Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus Read Online Free PDF

builder of the Pantheon has graced the building for centuries, as recorded by Piranesi for his book on Roman antiquities of 1756.

Appendix 1
Res Publica
The Commonwealth System of Government of the Late Roman Republic
    A commonwealth is a constitution of the entire people.
    Res publica res populi .
    Cicero, De Re Publica 1.39.
    The Romans were very proud of their democratic system of government which they called the Res Publica , a fact noted by the Greek historian Polybios. It is often translated as ‘republic’, but its literal meaning is closer to ‘commonwealth’, conveying the notion of ‘things belonging to the public’. Much is understood about the constituent parts of the system, but questions about details of its operation and process remain. It is believed that it was a popular counter response to the tyranny of the kings of the eighth through sixth centuries BCE who had abused their royal authority ( regnum ). By the time of Agrippa’s birth the Res Publica was already four-and-a-half centuries old. Its institutions were conceived to be transparent and to operate within the explicit bounds of constitutional law ( ius ), discussed and agreed upon by assemblies of the free Roman people. At issue was the balance struck between individual freedom ( libertas ) and power to rule ( imperium ) – who held it, for how long and the manner in which it was exercised. Imperium – derived from the Latin imperare , ‘to command’ – was a military term. An individual with imperium could only exercise absolute authority ( auctoritas ) within the defined scope of his specific responsibility. He could be overruled by a more senior magistrate and his decisions could be vetoed – from the Latin word veto , ‘I forbid’. Imperium afforded a man immunity while he held office, but he was fully accountable for his actions once his term ended and he could be prosecuted in court if charges were brought against him, as was spectacularly demonstrated in the prosecution of the former governor of Sicily, C. Verres, by M. Tullius Cicero in 70 BCE.
    Active public participation in this ancient direct democracy was its hallmark. The extent to which a citizen could participate in the Res Publica was determined by his birth and class. A Roman male was born into a class or order ( ordo ) and for most men it was the class he also died in. The lowest order was the mass of common people, the plebs . Though many were poor, however, by the accumulation of wealth through hard work from running a small business, or receiving an inheritance or by the passing of a law, a plebeian could rise up the levels of social class. A man with assessable wealth in property of 400,000 sestertii could enter thenext level, the ordo equester , or ‘order of knights’, the class which had traditionally provided cavalry for Rome’s citizen army. Owning and equipping a horse was expensive and for hundreds of years, its members gained respect from long years of military service supporting the infantry. By 88 BCE the cavalry had been largely outsourced to Rome’s allies and conquered peoples, and instead many equites built careers as officers in the legions or auxiliary cohorts. However, with the growth of the empire after the Punic Wars, many others of its membership found success in banking, trade and increasingly through the practice of law. Winning a case for a client in court in the Forum Romanum came to carry as much prestige as slaying an enemy on a remote battlefield once did, and money became the new measure of a man’s standing. Nominally above the knights, patricians ( patricii ) formed the upper class of aristocrats. Traditionally patricians held the priesthoods and were responsible for managing the important transactional relationship between gods and men, ensuring the security and prosperity of the Res Publica . A few patrician families – the Aemilii , Cornelii , Metelli , being among the most prominent in early Roman history – had accumulated