republic" was propaganda; the new regime was based on faction-fighting and military force.

Werner Eck (The Age of Augustus, 2003) emphasises the constitutional novelty. The settlements created a new political form, the principate, that was neither monarchy nor Republic but a third thing.

Adrian Goldsworthy (Augustus, 2014) integrates the political and military dimensions. The settlements were the constitutional channel for an underlying power that was military and personal.

Karl Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) emphasises the cultural dimension: the settlements were embedded in a wider cultural program.

How to read a source on this topic

Section IV sources on the settlements typically include extracts from Augustus's Res Gestae (especially chapter 34), Tacitus's Annals 1.1 to 4, Cassius Dio's Roman History 53, Suetonius's Divus Augustus, or modern reconstructions of the constitutional powers. Three reading habits.

First, distinguish what Augustus claims from what historians describe. Res Gestae claims the "restoration of the Republic." Tacitus and Dio describe a disguised monarchy. Both are sources, but for different things.

Second, watch the legal precision. Tribunicia potestas, maius imperium proconsulare, and provincia are specific constitutional terms. Use them precisely.

Third, integrate the settlements with the wider regime. Syme's argument is that the settlements were a facade. Even if you disagree, address the argument; do not just describe the legal forms.

Common exam traps

Treating the settlements as one event. Two settlements, in 27 BC and 23 BC. The Second is the more important.

Forgetting tribunicia potestas. The most important single power of the Second Settlement.

Missing the political theory. Syme's "Roman Revolution" thesis is the canonical interpretive frame.

Calling Augustus an emperor in 27 BC. He was princeps, not imperator in the sense of Diocletian's "emperor." The titulature evolved.

In one sentence

The Augustan Settlement consisted of the First Settlement (13 January 27 BC, granting Augustus the title Augustus, a 10-year provincia including the legionary provinces, and recognition of his auctoritas, framed as a "restoration of the Republic") and the Second Settlement (23 BC, granting him tribunicia potestas annually for life and maius imperium proconsulare in exchange for surrendering the continuous consulship), a constitutional framework that Syme reads as a disguised monarchy, Eck as a genuinely novel third political form (the principate), and Goldsworthy as the legal channel for an underlying military and personal power.