Roman Heads Of State System Of The Early Political Culture, From Old Piso's Trial Senate Act

In present studies of Roman history, the importance of Latin inscriptions is more and more realized by scholars.In the light of the new found bronze tablet, Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre(SCPP), a decree passed by the Roman Senate in A.D. 20, this paper intends to investigate the political culture of Roman state in the early Principate, as a extension of discussion to the so-called "Roman Revolution" theme suggested by Sir Ronald Syme. Based on the comparison between the two families mentioned in the SCPP, the family of Piso and the family of Augustus, it reveals the political development of Rome from an individual rule to a family rule in this period.In Chapter One, the fundamental character of the SCPP tablet will be determined. Through the textual contrast between the SCPP and related records in Tacitus'Annals, the author attempts to illuminate that, as for the death of Germanicus and trial of Piso, which once made a great impact in Rome, Tacitus uncovered a public narrative which opposed to the official rhetoric and was the very one the latter tried to conceal. The establishment of Tacitus'reliability in turn reveals that, the SCPP tablet is a political document aimed at the resolve of the crisis caused by the death of the prince, Germanicus. The strong rhetoric color and moralistic tone of the decree intended to discipline men's ethics under the Principate.In Chapter Two, through the damnatio memoriae of Piso, it focuses on the fate of the senators under the Principate. In the context of the traditional honor culture of aristocracy, the punishment of Piso shows the extent to which posthumous memory was determined by practical needs of a family. The latter played an active role in creating, maintaining and controlling the public memory of its members, a role that was fully and officially recognized. That also meant, they could continue to wield influence in the Roman political arena.The huge difference between the fate of the accused and that of his family was actually the result of a long-standing self-protective mechanism on the part of the aristocratic stratum.In Chapter Three, it reconstructs the formation of a ruling family superimposed upon all the other aristocratic families in the early Principate. With Reference to the anthropological studies of ancient Roman family institutions, the author will illustrate how Augustus made best use of Roman mechanisms of constructing kingships as well as the political inheritance tradition of aristocratic families to create a unique domus Augusta. During this time, the large-scale representation of domus Augusta in the domains of official discourses, visual images and rituals concentrated on the theme that, the members of domus Augusta possessed the extraordinary virtues by birth, thus they were as a whole entitled to ruling of the big Roman Empire, which constituted the ideological foundation of continuation of the Principate. In turn, the emergence of a ruling family broke the former game rule of power-sharing and honor-competing under the oligarchy. Especially, women in this family bagan to go beyond the traditional familial role and private domain of Roman women, so much as to gain an independent political force. All this reveals the far-reaching change and impact of domus Augusta on the relationship between family and state.After the investigations of above three aspects, we can say that, in the early Principate, both the continuation of a traditional aristocratic culture and a new consensus politics hinging on the domus Augusta is remarkable.