THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY
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THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY |
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THE REORGANIZATION OF SPAIN BY AUGUSTUS
by JOHN JAMES VAN NOSTRAND, Jr.
A knowledge of the chief geographic
features of Spain and its position with reference to other parts of the
Mediterranean World is essential to an understanding of its history,
particularly the history of the Roman conquest. Separated from Italy by a broad
expanse of sea and by untamed Gallic tribes, the Iberian peninsula was
difficult of access to the Romans. It was much more closely joined by nature to
Africa than to Europe, and the larger rivers, with the single exception of the
Ebro, appeared to welcome invasion from the south and west rather than from the
northern or eastern sides. After overcoming these obstacles the Romans had to
adapt their tactics to meet guerilla opposition and their strategy to the
conquest of small and loosely joined political units, both the results of the
geographical configuration of the peninsula. Final Roman victory was then as
much a conquest of nature as of man.
The history of Spain reaches far into the
past. Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians added their quota to a civilization
in which Iberian and Celtic elements were combined. It remained for the Romans
to unite and organize these different constituents and to make the Iberian peninsula
an integral part of their great imperial domain. This was not the work of one
man, nor of one brief period of time, but the activities of Augustus and the reorganization
of 27-2 bc marked the beginnings
of a systematic administration which endured. The aim of this study is to estimate
the value of that organization by a survey of the political and administrative
history of Spain from 218 to 19 bc, by
an examination of the reorganization of Spain under Augustus, and by an attempt
to gauge its continuity during the first century of this era.
I. THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF SPAIN, 218-19
B.C.
The growth of Carthaginian power in Spain,
after the first Punic War, had not failed to attract the attention of Rome, but
no thought of Spain as a possible base of military operations against Italy
appears to have entered the minds of Roman generals or statesmen. It is true
that in 226 BC a treaty signed by Hasdrubal defined the northern limit of
Carthaginian sway. This treaty made the river Ebro the boundary of
Carthaginian expansion in Spain. Rome might and did make alliances south of the
line, but Carthage could not advance north of it. It rested, then, with Rome to
enforce the treaty, that is, to protect the territory north of the Ebro and to
support her allies. But the failure to realize the Barcid menace and the
engagement of her forces in Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul caused Rome to leave
the guardianship of this frontier to the free Greek city-states of northeastern
Spain. The result of this shirking of responsibility was the capture of
Saguntum by Hannibal in 219 bc and
the unopposed march of the Carthaginian forces into Italy.
Shortly after the outbreak of the second
war between Rome and Carthage, P. Cornelius Scipio, consul, was ordered to
Spain. The news of Hannibal’s rapid advance, however, led him to
turn back at Massilia, after entrusting to his brother Gnaeus command of the
fleet and army designed for the Spanish campaign. Beginning at
Emporiae the Roman forces gradually fought their way southwards along the
coast, until the year 212 bc, when
the destruction of the Roman army and the loss of both leaders again gave to the Carthaginians control of all the
territory south of the Ebro. The brilliant campaigns of the Younger Scipio
restored Roman supremacy, and resulted in the expulsion of the Carthaginians
from Spain.
At this point Rome assumed the
responsibility of imperial control of her newly acquired possessions. Military
operations were commenced against those tribes which had not acknowledged the
suzerainty of Rome, the city of Italica was founded, and new provincial
officials were appointed. The emphasis still remained upon the military side of
occupation, for the tribes accepted Roman authority with as little grace as
they had that of the Carthaginians. From 207 BC, revolt, submission, oppression
and revolt followed in dreary repetitions steeped in blood and filled with
horrors; at times the unemotional virtues of a Cato, or the humanity of a
Gracchus offered hopes of speedy and permanent submission, but their examples
were not followed and the grinding process of a merciless conquest went on
until the natives were exhausted. The methods of warfare employed in
subjugating and controlling the Spanish tribes need not be described. A brief
review, however, of the direction and extent of Roman sway is necessary as a
basis for a more detailed study of the romanization of Spain under Augustus.
The territory held by the Romans in 206 BC
comprised the eastern coastline from Emporiae in the north to Carthago Nova.
The capture of Gades in 206 bc had
given the Romans a foothold on the Atlantic coast as well. In other words,
practically all the Greek and Carthaginian settlements had fallen into their
hands. Of the native tribes, many had been subdued and others made allies of the Roman people. These were the groups
nearest the military posts of the Romans.
This territory Scipio handed over to his
successors, the first two provincial governors sent out by Rome. These two men,
not of consular rank though granted proconsular power, were given as separate
military districts the territories known as Hither and Farther Spain. It was
thought that the provinces would remain pacified, and so the number of troops
was reduced. But the military strength of the interior tribes was
underestimated. The obstinate defense of the natives together with the lack of
continuity arising from frequent changes in commanders of the invading forces
reduced Roman advance to a minimum. In the year 197 bc the increasing importance of the new province was
recognized, and resulted in the election of two additional praetors to replace
the two temporary proconsular officials.
News of more serious outbreaks led, in 196 bc to the assignment of one
Roman legion to each province, and in 195 bc one of the consuls, M. Porcius Cato, was sent to Spain. The successes
of Cato offered a marked contrast to the doubtful or fruitless victories of
his predecessors. Under his leadership the Romans subdued the eastern half of
the peninsula. But either through ignorance on the part of the Senate, or for
local political reasons, the provinces were declared pacified, and the control
passed back in 194 bc to the
regularly appointed praetors. From that date up to 171 bc the Roman advance was uneven. A defeat of Aemilius Paulus
in 190 bc was offset by a victory later in the same year. Discontent began to appear not only
among the legionaries, but even among the commanders; due in the former case to
the length of service, the distance from home, and the hardships of the Spanish
campaigns; the official unrest being a proof that Spain was not the most convenient
place for refilling one’s purse, or for the social and intellectual diversions
which made Greece such an attractive field of operations. The pecuniary
disadvantages of a Spanish command did not come from the poverty of the
peninsula, for Cato had brought to Rome booty which rivalled in amount the
spoils returned from the Eastern provinces. They were due to the long campaigns
which left little time for systematized looting, to the wholesale destruction
of their own property by the Spanish tribes, and finally to the work of
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, praetor in Hither Spain 180-179 BC, who adopted a
policy of justice and kindness towards both subject and allied states, based on
treaties which remained in force for twenty-three years. As a result of the
subsequent interest in Spanish affairs displayed by Cato and Gracchus, and
partly as a result of the readiness of the provincials to demand justice,
Spain enjoyed two decades of peace. But the mismanagement of the Roman
governors caused two outbreaks which threatened to overthrow the power of the
conquerors.
In 156 BC the Lusitani commenced a war
which lasted, with brief intermissions, for twenty-three years. In the year 153 bc the Celtiberi revolted. M.
Fulvius Nobilior, who was sent out to reconquer them, was but the first of
fifteen consuls who commanded armies in Spain between the years 153 and 133 BC.
This was the last concerted struggle for
freedom on the part of the Spanish tribes. Its measure of success was due not
only to the incompetence of the Roman generals, but also to the unity of the
tribesmen and their knowledge of Roman tactics. It failed because Rome at last
found capable commanders, and because the natives, unable to throw off for long
their tribal and personal jealousies, lost sight of the value of cooperation
and destroyed their leader. The highest expression of Spanish national feeling
was displayed by their commander, Viriathus. But his personality alone could
not hold together the forces he had gathered and his death at the hands of
assassins marked the end of all general opposition to Roman arms. The fires of
revolt still burned in scattered sections of the country, but the next few
years were marked by a steady increase of Roman victories. Resistance came to
an end with the capture and utter destruction of Numantia, a city of the
Celtiberi, which had held the armies of Rome at bay for ten years.
After 133 BC Spain, for the most part,
submitted to Roman rule. The emphasis, save on the borders of the provinces,
shifted from military to civil, that is, administrative affairs. In 132 bc a commission of ten senators was
sent to establish a form of civil government for the provinces. Romanization
went on rapidly during the years of peace. Roads were built, Roman traders
penetrated the interior, Spanish troops served in the Roman armies, and
returned with Roman ideas, language, customs, and dress. Tribute was levied in
the most acceptable manner, in the form of a stipendium, a fixed amount
payable directly to the Roman government. Thus the Two Spains escaped the
trials of those provinces whose taxes were collected by the publicani. The
reports offered by the historians of this period bear witness to the peaceful
spirit which characterized the years after the fall of
Numantia. An expedition against the Baleares in 124-123 BC, and an uprising in
112 BC in Farther Spain were the only hints of warfare from 133 to 105 BC. At
the latter date, incited by the weakness of Rome as exhibited in her defeats at
the hands of the Teutons and of Jugurtha, the Lusitani revolted. By 101 BC this
revolt was apparently crushed by D. Junius Silanus. During the following year,
however, L. Cornelius Dolabella continued the Lusitanian campaign. A rebellion
of the Vaceaei in 98 BC was put down with cruelty and treachery by the consul,
Lucius Didius, in whose army there served as military tribune, Quintus
Sertorius. So serious was this outbreak that, even though assisted by P. Licinius
Crassus, proconsul in Hither Spain, Didius was forced to remain in his province
for five years before his work was completed.
In the year 83 BC began the Sertorian War.
It marked the beginning of a new epoch in the history of Rome, being the first
contest in which a Roman leader conducted a civil war, using a Roman province
as a base. Throughout the war there was no desire expressed for independence
from Rome. Sertorius proclaimed himself the legal ruler of Hither Spain (Hispania Citerior),
fighting against usurpers. Like Caesar, he was the champion of the Constitution;
like Vespasian, his designs were on Rome. For eleven years Sertorius, aided by
Marian troops and native levies, held his own against consular armies and
famous generals. His downfall, like that of Viriathus, was due to the lack of
unity among his followers and the treachery of his officers. After his assassination
the war came quickly to an end.
The importance of Spain in Roman politics
did not cease with the overthrow of the Sertorian party. Seven years later, in
65 bc Gn. Calpurnius Piso was
sent to Spain as quaestor propraetore, with the evident purpose of
establishing there a military base for the Catilinarian conspirators. The
murder of Piso put an end to this plan, and it was not until 61 BC that Spain again
appeared to play its part in extra-local affairs. On this occasion it merely
offered to Julius Caesar a field for the restoration of his finances and for
military exploits. The results of Caesar’s years were satisfactory to both
parties concerned; for he returned to Rome free from debt, and with successful
campaigns in the north and northwest to his credit, while the Spanish people
congratulated themselves over reduced taxes, just government and excellent
administration.
Spain, as a strategic point in the
struggles of the next few years, became the battleground of factional fighting.
Pompey gained the Two Spains as his province in the year 55 bc, was allowed to retain them for a
five-year period, and might have been the first of the Caesars had he made use
of his legions there. But the men of that generation, with the exception of
Caesar, believed that Rome was still the center of imperial strength. Following
this idea, Pompey remained in the capital, conducting the government of Spain
through legati. In the contest between Pompey and Caesar, Spain was the
first Pompeian province to be attacked. A brief and merciful campaign resulted
in the submission of Pompey’s legions and the Spanish tribes to Caesar.
The harsh government of Caesar’s
lieutenant, Q. Cassius Longinus, led to a revolt which was apparently crushed
by the battle of Munda. But the memory of Cassius’ oppressions led the
provincials to place their men and resources at the disposal of the Republicans
fighting against the heirs of Caesar. For some time
Sextus Pompey, a son of the great Gnaeus, held Spain. His departure
for Sicily left the province in the hands of Lepidus, the triumvir. A
period of peace followed, enduring to 27 BC. In that year Augustus commenced a
campaign against the Cantabri and the Astures which rounded out the Roman conquest,
making the peninsula a political unit.
II. THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF SPAIN,
218-27 BC
That Rome entered upon her series of
conquests without preparation, if not without real desire for expansion, is
demonstrated in the early history of the Spanish provinces. The first
commander there, a consul, delegated his power to a legatus, nor did he
reach Spain until the year following his appointment. This
indication of unpreparedness was supplemented by the irregularities attendant
upon the election of the younger Scipio to command the armies in Spain. Proconsules
ex plebiscito continued to be chosen up to the year 197 bc. Then, by the addition of two
praetors, a number of officials was created sufficient to govern the various
parts of Rome’s growing empire. These praetors governed either with praetorian
or with proconsular power, and in times of crisis were replaced by men of
proconsular rank. There is one instance of a quaestor being chosen to govern
Hither Spain, and other exceptional appointments were made during the last
years of the Republic, but in general it may be said that the chief executives
of the Roman Republican government in Spain were consuls or proconsuls,
praetors or propraetors. The usual number of subordinate officials accompanied
their chiefs; one quaestor for each province, one legatus for each
praetor, three legati for each consul.
The term of office was regularly one year,
but exceptions to this rule were common both at the beginning
and at the close of the Republican period. Officers and troops at
first traveled to Spain by sea by way of Genoa and Massilia, but with the improvement
of roads and the pacification of the tribes of southern Gaul, the land route
came to be more commonly used. It was not until the end of the Republican
period, however, that an army traveled the entire distance by land.
The civil administration of Spain before
the time of Augustus has not been the subject of any connected account. Some
details of Republican rule have been given a place in the pages of the
historians of antiquity; others may be assumed from the fact that they were
common to all the provinces. But it should be remembered that Spain was the
governmental experiment station of the Romans. Therefore it is not
unreasonable to suppose that many early schemes were given a trial in Spain,
failed, and were soon forgotten. Of the plans which succeeded, there remains
enough to construct the following account.
Many details of administration were conducted
by the military officials. In fact, the division between civil and military
functions was not completely carried out until the time of Diocletian. But the
manifold character of the duties of a provincial governor was much more
apparent at the beginning of a conquest than after pacification had been
secured. The administrative duties of a conquering official may be divided
roughly into the collection of tribute, taxes, and all other forms of
compensation which the fortunes of war brought to the victors; the regulation
of industries, commerce and trade; the definition of boundaries; the
introduction and supervision of Roman law courts; the determination of the
political status of the subject communities; and the recommendation of
individuals or groups for admission to the citizen body
of Rome. All of these duties were performed under the direction of the Senate,
or subject to its approval. In many cases the first step in organization was
taken by the official to whom a province had been assigned, assisted by a
commission of ten senators. The work of these men was incorporated in a lex
provinciae. Of the commission chosen for Spain and its work, we know only
the date of its appointment, 133 BC. That it was not appointed until after a
century of conflict indicates the difficulty which the Romans experienced in
subjugating the Spanish tribes. However, the provincial governors did not wait
for the guidance of a lex provinciae. The collection of revenue was too
important a task to admit of delay.
There are records of large amounts of
booty obtained in Spain, beginning with the year 214 BC. Although the totals by
no means equalled those returned from the East, the Romans might reasonably
hope that the province, when subdued, would prove a profitable investment.
Money and corn were usually sent out to the Roman armies but this was due to
the fact that the local mints were not used by the Romans, also to the lack of
surplus grain in a land whose wealth lay in cattle, orchards and minerals. The
booty consisted of bullion or works of art, as did the compulsory contributions
which were often levied. Some regular tribute was evidently
collected early in the time of Roman occupation, for Livy records that in 205
BC the communities of Spain were ordered to pay double taxes and furnish
clothing for the army. The amount of the regular tax was light, for the Romans,
in order to retain the friendship of the tribes, levied only the twentieth
required by their Barcid predecessors.
Commercial life had been interrupted by
the Roman conquest. The series of wars during the latter half of the third
century had not only robbed Spain of her portable wealth, and put an end to
steady industrial production of any sort, but it had also brought with it a new
master and new commercial relationships. Of the first steps in the necessary
readjustment we know little. In 197 BC Cato reopened the silver and iron mines.The other industries apparently struggled along without much assistance. As a
rule the extant accounts of contemporaries are filled with military deeds and
little space is given to consideration of the commercial and industrial
development of Spain. Individual merchants followed the Roman standards, but
how they were protected, what restrictions were placed upon the native dealers,
or what encouragement was given them we do not know. An excellent statement of
the administrative problems as they appeared to the Romans is given by
Bouchier :
The task which lay before the Republic was
to complete the conquest of the peninsula: in the south to add the idea of a
state to that of a number of isolated towns by providing common magistrates, an
official religion, priesthood, language, and code of laws; in the center to
develop the natural resources of a not very productive district; in the north
to bring down the fierce highland clans to the plains, to overawe them with
military colonies, and encourage them to pursue the peaceful occupations of
mining and agriculture, or else to take service as legionaries or auxiliaries.
In the year 206-205, by appointing two
officers of proconsular rank to succeed the Younger Scipio, Rome took the
first step in the process of division which ultimately made of the Iberian
peninsula six provinces. It was not until 197 BC, however, that the Two Spains
were definitely established as separate military districts, with a regularly
elected praetor in charge of each. Almost half a century
elapsed before the boundaries were accurately determined. Hither and Farther
Spain remained the two divisions until 49 BC. At that time Pompey, to whom the
Two Spains had been entrusted, governed them through three legati, each
with a district of his own. This was the first attempt at a tripartite division
of the peninsula.
During the wars which followed, civil
administration was demoralized, if not altogether destroyed. At any rate, no
hint of a reorganization of the provinces has come to us from the records of
49-27 BC. But the mass of evidence indicating a tripartite division between 27
BC and 14 ad is conclusive.
Mommsen's earlier view that the division did not take place before the principate
of Tiberius, was withdrawn, and many efforts have been made to establish a more
definite dating. The work of Detlefsen has been mentioned. Of the Spanish
writers, Lafuente and Altamira offer little assistance. Partseh, Ursin,
Mispoulet and Gardthausen have offered solutions of the problem. The final word
has not been written, nor is it my intention to discuss at length the arguments
brought forward in support of different dates. But reference should be made to
two recent discussions, one by Braun, the other by Wallrafen. The former
concludes there was a division into three provinces
made by Agrippa in 27 BC, at which time Baetica was made a senatorial province;
that between 7 and 2 bc Augustus
revised the boundaries of the first division, giving to Baetica, Lusitania and
Hispania Citerior the territories which they held up to the time of Diocletian.
On the other hand, Wallrafen believes that the division of Agrippa was not an
administrative one, but simply the withdrawal of Lusitania from Hispania
Ulterior and of Asturia and Gallaecia from Hispania Citerior to form a military
district. He believes that the temporary division was made permanent, that is,
transferred from a military to a civil basis, by the definite organization of
the three provinces about 15 bc, and
that at that date Baetica became a senatorial province.
The shortest and clearest presentation of
the arguments in favor of a dating after 15 bc is given by Kornemann, who bases his selection of 15 BC as a terminus
post quem on (1) the foundation of the colony Augusta Emerita in 25 BC, (2)
the praetorian rank of P. Carisius, governor of Citerior 25-22 bc, (3) the probable date, 19 bc of Agrippa’s measurements of Lusitania
cum Asturia et Gallaecia, (4) the foundation of other Augustan colonies “utraque
Hispania” in 15 BC. On the other hand, 6 bc is taken as the terminus ante quem on the grounds (1) that Pliny
made use of statistics compiled by Augustus, i.e., before 14 ad;
(2) that these statistics were compiled before the establishment of the
Lancienses Oppidani as a stipendiary community, i.e., before 6 ad; (3)
that the tripartite division included a change in the eastern boundary of
Baetica, a change made before 2 bc;
(4) that Gallaecia, made an administrative unit for the first time in the
tripartite division, addressed C. Caesar in an inscription which dates from
before 6 BC.
Between 15 bc and 6 bc Kornemann
points out three possible dates for the division, 14, 10, and 8 BC. The choice
of one of these dates must be an arbitrary one without positive proof. In
rejecting Kornemann’s choice of 8 BC, and accepting Wallrafen’s date, 15-14 bc, I am governed by a fairly strong
argument from probability. There was no reason why the division should be
postponed after the final subjugation of the Astures and Cantabri. Then, if
ever, was the time to transfer Baetica from imperial to senatorial control. The
military importance of Lusitania as a base of attack upon the northern tribes
ceased with their conquest, and the troops could be transferred without much
fear to the Hither Province. The evidence which appears to favor a later date
can be explained independently of such a supposition. An inscription of Baetica
came at a time of general rejoicing and need not have represented any local
change at that time. In like manner the honors paid to C. and Lucius Caesar by
the provincials may be dated at 8 bc without
affecting the date of the tripartite division. The strongest argument in favor
of the later date is that the changes were not incorporated in the Agrippa-Karte, and that Augustus would not make such changes before the death of Agrippa
through fear of injuring the pride of his lieutenant. One may question the assumption
that exact provincial divisions were given in the Karte, and it is
highly improbable that Augustus would postpone an administrative step for
eight years with the sole motive of preserving intact the pride of Agrippa.
III. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT OP SPAIN,
218-27 BC.
Although Augustus was professedly and at
heart an Occidentalist he utilized all traces of Hellenistic organization in
the administration of the great western territories of Rome. Greek civilization
had been spread over the Mediterranean lands in and by city-states, and even
the vast ideas of world-empire and universal citizenship had not driven out of
use the time-tried and successful method of incorporating new communities into
a common Kulturgebiet by the establishment of urban centers as
ever-present reminders of the power and glory of the conquerer. In the three
Gauls little pioneering work had been done, but in Spain and particularly in
Baetica the earlier foundations of Phoenician and Carthaginian settlements
afforded the Romans a basis for the approved method of administration. The persistence
and power of this foreign influence had had its effect on native organization.
The old tribal units were breaking down, and many of the village communities
exercised the sovereign rights of a Greek polis.
Of the 175 towns in Baetica at the time of
Augustus, Abdera, Asido, Baelo, Ebusus, Gades, Lascuta, Malaca, Oba, Sexi, Turriregina,
Vesci, and Iptuci were foreign settlements. Some of them dated back to the days
of Phoenician colonization. They were originally trading stations, and as such
had exerted a marked influence over the native tribes of the adjacent interior.
It was not until the advent of the Barcids, however, in 226 BC that any attempt
at thorough exploitation was made. During their rule the people of the southern
part of the peninsula learned the cost of civilization. The Turduli, Turdetani
and Baeturi were tamed, were trained to pay tribute in men and money, and were
taught to live in cities, to prefer the restraints of peace to the freedom of
tribal war.
After this preliminary education, the
people of Baetica proved to be docile pupils of the Romans. By 133 BC this
section of the Farther Province was essentially romanized. The coins of many of
the towns indicate a continuous municipal life from the time of the
Carthaginian conquest. The political readjustment was not difficult. The
commercial readjustment, however, was more arduous. It was most keenly felt, no
doubt, by the traders of Gades and the other
Carthaginian settlements, men whose knowledge and acquaintanceship were
confined to a business world of which Rome had not been a part. But the
subjugation of the neighboring restless tribes brought peace to the country and
an opportunity for economic recovery.
Throughout the period 218-133 BC Roman town
foundations in the Two Spains were military in their character. The territory
later known as Baetica received three foundations of this kind. In 206 BC
Italica was chosen by the younger Scipio as a home for some of his veterans. It
was given the title of municipium, retaining that status in the time of
Hadrian. The only colony of this period in Baetica was Carteia,
founded about 170 BC. The Senate granted its citizens the Latin right and
settled here the sons of Roman soldiers by Spanish mothers. Corduba, although
it received some Roman settlers about 150 BC, was not officially incorporated
until a much later date.
With the fall of Numantia in 133 BC, the
military motives for municipal establishments lost much of their force. Rome’s
energies, moreover, were absorbed by local reforms and civil wars. It was not
until the revolt of Sertorius that the Iberian peninsula once more attracted
attention. By that time administrative needs or political expediency dictated
the numbers and location of new provincial municipalities. In Baetica,
Caesarian foundations are the first evidences of this new policy. The colonies
Hasta Regia, Hispalis, Itucci, Ucubi and Urso were established by Caesar, or by
the triumvirs in accordance with the memoranda left by him. Twelve municipia, bearing the cognomen Iulia, were also established by Caesar.
The centralizing forces of Phoenician,
Greek and Carthaginian civilization did not affect to an appreciable extent the
political organization of west central Spain. There are legends of Greek
settlements on the Atlantic coast which may reflect an actual colonization by
the pathfinders of the Massiliot or Phocaean merchants. The Barcids, too, had
made some impression upon the farther bank of the Anas river. But the people of
Lusitania lived in small groups, a sort of “twilight zone” between pure tribal
units and true city-states. Their cities were citadels and little else, with
the possible exception of coast towns like Olisipo and Salacia, or of the
punicized settlements such as Balsa and Myrtilis. Far in the north the tribal
grouping was larger and firmer. Hermandica, or Elmantike, later Salamanca, was
the center of the Vaccaei, a large and important tribe.
The absence of any real unity made
conquest by the Romans as difficult as it was certain. Each small group had to
be conquered in turn, and then watched carefully lest it should suddenly
vanish, only to reappear in the ranks of the enemy. A policy of extermination
was the natural result. Strongholds were destroyed and the inhabitants killed
or sold into slavery. This destructive work went on from the first meeting of
Lusitanians and Romans in 193 BC to the outbreak of the Sertorian War. Fighting
did not cease until 60 bc, but
about the year 80, Q. Caecilius Metellus founded in the south a military
station which took its name from the founder. Metellinum was a
colony in the time of Augustus. Whether it received the ius coloniae at
the time of its foundation cannot be determined, but it represented the first
attempt to introduce Roman municipal life into this part of the peninsula. The
second town to be raised above the stipendiary rank was Salacia. Its cognomen Imperatoria is neither Augustan nor Caesarian; hence it is
conjectured that Sextus Pompey conferred upon the town its second name, and
that at the same time he granted to its citizens the Latin right. It was to
Caesar, the successor of Alexander in city founding, that Lusitania was
indebted for the greatest number of municipal additions at the hands of a
single individual. Three colonies, Pax Iulia, Norba, and Scallabis, were
established by him, and his liberal hand gave to the province its single municipality
with full Roman rights, Olisipo. He also advanced Myrtilis and Ebora to the
status held by Salacia.
In the municipalization of the Hither
Province, the Romans had a foundation of Greek and Carthaginian coast towns
upon which to build. The Greeks had entered this district as market seekers,
and made no attempt to secure more than “quarters” for trading purposes. The
relationship between the newcomers and the natives was apparently one of latent
hostility, if the accounts of Emporiae, the first Greek trading post, be true.
The mutual suspicion which prevailed there was perhaps exceptional, for in the
other Greek towns the immigrant element was so small that it was soon merged
into the larger native population. On the whole, it is difficult to attribute
to the Greeks a large amount of direct influence upon the political development
of the Iberian tribes. The centralization of the coast cantons into urban communities
was due rather to the needs of trade, and to the wealth which came from an
increasing commerce. Rhodae, Emporiae, Chersonesus and Alonae had Greek
settlers, but the assimilation was so thorough that only the first two have
preserved a survival of Hellenic influence in the use of Greek on their coins.
By the time of the Barcid conquest the city-dwelling habit had spread along the
coast and up the larger river valleys. The most important of the river towns
was Saguntum, an ally of the Romans about 225 bc.
Carthaginian activity in eastern Spain was
neither intensive nor permanent. The only foundations were some naval stations
in the Balearic islands and Carthago Nova, for a brief period the military
center of a new empire. From it the commands of the Barcids carried weight
beyond the Ebro and the Pyrenees to Massilia, but in 206 bc the city was in the hands of the
Romans, and its former owners were driven from the peninsula.
Roman leaders, then, had to weld into a
political unity a few Greek coast settlements, one Carthaginian town, a narrow
hinterland of hellenized natives, and a vast stretch of unknown territory
beyond. Conquest was the first step, and the wars of the period from 218-133 bc were so severe and so continuous
that Roman foundations during that time were primarily military. Tarraco, the
first Roman foundation in all Spain, was the work of the Scipios. It was used
from the first as the chief military base of the province. Graccuris, a
reorganization of the original Ilurcis in 179 BC, and Valentia, a settlement of
veterans in 138 BC, are the only direct evidences of municipal creation on the
part of the Romans during the conquest period. Many native towns are mentioned
by Livy, and numismatic finds attest their wealth and number, but the general
policy here, as in Lusitania, was to scatter the forces of the enemy, not to
encourage the centralization which would come from the building of towns.
After the destruction of Numantia,
municipal life was looked upon with more favor by the Romans. Few of the later
foundations were more than organized native towns, a proof of the advanced
character of these Iberian municipalities. Unfortunately the details of this
period are lacking. The work of Sertorius cannot be ascertained but we know
that some of his troops were settled in Spain by Pompey. The assignment of town
foundations to the period 133-49 bc can
be made only by a doubtful process of elimination. Given the lists of colonies
and Roman municipalities of Pliny, we may segregate the foundations of
Augustus, which are identified by their cognomen Augusta. The foundations of
Caesar may be identified by the cognomen Iulia. There remain eight municipia
civium Romanorum which may have attained their status before Caesar’s time.
Baetulo, Blandae and Iluro were situated on the coast north of Tarraco; Ilerda,
not far from Tarraco, and Osca had played an important part in the civil wars;
Biscargis and Turiasso were on the Ebro; while Bilbilis was but an outpost of
this romanized Ebro district.
After his victories over the Pompeian
commanders in Spain, Caesar granted the ius coloniae to Acci, Carthago
Nova and Celsa. He raised to the status of mnnicipia civium Romanorum Calagurris
and Dertosa. Castulo, Iulia Libica and the Teariulienses were granted the Latin
right by him; and the stipendiaria Iuliobriga and Segisama Iulia were
evidently organized as towns by his orders.
From the foregoing account one can see
that the Roman towns founded in Spain between 218 BC and 133 BC were conquest
communities, groups of veterans settled in the hellenized or punicized
districts for the purpose of maintaining peace. Metellinum, the only foundation
of the next half century, was a belated representative of this type. During
this period the privileges of Roman citizenship were too jealously guarded to
permit their extension to native communities in the provinces.
A decided departure from this policy of
exclusion is shown in the work of Sertorius, Pompey and Caesar. They may have
been moved to a liberal extension of the rights of Roman citizenship by a
selfish desire to obtain men, money and good-will in return for favors granted,
or by a genuine interest in the welfare of at least this portion of the empire.
These motives were not contradictory, and both were probably instrumental in
bringing about the official romanization of Spain.
There were four factors which made this
new policy practicable and desirable. In the first place the districts were
prepared for local autonomy. Then, too, it was to the best interest of the
party leaders to obtain the fidelity of the provincials by liberal grants of
citizenship. Again, the independent powers (assumed or conferred) of these
leaders freed them from the restraints of the conservative authorities in
Rome. Finally, the Leges Iulia and Plautia Papiria had
established a precedent which Sertorius and his successors were quick to
follow.
IV. THE PROVINCIAL REORGANIZATION OF SPAIN
UNDER AUGUSTUS
The history of Roman Spain under the
beneficent rule of Augustus and his successors in the principate is more
intelligible than that of any period previous thereto. This is true in the
first place because romanization was carried on by intelligent men following a
definite plan, and in the second place because it was not confined to a portion
of the peninsula but included the whole of it. Unity and continuity were,
therefore, the two characteristics of Roman rule under the early Empire. Spain
had had a century of vain resistance to Roman arms, a second century of administrative
experiments and civil wars; under the Empire it was to have a season of peace
and prosperity. During this time the Spanish people demonstrated their ability
along many different lines. They furnished Rome material wealth from fields and
mines, gave soldiers, scholars, poets, priests and two of her most famous
emperors. The foundation upon which this greatness
rested was the reorganization by Augustus and the efficient administration
which he introduced into the peninsula.
Before Spain could be treated as a unit
for administrative purposes, there remained one final step of pacification in
the subjugation of the hardy mountaineers of the northwest. The campaign,
although pressed with the utmost vigor by the most skillful of Rome’s
generals, covered a period of twelve years (28-16 bc). Even then success came as a result of extermination
rather than through pacification. The establishment of three legions in the
lowlands nearby served, however, to keep the survivors quiet, and allowed the
more submissive tribes to cultivate their fields in peace. Meanwhile the work
of reorganization had begun.
Although there is no definite statement by
the authorities as to a general census of the Spanish people, it may safely be
assumed that an enumeration of the inhabitants as a basis for taxation and
military levies was made by Augustus soon after a similar task had been
undertaken in the Gallic provinces. At the same time, under the direction of
Agrippa, there was compiled a mass of geographical statistics which furnished
the later writers on Spain practically all their information concerning roads,
towns and natural features of the country. It was in this work of Agrippa that
there appeared for the first time details of the tripartite division of the
Spanish provinces. The inadvisability of continuing the old units of Hither and
Farther Spain, even as military districts, had been recognized by Pompey; and
the strategy of the Cantabrian war rendered desirable a division which would
unite the northwest quarter of Spain under the control of a single authority.
In this survey of Agrippa, Baetica included the territory bounded on the south
by the Atlantic and the Mediterranean from the mouth of the river Anas (Guadiana)to the
southernmost point of the lands of the Contestani, a little below Carthago
Nova. From that point the line ran to the northwest
through the country of the Oretani until it reached the Anas at a point not far
above Metellinum; thence generally along the Anas to the ocean. Lusitania
included all the western part of the peninsula, its eastern boundary being the
Anas up to the point where the Baetica line turned eastward. Thence the line
ran to the north until it reached the Pyrenees. The combined area of
these two divisions was not equal to that of the third. Equality in area,
however, was not the aim of the administration. That other motives governed can
be seen in the changes made by Augustus. For the boundaries of Lusitania were
moved southward to the river Durius, thereby uniting in the larger Hispania
Citerior the two most unsettled districts of the Cantabri and the Astures.
Baetica was reduced by a shift in its northern boundary, which then reached the
Mediterranean at a point between Murgi and Urci about seventy-five miles south
of Carthago Nova.
Almost three centuries passed before the
tripartite division was changed. During that time Spain exerted its greatest influence
on the Roman world. Differing widely as they did in natural resources, racial
elements and degree of civilization, the three provinces received varying forms
of administrative attention, and their contributions to Rome were
correspondingly unlike. Still, it was the aim of the Roman government to
obtain administrative uniformity throughout the peninsula. Accordingly, from
the very beginning of this era, certain levelling tendencies were set in
motion, and the forces and devices which made for unity were encouraged,
improved and perfected.
The importance of Roman roads as the
arteries along which were poured the forces of Roman civilization was in no
place better exhibited than in Spain. Soldier, trader, priest and scholar used
them in quick succession. At their intersections and terminals sprang up
flourishing cities. They made for unity and uniformity as did perhaps no other
single work of the Romans. In fact, the spread and permanence of
Roman civilization may be followed by a study of the road-building activities
and the subsequent establishment of Roman cities in the various parts of Spain.
It was one of the most significant features of the administration of Augustus
that his improvements and additions to the existing system of roads were so
great.
In the southern part of the peninsula
Augustus did little save to connect the old military road along the coast from
the Pyrenees to Carthago Nova with the Caesarian road from Gades to Corduba. By
this extension, Baetica and Citerior were brought into closer touch, and a
double exit was made for the mineral wealth of south central Spain. From Gades
via Hispalis and from Corduba, roads ran northwards to Emerita, the great center
of southwestern Spain. Still northwards from Emerita stretched two long
highways, one to the northeast through Caesarobriga, Toletum, Segontia,
Bilbilis to Caesaraugusta, the other due north through Salmantica to Asturica.
Two additional lines of communication were thus established between north and
south. There remained for Augustus but one more pioneer task, the connection of
Tarraco and the east with the remote northwest. This was accomplished by a
road from Tarraco to Asturica, Lucus Augusti and Bracaraugusta. It is probable
that Spain and Gaul were more firmly joined at this time by two roads over the
Pyrenees, one from Pompaelo, the other from Caesaraugusta, to Burdigala.
Provincial Subdivisions
Two new subdivisions appeared for the
first time in Spain as parts of the administrative system of Augustus. Of these
the more perplexing, both with reference to its boundaries and to the competence of its officials, was the diocese. Hispania
Citerior was divided into three dioceses. One of these included the territory
which formed the conventus Bracarum and Lucensis; the second contained
the conventus Asturum and Cluniensis; and the third the conventus Caesaraugustanus,
Tarraconensis and Carthaginiensis. The first was called Gallaecia, the third
Tarraconensis, the name of the second is unknown.
The term diocese had been applied to a
Hellenistic division, and from the eastern predecessor it is probable that the
subdivision in Hispania Citerior was derived. The chief official of each
diocese was a legatus Augusti, an appointee of the princeps, although
in his work subordinate to the provincial governor. The duties of the legatus were both military and administrative, at least in the two dioceses to the
north. Strabo reported that the legatus of Gallaecia held command of the
two legions stationed in his diocese, and the legatus of the second
diocese had one legion under him. In the inscriptions some of the legati are
entitled iuridici, proving that juridical power was also theirs.
The three dioceses organized by Augustus
were reduced to two in the principate of Claudius, the conventus Cluniensis
being attached to the diocese Tarraconensis, and the conventus Asturum
attached to the diocese Gallaecia. Under the titles Asturia et Gallaecia and
Tarraconensis these two divisions remained unchanged to 214 ad. At that date some reorganization
was made, probably the transference of the western military post, Legio, to the
jurisdiction of the eastern legatus. Finally, under Constantine or
Diocletian, the diocese Asturia et Gallaecia became a separate province.
Each province was subdivided into judicial
districts called conventus iuridici. There were fourteen of these
districts in the Three Spains, four in Baetica, three in Lusitania, and seven
in Hispania Citerior. Roman law had been administered in the Republican period
by the provincial governors and their assistants, generally during the months
of winter when the troops were at rest. Under Augustus the time of the sessions
was changed to the summer, the judicial centers were increased in number and
made permanent, and the boundaries of their spheres of jurisdiction accurately
denned. Although Hubner divided the conventus Cordubensis
into two parts, basing his division upon Pliny’s account, it appears more
reasonable to accept Detlefsen’s correction in punctuation, and to consider
each district a compact geographical unit.
The generalization, commonly accepted,
that the conventus were arranged in such a manner as to break up
existing local groupings is only partly true. If it had been the intention to
dissolve tribal organization by this system, the districts to which the
divisive policy would have been applied were those of the northwest where
tribal loyalty was most in evidence. But the civitates of the Varduli,
Cantabri and others were united in the same judicial area. In one instance even
provincial boundaries were set aside in order to allow the citizens of Baria to
receive their justice from a conventual center in Baetica. Conventual
organization in Spain appears to have acted as a unifying factor rather than as
a divisive force.
On the other hand, it is true that a new
form of loyalty was introduced through the conventual organization. The
imperial cult appeared in conventual form in the northwest with the deities,
Rome and Augustus, and the priests, entitled sacerdotes. This conventual
cult did not become popular in the settled sections where there were numerous
municipal cults, but the idea of a territorial division
midway between the urban and provincial units was used by the organizers of the
early Christian Church. A third use of the conventus is
indicated by the title censitor conventus. To judicial and religious officials
was added an imperial tax-gatherer. Thus it was that the conventus gradually
assumed an important position in the administrative organization of Spain and,
as a result, men came to describe themselves as ex conventu.
Provincial Officials
When Baetica became a senatorial province,
it was, in theory, freed from imperial control, and its officials were
responsible to the Senate. Long years of Roman occupation had made its inhabitants,
even in the days of Cicero, more Roman than the Romans. No foreign enemies, at
least for the next century, or rebellious subjects threatened to disturb its
peace, no imperial troops were needed for its protection. The division of
senatorial and imperial provinces, from which one might expect marked
differences in administrative treatment, was to a great extent formal and
theoretical, for, in addition to their great influence over the Senate,
Augustus and the succeeding emperors were the real masters of the provincial
governors sent out by that body. Thus, though the titles of the officials
differ, the system of government was the same; the actual differences arising
out of local conditions rather than from any division of governmental authority
at Rome.
The chief officials of Baetica were a proconsul of praetorian rank, a legatus proconsulis and one quaestor. Its
capital city, the residence of the governor, was Corduba. The province was subdivided into four conventus, Hispalensis,
Cordubensis, Astigitanus, and Gaditanus.
From an administrative point of view,
Lusitania was the least important of the three Spanish provinces. It lacked the
material wealth which made Baetica so valuable to Rome, and on the other hand
there were within its borders no untamed tribes demanding a regular military
establishment to keep them in order. The Augustan colony, Emerita, became the
capital of the province and the residence of its governor, a legatus
Augusti. This official held the proconsular imperium from the
emperor and was assisted in matters of finance by procurators, generally men of
equestrian rank. The three conventus of the province were Pacensis,
Emeritensis, and Scallabitanus.
The province Hispania Citerior had an
administrative organization suitable to the complexity offered by its size and
local differences. At the head was placed a legatus Augusti, of consular
rank, whose residence was Tarraco. This city had the double advantage over the
old capital, Carthago Nova, of being nearer to Rome, and at the same time
closer to the unsettled districts of the northwest. While the governor’s
authority extended over the whole province, his attention was, for the most
part, given to the Mediterranean shore. Under him were the three subordinate legati, one of whom governed the district behind the eastern mountains from the
Durius to the Baetis. A second, with one legion, ruled the northern districts from
the Mediterranean to the territory of the Astures; while the third, with two
legions, administered the extreme northwest. There were seven conventus in
the Hither Province, Carthaginiensis, Tarraconensis, Caesaraugustanus,
Cluniensis, Asturum, Lucensis, and Bracarum.
Municipal Organization
The most important single document for the
study of the municipal organization of the western provinces by Augustus is the Historia Naturalis of Pliny. In his account of Spain, Pliny combined
personal experience, the work of earlier geographers and the official documents
of Agrippa, Augustus and Vespasian. The record is by no means a complete one,
nor is it free from error, but, corrected and supplemented by the epigraphical
evidence contained in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and the various
additions thereto, it offers material sufficient for a reconstruction of the
administrative organization of Spain under Augustus.
The three provinces contained a total of
399 local administrative units: 26 of these were coloniae, 24 were municipia
civium Romanorum, 48 were oppida Latii veteris, 6 were oppida
libera, 4 were oppida foederata, and 291 were stipendiaria. The
classification of these units with reference to their respective provinces is
as follows:
Lusitania
Pliny’s description of Lusitania has been
subjected to critical examination by Detlefsen and Wallrafen. The number and
names of coloniae and municipia, as given by Pliny, have been
confirmed by epigraphical evidence. Of the stipendiary towns, thirty-three were
named by Pliny; the three additional towns necessary to complete the total, as
suggested by Wallrafen, are Aritium, Caetobriga and Ammaia.
Aside from the striking difference in
treatment between the northern and southern halves of the province, there is
little worthy of comment in the administrative organization.
This difference of treatment is but a reflection of the previous history of
Lusitania, bounded on the south by a country of peaceful inhabitants, drilled
in civilization; exposed on the north to the raids of wild tribesmen who
neither taught civilization to their neighbors nor allowed them to practise any
of its arts in peace. The different levels of Lusitanian life can best be
exemplified by the Augustan foundations in the province. The one Lusitanian
colony of Augustus, Emerita Augusta (Mérida), was located in the south on the banks of
the river Anas (Guadiana). To the natural advantages of location on a navigable stream,
surrounded by fertile fields, Augustus added artificial aids to its growth by
making it the terminus of a road from the south, and of two highways from the
north. It was the capital of the province, and money was lavishly expended on
its public buildings by Agrippa. It became, in fact, the imposing center of a
highly civilized area. Far more humble was the lot of a town in central
Lusitania which bore the name of the first princeps. Augustobriga was a
tributary town on the Tagus river. It was apparently a new organization, a
group of natives introduced for the first time to municipal institutions. There
were no industries to foster its growth, no imperial patrons to encourage its
development; it began and remained simply a way station on an imperial road.
In the north a few tributary towns, chief among them Ocelum on the Durius, were
recognized. But the old tribal units were used in this backward district.
Baetica
Pliny’s totals for the province of Baetica
have been accepted by scholars without change, but his detailed account
presents difficulties, some of which cannot be solved. Ten
cities were given the rank of colony. Munda has been excluded because of the
probability that it had lost its title in 45 BC, and because Pliny himself
practically admits that its colonial status was a thing of the past by his use
of the perfect tense “fuit”." This excision would leave the nine colonies
of the total given by Pliny. The problem of identifying the municipia is
more complex. There are but two of the municipia civium Romanorum expressly
indicated by Pliny, Regina and Gades. Thirty other towns are named to which the
status of municipium may be attributed. The use of a double name, one
Latin and the other a local appellation, differentiates these towns from those
of lower status. But it is almost impossible to tell which of them possessed
full rights of citizenship and which held only the Latin right. A study of the
arrangement in Pliny’s account led Detlefsen to add three names to the list of
Roman municipia, which would give a total of five municipia civium
Romanorum and 28 municipia iuris Latini, as opposed to the 10 m.c.R. and 27 m.i.L. of Pliny. Without any definite statement of status,
or any corroborative evidence, this addition of Detlefsen cannot be taken as
more than a possible conjecture. There are three communities, however, which
may be included in the number of municipia on evidence which, in my
opinion, outweighs the report of Pliny. Italica was a municipium in the Republican period and was made a colony by
Hadrian. It also struck coins which are dated from 27 bc to 23 ad. Carmo
was a large and important town throughout the Republican period, its citizens
were assigned to the tribe Galeria, its Latin coins indicate municipal status
before, if not during the time of Augustus, its pontifex sacrorum publicorum
municipalium was a municipal officer. Abdera struck two coins which date
from the principates of Augustus and Tiberius. The first, with the inscription Ti.
Caesar Augusti F., is Augustan, and bears also the letters D.D., which
prove the existence of a municipal decurionate. The Tiberius coin does not bear
the D.D., but the very
fact that a coin could be struck bearing the name of the town shows that it
still retained its municipal status. The flamen divi Augusti and the duovir of the inscriptions also bear witness to the status of the town.
Of the six oppida libera given in
Pliny’s totals, but two are mentioned in the detailed account, Astigi Vetus and
Ostippo. Singilia Barba may be added to the number because it appears to have
retained a hint of its former status in the name adopted when Vespasian granted
to it the Latin right, Municipium Flavium Liberum. Cartima has been classed as
a free town on account of an inscription which was set up in honor of a decemvir. This title is also found in an inscription from Ostippo, and is, in all
probability, the regular magistracy of an oppidum liberum.
Only two oppida foederata are
named, one being left unrecorded by Pliny. Detlefsen has suggested Ripa, and Hubner proposed Suel, but neither of these conjectures can be verified.
The colonies of Baetica were increased in
number by three Augustan foundations. In seeking motives for their establishment
in this pacified and thickly populated area, one must pass by the usual
hypothesis of military or administrative necessity. The desire to foster
economic growth may have guided the founder in the selection of sites, but the
most pressing problem of Augustus was the discharge and settlement of his
land-hungry veterans. Some of the older colonies of Baetica received groups of
legionaries, and it was, no doubt, as veteran settlements that the new
foundations were established. The cognomina Augusta Gemella, and Augusta
Firma have a military flavor.
Of the municipia, Gades alone
honored Augustus in its name. It is reported that Gades received municipal
rights from Caesar in 45 BC, but the cognomen Augustani is taken as a bit of
contradictory evidence. May it not have come through the confirmation of
Caesar’s grant, or because of additional privileges (or settlers) under
Augustus? The title Parens which is given to Agrippa, and the
inscription Providentiae Augustae on coins show at least that the
attentions of the princeps and his lieutenant were gratefully received.
In general, however, the southern section
of Hispania Ulterior received from Augustus comparatively scant attention. The
work of Caesar had been sufficiently thorough in the extension of political
privileges to the urban communities; there were no townless areas necessitating
special organization, or additional settlers; there were none to punish, none
to reward. Baetica worked out its own salvation for almost a century unaided.
The attention of Augustus, and of his successors, Julian and Flavian, was fixed
upon that difficult problem, the incorporation and romanization of the new
land in the northwest.
Hispania Criterior
The detailed
account of this province by Pliny gives eleven of the twelve colonies listed in
the totals. Three towns have been proposed for the honor of twelfth place, of
which Dertosa appears to have the best claims.
With
reference to the municipia, both Roman and Latin, Pliny’s sins are those
of omission. Eleven names of municipia civium Romanorum are given out of
a total of thirteen; sixteen oppida Latinorum veterum, of a total of
eighteen. Detlefsen would have us look to the northwest for the
missing towns because the three conventus of that section have no towns
of higher status definitely assigned to them in Pliny’s
account. The chief argument against this view is that a special form of
administration was given to this section of the province. Whether or not this
argument may be forced to the extent of denying the existence of any municipal
units, the fact remains that the establishment of Roman or Latin towns in this
district is highly improbable. Bracara Augusta had a group of Roman citizens
who possessed an independent organization; a proof that this was not a Roman municipium. Again, an official was said to have performed all the honors in his “res
publica”, a term which was not applied to towns which had been granted the
Latin right. The only indication of higher status in any of these communities
is the appellation urbs attributed to Asturica Augusta by Pliny. The
evidence will support the conclusion that there were fifteen stipendiary units
established by Augustus in this newly conquered territory, but it does not bear
out Detlefsen’s conjecture that towns of higher status were founded there by
Augustus.
The effect of the reorganization upon the
Hither Province was to emphasize the importance and to accelerate the development
of the north. Augustus’ choice of Tarraco as the provincial capital and the
favors shown to the northern port meant the gradual decline of Carthago Nova.
The foundations of Barcino, Caesaraugusta and Dertosa gave an impetus to the
economic development of the Ebro valley, and the establishment of military
camps in the northwest offered protection to those desiring to exploit the
mineral wealth of that district. The three Augustan colonies in the south,
Ilici, Libisosa and Salaria, were veteran settlements, as were the four
colonies of the north. Viritane and group allotments were also made to
veterans, and around the military camps there grew up settlements in which
veterans undoubtedly resided.
V. NON-URBAN UNITS
One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most intricate problems solved by the Roman government in Spain was the administration of the half-civilized districts of the interior. When the Romans first entered the Iberian peninsula, they had to deal not only with city-states, but also with tribal groups and with smaller units which had asserted their independence of a central tribal authority without assuming the organization of a city-state. The larger groups were ethnic kingdoms possessing a dangerous unity in time of war, and for that reason were invariably broken up by the Romans as soon as they were conquered. It was the custom of historians and other writers of antiquity to describe these ethnic groups, such as the Lusitani and Celtiberi, by the word gentes. But each group was actually a number of gentes. Thus, for example, the Lusitani consisted of Elbocori, Turduli Veteres, Paesures, and others. If external influences had not altered the political development of Spain, it may be assumed that the larger units would have gradually overshadowed the original constituent elements and in the end would have become united under a few leaders, perhaps a single one. Such was the growth of Spain after the expulsion of the Moors, and such was the development of England from 449 to 828. But the processes were reversed in the Iberian peninsula by the introduction of the city-state principle. The tribal units of Baetica had been disintegrated by the driving attacks of the Barcids and by the no less potent influence of the Phoenician and Greek independent settlements. The separate gentes asserted themselves as the true political units; some centering about a citadel and taking up the forms of city-state organization, while others retained their pastoral or agricultural status. This independent spirit in the smaller units was found not only in Baetica and southern Lusitania but also along the Mediterranean littoral. Rome found in Saguntum an independent city-state with which she could make a treaty by 225 B.C. and the gentes of the northeast were small units. Only in the interior did the tribal kings maintain their authority. The conquering Romans for the most part recognized these kings and their political authority only as long as they were successful belligerents. For purposes of administrative organization they dealt directly with the constituent gentes. Whenever the circumstances permitted, municipal units were formed, but many of the stipendiaria still retained their gentile character. Schulten makes the distinction between urban and non-urban units that the former were given names ending in -enses, the latter names ending in -tani. In Lusitania only three units thus denote their non-urban organization, the Aranditani, Cibilitani and Igaeditani. But Hispania Citerior contains fifteen names of this sort, all of them with the rank of stipendiaria. Another group of non-urban units in Lusitania and Hispania Citerior are designated by a nominative plural ending in -i. There are six of these names in Pliny's account of Lusitania, classed as stipendiaria. It is evident that neither the ending -tani nor -i indicates administrative units which were even lower in status than the stipendiaria. But in Pliny's description of Hispania Citerior, there were 114 civitates of precisely this character. All indications point to their location in the conventus of northwestern Spain. There the opportunities for the assertion of local independence were meager, tribal organization was strongest, and the need of a different form of organization by the Romans imperative. The organization of this district has been discussed by Detlefsen in an article on the Hither Province and by Hubner in the Corpus. Their results have been criticized by Schulten in a special study of the peregrine communities of the Roman Empire. The conclusions of Schulten have been followed with but few changes. The main problems are those of terminology, for not only does Pliny, the chief source, contradict himself, but he also differs from the usage of the inscriptions. Pliny describes one of these conventus as follows :
In Cluniensem conventum Varduli ducunt populos XIIII, ex quibus Alabanenses tantum nominare libeat, Turmogidi IIII, in quibus Segisamonenses et Segisamaiulienses. In eundem conventum Carietes et Vennenses V civitatibus vadunt, quarum sunt Velienses. Eodem Pelendones Celtiberum IIII populis, quorum Numantini fuere clari, sicut in Vaceaeorum XVII civitatibus Intercatienses, Palantini, Lacobrigenses, Caucenses. Nam in Cautabricis VII populis luliobriga sola memoratur, in Autrigonum X civitatibus Tritium et Virovesca. Arevaeis nomen dedit flumen Areva. Horum VI oppida, Seeontia et Uxama, quae nomina erebro aliis in locis usurpantur, praeterea Segovia et Nova Augusta, Termes ipsaque Clunia Celtiberiae finis. Ad oceanum reliqua vergunt Vardulique ex praedietis et Cantabri. (Pliny 3, 26.)
If the contents of this quotation be analyzed and the territorial units classified in the order of their size (or, better, of their inclusiveness), it will be found that, after the conventus itself, the largest units are represented by the names Varduli, Turmogidi, Carietes et Vennenses, Pelendones Celtiberum, Vaceaei, Cantabri, Autrigones, Arevaci. These larger units contain smaller divisions which are called populi (Alabanenses, etc.), civitates (Velienses, etc.) and oppida (Secontia, etc.). Judged by the standards of usage in his preceding descriptions, Pliny employed the terms Varduli, Turmogidi, etc., here simply as "historical reminiscenses". That is to say, we would conclude that these larger units had no political status, and that the terms were merely descriptive with a purely geographical significance. It would then follow that the populi and civitates were municipalized gentes. But we learn from inscriptions that Varduli retained a political and administrative meaning, for an official was appointed for taking the census of the civitates of the Vascones and Varduli. Military diplomas also record alae and cohortes of the Varduli, Cantabri and Carietes. The best proof of the continued status of these larger units lies in the use of their names to designate the origo of individuals. A natural conclusion, based on this evidence, is that the larger units are gentes and the smaller populi are divisions of gentes. Satisfactory as this conclusion may appear, it does not agree with all the facts as we know them. The fundamental objection voiced by Schulten is that divisions of gentes, for example pagi, are not and cannot be independent of the gens of which they are a part. But there are proofs of the independence of some of these populi. Therefore Sehulten asserts that the larger units of the four conventus were nationes, or groups of gentes; that the populi and civitates were gentes; and that the oppida of these conventus were not true oppida but castella, which possessed no legal status. Before discussing his reasons for presenting this hypothesis I shall add the other sections of Pliny relating to the northwestern district. Iunguntur iis Asturum XXII populi divisi in Augustanos et Transmontanos, Asturica urbe magnifica. In his sunt Gigurri, Pesici, Lancienses, Zoelae. Numerus omnis multitudinis ad CCXL liberorum capitum. Lucensis conventus populorum est sedecim, praeter Celticos et Lemavos ignobilium ac barbarae appellationis, sed liberorum capitum ferme CLXVI. Simili modo Bracarum XXIIII civitates CCLXXXV capitum, ex quibus praeter ipsos Bracaros, Biballi, Coelerni, Callaeci, Equaesi, Limici, Querquerni eitra fastidium nominentur. (Pliny 3, 28.) A Pyrenaeo per oceanum Vasconum saltus, Olarso, Vardulorum oppida, Morogi, Monosca, Vesperies, Amanum portus, ubi nunc Flaviobrica colonia; Civitatium novem regio Cantabrorum, flumen Sauga, portus Victoriae luliobrioensium, ab eo loco- fontes Hiberi XL p. portus Blendium. Orgenomesci e Cantabris. Portus eorum Vercasueoa. Regio Asturum, Noega oppidum, in paeninsula Pesici, et deinde conventus Lucensis, a flumine Navialbione Cibarci, Egi, Varri cognomine Namarini, ladovi, Arroni, Arrotrebae. Promuntorium Celticum, amnes Florius, Nelo. Celtici cognomine Neri et Supertamarci, quorum in paeninsula tres arae Sestianae Augusto dicatae, Copori, oppidum Noeta, Celtici cognomine Praestamarci, Cileni. ... A Cilenis conventus Bracarum, Helleni, Grovi, castellum Tyde, Graecorum subolis omnia. Insulae Siceae, oppidum Abobrica. Minius amnis IIII ore spatiosus, Leuni, Seurbi, Bracarum oppidum Augusta, quos super Gallaecia. Flumen Limia. Durius amnis ex maximis Hispaniae, ortus in Pelendonibus et iuxta Numantiam lapsus, dein per Arevacos Vaccaeosque disterminatis ab Asturia Vettonibus, a Lusitania Gallaecis, ibi quoque Turdulos a Bracaris arcens. (Pliny 4, 110.)
In the three conventus thus described there were four larger units containing populi, civitates and oppida, the Astures Augustani, Astures Transmontani, Bracares and Lucenses. The proof that these four groups and the nine similar groups of the conventus Cluniensis were used as political units by Augustus and were not merely geographical terms is found, as I have said, in the inscriptions, particularly in the epigraphie use of these names to designate the origo of individuals. It is true that the form used is generally ex gente (Cantabro). But the term gens is also applied in an official document to the Zoelae, one of the populi of the Astures. Either this use of the term gens is incorrect, or the use of the term by the Cantabrian cives, for the two units were evidently not considered equal in the Roman scheme of administration. Fortunately there is a test which may be applied to determine the validity of the terminology. A gens cannot be divided into non-urban units which are independent politically of the gens. The only method of achieving local independence under the Roman system was by incorporation on a municipal basis. But there are proofs of independent action on the part of the units described by Pliny as populi which had no such municipal basis. This action can be explained only on the hypothesis that the larger units were nationes and the smaller ones gentes. Populi and civitates are interchangeable terms. Most of these populi bear names which indicate complete absence of any municipal characteristics, for example, Orgenomesci, Gigurri. Pesici, and Zoelae. Still other have names such as are commonly applied to communities known in the province of Africa as res publicae. A res publica had many of the forms of an oppidum stipendiarium without its status, possessed an ordo, territorium, magistri, and its inhabitants were wont to style themselves cives, although they were de jure only incolae. Up to this point the contention of Schulten that these populi civitates were gentes holds without question, but there are listed among these populi certain names, e.g. luliobriga, Secontia, Uxama, which look like town-names, and which are called oppida. If populus and oppidum are synonomous, then populus cannot equal gens. By way of reply to this objection, Schulten demonstrates, using epigraphic evidence, that the oppida were de jure castella. As a partial excuse for the technical error of Pliny, he suggests that these communities were larger than the average castellum, approaching the dignity of a true oppidum in size at least. He also ventures the conjecture that these castella were centers of former gentes. This conjecture, if accepted, would fill out the series of steps through which each unit of these northwestern conventus would have to go in order to reach, let us say, the dignity of a municipium. The progress of any of these groups may be traced as follows. At the entry of the Augustan troops the Lancienses were a gentile group of the natio Asturum. After the conquest they were still considered as a part of the Astures for purposes of military levies, census, etc. They had reached such a state of political development before the conquest, however, that instead of remaining a simple gens, they were advanced one step and were allowed to call themselves a res publica. The res publica became more and more urban in character until it reached the rank of stipendiarium. The status of municipium, one step beyond, was reached before the time of Trajan. Although agreeing in general with the solution of the Plinian puzzle by Schulten, I differ with him in one point. Induced, perhaps by a desire for uniformity, Schulten denies political status to any urban district in the four conventus of northwestern Spain, with the exception of Asturica. There are arguments both general and specific which may be cited in contradiction of so sweeping a generalization. It is a common and unchallenged tribute to Augustus to say that he sought to Romanize the provincials by municipalization. It is true that in Gaul and in Africa the existing political organization was left practically untouched. But even in these cases some exceptions were made, and Roman municipal organizations were established in the midst of tribal groups. The advisability of inaugurating, at least, a municipal system in northwestern Spain was most obvious, for until the district was truly pacified one-eighth of the Roman army had to be stationed there. Still Schulten asserts that the country was left without a single municipal organization after which the tribal communities might pattern. It will be noted, too, that in order to retain his uniformity theory Schulten has to reject Pliny's use of the word oppidum in its usual sense of an independent municipal unit, and forces the oppida into the class of castella or vici. There is, in my opinion, a real and intended antithesis in the phrases of Pliny, "castellum Tyde . . . oppidum Abobrica." The antithesis was not based on size, or on relative importance. It simply records the status of the two communities. If it is accepted as probable that Augustus made some beginnings in the municipalization of this district, and that Pliny used the term oppidum to denote these municipal beginnings, an examination of the units thus described by Pliny tends to strengthen the argument from probability. In addition to the six oppida of the Arevaci, eight other oppida are mentioned, to which may be added "Asturica urbs magnifica". The territory of the Arevaci, situated at the southeastern corner of this backward district, was the most obvious place for municipal beginnings. If the work was to be done gradually this was the proper place for a beginning. The other oppida were situated on or near the seacoast, and formed an encircling band of civilization around the backward district. The acceptance of these fifteen units as urban communities of at least stipendiary rank removes a difficulty connected with the totals of Pliny. Schulten points out that there were 129 civitates ascribed by Pliny to the four conventus. Out of these must come the 114 non-urban units. If we accept the dictum that the 129 were all non-urban, it is impossible to explain the discrepancy. But if the 15 oppida (14 oppida and 1 urbs) be considered as municipalized units, Pliny's total of 129 civitates minus 15 urban units will give the required 114 non-urban units.
VI. THE MUNICIPAL IMPERIAL CULT
The inception and growth of the imperial
cult in the Roman Empire have been treated by scholars with varying degrees of
interest. But even those who have given the subject their most careful
attention have reached conclusions which are, to say the least, uncomplimentary
to the founders of the cult. We are asked to believe that the institution was
accidental and incidental, the voluntary expression of a contented people,
without the control or assistance of those it most benefitted; or
we are told that a loathsome custom of the effete Orient was transplanted by a
calculating princeps to the vigorous Occident, and there forced down
the throats of an unwilling people. The evidence which comes from the Iberian
peninsula does not support either of these conclusions. It appears rather to
sustain the belief that the natural and wholesome feeling of relief of the Roman
world when the Pax Romana was assured was skillfully crystallized by
Augustus into an abiding institution.
The reason for reviewing the subject of
the imperial cult in the Spanish municipalities is not for the introduction of
new evidence, but to obtain a better understanding of the relationship of the
cult to general administrative policy. It has been the custom to regard it as
an institution apart from the real life of the people, and the governmental
policies of the rulers. Fiske has found some antecedents in Roman
customs as well as the Graeco-Oriental ingredients; Kornemann has considered
the cult as an agent for the advancement of Roman Kultur; Hirschfeld has noted the deep-seatedness of the cult in that its forms were
transferred almost intact to the Christian Church. None of these facts can be
explained as the result of the adoption of an Oriental fad, or as the product
of a cult introduced by a hypocritical despot.
While Augustus was slowly recovering from
an illness brought on by the hardships of the Cantabrian campaign, he received
in Tarraco an embassy from the people of Mytilene announcing the formal deification
of Augustus by that city in the customary Hellenistic fashion. The pleasant
reception offered that embassy did not escape the notice of the local
dignitaries, and they hastened to emulate their eastern fellow-subjects by the
erection of an altar to Augustus in their own city. The example set by Tarraco
was followed by many other municipalities of Spain
and the imperial cult had been thoroughly and firmly established before the
death of Augustus in 14 ad. This
date is important in the history of the municipal cult in that the name
Augustus then designated the second princeps. For, through deification
by the Senate of Rome, the first princeps became divus, while the
title of Augustus was conferred upon his successor. Thus two courses were open
to the devotees of the imperial cult. Sacrifices could be continued to the
first princeps under the name divus Augustus, or the living princeps could be reverenced as Ti. Caesar Augustus, or simply Augustus. (The two
might be combined in a cult divo et Augusto, but we have no evidence of
such a combination). A third and final step was taken when two principes had
been officially deified in 54 ad. Cults
of the divi were organized, and in some instances the living Augustus
was included as a member of the divine group. The increasing number of forms
which the imperial cult might assume is indicated in the following table:
27 B.C.-14A.D. 14-54 A.D. 54- A.D.
Augusto divo Augusto divo Augusto
Augusto
(=Tiberio) divo Claudio
[Divo et
Aug.]* [divis Augustis]*
[Augusto (Neroni) ] *
[divis et Aug.]*
* No evidence of these cults is found in
Spain.
A closer study of the municipal cults adds
many details to the generalizations of this table. These details will be presented
in chronological order, a method of presentation which will exclude many
undated and undateable pieces of evidence, but which increases the
probabilities of the conclusions based on the material presented. A superficial
glance at the data of the municipal imperial cults leads one directly to the
conclusion that there was neither rhyme nor reason to the institution. Indeed
one doubts whether such a bundle of confusion may justly be called an
institution. Even a careful collection, assortment and scrutiny of details has
brought Toutain to a position, a statement of which requires a number of
negatives. The writer must confess to a theory. He is not convinced by the
brilliant negatives of Toutain; he believes that the cult was not a haphazard
growth without guidance, but that it possessed both rhyme and reason.
The imperial municipal cult in Spain under
Augustus had the following features: first, an altar dedicated to Rome and
Augustus, and second, a priest, whose title was flamen Romae et Augusti. The
assumption that this form of the cult was the only one to be found during the
lifetime of Augustus is based on the evidence collected by Kornemann. The cult
with its priestly titulary continued without change in many cases through the
centuries, but the date of foundation was before 14 ad in every case. There are other proofs of the reverence
paid to Augustus during his lifetime, but the only evidence admitted here will
be inscriptions containing the names of municipal priests and coins which
indicate by representations of altar or temple the existence of a cult in the
towns whose names they bear.
In addition to the first cult-foundation
of Tarraco, Barcino, Castulo, Complutum, Pollentia, Saetabis, and Valeria had flamines
Romae et Augusti. To the principate of Tiberius must be assigned the
foundation of a new form of the cult, that of Rome and the deified Augustus, at
Clunia. A ritual was also established at Olisipo in honor of Iulia Augusta, the
mother of Tiberius, and another in honor of Germanicus Caesar. Tiberius himself
received cult honors from the citizens of Pax Iulia. The presiding
priest was in each case a flamen. But a new title, pontifex (sic), is
given to a contemporary cult of the Caesars at Anticaria. The Caesars of this
cult were undoubtedly Germanicus and Drusus. The four years of Caligula are
represented by establishments at Ulia and Carma in honor of the deified
Augustus, and to a foundation at Mentesa in honor of Caligula’s mother. Flamen is still the title given to the priest. No inscriptions of new cult
officials can be definitely assigned to the principate of Claudius, but a flamen
divi Claudii of Tarraco, and the sodales Claudiani of “Cabeza del
Griego” should be placed in time near the date of his death, 54 ad. Fiske says of the first
inscription, “It is, of course, later than 54 ad”. But from what we know of Claudius’ policy in Britain, it is possible to
believe that this cult may have antedated the death of the princeps. In
favor of this view it may be noted that Tarraco was the religious center not
only of Hispania Citerior, but of the whole peninsula, hence the most fitting
place for official innovations. The failure of scholars to find any trace of
change or addition to the municipal cults of Spain during the principate of
Nero gives in addition an argument from silence. For it is not to be supposed
that Nero should add to the glory of a predecessor without seeking a share
himself.
Before undertaking a summary of Flavian
activity in cult foundations, some notes on the Julian period should be added.
In the first place, it should be remembered that in 15 ad the provincial cult was established in Hispania Citerior,
with its chief official a flamen Augustalis (=flamen divi Augusti) provinciae, and its center adorned with a temple. Similar cults were established in
Lusitania and Baetica, in all probability, during the principate of Tiberius.
Another phase of imperial cult development to be noted is the foundation of the
conventual cults. These were certainly not a product of local initiative. Three
of them were placed in districts where few municipalities existed. Their
function was educational in that they presented a concrete illustration of the
principles underlying the new monarchy. A third subject of importance is the
office of flaminica. Toutain has proved that the title was not conferred ex officio upon the wives of the flamines. If, then, they were
chosen as priestesses of cults, why were they chosen instead of men? The answer
is that they were elected to preside over the temples or altars of the deified
women of the Caesars. The date of the first flaminica is then to be
placed after the formal apotheosis of Livia, the first diva, in 42 ad. In conclusion it should be noted
that the only titles for this period of the official municipal cults were flamines and flaminicae. The use of sacerdos and pontifex in
official cults of the municipalities is of later origin.
The new foundations which can be assigned
to the Flavian period are few and, in general, merely witnesses of the growth
of the official pantheon. Flamines divi Vespasiani, divi Titi and divi
Traiani in Tarraco have left records to prove that in the capital of the
Hither Province each new divus was honored by an individual cult. An
inscription of Ipsca records the dedication of a building, perhaps a temple,
to Vespasian, the donor and dedicator being entitled pontifex designatus. The
paucity of new cults does not necessarily indicate any diminution in strength
or popularity of the imperial cult as an institution. A reduplication of
priesthoods would have been a useless expense to the municipalities, for the
cults of Rome and Augustus transferred their allegiance
from one living ruler to the next. The divi were not completely
forgotten, however. Their names remained in the oath of allegiance, and the
records of their work in roads and buildings served as reminders of their
former greatness. In order to make the remembrance of the divi more lasting,
to incorporate it in the cult ritual, Hadrian introduced the last important
innovation in the nomenclature and organization of the imperial cult. During
this emperor’s visit to Tarraco in the winter of 122-123 ad he rebuilt the temple of Rome and
Augustus, and re-established the old cult on a new basis. The priests were from
that time on to pay honor to Rome and the divi. A pantheon was thereby
formed which would continue to increase with the deification of each Augustus.
This change in the provincial cult was copied by many municipalities, and a
number of inscriptions indicate the spread of the new idea and its slightly
varying forms.
The evidence of the preceeding pages
comprises the data upon which the traditional interpretations of the municipal
cult are based. That which follows contains the arguments in favor of a new
interpretation. Stated in thesis form, that interpretation is: first, that the
imperial cult was the expression of an emotion sincere in all its aspects;
second, that the organization and the institutionalizing of that emotion were
undertaken with equal sincerity by Augustus and his successors in the
principate; third, that this institution was an important feature of the
general administrative policy of the Early Empire as was, for example, the
introduction of Roman Law.
There are certain primary objections to
this theory, objections which spring from a prejudice insidious and most
difficult to eradicate, namely, the unconscious interpretation of ancient terms
by modern ideas. If the meanings current at the beginning of the Christian
era, be given to the terms deus, divus, apotheosis, Augustus, etc., the charge of hypocrisy so often levelled at the participants in the so-called “worship” of
human beings is left without support. After 1600 years of monotheism the word deus connotes omnipotence, omniscience. It had no such significance to the
people of the Roman world in 27 BC. It is true that hints of an all-powerful
being or force, superior to all the gods, were in the air. The Stoic
philosophers were seeking to raise Iupiter-Zeus to that high position, but to
the vast majority, Zeus, Hera and the other immortals were merely supermen and
superwomen. There was no impassable gulf between deus and homo. If
a deus enter an Oriental court in the form of a king, and dwell on earth
as long as life remained in that king’s body, the Occidental could also bridge
the gap by the apotheosis of any man who proved himself far superior to the
average human being. To the Greek the individual thus elevated became “Saviour” but the Roman distinguished between the gods of his ancestors and those homines who obtained divine honors because of their res gestae. The latter
he termed divi, and indicated the potential divinity in candidates for
that honor by the title Augustus. If, “drunk with sight of power”, these
men abused their privileged positions, future generations refused to recognize
them as divine. But if they had been faithful in the performance of their
tasks, they might repeat with all sincerity the words of Vespasian “Puto deus
fio”.
The evidence in favor of the view that the
imperial cult was foisted upon the Roman West and did not spring from the
hearts of the people there, is of three kinds. The first is that of our own
senses. We cannot imagine a civilized man worshipping another man as a god. The
answer is that the Roman idea of god and ours are radically different. In the
second place, the Ides of March are cited as proof of the Occidental abhorrence
of a god-king. It has been stated that the tragedy of the Ides of March was a
protest against the Oriental program of Julius Caesar. That program was a
varied one, containing a campaign against the Parthians, world-empire, the
establishment of a dynastic monarchy, universal citizenship, and
the deification of the living ruler. It is enlightening to learn just who were
the Protestants and to what extent their protest was successful. There were
many senators in the conspiracy, representing ostensibly a large proportion of
the Roman public. Did this public include the Roman populace? No. Did it
include the people of Italy? Not to the extent of active participation in the
war which followed. Did it include any or all of the western provinces? If it
did, they gave no sign. The leaders of this anti-Oriental group, strangely
enough, were supported by the legions of the east and by money wrung from
Greeks and Asiatics, the last people in the world to protest against an
Oriental program. As a matter of fact, the conspirators were encouraged by the
dwindling middle class in Italy and by a small group in Rome, men of theory
like Cicero, and others who envied the power of Caesar. In spite of the weak
showing of the Republican party in the west, there was an element of protest
in the Ides of March which was not neglected by Augustus. If we compare the
plans of Caesar and the acta of Augustus, we find that the “son”
achieved a diplomatic victory over the Parthians, that he continued the advance
towards world-empire, that at the end of forty-two years (44-2 BC) he had
established a dynastic monarchy in all but name, that he had restricted citizenship
to the sons of Italy, and that he had based his life work on the sacro-sanctity,
the divine character, of Rome’s First Citizen. The protest, as heeded by
Augustus, was founded on the hatred of the name king, and on an intense
sectional patriotism, not on religious objections to the divine aspirations of
rulers. If deification, apotheosis or incarnation had been ideas both new and
objectionable to the Roman people, Augustus would not have sought, nor could he
have obtained, their support by insisting upon the deification of his “father”,
by assuming the title of divi filius, and by inaugurating a literary
revival which was filled with references to him as universal savior, divinus
puer, iste deus, etc.
The third source of evidence against the
unwillingness of the west to enter into the spirit of the imperial cult is the
work of Tacitus. No historian of antiquity is more notorious for his partisanship,
no writer has a greater reputation for skillfully concealing the truth when it
does not conform to his thesis, nor has his equal been found in ability to
condemn with a phrase and cast suspicion over a whole life with an adjective.
If the Roman people had been the unwilling victims of an imperial policy for a
century, the work of Tacitus would never have seen the light of day. Certainly
in his time the institution was so firmly established in the hearts of the
people that the publication of so scathing a denunciation could be permitted by
Trajan without fear of revolution. One may with justice refuse to accept the
unsupported testimony of a man who spent the best years of his life in silent
protest against a system which the rest of the world welcomed. The proof of
that welcome is to be found in the growth of the voluntary reverence paid to
the rulers of Rome.
That the people of the three provinces of
the Iberian peninsula considered Augustus worthy of divine honors, and sought
to offer him those honors voluntarily is the conclusion reached after a study
of the municipal cult in those provinces. The first cult was founded in a
municipality which had every reason to be thankful both to Rome and to Augustus
for its prosperity and prominence, and at a time when its favors had reached
the limit of hope and desire. Thanks to Rome, Tarraco had risen from a small
Iberian village to become the most important city in the peninsula, the capital
of its largest province. The divine Julius had granted it the ius coloniae, and
the emperor himself had received two consulships from the Roman people while
resting within its walls. It is true that the request of the citizens of
Tarraco may have been forced from them by a despotic master, or that they made
the request as a matter of form, hoping to flatter their visitor with a display
of reverence which they did not feel. But as the evidence cumulates it
militates more and more strongly against this hypothesis. We
cannot discover the sincerity of these men by an examination of the evidence
which they have left; but by determining the method of growth and by
ascertaining on which side the initiative lay, we can at least approximate the
attitude of the devotees of the imperial cult.
The first fact which attracts the
attention is that in all the provinces of Spain, the municipal cults antedated
the foundations of the provincial cults. Again, it is known that Augustus
insisted that the statue of the goddess Roma be associated with his: but “after
the ascension of the divine Augustus”, to quote Tacitus, the request to
establish a cult to the divus alone was made by the Spaniards. The
divinity of the first princeps was recognized by the provincials, and in
their enthusiasm some coins were struck at Tarraco with the inscription Deo
Augusto. In the third place a cult of Tiberius Caesar Augustus was
surely established by local initiative, not at the request of the princeps. Finally,
though the official inclusion of other principes in the imperial cult
had its beginnings in 54 ad when
Livia was deified, still on Spanish coins struck before the death of Caligula
there are references to Livia as Juno. None of these acts would come from
people to whom the ideas of incarnation were repugnant.
In the establishment of a state religion,
Augustus followed precedents. There was nothing new in any of its details. The
adoration of the goddess Roma, which is often described as an innovation, had
its beginnings in the days of the Republic. Roma was the Greek personification
of the Eternal City’s power. The important position given to this goddess by
Augustus was a pledge of his loyalty to Rome and to Italian nationalism, not a
proof of his reluctance to receive divine honors.
The arguments in favor of the sincerity of
Augustus and the people of the Roman West in their acceptance of divine kingship
could be strengthened by a study of the spread of the messianic idea throughout
the Hellenistic world, by an analysis of political theories from the days of
Isocrates to those of Panaetius and Cicero, and by recognition of the general
demand for a universal peacemaker. To charge Augustus with hypocrisy is to
endow him with an intelligence superior to those of the greatest political
thinkers and theologians of his day. To what extent were his successors of the
same mind? The usual summary of the principate of Tiberius may be expressed as
a series of ditto marks. He is credited with a continuation of the policies and
institutions of Augustus. We learn from Tacitus, however, that Tiberius would
not receive divine honors, that he insisted upon his mortality. This was indeed
a break with the program of Augustus, but it is to be explained by reasons
other than the ones generally advanced. Tiberius was chosen by Augustus not so
much as his successor as the guardian of the true successor, Germanicus. His
refusal to accept divine honors was in harmony with the wishes of Augustus, at
least until the death of Germanicus. But from that point his refusal rested no
longer on the ground that he was merely a vice-regent. It has been explained
as the act of a tyrant who refused to carry out the folly of religious pretence
to cloak his absolutism. Tiberius was not wholly without religious ideas,
however, no matter what his attitude towards the imperial cult may have been,
for we know that he was deeply interested in solar monotheism. He did not
attempt to make his personal belief the state religion of the empire, but his
withdrawal from the dynastic cult system as inaugurated by Augustus weakened
the whole Augustan program. The acta of Tiberius were not made permanent
by the deification of their author, succession was left to chance and intrigue,
and the continuity of policy disturbed. The imperial cult had at least this
measure of support from Tiberius: during his principate provincial cults were
established in the three Spanish provinces and elsewhere, and the municipal
cults to Augustus continued to increase in number.
It is difficult to discover in the
distorted accounts of a “madman’s” career any proof of his sincerity in any
policy. Nevertheless, on the subject of his own divinity Caligula gave vent to
an insistence which had none of the earmarks of hypocrisy. If the charge of
insanity be treated as false, the actions of Caligula can be explained as a
tactless but forceful continuation of the plans of Caesar. Claudius, in his
turn, believed that the responsibilities of his position entitled him to
divine honors. His policy was Caesarian in that he expected those honors before
his excessus, but to this he added the plan of Augustus in which members
of the imperial family were to be deified, as well as the principes.
There are two more “proofs” of disbelief
in the imperial cult and its tenets by the emperors. The first is at the
expense of the young Nero. It is said that no one who would be pleased with, or
allow the publication of, Seneca’s Apokolokyntosis could be sincere in
his maintenance of a cult so ridiculed. Let it be remembered that Nero was but
a youth when this skit was read to him by his guardian. Even had he arrived at
years of discretion, proof would still be lacking that the institution and not
the individual Claudius was the target of the satirist. Medieval literature
abounds with attacks upon individual popes by men whose belief in the Church as
an institution was unquestioned. The case against Nero and his tutor is about
as strong as one which might be made against Dante and his readers. The
Victorian attitude of modern critics, together with the feeling that individual
attack is always at the expense of the institution, has led them to accept the
report of Tacitus with all its insinuations. In like manner have they made use
of the dying words of Vespasian to demonstrate the disbelief of that princeps in the imperial cult. But these words may be taken with equal readiness as
proof of the sincere belief of an honest man in his immortality, and in the
eternity of his power.
The sincerity of the Spanish people in their
initiation of the various cult forms, and the sincerity of the principes in
organizing and continuing the cult have their best proofs in the importance of
the institution, its penetration into all social classes, and its length of
life. The details of organization have been most carefully arranged and
interpreted by Toutain. A repetition of his conclusions is made
here, simply to justify the statement that the cult was thoroughly organized.
One may object to a static treatment of an institution which had an organic development,
but there were certain elements which were undoubtedly permanent. The center
of the cult, for example, was an altar, or a temple. Representations of these
altars are to be found on the coins of Tarraco, Emerita Augusta, Iliei and
Italica; of the temples, on the coins of Tarraco, Emerita Augusta, Iliei,
Caesaraugusta, Carthago Nova, and possibly of Abdera. In the case of Tarraco,
the altar was erected and dedicated first during the lifetime of Augustus,
while the temple was not built until after the death of the first princeps. It
does not follow that this sequence was observed in the cults inaugurated after
14 ad.
With reference to the officials,
practically all discussions agree in the following general characterization.
The names of the officials were flamien, flaminica, sacerdos (man or
woman), pontifex and magister Larum. The flaminate was an
elective office, probably annual. Eligibility to office was based on local
citizenship only, although the expenses connected with the acceptance and
performance of the flaminate restricted the applicants to those financially
capable, and the honor in which the office was held restricted the number still
more closely to the most popular of the wealthy. The office could be held more
than once, and in more than one community at different times. As an added token
of respect, the electors often granted an honorary life flaminate to their
favorites.
Although the evidence is not so complete
as regards the sacerdos and pontifex, scholars have agreed that
these officials, too, held an elective office for one year, and were governed
by the same rules of eligibility, honorary membership, ete. It is only when
attempts have been made to differentiate the officials that a great variety of
opinions have appeared. The most sweeping negative statement is that of
Toutain, who denies not only the possibility of obtaining any distinction, but
even the existence of any. He supports the first position by citing exceptions
to almost every conceivable rule, but the affirmation that flamen and sacerdos are synonymous terms rests upon a single inscription.
The one obvious flaw in this piece of
evidence is that it refers to a flaminica, not to a flamen. Even
if this objection be overruled as a quibble, the fact remains that the two
terms flaminica and sacerdos need not be considered synonymous,
because they are connected by the word sive. One may ask why both titles
of this priestess should so carefully be engraved if there was no distinction
between them.
One distinction can be made between flamen and sacerdos in the provinces. In the days of the Republic there
were municipal sacerdotes whose duty it was to conduct the worship of
the gods of the Roman pantheon. Fiske has suggested that when the municipal
imperial cult was introduced into Spain it was sometimes given in charge of
the existing local sacerdotes, at other times placed in the hands of a
newly elected flamen. Why the new priesthood adopted a different title
he does not seek to explain. To accept the implied answer of Toutain that
there was no rule, no uniformity, that the nomenclature was a matter of chance,
or at best depended on the whim of the community, would mean the abrupt
cessation of all discussion or inquiry. But if we insist upon the existence of
a rational mind directing the institution, we may at least continue setting up
hypotheses until the true one is found, or all possible
conjectures are refuted. The writer has no hypothesis to propound, but he
wishes to protest against the position that there is no solution simply
because no solution has been found.
VII. MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE
FIRST CENTURY ad.
The work of Augustus was fundamental for
the growth of the western provinces, but the superstructure of his successors
was equally essential. Although complete records, official or unofficial, are
lacking, such material has been preserved as to justify the assertion that
Augustus and his successors used both diligence and intelligence in completing
the romanization of the west through municipalization. The Iberian peninsula
continued to enjoy its favored position. No radical or spectacular steps were
taken in municipal development, but the increasing number of towns, the advance
in status of those already organized, and the gradual substitution of municipal
for tribal names in the geographers’ lists and in inscriptions indicate a
course of development as thorough as it was gradual.
The policy of Tiberius was extremely
conservative. During his principate the municipalities of Spain enjoyed
protection from corrupt officials, speedy justice, and a continuance of the
advantages granted them by Augustus. The provincials were thus enabled to grow
accustomed to their new mode of life, and to prepare themselves for additional
privileges in the future. The one reactionary policy of Tiberius, his refusal
to continue the cult of the living Augustus, brought more harm to its author
and to the empire as a whole than to the people of Spain. On the other hand,
the establishment of provincial imperial cults gave a religious unity to the
peninsula and, as such, may be regarded as an important contribution to its
national development.
The Spanish provinces were affected to
some extent by the administrative changes of Caligula, under whom the local
mints were closed. The prestige which had come from judicial control over the
African towns Zilis and Icosium was removed when the province Mauretania
Tingitana was formed. A number of milestones bearing the name of Caligula
prove that the provincial officials were not remiss in their care for the roads
during these four years.
The activities of Claudius touched Spain
even more lightly than those of his predecessor. One inscription of an
individual made a citizen a divo Claudio, the cognomen Claudia given,
perhaps, by this princeps to Baelo, and a few milestones, are the only
records of imperial interest in Spain from 41 to 54 ad. Nero’s principate passed without any known changes, and
even the revolution of 68-69 ad, although
it centered at first around Spanish officials, was apparently confined to the
military camps. The brief rule of Otho resulted in additions to Baetica of some
portions of Mauretania, and the colonies of Emerita and Hispalis were given
additional citizens.
The Augustan scheme of administration had
remained practically unchanged for over eighty years. It had succeeded because
it gave to the provincials peace and justice. It failed because it afforded
the provincials no opportunities for obtaining political equality, a failure
which was remedied by Vespasian. There were many reasons why Vespasian should
feel kindly disposed towards the Spanish people. He was a soldier who had
campaigned in Spain, and knew the natives; he was a plebeian who had risen from
the ranks to the highest position in the empire, and was perhaps, on that
account, more in sympathy with others who had ambitions; his long years in the
provinces had made him less selfishly national, and more cosmopolitan; his
accession had been made easier by the loyalty of the legions in Spain to his cause; and he posed as the avenger of the unfortunate
Galba. For some or all of these reasons, Vespasian conferred many favors upon
individuals and communities in Spain. Some veterans of the auxiliary troops
enrolled in Spain were granted Roman citizenship with honorable discharges from
military service. One citizen was adlectus ad tribunicios; another adlectus
in equite. But the most important grant was that of the lus Latii to
all the stipendiary communities which were organized as towns. The effects of
this grant were twofold: it gave to all the citizens of the towns affected an
advanced legal status, and it gave to the families of the municipal executives
the full rights of Roman citizenship. The actual extent of this grant cannot be
determined with accuracy. It did not make all the Iberians Romans, as Josephus
reported, nor did it apply to all the stipendiary towns of Pliny’s lists.
Within the years which followed the reorganization of Augustus many changes
must have taken place of which no record has been found. New towns, no doubt,
had come into existence, and others had been reduced to the dependent status of pagus or civitas contributa. Still, the economic development of
Spain under the Julians, and the great number of new towns with the cognomen
Flavia favor the assumption that Vespasian’s grant affected a number of towns
equal to that given by Pliny.
Tests of municipal advance in status under
the Flavians may be made by listing the towns whose citizens were enrolled in
the tribe Quirina; those which bore the cognomen Flavia; and those which
possessed the Flavian name in some other form.
Baetica Lusitania Citerior
Quirina 15 6 11
Mun. Flav 13 1 12
Other towns 6
This table indicates that Baetica received
the greatest share of benefit from this grant, inasmuch as the number of comminities
elevated in status was proportionately greater than in Lusitania or Citerior.
This was due to the advanced municipal development in that province, rather
than to the favoritism of the princeps. The new Flavian foundations were
in the northwest, where civilization was being rapidly acquired.
Among the other proofs of Vespasian’s
activities in Spain, the greatest interest attaches to a letter from the princeps to the officials and senators of Sabora in Baetica. This letter is a favorable
reply to a request of the townspeople. It not only grants permission to move
the town from the hills to the plain, and to retain control of those revenues
which Augustus had assigned to it, but also advises the young municipality as
to the proper method of making other requests, namely, through the proconsul.
Baetica was a senatorial province, but in this instance Vespasian accepted the
administrative headship as readily as it was granted by the provincials when
they addressed him directly. The inscription also shows that advance in status
did not necessarily bring with it increase in revenues. Just what the advantages
of the Latin right were to the townspeople in the time of Vespasian cannot be
stated with certainty. It is possible that the ius commercii encouraged
local industry. At any rate, by the end of the first century ad, Roman and Italian merchants had
retired from the field in favor of Spanish dealers. The most important source
material, found in the extant portions of the Leges Salpensana and Malacitana,
does not touch upon the rights and powers of the individual citizens.
The Iberian peninsula, by 100 ad, was an integral part of the Roman
world. The tide of influence had shifted with the complete romanization of
Spain, and the steadily increasing reaction culminated in the choice of a
Spaniard as the first provincial princeps. A study of the Spanish
influence on Rome is of equal importance to that of the romanization of Spain.
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