Gang Violence in the Empire
Gangs did not evaporate from the Roman scene with the death of Clodius or the imposition of order by Pompey. Their operations emerge into our view even during the circumstances of civil war.
In 47 bce, while Caesar was delayed in Egypt, the tribune Publius Cornelius Dolabella, who ostentatiously embraced Clodius as his model for winning public favour, introduced legislation for abolishing debt. When he met with resistance from his tribu- nician colleagues, he turned to popular violence, a move that required the intervention of Mark Antony, Caesar's master of the horse and the man responsible for administering Italy. But Antony was unable to suppress Dolabella - both men were favourites of Caesar's - and the strife between them persisted until Caesar returned to the city and carried more moderate measures addressing Rome's debt crisis.[836] Dolabella's tribunate, however, is a rare glimpse of gangs in action at this time: our sources for civil wars are, unsurprisingly, more interested in combat in the provinces than in civilian struggles at home.[837]But not even Augustus could be heedless of the potential danger of organised gangs, as the episode of Egnatius Rufus demonstrates.[838] This man was a senator who, as aedile, garnered popular favour by establishing a fire service. Aedile in 22 bce, he was immediately and irregularly elected praetor for 21 bce. In 19 bce he sought to stand for a consulship, but when his application was rejected by the presiding magistrate, the consul Gaius Sentius Saturninus, Egnatius incited an uprising on the part of the urban masses. It is clear that, by way of his fire service, he had acquired not simply popularity but a mechanism for managing popular violence. Augustus was at this time in
the east, and so the insurrection was a serious one.
The Senate, however, passed its final decree, in obedience to which the consul arrested Egnatius. He was condemned for treason and executed.It was not in response to this particular crisis, but rather to the larger issue of popular loyalty that Augustus installed himself as a central figure in the ritual life of every urban neighbourhood. Like Clodius before him, Augustus recognised how collegia and other associations were crucial to the sensibilities of modest citizens, for whom local prestige remained a vital concern. He carefully and diligently cultivated these associations, and in so doing insinuated aspects of his own identity into their practices. Neighbourhood associations were reorganised by him, and he added to their rituals the worship of the Genius Augusti (the divine spirit that watched over Augustus: every man had his genius) as well as a cult of Lares Augusti, helpful deities linked to the imperial house. Although he did not monopolise all opportunities for patronising collegia, Augustus became their most important benefactor and the unmistakable focus of their political loyalty. These exertions were matched and enhanced by his successors.[839] By way of sustaining a close ideological relationship with Roman's neighbourhoods, the emperors managed to remove a serious threat of gang violence in pursuit of political objectives. Private retainers remained a feature of imperial Rome, but gangs were no longer a factor in Roman politics. The emperor had no rivals for political influence and he, officially and often unofficially, commanded the affections of the populace.[840]
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