Republic to empire: A study of Rome in transition

My dissertation examines the final decades of the Roman Republic and the opening years of the Principate under Augustus and Tiberius. Although this period has been extensively studied, my dissertation examines three authors from the reign of Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus and Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, and studies them as contemporaries. Modern Roman historians usually draw on Suetonius, Tacitus and other later Roman authors when they study the early Empire, but I argue that examining these three neglected authors as contemporaries of Augustus and Tiberius provides insights on the evolution of Rome that later authors cannot provide.; After an opening chapter that examines the lives and works of each of the Tiberian authors, chapter two examines selected political terminology. I suggest that the term res publica is better translated as "state" than "republic," as "republic" causes modern historians to apply the term to a specific period in Roman history, while the Romans of Tiberius' reign did not. In addition, the terms civitas, Roma, imperium and principatus are examined, and no changes in the use of these terms are detected between the Republic and the Principate. This chapter shows that the Romans did not have a clear political self-definition.; The final three chapters examine Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius. In each of the Tiberian authors, these men appear as great generals, but their political achievements are absent. There is a sense in the Tiberian authors that Augustus and Tiberius hold a position different from that of their predecessors, but the Tiberian authors do not elaborate on the political changes that Augustus had wrought on Rome.; My dissertation shows that although by the time of Tacitus the Romans knew that their world had changed after Augustus' victory at Actium, the Romans of the early Principate were less likely to see that change. There certainly were differences in the positions of Augustus and Tiberius, but their descriptions in Velleius, Valerius and Seneca place them firmly in the line of Republican leaders. I argue that the transition into Empire was longer and more gradual than is generally assumed.