Imperial Ideology in the Tabula Siarensis TacitusisthusguiltyofsomedistortioninhisaccountofeventsinRome,
infocusingsoexclusivelyontheSenate,andonscenesandvotesintheSen-
ate.Soarewe,andinsomerespectsmoreso.Tacitusatleastwasquiteclear
thatprovincesgovernedbyproconsulsappointedbylotwerecalled‘‘public
provinces’’ (publicae provinciae)(Ann. , ).We frequentlycall them ‘‘sena-
torial’’provinces.Buttheonlycontemporarydescriptionofthedivisionof
theprovincesasitwasunderAugustus,thatofStrabointheGeography(),
statesunambiguouslythatthedivision,whichinanycaserelatedonlytothe
methodofappointment,wasbetweentheEmperorandthedemos,thatisthe
Romanpeople.^10
Thenewtextalsohappenstoillustrateperfectlythefactthatthedistinc-
tionbetweenthetwotypesofprovincewasnotanadministrativeone.The
Senate,tobefollowedbythepeople,determinestheemplacementofmonu-
ments in the imperial province of Syria and on the Rhine, both of which
wereareastowhichtheemperorsentlegates(legati)selectedbyhimself(Tab.
Sia.fr.a,,ll.–;CILVI,aRoman Statutes,no./,Romefr.a).
Thearrangementsforthedistributionofthetexttoprovincialcoloniesand
foritsposting-upbyprovincialgovernors(Tab. Sia.fr.b,,.–)also
makenodistinctionbetweenthetwotypesofprovince.
Theempireasawholeinanycaseremained,intheofficiallanguageof
the time, the attribute of the Roman people, in which formal sovereignty
stillresided.AugustushimselfintheRes Gestaemakesthisclear:‘‘Iextended
the territories of all the provinces of the Roman people’’ (, ); ‘‘I added
EgypttotheimperiumoftheRomanpeople’’(.):‘‘ThepeoplesofPanno-
nia,whohaveneverseenarmiesoftheRomanpeoplebeforemyprincipate
[antemeprincipem],havingbeendefeated[subdued]bymysonTiberiusNero,
IbroughtundertheimperiumoftheRomanpeople’’(,).Sometimesthe
expressionofsovereigntyisindeedblurred;thatistosay,theemperormay
appearinthistext,theRes Gestae,notmerelyasanagentofthesovereign
Roman people but as a second sovereign: ‘‘myarmycompelled the Dacian
peoples to submit to theimperiumof the Roman people’’ (, ); or ‘‘The
peoplesofGermanythroughtheirenvoyssoughtmyfriendshipandthatof
theRomanpeople’’(.).Nonetheless,theessentialmilitaryrolewhichis
stressedintheResGestaeisthatoftheimperatorwhoachieveshisconquestsfor
theRomanpeople,whoseimperiumisthusincreased:‘‘Egypthavingbecome
subjecttothepoweroftheRomanpeople,’’asAugustusexpresseditonthe
basesoftwoobeliskswhichheinstalledinRome(ILS).VelleiusPatercu-
lus,writingafewyearsafterthecompositionofthetextwhichtheTabula
. F.Millar,‘‘TheEmperor,theSenateandtheProvinces,’’JRS():(chapter
inthisvolume).