Augustus Senex: Old Age and the Remaking of the Principate

Most works on Augustus or the Augustan age have focussed attention on the formation of the principate, its development, and the ultimate honour of being named Pater Patriae in 2 BC. After 2 BC, Augustus as a person becomes marginal in most accounts which focus on the deaths of Gaius and Lucius and the increasing centrality of Tiberius – or the succession. Yet Augustus would live as Princeps for longer than the reigns of most of the Julio Claudian emperors and their successors, including those of Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. When closely examined, this final decade of Augustus’ life can be seen as more autocratic than the previous decades of the principate. Our paper evaluates how the ageing of Augustus affected the running of the principate, or the restored res publica, and considers more seriously the role of Augustus in the final decade of his long life. [Taken from introduction]