This is the first formal agreement between Octavian and the Senate as pertains to governmental changes that begin the transition from Republic to Principate. These changes are incremental but transformative. The offices of the cursus honorum (Quaestor, Aedile, Praetor, Propraetor, Consul, Proconsul, and Censor) are preserved. But Octavian is able to hold some of these offices simultaneously and over extended periods of time. In the right combination (that of Consul, Proconsul and Censor), these offices give him de jure executive, legislative and judicial power in addition to de facto power (his control of key provinces, of most of the legions and his great personal wealth). Other key elements of power relate to the personal qualities of the man; his auctoritas, his amicitia. These are not the formal attributes of any of the magistracies of the cursus honorum, but rather the necessary personal qualities that a candidate must have in order to hold those offices in the first place.

Imperium consulares: refers to the authority of a consul. This office gives him imperium, legal authority, within the boundaries, within the pomerium, of the city of Rome. The office of Consul has administrative, legislative and judicial as well as military powers. Certain religious duties also come with the office. During the time of war, a consul has imperium outside of Rome when in command of the legions. Octavian exercises the consular imperium (imperium consulares) in the following years: 43, 33, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 5, and 2 BC. This is not unprecedented.  Pompey exercised similar consular authority. In later years, when Octavian exercised only proconsular imperium, he was given a senatorial dispensation and allowed to exercise consular imperium as well.

The imperium of consuls is derived, theoretically at least, from the people who were represented by the Assembly, Comitia Curiata, which passes a law at the beginning of the magistrate’s term of office called the lex curiata de imperio.*

*It has been argued that the lex curiata de imperio had no legal force but was merely a pro forma recognition that an elected magistrate already possessed imperium in his person. This possession of imperium was implied by the magistrate’s election and by the personal qualities that allowed him to stand for and acquire office.

Imperium maius: meaning great legal authority; this power usually adheres to the office of a senior consul, and to more rarely held offices—Master of Horse and Dictator. A magistrate with imperium maius outranks every other magistrate.

Imperium proconsulare: applies power, imperium (legal authority), that a proconsul can exercise in the provinces but never within the boundaries of the city of Rome.

The Senate is reduced in power to a council of state; primarily an advisory body and a source of administrative talent. With executive power concentrated in one person, Octavian’s government takes on the characteristics of his private household.  Here is a description from Mommsen:

In bypassing the Senate, Octavian depended upon his “familia” to get things done. This extended to the management of state finances where he employed competent but socially insignificant “friends” like the Phoenician merchant Lucius Cornelius Balbus from Gades.

The allocation of governorships of the provinces was somewhat different. Here it depended upon the nature of the province. Egypt was unique in its organization and wealth. Because it was a command economy and extremely wealthy, it was governed directly by Octavian and his representatives.

This personal system of Octavian was also applied to the provinces and was far superior to the senatorial system under the republic; an annual visitation of kleptocrats who extracted what they could during their 12-month tenure, leaving behind destitution and misery.

He is given imperium to directly govern select provinces (designated as imperial provinces, usually of strategic value) through propraetors (Spain, Gaul, Syria along with Cilicia and Cyprus, and Egypt) for 10 years.

The following provinces are designated as senatorial provinces, to be governed by members of the senate, allocated by lot:

Africa (consular), Numidia, Libya and Cyrene, Illyricum, Macedonia, Sicily, Crete, Asia (consular), Greece with Epirus, Baetica, in Spain, Bithynia and Pontus, Sardinia and Corsica

He is given the right to declare war and make treaties; the right to appoint military tribunes from the Equites class; appoint procurators (for taxing the provinces).

Power restored to traditional magistracies, but Augustus is given proconsular imperium maius, power superior to all other magistrates. He is also given tribunician power (tribunicia potestas) (the right to veto any proposed legislation and the right to introduce legislation).

Octavian prosecutes the war in Spain against the Cantabrians and Asturians

The war lasts from 28 BC to 19 BC. War brought to a close by Agrippa through “massacre and enslavement…upon a desolated land.”

Agrippa perceives Augustus promoting Marcellus, perhaps at his expense. With Marcellus’ marriage to Julia (Augustus’ daughter), Agrippa decides to take a proconsular appointment in the East.

The second constitutional settlement was a clarification of Octavian’s powers vis-à-vis the state. With his resignation of consular office, which he had held continuously, Octavian was able to exercise imperium without holding consular office.

Tribunicia potestas: tribunician power is derived from the people. Tribunes of the plebs, tribuni plebis, were nominated in the Assembly and voted on by the plebs. The tribune’s person was inviolate and protected by the plebs. By the time of Octavian, tribunes could veto any law, whether originating in the Senate or the Assemblies or with any magistrate.

• Resignation of the consulship (After 23, Augustus only held the office twice, in 5 B. C. and 2 B.C., to preside over the introduction of his adopted sons into public life.)
• In ROME: the grant of tribunicia potestas (the status and privileges, but not the burdens of the office, of a Tribune of the People). This gave Augustus the right to veto any actions of any magistrate(s), Senate, or Assemblies that did not suit him.
• Special grants (to compensate for the powers lost with the renunciation of the annual consulship):
  • The right to a seat on the Consuls’ platform at the front of the Senate House
  • The right of speaking first at a Senate Meeting (ius primae relationis)
  • The right to summon a meeting of the Senate
  • The curia annonae, care of Rome’s grain supply (which brought patronage over the Plebs)
• In the Provinces: imperium maius proconsulare
  • The right to govern his own provinces and armies
  • The right to interfere in any other governor’s province when Augustus deemed it necessary (cf. the Cyrene Edicts)

Aqua Virgo, the aqueduct built by Agrippa is indicated in red. This aqueduct ceased to function with the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD) but was restored during the Renaissance. Today it feeds, among other things, the Trevi fountain.

Tiberius and Drusus conquer Pannonia and campaign against Germanic Tribes.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa dies.

Tiberius conquers Germania inferior

Military conflict between an alliance of Illyrian tribes (Andizetes, Breuci, Daesitiates, Dalmatae, Dardanians, Japones, Liburnians, Pannonians, and Pirustae) and Rome. The war lasted from 6 AD to 9 AD. The war was, in fact, a revolt against harsh Roman rule.

The revolt started when Daesitiates troops, destined for the conflict with the Germans in the north under the command of Tiberius mutinied and defeated a Roman force sent against them. Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, the governor of Dalmatia and Pannonia, advanced with an army. Augustus raised a second force under Germanicus. The Romans sent 100,000 men.  Germanicus and his army were defeated. Tiberius came to his aid and ended the war by taking the city of Andetrium forcing Bato the Daesitiate and his forces to surrender.  The Illyrian tribes were broken up into different groups. Many tribe members were sold into slavery.  Bato was exiled to Ravenna. The Roman soldiers who fought in the Bellum Batonianum campaign were unhappy with their retirement allotments (land in Pannonia) and they mutinied.  Tiberius, now Princeps, sent his son Drusus to deal with the situation.

Judaea becomes a Roman province

Germania inferior and the Rhine secured by Germanicus

Three Roman Legions (XVII, XVIII and XIX) under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus were exterminated by Arminius leading an alliance of Germanic tribes—the Cherusci, Marsi, Chatti, Bructeri, Chauci, Sicambi and Suebi—in the three-day battle of the Teutoberg forest.

Augustus dies. Tiberius becomes Princeps.