The Senate under Augustus: the Evidence of Dio

Abstract

<p>This study attempts to investigate the position, working and activity of ' the Senate as revealed in Cassius Dio's account of the Principate of Augustus. I have selected what seem to me to be the principal passages on this theme in Books 52 to 56 for comment (the list is provided in the Table of Contents), and have freely referred to many others not so chosen.</p> <p>Although the work is in no way a treatment of the constitutional position of the Princeps, this topic must intrude often on a discussion of the Senate's relation to its new master: and so must other, at first glance unrelated, subjects such as provincial governorships and financial administration--so central to the government of the State was the Senate. Frequent references also must be made to Republican usages, and to developments between the age of Augustus and Dio's own time.</p>