The Augustan Senate and the Reconfiguration of Time on the Fasti Capitolini

Amy Russell

27 citations0/0 files stored

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

1 known location can be tried.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Classical Antiquity Studies Classical Studies and Philology Historical and Religious Studies of Rome

Abstract

provided an image of history as a stable, comprehensible, and fixed entity.They reflected on the past, on tradition, on the Republic, and on the relationship those historical concepts had with the Augustan present and the future -a relationship they laid out in terms of continuity rather than change.In this paper, I explore how exactly the inscriptions framed history and why, at that moment, the choice was made to monumentalise the past in this specific format.Choice is an active, not a passive process, and we can understand the Fasti better if we consider the agents involved.It was not Augustus but the Senate who decided to erect this inscription, and in doing so they proposed their own view of history and the present generation's place in it: a senatorial history.Once we recognise their role, it becomes easier to see that the approach to the past the monument embodies is different from that found in, say, the Forum of Augustus.We can then ask how and why that should be.The Age of Augustus was not a monolith, with all its cultural products the result of trickle-down from the authoritative ideological pronouncements of the princeps.This much we all know, but it is easy to forget and good to be reminded.By considering the Senate's role we can trace in this monument an alternative historical paradigm.There could be no denying that Augustus himself had ultimate control over all Rome's state monuments, and his version of history was always going to be the most widely disseminated.His statue stood resplendent on top of the arch on which the Fasti were inscribed, and the entire monument was erected in his honour.But there was still room for other voices, and in their role as providers of honours to the princeps the Senate had a chance to make their voice heard.The Fasti Capitolini show the Senate actively inserting themselves into developing discourses of history and memory.