Search results
Augustus decreed that the governors of the senatorial provinces would receive the title proconsul, regardless of whether they had served as praetor or consul. These were chosen by lot, with the result ratified by the Senate.
proconsul, in the ancient Roman Republic, a consul whose powers had been extended for a definite period after his regular term of one year. From the mid-4th century bc the Romans recognized the necessity, during lengthy wars, of extending the terms of certain magistrates; such extension was termed prorogatio.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 23, 2024 · Principate. A natural politician, Augustus was seen to be both intelligent and communicative as well as tenacious and cunning, and he soon realized he would need to be cunning and wise to avoid his own Ides of March. He had learned from the assassination of Julius Caesar and was smart enough to avoid the mistakes his predecessors had made.
- Donald L. Wasson
Although his regime was an autocracy, Augustus, being a tactful and imaginative master of propaganda of many kinds, knew how to cloak that autocracy in traditionalist forms that would satisfy a war-worn generation—perhaps, most of all, the upper bourgeoisie immediately below the leading nobility, since it was they who benefited from the new ...
This power raised him above the proconsuls; it was never referred to on the official coinage or in Augustus’s political testament but was intended to be exercised mainly in emergencies and on personal visits. He was also awarded the power of a tribune ( tribunicia potestas) for life.
Moreover, if a battle was fought in a senatorial province, Augustus's proconsular imperium maius allowed him to take command of (or credit for) any major military victory. This meant that Augustus was the only individual able to receive a triumph, a tradition that began with Romulus, Rome's first King and first triumphant general.
May 25, 2016 · Now, in honor of his leadership and loyalty to Rome, the Senate granted him almost unlimited power - maius imperium, power superior to that held by any magistrate or proconsul - and he became Imperator Caesar divi filius Augustus, although he preferred the simple title of princeps, “the first one.”
