Augustus’ Shocking Inspiration For The Temple Of Jupiter Tonans

People often say that they are “struck” by ideas. Augustus, sole ruler of Rome from 30 BCE to 14 CE, had an experience like this yet; for him, it was less figurative and much more tangible. According to Augustus’ ancient biographers, he had an intense experience in 26 or 25 BCE, around the time that he was fighting the Cantabri and Astures people in Spain. In Cassius Dio’s (c. 163-235) more tame account of the story, Augustus heard a distant crash of thunder, followed by a dream of the god, Jupiter. In Suetonius’ (c. 70-130+) more lively version of the story, Augustus was confronted with much more than the mere sound of rumbling thunder—instead, he watched with horror as a bolt of white-hot lightning smote an unlucky torchbearer who was standing nearby. The lightning not only turned the torchbearer into a crisp, but it also apparently scorched parts of the litter in which the startled Augustus was sitting. According to Suetonius, the experience was so frightening for Augustus that he developed a great fear of lighting and thunderstorms. His fear was allegedly so intense that he wore protective amulets and fled into underground shelters during heavy storms.

Whatever the real truth may have been, Augustus was inspired to construct a temple for Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in Rome around the time of the Cantabrian campaign. When construction was completed around 22 BCE, it was regarded as one of the most beautiful and impressive architectural works in the capital city. Suetonius included it in his list of the three most magnificent public works produced during the reign of Augustus. The building was fittingly titled the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, or the Temple of Jupiter the Thunderer.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image of Lightning in a nigh storm, by user Free-Photos [Public Domain] via pixabay.com).

Sources:

• The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
• The Roman History by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987. 
• http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Aedes_Jovis_Tonantis.html  

Ancient Romans Used Unnerving Family Loopholes To Gain Rewards During The Reign Of The Julio-Claudian Dynasty

During his reign, Augustus (r. 31 BCE-14 CE) instituted and amended several laws that encouraged marriage and the cultivation of large families in the Roman Empire. Most importantly, the Lex Papia Poppaea was enacted in 9 CE, which revised the preexisting Lex Julia laws. These pieces of legislation gave married men with large families certain exemptions from state obligations, and also gave fathers of many children preferential treatment in disputes over inheritance and even in promotions to state and military positions. Unmarried and childless Romans, on the other hand, received none of the aforementioned benefits, faced punitive fines, and were barred from certain celebrations.

The Lex Papia Poppaea did, however, give some leeway to certain groups, such as widows, bachelors and childless couples. Regarding the last two categories of people, the law declared that adopting children was a viable way to receive benefits from the state. For bachelors, too, the law stated that betrothals (contracts to marry at a later date) would amount to the same benefits as that of a full marriage.

Despite the state-sponsored drive for marriage and parenting, many ambitious Romans were not interested in marriage or child rearing. These determined Romans began using bizarre and unsettling loopholes to gain the benefits provided by the laws, while still not committing to a family life.

According to the historian, Cassius Dio (c. 163-235), betrothals were the first system that Romans exploited in order to bypass the marriage laws. Dio reported that men realized they could become betrothed to infant girls in order to attain the status of a married man in the eyes the law. They were given all of the state-sponsored benefits entitle to a married man in Rome, but did not have to worry about marrying their bride for many years to come. Augustus eventually regulated this loophole by decreeing that betrothals were only valid if the marriage was scheduled to occur within two years. Yet, even with this revision, girls as young as ten were still eligible to be betrothed.

Ambitious Romans who had no intention of having children also found loopholes to bypass the penalties against childlessness. While the Lex Papia Poppaea supported adoption, it did not penalize those who disowned the adopted. Therefore, according to the historian, Tacitus (c. 56-117+), childless people that ran for elected positions or governorships would often adopt children in order to receive the status and privilege granted to prolific fathers. Once they won their position, however, the adoptions were revoked. This practice persisted for decades, only ending in the reign of Nero (r. 54-68). By then, these fictitious adoptions, as Tacitus called them, came under criticism for not only being unethical (depending on the age of who was adopted), but also unfair to devoted parents who were spending time and money to authentically raise their children. Around the year 62, Nero and the Senate closed the loophole by decreeing that fake adoptions would no longer give any benefits or privileges to participants in inheritance disputes or elections to government offices.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Wall painting of a feast, c. 79 CE or earlier, located in Pompeii, photographed by Theodore H. Feder, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus, translated by Michael Grant. New York: Penguin Classics, 1996. 
• The Roman History by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987. 
• http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/AugMarriage.html 
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/3292043?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents  

Did Ancient Roman Children Predict The Victory Of Octavian Over Marc Antony?

As many have said, children, in their innocence, can often pierce through the layers of illusion that adults drape over themselves and the world. Unfortunately, that youthful perspective of the world is often cast aside, labeled naivety and childishness. Nevertheless, the Roman statesman and historian, Cassius Dio (c. 163-235 CE), wrote that children might have used their special intuition of the world to unknowingly predict the future. Dio claimed that the children of ancient Rome predicted the outcome of the civil war between Octavian (later Augustus) and Marc Antony.

The year was 32 BCE, and Octavian convinced the Roman Republic to declare war against Egypt and its queen, Cleopatra, the lover of Marc Antony. As Octavian had planned, Antony sided his faction with Cleopatra’s forces, an action that could be easily labeled by Octavian’s propagandists as treason. With civil war inevitable, senators scrambled to pick a side, making their choice known by staying with Octavian in Rome, or by fleeing from the great city.

According to Cassius Dio, even the children living in 32 BCE were inspired by all of the fervor. Pulling from whatever unknown sources Dio could access, he claimed that great masses of children from Rome gathered together to fight it out in an elaborate mock-battle. Half of the youthful mob called themselves Caesarians (on the side of Octavian) and the other labeled themselves as Antonians. After two days of play fighting, the children under the Caesarian banner delivered a sound defeat to the kids who were pretending to be Antonians.

In his great historical and literary achievement, The Roman History, Cassius Dio counted this play battle as one of many omens and signs sent by the gods to announce the upcoming triumph of Octavian over Marc Antony.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Top picture attribution: (Marble Sculpture of Children singing and playing music on a church in Florence, Italy, sculpted by Luca della Robbia (Italian, 1400–1482), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Roman History (Book 50, chapter 8) by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987. 

The Roman Historian Cassius Dio Claimed To Be Divinely Inspired To Write History

Some modern historians probably feel like they have a calling for history, but their sense of purpose may not be as intense as that of Cassius Dio (c. 163-235 CE), a Roman historian of Greek descent from Bithynia, who lived through the reigns of some of the most notorious emperors, such as Commodus and Caracalla. Although we know Dio mainly as a historian, he was also a very successful politician—he held two consulships and served as governor of several provinces. Yet, during the reign of Septimus Severus (c. 193-211), Dio took on a job that would set him on the path to cementing his name firmly in history.

In typical Roman fashion, Emperor Septimus Severus achieved power by winning a civil war with an army loyal only to himself. Around this time, Cassius Dio became suddenly inspired to write a biography about Severus, focusing especially on the prophetic dreams that the new emperor allegedly experienced, which prompted him to seize power. When Dio’s biography was published, Emperor Septimus Severus was impressed by what he read—he personally sent Dio a congratulatory letter, praising his work.

Thankfully for us, Cassius Dio did not shy from writing about his own life. We can, therefore, read in Dio’s own words about the profound impact the emperor’s letter had on the emerging historian:

“I had written and published a memoir about the dreams and portents which led Severus to hope for the imperial power, and after he had read the copy I sent him he wrote me a handsome acknowledgement. Receiving the letter in the evening, I soon went to sleep, and as I slept the divine power commanded me to write history. Thus I came to compose the present account [The Roman History].”

The Roman History (73. 23. I-3, 5) by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin Classics, 1987).

Spurned on by whatever forces drove him to write history, Cassius Dio literally created a work that attempted to describe the entirety of Roman history. He started by writing an account of the civil wars that brought Septimus Severus to power. When the document received praise, Dio found the encouragement he needed to continue writing. And write he did—Cassius Dio wrote an eighty-volume history, beginning with Aeneas’ arrival in Italy after the Trojan War, and ending with his own age in the Roman Empire of the 3rd-century. Dio claimed that completing the history was a twenty-two year endeavor, with ten years of research and twelve years of composition.

Unfortunately, much of Dio’s history has been damaged and lost, but his account of events from around 69 BCE to 46 CE, thankfully, remain remarkably whole. In particular, Dio’s volumes on the reign of Emperor Augustus (c. 27 BCE- 14 AD) are still regarded as one of the most comprehensive Augustan histories from the ancient world.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Top picture attribution: (Cicero Denounces Catiline (zoomed and cropped) painted by Cesare Maccari (1840–1919), c. 1889, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Source:

• The Roman History by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987.  
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Septimius-Severus 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dio-Cassius 

Augustus Never Used The Name “Octavian”

Historians have given Julius Caesar’s great-nephew (and later adopted son) the name, Octavian. In reality, the name of this important figure is much more complicated. The man known today as Octavian actually was called, Gaius Octavius, a name he would use until he was eighteen years old.

The assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BCE, was the trigger that led to Gaius Octavius’ first change of name. In his last will and testament, Julius Caesar posthumously adopted Gaius Octavius as his son and named the youth as his heir. To strengthen his ties to the fallen dictator’s legacy, Gaius Octavius then took upon himself the name of his adoptive father—Gaius Julius Caesar.

The man we know of as Octavian actually used the name “Caesar” for around seventeen years, persisting even a few years after Marc Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. In 27 BCE, on the suggestion of Lucius Munatius Plancus, the second Caesar accepted his third name, Augustus.

Ancient Roman historians, including Cassius Dio (c. 163-235 CE; writer of the most complete ancient account of Augustus’ reign), also never used the name, Octavian. When addressing Gaius Octavius after 44 BCE, the ancient historians simply called him, Caesar, until he officially adopted the name of Augustus in 27 BCE. Understandably, having two successive dictatorial military leaders known by the name of Caesar can ultimately become confusing to readers, so later historians thankfully began referring to Julius Caesar’s heir as Octavian, for the sake of simplicity.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Top picture attribution: (Augustus of Prima Porta, c. 1st century CE, located in the Vatican Museum, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus (Books 50-56) by Cassius Dio, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert and introduced by John Carter. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987.