Abstract
The Emperor Augustus' so-called social or moral legislation features prominently in legal and historical discussions of his principate. His biographer Suetonius concentrates into one chapter a discussion of Augustus' leges rogatae, which has never been analysed phrase by phrase by any scholar of Roman history or law since Paul Jors in 1893. This article sets out to explain how Suetonius orders his discussion, chooses precise vocabulary, highlights key stages in the legislative programme, and does not conceal opposition to the legislation. The most controversial law, on which Suetonius centres his discussion, is the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus, key provisions of which were amended in the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9. I argue that Suetonius comments not only on the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus, but also on later amendments, whether in the putative lex Aelia Sentia of AD 4 or the indisputable lex Papia Poppaea. There is, however, no reference to any abortive moral legislation of 27 BC. Suetonius presents an emperor concerned with major social issues, careful in the formulation of his laws, but also suitably responsive to societal pressure.
Highlights
In the course of writing a detailed literary and historical commentary on Suetonius’ Augustus that gives due attention to the biographer’s compositional techniques while illuminating his thought and the structuring of his material, I had to pay careful attention to Augustus’ short and deceptively simple chapter on legislation
Augustus outlined a series of proposals that were enshrined in the lex Papia Poppaea, introduced by the suffect consuls in the second half of the year: i) increased rewards for those who had produced children; ii) a distinction to be drawn between the penalties imposed on the married who were childless and those who were unmarried;[43] iii) a further period of grace of one year for both groups before the provisions of the law came into effect; iv) the exoneration of women from the lex Voconia, which had restricted their rights to inherit and make wills; and v) the Vestal Virgins to be granted the privileges secured by women in terms of the ius trium liberorum
Nisi adempta demum lenitive partium poenarum et vacatione trienni data auctisque praemiis according to Jörs refers to the concessions that were incorporated into the lex Papia Poppaea, for the alternative view they were incorporated in the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus
Summary
In the course of writing a detailed literary and historical commentary on Suetonius’ Augustus that gives due attention to the biographer’s compositional techniques while illuminating his thought and the structuring of his material, I had to pay careful attention to Augustus’ short and deceptively simple chapter on legislation. Suetonius’ treatment of the vita publica of Augustus contains a lengthy section on the emperor’s achievements in the field of law and order.[1] He starts Chapter 32 with some of the major security issues facing the emperor in the mid-thirties BC and immediately after the civil wars. Esp at 62-63, and AF Wallace-Hadrill Suetonius (London, 1983) at 63-64, for the particular annalistic historians could provide on Augustus’ legislation, and how they scattered it throughout their narrative, is best demonstrated by Dio
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