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Abstract

According to the dominant point of view the Senate under Augustus was in fact deprived of his powers in the military sphere. Only a few scholars recognize the preservation of some of curia’s functions in this area (fi nancing, recruitment of troops, the creation of new military units, the establishment of army regulations, etc.). Classicists, who adhere to this view, justify it by references to the narrative tradition. They ignore the epigraphic sources that can signifi cantly modify our knowledge of the functions of the Senate at the time in question, including in the military sphere. One of such monuments is a fragment of the decision of the Roman Senate, discovered in the city of Pula (Pola in antiquity), Croatia. The paper deals with this text which is directly relevant to the problem of preservation of Senate’s prerogatives in military sphere during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Despite the fact that the inscription was found at the beginning of the last century and is contained in the list of resolutions of the Roman Senate in the Pauly–Wissowa, it has not been yet the subject of special study. The author concludes it is highly probable that the senatus consultum, dated AD 7, communicates the curia’s decision to send military contingent to the Roman colony Pola to strengthen its defensive potential during the great Pannonian revolt (AD 6–9). The Senate’s decision was the part of a regional security program, which the Roman government started immediately after the start of the uprising and continued to carry out in AD 7. This inscription can be seen as a confi rmation that the Senate preserved its role in the military sphere under the fi rst Roman Emperor.

Keywords

Roman Senate, Augustus, Great Pannonian revolt, Roman colonies, Pola.

Andrey Yu. Markelov

Center for Classical Studies, School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia

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