The Roman
Revolution by Ronald Syme: May 7 chat covers quite a range of period. (Luckily, we have plenty of time):
- XIII: THE SECOND MARCH ON ROME
Consolidations: Antonius wins over the generals; Octavian manipulates the Senate into his first consulate. - XIV: THE PROSCRIPTIONS
"The Republic had been abolished. Whatever the outcome of the armed struggle, it could never be restored…" Exhaustive discussion of the proscriptions in Rome and Italy. A new Senate and and a new generation of "marshals." The new composition of the Caesarian and "Catonian" parties. - XV: PHILIPPI AND PERUSIA
The outcome of Philippi was "final and irreversible, the last struggle over the Free State. Henceforth nothing but a contest of despots over the corpse of liberty … No battle of all the Civil Wars was so murderous to the aristocracy. Among the fallen were recorded the noblest names of Rome."
Although the events leading up to and at Perusia were badly managed, Octavian's state of affairs remain precarious.
- XVI: THE PREDOMINACE OF ANTONIUS
Discussion of Antonius in the East, the first appearance of Cleopatra, accommodations between Octavian and Antonius, the latter's marriage to Octavia. There are ominous signs for Antonius, but, "neither his predominance nor his prestige were greatly menaced and there was work to be done in the East." Eventually he sent Octavia back to Rome. "His future and his fate lay in the East and with another woman. But that was not yet apparent, least of all to Antonius." - XVII: THE RISE OF OCTAVIUS
"At Brundisium Caesar's heir again had been saved from ruin by the name, the fortune and the veterans of Caesar, the diplomacy of his friends and his own cool resolution." Marrigae to Livia. More on Agrippa and Maecenas. New confidence and final victory over Sextus Pompeius, and the "contrived ruin of Lepidus," leaving only two of the triumvirs standing. - XVIII: ROME UNDER THE TRIUMVIRS
"Ten years from the proscriptions, ten years of Triumviral despotism." discussion of consolidation, the emergence of New Men and composition of a new Senate. "Freedom, justice and honesty, banished utterly from thr public honours and transactions of th State, took refuge in the pursuits and relationships of private life." The new historians and poets. Antonius still the senior partner. - XIX: ANTONIUS IN THE EAST
Antonius consolidates the East and his Egyptian alliance, but comes a cropper in Parthia. Still, he continues to build up his own faction, and both sides prepare for the inevitable showdown. " Created belief turned the scale of history. The policy and ambitions of Antonius or of Cleopatra were not the true cause of the War of Actium; they were a pretext in the strife for power, the magnificent lie upon which was built the supremacy of Caesar's heir and the resurgent nation of Italy … Antonius and Cleopatra seem merely pawns in the game of destiny…" - XX: TOTA ITALIA
The description of the state of affairs on both sides prior to the War of Actium, with an extensive discourse of the changing relationship between Octavian and Italy. - XXI: DUX
(33 through 28 BC) The War of Actium, followed by the Bellum Alexandrium and the end of Antonius and Cleopatra. Octavian's dispositions in the East. Creating his new role in Rome. - XXII: PRINCEPS
Discussion of the Constitutional Settlement of 27 BC , the change of name to Augustus and the ostensible restoration of the Republic. "… Such were the powers of Augustus as consul and proconsul, open, public, and admitted. In the background, all the overwhelming prestige of his auctoritas, and all the vast resources of of personal domination over the empire of the world."
