Additional source material

• Ancient Library Sources (from Peter Aicher, Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City, vol. 1, Bolchazy-Carducci: 2004) [Works cited]

  62. The House of Augustus (Casa di Livia). Commentary. Between Domitian's palace and the Temple of Victory the remains of two residences can be seen today. The one to the north, abutting the Farnese Gardens, is traditionally ascribed to Augustus's wife Livia and called the Casa di Livia, and the other was traditionally assigned to Augustus himself. Although the division between separate spousal quarters is no longer accepted, together they formed part of the imperial compound Augustus gradually assembled on the Palatine, and the “Casa di Livia” may indeed have been the refurbished home of Hortensius that Augustus bought before he became sole ruler [62.1]. Although this whole area was a nice neighborhood in any event, there were some features of this part of the hill that, if they didn't determine Augustus's purchase, were nonetheless significant for his developing image. Nearly contiguous with the back of the house was the Temple of Victory, a goddess much esteemed by Caesar's heir [28.4]. Also somewhere nearby was the Hut of Romulus, held to be a facsimile of his simple hut on its original site. Directly in front of the temples of Victory and the Great Mother, in fact, archaeologists have discovered post-hole traces of Iron Age huts, and a small enclosure there may have contained the dwelling that the Romans preserved and honored as their founder's (oddly, another was preserved on the Capitoline; 9.7). At any rate, we gather elsewhere from Suetonius that Augustus, as a sort of second founder of Rome after the chaos of the civil wars, cultivated a connection with Romulus, and was even close to receiving “Romulus” as a title instead of “Augustus” (Suetonius, Augustus 7.2, 95.2). As so often in Rome but rarely with a finesse equal to Augustus's, topography came to the aid of topology, and did the same work as an overt title, with much more subtlety. With Victory and Romulus behind the house, that left the front for an even bigger message, and it was here, in the space between his house and the later Palace of Domitian, that Augustus built the famous Temple of Apollo on land that he had personally owned but then made over to the public (thereby both allowing for a temple, which could be built on private land, and yet closely tying it to his person). It is not clear how this temple precinct included a large portico as well as two libraries—possibly on a platform in the direction of the Circus Maximus; the portico may also have surrounded the temple on three sides. Ancient accounts refer to the splendor of this temple. Augustus's own private residence, remaining simple, allowed him to project a character of frugal Republican virtue, while the precinct in front, separate and yet part of his compound, could be lavish to a remarkable degree, justified as an expense for the god even as it projected in no uncertain terms Augustus's own economic and political power. The temple was vowed five years before the sea-battle at Actium in 31 BC, in which Augustus defeated Antony and Cleopatra, but it was finished afterwards, and the passage by Virgil shows that the presence of a temple to Apollo on the heights at Actium was a serendipity that didn't go to waste. The sculptural program described by Propertius may also be significant reminders of Rome's (Augustus's) victory over the wild forces of Antony and Cleopatra in the East: the daughters of Danaus murdered their aggressive cousins from Egypt, and Apollo himself had a hand in punishing the recklessness of the Gauls and Niobe. Another side of Augustus's character and of his power to suppress is dramatically displayed in the passage by Ovid [63.7], who had been exiled to distant borders by Augustus in AD 8 because of a “poem and a mistake” offensive to the emperor (certainly the puritanical moral reformer must have been galled by Ovid's Art of Love). Later in his career, writing in exile, Ovid imagines one of his books as a visitor who has made it back to Rome. Displaying his creator's characteristic combination of humor with pathos and cheek with flattery, the walking, talking book goes around the Augustan city looking for lodging in one of its libraries, only to find out he has been banned from all of them, including the one at the Temple of Apollo. 62. The House of Augustus (Casa di Livia). Sources. 62.1. At first Augustus lived near the Roman Forum above the Stairs of the Ringmakers [in the region of the upper Sacra Via], in a house which had belonged to the orator Calvus. After that he moved to the Palatine, but to the no less modest house of Hortensius, which was conspicuous for neither its size nor elegance, having short colonnades with columns of Alban tufa and rooms without marble or fancy flooring. Here he remained for more than forty years, sleeping in the same room both winters and summers, even though winters in Rome did not agree with his health and were hard on him. If he felt the need for doing business in secrecy or without interruption, he could withdraw to a special room elevated above the rest of the house, which he called either his “Syracuse” or “the Shop,” or would take refuge in a nearby villa that belonged to one or another of his freedmen. If he was sick, however, he would convalesce at the home of Maecenas. During longer retreats, he frequented the coast and islands of the Bay of Naples or towns nearer Rome such as Lanuvium and Praeneste, as well as Tivoli, where he frequently held court under the colonnades of the Temple of Hercules. Suetonius, Augustus 72.1-2 62.2. The emperor's residence is called the Palatium, not because of any official designation, but because Caesar Augustus lived on the Palatine hill and had his military headquarters there. Augustus's house, however, gained a degree of fame from the hill itself, as the place where Romulus had built his house. Dio, History 53.16.5 62.3. Romulus and Remus lived the life of herdsmen and earned their living with their hands. They lived for the most part on the hills, building huts entirely out of wooden poles and reeds. One of these huts survives even to my own day, preserved on the slope of the Palatine facing the Circus and called the Hut of Romulus. Those in charge of its care preserve its sanctity and resist improvements that would make it more stately. When the hut gets damaged by storm or routine wear, they replicate its earlier appearance as closely as possible. Dionysius, Early Rome 1.79.11 62.4. The Hut of Romulus also burnt down [in 12 BC] when crows dropped flaming sacrificial meat they had taken from an altar somewhere. Dio, History 54.29.8 62.5. During my sixth and seventh consulships [in 28-27 BC], with the power of the state entirely in my hands by universal consent, I extinguished the flames of civil wars, and then ceded control, transferring the Republic back to the authority of the Senate and the Roman people. For this service I was named Augustus by a decree of the Senate, the doorposts of my house were wreathed with laurel, and the Civic Crown [of Oak-Leaves] was fastened above my door …. When serving my thirteenth consulship [in 2 BC], the Senate, the equestrian order, and the entire Roman people named me Father of the Country, and decreed the title to be inscribed in the reception hall of my house, in the Senate House, and in the Forum of Augustus below the chariot statue awarded to me by the Senate. Augustus, Achievements 34-5 62.6. [On January 13, 27 BC] the Senate decreed that the Crown of Oak-Leaves be fastened above the doorway of the house of Emperor Caesar Augustus, because he restored the Republic to the Roman people. Calendar Inscription (Fasti Praenestini) 62.7. Calendar for April 28: Vesta, accept your day of honor! Vesta has been received in the home of her kinsman Augustus: justly has the Senate decreed. Apollo has his portion, another portion is Vesta's, And what remains, a third one claims for himself. Palatine laurels, may you prosper; long prosper the home wreathed with oak leaves: one house for three immortal gods. Ovid, Fasti 4.949-54