Mind-Munitions

The Glory that was Rome 43
‘may see their soldiers absolutely prepared for battle, they nonetheless
exhort them’.
Caesar’s successor, his great-nephew Octavian, who became the
Emperor Augustus, was an even more successful propagandist – in
that he survived to die a natural death. As Professor Syme has
written, ‘the heir of Caesar at once devoted himself to Caesarian
propaganda’. By praising Caesar and perpetuating his memory,
Augustus was by implication reminding the people that he was the
son of a god – although he was careful not to repeat Caesar’s
mistake of adopting divine status in his lifetime, at least in Italy.
The eastern empire was otherwise; like Alexander the Great,
Augustus recognized the value of different propaganda approaches
for different cultures. Although not a great military commander
himself (his military successes were achieved largely through his
subordinates), one would never guess it from his propaganda. Nor
would one guess from his idealized statues or from coin portraits
that the man was ugly. His autobiographical tract, Res Gestae Divi
Augustus, often says more by its omissions (such as military
defeats), but it does provide us with a picture of what Augustus
wanted to be remembered for. Adopting Caesar’s reputation for
clemency, he wrote: ‘I fought many wars, civil and foreign, by land
and sea throughout the entire world, and as victor … such foreign
peoples as it was safe to pardon I preferred to preserve rather than
exterminate.’ He went on to point out that he had refused many
honours which the people tried to bestow on him for restoring the
peace while listing all those that he did accept. Inscribed on his
mausoleum, the Res Gestae is an unabashed exercise in
propaganda, as was most of Augustus’ civic architecture; but it did
not end there.
During the civil war that followed Caesar’s death, the principal
rivals for his mantle all made use of their portraits – for example,
on coins used to pay their troops. Some portraits of Pompey the
Great and Mark Antony depicted them as Zeus, others as
Alexander the Great. After Mark Antony had been defeated at the
battle of Actium in 31 BC, Augustus reunited Rome and rigorously
controlled the use of his image in order to avoid the kind of propaganda
war and rumour-mongering that had preceded Caesar’s
death. He also avoided Caesar’s more blatant excesses (for instance,
he forbade his statue to be carried in religious processions) and he
only allowed temples to be built to him in certain areas where