The Republic of Suffering and the Durability of the Augustan Regime

For scholars to have a balanced discussion about the creeping authoritarianism in Rome of the Late Republic, and the transitional period from Republic to principate, we need to focus on some basic questions: What kind of regime was the Augustan principate, how can we define it, and, adding to that, how did the Romans get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs. This paper will offer some perspectives on the matter. In simple terms, the Roman republic imploded because of civil war. It was indeed a republic of suffering (Faust 2008, This Republic of Suffering). Augustus, a military autocrat, was the victorious dynast. Simultaneously, the Romans were tired of civil war with all its violence, human suffering, and death. They desperately yearned for peace. No matter how we approach this, Augustus’s military coup – with its final nonviolent phase, 30-27 BCE – was the way out of the dire situation. A critique of contemporary academia is in order. Our inability to see past our own political ideals and indeed our inability to understand war and conflict, including its grave human costs, is a constant obstacle for our ability to understand the past.