Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

Introduction xv

himself,whoclaimedtohaveaddedEgypt‘‘totheimperiumoftheRoman
people’’(Res Gestae).
Evenifthisclaimistakentobemendaciousormerelysymbolic,assome
scholarshaveargued,thequestionforhistoriansiswhyitwasimportantfor
Augustustohavemadesuchaclaimpubliclyin..,longaftertheestab-
lishment of the monarchy. In other words, if popular politics were onlya
symbolic charade during the Republic, why was it necessary for the most
powerful man in the Mediterranean world to keep up the charade during
theempire?
Whatever we make of Augustus’ public claim to have added Egypt to
thejurisdictionoftheRomanpeople,itshouldbeobviousthatwecannot
understandeitherthepoliticsoftheRomanRepublicorthehistoricaltran-
sitionfromtheres publicatothemonarchy—whatRonaldSymedeemedthe
‘‘RomanRevolution’’—ifweleavetheRomancitizenbody(Quirites)orthe
Romanpeople(populus Romanus)outofouraccount.Indeed,althoughMil-
lar himself never says so explicitly in anyof the essays collected here, it is
possibletoargueonthebasisoftheevidencehecitesintheseessaysthatthe
secondRomanmonarchyitselfwasoneofthe(unintended)consequences
ofthestrugglebetweensomeofthenobilesandthepopulus Romanusoverthe
question of who was the sovereign power in theres publica.Ifwelookat
thebreakdownoftheRomanRepublicfromthisperspective,wemightsee
theemergenceofamonarchfromamongthenobilesin..asanironic
victoryforthatdemocraticelementintheRomanconstitution,theRoman
people.
Indeed,articlesincludedinpartIII,‘‘TheAugustanRevolution,’’which,at
thetimeofpublication,rightlyachievedclassicstatusforthewaytheyuseda
varietyofliteraryanddocumentarysourcesfromaroundtheMediterranean
worldtore-definethenatureofthechangefromrepublictomonarchy,as
reflected upon bycontemporaries, nowcan be seen to have foreshadowed
Millar’slaterandimplicitchallengetoourinterpretationofthenatureofthe
‘‘Roman Revolution’’ itself. For instance,we now should see the case Mil-
larmadeforthepersistenceofvotesbytheSenateandthepeoplethrough
theTriumviralperiodinhisarticle,‘‘TriumvirateandPrincipate’’(chap-
ter)tohavelaidthefoundationsforargumentsmadeinlaterarticles,such
as‘‘ImperialIdeologyintheTabulaSiarensis’’(chapter),publishedin,
aboutthecontinuingsignificanceofthepeopleinthepassageoflegislation,
evenduringtheearlyimperialperiod.
Similarly,Millar’sfullexposureinofhowmodernscholarsunjusti-
fiably have imposed on the ancient evidence an item of terminology, ‘‘the
senatorialprovinces’’in‘‘‘Senatorial’Provinces:AnInstitutionalizedGhost’’