Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (54 page)

Both were ‘men of extraordinary capabilities’, writes Reinhold.
⁴⁹
However, Maecenas may have made a serious miscalculation when he defended his brother-in-law who was implicated in a conspiracy to assassinate the
princeps
. After that his influence apparently waned. Agrippa proved the truth of playwright Ennius’ line, ‘a sure friend is seen in an unsure matter’.
⁵⁰
He married into Augustus’ family at his request, not once but twice, and willingly agreed for his own natural sons, Caius and Lucius, to be adopted by him. Augustus accepted him for who he was and what he could do, not for his name or ancestry. As Velleius Paterculus says of Agrippa and Statilius Taurus after him,

Augustus favoured Agrippa with power, titles, rewards, an honoured place in his family and, in the final act of love and deep respect for his friend, gave him a niche in his own mausoleum.

Secondly, the two men had a shared world vision. That was of
Res Publica restituta
– restoring the Commonwealth to the Roman people – by breaking the vice grip of a few powerful individuals who had perverted the checks and balances of the system, brought the nation to its knees and caused the terrible waste of so much blood and treasure. The modern historian Ronald Syme called it a ‘Roman revolution’, which would make Agrippa a Roman revolutionary.
⁵²
Rome was borne of many revolutions – the ousting of the kings, the struggles of the plebs to assert their rights, the accommodation of the Italian allies, Sulla’s reforms, the First Triumvirate. Augustus and Agrippa saw themselves as the responsible caretakers of a reinvigorated republic, moderating the excesses of the old system by purging and scaling down the Senate, reigning in the powers of the tribunes and people’s assemblies, but all the while operating within the rule of law and observing ancient traditions and careful not to portray themselves as tyrants. Dio writes of the apparent contradiction,

Together they ended a generation-long period of civil war and invested the peace dividend in the Roman People. Their policies continued in much the same vein as the populist agenda set by Clodius Pulcher and Iulius Caesar. By working in concord with each other and with the Senate and Roman People, they were in large measure able to fulfil their self-imposed mission, where Clodius’ and Caesar’s approach had ended in disaster. As Seneca writes of the proverb which Agrippa said he was indebted to,

The
Res Publica
, which had been conceived for a small, self-governing nation state in the aftermath of the overthrow of monarchy, could no longer function on the scale of a world empire. Agrippa had not known the Commonwealth idealized and idolized by Cicero. When he was 4-years-old Rome was ruled by three self-appointed powerful men (the First Triumvirate); by his fifteenth birthday civil war had broken out between two of them and by the time he was 20 Caesar was briefly
dictator perpetuo
, a king in all but name. Ensuring Rome had a sound future was as important to Agrippa as it was to Augustus. The question was how best to do it? Whereas Iulius Caesar had believed he was the only man who could coalesce the opposing forces and vested interests, but lost his life in the process, Augustus recognized he could not rule alone as an autocrat – nor would he be allowed to. Rome was not ready for the return of monarchy. His genius was finding a completely trustworthy man who could share the burden and to present the alliance to the world as constitutional. Agrippa was that man – and he knew it. He had proved over and over that he was a great lieutenant – the ultimate
legatus
of Augustus – but he also demonstrated that he did not want himself to be the sole head of state. Syme writes, ‘Marcus Agrippa, the loyal friend, the modest adjutant, may amuse or delude the ingenuous. This man had a fierce and concentrated ambition.’
⁵⁵
He certainly had ambition – more so than Maecenas, argues Velleius Paterculus, who was as much loved by Augustus and could have risen as high as Agrippa if he had coveted it.
⁵⁶
But Agrippa’s ambition was not to gain power for power’s sake. Dio comments, in the context of the Battle of Mylae,

Several times he was left in charge in Rome or commanded large armies with which he could have challenged his friend, or like M. Antonius threatened to break the East away from Rome’s control. He did not. It seems he was never, ever tempted. The Roman world
was
big enough for the both of them. His position already gave Agrippa great influence over policy and programmes, and in many aspects Agrippa took the lead. Agrippa seems to have been driven to use his position and power to make the world a better place, to advance Roman civilization – through his aqueducts, theatres, baths, parks and public displays of art – for the benefit of all, not just the privileged few.

Thirdly, Agrippa and Augustus were both outside the mainstream in 44 BCE, but his friend had one great advantage. He had inherited the name and legacy of the great Iulius Caesar. With that alone came tremendous authority; but when his adopted father was deified, the heir suddenly became
divus filius
, ‘son of the divine Iulius’. It was hard to for anyone to compete with a living man who could claim a direct connection with a god! Agrippa knew he would not be accepted by the
nobiles
if he ever tried to assume sole power. The aristocrats had long made plain their prejudice against him, and to assert his right would likely have provoked another civil war. Agrippa was the last man who wanted to spill more Roman blood – over a lifetime he had seen more than enough. Agrippa’s genius was to understand that he could realize his vision for Rome and achieve more for himself as Augustus’ associate than he ever could as the
princeps
himself.

While Agrippa never ruled in his own right his genes were intermingled in the blood of the
Domus Augusta
and it was his descendants who were destined for prominence. His daughter Vipsania Agrippina married Augustus’ step-son Tiberius, and through her Agrippa was grandfather to Drusus the Younger. As son-in-law to Augustus, his other daughter, Agrippina the Elder, married Germanicus, the son of Drusus the Elder (Nero Claudius Drusus), and through her Agrippa was the grandfather both of the future emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Emperor Nero – Agrippa’s great-grandson. Iulia also bore Agrippa three sons who were adopted by Augustus himself as his heirs, all of whom met tragic ends while still young men. Had they lived, and one of these succeeded him as emperor, the story of the Roman Empire may have taken a very different course.

The character of M. Agrippa displays many of the traits of the overachiever. He was ambitious, driven and motivated to do – and be – the best. He had high aspirations and dreamed big dreams. He had high expectations and held himself to an extremely high standard of performance. He applied an intensity of focus in getting the task at hand done. He was restless, always on the move or working on a project, and showed a marked sense of urgency. What was the source of his deep-seated compulsion to overachieve? It may have been an (unknown) event in his childhood, or competition with his siblings to gain the attention of his mother or father. Perhaps he was driven by the need to be accepted by his peers: the more they rejected him, the more he devoted his efforts to his friend Augustus, who truly appreciated them – and, most importantly, expressed it. For as long as his friend did so, Agrippa would serve him, unreservedly and unswervingly.

Agrippa lived a full and active life. Over fifty-one restless years he had played many parts – family man, commander, admiral, magistrate, priest, architect, diplomat, associate of Augustus, patron, benefactor and even as ‘saviour god’. He was a self-starter, strong-willed, highly-motivated, innovative and practicallyminded, politically astute and socially aware. He was driven by emotional energy, which propelled his relationships and made him competitive, but he lived by ethical principles, was loyal to his friends and did not crave the standard trappings of success. On his deathbed he could be content knowing that he had served both his country and his best friend well. To spread Roman civilization he travelled all over the known world, fighting wars against her enemies and encouraging her allies and communities to flourish. As the second most powerful man in the empire he worked with many of the most significant people of his – and, indeed, of any – age. His lasting achievement was to help establish the foundations for the
Pax Augusta
which would endure for centuries. It is entirely fitting that the name which adorns the most recognizable and complete of Roman buildings to survive down to our own time is that of M. Agrippa.

A commonwealth is a constitution of the entire people.

Res publica res populi
.

Cicero,
De Re Publica
1.39.

The Romans were very proud of their democratic system of government which they called the
Res Publica
, a fact noted by the Greek historian Polybios. It is often translated as ‘republic’, but its literal meaning is closer to ‘commonwealth’, conveying the notion of ‘things belonging to the public’. Much is understood about the constituent parts of the system, but questions about details of its operation and process remain. It is believed that it was a popular counter response to the tyranny of the kings of the eighth through sixth centuries BCE who had abused their royal authority (
regnum
). By the time of Agrippa’s birth the
Res Publica
was already four-and-a-half centuries old. Its institutions were conceived to be transparent and to operate within the explicit bounds of constitutional law (
ius
), discussed and agreed upon by assemblies of the free Roman people. At issue was the balance struck between individual freedom (
libertas
) and power to rule (
imperium
) – who held it, for how long and the manner in which it was exercised.
Imperium
– derived from the Latin
imperare
, ‘to command’ – was a military term. An individual with
imperium
could only exercise absolute authority (
auctoritas
) within the defined scope of his specific responsibility. He could be overruled by a more senior magistrate and his decisions could be vetoed – from the Latin word
veto
, ‘I forbid’.
Imperium
afforded a man immunity while he held office, but he was fully accountable for his actions once his term ended and he could be prosecuted in court if charges were brought against him, as was spectacularly demonstrated in the prosecution of the former governor of Sicily, C. Verres, by M. Tullius Cicero in 70 BCE.

Active public participation in this ancient direct democracy was its hallmark. The extent to which a citizen could participate in the
Res Publica
was determined by his birth and class. A Roman male was born into a class or order (
ordo
) and for most men it was the class he also died in. The lowest order was the mass of common people, the
plebs
. Though many were poor, however, by the accumulation of wealth through hard work from running a small business, or receiving an inheritance or by the passing of a law, a plebeian could rise up the levels of social class. A man with assessable wealth in property of 400,000
sestertii
could enter the
next level, the
ordo equester
, or ‘order of knights’, the class which had traditionally provided cavalry for Rome’s citizen army. Owning and equipping a horse was expensive and for hundreds of years, its members gained respect from long years of military service supporting the infantry. By 88 BCE the cavalry had been largely outsourced to Rome’s allies and conquered peoples, and instead many
equites
built careers as officers in the legions or auxiliary cohorts. However, with the growth of the empire after the Punic Wars, many others of its membership found success in banking, trade and increasingly through the practice of law. Winning a case for a client in court in the
Forum Romanum
came to carry as much prestige as slaying an enemy on a remote battlefield once did, and money became the new measure of a man’s standing. Nominally above the knights, patricians (
patricii
) formed the upper class of aristocrats. Traditionally patricians held the priesthoods and were responsible for managing the important transactional relationship between gods and men, ensuring the security and prosperity of the
Res Publica
. A few patrician families – the
Aemilii
,
Cornelii
,
Metelli
, being among the most prominent in early Roman history – had accumulated vast fortunes, but by Agrippa’s time, several were impoverished and some plebeians now exceeded them in wealth, while reforms of civil rights had granted them access to the priesthoods, further eroding their élite status.