CLA2104 Lecture 13: Augustan Foreign Policy and Provincial Administration

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLA2104
• Professor: Antonia Holden

Document Summary

The bulk of the legions were building forts and urbanizing the rhine. Romans didn"t do a lot of campaigning on eastern side of the rhine: annexation of germany was quite late. Governors with huge legions had loyalty of legions before before emperor had their loyalty. Implemented a system that was consonant with his policy of seeminlgy defensive rather than o ensive foreign policy. One cause of the collapse of republic was corruption in provinces. Abuse and extortion of subjects had been committed by publicani. Governors also had dangerously large armies, raising possibility of usurpation and rebellion. Augustus had to ensure that he alone controlled the armies. For proper defense, the frontiers had to be pushed further away from rome. However to place armies at these distant frontiers, too far from the eyes and the ears of the emperor created the risk that these armies could rebel.