Augustus and the fabricated Grain shortage of 23/2 BCE.
“The dictatorship offered to me both in my absence and when I was present by both the people and the senate I did not accept. During the great shortage of wheat I did not refuse charge of the corn supply, which I so administered that within a few days I freed the whole city from apprehension and immediate danger at my own costs and by my own efforts. The annual and perpetual consulship offered to me at that same time I did not accept.” — Res Gestae 5.1–3
There are two important strands in this extract that show two different images of Augustus. The first is Augustus refusing certain powers, acting in a conciliatory way to the Senate and elites who had become dissatisfied with his monopoly of the consulship, resulting in the second settlement not long before the events described in this extract. The second image is Augustus acting as a populist leader, fixing the grain supply issue in only a few days. This is a highly biased telling, because the Res Gestae was Augustus’ own recollection of events in which he claims to have restored the res publica.
Augustus states that he rejected both the dictatorship and the perpetual consulship, which were both unconstitutional (the dictatorship was made illegal after Julius Caesar’s assassination). He does this so no one can accuse him of dominatio. This was the first year since 32 BCE that Augustus had not been consul, so taking these powers would have undermined his giving up of the office. Not only does he reject these offers, but he does so publicly in the rostra in the forum, on one knee while pulling his together down from his shoulders (according to Suetonius and Cassius Dio). By rejecting these powers that were clearly monarchic, Augustus was marking himself out as different from Julius Caesar, who was dictator for life and was assassinated. These actions are meant to show Augustus as restoring the normal working of the Republic, as he claims elsewhere in the Res Gestae. Importantly, he did want this power, as he had been reluctant to give up the consulship and accepts the power of a consul in the third settlement in 19 BCE. This shows that he was making a conscious effort to temporarily step back his ambitions, even if it was short-lived.
The other image of Augustus in this passage is him as a populist leader. By accepting the control of the cura annonae, Augustus was increasing his popularity with the people. This account also ignores the ugly parts of these events when the people rioted and threatened to burn down the senate-house unless the Senate granted powers to Augustus (according to Dio). He fixed the grain shortage in only a few days, which would not have been possible unless this shortage had been fabricated due to the origins of Rome’s grain supply and shipping times. Tiberius who was the quaestor in charge of the grain supply in Ostia in Rome at this time, probably held back the grain supply to Rome making it look like a shortage, until Augustus was given what he wanted. This same tactic was used by Pompey in 57 BCE, to gain power himself. By manipulating the people into rioting (and possibly bribing them), then solving the alleged shortage, Augustus was acting as a populist leader. He was sending a message to the Senate, saying that he could also gain power through the people as Julius Caesar had, which would be to the detriment of the elites.
This extract demonstrates that Augustus was simultaneously being conciliatory towards the elite after a series of crisis’s and years of resentment that start in 27 BCE when he was expected to give up the consulship after the first settlement and never did. This resentment manifested itself in several events, for example, the prosecution of Gallus and the assassination plots of Caepio and Egnatius Rufus. However, he was also warning the Senate that they could not be too bold, because Augustus could seize power using the people. He effectively weaponised the plebs to ensure that the Senate did not get too confident after he had agreed to give up his monopoly of the consulship.
