Client Kings

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wardle
Keyword(s):  
Client Kings

Provincial Monarchs as an Eastern Arcanum Imperii: ‘Client Kingship’, the Augustan Revolution and the Flavians

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Tal A. Ish-Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Public Image ◽  
Alternative Possibility ◽  
Divide And Rule ◽  
Client Kings ◽  
Roman East

Abstract This paper re-examines the role of ‘client kings’ in the Roman east in the early Principate. Contrary to previous emphasis on continuity with the republican past, it proposes that Octavian-Augustus enacted a set of measures that fundamentally changed the relations of certain eastern monarchs with the imperial centre. These ‘provincial monarchs’ became a new elite of Roman administrators, personally loyal to the domus Augusta and distinct from ‘client kings’ earlier and elsewhere. This Augustan systemisation complemented the provincial division of 27 b.c.e., creating a ‘divide and rule’ dynamic between provincial monarchs and imperial legates which was expedient to the Julio-Claudians. This model is then used to challenge the view that the Flavians systematically ‘provincialised’ the east as part of a reorganisation of the frontier. It raises the alternative possibility that provincial monarchy gradually died out, following the Flavians’ realisation that its continued maintenance was detrimental to their public image in Rome.

Caligula and the Client Kings

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Wardle
Keyword(s):  
Literary Sources ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Client Kings

What happened in the aftermath of Caligula's assassination in January A.d. 41 in relation to the client kings of the period has been the subject of a stimulating note by A. A. Barrett. He has argued that a rescission of Caligula's acta invalidated the legal position of the client kings appointed by Caligula, and that Claudius’ regularising of their position has been misunderstood by the ancient literary sources and has given rise to several apparent inconsistencies in their accounts.

Client Kings

1992 ◽  
pp. 1064-1066
Author(s):  
David C. Braund
Keyword(s):  
Client Kings

scholarly journals Dynastic marriages of client kings during the reign of Augustus

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-318
Author(s):  
Vladimir Olegovich Nikishin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Family ◽  
Effective Instrument ◽  
Client Kings

The article examines the practice of entering into dynastic marriages as part of the policy that was held in relation to vassal kings during the reign of the emperor Augustus (30 BC - AD 14). The author introduces the term Augustus project, bearing in mind the package of measures, aimed at creating a system of vassal kingdoms on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. According to the author, dynastic marriages as an effective instrument of real policy should have cemented the building blocks of the system. In the main part of the article the author analyses ten well-known dynastic marriages, related to the reign of Augustus. As a result of the research undertaken, the author concludes that Augustus, of course, sought to control the behavior of the kings-collaborators. Sometimes things got out of hand, and then the emperor should have intervened to resolve the resulting conflict of interests. The author asks: what did Augustus demand of vassal rulers? The answer is: loyalty and efficiency in the administration of the territories entrusted to them, which meant not only the timely dispatch to Rome of established monetary sums (tributes, taxes and other payments), but also to protect the local population from external enemies, as well as political stability and the rule of law. If it was all there and there was no danger, real or potential, for the peace and stability of the empire, Augustus overlooked extravagant matrimonial combinations, polygamy, conflicts with children and other excesses in the family life of dependent kings. But when it came to questioning loyalty and efficiency, Augustus was unmerciful and merciless in punishing the guilty. Immediate successors to Augustus rejected the Augustus project and gradually eliminated most vassal kingdoms, turning them into provinces under the control of the governors.

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