Wines were served with the food, but the serious drinking began only when the meal was over. Sometimes people drank at will, but the commissatio, a kind of ceremonial drinking match in which cups were drained at a single draught, was a more organized method of inebriation. A master of ceremonies, the rex bibendi (literally, “king of what is to be drunk”), would be appointed on the throw of a dice. The rex bibendi was in charge of mixing the wine and setting the number of toasts which everyone had to drink.
Conversation flowed, and Augustus was an excellent and welcoming host with a talent for drawing out shy guests. He often enlivened his cenae with performances by musicians and actors or circus artistes and storytellers. Sometimes he would auction tickets for prizes of unequal value or paintings with their faces turned to the wall. Guests were required to take pot luck and bid blindly.
Most Romans went to bed early, but the princeps’ day was not yet done. After dinner was over, probably about sunset (some less reputable cenae went on deep into the night), he withdrew to a couch in his study. There he worked until he had attended to all the remaining business of the day, or most of it—reading dispatches, dictating correspondence to secretaries, and giving instructions.
Augustus was usually in bed by eleven and slept seven hours at the outside. A light sleeper, he woke up three or four times in the night. He often found it hard to drop off again and sent for readers or storytellers. He loathed lying awake in the dark without anyone sitting with him.
At last, the ruler of the known world drifted into sleep.
Photo Insert
THE ROMAN FORUM AS IT WAS TOWARD THE END OF AUGUSTUS’ LIFE
A. Tabularium, or archive.
B. Temple of Concord.
C. Temple of Saturn, where the Treasury was based.
D. Basilica Julia, a shopping and conference center.
E. The Rostra, or speakers’ platform.
F. Temple of Castor and Pollux.
G. Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, built on the site of his cremation.
H. Temple of Vesta, where the Vestal Virgins tended an eternal flame. Here leading Romans could deposit their wills.
I. The Regia, headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus.
J. Basilica Aemilia, a shopping and conference center.
K. Curia Julia, the new Senate House commissioned by Julius Caesar.
L. Forum of Julius Caesar, completed in the dictator’s lifetime.
M. Temple of Venus Genetrix (Venus, the Mother or Ancestress of the Julian clan; here Caesar placed a gold statue of Cleopatra).
N. Forum of Augustus, which the princeps dedicated together with the
O. Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) in 2 B.C.
The Palatine Hill today, where ruins mingle with trees, as seen from the Roman Forum. This was where the rich and the fashionable lived in the first century B.C. Augustus and Livia both had houses there and offices for their staff. Under the empire, the hill became a government quarter and the official residence of the emperors (from Palatine comes the word palace).
Julius Caesar’s intelligence and quickness of mind are well conveyed in this green basanite bust with inlaid marble eyes, carved about fifty years after his assassination in 44 B.C.
A fine bust of Mark Antony in green basalt. Found at Canopus, a suburb of ancient Alexandria, it offers not the bluff, hard-drinking soldier, but a reflective and high-minded ruler—the kind of man that Cleopatra would perhaps have preferred him to be rather than the one he actually was.
Sextus Pompeius, Pompey the Great’s younger son, posed a serious threat to Octavian. His melancholy expression and his beard and mustache, which Romans only grew to mark some tragic event or personal misfortune, suggest that this portrait in bronze was completed after Sextus’ defeat at Naulochus in 36 B.C. and subsequent death.
A Roman warship with soldiers on board. This marble relief dates from the 30s B.C., and the crocodile by the prow suggests a reference to the sea campaign against Cleopatra that culminated in Actium.
Alexandria as it appeared in ancient times. The view is of Canopic Way, one of the city’s main avenues. In the foreground is the crossroads near which stood the tomb of Alexander the Great. In the distance the Heptastadion can be seen, the great causeway that led to the island of Pharos and created the city’s two harbors.
Cleopatra, a portrait in marble probably made in Italy when she was a young woman. It conveys something of the charm of her personality, which captivated Julius Caesar.
Augustus’ much-loved sister Octavia. A kindly woman, she brought up Mark Antony’s children, including those he had by Cleopatra. She never recovered from the death of her twenty-year-old son, Marcellus, in 23 B.C. The marble bust dates from about 40 B.C.
Augustus’ wife, Livia, in middle age. This study, made in her lifetime, evokes an efficient woman of affairs, discreet but decisive.
Augustus and Agrippa at the height of their powers. These marble busts were carved in the 20s B.C. They are realistic character studies that illustrate the two men’s different personalities—the one astute and calculating and the other energetic and determined.
The tall man in the center of this relief has been identified as Agrippa. His head is veiled in his capacity as a priest attending a ritual sacrifice. In front of him walk two religious officials, the flamines diales, with their pointed hats, and a lictor, or ceremonial guard, carrying the fasces, an ax inside a bundle of rods. The little boy holding onto his toga may be either his son Gaius or Lucius. The boy is looking back toward his mother, Julia. The man walking behind her is probably Mark Antony’s son Iullus Antonius, later to become Julia’s lover. The stone carving comes from the Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altar of Augustan Peace. Inspired by the friezes on the Parthenon, it was dedicated in 9 B.C.
A contemporary portrait of Tiberius as a young man setting out on a distinguished career as soldier and public servant.
Young Gaius Caesar, Agrippa’s son by Augustus’ daughter Julia, whom the princeps adopted and groomed as his successor. The marble bust dates from about the time of his consulship in 1 B.C. or during his eastern mission.
Agrippa’s last son, Agrippa Postumus, born after his father’s premature death in 12 B.C. The contemporary sculptor has captured a sense of danger and intensity in his youthful subject.
This onyx cameo, the Gemma Augustea, is an example of mendacious art at its finest. Made in A.D. 10 the seventy-three-year-old princeps is presented as a half-naked youth. He is seated next to a personification of Rome, beside whom stands Augustus’ grandson Germanicus. On the left Tiberius alights from a chariot. Beneath is a scene of defeated and humbled barbarians. The overall impression is of serenity and success. In fact, the mood at Rome was nervous and gloomy, for Augustus was just recovering from the greatest threat to his authority during his long reign, the loss of three legions destroyed in an ambush in Germany the previous year.