Emperors of Rome | Succession Woes (Lecture 6)

Lecture 6: In any political system, the issue of transferring power from one incumbent to the next is often a serious problem. Given the nature of the Principate as a compromise between raw military dominance and the traditional practices of the republic, it was particularly difficult for Augustus to secure the succession by means of legal mechanisms. He therefore resorted to more indirect methods to indicate his favorites, which left the matter in doubt. That Augustus ruled for 45 years also did not help. We examine the main events of the Augustan succession powers granted, marriages arranged, and adoptions secured—and the theories propagated by modern scholars to make sense of them. The succession problem proved a destabilizing influence during Augustus’s reign and was to remain so for his successors for centuries to come.

Essential Reading:
Augustus, Res Gestae Divi Augusti.
Cassius Dio, Roman History, books 50−56.
Suetonius, Defied Augustus, Tiberius.
Tacitus, Annals, 1.1−11.

Supplementary Reading:
DIR, “Augustus.”
Levick, Tiberius the Politician, chapters 2−4.
Seager, Tiberius, chapter 2.
Southern, Augustus, pp. 160−198.