The Augustan Revolution
theseareminorpointscomparedtotheessential.Bothofthetwonewtexts
revealasneverbeforethattherewasstillares publica,inwhich,inacertain
formalsense,thesovereignwastheRomanpeople.Onecoulddescribethe
Roman system of the first centuryas an autocracy, as an empire, as a con-
stitutional monarchy, as a nation-state, as a city-state, as ares publica,even
as a sort of democracy, in which constitutional powercould only be con-
ferredbythevotesofthepeople.Fewpoliticalsystemshavebeenquiteso
complexamixtureofoldandnew,autocraticandpopular,monarchicand
communal.IamnotarguingthatwithintheRomansystemofthefirstcen-
tury..the people still had any real power to choose—and, in anycase,
when Germanicus’ son Gaius was murdered in.., the peoplewere to
showunambiguouslythattheywantedanemperor.^52 ButIamarguingthat,
in a formal sense, legislation, constitutional change and the occupation of
officeallstillrequiredvalidationbyavoteofthepeople.Iamalsoarguing
thatTacitus’concentrationontheeffectivevotesintheSenatedoestendto
obscure this aspect of what the Romanres publicanow was. ReadingTaci-
tusisstillessential.Butwecannowgobeyond,orbehind,hisnarrativeto
encounter new Latin texts which we can call ‘‘documents,’’ but which are
also powerful evocations of contemporaryoratory. Far from being objec-
tivereports,theyareliteraryconstructionsinthemselves,andnolesssofor
beinginscribedonbronzetablets.Itistheseremarkable,andinmanyways
profoundlyrepellent,textsexpressingtheofficialversionoftherelationship
betweentheres publicaandtheimperialhouse,whichshouldnowprovide
ourstartingpointinstudyingtheRomancity-stateundertheemperors.
. Thisemergesbeyondquestionfromtheimportantnarrativeaccountofthemurder
ofGaiusandthestepswhichledtotheaccessionofClaudiusgivenbyJosephus,Ant.Jud.
,,–,(–).Seeesp.thediscussion,translation,andcommentarybyT.P.Wiseman,
Death of an Emperor,ExeterStudiesinHistory().