Sublime

So far as we can tell, even under the rule of the emperors there was hardly any such thing as a general policy for running the empire or an overarching strategy of military deployment. The directive of Augustus against further conquest in general was a rare intervention of that sort. Although major construction projects such as Hadrian’s Wall must

‘From the very beginning, kings have ruled the city of Rome’: ‘Urbem Romam a principio reges habuere.’ In just six Latin words, it was a direct challenge to the ideological foundations of the regime and the insistence of the Augusti that they were not a monarchy in the old sense. But Tacitus regularly rests his case on the character and the crimes

Assim como um pastor é de natureza superior à de seu rebanho, os pastores de homens, que são seus chefes, são igualmente de natureza superior à de seus povos. Desta maneira raciocinava, no relato de Fílon, o imperador Calígula, concluindo muito acertadamente…

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For the founding father of all Roman emperors, however, it has always proved difficult to pin him down. In fact, the new name ‘Augustus’, which he adopted soon after his return from Egypt (and which I shall use from now on), captures the slipperiness very nicely. It is a word that evoked ideas of authority (auctoritas) and proper religious observan