SUET secures peace

• Unskilled/inexperienced military leader

  • In Mutina, “Anthony claimed that Augustus took to flight”
  • “commanded in person in only two foreign campaigns” - in delegating to his generals he seems uninvolved
  • “plays dice all the while, to see if he can win” (flighty/frivolous)
• Skilled military leader

  • “Won peace on land and at sea”
  • Suetonius gives identity to Augustus’ opponents, all of which are militarily significant in their own way. This shows he is incredibly militarily skilled as he bested all of them, e.g. Mark Antony and “ Sextus Pompeius, Pompey’s son”
  • Completed the task Hirtius and Pansa entrusted to him in “three months”
• Merciful military leader

  • “who after surrender were resettled in Gaul near the Rhine” - allowed those who wanted clemency to live peacefully
  • Allowed barbarian states to rotate hostages out
  • Augustus had a reputation for “exercising power with moderation”, one which Suet argues gives him Armenia and the standards
• Bringer of peace through war

  • “won peace on land and at sea”
  • “the gates of the temple of Janus Quirinus were closed”
• Imperialist

  • “won peace on land and at sea” - universal victory
  • “barbarian leaders swore an oath, in the temple of Mars the Avenger, to keep the peace faithfully that they had sought” - spreading Roman religion to conquered provinces
• Merciless military leader

  • Suetonius voices “rumours” that Augustus had “engineered” the deaths of the two consuls to gain control of the armies
  • Treatment of Mark Antony and his son (Mark Antonius) following their defeat