1. The Moral Reforms of Augustus
What did he do?

2. Problems
Civil wars and political upheavals of the previous hundred years = heavy population losses, weakening of traditions of family life, increase in celibacy, sterile marriages
18BC – politically sorted so attention now on social problems
Extravagance – excessive luxury, vast amounts of money spent on food, clothes, jewellery, houses
Adultery – common & fashionable
Divorce – frequent
Marriage – less frequent
Not enough children to increase population of native Italians and noble Romans

3. Solutions
Supplement religious policy (see later in the course) with moral legislation
Leges Juliae (18-17 BC) – used his tribunician power to push these through the senate
They encouraged marriage and having children
They established adultery as a public crime punishable by exile and confiscation of property
fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery
husbands could kill the partners and were required to divorce adulterous wives

4. Was Augustus an hypocrite?
Augustus married three times, even taking his third wife from another man when she was pregnant with her second child
Only had one child from three marriages; the first 2 (& 3rd?) marriages were politically motivated
No. 1: Clodia Pulchra (42-44 BC), step-daughter of Mark Antony, divorced her citing lack of consummation (divorce led to Perusine War)
No. 2: Scribonia (40-39 BC): daughter: Julia. On the day that she was born, he divorced Scribonia to marry (a month later)
No. 3: Livia Drusilla (38 BC – AD 14; survived him)
In 2 BC, he exiled his own daughter for sexual immorality & relegated her to the tiny island of Pandateria (in 8 BC – exiled her daughter also!)
Suetonius – he “kept Julia [the Elder] for five years on an island before moving her to the mainland” and would not allow her any wine, luxury or male company. “Nothing would persuade him to recall his daughter from exile” (Divus Augustus, 65)
Suggestions of adultery by Augustus?

5. Did these new Julian laws work?
Badly received! (Suetonius: Divus Augustus, 34)
Modified in AD 9 by the Lex Papia Poppaea: a law to encourage and strengthen marriage
Amended and supplemented the Leges Juliae
Named after consuls of that year
Encouraged and strengthened marriage
Against adultery and celibacy
Encouraged population expansion
Nicknamed: ‘law of the three sons’ = law that rewarded married men who had three sons
Bachelors and young widows who would not marry were not permitted to receive inheritances or to attend public games

6. Aims of the Julian Laws?
Why did Augustus push through the Julian Laws?
To limit excessive luxury (though he didn’t succeed!)
To protect marriage by regulating sexual relations and divorce
To encourage marriage and rearing of children by giving rewards and incentives