This chapter focuses on the city of Rome from the Late Republic up to and including the Julio-Claudian period, and on Asia Minor in the first and second centuries AD. It also discusses, in the case of Rome, both people to whom the label Pythagorean was applied and other members of the educated elite with an interest in Pythagoreanism. As for Asia Minor, two men who in the author's evidence are presented as not just following Pythagorean precepts, but as consciously modeling their public image after Pythagoras, are the center of attention: Apollonius of Tyana and Alexander of Abonouteichos. Both received biographical treatment, laudatory in the former case, defamatory in the latter. A treatment of Pythagoreanism at Rome during the Julio-Claudian period would be incomplete without mentioning the ongoing discussion about the subterranean basilica discovered in 1917 near the Porta Maggiore.

Roman social patterns and life must be seen against the mosaic of the empire. Economic distinctions modify the pattern imposed by constitutional function or legal status. The most striking fact about society is the gap between rich and poor. The two themes of Romans who reflected on the twenty years after the murder of Caesar were social disruption and moral decay. Contemporary analysis of social problems focused on morality. Imperial liberti provide a striking illustration of the difference the Principate made to Roman society. The Principate brought improved roads, made safer from brigands, sea-lanes at risk from weather rather than pirates. Society changed between 44 BC and AD 69. Some developments, such as the improved right of succession given to women, seem to have happened because views of the family continued to move further away from patriarchy and emphasis on agnatic relationships. The social structure of the ruling elite survived the Julio-Claudian period, but its membership and tone were transformed.

The quality of senatorial membership concerned Augustus, as well as its size. As his conduct of the reviews in 29 and 18 BC demonstrated, he was determined to rid the Senate of members who were immoral, irresponsible, or lacking means. From that time all members had to be worth at least one million sesterces rather than just showing the modest equestrian census of 400,000, which was all that had previously been required. He appreciated the strain which would result, and over the years did help both worthy existing members who could not show the increased amount, and many prospective entrants. Among Augustus' Julio-Claudian successors similar assistance is known to have been given by Tiberius and by Nero. It should be stressed that the growth of all the equestrian posts was as much an unco-ordinated response to immediate problems as in the case of the senatorial appointments.

The work of the last generation of historians has represented a large step towards a better understanding of the early imperial court. Several major studies have extended the detailed knowledge of the freedmen personnel, the equestrian amici principis, and of links among the senatorial elite. Above all, study of contacts between emperors and their subjects, the decision-making process and the distribution of resources and patronage, show the network of imperial personnel in operation and reveal something of the structures within which they operate. In discussing the nascent court of the Julio-Claudian period, it is necessary to generalize more broadly about the function of the court in the structure of imperial power. The social rituals of a court may act as a facade to screen the realities of power. Between Augustus and Nero the patterns of court life were developing, and still far from fixed. The court was a system of power which tended to its own perpetuation.

By the middle of the first century BC the Roman army had developed over centuries of all but continuous warfare into a professionally minded force. By the middle of Augustus' reign the number of legions in service stood at twenty-eight. Almost all had seen service in the civil wars. Throughout the late Republic the length of service required of a man joining the legions had been a minimum of six years. Initially the cohorts were responsible directly to Augustus himself, but in 2 BC he appointed two equestrians as praefecti praetorio, i.e. prefects of the praetorium. These were men of administrative ability rather than military expertise. Normally, throughout the Julio-Claudian period, there continued to be two prefects, but on occasion a single individual held sole command. The Roman army of the later first century AD could still look on occasion to forward movement, but for the most part it was settling to a static role of frontier defence.