The Augustan Empire 43 BC

An important advance on tradition, however, was that Augustus created in the senatorial order something closer to a hereditary peerage.⁴¹ Suetonius informs us that Augustus permitted the sons of senators to wear the 'broad stripe', latus clavus,^vl and Dio that in 18 в.с. he imposed a minimum property qualification upon candidates for office, which settled at 250,000 drachmas - a million sesterces. Dio states, indeed, that Augustus' original minimum was 100,000 drachmas (400,000 sesterces), but that was just the 'equestrian' rating that everybody had to have to serve as an officer, the necessary preliminary to all political office. So 18 в.с. should date the inception of a specifically senatorial census.⁴³ Sons of senators could, henceforward, automatically stand for the offices that — still, alone - gave entrance to the order. Suetonius does not say that others could only do so as a beneficium of the ruler, thus giving'him sole control over access to the order, but the power may have been employed to keep out 'gatecrashers'.⁴⁴ As for the property qualification, the figure was presumably chosen with an eye to getting a senatorial order of the desired size, for there were plenty of people - and not only senators — much richer than the minimum.

But Augustus' struggle was uphill, because he could not bring himself to accept the inevitability of apathy. To put it in a homely form, if you say to people 'I am the ruler, but please, everybody, carry on exactly as usual', they won't. The honorific and social position was still a goal, and legionary and provincial commands were still sought after, but the requirement of residence to attend formal meetings was thought a

Dio Lv.26.2; 31.4.

Nicolet 1976(0 j 3); Chastagnol 1973 (d 31) and 1975 (d 33). Both Mommsen and Willemshad, in their day, pointed this out.

Suet. Aug. 38.2; Suetonius docs not necessarily imply that (for example, owing to a 'crisis of recruitment') they were forced to enter the Senate.

Dio liv.i7.3; Suet. Aug. 41.1, with Carter's note. ⁴⁴ As in 36 b.c., Dio xlix. 16.1.

nuisance. Hence the changes that had to be made in the rules of senatorial procedure.⁴⁵ The 'acts of the Senate' ceased to be published,⁴⁶ and it is possible that that was intended actually to encourage freedom of oral debate; but principally the changes were by way of securing proper levels of attendance:⁴⁷ increased fines for absence, fixing of regular sessions of the Senate fortnighdy on specified days, and - in capitulation, really - lowering of the quorum needed to pass valid senatus consulta.