The Cursus Honorum - Getting Started in Roman Politics

You're a young Roman patrician. Fresh faced and hungry to honour the memory of your ancestors. Ready to bring honour to the family name and be remembered through time immemorial as the greatest man of Rome. But how to go about this?

With the fall of the Kings of Rome and the establishment of the Roman Republic in its stead (traditionally dated to 509BC) a system of government slowly evolved, the "Res Publica" that would last five hundred years, before finally falling with the rise of Augustus, the first "Emperor" of Rome.

The Re-Constructed Curia. The Seat of the Senate

The Cursus Honorum is the name for the various steps of public offices that one would take to the ultimate prize of the consulship, the top rung of the political ladder. Each one being held at a specific time of a man's life once, before moving on the next stage. An interesting point of the Cursus Honorum is that many of the positions upon it straddle both military and political aspects of governance, for many of the positions these two went hand in hand and the two aspects seemed to the Roman mind to be inseparably linked.

Of course, moving onto the next stage was pre-requisite upon you receiving enough votes in the next election. However, you're a young man ready to get going on your career, so lets get started...

Military Tribune

If you're going to get anywhere in the world of Roman politics, you are going to need to military experience. You cant be seen as a coward before your ancestors, nor will you be able to win elections for more military focused offices later on, so you're off to join the army.

If you happen to have a relative who is a general or links to another family, you will probably serve your military duty with them. By the time of Polybius, he writes in his history, Book 6 Chapter 12, that there are six military tribune appointed by the consuls. Little is known of this first step of your career, but suffice to say you will go where the Republic tells you and fight whom the Republic tells you to fight.

When your ten years of military service are up, it's time to return to Rome, hopefully with an appropriate war wound or two to show off to the plebs, ready to get started on your first official post, Quaestor.

The Ruins of the Temple of Saturn

Quaestor

Your first step on the political ladder, and after the rigours of your military training, its time to focus on learning how to run an empire spanning the Mediterranean. The role of Quaestor, which you could hold from the age of thirty, will see you supervising the finances of the state and the army, from the state held treasury in the Temple of Saturn in the forum.

Julius Caesar held the office of Quaestor in 69BC and went to Spain to serve his office, overseeing the finances of the province. Where as Cicero served as Quaestor in Sicily in 75BC and we are told was loved by the residents for his gentle handed honesty and fair dealings, The Life of Cicero Chapter 6.

Having served your time as Quaestor, and assuming you haven't been too rapacious in your province with their finances and consequently been prosecuted in court for it, its time to apply for the next step, Aedile.

Aedile

At the age of thirty-six it was time to stand for election of the Aedileship. This post would see you in charge of the administration of the city of Rome. Cicero in his book On The Laws, divided the roll into three parts; the taking care of temples and public buildings, making sure that the provision of food and water are not disrupted and (most importantly for the future of your career) the organisation of games and entertainments.

The advantages of holding this office should be fairly self evident to your now advancing political career. You have spent your time in the army learning soldiering, you have seen how to run the finances of the republic, now it is time to maintain Rome itself and garner as much acclaim as possible for your efforts.

"[Caesar] during his aedileship, he furnished three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators, and by lavish provision besides for theatrical performances, processions and public banquets, he washed away all memory of the ambitious efforts of his predecessors from the office"

Plutarch Life of Caesar Book 6

As Julius Caesar has always demonstrated throughout his career, its go big or go home. The sentence at the end of the quote is particularly telling, Caesar's entertainments for the city clearly eclipsed anything his rivals were able to muster and were obviously on the lips of the very people who he would then be electioneering too for the next public office. Fail to keep the city looking smart, the food and water flowing or host some mediocre games and you may as well go home now, so dig deep and hire those few extra gladiators. 

Julius Caesar

With you having successfully run the city, and hopefully taking a leaf out of Caesar's book and cobbled together some breathtaking entertainments for the plebs, its time to focus on the next step of the ladder, becoming Praetor. 

Praetor

Well, you've done it. You have survived ten years military service presumably teaching some barbarian a little Latin culture with the aid of your sword, you have mastered the financing of a Mediterranean empire and managed to capture the hearts and minds of the Roman people during your Aedileship. Time for the next job.

It should be noted that by the time you are eligible to stand for the role of the Praetorship you would have to be at least thirty nine years old. That means you will have been working on getting to this point of your political career for almost two decades already. The point being, to have reached this role is already an impressive achievement. But is it enough, time to pull your sandals up and get to work. 

The number of slots available for men to become praetors varies, however it is usually around six, with the goal of running and serving judicial functions as well as other government functions. It is entirely possible in the absence of a consul, that you might be called upon to function as the leader in their absence. However your main function is that of judicial supervisor and judge, as Livy tells us that they were created to relieve the Consuls of these duties, with different Praetors being in charge of different areas of Roman laws. Cicero during his Preatorship served on the court to deal with extortion and apparently did so well;

"Although many men of importance stood for the praetorship along with Cicero, he was appointed first of them all".

Plutarch Life of Cicero Book 9

Being seen as the forthright upholder of republican law and order was all well and good but the real advantage of the post was to be elected as Propraetor and act as the governor of one of the ever increasing number of Roman provinces. Being a governor will give you a chance to flex your administrative and military muscles, maybe skim a little money off the top (well why shouldn't you?) and hopefully leave you in good stead for the next and top job, the Consulship.

So, you're now a middle aged fully fledged Roman politician, with military and political experience, having worked your way through the Cursus Honorum and are ready to claim your spot as the pre-eminent man of the Republic. The Ancient History Blog will look at the final few stages of your political career next time, when it's time to fix your toga, remind the masses on your various passed great deeds and make your ancestors proud. 

Thanks for Reading

James 

The "Great"-est Haircut in the Ancient World

There are two men from the Ancient world with the suffix "Great". Alexander, the King of Macedon, scourge of Darius and general conqueror of pretty much whatever he put his mind too; and Pompey, Roman statesman who circumvented the normal Cursus Honorum, to become the top man in Rome, as well as being one of their greatest generals and conqueror of pretty much whatever he put his mind too.

These were two very different men, operating in very different political systems. One was the king of his country and later the leader of an empire stretching from Greece to India, the other a young man who raised his own army during a civil war and rose to the pre-eminent position of leadership, a Consul of the Roman republic.

Both Alexander and Pompey won smashing victories and were esteemed for their abilities as generals. Alexander three famous battles at Issus, Granicus and Gaugamela saw Persian power defeated and their empire open for Alexander's conquering. Likewise Pompey; won battles in Spain, rightly or wrongly claimed the final victory over Sparticus's slave rebellion, swept the Mediterranean free of piracy in a few short months and most famously campaigned and annexed Asia Minor into the Roman fold. Both clearly superior conquerors and generals, supreme on the battle field.

Coin from the British Museum
Collections

Similarly there are cases of neither one of them being particularly brilliant politicians. In fact both are recorded as sulking and with-drawing from the army or public stage when things didn't go their way. When Alexander's army refused to go any further into India, we are told that Alexander, "Shut himself up in his tent from displeasure and wrath and lay there" (Plutarch Life of Alexander Book 62). Equally, when being harassed by the tribune Clodius, rather than fight, Pompey, argubly at the height of his power, "Came no more into the forum as long as Clodius was tribune, but kept himself at home" (Plutarch Life of Pompey Book 49).

But one of the most interesting and bizarre similarities between these two "great" men is their haircut.

Alexander is depicted in his portraiture, his statues and his coins as having a distinctive flick, quiff or curl of hair on the front of his head. A lot of the surviving images that we have of Alexander come from after his death, during the time when many of the "successor" kings splitting up his empire, tried to legitimise their rule by linking themselves back to the great Alexander. A silver tetradrachm printed by the general Lysimachus, who ruled over Thrace (305BC to 281BC) shows Alexander with his distinctive Horns or Ammon (an Egyptian god equivalent to that of the Greek Zeus and of whom Alexander was alleged to be the son of) and quiff haircut.

Alexander the Great from
British Museum Collections

Similarly, a marble portrait of Alexander dating from around the 2nd to the 1st century BC and probably from Alexandria in Eygpt, shows Alexander in the popular image of a young man, flowing hair with distinctive flicks and a slight tilt of the head. This was clearly the image that had evolved over time of what the greatest conqueror of history had looked like. An idealised image no doubt, but clearly one that had been agreed upon.

Pompey was born in northern Italy in 106BC, roughly two hundred years after the death of Alexander the Great. The son of a Novus Homo (a new man to the Roman senate) he first crashed onto the stage of history during the civil war between Marius and Sulla, when he raised his own legions in support of the Sullan cause. In fact we are told that it was Sulla whom gave him his cognomen of Magnus.

"Giving him the warmest welcome, saluted him in a loud voice as 'Magnus' and ordered those who were by to give him this surname"

Plutarch Life of Pompey Book 13

Pompey the Great from NY Carlsberg
Glyptoteque

The most often used marble bust of Pompey, is actually the best for proving the point of a shared and distinctive haircut. On display in the Ny Carlsbery Glyptotek in Copenhagen, shows a middle aged Pompey, in all his commanding glory with an unmistakable raised quiff at the top of his head. Even in his middle Pompey was highlighting the comparison. Equally Plutarch in his Life of Pompey, writes that in his youth,

"His hair was inclined to lift itself slightly from his forehead, and this, with a graceful contour of face about the eyes, produced a resemblance, more talked about than actually apparent, to the portrait statues of King Alexander".

Life of Pompey Book 2

In fact, as Pompey was not inclined to disagree with people who pointed out the resemblance (and why would you?) he was often called Alexander in derision.

The advantages of having the same haircut as the greatest conqueror and leader known to the Mediterranean, a man lauded and idealised throughout the ancient world, are obvious. In a political system like the Roman republics, based on prestige and raising through designated ranks, any sort of advantage that could be gained was an important one and as Plutarch tell us Pompey was not one for denying the similarity when mentioned, you can almost imagine the man standing in front of his mirror, teasing the front of his hair into the perfect Alexandrian quiff.

Pompey completely circumnavigated the complex and structured set of offices of the Roman Republic (a topic for another day) to end up in the top job of the consulship, without holding any of the previous and necessary magistracies. Who knows, maybe his haircut helped?


Thanks for Reading
James

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus - The Third Wheel of The Triumvirate

It's not easy being a third wheel. It can be uncomfortable, uneasy, frankly it can be down right awkward. However, when you happen to be playing third wheel, to the two most powerful men in an empire that stretches from the lapping waves of the Atlantic ocean to the waterless hills of Judea, it gets some what more precarious. 

Coin showing Lepidus' and his office of Pontifex Maximus

Luckily, if you're clever, you will have wrangled yourself the job of being that particular empires chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus (a title still used by the Pope today, the irony of which is lost on many modern Christians I'm sure), making yourself sacrosanct in the political arena. Fortunately for yourself, you cant "off" the chief priest, replacing him with yourself as the centre of morals and religion without raising a few eyebrows, even in the last days of the Roman republic.

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus is the oft forgotten third wheel of the Triumvitrate power sharing, brought into being to ensure peace and the continuance of the republic, a fact often promoted on their coins. 

Lepidus shows up repeatedly in the story of the late republic, however he is arguably a bit player. A supporter of Caesar's during the civil war, operating in the province of Spain against the rebel Longinus, he rose to the ultimate position of prestige alongside Caesar when he was named consul in 46BC.

"on being chosen consul for the third time, [Caesar] 

selected Lepidus as his colleague, and not Anthony"

Plutarch Life on Anthony Book 10

Lepidus remained an astute politician even after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. When ordered to aid Brutus against Mark Anthony, who was trying to take over his province of Cisalpine Gaul, he dithered, recommended negotiations and managed to not been seen supporting Mark Anthony too much, whom it seems he favoured. 

Another example of Lepidus' political acumen is told to us in Cassius Dio, who writes of how with persuasion Lepidus was able to bring Sextus Pompey and the rebelling parts of the Spanish provinces into a treaty.

"Lepidus arrived to govern the adjoining portion of Spain, and persuaded him to enter into agreement on the condition of recovering his father's estate"

Cassius Dio Book 45

In the next lines however, Cassius Dio does attribute this treaty to the workings of Mark Anthony, who was helping his friend Lepidus and trying to thwart Octavian Caesar (the future Augustus) in Rome. While this is perhaps a true indication of Mark Anthony's motivations, it does however do Lepidus a disservice. Clearly he was a good enough general that he was trusted with an army in the only major theatre of war where the civil war between the "pompeians" and the "caesarions" was still being fought. Equally, as opposed to instigating further violence, Lepidus procured a peace treaty, there by theoretically ending the civil war that had ravaged the republic. 

In fact, Lepidus seems to have been used as the face of reason by the triumvirate too. After a wave of proscriptions saw many of Rome's greatest men fall after the battle of Phillipi, (many names being bartered back and forth for the lists, this trading of one for the other the cause of the death of the great spokesman of the Republic, Cicero) Suetonius writes that it was Lepidus who addressed the Senate 

"in justification of the past and held out hope of leniency thereafter, since enough punishment had been inflicted"

Suetonius Life of Augustus Book 27

Surviving as the third wheel to two men, who are merely waiting for the other to give them justification to launch a final civil war, cannot be easy. There are indications that Lepidus might have tried earlier on to carve himself out a better position in the triumvirate.

The Via Labicana Augustus

Suetonius in Book 16 of his Life of Augustus, tells of how after aiding Octavian Caesar against the forces of Sextus Pompey, Lepidus "puffed up by confidence" and with twenty legions to his name who can blame him for being confindent, claimed "first place". Unfortunately when you're the third wheel and don't realise it, that sort of bold action doesn't usually work out well, and indeed we are told Caesar having finally found his excuse for getting rid of Lepidus stripped him of his legions, his offices (bar Pontifex Maximus) and banished him for life, essentially creating a biumvirate between himself and Mark Anthony.  

In the end surviving the tumultuous time of the Triumvirate and the fall of the republic, probably has more to do with Lepidus being Pontifex Maximus than any great political brilliance. Plutarch in his Life of Anthony on the subject of the triumvirate writes

"Anthony bore most of the blame, since he was older than Caesar, more powerful than Lepidus..."

Plutarch Life of Anthony Book 21 

Living out the remainder of his life in relative obscurity, Lepidus is a lonely figure on the field. There to ostensibly balance power between Anthony and Octavian Caesar, he never really got a chance to lace up his boots, let alone get on the pitch. Removed at the first available opportunity, he died peacefully in either 13BC or 12BC, by which I mean he wasn't executed, proscribed or died on a battle field, unlike so many of his contemporaries.

Whether Lepidus was a vital cog or an empty shirt protected by the supreme religious office of Rome, is as always, a matter of perspective. However, Suetonius in his penultimate mention of Lepidus writes of Augustus that,

"he could not make up his mind to deprive him of this honour while he lived"

Suetonius Life of Augustus Book 31

Vital cog or empty shirt? Why not leave your opinion below. 

Thanks for Reading

James

Cicero and the Pigs

The Eleusinian Mysteries were centred around a secret. A secret so secret and kept by in initiates so well, that we still don't know exactly what they were about. What we do know however is roughly, what was involved in this great ceremony of Ancient Athens, in particularly the carrying of a pig to the Piraeus port, washing it in the Aegean and then ritually sacrificing it.

The Acropolis

The Eleusinian Mysteries were well kept. Relating to the abduction of Persephone by Hades into the underworld, and her mother Demeter's search for her missing daughter. When Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, goes searching for her missing daughter, it reuslts in the crops dying due to her not being there to pay them due attention. Upon the returning to her of her daughter Demeter is said to have bestowed two gifts,

" Crops, which prevent our living the life of wild beasts, and the holy rite, which brings its initiates fairer hopes about the end of life"

Isocrates Speeches 4.28

The goddess offered her followers some secret that made the afterlife bearable. Aristophanes and Sophocles both make mention of them, so while the secret was imparted by the goddess through the mystery festival, it was clearly known of throughout the demes of Athens.

"How thrice-blessed are those mortals who pass to Hades after seeing these mysteries; for to them alone is it given to have life there, but to others all is evil there"

Sophocles Fragment 229

Secret mysteries on how to obtain ever lasting life might seem odd in our modern Christian religious world (a religion based around the saving of your soul in heaven) and the ancients views of an "afterlife" are wide and varied. But there is one specific part of the Greater Mysteries that I wanted to focus on. The Pigs. 

M Tullius Cicero

The seemingly bizaree inclusion of pigs as part of the mysteries is in honour of a swineherd named Eubouleus, who while grazing his pigs was swallowed up by the same chasm that Hades abducted Persephone into. On the second day of the Greater Mysteries (there were two; initiates completing the  lesser mysteries before moving on the the greater mysteries) the participants took their piglets from Athens down to the sea at the Piraeus, where they promptly washed themselves and their pigs in the sea, before sacrificing their piglets. 

What makes the mysteries remarkable is the people and names it attracted. The title of this piece is Cicero and the Pigs. Cicero wrote that "the most distant nations were initiated into the sacred and august Eleusinia" and also mentions them again in his essays on Law wrote 

"We have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope".

Cicero Laws II 

The use of the word "we" in the sentence strongly suggests that Cicero had himself been initiated into the mysteries and the thought of the self promoting, greatest orator of Rome splashing around in what was no doubt the filth and muck of the Pireaus, trying to wash a pig is one that should bring a smile to the face(and is definitely worth remembering next time you are reading some rather stuffy Cicero). 

Cicero wasn't the only one though. We know that other prominent men, the Emperor's Augustus, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus all took part in the ceremony. Suetonius, in his Life of Nero, tell us that the young Emperor on his tour of Greece didn't partake of the cult, due to its warning against people of evil hearts. 

The mysteries are just that, a mystery. However, knowing that some of the greatest men of ancient Greek and Roman history, willingly once carried a piglet to the sea, washed it and themselves among the jetsam and flotsam of the Piraeus, is a good place to start. 

Got anything to add about this mysterious religious ceremony, leave a comment below.  

Thanks for Reading
James

Augustus - Ending at the Beginning...

In AD14, an old man lay in a room in the town of his birth father, Nola, dying from figs laced with poison by his perfidious wife; if you are ready to believe Cassius Dio anyway. It is always possible that at the ripe old age of seventy five, before the emergence of a national health service, it was merely this old man's time to pass. Cassius Dio does begrudgingly and hastily admit however that perhaps this old man's death might have been due to "some other cause", Cassius Dio Book 56.

Ancient Rome

This old man, whose death was worthy of such biography, was of course Augustus, seen as the first and often the best, Emperor of Rome. The passing of Augustus, saw the end of an era of great men and women, most of whom names and deeds are know around the world. A point of no return is "crossing the Rubicon". The doomed love of Anthony and Cleopatra was immortalised in cinema. Who doesn't picture Elizabeth Taylor when they think of the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh? Cicero, the greatest orator of Rome, and surely the blueprint for every self promoting politician since. The death of Augustus, saw the end of a time filled with characters larger than life.

Something that the greatest player of them, knew all to well. Augustus's final words are recorded as

"Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands

and from the stage dismiss me with applause"

Suetonius - Augustus Book 99

And Augustus had indeed played his part on the stage of Roman history well. Indeed the fact that he dies at the staggering old age (for the ancient world) of seventy-five in a bed relatively peacefully, again depending on your views of Livia as a Machiavellian power who decides to kill her husband after decades of idealised marriage, is a feat that hadn't happened for a major figure of Rome since Sulla in 78BC, nearly a hundred years previous and wouldn't happen for another 100 years hence, with the death of the first Flavian Emperor, Vespasian. 

The Augustus Prima Porta Statue

The peaceful passing of Augustus marked the ending of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The ending at the beginning. Theoretically, Augustus was the Princeps of the Senate, a historical title that named him as the First Man. A careful balancing act of smooth talking and overwhelming power. While the Senate and People of Rome perhaps all secretly knew in their heart of hearts that the Republic was gone for good and that power now resided in the hands of a solitary man, it wasn't until the death of Augustus and succession of Tiberius, his step-son, that it saw its long-winded and perhaps inevitable death.

Of course there were indications of this death by succession. Two of Augustus' grandchildren had been adopted and aligned as future heirs, seen through their awarding of titles and powers, none perhaps as shocking as the assigning of consul elect in the year AD 1 to the nineteen year old Gaius Caesar, Suetonius Augustus Book 64 (once the pinnacle of a Romans career and a topic worthy of pages upon pages).

It's possible to dress Augustus up as many things. The despotic ruler who conquered and ended the constitutionally "democratic" Res Publica. The saviour of a system that had suffered through a hundred years of civil war and could of easily imploded, to be conquered by another power. Or as the necessary bridge, a requirement to move the Roman republics now huge empire, into something more manageable.

Whether the quiet passing of Augustus marked an ending or a beginning is entirely a matter of perspective. The fall of a Republic or the rise of an Empire? Completely based on your inclination. But perhaps it is the great man's other recorded final words, from Cassius Dio (and probably confused due to a three century distance from Augustus himself) that says it best.

"I have found Rome of clay, I leave it to you of marble"

Cassius Dio Book 56  

He almost certainly succeed.

Thanks for Reading
James

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