Domitian emulating Augustus?
by Damien F. Mackey “ In the opening chapter, the author explains how Domitian’s building programs in the Campus Martius and the Forum Romanum reflect Domitian’s desire not only to emulate Augustus but also to surpass him ” . Philip Mathew Introduction Was history merely rhyming , in the case of the emperor Domitian’s supposed emulation of (the presumably earlier) Augustus, or was it, rather, repeating ? Caesar Augustus ( cf. Luke 2:1) must have been a highly significant figure in ancient history to have attracted so many who are considered to have been his emulators - or those characters who have been dubbed ‘a New Augustus’. But he, despite his importance, is quite poorly understood – at least according to my reconstructions of him. For one, Caesar Augustus was a Seleucid Greek, not a Roman. He was that tyrannical tormentor of the Maccabees, king Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’, rather t...