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- While his primary goal was to maintain loyalty, Augustus' trips through the empire showed the provinces that Rome “ruled the world.” Unfortunately, during his reign, Augustus failed to expand the empire any further than it had existed during the Republic.
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In 44, senators murdered Augustus’ great-uncle Julius Caesar after he unconstitutionally named himself dictator for life. Non-violent political dysfunction increased during this time,...
Mar 29, 2011 · The Fall of the Roman Republic. By Mary Beard. Last updated 2011-03-29. In the space of a hundred years, Rome was transformed from a republic with democratic institutions into an empire under...
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Augustus (also known as Octavian) was the first emperor of ancient Rome. Augustus came to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. In 27 BCE Augustus “restored” the republic of Rome, though he himself retained all real power as the princeps, or “first citizen,” of Rome. Augustus held that title until his death in 14 CE. Today he is remembered as one of the great administrative geniuses of Western history.
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Was Augustus related to Julius Caesar?
Returning to Italy, he was told that Caesar in his will had adopted him as his son and had made him his chief personal heir. He was only 18 when, against the advice of his stepfather and others, he decided to take up this perilous inheritance and proceeded to Rome. Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius), Caesar’s chief lieutenant, who had taken possession of his papers and assets and had expected that he himself would be the principal heir, refused to hand over any of Caesar’s funds, forcing Octavius to pay the late dictator’s bequests to the Roman populace from such resources as he could raise. Caesar’s assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, ignored him and withdrew to the east. Cicero, the famous orator who was one of Rome’s principal elder statesmen, hoped to make use of him but underestimated his abilities.
Celebrating public games, instituted by Caesar, to ingratiate himself with the city populace, Octavius succeeded in winning considerable numbers of the dictator’s troops to his own allegiance. The Senate, encouraged by Cicero, broke with Antony, called upon Octavius for aid (granting him the rank of senator in spite of his youth), and joined the campaign of Mutina (Modena) against Antony, who was compelled to withdraw to Gaul. When the consuls who commanded the Senate’s forces lost their lives, Octavius’s soldiers compelled the Senate to confer a vacant consulship on him. Under the name of Gaius Julius Caesar he next secured official recognition as Caesar’s adoptive son. Although it would have been normal to add “Octavianus” (with reference to his original family name), he preferred not to do so. Today, however, he is habitually described as Octavian (until the date when he assumed the designation Augustus).
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Octavian soon reached an agreement with Antony and with another of Caesar’s principal supporters, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had succeeded him as chief priest. On November 27, 43 bce, the three men were formally given a five-year dictatorial appointment as triumvirs for the reconstitution of the state (the Second Triumvirate—the first having been the informal compact between Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar). The east was occupied by Brutus and Cassius, but the triumvirs divided the west among themselves. They drew up a list of “proscribed” political enemies, and the consequent executions included 300 senators (one of whom was Antony’s enemy Cicero) and 2,000 members of the class below the senators, the equites or knights. Julius Caesar’s recognition as a god of the Roman state in January 42 bce enhanced Octavian’s prestige as son of a god.
He and Antony crossed the Adriatic and, under Antony’s leadership (Octavian being ill), won the two battles of Philippi against Brutus and Cassius, both of whom committed suicide. Antony, the senior partner, was allotted the east (and Gaul); and Octavian returned to Italy, where difficulties caused by the settlement of his veterans involved him in the Perusine War (decided in his favour at Perusia, the modern Perugia) against Antony’s brother and wife. In order to appease another potential enemy, Sextus Pompeius (Pompey the Great’s son), who had seized Sicily and the sea routes, Octavian married Sextus’s relative Scribonia (though before long he divorced her for personal incompatibility). These ties of kinship did not deter Sextus, after the Perusine War, from making overtures to Antony; but Antony rejected them and reached a fresh understanding with Octavian at the treaty of Brundisium, under the terms of which Octavian was to have the whole west (except for Africa, which Lepidus was allowed to keep) and Italy, which, though supposedly neutral ground, was in fact controlled by Octavian. The east was again to go to Antony, and it was arranged that Antony, who had spent the previous winter with Queen Cleopatra in Egypt, should marry Octavian’s sister Octavia. The peoples of the empire were overjoyed by the treaty, which seemed to promise an end to so many years of civil war. In 38 bce Octavian formed a significant new link with the aristocracy by his marriage to Livia Drusilla.
May 7, 2023 · Augustus' own daughter, Julia, was banished for adultery after this new legislation. She was exiled to a desolate island called Pandateria. Augustus also felt that people should not interact with or, especially, marry those outside of their own social class. As such, he created laws that reinforced hierarchical seating in the theatre and ...
- Steven Fife
May 25, 2016 · Unfortunately, during his reign, Augustus failed to expand the empire any further than it had existed during the Republic. Upon his return to the city, the emperor embarked on the reforms that would change both the city and empire, establishing a precedent for those who followed.
- Donald L. Wasson
Jan 23, 2024 · When Augustus assumed leadership over Rome, he saw a city that had been neglected for decades, falling into disrepair. He began the necessary reforms by first reviewing all state practices and public customs. Before Augustus, the aediles had controlled the city's public works and security, but that was to cease. Several necessary changes were ...
Nov 9, 2009 · Augustus: The Path to Power. The 17-year-old Octavius was at Apollonia (in present-day Albania) when the news of Caesar’s death and his own inheritance arrived. The dead ruler’s allies ...
