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

 The Augustan Revolution

Illyrica/thatthepeopleratifiedit.However,in..theSenateand
PeoplecertainlypassedaLexSaeniaallowingOctaviantocreatepatricians,^39
andvotedtheprivilegetoStatiliusTaurusmentionedabove.
TheSenateactingwithoutthepeopleinsubstantivemattersappearseven
more frequently. In , according to Florus (, ) the senators declared
L. Antonius a public enemy. In  they condemned Salvidienus Rufus to
death,votedthe‘‘care’’(cura)ofthecitytotheTriumvirs,^40 andratifiedthe
grantofthekingdomofJudaeatoHerod.^41 Intheyratifiedalltheoffi-
cial acts of theTriumvirs down to that time.^42 More traditional functions
continuedaswell;in,ontheadviceofthepontifices,theSenateordered
theremovalofthebonesofamanwhomthepopulacehadhonouredwith
burialontheCampusMartius.^43
Then,ignoringvariousvotesinfavourofOctavian,^44 wemaynotethat
the Senate declared Antonius a public enemy, presumably in —and that
onesenatorvotedagainst.^45 Itwasapparentlysubsequentlytothisthatthey
votedtotakedowntheimageofAntoniusandcancelthehonoursvotedto
him(Plut.,Cic.);andintoclosethegatesofthetempleofJanus(RG
;Dio,,).
Nobodywouldarguethattheformalexerciseoftheirtraditionalfunc-
tionsbytheSenateandPeopledemonstratesthecontinuanceofthefreeplay
of politics. But the evidence does seem to indicate that the institutions of
theres publicathemselves persisted through the Triumviral period. More-
over theTriumvirs not only, as we shall see (texts to nn. –), made re-
peatedpromisestorestoreeffectivepowertotherepublicaninstitutions,but
showed considerable concern to have theiractions formallyapproved and
ratifiedbythetraditionalorgansofthestate.Thisinterminglingoftheexer-
ciseofindividualpowerandoftheroleandinfluenceoftherepublicaninsti-
tutions comes out veryclearly in the nowextensive dossierof Triumviral
documents.

.RG;Tac.,Ann.,,cf.Dio,,.Forotherpossiblelawsofthisperiod,see
G.Rotondi,Leges publicae populi Romani(),–.
. Dio,,–.
. Josephus,Ant.,,–(–).Forthedateandcircumstances,seenowE.Schü-
rer,The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ,ed.G.VermesandF.Millar,I
(),.
. Dio,,.
.Dio,,–.
. E.g.,Appian,BC,/,;Dio,,;,;Appian,Illyrica/.
. Appian,BC,/.