The Principate – Lifebelt, or millstone around the neck of the empire?

Abstract

The Augustan Principate was the product of crisis, a response to the challenges that precipitated the fall of the Republic. The Principate worked because it met the political needs of its day. There is no doubt that it saved the Roman state and the Roman Empire: it was a lifebelt. But it was not perfect. In its turn it precipitated more challenges that had to be responded to, more crises, in particular that known as the 'third century Crisis'. In the long run it was a problem as much as a solution: a millstone as much as a lifebelt. In the end, it had to go. This chapter briefly deals with the Principate as a problem, and then suggests a new way of discerning the strains that brought about its demise. The Principate was created by Augustus and continued by the Julio- Claudians. Keywords: Augustan Principate; Julio- Claudians; lifebelt; millstone; political needs; Roman Empire; third century crisis