Augustus' Relationship with the Senate

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject World History - Early and Ancient History, grade: 1,0 (A), Carthage College, Wisconsin, course: Augustus, language: English, abstract: After a century of civil wars and wide-spread fear and chaos, a new and promising leader arose, who, despite his comparably humble origins was soon to be called Augustus, the revered one, by the Senators. This once so powerful corporate body saw so much hope in this single man and bestowed numerable honors upon him, through which he eventually outranked all the other Senators in the state. By general consent of the Roman Senators, he arose as the one who would restore the Roman Republic. The events of his reign must strike us as particularly interesting, because it is unclear as to how the Republic can be restored, if an unprecedented shift of power and acceptance of this power within the Senate takes place. Research agrees that, despite Augustus' claim to have restored the Republic, the Roman State, during the larger part of his rule, qualifies as a new form of government, namely the Principate, which was to remain the dominant form of government for the centuries to come. It is therefore an essential question, how and to what extent the Senate changed. What role did it fulfill in Augustus' government and by which right was it in the Emperor's hands to initiate all of these changes and how was his own role to be defined? By taking both ancient and modern sources into account when it comes to appraising Augustus' actions, this paper shall clarify the legal status of the Emperor and trace the nature of his relationship with the Senate as well as the latter's purpose within the new government.