Augustus, the Roman Plebs and the Dictatorship

doi:10.1017/9781108641166.016

Chapter 8 - Augustus, the Roman Plebs and the Dictatorship

22 bce and Beyond

from Part III - Inversions of the People: Emperors and Tyrants

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2021

Alexander Yakobson

Edited by

Hans Beck and

Griet Vankeerberghen

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Hans Beck: Affiliation:
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Griet Vankeerberghen: Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal

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Summary

In 22 bce, amidst a crisis caused by an acute grain shortage, the Roman populace offered the office of dictator to Augustus, who turned this offer down in a particularly dramatic fashion. He is said to have knelt before the people, imploring them to desist when they were pressing him to accept this invidious power. The grain shortage, as Augustus relates in the Res Gestae, was then quickly and successfully solved by him without resorting to dictatorship, with the help of a much more modest and specific power of ‘managing the corn supply’ which he agreed to take. The incident seems highly instructive as regards the public image that Augustus sought to project, the way he and his rule were regarded by the people, and the relations between him and the populace in the early years of his rule as princeps.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China , pp. 269 - 299

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108641166.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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