The Army and the Frontier in the Early Principate:

Note: The Augustan system is a military monarchy. What does that mean?

The Problem: the government's foreign policy was based on two considerations: the desire for secure borders and on what the empire could afford.  

1. The Borders
1. The military situation was very fluid.
2. NW Spain occupied by 12 B.C., and area held by three legions. In Germany, the advance to the Elbe halted by the Teutoberger Forest disaster (the clades Variana, A.D. 9, when 20,000 men were lost). Thereafter A. retreats to Rhine and to a defensive policy (with tower). The push to the Danube, led by Tiberius, was successful. In Anatolia, accommodation reached with Parthians on the crucial kingdom of Cappadocia and border established on Euphrates (the return of Crassus' eagles a great propaganda success).
3. This push to Rhine - Danube line was motivated perhaps by a desire for booty (tho there would not be much in the impentrable "great north woods", but rather by the desire to shorten the frontier. Why would that be imporant?
4. Augustus more enduring contribution is urbanization --note the towns he established.
5. Asia Minor, Syria; and Egypt.
2. The Army
1. The immediate problem after Actium (31 B.C.) was to settle at least half of the soldiers (300,000 of 600,000) in a way they that would not cause disruption.
2. A military treasury established to formalize pension payments something the republic had failed to do. rg cc 15-17
3. Relationship between Aug. and army also secured by the fact that all promotions and honors came from him personally reinforced by the personal oath.
4. Recruitment now from "middle" class families of Italy; urban proletarians not wanted. Implications?? RC II §137 and 150.
5. On the structure of the army. Half in legions of citizens; half in auxiliary units of allies; on retirement the latter received citizenship.
3. In his will, Augustus recognized the cost of maintaining an army (a foreign policy based on expansion was too expensive; "imperial overstretch"); hence, he recommended that his successors avoid further conquests and follow a defensive foreign policy. There is little extension of borders thereafter.
4. The army and imperial politics:  The reality of the Augustan settlement was that Rome became a "military monarchy/autocracy"; nevertheless, the government used the "restored republic", to cloak/disguise the true source of power. Why? Ultimately, the emperors depended on the loyalty of the legions, but most sought to legitimize their positions by perpetuating patriotic myth by acknowledging the traditional source of constitutional authority, the "Senatus Populusque".  The system worked because the illusion met the needs of many elements of Roman society.