Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (31 page)

In 29 BCE Maecenas’ friend Vergil began his epic work, the
Aeneid
. In recounting the tale of Aeneas’ flight from Troy in the wake of the victory of the Greeks and his quest to found a new Illium, Vergil cleverly weaved in references to contemporary people and events. Agrippa makes few appearances in the great work, but he does so both allegorically and by name. The calming of a great storm that befalls Aeneas at sea by Neptunus is a political simile for an unidentified man who quells and soothes the raging spirits of a riotous crowd with his words.
⁶⁷
Some scholars have identified this individual as Caesar, and equated the tempest to the civil discord in Rome. If Aeneas is an allegory for Caesar, then his Achates is Agrippa, who takes a leading role in raising the spirits of his drenched comrades:

In a subsequent simile, Aeneas’ companion shoots three deer in a hunting scene:

The three deer, which lead their respective columns of followers through the countryside, represent Augustus’ opponents during the Civil War, M. Antonius, M. Lepidus and Sex. Pompeius. When Aeneas slays each deer, those following them become a rabble (
vulgus
) who seek shelter, like the unruly mob evoked in the sea storm scene. Aeneas is able to calm the grieving spirits of his companions fatigued from struggle with a speech in the same manner the unnamed individual quels the riotous crowd of the earlier episode.

Incrementally, but irreversibly, the state institutions were falling under Caesar’s control. What role Agrippa played in this process is not recorded, but it is virtually certain that Caesar consulted him both as a close friend (
amicus
) and as a personal advisor (
auctor
) just as he had done since March 44 BCE.
⁷⁰
The objectives they set for a new vision of Rome seem to have been to create apparatus that would preserve the stability of the state so that powerful men acting in their own self interests could no longer tear the republic apart, and to make the government administration fit to run a sprawling world empire. This would not be an autocracy: there would be no king, as in Rome’s earliest times; nor would there be a perpetual
dictator
as Iulius Caesar had fleetingly become.
⁷¹
The challenge was to make far reaching reforms of the
Res Publica
while retaining its character as a democratic body of free citizens operating as a nation based on the rule of law.

In pursuit of his reforms, Caesar resuscitated the office of
censor
which had stood unfilled since the civil wars. This ancient magistracy, dating back to the Roman monarchy, performed three functions, which were to conduct a census of the population every five years, to uphold standards of public morality and to administer the public finances, including the superintendence of public buildings and the erection of all new public works.
⁷²
Two censors were appointed annually. In 28 BCE Caesar assumed the office with Agrippa as his colleague and, following a purification ceremony (
lustratio
), together they immediately embarked on a purge of the Senate.
⁷³
The Senate, whose membership had swollen to as many as 1,000 after the civil war, was scaled down to its original number of just 300 men.
⁷⁴
Faced with intrusive examinations by the censors 50 willingly withdrew their names, but 140 were compelled to surrender their membership on the grounds of unsuitability or disqualification.
⁷⁵
Caesar rewarded his own loyal followers and admitted many of the new patrician families created under the
Lex Saenia
into the Senate.
⁷⁶
In a move designed to prevent meddling in the affairs of the legions in the provinces, senators wishing to travel outside Italy – except Sicily and Narbonensis – now had to ask permission from Caesar.
⁷⁷
However, to reassure senators that there would be no witch hunt to root out men with past loyalties to M. Antonius, Caesar burned all the private correspondence with the late
triumvir
.
⁷⁸
By the end of the year the census of the population, commissioned by Caesar and Agrippa in their official capacity, was completed. The tally of Roman citizens came to 4,063,000.
⁷⁹
In recognition of its completion Caesar himself was recognized as
Princeps Senatus
, the ‘First Man of the Senate’, historically a position voted to the member of the Senate thought most worthy, although the honorific title itself did not entitle him to summon meetings.
⁸⁰
A lustration ceremony officially closed the census taking process.

As a religious people, it was important to the Romans that they actively maintained the goodwill of the gods for the continued health and prosperity of their
Res Publica
. In keeping with the responsibilities of his office of
censor
and his public spirited approach, Imperator Caesar began restoring the temples which had become derelict from years of neglect beginning with the Temple of Iupiter Feretrius located above the
Forum Romanum
on the Palatinus Hill, and which at this time stood roofless.
⁸¹
In this modestly sized sacred building, regarded by many Romans as the city’s first temple dating back to Romulus, successful generals had brought back their war spoils in gratitude to Iupiter for enabling their victories, the great M. Claudius Marcellus among them. Augustus’ personal favourite god, Apollo, received particular attention. He dedicated a temple to him on the Palatinus Hill close to his own house, complete with colonnaded square and a library.
⁸²
To involve the populace, a festival and games were organized in honour of Apollo Actius. During the period of post-war euphoria, the Senate had voted games to be held in honour of Caesar and his victory at the Battle of Actium.
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The first of these was held this year, which Caesar and Agrippa attended in person.
⁸⁴
During this celebration the boys and men of the nobility took part in the Circensian Games, held in a specially constructed wooden stadium erected for the purpose in the
Campus Martius
, comprising a gymnastic contest and gladiatorial combats between captives. The festivities lasted several days, but when Augustus was taken ill, Agrippa continued attending the games to represent them both. The altruism of Caesar and Agrippa contrasted greatly with the excessively self-indulgent approach of disgraced
triumvir
Antonius.

The process of political reforms now moved into a higher gear. For months Caesar and his close friends had been quietly discussing a profound transformation and redistribution of power that would be presented as the republic restored to the People of Rome. He would be careful to present the transition as a process involving the Senate and Roman People in a collective effort of support for the
Res Publica
intended for the good of all.
⁸⁵
The extent of Agrippa’s involvement in developing the proposal for reform of the government is not known, but it is likely to have been very great.
⁸⁶
In 27 BCE Agrippa assumed the consulship for the third time (
plate 26
), with Caesar, for the seventh.
⁸⁷
The next phase of the reform plan was finally revealed on 13 January. In a carefully stage-managed manoeuvre, Caesar proffered his resignation from the Senate.
⁸⁸
His supporters responded with agitated pleas for him to stay on. Others, aghast at what they were witnessing, were uncertain what to do. Even those who were not enthusiastic supporters of Caesar would prefer to keep the
status quo
rather than return to the conditions which had lead to decades of civil war. To entice him, many in the Senate offered him authority as proconsul over Rome’s dominions abroad – effectively giving him control of the Roman Empire save for Italy. Without hesitation, Caesar accepted. It is interesting to note that Dio reports that, aware of the risk to himself, Caesar’s first act was to secure a decree granting to the men who would serve as his bodyguard double the pay given to the regular soldiers, so that his person would be strictly guarded.
⁸⁹

Three days later, with Agrippa sitting in the Senate House beside him as fellow consul, Caesar presented his case for the division of the provinces. The empire was to be divided into proconsular and propraetorian territories, which Strabo calls respectively ‘provinces of the People’ and ‘provinces of Caesar’.
⁹⁰
The Senate would retain control of the proconsular provinces, which were largely the prosperous administrative areas around the Mediterranean, comprising Africa, Numidia, Asia, Greece with Epirus, the Dalmatian and Macedonian districts, Sicily, Crete and the Cyrenaic portion of Libya, Bithynia with Pontus which adjoined it, Sardinia and Baetica.
⁹¹
The governors of these provinces would be proconsuls picked by lot on an annual basis by the Senate. In partnership with the Senate, and initially only for a period of ten years, Caesar agreed to take sole responsibility for the propraetorian – the so-called imperial provinces – located mostly on the frontiers with the legal right to appoint the men to run them.
⁹²
These men were his hand-picked
legati
, each deputized to act in Caesar’s name and served him for a period of three years. The Senate acceded to his request. He now had direct control of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, the three Gallic provinces of Aquitania, Comata and Belgica, Narbonensis, Coele-Syria, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus and newly acquired Aegyptus.
⁹³
Significantly the majority of the legions and auxiliary units were stationed in the imperial provinces, effectively giving Caesar direct control of the army (
exercitus
) too.
⁹⁴
Yet Caesar agreed to share control of the public treasury, accepting responsibility to pay for the repairs to the
Via Flaminia
himself while the Senate agreed to pay for the upkeep of all other roads in Italy.
⁹⁵

For his generosity and willingness to term limit his powers, Caesar was voted the honorific title
Augustus
, a word meaning ‘the revered one’.
⁹⁶
The name did not carry any legal power as such – he already had authority (
auctoritas
) derived from his military achievements and direct association with the Divine Iulius, and power (
potestas
) by virtue of being a tribune – but it did come with the soft power derived from its religious connotation, indicating that a person was sacred or worthy of worship.
⁹⁷
Henceforth it was the name by which he was called during his own times, and is still best known today. Imperator Caesar Augustus
Divi filius
was also voted a raft of new honours, using symbols designed to evoke age old traditions. As the man who, by his deeds, had saved the lives of so many fellow citizens –
ob cives servatos
– he was permitted to grow a laurel tree outside his house on the Palatinus Hill, and from his front door he could hang a wreath made of leafy oak twigs, emblems which were promoted on coins.
⁹⁸
The Senate granted him the right to display the
clipeus virtutis
, a golden ‘Shield of Virtue’, in the
Curia
, upon which were inscribed his cardinal virtues of courage, clemency, justice and duty.
⁹⁹
About the same time, to make his new allegiance absolutely clear, in Iudaea a grateful Herodes celebrated the Battle of Actium with games of his own. It mattered not that he had been on Antonius’ side at the time. He also founded a new city designed in the Hellenistic style and called it Sebastia.
¹⁰⁰

The year 27 BCE had been an important one for Augustus and Agrippa. The heir of Iulius Caesar had achieved much of what his adoptive father had in securing power for himself, but without losing his life in accomplishing it. Sensitive to accusations that the constitutional arrangement was a thin veneer disguising what was in practice virtually an autocracy, Augustus decided to leave Rome before winter set in. He would be away for three years, addressing myriad matters in his imperial provinces in the west. In his absence he entrusted the running of the city to the one man who above all others he could trust, M. Agrippa. The decision Agrippa had made to stand by his friend had paid off and seventeen years later he had the ear and confidence of the most powerful man in the empire. Where Augustus had used the last three years to reform Rome’s political structure, Agrippa would use the next three to transform the city itself.

In the opinion of the Roman polymath Pliny the Elder, Agrippa was ‘a man who was naturally more attached to rustic simplicity than to refinement’.
¹⁰¹
The evidence, however, actually points to a more refined artistic sensibility. The man who had proved himself to be a great organizer of men and materials, whether building fleets or fixing sewers, was a collector of fine art, but not for his own exclusive enjoyment. His position as aedile provided him the opportunity to encourage a broader appreciation of paintings and statues across Roman society. Agrippa gave a speech, much admired by Pliny, but which no longer survives, ‘on the advantage of exhibiting in public all pictures and statues – a practice which would have been far preferable to sending them into banishment at our country-houses’.
¹⁰²
He purchased sculptures to adorn his own buildings and also ordered small paintings to be set in marble in the very hottest room of his public baths where they remained on view until they were removed during repairs.
¹⁰³