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Augustan Rome and the Body of Christ: A Comparison of the Social Vision of the Res Gestae and Paul's Letter to the Romans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2013

James R. Harrison
James R. Harrison*
Affiliation:
Sydney College of Divinity, Australia
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Extract

A surprising omission in New Testament studies of the imperial world is a comparison of Augustus's conception of rule in the Res Gestae (RG) with Paul's eschatological gospel of grace in his letter to the Romans. Even though each document has been foundational in the history of Western civilization, a comparison of their vastly different social outcomes has not been undertaken. Neil Elliott has made an outstanding contribution in laying the foundations for such a study, offering a scintillating analysis of Paul's letter to the Romans in terms of iustitia (justice), clementia (mercy), pietas (piety), and virtus (valor), the four virtues of Augustus inscribed on the Golden Shield erected in the Julian senate house (RG 34.2). However, a full-scale investigation of the Augustan conception of rule in the RG would open up new perspectives on Paul's engagement with the imperial world in Romans, given that Augustus became the iconic exemplum of virtue for his Julio-Claudian successors. Nonetheless, the difference in genre and aims of each document makes such a comparison daunting for New Testament scholars, as does the controversy that each document continues to generate in its own discipline. Further, we are unsure about the extent of the exposure that Paul might have had to the RG, directly or indirectly. Possibly Paul saw a Greek version of the RG text at Pisidian Antioch, along with the Latin text that still survives there, during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:14–50), even though there are no archaeological remains of the Greek text at Antioch today. Presumably Paul would have been aware that the original Latin copy of the RG was inscribed in bronze at Augustus's mausoleum at Rome. This article will argue that Paul, in planning to move his missionary outreach from the Greek East to the Latin West (Rom 15:19a–24), thought strategically about how he was going to communicate the reign of the crucified, risen, and ascended Son of God to inhabitants of the capital who had lived through the “Golden Age” of grace under Augustus and who were experiencing its renewal under Nero. What social and theological vision did Paul want to communicate to the city of Rome in which Augustus was the yardstick of virtue to which future leaders of Rome should aspire?

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Articles
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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 106 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 1 - 36
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Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2013

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References

1 Two studies investigate the intersection of 2 Corinthians and Galatians with the RG: Anton Friedrichsen, “Peristasenenkatalog und Res Gestae,” SO 8 (1929) 78–82; Lopez, Davina C., Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2008) 86–113Google Scholar. Justin Hardin discusses the Latin monument of the Res Gestae at Pisidian Antioch, but he does not investigate the evidence of the RG in relation to Galatians (Galatians and the Imperial Cult: A Critical Analysis of the First–Century Social Context of Paul's Letter [WUNT II/237; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008]). On the RG at Ancyra and Galatians, see Kahl, Brigitte, Galatians Re-Imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2010) 192–95Google Scholar. In this article I will discuss the Latin text of the RG rather than its Greek counterpart, because it was the text available to literate Romans at Augustus's mausoleum in Rome. Alison E. Cooley's English translation is used throughout, incorporating the latest textual restoration of RG 34.1 (Cooley, Res Gestae Divi Augusti: Text, Translation, and Commentary [Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2009])—as does John Scheid's translation (Res Gestae divi Augusti. Hauts faits du divin Auguste [Paris: Belles Lettres, 2007]). The use of square brackets means that the editor restored the missing Latin letter(s) of the inscription.

2 Elliott, Neil, The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2008) 59–161Google Scholar.

3 See Harrison, James R., Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome: A Study in the Collision of Ideology (WUNT 273; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011) 24–25Google Scholar.

4 On the Res Gestae, see Mommsen, Theodor, Res Gestae divi Augustae ex monumentis Ancyrano et Apolloniensi (Berlin: Weidmann, 1883)Google Scholar; Gagé, Jean, Res Gestae divi Augustae ex Monumentis Ancyrano et Antiocheno. Latinis Ancyrano et Apolloniensi Graecis (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1935)Google Scholar; Brunt, Peter A. and Moore, John M., Res Gestae Divi Augusti: The Achievements of the Divine Augustus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Volkmann, Hans, Res Gestae Divi AVGVSTI: Das Monumentum Ancyranum (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1969)Google Scholar; Danker, Frederick W., Benefactor: Epigraphic Study of a Graeco-Roman and New Testament Semantic Field (St. Louis: Clayton, 1982) 256–80Google Scholar; Ramage, Edwin S., The Nature and Purpose of Augustus’ “Res Gestae” (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1987)Google Scholar; Yavetz, Zvi, “The Res Gestae and Augustus’ Public Image,” in Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects (ed. Millar, Fergus and Segal, Erich; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) 1–36Google Scholar; Damon, Cynthia, Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Bryn Mawr College, 1995)Google Scholar; Ridley, Ronald, The Emperor's Retrospect: Augustus’ Res Gestae in Epigraphy, Historiography and Commentary (Louvain: Peeters, 2003)Google Scholar; Scheid, Res Gestae; Judge, Edwin A., “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” in idem, The First Christians in the Roman World: Augustan and New Testament Essays (ed. Harrison, James R.; WUNT 229; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008) 182–223Google Scholar; idem, “On Judging the Merits of Augustus,” in idem, The First Christians, 224–313, at 239–45; Cooley, Res Gestae.

5 The Julio-Claudian successors to Augustus's principate appealed to Augustan precedent during their rule. See Levick, Barbara, Tiberius the Politician (London: Routledge, 1999) 82Google Scholar; Barrett, Anthony A., Caligula: The Corruption of Power (London: B. T. Batsford, 1989) 250CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wiedemann, Thomas E. J., “Tiberius to Nero,” in The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 10. The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C.–A.D. 69 (ed. Bowman, Alan K., Champlin, Edward, and Lintott, Andrew; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 198−255CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 232; Griffin, Miriam T., Nero: The End of a Dynasty (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholars.v. Index of Persons, Human & Divine, “Augustus the Emperor”; Champlin, Edward, Nero (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003) 139–44Google Scholar. For Flavian commitment to Augustan precedent, see Shotter, David C. A., Augustus Caesar (2d ed.; New York: Routledge, 2005) Plates 16, 103–4Google Scholar.

6 Punt, Jeremy, “Paul and Postcolonial Hermeneutics: Marginality and/in Early Biblical Interpretation,” in As It is Written: Studying Paul's Use of Scripture (ed. Porter, Stanley P. and Stanley, Christopher D.; Atlanta, Ga.: SBL, 2008) 261–90Google Scholar.

7 Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 28–33, 304–8.

8 Marchal, Joseph A., The Politics of Heaven: Women, Gender, and Empire in the Study of Paul (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2008) 59–90Google Scholar.

9 Elliott, Arrogance of Nations, 11–13.

10 Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered, 11–17, 19–22, 66–71, 108–10, 124–37.

11 Ibid., 11; Kahl, Galatians Re-Imagined, 27–29; Harrison, James R., “‘More Than Conquerors’” (Rom 8:37): Paul's Gospel and the Augustan Triumphal Arches of the Greek East and Latin West,” Buried History 47 (2011) 3–20Google Scholar.

12 On my methodology, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 19–44.

13 The historical truthfulness of Augustus's self-eulogy will not be addressed in this article. I am more interested in how the public presentation of Augustus's rule in the RG expressed his social vision for Rome and, concomitantly, the extent to which its ideology intersected with Paul's eschatological gospel of grace. On the veracity of the RG, see Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, passim. It must be realized, however, that the genre of eulogistic literature, to which the RG belongs, is political and triumphal. Objectivity cannot be expected (Cooley, Res Gestae, 35; see Jones, Arnold H. M., Augustus [New York: Norton, 1970] 168–69)Google Scholar. On the ideology of Augustus and his successors, see Galinsky, Karl, Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Zanker, Paul, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Ando, Clifford, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gradel, Ittai, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002); HarrisonGoogle Scholar, Paul and the Imperial Authorities.

14 See the different conclusion of Brunt and Moore, Res Gestae, 6; Scheid, Res Gestae, xxii–xxvi; Cooley, Res Gestae, 42–43.

15 Mommsen, Theodor, “Der Rechenschaftsbericht des Augustus,” Historische Zeitschrift 57 (1887) 385–97Google Scholar; repr., idem, Gesammelte Schriften IV (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906) 247–58.

16 Yavetz, “Res Gestae,” 26.

17 Cooley, Res Gestae, 41; Brian Bosworth, “Augustus, the Res Gestae and Hellenistic Theories of Apotheosis,” JRS 89 (1999) 1–18. However, Scheid (Res Gestae, xlvi–xlviii) argues against Ulrich von Wilamowitz's proposal—and Weber's appropriation of his argument—that Augustus's RG was “une justification de son apothéose prochaine par un Auguste vieillissant” (ibid., xlvi).

18 Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 111–16; Scheid, Res Gestae, lxi.

19 Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, 240; Gagé, Res Gestae, 34.

20 Brunt and Moore, Res Gestae, 4.

21 On Roman nobles, new men, and the quest for ancestral glory, see Harrison, James R., “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory in the Epistle to the Romans,” in The Letter to the Romans (ed. Schnelle, Udo; BETL 226; Walpole, Mass.: Peeters, 2009) 329–69Google Scholar, esp. 334–56. On novi homines, see Wiseman, Timothy P., New Men in the Roman Senate 139 B.C.–A.D. 14 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar and Bailey, David R. Shackleton, “Nobiles and Novi Reconsidered,” AJP 107(1986) 255–60Google Scholar.

22 For the fragments, see Peter, Hermann, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae (2 vols.; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1967) 2:54–64Google Scholar; Dolley, R. William, Grady, Ian E., and Hillard, Tom W., “The Memoirs of Augustus: The Fragments in Translation,” Ancient Society: Resources for Teachers 3 (1975) 163–81Google Scholar.

23 Dolley, Grady, and Hillard, “The Memoirs of Augustus,” 164.

24 Scheid, Res Gestae, xxvi–xxviii.

25 Yavetz argues that it was after 23 b.c.e. that Augustus abandoned his memoirs because “further justification of his earlier career was unnecessary, and might be even counterproductive” (“Res Gestae,” 3–4).

26 Judge, “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” 183.

27 Yavetz, “Res Gestae,” 6.

28 Ibid., 1–2.

29 Suetonius, Aug. 2.3 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 1).

30 Velleius Paterculus 2.59.2; Nicolaus of Damascus, Vit. Caes. 2.

31 Tertullian, An. 46 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 2).

32 Dio 44.35.2 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 3).

33 Pliny the Elder, Nat. 2.93–94; Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Bucolics 9.46 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frgs. 4, 5).

34 Yavetz, “Res Gestae,” 2; Plutarch, Cic. 45.5; idem, Brut. 27 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frgs. 7, 8).

35 Suetonius, Aug. 27.4 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2., frg. 9).

36 Plutarch, Cic. 45.5; idem, Brutus 41.5–8 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frgs. 7, 10).

37 Appian, Bell. Civ. 5.42 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 11).

38 Yavetz, “Res Gestae,” 2. The same charge is made against Augustus in the anti-Augustan propaganda (Pliny the Elder, Nat. 7.45.147–150). See Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 178.

39 Plutarch, Brut. 41.5–8 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 10).

40 Cooley, Res Gestae, 38.

41 Appian, The Illyrian Wars 14–16, 28 (Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae, vol. 2, frg. 13).

42 The Latin heading is: “The achievements of the Divine Augustus, by which he brought the world under the empire of the Roman people, and of the expenses which he bore for the state and the people of Rome.”

43 Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 101–4.

44 Cooley, Res Gestae, 39.

45 Yavetz notes that Augustus “had to appeal to the more educated citizens, and it was they whom he told how he wished to be remembered” (“Res Gestae,” 10–12, 13). This aligns with Augustus's desire not to be leader of one stratum of the population (i.e., the plebs) but of the whole nation as pater patriae (ibid.). The architectural intersections of sacred space created by the Augustan building program at Rome also highlighted for the illiterate Augustus's providential status in Roman history (Harrison, James R., “Paul Among the Romans,” in All Things to All Cultures: Paul Among Jews, Greeks and Romans [ed. Harding, Mark and Nobbs, Alanna; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, forthcoming] §1)Google Scholar.

46 See Scheid, Res Gestae, xliii–liii; Cooley, Res Gestae, 30–34.

47 Examples are the inscriptions of the Egyptian pharaoh Tuthmosis III (ANET, 234–41), the Persian King Darius (King, Leonard W. and Thompson, R. Campbell, The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia [London: British Museum, 1907]Google Scholar), and Antiochus I of Kommagene (Danker, Benefactor, 237–55). Hittite documents such as those of Suppiluliumas could also be cited (ANET, 318). For discussion, see Gagé, Res Gestae, 31–34; Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, 51–55; Benjamin B. Rubin, “(Re)presenting Empire: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, 31 BC–AD 68” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 2008) 72–116.

48 However, Rubin proposes Persian precedents for the sculptural program at Aphrodisias (“(Re)presenting Empire,” 72–116). He claims that Persian influences were part of the cultural context informing the erection of the RG at Pisidian Antioch (ibid., 121; see also 123–29). Paul Rehak asserts that the Northern Campus Martius is a type of “Augustan” theme park, in which the monuments reveal imperial and monarchic themes (Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius [ed. John C. Younger; Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006]). The problem with these proposals is that not only do they overlook the historic Roman rejection of monarchy (510–509 b.c.e.) and Augustus's avoidance of monarchic perceptions (Cooley, Res Gestae, 34), but also they impose upon Augustus's principate the monarchical model of the late source Dio Cassius (150–235 c.e.: Dio 52.1.1; 53.11.4).

49 On the Scipionic elogia, see Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, 55–56; Erasmo, Mario, Reading Death in Ancient Rome (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 2008) 168–70Google Scholar; Harrison, “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory,” 350–52. For funerary inscriptions relevant to the genre of the Res Gestae, see Gagé, Res Gestae, 28–29.

50 Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, 56–58.

51 Gagé, Res Gestae, 29–31; Ridley, Emperor's Retrospect, 58–61.

52 Edwin A. Judge, “The Eulogistic Inscriptions of the Augustan Forum: Augustus on Roman History,” in idem, The First Christians, 165–81; Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 170–77.

53 Ridley notes that Caesar uses the third person in his autobiographical works, Civil War and Gallic War (Emperor's Retrospect, 49).

54 See Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 21–32.

55 Cooley, Res Gestae, 34.

56 Lowrie, Michèle, “Making an Exemplum of Yourself: Cicero and Augustus,” in Classical Constructions: Papers in Memory of Don Fowler, Classicist and Epicurean (ed. Heyworth, Stephen J.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) 91–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lobur, John A., Consensus, Concordia, and the Formation of Roman Imperial Ideology (New York: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar.

57 In RG 27.1 Augustus speaks of handing over the province of Greater Armenia to Tigranes “in accordance with the example set by our ancestors” (maiorum nostrorum exemplo).

58 See Galinsky, Augustan Culture, passim.

59 Alison Cooley gives further insight into Augustus's personal motives in building the forum Augustum: “This new forum displayed statues of famous Romans.… Augustus's own ancestors were somewhat lacking in splendour compared with other families at Rome, such as the noble Marcelli, Claudii (“Inscribing History at Rome,” in The Afterlife of Inscriptions: Reusing, Rediscovering, Reinventing & Revitalizing Ancient Inscriptions [ed. Cooley, Alison E.; London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2000] 7–20, at 16–17)Google Scholar. By associating himself with all of Rome's most notable individuals, Augustus basked in their reflected glory.

60 Judge, “The Eulogistic Inscriptions,” 169.

61 Lobur points to other Julio-Claudian family members, cited in the Roman literature, as exempla: Germanicus, Livia, and Tiberius (Consensus, 173–74). Cooley (Res Gestae, 40) cites a senatorial decree that asserts that the senate models its behavior on Augustus and Tiberius (Das senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre [ed. Werner Eck, Antonio Caballos, and Fernando Fernández; Munich: Beck, 1996] 44). Yavetz observes regarding Augustus: “His intention was to revive a traditional society in which the exempla maiorum would not only be respected but not even questioned. He wanted to set an example for future generations, and was not satisfied with being imperio maximus. His goal was to become exemplo maior” (“Res Gestae,” 20).

62 Cicero encourages both groups to seek glory: “You, young Romans, who are nobles by birth, I rouse you to imitate the example of your ancestors (ad maiorum vestrorum imitationem excitabo); and you who can win nobility by your talents and virtue, I will exhort to follow that career in which many ‘new men’ (novi homines) have covered themselves with honour and glory” (Sest. 64.136).

63 On exemplum, see Lobur, Consensus, 171–76; Harrison, James R., “The Imitation of the Great Man in Antiquity: Paul's Inversion of a Cultural Icon,” in Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament (ed. Porter, Stanley E. and Pitts, Andrew W.; Leiden: Brill, 2013) 213–54Google Scholar.

64 Warmington, Eric H., “Epitaphs,” in Remains of Old Latin: Archaic Inscriptions (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953) § 10, p. 9Google Scholar.

65 Ibid., §5, p. 5 ; Harrison, “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory,” 350–52.

66 Note Cicero (Prov. 20): “I have at all times thought that I ought to seek for the models (exempla) for all my intentions and for all my actions in the conduct of the most illustrious men.” Quintilian speaks of the rhetorical use of exempla in this manner: “what we properly call an exemplum, that is, the recalling to mind of something done, or as if done, that is useful for persuading what you intend” (5.11.6). On Cicero's failure to meet his own exempla, see Lowrie, “Making an Exemplum of Yourself,” 92–102.

67 Cicero, Rab. Post. 1.2. See also idem, Cael. 30.72; Div. Caec. 8.25. See Tacitus, Hist. 2.68: “Keep and preserve, Conscript Fathers, a man of such ready counsels, that every age may be furnished with its teacher, and that our young men may imitate Regulus, just as our old men imitate (imitentur) Marcellus and Crispus.”

68 On Augustus's and Tiberius's encouragement of a plurality of leadership in the state, see Edwin A. Judge, “The Augustan Republic: Tiberius and Claudius on Roman History,” in idem, The First Christians, 127–39; Harrison, James R., “Diplomacy over Tiberius’ Succession,” in New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (ed. Llewelyn, Stephen R. and Harrison, James R.; 10 vols.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2012) vol. 10 §12, pp. 64–75Google Scholar.

69 Judge writes: “Although no leaders of the past, nor contemporary rivals, are named, the Res Gestae is meant to be read by people thoroughly familiar with the score cards of the Roman noble houses. As with cricket, the applause would be inspired by the crowd's familiarity with the records of the past” (“The Eulogistic Inscriptions,” 166).

70 Scheid, Res Gestae, xxxiv–xxxvi; Cooley, Res Gestae, 40–41.

71 Yavetz, “Res Gestae,” 12–19.

72 See Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 101–4.

73 On imperial idolatry in 1 Corinthians, see Newton, Derek, Deity and Diet: The Dilemma of Sacrificial Food in Corinth (Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic, 1998)Google Scholar passim; Winter, Bruce W., After Paul Left Corinth: The Influence of Secular Ethics and Social Change (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001) 269–86Google Scholar. On Galatians, see Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered; Hardin, Galatians; Kahl, Galatians Re-Imagined. On 1 and 2 Thessalonians, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 45–95.

74 Gradel argues that Augustus was also worshipped as a living ruler outside of Rome in the Italian municipal cults (Emperor Worship, 72–108, 261–371). On Gradel's contribution to imperial cult studies, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 18.

75 See Harrison, “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory,” 323–63; idem, “The Brothers as ‘The Glory of Christ’ (2 Cor 8:23): Paul's Doxa Terminology in Its Ancient Benefaction Context,” NovT 52 (2010) 165–88.

76 For details, see Harrison, “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory,” 332 n. 14.

77 See Erim, Kenan T., Aphrodisias: City of Venus Aphrodite (London: Muller, Blond & White, 1986)Google Scholar; Smith, R. R. R., “The Imperial Reliefs from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias,” JRS 77 (1987) 88–138Google Scholar; Chaniotis, Angelos, “Myths and Contexts in Aphrodisias,” in Antike Mythen. Medien, Transformationen und Konstruktionen (ed. Dill, Ueli and Walde, Christine; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009) 313–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 See respectively, Harrison, “More Than Conquerors”; Stephen Mitchell and Marc Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch: The Site and Its Monuments (London: Duckworth, 1988); Rubin, “(Re)presenting Empire,” 27–71.

79 Schreiner, Thomas R., Paul, Apostle of God's Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2001)Google Scholar passim.

80 See Harrison, “Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory.”

81 See Winter, Bruce W., “Roman Law and Society in Romans 12–15,” in Rome in the Bible and the Early Church (ed. Oakes, Peter; Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster, 2002) 67–102Google Scholar.

82 See Harrison, James R., “Excels Ancestral Honours,” in New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (ed. Llewelyn, Stephen R.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002) vol. 9 §9, pp. 20–21Google Scholar.

83 On Abraham as Aeneas's rival in Romans, see Elliott, Arrogance of the Nations, 125–41.

84 Bassler, Jouette M., Divine Impartiality: Paul and a Theological Axiom (Chico, Calif.: Scholars, 1982)Google Scholar.

85 See Harrison, James R., “Paul, Theologian of Electing Grace,” in Paul and His Theology (ed. Porter, Stanley E.; Pauline Studies 3; Leiden: Brill, 2006) 77–108Google Scholar.

86 See Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 313–16; see also 111–14.

87 Romulus: RG 4.1. Hercules: 10.1. Alexander: 21.1; 24.1; 26–33 (esp. 26.2; 31.1). Scipio Africanus: 1.1. Pompey: 1.1; 5.2; 20.1; 25.1; 26–33 (esp. 27.2; 31.2). Caesar: 4.1. Antony and Cleopatra 4.2; 27.2; 28.1–2. See Cooley, Res Gestae, passim.

88 Cooley, Res Gestae, 209–10.

89 Ibid., 4.

90 Bosworth, “Augustus,” passim; Cooley, Res Gestae, 41.

91 Cooley, Res Gestae, 41.

92 Brunt and Moore, Res Gestae, 52, 77–78; Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 100–4; Cooley, Res Gestae, 147, 261–62. Dio Cassius (51.20.1) says that Augustus's “name should be included in their hymns equally with those of the gods” (Volkmann, Res Gestae, 23). Volkmann notes the inclusion of Germanicus's name in the hymns of the Salii upon his death in 19 c.e. (Tacitus, Ann. 2.83.1), arguing that the names of Lucius and Gaius, Augustus's adopted sons, would also have been included after their deaths (2 and 4 c.e., respectively). Damon observes of the name “Augustus”: “‘Augustus’ set him [Octavian] at the apex of mankind, but not quite in the realm of the immortals (Suetonius, Life of Augustus 7.2)” (Res Gestae, 45). Of the incorporation of Augustus's name in the hymn of the Salii, Damon writes: “Augustus was not deified at Rome until after his death, but this honor puts him on a par with the ancestral gods in at least this respect” (Res Gestae, 23).

93 On the symbolic connection between the two circular buildings in the Campus Martius, Augustus's mausoleum and the Agrippan Pantheon, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 115 n. 69. Augustus's modest house on the Palatine was also placed adjacent to the temple of Apollo and near to the temple of Romulus on the same hill, aligning the princeps with the gods and the birth of the city. See Edwards, Catharine, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 167–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Everitt, Anthony, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor (New York: Random House, 2006) 200–1.Google Scholar

94 Danker, Benefactor, 277; Judge, “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” 211.

95 On boasting in imperial context, see Jewett, Robert, Romans: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2007) 295–96Google Scholar; Kahl, Galatians Re-Imagined, s.v. Index of Subjects, “boasting.”

96 See Newman, Carey C., Paul's Glory-Christology: Tradition and Rhetoric (NovTSup 69; Leiden: Brill, 1992)Google Scholar; Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 201–69.

97 For a defense of θεός as referring to Christ in Rom 9:5, see Harris, Murray J., Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1992) 143–72Google Scholar.

98 On the theocentric emphasis of Romans, see Morris, Leon, “The Theme of Romans,” in Apostolic History and the Gospel: Biblical and Historical Essays Presented to F. F. Bruce on His 60th Birthday (ed. Gasque, W. Ward and Martin, Ralph P.; Exeter, U.K.: Paternoster, 1970) 249–63Google Scholar.

99 The final group of honors, the climax to the RG 34–35, is discussed in §2.6, below.

100 Judge, “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” 184.

101 Lacey, Walter K. states: “Honours seem to have been thrust upon Augustus rather than sought” (Augustus and the Principate: The Evolution of the System [Leeds, U.K.: Francis Cairns, 1996] 212)Google Scholar.

102 Ibid., 207.

103 Zanker, Power of Images, 11–31.

104 Of RG 25.1, Brunt and Moore state that “it is implied that Sextus Pompeius is a pirate” (Res Gestae, 3). Mommsen was the first to point out that, notwithstanding Augustus's good intentions, Pompey's theater still came to be known as theatrum Aug(ustum) Pompeianum (CIL VI 9404) (Res Gestae, 83).

105 Cooley, Res Gestae, 187.

106 On the public works, see Mommsen, Res Gestae, 79.

107 Augustus's removal of eighty silver statues of himself from Rome (RG 24.2) is another case of the preservation of the honor of others.

108 Zanker, Power of Images, 144.

109 See Cooley for discussion of predecessors (Camillus, Marius, Cicero) who had been acclaimed pater patriae (Res Gestae, 273–74).

110 On the difficulty of the translation of ἀλλήλους προηγούμενοι (Rom 12:10b), see Moo, Douglas, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1996) 777–78Google Scholar. Schreiner, Thomas R. argues “prefer one another in honor” on the basis of the parallel in Philippians 2:3 (Romans [Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament 6; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1998] 664)Google Scholar. The modern “psychologizing” translation of Romans 12:10b in the NEB (“Give pride of place to one another in esteem”) divorces the verse from the backdrop of the ancient reciprocity system and the Roman quest for ancestral glory. Note, too, the interesting “parallel” in Cicero (Prov. cons. 11.27) to Romans 12:10b: “I admired the strength of mind and magnanimity of Gnaeus Pompeius, because, while he had been himself preferred to distinctions (honore) beyond all other men, he was for granting greater distinction (ampliorum honorem) to another than he himself had obtained.”

111 Jewett, Romans, 754, 762.

112 Fitzmyer, Joseph A., Romans (AB 33; New York: Doubleday, 1993) 653Google Scholar.

113 Esler, Philip F., Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul's Letter (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2003) 316–30Google Scholar.

114 Jewett confines the social reference of the text to the competition of Roman believers for precedence at the love feasts (Romans, 760–62), whereas I believe that Paul, to some degree, is inverting the modus operandi of the Greco-Roman honor system per se.

115 On the latter, see Esler, Conflict and Identity, 325.

116 For Cicero and Seneca on “obligation,” see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 316–17.

117 See James R. Harrison, Paul's Language of Grace in Its Graeco-Roman Context (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003) passim.

118 Jewett, Robert, “Response: Exegetical Support from Romans and Other Letters,” in Paul and Politics: Ekklesia−Israel−Imperium−Interpretation: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl (ed. Horsley, Richard A.; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2000) 58–71, at 65Google Scholar. On patronal obligation in the Roman imperial order, see Agosto, Efrain, “Patronage and Commendation, Imperial and Anti-imperial,” in Paul and the Roman Imperial Order (ed. Horsley, Richard A.; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2004) 103–23, esp. 104–7Google Scholar. See also Saller, Richard, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

119 For Roman sources on “indebtedness,” see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 316–17.

120 On the anti-Augustan and anti-Neronian propaganda and the possibility that believers at Rome would have had divided political perspectives, see ibid., 113–14, 141, 165–85, 313–16.

121 Ibid., 271–323.

122 See Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered, 86–113.

123 Judge, “On Judging the Merits,” 241.

124 Horace refers to the “god-like” triumphs of Augustus: “To achieve great deeds and to display captive ‘foemen’ to one's fellow-citizens is to touch the throne of Jove and scale the skies” (Ep. 1.17.33–34).

125 Siefrid, Mark A., “Romans,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (ed. Beale, Greg K. and Carson, Donald A.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2007) 607–94, esp. 686–91Google Scholar.

126 On anti-Semitism among the Roman intelligentsia, see Wiefel, Walter, “The Jewish Community in Ancient Rome and the Origins of Roman Christianity,” in The Romans Debate (ed. Donfried, Karl P.; rev. and exp. ed.; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1991) 85–101Google Scholar.

127 Siefrid, “Romans,” 688.

128 Ibid., 688–90; see Matthew V. Novenson, “The Jewish Messiahs, the Pauline Christ, and the Gentile Question,” JBL 128 (2009) 357–73.

129 Siefrid observes: “The reality of love is an essential dimension of glory that the believing community renders to ‘the God and father of Jesus Christ’ (15:6). There is no true worship without love, and no true love without worship. Both are given by the hope found in the Messiah” (“Romans,” 687).

130 E.g., 4Q504 IV, ll.1–12; Pss. Sol. 17:30–32.

131 See Brunt and Moore, Res Gestae, 57–58.

132 See Harrison, Paul's Language of Grace, 228.

133 Danker, Benefactor, 277. On the centennial games and Paul's eschatology, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 97–101.

134 Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 93. The intersection of Augustan pietas and ancestral lineage in Romans (cf. Rom 4:1–25; 9:6–18; 15:11; Elliott, Arrogance of the Nations, 121–41; Harrison, “Paul, Theologian of Electing Grace,” esp. 90–107; Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, s.v. Index of Subjects, “Familia Caesaris”) will not be discussed because in the RG Augustus's focus is mainly on piety towards the traditional gods (cf. Rom 1:18–32; Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 257, 263–64) and the Roman state (Rom 13:1–7; Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 271–323).

135 Harrison, James R., “Paul, Eschatology, and the Augustan Age of Grace,” TynBul 50 (1999) 79–91Google Scholar; idem, Paul's Language of Grace, 226–34.

136 See Cilliers Breytenbach's correction to my arguments in idem, “‘Charis’ and ‘eleos’ in Paul's Letter to the Romans,” in The Letter to the Romans, 323–63.

137 On the history of scholarship, see Scheid, Res Gestae, 82–86. The restoration of [potitus rerum omn]ium in RG 34.1 was Mommsen's suggestion (Res Gestae, lxxxxiv, 144).

138 Res gestae divi Augusti (trans. Frederick W. Shipley; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924). Brunt and Moore (Res Gestae, 35) translate the important clause thus: “at a time when with universal consent I was in complete control of affairs.”

139 Gagé, Res Gestae, 144–45. Volkmann (Res Gestae, 56) suggests this happened from 30 b.c.e., whereas Frank E. Adcock (“The Interpretation of Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 34.1,” CQ 1 [1951] 130–35) posits the date of 28 b.c.e. because of the renewed threat of civil war posed by Marcus Crassus's attainment of the spolia opima (Judge, “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” 221).

140 The translation is that of Cooley, Res Gestae, 98. The aorist form (γενόμενος) of the Greek text of the RG (34.1: ἐνκρατὴς γενόμενος πάντων τν πραγμάτων [“although I was in control of all affairs”]) correctly translates the intention of the newly discovered fragment of the Latin text (34.1: [po]tens re[r]um). For discussion, see Edwin A. Judge, “The Crux of RG 34.1 Resolved?: Augustus on 28 BC,” in New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, vol. 10 §10, pp. 55–58.

141 Harrison, “Paul, Theologian of Electing Grace,” 77–108, esp. 101–6. Cooley points to Augustus's consciousness in the RG that a “new age” for Rome had begun with his accession to rule, referring to the revealing phrases “before I was born” (13) and “my era” (16.1: ἀών in the Greek version) (Res Gestae, 34, 158). On providentially defining events in the reign of the Julio-Claudians and in Paul's eschatology in Romans, see Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 128–33.

142 See Edwin A. Judge, “‘Res Publica Restituta’: A Modern Illusion?,” in idem, The First Christians, 140–63; Cooley, Res Gestae, 258.

143 On virtus, clementia, iustitia, and pietas, mentioned in RG 34.2, see Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 73–99.

144 Cooley, Res Gestae, 260–61. Danker observes that there was no need to say anything extra regarding Augustus's merit other than the simple phrase pro merito meo because “his performance was the measure of his merit” (Benefactor, 279).

145 Judge, “Augustus in the Res Gestae,” 223.

146 See Lobur, Consensus, 12–46. Clifford Ando argues that, in a provincial context, the imperial rulers “sought expressions of consensus, realized through religious and political rituals whose content could be preserved in documentary form.… Rome's desire for consensus thus opened a conceptual and discursive space for provincials and Romans alike to negotiate the veracity of Roman propaganda and the rationality of Roman administration” (Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty, 7).

147 Ramage, Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 52. See also Kienast, Dietmar, Augustus: Prinzeps und Monarch (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982) 126–51Google Scholar; Brunt, Peter A., “The Role of the Senate in the Augustan Regime,” CQ 34 (1984) 423–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jochen Bleicken, Augustus: Eine Biographie (Berlin: Alexander Fest, 1998) s.v. Register, “Senat/Senatoren.”

148 See Harrison, Paul and the Imperial Authorities, 292–99.

149 On Augustus's auctoritas, see Galinsky, Augustan Culture, 10–41.

150 On the expression καὶ κύκλ μέχρι το 'Ιλλυρικο (and around unto Illyricum) and how that relates to ancient cartography (including the map of the world of Marcus Agrippa, Augustus's friend and co–regent), see Jewett, Romans, 911–13. On the Jewish background, see James M. Scott, Paul and the Nations: The Old Testament and Jewish Background of Paul's Mission to the Nations with Special Reference to the Destination of Galatians (WUNT 84; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995) 135–48. Agrippa's monumental map at Rome displaying the extent of the Roman empire and its peoples was only a few hundred meters away from the site of the Res Gestae, which, as noted, highlighted Augustus's domination of the nations (3.1–2; 4.3; 13; 25–33).

151 On Spain, note Jewett: “Spain lies at the conclusion of the northern circuit of the Mediterranean on the strip maps of antiquity, thus completing the arc from Jerusalem through Illyricum and Rome, and on to the end of the earth” (Romans, 924).

152 Ramage (Augustus’ “Res Gestae,” 45–46, 89–90) discusses the interrelation of fides (faith) and iustitia (justice), citing the evidence of Livy and Cicero (ibid., 90). He observes that Romans “viewed fides as the foundation of iustitia” (ibid., 46). In the case of international diplomacy in the Res Gestae, “Augustus’ sense of justice is triggering the fides (32.3) that attracts legations from the ends of the world” (ibid., 46). What is intriguing here for Pauline scholars is the link in Romans between “justice” (δικαιοσύνη), “justification” language (δικαιόω) and faith (πίστις: 3:22, 26, 28, 30; 4:5, 9, 11, 13; 5:1; 9:30; 10:4, 6, 10), and the incorporation of the “nations” into the people of God. Is this overlap of motifs between Augustus and Paul merely the collision of different “symbolic universes”? Or is Paul implicitly highlighting for his Roman auditors how the God of Israel graciously summons the nations to himself in comparison to the justice attracting the barbarian tribes to be loyal to Rome and Augustus? The question is difficult to answer with certainty, but it again underscores the rich intersection of motifs in Romans and the Res Gestae.

153 For the Augustan visual evidence, see Harrison, “More Than Conquerors.” New Testament scholars, however, have overemphasized the military subjugation of the barbarians in the iconographic evidence. There were messages to the contrary in the Augustan propaganda, such as those found on the triumphal arches at Susa and Glanum (ibid., 11–13).

154 For Pisidian Antioch, see Mitchell and Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch, 161–62, Plate 113; Harrison, “More Than Conquerors,” 5–7. Cornelius C. Vermeule points to captive “barbarian” motifs on reliefs at Corinth (Roman Imperial Art in Greece and Asia Minor [Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963] figs. 29, 30). But they postdate Paul (ibid., 83, 87). However, there is also an undated statue of a bound barbarian captive—possibly first-century c.e.—at the museum of Corinth (Harrison, “More Than Conquerors,” 4 [fig. 2], 17 n. 1).

155 Jewett challenges both the propitiatory and expiatory understandings of the text (Romans, 285–86). Contra, see Schreiner (Romans, 197–98) and Leon Morris (The Epistle to the Romans [Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1988] 179–83).

156 See Jewett, Romans, 130–33. For the Roman perception of barbarians, see I. M. Ferris, Enemies of Rome: Barbarians through Roman Eyes (Stroud, U.K.: Sutton, 2000).

157 See Toney, Carl N., Paul's Inclusive Ethic: Resolving Community Conflicts and Promoting Mission in Romans 14–15 (WUNT II/252; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008) 54–55Google Scholar.

158 Rom 16:2b: προστάτις πολλν; Rom 16:23a: ὁ ξένος μου καὶ ὅλης τς ἐκκλησίας.

159 On the endangered benefactor, see Danker, Benefactor, 417–35.

160 Rom 16:8, 9: τὸν ἀγαπητόν; Rom 16:12: τὴν ἀγαπητήν; Rom 16:16a: ἐν ϕιλήματι ἁγί.

161 For the honorific ritual of commendation, see Rom 16:1: Συνίστημι δ ὑμν Φοίβην. For the honorific ritual of welcoming, see Rom 16:2a: ἵνα αὐτὴν προσδέξησθε ἐν κυρί ἀξίως τν ἁγίων. For the honorific ritual of public greeting, see Rom 16:3, 5–16, 21–23: ἀσπα´σασθε. For the honorific ritual of thanksgiving, see Rom 16:4b: ς οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος εὐχαριστ ἀλλὰ καὶ πσαι αἱ ἐκκλησίαι τν ἐθνν. For honorific accolades, see Rom 16:7: ἐπίσημοι ἐν τος ἀποστόλοις; Rom: 16:10: τὸν δόκιμον ἐν Χριστ; Rom 16:12a: τὰς κοπιώσας ἐν κυρί; Rom 16:12b: ἥτις πολλὰ ἐκοπίασεν ἐν κυρί; Rom 16:13: τὸν ἐκλεκτὸν ἐν κυρί

162 Rom 16:3, 9: ὁ συνεργός; Rom 16:7: συναιχμαλώτους μου.

163 Leander E. Keck observes: “The fact of the greeting is an aperture through which we glimpse the solidarity that marked the early Christians who, though unacquainted with each other, understood themselves to be part of a reality neither confined nor confinable to the little house church where they gathered. However much they disagreed, these people were becoming a people” (Romans [ANTC; Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2005] 374–75).

164 On imitation in Paul, see Harrison, “The Imitation of the Great Man.”

165 Schreiner states: “[T]he use of the term ‘image’ signifies that Jesus as the second Adam succeeded where the first Adam failed.… The word that all nations would be blessed in Abraham has been fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Roman community to whom Paul was writing” (Romans, 454).

166 See Harrison, Paul's Language of Grace, 294–313.

167 On Roman attitudes toward the “other,” see Gruen, Erich S., Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011) 115–96Google Scholar.

168 Ridley, The Emperor's Retrospect, 3–50.

169 In saying this, I am not denying Augustus's profound social and cultural revolution (Galinsky, Augustan Culture).

170 Shotter, Augustus Caesar, 71.

171 Ibid., 68.

172 Horace, Carm. 3.6.44–48: “Iniquitous time! What does it not impair? Our fathers’ age, worse than our grandfathers’, gave birth to us, an inferior breed, who will in due course produce still more degenerate offspring.”

173 Horace, Sat. 1.1 (see also idem, Carm. 2.18; 3.24).

174 Andrew Lintott cites Statius (45–ca. 96 c.e.): “Neither your accent, your dress, nor your way of thinking is Carthaginian; it is Italian, Italian. The foster-children who can give glory to Libya are from the city and the squadrons of Romans” (Silvae 4.5.45–48) (The Romans in the Age of Augustus [Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010] 104). See also Pliny the Elder, Nat. 3.39. Horace emphasizes Augustus's subjugation of the nations on behalf of Rome (Carm. 1.2.50–53; 1.12.33–60; 1.35.25–40; 1.37; 3.3.37–48; 3.5; 3.14; 4.2.33–36; 4.5.25–36; 4.14; 4.15; Saec. 54–60; Epod. 9).

175 Eck, Werner, The Age of Augustus (2nd ed.: Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2007) 146–47Google Scholar.

176 On Augustus and the nobility, see Earl, Donald C., The Age of Augustus (London: Eleck Books, 1968) 85–87Google Scholar; Jones, Augustus, 83–84.

177 Earl, Age of Augustus, 190.