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

The Roman City-State under the Emperors 

tionofthefirstfulltextoftheTabulaSiarensis^43 beforeanyonepublisheda
combinedtextofboththetwomaininscriptionsandthefragments.Thisis
nowavailable,alongwithanEnglishtranslation,inthemajorworkedited
byMichaelCrawford,Roman Statutes.^44 Buttherehasstillbeennofullstudy
ofthecombinedtextofsomelines.Alongwiththecompositedecreeof
theSenateembodyingthevariousvotesoftheSenateafterPiso’sdeath,to
whichwewillcomeinamoment,itrepresentsbyfarthebestevidencewhich
wehaveforthepublicideology,therhetoric,andtheevolvinginstitutions
oftheearlyEmpire.
Onlyafewfeaturesofthetextcanbeunderlinedhere:theself-conscious
emphasisonthepropagationoftheapprovedpublicideologythroughthe
putting-upofwrittentexts,inRome,Italy,andtheprovinces;thenewpoliti-
calandceremonialtopographyofRome,withthe‘‘tumulus,’’whichwecall
theMausoleum,thetempleofApolloonthePalatine,wheretheSenatenow
regularly met, the temple of Mars Ultor, and the as yet unbuilt temple of
DivusAugustus;thenewelementsofthereligiouscalendar,withtheLudi
Augustales,institutedin..;thenewroleoftheequitesbelongingtothe
decuriae(panels)ofjurymen,whonowhadaplaceintheconstitutionalorder,
votinginthecenturiateassemblyinnewcenturiesalongwiththesenators.I
willnotdwellonthedetailsconcerningvoting.Itisenoughtomentionthat
theTabulaHebanaconfirmswhatweknewanywayfromPlinytheYounger
andCassiusDio,thatmeetingsoftheassembliesforvotinginelectionscon-
tinuedthroughtheJulio-Claudianperiod,andindeedlongafterit.^45 When
Tacitus wrote baldly that in.. ‘‘the elections were then for the first
time transferred to thepatres[the Senate],’’^46 hewas referring to the prac-
ticeofarrangingasinglelistofnamestogobeforethepeople.Butthevital
principleremained in force, that public office could only be conferred bya
popularvote.

. J.González,‘‘TabulaSiarensis,FortunalesSiarensisetMunicipiaCiviumRomano-
rum,’’ZPE():;AE,no.;González(n.),no..
. M.H.Crawford,ed.,Roman StatutesI–II(),nos.–(vol.I,pp.–).
. Pliny,Pan. , : ‘‘The Roman people saw you [Trajan] in that ancient seat of its
power; you endured that long ritual of the assembly’’ (Vidit te populus Romanus in illa
veterepotestatissuaesede;perpessuseslongumilludcarmencomitiorum);,:‘‘wewere
proclaimed[consuls]byyourvoicesothatforourpublichonoursthesameperson[your-
self] came forward as our sponsor in the Senate house and our returning officer in the
Campus’’ (tua voce renuntiati sumus, ut idem honoribus nostris suffragator in curia, in
campodeclaratorexisteres).CassiusDio,,;,,.
.Ann.,,.