Augustus to Nero: A Sourcebook on Roman History, 31 BC-AD 68

351 Pages·2014·5.178 MB·English

by  David Braund

Routledge Revivals
Augustus to Nero
The years from the battle of Actium to the death of Nero stand at the
very heart of Roman history. Yet the sources of this key period, parti-
cularly the inscriptions, papyri and coins, are not readily accessible.
Crucial new discoveries remain buried in learned periodicals, and now
that the study of the ancient world is widespread among those without
Latin and Greek, the lack of translations is proving a serious handicap.
Augustus to Nero, first published in 1985, contains numerous texts not
only for students of traditional political history, but also of those
interested in social and economic history. An introductory essay estab-
lishes a broad methodological framework within which each text may
be understood. The focus throughout is on less well-known literary
evidence: for example, the significant poetry of Crinagoras and Cal-
purnius Siculus. Inaccessible sources are here collected and translated:
brief notes are supplied to help the reader.
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Augustus to Nero
A Sourcebook on Roman History, 31 BC-AD 68

David C. Braund
Firstpublishedin1985
byCroomHelmLtd
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2014byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©1985DavidC.Braund

TherightofDavidC.Braundtobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
knownor hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin any
informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publishers.
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Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbut
pointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent.
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ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderLCcontrolnumber:84020368
ISBN13:978-1-138-78189-4(hbk)
ISBN13:978-1-315-76948-6(ebk)
AUGUSTUS TO NERO:
oA Sourcebook on cR^manHistory

31BC-AD 68
DAVID C. BRAUND
V
CROOM HELM
London & Sydney
©1985 David Braund
Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT
Croom Helm Australia Pty Ltd, First Floor,
139 King Street, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Braund, David
Augustus to Nero.
1. Rome - History - The Julii and Claudii, 31 B.C.-
68 A.D. - Sources
I. Title
937'. 07 DG281
ISBN 0-7099-0659-5
ISBN 0-7099-3206-5 Pbk
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Billing & Sons Limited, Worcester.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Bibliographical Note X
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1. 1-293: The Imperial Family 14
2. 294-351: The Imperial Household 112
3. 352422: Senators 124
4. 423-474: Equites 144
5. 475-534: The Armed Forces 157
6. 535-601: The Imperial Administration 175
7. 602-693: Kings, Cities and Towns 228
8. 694-849: Society and Economy 255
Index of Personal Names 323
Index of Sources 329
v
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PREFACE
Many of the most important sources for the years 31 BC to AD 68 are
inaccessible, because they are buried in obscure publications and/or

simply because they are in Greek or Latin. This is particularly the case
with more recent discoveries. In selecting the sources collected in this
book I have sought to unearth these obscurities and to make them
available to a much wider public by translating them, often for the first
time; in making these translations I have made accuracy, not elegance,
my main objective. This book is therefore a tool, designed to facilitate
in-depth study of a central period in Roman history. But it must be
stressed that it is a sourcebook, not a course-book: as such, it is meant
to be used in conjunction with other books in the context of teaching
or private study. The reader should not be led to forget this by the
fact that I have included some explanatory notes, references to the likes
of Tacitus and Suetonius and references to widely-available textbooks.
Reference to more obscure material is occasionally made in order to
account for provenance or new readings.
I have deliberately omitted from this selection the works of Tacitus,
Suetonius and Cassius Dio. Any one of these, let alone all three, would
have dominated the whole collection, but they can be safely omitted
since the first two are readily available to all, as will soon be the third,
also. Instead, I have concentrated upon the documentary sources —
inscriptions, coins and papyri — and relatively inaccessible literary
sources of various types, from epigrams to legal tracts. Of course, it is
not implied and it should not for one moment be supposed that the
value of a source bears any relationship to its obscurity.
Collections of the sources for this period have been made before.
Two stand out: Victor Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones Documents
Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (reprinted with addi­
tions, 1976) and E. Mary Smallwood Documents Illustrating the
Principates of Gaius, Claudius and Nero (1967). Both are excellent,
but they contain no translations and little literary evidence, as their
titles suggest. Recent researches have also rendered them both a little
out of date. For all that, their abiding value is such that I have found
it necessary to include, in translation, most of the texts they contain.
vii