The Roman Republic
and Augustus the old Forum, a large open space for public use, began its
transformationintoacrowdedsitefordynasticmonuments,whosehighly
confusingremainsconfrontustoday.Thecentralelementinitwasnowthe
templeoftheDeifiedJulius,dedicatedin..Betweenitandtheancient
templeofCastorandPolluxstoodanewarchofAugustus,constructedto
celebratethevictoryofActium.Ontheothersideofthetemple,between
itandtheBasilicaAemilia,theremaysubsequentlyhavebeenconstructed
anothertriplearch,builttocelebratetherecoveryofthestandardsfromPar-
thia,andcompletedin–..Itwasonthesidesofthecentralspanof
this arch, so Coarelli has argued, that there were placed the great marble
slabswhoseremainswecannowseeintheCapitolineMuseum,andwhich
containedtheinscriptionsoftheFasti TriumphalesandFasti Consulares.^19 The
listsofpeoplewhohadheldatriumphinRome(triumphatores)andofcon-
sulswerethusperpetuatedonstone,andputuponanimperialmonument
attheverycentreofRome,fortheinstructionandedificationofthepublic.
ThehistoryofrepublicanRomewasthusformallyre-emphasizedjustatthe
momentwhenitwasbecoming,inacertainsense,irrelevant.
The list oftriumphatores, as inscribed, concludes with L. Cornelius Bal-
bus,proconsulofAfrica,whosetriumphwascelebratedin..Butafter
..,asitturnedout,noonewouldeveragaincelebrateatriumph,except
membersoftheimperialfamily;^20 andtheconsulatewouldrapidlybecome
somethingwhichwasgivenout,bypatronage,bytheemperor.Atallevents
theprocessofestablishingfixedlistsoftriumphatoresandconsuls,andoffreez-
ing the official version on stone,was onewhich derived directly from the
antiquarianobsessionsofthelateRepublic,andfromthescholarlyactivities
ofwhichAtticus’workwasoneexample.
ButAtticushadalsohadasecondpurpose,toenablecontemporariesto
knowfromwhichfamousmeninthepastindividualsintheirowntimede-
scended. Not unnaturally, his senatorial friends found this gratifying. As a
consequence,therefore,hefoundhimselfcomposingawholeseriesofsepa-
ratefamilyhistories,beginningwithahistoryoftheJunianfamily,whichhe
wroteattherequestofBrutus.Inthishelistedthemembersofthefamily,
fromitsorigintothepresentday,recordingwhowaswhoseson,andwhat
. OnthetransformationoftheForum,seeP.Zanker,Forum Romanum: die Neugestal-
tung durch Augustus(Tübingen, ), and now of course the major re-examination by
F. Coarelli,Il Foro RomanoII:periodo repubblicano e augusteo(Rome, ), esp. –; his
re-constructionoftheplacingoftheFastiisfollowedhere.
. On the progressive monopolization of public honour by the Imperial family, see
esp.W. Eck, ‘‘Senatorial Self-Representation: Developments in the Augustan Period,’’ in
MillarandSegal(n.),.