Imperial image Power struggle

• 42 BC

  • Work with Antony to remove Caesars assassins
  • Octavian starts building campaign
• 40 BC

  • treaty of brundisium, Antony gets Eastern provinces while Octavian got Western.
• 39 BC

  • Sextus pompey causes blockade of trade routes in Sicily which almost led to a famine
• 36 BC

  • Octavian defeats Sextus in a naval campain (with the help of Agrippa)
  • Lepidus legions turn on him and go to Octavian
  • Antony moves to alexandria
• 34 BC

  • donations to alexandria
• 32 BC

  • Octavian begins work on mausoleum and he tells the senate about Antonys will - on how he wanted to be buried in alexandria
• 31 BC

  • Battle of Actium
• 42 BC

  • Octavian builds the temple of mars altor, by doing this he is associating himself with god of war, further associating himself with caesar. also a place for senators e.g meetings
  • builds temple Julius the God, further presenting himself as the son of the deified Julius Caesar to the roman people
  • Agrippa builds aqueduct's providing clean water to Rome good for the health of Romans
• 40 BC

  • Antony marries Octavians sister at Brundisum
• 39 BC

  • Octavian marries Pompeys closest relative (scribonia). People worried about trade routes through sicily so Octavian marrying her reassures the roman people
  • Octavian becomes Imperator, which means he can now wear the laurel wreath which increases his popularity with the army, however he notably hasn't taken any unconstitutional power to get there
• 38 BC

  • Octavian marries Livia Drusilla who is from one of Romes oldest families. which aligns him with traditional values to the senators
• 36 BC

  • Lepidus is defeated but remains high priest till death, this makes Octavian look humble as he could've taken the position of high priest but waited for him to die instead.
  • Antony moves to Alexandria permanently, further associating himself with Egypt and distancing him from Egypt which helps Octavian further.
• 34 BC

  • Antony uses Egyptain and Roman forces to win campaign in Armenia but celebrates triumph in Egypt which looks very bad on Antony from the perspective of Rome
  • Alexandria donations, where he gave away parts of the empire which angerd senate
• 32 BC
• 32 BC

  • Octavian tells senate about donations of alexandria
• Mark Antonys image:

  • Cleopatra had children through Antony
  • Antony moves to Alexandrina permanently, however this is portrayed as him using Egypt as a base for his campaigns in Parthia
  • Octavians supporters portray Antony as bewitched by cleopatra
  • Antony spent his time feasting In Alexandria
  • Alexandria donations
  • Antony wants to be buried in Alexandria
• Octavians image:

  • Octavian styles himself as Apollo
  • Rumour in Rome is that he is Apollos son
  • syles himself as divi fillis
  • at feast of 12 gods they all dressed as major deities and Octavian was Apollo but they all got very drunk while the rest of Rome was in a famine
  • Octavian marries livia
  • Had two sons (future of Rome)
  • has statues of Livia made from Egyptian Bassenite, her traditional image contasts completely with "the whore of Egypt"
  • Octavian mints pax coin - through war = peace
• Pax coin (32 BC)

  • 32-39 BC
  • Braehead humble Octavian
  • no laurell wreath expresses how he doesn't want or need to be associated with war
  • Goddess pax who is the personification of Peace
  • holding conricopia - symbol of fertility/ everlasting peace
  • coin commissioned to pay armies and hammer home is promise that through the war, will now bring peace
• Mark antonys image in 40 BC

  • marries octavians sister Octavia
  • Antony styles himself as Dionysus. howver due to his drunken habits and the fact that Hellenistic/ eastern Kings worshipped/ presented themselves as this god, it was stereotyped with madness which Octavin used to manipulate Antonys image.
  • Published coins with him and Dionysus - Hellenistic Kings did this. presented himself as a king (sole leader) would be disliked by Roman people
  • always away from Rome with cleopatra. Same women Caesar had. however it did benefit Rome via corn and money
• as the second triumvirate had now eliminated all obstacles to their political power, they now had a firm command on the Roman empire. following the defeat of Caesars assassins the men drew uo the treaty of Brundisium which gave each man a portion of the empire to govern
• Imperator Octavian:

  sextus pompeius had now taken control of Sicily and was using it as a stronghold to block rome trade routes, by 39 BC this almost cuased a famine. in 38 BC Octavian added imperator to his title. 36 BC Agrippa led a Naval fleat and beat Pompey in the invasion of Sicily. in section 25 of the res Gestae it never refers to Pompey by name as he was Roman so this could have been called a civil war
• The triumvirate:

  having eliminated all political opponents they began to turn on each other. 36 BC Octavian bribed some of lepidus legions to turn on him, in turn ending his political career to of which he was later exiled. Intense compition between Antony anf Octavian led t civil war in 32BC. Each man knew that there political future hinged on there ability to win over the hearts and minds of the people, senate and army. which led to a propaganda battle
• Octavian as the benefactor of the people of Rome:

  Octavian like caesar, realised the elite senatorial class were powerufl but onlt a small fragment of the population meaning the support of the urban poor was extremely important.
• Octavian stratagies to win over urban poor:

  • Have his followers make gift for the people and city itself
  • 42BC began work on the temple of deified Julius Caesar in honour of his father
  • Agrippa oversaw a plan of urban renewal
  • Agrippas tokens in theatres which could be exchanged for money or clothing
  • free admission to public baths and gifts of salt and oil
• Octavian as Apollos favourite:

  each man chose particular God as thier patron god. Antony chose Dionysis while Octavian chose Apollo. The personalities and powers of these Gods would have been well known and worshiped by the people of Rome allowing each politician to imply there own personal brand through the imagery of the Gods.
• Octavian continued to assosiate himself with Apollo throughout his Life and even allowed a rumour to circulate that he was Apollos son. it strenghthend his assosiataion with his patron God and also increased his divi fillis, being a decendant of two divine fathers. it invited people to assosiate him with alexander the great who was said to been concieved in the same way. Octavian took advantage of Apollos multifaced nature in establishing his public image
• Livia and Octavian:

  Roman woman were an important role in supporting the political careas of there husnands. a well behaved wife with a reputation for duty and chasity could be a real asset. Livia completely represented the traditional "roman matrona". (as shown through the head of livia). this gave the impression that Octavian himself embodied traditional, proper Roman behaviour which would appeal to old fasioned conservatives. Livia is the quintessential Roman women juxtaposing a whorish cleopatra
• Antony mismanaged his pulic image as he was often distracted and away from rome entertaining his love affair with cleopatra, alienating him from rome allowing Octavian to smear his image
• Antonys choise of Cleopatra caused scandal
• Octavians supporters claimed that Cleoptra corrupted Antonys traditional Roman austerity with her eastern taste for luxury
• the donations of alexandria:

  a triump after a succesful campaign into Armenia, but the triumph was held in alexandria not Rome, which Octavian and his supporters quickly interpreted its meaning of Antony wanting to reuce the power of rome
• 32BC, Octavian found in Antonys will that he wanted to be burried in alexandria which purswaded the senate to go to war, hoever they werent going to war on antony as that would be civil war, instead they went to war against the foriegn threat of cleopatra
• battle of actium:
• battle of actium:

  31BC, octavian and agrippa led naval fleet, forcing cleopatra and antony to flee, which led to antony killing himself a year later and cleopatra following him after failed negotiation (even deduction) of Octavian. Octavian, after taking out the egyptain royals, was now viewed as a pharaoh like figure within egypt
• Octavian manipulated the event of the battle of actium in favour of his public image
• AT DONATION OF ALEXANDRIA CLEOPATRA WAS PROCLAIMED THE "QEEN OF KINGS"
• head of livia depiction:

  • stoic expression
  • modest
  • trditional
  • matrona
  • nudus hairstyle
  • she here is symbol of how a traditional roman women/matrona should be
• General aims for the building programme:

  • The physical fabric of Rome was neglected for a long time
  • There had been decades of political upheaval at Rome which often caused rioting and destruction of building
  • Julius Caesar had started a building programme at the forum
  • Augustus knew that if he continued Caesars building programme would make him popular with ordinary people and nobles alike, would also make him seem deitful (pius) to his father/ god Caesar
  • Augustus claimed that that he "found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble" - Suetonius