Augustus and After

This paper explores some aspects of the politics of citation in Livy’s Cossus Digression (4.20.5-11) against the background of Augustan literary practice more broadly. Although Livy explicitly cites only one source, the historian Licinius Macer, the digression constructs a complex interplay among multiple sources: Macer, the tradition from which he diverges, and most important, the emperor Augustus himself. Despite being one of the most famous passages in Livy, previous work on the Digression (e.g.

In his Life of Augustus, Suetonius precedes his account of Augustus’ death with a bizarre description of the emperor on vacation at Campania (Suet. Aug. 98).

One notable problem with ancient sources is their tendency to focus on the top stratum of society. This has often led modern scholars down a similar road, whereby explanations of historical causation derive from the motivations of kings and emperors and the like. While this state of affairs takes us some way toward understanding the past, very often the picture is incomplete without consideration of broader swaths of the populace. Such limitations have often impaired efforts to understand Roman relations with peripheral peoples, especially in the Near East.

Tacitus’ assessment at Ann. 4.32.2 that Tiberius was uninterested in extending the empire, combined with instructions supposedly left by Augustus for Tiberius to that end (Ann. 1.11.4), prejudice our opinion of Tiberian foreign policy, especially in contrast with the early career of Octavian/Augustus. Augustus’ expansion of the empire was no doubt great, but was mostly driven by the need to consolidate previously held Roman territories. The addition of Egypt was due to the fortuitous alliance of Antony and Cleopatra and their subsequent downfall.