The Augustan Revolution
..^96 HereLivydescribestheSenate’sreactiontoadeterminedandpatri-
otic speech by L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, consul in ..: ‘‘the uplifted
senatorsbelievedthattheres publicahadbeenrestored.’’^97 ‘‘Respublica’’here
means ‘‘the state’’ or ‘‘the condition of public affairs,’’ and certainlycannot
meananythinglike‘‘theRepublic.’’
This passage also serves to emphasize that, even if it were the case that
contemporarysourcesconsistentlyused‘‘respublicarestituta’’ofthechange
completedin,thisisnotlikelytohavemeantthat‘‘theRepublicwasre-
stored.’’ In fact it is remarkable, firstly, how little reflection the event has
incontemporaryliterature—nothinginVirgil,HoraceorPropertiusechoes
it—and,secondly,howvariedaretheexpressionsusedinthoseliteraryand
documentarysourceswhichdorefertoit.Theexpression‘‘respublicaresti-
tuta’’isusedalmostcertainlyintheLaudatioTuriae(textton.),ii,,‘‘the
worldhavingbeenpacified,[and]theres publicarestored’’;andpossiblyinthe
Fasti PraenestiniforJanuary:^98
[TheSenatedecreed]thatanoakcrownshouldbefixedabovethedoor
to Caesar Augustus’ house [because he restored theres publica]to the
Romanpeople.It must be emphasised that these two cases are theonlyones in which the
expressionisused,ormaybeused.InOvid,Fasti,underJanuary,aquite
different formulation appears (, –): ‘‘all the provinces have been re-
storedtoourpeople,andyourgrandfatherwascalledbythenameAugus-
tus.’’Alternatively,coinsof/..have‘‘vindicatorofthelibertyofthe
Romanpeople’’(Libertatis p.R. vindex).^99 Whatmightbetakenasareference
totherestorationofpoliticallibertyisinfactmorepreciselyareferenceto
theendofthecivilwar;thereverseofthecoinshas‘‘peace’’(pax),andthe
FastinoteonAugust‘‘sinceonthisdayImperatorCaesarsonofthedeified
Juliusdeliveredtheres publicafromterribledanger.’’^100
OurmostgeneralstatementcomesfromtheloyalistVelleius;indescrib-
ingthegeneralsettlementofaffairsaftertheendofthecivilwarsheechoes
inpartthewordsofCiceroaddressingJuliusCaesarinPro Marcello:‘‘Itis
foryoualone[todo],GaiusCaesar,...thecourtsmustbere-established,
. R.M.Ogilvie,A Commentary on Livy Books–(),.
.Livy,,.
.CILI^2 p.;Degrassi,Ins. It.XIII,(),–.
.R.I.C.I,Augustusno.;C.H.V.Sutherland,Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy,
B.C.–A.D.(),;C.H.V.Sutherland,N.Olcay,andK.E.Merrington,TheCistophori
of Augustus(),–.
. A.Degrassi,Inscriptiones ItaliaeXIII,(),(Fasti Amiternini);cf.pp.,.