Augustus

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (Template:Langx), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.Template:Efn The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

Octavian was born into an equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia. Following his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and his wife Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, killed themselves during Octavian's invasion of Egypt, which then became a Roman province.

After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward facade of the free republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates and the legislative assemblies, yet he maintained autocratic authority by having the Senate grant him lifetime tenure as commander-in-chief, tribune and censor. A similar ambiguity is seen in his chosen names, the implied rejection of monarchical titles whereby he called himself 'First Citizen' juxtaposed with his adoption of the name Augustus.

Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, and completing the conquest of Hispania, but he suffered a major setback in Germania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard as well as official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at age 75, probably from natural causes. Persistent rumors, substantiated somewhat by deaths in the imperial family, have claimed his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Livia's son and former husband of Augustus's only biological child, Julia.

Name

As a consequence of Roman customs, society, and personal preference, Augustus (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) was known by many names throughout his life:

• Template:Langr: (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; ). According to Suetonius, the cognomen Template:Langr (, 'of Thurii') was added to his birth name as a toddler in 60 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Later, after he had taken the name of Caesar, his rival Mark Antony referred to him as in order to belittle him.Template:Sfn In what classicist Lee Fratantuono calls a "calm response" to Antony's provocation, Octavian merely said he was surprised that using his old name should be an insult.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
• Template:Langr (Template:Langr): After his adoption by Julius Caesar on the latter's death in 44 BC, he took Caesar's nomen and cognomen.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was often distinguished by historians from his adoptive father by the addition () after the name, denoting that he was a former member of the gens Octavia in conformance with Roman naming conventions. There is no evidence that Augustus did this himself,Template:Sfn although Cicero seems to have (see below). In English he is mainly known by the anglicisation "Octavian" (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) for the period between 44 and 27 BC.Template:Sfn
• Template:Langr ('Commander-in-Chief Caesar'): Octavian's early coins and inscriptions all refer to him simply as Gaius Caesar, but by 38 BC he had replaced with the victory title 'commander'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The use of signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn He transformed , a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new family line that began with him.Template:Sfn Occasionally the epithet or 'son of the divine Julius' was included, alluding to Julius Caesar's deification in 42 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
• Template:Langr (Imperator Caesar divi filius Augustus):Template:Sfn On 16 January 27 BC, in recognition of his perceived accomplishments,Template:Sfn the Roman Senate granted him the honorific (), 'the revered'.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Historians use this name to refer to him from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.Template:Sfn The name is sometimes given as Augustus Caesar.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Early life

Octavian was born Gaius Octavius in Rome on 23 September 63 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn His paternal family was from the Volscian town of Velletri (Template:Langx),Template:Sfn approximately Template:Convert south-east of the city.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum.Template:Sfn In his childhood, he received the cognomen "Thurinus", possibly commemorating his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves who had been followers of Spartacus.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Roman histories gloss over the childhood of Octavian. Some details about Octavian's upbringing from his now lost autobiography were preserved by Suetonius, while the majority of information is preserved in a biography composed by Nicolaus of Damascus around 20 BC that survives only partially in 10th-century Byzantine excerpts.Template:Sfn

Octavian was raised for at least part of his childhood in his father's hometown of Velletri.Template:Sfn Octavian's father, also named Gaius Octavius, came from a moderately wealthy equestrian family of the gens Octavia.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn His paternal great-grandfather Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His grandfather was a banker, while his father became a Roman senator, was distinguished as a praetor by 61 BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and then became a governor of Macedonia.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn His mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:RSC 0022 - transparent background.png

from 44 BC, showing Julius Caesar on the obverse and the goddess Venus on the reverse of the coin. Caption: Template:Langr

Octavian was four years old when his father died in 59 BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn or in 58 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn In 58 BC his mother Atia married a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Philippus came from a leading family in Rome,Template:Efn was elected consul in 56 BC, and according to historian Karl Galinsky as Octavian's stepfather he served as a role model in how to delicately navigate troubled political waters while preserving his personal wealth.Template:Sfn Octavian was largely raised by his grandmother, Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. When Julia died in 52 or 51 BC, Octavian delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn In Philippus' household, Octavian was educated in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Greek language by a Greek slave tutor named Sphaerus, who Octavian later freed from slavery and honored with a state funeral in 40 BC.Template:Sfn As a teenager he studied philosophy under the tutelage of Areios of Alexandria and Athenodorus of Tarsus, Latin rhetoric under Marcus Epidius, and Greek rhetoric under Apollodorus of Pergamon.Template:Sfn In 48 BC Octavian donned the 'toga of manhood',Template:SfnTemplate:Efn and was elected to the College of Pontiffs in 47 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The following year he was put in charge of the Greek games that were staged in honour of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar.Template:Sfn

In late 47 BC Octavian wished to join Caesar's staff for his campaign in Africa but gave way when his mother protested.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Treating him as a son, Caesar had Octavian proceed next to his chariot during his triumph celebrating the campaign, and had him awarded with military decorations as if he had been present for it.Template:Sfn In 46 BC, she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, where he planned to fight the forces of Pompey, Caesar's late enemy, but Octavian fell ill and was unable to travel. When he had recovered, he sailed to the front but was shipwrecked. After coming ashore with a handful of companions, he crossed hostile territory to Caesar's camp, which impressed Caesar considerably.Template:Efn Velleius Paterculus reports that after that time, Caesar allowed the young man to share his carriage.Template:Sfn When back in Rome, Caesar deposited a new will with the Vestal Virgins, naming Octavian as the prime beneficiary and his principal heir on 13 September 45 BC.Template:Sfn

Rise to power

Heir to Caesar

File:Vincenzo Camuccini - La morte di Cesare.jpg

The Death of Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini. On 15 March 44 BC, Octavian's adoptive father Julius Caesar was assassinated by a conspiracy led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome.

Octavian was studying and undergoing military training in Apollonia, Illyria, when Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He rejected the advice of some army officers to take refuge with the troops in Macedonia and sailed to Italy to ascertain whether he had any potential political fortunes or security.Template:Sfn Caesar had no living legitimate children under Roman lawTemplate:Efn and so had adopted Octavian, his grand-nephew, in his will, making him his primary heir.Template:Sfn Mark Antony later charged that Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favours, though Suetonius describes Antony's accusation as political slander. This form of slander was popular during this time in the Roman Republic to demean and discredit political opponents by accusing them of having an inappropriate sexual affair. After landing at Lupiae near Brundisium, Octavian learned the contents of Caesar's will, and only then did he decide to become Caesar's political heir as well as heir to two-thirds of his estate.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn Octavian's stepfather Philippus advised him against accepting Caesar's will and to live quietly instead, while Atia—who often firmly intervened in young Octavian's affairs—left this pivotal choice to her son, who ultimately accepted it.Template:Sfn

Upon his adoption, Octavian assumed his great-uncle's name Gaius Julius Caesar.Template:Sfn Roman citizens adopted into a new family usually retained their old nomen in cognomen form (e.g., for one who had been an Octavius, for one who had been an Aemilius. See Roman naming conventions for adoptions). However, though some of his contemporaries did, there is no evidence that Octavian officially used the name , as it would have made his adoptive origins too obvious.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Historians usually refer to the new Caesar as "Octavian" during the time between his adoption and his assumption of the name Augustus in 27 BC in order to avoid confusing the dead dictator with his heir.Template:Sfn

Octavian could not rely on his limited funds to make a successful entry into the upper echelons of the Roman political hierarchy.Template:Sfn After a warm welcome by Caesar's soldiers at Brundisium,Template:Sfn Octavian demanded a portion of the funds that were allotted by Caesar for the intended war against the Parthian Empire in the Middle East.Template:Sfn This amounted to 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium, the staging ground in Italy for military operations in the east.Template:Sfn A later senatorial investigation into the disappearance of the public funds took no action against Octavian since he subsequently used that money to raise troops against the Senate's archenemy Mark Antony.Template:Sfn Octavian made another bold move in 44 BC when, without official permission, he appropriated the annual tribute that had been sent from Rome's Near Eastern province to Italy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Octavian began to bolster his personal forces with Caesar's veteran legionaries and with troops designated for the Parthian war, gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar.Template:Sfn On his march to Rome through Italy, Octavian's presence and newly acquired funds attracted many, winning over Caesar's former veterans stationed in Campania.Template:Sfn By June, he had gathered an army of 3,000 loyal veterans, paying each a bonus of 500 .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Growing tensions

File:Octave (13668015683).jpg

A bust of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated Template:Circa. Capitoline Museums, Rome

Arriving in Rome on 6 May 44 BC,Template:Sfn Octavian found consul Mark Antony, Caesar's former colleague, in an uneasy truce with the dictator's assassins. They had been granted a general amnesty on 17 March in an agreement that they would respect the magistracies installed and laws passed by Caesar to avoid the political turmoil of invalidating them.Template:Sfn Soon afterwards, Antony succeeded in driving most of them out of Rome with an inflammatory eulogy at Caesar's funeral, mounting public opinion against the assassins.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Mark Antony was amassing political support, but Octavian still had the opportunity to rival him as the leading member of the faction supporting Caesar. Antony had lost the support of many Romans and supporters of Caesar when he initially opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status.Template:Sfn Antony refused to hand over the money due Octavian as Caesar's adopted heir, possibly on grounds that it would take time to disentangle it from state funds,Template:Sfn but also as a measure to delay Octavian from carrying out the popular provision in Caesar's will that promised the dispersal of 300 sesterces per capita to the urban plebs of Rome.Template:Sfn During the summer, Octavian won the support of Caesarian veterans and also made common cause with those senators—many of whom were themselves former Caesarians—who perceived Antony as a threat to the state. After an abortive attempt by the veterans to reconcile Octavian and Antony, Antony's bellicose edicts against Brutus and Cassius alienated him from the moderate Caesarians in the Senate, who feared a renewed civil war.Template:Sfn In September, Marcus Tullius Cicero began to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the republican order.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

First conflict with Antony

With opinion in Rome turning against him and his year of consular power nearing its end, Antony attempted to pass laws that would assign him the province of Cisalpine Gaul.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian veterans, and on 28 November he won over two of Antony's legions with the enticing offer of monetary gain.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the face of Octavian's large and capable force, Antony saw the danger of staying in Rome and, to the relief of the Senate, he left Rome for Cisalpine Gaul, which was to be handed to him on 1 January.Template:Sfn However, the province had earlier been assigned to Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins, who now refused to yield to Antony. Antony besieged him at MutinaTemplate:Sfn and rejected the resolutions passed by the Senate to stop the fighting. The Senate had no army to enforce their resolutions. This provided an opportunity for Octavian, who already was known to have armed forces.Template:Sfn Cicero also defended Octavian against Antony's taunts about Octavian's lack of noble lineage and aping of Julius Caesar's name, stating "we have no more brilliant example of traditional piety among our youth."Template:Sfn

At the urging of Cicero, the Senate inducted Octavian as senator on 1 January 43 BC, yet he also was given the power to vote alongside the former consuls.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In addition, Octavian was granted 'commanding power' which legalized his command of troops, sending him to relieve the siege along with Hirtius and Pansa (the consuls for 43 BC).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He assumed the fasces on 7 January,Template:Sfn a date that he would later commemorate as the beginning of his public career.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Antony's forces were defeated at the battles of Forum Gallorum (14 April) and Mutina (21 April), forcing Antony to retreat to Transalpine Gaul. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These victories earned him his first acclamation as , a title reserved for victorious commanders.Template:Sfn

The Senate heaped many more rewards on Decimus Brutus than on Octavian for defeating Antony, then attempted to give command of the consular legions to Decimus Brutus.Template:Sfn In response, Octavian stayed in the Po Valley and refused to aid any further offensive against Antony.Template:Sfn In July, an embassy of centurions sent by Octavian entered Rome and demanded the consulship left vacant by Hirtius and PansaTemplate:Sfn and also that the decree should be rescinded which declared Antony a public enemy.Template:Sfn When this was refused, he marched on the city with eight legions.Template:Sfn He encountered no military opposition in Rome and on 19 August 43 BC was elected consul with his relative Quintus Pedius as co-consul.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Meanwhile, Antony formed an alliance with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another leading Caesarian.Template:Sfn

Second Triumvirate

Proscriptions

File:Antony with Octavian aureus.jpg

bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right), issued in 41 BC to celebrate the establishment of the Second Triumvirate. Both sides bear the inscription III vir rpc, meaning 'One of Three Men for the regulation of the Republic'. Caption: .

In a meeting near Bononia in October 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate. Their powers were made official by the Senate on 27 November.Template:Sfn This explicit arrogation of special powers lasting five years was then legalised by law passed by the plebs, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate formed by Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Marcus Licinius Crassus.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions, in which between 130 and 300 senatorsTemplate:Efn and 2,000 were branded as outlaws and deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives.Template:Sfn This decree issued by the triumvirate was motivated in part by a need to raise money to pay the salaries of their troops for the upcoming conflict against Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.Template:Sfn Rewards for their arrest gave incentive for Romans to capture those proscribed, while the assets and properties of those arrested were seized by the triumvirs.Template:Sfn

Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir was most responsible for the proscriptions and killing. However, the sources agree that enacting the proscriptions was a means by all three factions to eliminate political enemies.Template:Sfn Marcus Velleius Paterculus asserted that Octavian tried to avoid proscribing officials whereas Lepidus and Antony were to blame for initiating them. Cassius Dio defended Octavian as trying to spare as many as possible, whereas Antony and Lepidus, being older and involved in politics longer, had many more enemies to deal with.Template:Sfn This claim was rejected by Appian, who maintained that Octavian shared an equal interest with Lepidus and Antony in eradicating his enemies.Template:Sfn Suetonius said that Octavian was reluctant to proscribe officials but did pursue his enemies with more vigor than the other triumvirs.Template:Sfn Plutarch described the proscriptions as a ruthless and cutthroat swapping of friends and family among Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian. For example, Octavian allowed the proscription of his ally Cicero, Antony the proscription of his maternal uncle Lucius Julius Caesar (the consul for 64 BC), and Lepidus his brother Paullus.Template:Sfn

Battle of Philippi and division of territory

File:S0484.4.jpg

A minted Template:Circa. Obverse: Template:Langr; reverse: comet of eight rays with tail upward; Template:Langr, "divine Julius".

On 1 January 42 BC, the Senate posthumously recognised Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, . Octavian was able to further his cause by emphasizing the fact that he was , "Son of the Divine".Template:Sfn Antony and Octavian then sent twenty-eight legions by sea to face the armies of Brutus and Cassius, who had built their base of power in Greece.Template:Sfn After two battles at Philippi in Macedonia in October 42, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide.Template:Sfn Mark Antony later used the examples of these battles as a means to belittle Octavian, as both battles were decisively won with the use of Antony's forces. In addition to claiming responsibility for both victories, Antony branded Octavian as a coward for handing over his direct military control to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa instead.Template:Sfn

After Philippi, a new territorial arrangement was made among the members of the Second Triumvirate. Gaul and the province of Hispania were placed in the hands of Octavian.Template:Sfn Antony travelled east to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen Cleopatra, the former lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's son Caesarion.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Lepidus was left with the province of Africa, stymied by Antony, who conceded Hispania to Octavian instead.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Octavian was left to decide where in Italy to settle the tens of thousands of veterans of the Macedonian campaign, whom the triumvirs had promised to discharge. The tens of thousands who had fought on the republican side with Brutus and Cassius could easily ally with a political opponent of Octavian if not appeased, and they also required land.Template:Sfn There was no more government-controlled land to allot as settlements for their soldiers, so Octavian had to choose one of two options: alienating many Roman citizens by confiscating their land, or alienating many Roman soldiers who could mount a considerable opposition against him in the Roman heartland. Octavian chose the former.Template:Sfn There were as many as eighteen Roman towns affected by the new settlements, with entire populations driven out or at least given partial evictions.Template:Sfn

Rebellion and marriage alliances

There was widespread dissatisfaction with Octavian over these settlements of his soldiers, and this encouraged many to rally at the side of Lucius Antonius, who was brother of Mark Antony and supported by a majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, Octavian asked for a divorce from Claudia, the daughter of Fulvia (Antony's wife) and her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher. He returned Claudia to her mother, claiming that their marriage had never been consummated. Fulvia decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, she raised an army in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. Lucius and Fulvia took a political and martial gamble in opposing Octavian however, since the Roman army still depended on the triumvirs for their salaries. Lucius and his allies ended up in a defensive siege at Perusia, where Octavian forced them into surrender in early 40 BC.Template:Sfn

File:Domus-augusti-2.jpg

Fresco paintings inside the House of Augustus, his residence during his reign as emperor

Lucius and his army were spared because of his kinship with Antony, the strongman of the East, while Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon.Template:Sfn Octavian showed no mercy, however, for the mass of allies loyal to Lucius. On 15 March, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination, he had 300 Roman senators and equestrians executed for allying with Lucius.Template:Sfn Perusia also was pillaged and burned as a warning for others.Template:Sfn This bloody event sullied Octavian's reputation and was criticised by many, such as Augustan poet Sextus Propertius.Template:Sfn

Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompey and still a renegade general, following Julius Caesar's victory over his father, had established himself in Sicily and Sardinia as part of an agreement reached with the Second Triumvirate in 39 BC.Template:Sfn Both Antony and Octavian were vying for an alliance with Pompeius. Octavian succeeded in a temporary alliance in 40 BC when he married Scribonia, a sister (or daughter) of Pompeius's father-in-law Lucius Scribonius Libo. Scribonia gave birth to Octavian's only natural child, Julia, the same day that he divorced her to marry Livia Drusilla, little more than a year after their marriage.Template:Sfn

While in Egypt, Antony had been engaged in an affair with Cleopatra and had fathered three children with her.Template:Efn Aware of his deteriorating relationship with Octavian, Antony left Cleopatra; he sailed to Italy in 40 BC with a large force to oppose Octavian, laying siege to Brundisium. This new conflict proved untenable for both Octavian and Antony, however. Their centurions, who had become important figures politically, refused to fight because of their Caesarian cause, while the legions under their command followed suit. Meanwhile, in Sicyon, Antony's wife Fulvia died of a sudden illness while Antony was en route to meet her. Fulvia's death and the mutiny of their centurions allowed the two remaining triumvirs to effect a reconciliation.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the autumn of 40, Octavian and Antony approved the Treaty of Brundisium, by which Lepidus would remain in Africa, Antony in the East, Octavian in the West. The Italian Peninsula was left open to all for the recruitment of soldiers, but in reality this provision was useless for Antony in the East. To further cement relations of alliance with Antony, Octavian gave his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage to Antony in late 40 BC.Template:Sfn

War with Sextus Pompeius

Sextus Pompeius threatened Octavian in Italy by denying shipments of grain through the Mediterranean Sea to the peninsula. Pompeius's own son was put in charge as naval commander in the effort to cause widespread famine in Italy.Template:Sfn Pompeius's control over the sea prompted him to take on the name , "son of Neptune".Template:Sfn A temporary peace agreement was reached in 39 BC with the Pact of Misenum; the blockade on Italy was lifted once Octavian granted Pompeius Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and the Peloponnese, and ensured him a future position as consul for 35 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The territorial agreement between the triumvirate and Sextus Pompeius began to crumble once Octavian divorced Scribonia and married Livia on 17 January 38 BC.Template:Sfn One of Pompeius's naval commanders betrayed him and handed over Corsica and Sardinia to Octavian. Octavian lacked the resources to confront Pompeius alone, so an agreement was reached with the Second Triumvirate's extension for another five-year period beginning in 37 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Denarius Sextus Pompeius-Scilla.jpg

A of Sextus Pompeius, minted for his victory over Octavian's fleet. Obverse: the place where he defeated Octavian, Pharus of Messina decorated with a statue of Neptune; before that galley adorned with aquila, sceptre & trident; Template:Langr. Reverse, the monster Scylla, her torso of dogs and fish tails, wielding a rudder as a club. Caption: Template:Langr

In supporting Octavian, Antony expected to gain support for his own campaign against the Parthian Empire, desiring to avenge Rome's defeat at Carrhae in 53 BC.Template:Sfn In an agreement reached at Tarentum, Antony provided 120 ships for Octavian to use against Pompeius, while Octavian was to send 20,000 legionaries to Antony for use against Parthia. Octavian sent only a tenth of those promised, which Antony viewed as an intentional provocation.Template:Sfn

Octavian and Lepidus launched a joint operation against Sextus in Sicily in 36 BC.Template:Sfn Despite setbacks for Octavian, the naval fleet of Sextus Pompeius was almost entirely destroyed on 3 September by General Agrippa at the naval battle of Naulochus. Sextus fled to the east with his remaining forces, where he was captured and executed in Miletus by one of Antony's generals the following year. As Lepidus and Octavian accepted the surrender of Pompeius's troops, Lepidus attempted to claim Sicily for himself, ordering Octavian to leave. Lepidus's troops deserted him, however, and defected to Octavian since they were weary of fighting and were enticed by Octavian's promises of money.Template:Sfn

Lepidus surrendered to Octavian and was permitted to retain the office of , the head of the college of priests, but was ejected from the Triumvirate. His public career at an end, he effectively was exiled to a villa at Cape Circei in Italy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Roman dominions were divided between Octavian in the West and Antony in the East. Octavian ensured Rome's citizens of their rights to property in order to maintain peace and stability in his portion of the empire. This time, he settled his discharged soldiers outside of Italy, while also returning 30,000 slaves to their former Roman owners—slaves who had fled to join Pompeius's army and navy.Template:Sfn Octavian had the Senate grant him, his wife, and his sister tribunal immunity, or , in order to ensure his own safety and that of Livia and Octavia once he returned to Rome.Template:Sfn

War with Antony and Cleopatra

File:Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra.jpg

Antony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

File:Castro Battle of Actium.jpg

The Battle of Actium, by Laureys a Castro, painted 1672, National Maritime Museum, London

Meanwhile, Antony's campaign turned disastrous against Parthia, tarnishing his image as a leader, and the mere 2,000 legionaries sent by Octavian to Antony were hardly enough to replenish his forces.Template:Sfn On the other hand, Cleopatra could restore his army to full strength; he already was engaged in a romantic affair with her, so he decided to send Octavia back to Rome.Template:Sfn Octavian used this to spread propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman because he rejected a legitimate Roman spouse for an "Oriental paramour".Template:Sfn In 36 BC, Octavian used a political ploy to make himself look less autocratic and Antony more the villain by proclaiming that the civil wars were coming to an end and that he would step down as triumvir—if only Antony would do the same. Antony refused.Template:Sfn

Roman troops captured the Kingdom of Armenia in 34 BC, and Antony made his son Alexander Helios the ruler of Armenia. He also awarded the title "Queen of Kings" to Cleopatra, acts that Octavian used to convince the Roman Senate that Antony had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Rome.Template:Sfn Octavian became consul once again on 1 January 33 BC, and he opened the following session in the Senate with a vehement attack on Antony's grants of titles and territories to his relatives and to his queen.Template:Sfn

The breach between Antony and Octavian prompted a large portion of the senators, as well as both of that year's consuls, to leave Rome and defect to Antony. However, Octavian received two key deserters from Antony in the autumn of 32 BC: Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius.Template:Sfn These defectors gave Octavian the information that he needed to confirm with the Senate all the accusations that he made against Antony.Template:Sfn Octavian forcibly entered the temple of the Vestal Virgins and seized Antony's secret will, which he promptly publicized. The will would have given away Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule and designated Alexandria as the site for a tomb for him and his queen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In late 32 BC, the Senate officially revoked Antony's powers as consul and declared war on Cleopatra's regime in Egypt.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Venus and Cupid from the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus at Pompeii, most likely a depiction of Cleopatra VII.jpg

This mid-1st-century BC Roman wall painting in the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus, Pompeii, is most likely a depiction of Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt as Venus Genetrix, with her son Caesarion as Cupid, similar in appearance to the now-lost statue of Cleopatra erected by Julius Caesar in the Temple of Venus Genetrix (within the Forum of Caesar). Its owner walled off the room with this painting, most likely in immediate reaction to the execution of Caesarion on orders of Augustus in 30 BC, when artistic depictions of Caesarion would have been considered a sensitive issue for the ruling regime.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In early 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra were temporarily stationed in Greece when Octavian gained a preliminary victory: the navy successfully ferried troops across the Adriatic Sea under the command of Agrippa. Agrippa cut off Antony and Cleopatra's main force from their supply routes at sea, while Octavian landed on the mainland opposite the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) and marched south.Template:Sfn Trapped on land and sea, deserters of Antony's army fled to Octavian's side daily while Octavian's forces were comfortable enough to make preparations.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade. It was there that Antony's fleet faced that of Octavian, led by his commanders Agrippa and Gaius Sosius in the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cleopatra and her portion of the fleet withdrew early in the battle and were later joined by Antony;Template:Sfn his remaining forces were spared in a last-ditch effort by Cleopatra's fleet that had been waiting nearby.Template:Sfn

File:Octavian aureus circa 30 BCE.jpg

Aureus of Octavian, Template:Circa, British Museum

A year later, Octavian defeated their forces in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC—after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Antony fell on his own sword and was allegedly taken by his soldiers back to Cleopatra's tomb where he died in her arms.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After meeting with Octavian and refusing to be paraded in a triumph at Rome,Template:Sfn Cleopatra took her own life by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Octavian had exploited his position as Caesar's heir to further his own political career, and he was well aware of the dangers in allowing another person to do the same.Template:Sfn He therefore followed the advice of the Greek philosopher Arius Didymus that "two Caesars are one too many", ordering Caesarion killed while sparing Cleopatra's children by Antony,Template:Sfn with the exception of Antony's older son.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies and acted in ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he was given credit for pardoning many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium.Template:Sfn

Sole ruler of Rome

After Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian was in a position to rule the entire republic under an unofficial principateTemplate:Sfn—with himself as ('First Citizen')—Template:Sfn which he achieved through incremental power gains. He did so by courting the Senate and the people while upholding the republican traditions of Rome, maintaining the carefully curated appearance that he was not aspiring to dictatorship or monarchy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The term was previously applied to members of the Roman nobility who distinguished themselves in service to the Republic, and Octavian would embrace this title as part of his cultivated image as a restorer of the Republic.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Marching into Rome, Octavian and Agrippa were elected as consuls by the Senate.Template:Sfn

Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness, but the republic was not prepared to accept the control of Octavian as a despot. At the same time, Octavian could not give up his authority without risking further civil wars among the Roman generals, and even if he desired no position of authority his position demanded that he look to the well-being of the city of Rome and the Roman provinces. Octavian's aims from this point forward were to return Rome to a state of stability, traditional legality, and civility by lifting the overt political pressure imposed on the courts of law and ensuring free elections—in name at least.Template:Sfn

First settlement

On 13 January 27 BC, Octavian made a show of returning full power to the Roman Senate and relinquishing his control of the Roman provinces and their armies.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Under his consulship, however, the Senate had little power in initiating legislation by introducing bills for senatorial debate. Octavian was no longer in direct control of the provinces and their armies, but he retained the loyalty of active duty soldiers and veterans alike. The careers of many clients and adherents depended on his patronage, as his financial power was unrivaled in the Roman Republic.Template:Sfn Historian Werner Eck states:

The sum of his power derived first of all from various powers of office delegated to him by the Senate and people, secondly from his immense private fortune, and thirdly from numerous patron-client relationships he established with individuals and groups throughout the Empire. All of them taken together formed the basis of his , which he himself emphasized as the foundation of his political actions.Template:Sfn

To a large extent, the public was aware of the vast financial resources that Octavian commanded. He failed to encourage enough senators to finance the building and maintenance of networks of roads in Italy in 20 BC, but he undertook direct responsibility for them. This was publicized on the Roman currency issued in 16 BC, after he donated vast amounts of money to the , the public treasury.Template:Sfn

File:Statue de L'Empereur Auguste - MR 99 - Ma 1278.jpg

Octavian as a magistrate. The statue's marble head was made Template:Circa, the body sculpted in the 2nd century AD (Louvre, Paris)

According to historian H. H. Scullard, however, Octavian's power was based on the exercise of "a predominant military power and ... the ultimate sanction of his authority was force, however much the fact was disguised."Template:Sfn The Senate proposed to Octavian, the victor of Rome's civil wars, that he once again assume command of the provinces. The Senate's proposal was a ratification of Octavian's extra-constitutional power. Through the Senate, Octavian was able to continue the appearance of a still-functional constitution. Feigning reluctance, he accepted a ten-year responsibility of overseeing provinces that were considered chaotic.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The provinces ceded to Augustus for that ten-year period comprised much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Moreover, command of these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of Rome's legions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

While Octavian acted as consul in Rome, he dispatched senators to the provinces under his command as his representatives to manage provincial affairs and ensure that his orders were carried out. The provinces not under Octavian's control were overseen by governors chosen by the Roman Senate.Template:Sfn Octavian became the most powerful political figure in the city of Rome and in most of its provinces, but he did not have a monopoly on political and martial power.Template:Sfn The Senate still controlled North Africa, an important regional producer of grain, as well as Illyria and Macedonia, two strategic regions with several legions.Template:Sfn However, the Senate had control of only five or six legions distributed among three senatorial proconsuls, compared to the twenty legions under the control of Octavian, and their control of these regions did not amount to any political or military challenge to Octavian.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Senate's control over some of the Roman provinces helped maintain a republican facade for the autocratic principate. Also, Octavian's control of entire provinces followed republican-era precedents for the objective of securing peace and creating stability, in which such prominent Romans as Pompey had been granted similar military powers in times of crisis and instability.Template:Sfn

Change to Augustus

File:Augustus first century aureus obverse.png

minted Template:Circa, marked: Template:Langr

On 16 January 27 BCTemplate:Refn the Senate gave Octavian the new title of .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfnp , from the Latin 'to increase', can be translated as "illustrious one" or "sublime".Template:Sfn It was a title of religious authority rather than political one, and it indicated that Octavian now approached divinity.Template:Sfn His name of Augustus was also more favourable than , the previous one which he styled for himself in reference to the story of the legendary founder of Rome, which symbolised a second founding of Rome.Template:Sfn The title of was associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image that Octavian tried to avoid.Template:Sfn The Senate also confirmed his position as , which originally meant the member of the Senate with the highest precedence, but in this case it became an almost regnal title for a leader who was first in charge.Template:Sfn The honorific was inherited by all future emperors and became the de facto main title of the emperor.Template:Sfn As a result, modern historians usually regard this event as the beginning of his reign as "emperor".Template:Efn Augustus himself appears to have reckoned his "reign" from 27 BC.Template:Efn

Augustus styled himself as 'Commander Caesar son of the deified one'.Template:Sfn With this title, he boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, and the use of signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn He transformed , a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new family line that began with him.Template:Sfn

File:Arch of Augustus at Ariminum, dedicated to the Emperor Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, the oldest Roman arch which survives, Rimini, Italy (19948839545).jpg

The Arch of Augustus in Rimini (), dedicated to Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, is one of the oldest preserved arches in Italy.

Augustus was granted the right to hang the (civic crown) above his door and to have laurels drape his doorposts.Template:Sfn However, he renounced flaunting insignia of power such as holding a scepter, wearing a diadem, or wearing the golden crown and purple toga of his predecessor Julius Caesar.Template:Sfn If he refused to symbolize his power by donning and bearing these items on his person, the Senate nonetheless awarded him with a golden shield displayed in the meeting hall of the Curia, bearing the inscription – 'valor, piety, clemency, and justice'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Second settlement

File:Roman - Portrait of Emperor Augustus - Walters 2321.jpg

Portraits of Augustus show the emperor with idealized features.

By 23 BC, some of the un-republican implications were becoming apparent concerning the settlement of 27 BC. Augustus's retention of an annual consulate drew attention to his de facto dominance over the Roman political system and cut in half the opportunities for others to achieve what was still nominally the preeminent position in the Roman state.Template:Sfn Further, he was causing political problems by desiring to have his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus follow in his footsteps and eventually assume the principate in his turn,Template:Efn alienating his three greatest supporters: Agrippa, Maecenas, and Livia.Template:Sfn He appointed noted republican Calpurnius Piso (who had fought against Julius Caesar and supported Cassius and BrutusTemplate:Sfn) as co-consul in 23 BC, after his choice Aulus Terentius Varro Murena died unexpectedly.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the late spring Augustus had a severe illness and on his supposed deathbed made arrangements that would ensure the continuation of the principate in some form,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn while allaying senators' suspicions of his anti-republicanism. Augustus prepared to hand down his signet ring to his favored general Agrippa. However, Augustus handed over to his co-consul Piso all of his official documents, an account of public finances, and authority over listed troops in the provinces while Augustus's supposedly favored nephew Marcellus came away empty-handed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This was a surprise to many who believed Augustus would have named an heir to his position as an unofficial emperor.Template:Sfn

Augustus bestowed only properties and possessions to his designated heirs, as an obvious system of institutionalized imperial inheritance would have provoked resistance and hostility among the republican-minded Romans fearful of monarchy.Template:Sfn With regards to the principate, it was obvious to Augustus that Marcellus was not ready to take on his position; nonetheless, by giving his signet ring to Agrippa, Augustus intended to signal to the legions that Agrippa was to be his successor and that they should continue to obey Agrippa, constitutional procedure notwithstanding.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Cameo August BM Gem3577.jpg

The Blacas Cameo showing Augustus wearing a gorgoneion on a three layered sardonyx cameo, AD 20–50

Soon after his bout of illness subsided, Augustus gave up his consulship. The only other times Augustus would serve as consul would be in the years 5 and 2 BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn both times to introduce his grandsons into public life.Template:Sfn This was a clever ploy by Augustus; ceasing to serve as one of two annually elected consuls allowed aspiring senators a better chance to attain the consular position while allowing Augustus to exercise wider patronage within the senatorial class.Template:Sfn Although Augustus had resigned as consul, he desired to retain his consular not just in his provinces but throughout the empire. This desire, as well as the Marcus Primus affair, led to a second compromise between him and the Senate known as the second settlement.Template:Sfn

The primary reasons for the second settlement were as follows. First, after Augustus relinquished the annual consulship, he was no longer in an official position to rule the state, yet his dominant position remained unchanged over his Roman, 'imperial' provinces where he was still a proconsul.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When he annually held the office of consul, he had the power to intervene with the affairs of the other provincial proconsuls appointed by the Senate throughout the empire, when he deemed necessary.Template:Sfn

A second problem later arose showing the need for the second settlement in what became known as the "Marcus Primus affair".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In late 24 or early 23 BC, charges were brought against Marcus Primus, the former proconsul (governor) of Macedonia, for waging a war without prior approval of the Senate on the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, whose king was a Roman ally.Template:Sfn He was defended by Lucius Licinius Varro Murena who told the trial that his client had received specific instructions from Augustus ordering him to attack the client state.Template:Sfn Later, Primus testified that the orders came from the recently deceased Marcellus.Template:Sfn Such orders, had they been given, would have been considered a breach of the Senate's prerogative under the constitutional settlement of 27 BC and its aftermath—i.e., before Augustus was granted —as Macedonia was a senatorial province under the Senate's jurisdiction, not an imperial province under the authority of Augustus. Such an action would have ripped away the veneer of republican restoration as promoted by Augustus, and exposed his fraud of merely being the first citizen, a first among equals.Template:Sfn Even worse, the involvement of Marcellus provided some measure of proof that Augustus's policy was to have the youth take his place as princeps, instituting a form of monarchy—accusations that had already played out.

File:Statue of the Emperor Octavian Augustus as Jupiter 1.jpg

Augustus as Jupiter, holding a scepter and orb (first half of the 1st century AD)

The situation was so serious that Augustus appeared at the trial even though he had not been called as a witness. Under oath, Augustus declared that he gave no such order.Template:Sfn Murena disbelieved Augustus's testimony and resented his attempt to subvert the trial by using his . He rudely demanded to know why Augustus had turned up to a trial to which he had not been called; Augustus replied that he came in the public interest.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Primus was found guilty, some jurors voted to acquit, meaning that not everybody believed Augustus's testimony, an insult to the 'August One'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The second settlement was completed in part to allay confusion and formalize Augustus's legal authority to intervene in senatorial provinces. The Senate granted Augustus a form of general , or proconsular imperium (power) that applied throughout the empire, not solely to his provinces. Moreover, the Senate augmented Augustus's proconsular imperium into , or proconsular imperium applicable throughout the empire that was more (maius) or greater than that held by the other proconsuls. This in effect gave Augustus constitutional power superior to all other proconsuls in the empire.Template:Sfn Augustus stayed in Rome during the renewal process and provided veterans with lavish donations to gain their support, thereby ensuring that his status of proconsular imperium maius was renewed in 13 BC.Template:Sfn

Additional powers

File:Cameo Augustus Dioscorides CdM Paris.jpg

Portrait of Augustus. Sardonyx cameo; gilt silver mount with pearls, sapphires and red glass beads, 16th/17th centuries.

During the second settlement, Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune () for life, though not the official title of tribune.Template:Sfn For some years, Augustus had been awarded , the immunity given to a tribune of the plebs. Now he decided to assume the full powers of the magistracy, renewed annually, in perpetuity. Legally, it was closed to patricians, a status that Augustus had acquired some years earlier when adopted by Julius Caesar.Template:Sfn This power allowed him to convene the Senate and people at will and lay business before them, to veto the actions of either the Assembly or the Senate, to preside over elections, and to speak first at any meeting.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Also included in Augustus's tribunician authority were powers usually reserved for the Roman censor; these included the right to supervise public morals and scrutinize laws to ensure that they were in the public interest, as well as the ability to hold a census and determine the membership of the Senate.Template:Sfn

File:August com a "Pontifex maximus" (detall) (finals s. I aC), Museu Nacional Romà (Palau Massimo), Roma.jpg

Head of Augustus as , Roman artwork of the late Augustan period, last decade of the 1st century BC

With the powers of a censor, Augustus appealed to virtues of Roman patriotism by banning all attire but the classic toga while entering the Forum.Template:Sfn There was no precedent within the Roman system for combining the powers of the tribune and the censor into a single position, nor was Augustus ever elected to the office of censor.Template:Sfn Julius Caesar had been granted similar powers, wherein he was charged with supervising the morals of the state. However, this position did not extend to the censor's ability to hold a census and determine the Senate's roster. The office of the began to lose its prestige due to Augustus's amassing of tribunal powers, so he revived its importance by making it a mandatory appointment for any plebeian desiring the praetorship.Template:Sfn

Augustus was granted sole within the city of Rome in addition to being granted proconsular and tribunician authority for life. Traditionally, proconsuls (Roman province governors) lost their proconsular when they crossed the Pomerium—the sacred boundary of Rome—and entered the city. In these situations, Augustus would have power as part of his tribunician authority, but his constitutional imperium within the Pomerium would be less than that of a serving consul, which meant that when he was in the city he might not be the constitutional magistrate with the most authority. Thanks to his prestige or , his wishes would usually be obeyed, but there might be some difficulty. To fill this power vacuum, the Senate voted that Augustus's (superior proconsular power) should not lapse when he was inside the city walls. All armed forces in the city had formerly been under the control of the urban praetors and consuls, but this situation now placed them under the sole authority of Augustus.Template:Sfn

In addition, the credit was given to Augustus for each subsequent Roman military victory after this time, because the majority of Rome's armies were stationed in imperial provinces commanded by Augustus through the legatus who were deputies of the princeps in the provinces. Moreover, if a battle was fought in a senatorial province, Augustus's proconsular 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.Template:Sfn Tiberius, Augustus's eldest stepson by Livia, was the only other general to receive a triumph—for victories in Germania in 7 BC.Template:Sfn

Normally during republican times, the powers Augustus held even after the second settlement would have been split between several people, who would each exercise them with the assistance of a colleague and for a specific period of time. Augustus held them all at once by himself and with no time limits; even those that nominally had time limits were automatically renewed whenever they lapsed.

Conspiracy

File:Augustus MAN Napoli Inv6040.jpg

A colossal statue of Augustus from the Augusteum of Herculaneum, seated and wearing a laurel wreath

Many of the political subtleties of the second settlement seem to have evaded the comprehension of the plebeian class, who were Augustus's greatest supporters and clientele. This caused them to insist upon Augustus's participation in imperial affairs from time to time. Augustus failed to stand for election as consul in 22 BC, and fears arose once again that he was being forced from power by the aristocratic Senate. In 22, 21, and 19 BC, the people rioted in response and only allowed a single consul to be elected for each of those years, ostensibly to leave the other position open for Augustus.Template:Sfn

Likewise, there was a food shortage in Rome in 22 BC which sparked panic, while many urban plebs called for Augustus to take on dictatorial powers to personally oversee the crisis. After a theatrical display of refusal before the Senate, Augustus finally accepted authority over Rome's grain supply "by virtue of his proconsular ", and ended the crisis almost immediately.Template:Sfn It was not until AD 8 that a food crisis of this sort prompted Augustus to establish a , a permanent prefect who was in charge of procuring food supplies for Rome.Template:Sfn

There were some who were concerned by the expansion of powers granted to Augustus by the second settlement, and this came to a head with the apparent conspiracy of Fannius Caepio.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Some time prior to 1 September 22 BC, a certain Castricius provided Augustus with information about a conspiracy led by Fannius Caepio.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Murena, the outspoken consul who defended Primus in the Marcus Primus affair, was named among the conspirators. The conspirators were tried in absentia with Tiberius acting as prosecutor; the jury found them guilty, but it was not a unanimous verdict.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn All the accused were sentenced to death for treason and executed as soon as they were captured—without ever giving testimony in their defence.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Augustus ensured that the façade of Republican government continued with an effective cover-up of the events.Template:Sfn

In 19 BC, the Senate granted Augustus a form of "general consular imperium", which was probably , like the proconsular powers that he received in 23 BC. Like his tribune authority, the consular powers were another instance of gaining power from offices that he did not actually hold.Template:Sfn In addition, Augustus was allowed to wear the consul's insignia in public and before the Senate,Template:Sfn as well as to sit in the symbolic chair between the two consuls and hold the fasces, an emblem of consular authority.Template:Sfn This seems to have assuaged the populace; regardless of whether or not Augustus was a consul, the importance was that he both appeared as one before the people and could exercise consular power if necessary. On 6 March 12 BC, after the death of Lepidus, he additionally took up the position of , the high priest of the college of the pontiffs, the most important position in Roman religion.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn On 5 February 2 BC, Augustus was also given the title 'father of the country'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Stability and staying power

File:Glyptothek München – 18.04.2022 – Augustus Bevilacqua (4).jpg

Bust of Augustus wearing the Civic Crown, at Glyptothek, Munich

A final reason for the second settlement was to give the principate constitutional stability and staying power in case something happened to Princeps Augustus. His illness of early 23 BC and the Caepio conspiracy showed that the regime's existence hung by the thin thread of the life of one man, Augustus himself, who had several severe and dangerous illnesses throughout his life. If he were to die from natural causes or fall victim to assassination, Rome could be subjected to another round of civil war. The memories of Pharsalus, the Ides of March, the proscriptions, Philippi, and Actium, barely twenty-five years distant, were still vivid in the minds of many citizens. Proconsular imperium was conferred upon Agrippa for five years, similar to Augustus's power, in order to accomplish this constitutional stability. The exact nature of the grant is uncertain but it probably covered Augustus's imperial provinces, east and west, perhaps lacking authority over the provinces of the Senate. That came later, as did the jealously guarded tribunicia potestas.Template:Sfn Augustus's accumulation of powers was now complete.

War and expansion

By AD 13, Augustus boasted 21 occasions where his troops proclaimed him after a successful battle. Almost the entire fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known as the is devoted to his military victories and honours.Template:Sfn

Augustus also promoted the ideal of a superior Roman civilisation with a task of ruling the world (to the extent to which the Romans knew it), a sentiment embodied in words that the contemporary poet Virgil attributes to a legendary ancestor of Augustus: Template:Sfn—"Roman, remember to rule the Earth's peoples with authority!" The impulse for expansionism was apparently prominent among all classes at Rome, and it is accorded divine sanction by Virgil's Jupiter in Book 1 of the Aeneid, where Jupiter promises Rome 'sovereignty without end'.Template:Sfn

By the end of his reign, the armies of Augustus had conquered northern Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) and the Alpine regions of Raetia and Noricum (modern Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia), Illyricum and Pannonia (modern Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.), and had extended the borders of Africa Proconsularis to the east and south. Judea was added to the province of Syria when Augustus deposed Herod Archelaus, successor to client king Herod the Great. Syria (like Egypt after Antony) was governed by a high prefect of the equestrian class rather than by a proconsul or legate of Augustus.Template:Sfn

File:Tiberius NyCarlsberg01.jpg

Bust of Tiberius, a successful military commander under Augustus who was designated as his heir and successor

Again, no military effort was needed in 25 BC when Galatia (part of modern Turkey) was converted to a Roman province shortly after Amyntas of Galatia was killed by an avenging widow of a slain prince from Homonada.Template:Sfn The rebellious tribes of Asturias and Cantabria in modern-day Spain were finally quelled in 19 BC, and the territory fell under the provinces of Hispania and Lusitania. This region proved to be a major asset in funding Augustus's future military campaigns, as it was rich in mineral deposits that could be fostered in Roman mining projects, especially the very rich gold deposits at Las Médulas.Template:Sfn

File:TabulaPeutingerianaMuziris.jpg

Muziris in the Chera Kingdom of Southern India, as shown in the Tabula Peutingeriana, with depiction of a temple of Augustus ()

Conquering the peoples of the Alps in 16 BC was another important victory for Rome, since it provided a large territorial buffer between the Roman citizens of Italy and Rome's enemies in Germania to the north.Template:Sfn Horace dedicated an ode to the victory, while the monumental Trophy of Augustus near Monaco was built to honour the occasion.Template:Sfn The capture of the Alpine region also served the next offensive in 12 BC, when Tiberius began the offensive against the Pannonian tribes of Illyricum, and his brother Nero Claudius Drusus moved against the Germanic tribes of the eastern Rhineland. Both campaigns were successful, as Drusus's forces reached the Elbe River by 9 BC—though he died shortly after by falling off his horse.Template:Sfn It was recorded that the pious Tiberius walked in front of his brother's body all the way back to Rome.Template:Sfn

To protect Rome's eastern territories from the Parthian Empire, Augustus relied on the client states of the east to act as territorial buffers and areas that could raise their own troops for defense. To ensure security of the empire's eastern flank, Augustus stationed a Roman army in Syria, while his skilled stepson Tiberius negotiated with the Parthians as Rome's diplomat to the East.Template:Sfn Tiberius was responsible for restoring Tigranes V to the throne of the Kingdom of Armenia.Template:Sfn

Arguably his greatest diplomatic achievement was negotiating with Phraates IV of Parthia (37–2 BC) in 20 BC for the return of the battle standards lost by Crassus in the Battle of Carrhae, a symbolic victory and great boost of morale for Rome.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Werner Eck claims that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge Crassus's defeat by military means.Template:Sfn However, Maria Brosius explains that Augustus used the return of the standards as propaganda symbolizing the submission of Parthia to Rome. The event was celebrated in art such as the breastplate design on the statue Augustus of Prima Porta and in monuments such as the Temple of Mars Ultor ('Mars the Avenger') built to house the standards.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Parthia had always posed a threat to Rome in the east, but the real battlefront was along the Rhine and Danube rivers.Template:Sfn Before the final fight with Antony, Octavian's campaigns against the tribes in Dalmatia were the first step in expanding Roman dominions to the Danube.Template:Sfn Victory in battle was not always a permanent success, as newly conquered territories were constantly retaken by Rome's enemies in Germania.Template:Sfn

File:Hermann (Arminius) at the battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE by Peter Jannsen, 1873, with painting creases and damage removed.jpg

(The Victorious Advancing Hermann), depiction of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, by Peter Janssen, 1873

A prime example of Roman loss in battle was the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, where three entire legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed by Arminius, leader of the Cherusci, an apparent Roman ally.Template:Sfn Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus to the Rhineland to pacify it, which had some success although the battle brought the end to Roman expansion into Germany.Template:Sfn The Roman general Germanicus took advantage of a Cherusci civil war between Arminius and Segestes; at the Battle of Idistaviso in AD 16, he defeated Arminius.Template:Sfn

Death and succession

File:Octavianus Caesar Augustus.jpg

Augustus in a copper engraving by Giovanni Battista Cavalieri. From the book (1583), preserved in the Municipal Library of Trento (Italy)

The illness of Augustus in 23 BC brought the problem of succession to the forefront of political issues and the public. To ensure stability, he needed to designate an heir to his unique position in Roman society and government. This was to be achieved in small, undramatic and incremental ways that did not stir senatorial fears of monarchy. If someone was to succeed to Augustus's unofficial position of power, he would have to earn it through his own publicly proven merits.Template:Sfn

Some Augustan historians argue that indications pointed toward his sister's son Marcellus, who had been quickly married to Augustus's daughter Julia the Elder.Template:Sfn Other historians dispute this since Augustus's will was read aloud to the Senate while he was seriously ill in 23 BC,Template:Sfn indicating a preference Marcus Agrippa, who was Augustus's second in charge and arguably the only one of his associates who could have controlled the legions and held the empire together.Template:Sfn

After the death of Marcellus in 23 BC, Augustus married his daughter to Agrippa. This union produced five children, three sons and two daughters: Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Julia, Agrippina, and Agrippa Postumus, so named because he was born after Marcus Agrippa died. Shortly after the second settlement, Agrippa was granted a five-year term of administering the eastern half of the empire with the of a proconsul and the same granted to Augustus (although not trumping Augustus's authority), his seat of governance stationed at Samos in the eastern Aegean.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This granting of power showed Augustus's favor for Agrippa, but it was also a measure to please members of his Caesarian party by allowing one of their members to share a considerable amount of power with him.Template:Sfn

Augustus's intent became apparent to make his grandsons Gaius and Lucius his heirs when he adopted them as his own children.Template:Sfn He took the consulship in 5 and 2 BC so that he could personally usher them into their political careers,Template:Sfn and they were nominated for the consulships of AD 1 and 4.Template:Sfn Augustus also showed favour to his stepsons, Livia's children from her first marriage, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (henceforth referred to as Drusus) and Tiberius Claudius (henceforth Tiberius), granting them military commands and public office, though seeming to favour Drusus. After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Tiberius was ordered to divorce his own wife, Vipsania Agrippina, and marry Augustus's widowed daughter, Julia, as soon as a period of mourning for Agrippa had ended.Template:Sfn Drusus's marriage to Augustus's niece Antonia was considered an unbreakable affair, whereas Vipsania was "only" the daughter of the late Agrippa from his first marriage.Template:Sfn

Tiberius shared in Augustus's tribune powers as of 6 BC but shortly thereafter went into retirement, reportedly wanting no further role in politics while he exiled himself to Rhodes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn No specific reason is known for his departure, though it could have been a combination of reasons, including a failing marriage with JuliaTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn as well as a sense of envy and exclusion over Augustus's apparent favouring of the younger Gaius and Lucius. (Gaius and Lucius joined the college of priests at an early age, were presented to spectators in a more favourable light, and were introduced to the army in Gaul.)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

After the deaths of both Lucius and Gaius in AD 2 and 4 respectively, and the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome in June AD 4, where he was adopted by Augustus on the condition that he, in turn, adopt his nephew Germanicus.Template:Sfn This continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs.Template:Sfn In that year, Tiberius was also granted the powers of a tribune and proconsul, emissaries from foreign kings had to pay their respects to him and by AD 13 was awarded with his second triumph and equal level of with that of Augustus.Template:Sfn

File:Great Cameo of France CdM Paris Bab264 white background.jpg

The deified Augustus hovers over Tiberius and other Julio-Claudians in the Great Cameo of France.

The only other possible claimant as heir was Agrippa Postumus, who had been exiled by Augustus in AD 7, his banishment made permanent by senatorial decree, and Augustus officially disowned him. He certainly fell out of Augustus's favour as an heir; the historian Erich S. Gruen notes various contemporary sources that state Agrippa Postumus was a "vulgar young man, brutal and brutish, and of depraved character".Template:Sfn

On 19 August AD 14, Augustus died while visiting Nola where his father had died. Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia was rumored to have brought about Augustus's death by poisoning fresh figs.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This element features in many modern works of historical fiction pertaining to Augustus's life, but some historians view it as likely to have been a salacious fabrication made by those who had favoured Postumus as heir, or other political enemies of Tiberius. Livia had long been the target of similar rumors of poisoning on the behalf of her son, most or all of which are unlikely to have been true.Template:Sfn Alternatively, it is possible that Livia did supply a poisoned fig (she did cultivate a variety of fig named for her that Augustus is said to have enjoyed), but did so as a means of assisted suicide rather than murder. Augustus's health had been in decline in the months immediately before his death, and he had made significant preparations for a smooth transition in power, having at last reluctantly settled on Tiberius as his choice of heir.Template:Sfn It is likely that Augustus was not expected to return alive from Nola, but it seems that his health improved once there; it has therefore been speculated that Augustus and Livia conspired to end his life at the anticipated time, having committed all political process to accepting Tiberius, in order to not endanger that transition.Template:Sfn

File:Photographs of the Mausoleum of Augustus 14 (cropped).jpg

The Mausoleum of Augustus restored, 2021

Augustus's famous last words were, "Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit" ()—referring to the play-acting and regal authority that he had put on as emperor. An enormous funerary procession of mourners travelled with Augustus's body from Nola to Rome, and all public and private businesses closed on the day of his burial.Template:Sfn Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two . Augustus's body was coffin-bound and cremated on a pyre close to his mausoleum. It was proclaimed that Augustus joined the company of the gods as a member of the Roman pantheon.Template:Sfn

Historian D. C. A. Shotter states that Augustus's policy of favoring the Julian family line over the Claudian might have afforded Tiberius sufficient cause to show open disdain for Augustus after the latter's death; instead, Tiberius was always quick to rebuke those who criticized Augustus.Template:Sfn Shotter suggests that Augustus's deification obliged Tiberius to suppress any open resentment that he might have harbored, coupled with Tiberius's "extremely conservative" attitude towards religion.Template:Sfn Also, historian R. Shaw-Smith points to letters of Augustus to Tiberius which display affection towards Tiberius and high regard for his military merits.Template:Sfn Shotter states that Tiberius focused his anger and criticism on Gaius Asinius Gallus (for marrying Vipsania after Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce her), as well as toward the two young Caesars, Gaius and Lucius—instead of Augustus, the real architect of his divorce and imperial demotion.Template:Sfn

Legacy

File:Folio 22r - The Virgin, the Sibyl and the Emperor Augustus.jpg

From the , the Virgin Mary and Child (top), the prophetess Sibyl Tivoli (bottom left) and Augustus (bottom right). The likeness of Augustus is that of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.

File:Augustus kameo.jpg

The Augustus cameo at the centre of the medieval Cross of Lothair

Overview

Augustus created a regime that maintained relative peace and prosperity in the Roman west and the Greek east for two centuries,Template:Sfn initiating the celebrated , though Galinsky affirms that the "Augustan Golden Age" myth of the obscures the complicated political challenges that Augustus had to face during his reign.Template:Sfn His regime laid the foundations of a concept of universal empire in the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empires down to their dissolutions in 1453 and 1806, respectively.Template:Sfn Both his adoptive surname, Caesar, and his title became the permanent titles of the rulers of the Roman Empire for fourteen centuries after his death, in use both at Old Rome and at New Rome.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In many languages, became the word for emperor, as in the German and in the Bulgarian and subsequently Russian Template:Tlit (sometimes Template:Tlit or Template:Tlit). The cult of continued until the state religion of the empire was changed to Christianity in 391 by Theodosius I. Consequently, there are many statues and busts of the first emperor. The reign of Augustus was viewed favorably by later Romans, embodied by the Roman Senate's formal wish to every emperor after Trajan that they "be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan".Template:Sfn

Augustus composed an account of his achievements, the , to be inscribed in bronze in front of his mausoleum.Template:Sfn Copies of the text were inscribed throughout the empire upon his death.Template:Sfn The inscriptions in Latin featured translations in Greek beside it and were inscribed on many public edifices, such as the temple in Ankara dubbed the , called the "queen of inscriptions" by historian Theodor Mommsen.Template:Sfn The is the only major work by Augustus to have survived, though he is also known to have composed poems entitled Template:Langr, Template:Langr, and Template:Langr, an autobiography of 13 books, a philosophical treatise, and a written rebuttal to Brutus's Eulogy of Cato.Template:Sfn Historians are able to analyze excerpts of letters penned by Augustus, preserved in various works of antiquity that reveal additional facts or clues about his personal life.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In his Res Gestae, Augustus defined the relative peace established by his reign as a pact "born of victories" (), one that brought disastrous Roman civil wars to an end and ensured Romans and subjugated peoples within their Empire upheld a cohesive social pact: the latter would relinquish their sovereignty and pay taxes in exchange for the preservation of their native customs, economic stability, security and protection afforded to them by Rome.Template:Sfn This theme of peace being rooted in conquest is also featured prominently in Augustan-era visual artworks.Template:Sfn

File:Gemma Augustea, a two-layered sardonyx depicting the Emperor Augustus surrounded by goddesses and allegories, 9-12 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (21036461833).jpg

The Gemma Augustea, a two-layered sardonyx depicting Augustus surrounded by goddesses and allegories, 9–12 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The city of Rome was utterly transformed under Augustus, with Rome's first institutionalized police force, firefighting force, and the establishment of the municipal prefect as a permanent office. The police force was divided into cohorts of 500 men each, while the units of firemen ranged from 500 to 1,000 men each, with 7 units assigned to 14 divided city sectors.Template:Sfn A , "prefect of the watch", was put in charge of the vigiles, Rome's fire brigade and police.Template:Sfn With Rome's civil wars at an end, Augustus was also able to create a standing army for the Roman Empire, fixed at a size of 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers.Template:Sfn This was supported by numerous auxiliary units of 500 non-citizen soldiers each, often recruited from recently conquered areas.Template:Sfn

With his finances securing the maintenance of roads throughout Italy, Augustus installed an official courier system of relay stations overseen by a military officer known as the .Template:Sfn Besides the advent of swifter communication among Italian polities, his extensive building of roads throughout Italy also allowed Rome's armies to march swiftly and at an unprecedented pace across the country.Template:Sfn In the year 6 Augustus established the , donating 170 million sesterces to the new military treasury that provided for both active and retired soldiers.Template:Sfn

One of the most enduring institutions of Augustus was the establishment of the Praetorian Guard in 27 BC, originally a personal bodyguard unit on the battlefield that evolved into an imperial guard as well as an important political force in Rome.Template:Sfn They had the power to intimidate the Senate, install new emperors, and depose ones they disliked; the last emperor they served was Maxentius, as it was Constantine I who disbanded them in the early 4th century and destroyed their barracks, the Castra Praetoria.Template:Sfn

File:Augustus-in-Kalabsha.jpg

Augustus as Roman pharaoh in an Egyptian-style stone carving at the Temple of Kalabsha in Nubia

Although the most powerful individual in the Roman Empire, Augustus wished to embody the spirit of Republican virtue and norms. He also wanted to relate to and connect with the concerns of the plebs and lay people. He achieved this through various means of generosity and a cutting back of lavish excess. In the year 29 BC, Augustus gave 400 sesterces (equal to one-tenth of a Roman pound of gold) each to 250,000 citizens, 1,000 sesterces each to 120,000 veterans in the colonies, and spent 700 million sesterces in purchasing land for his soldiers to settle upon.Template:Sfn He also restored 82 different temples to display his care for the Roman pantheon of deities.Template:Sfn In 28 BC, he melted down 80 silver statues erected in his likeness and in honour of him, an attempt of his to appear frugal and modest.Template:Sfn

The longevity of Augustus's reign and its legacy to the Roman world should not be overlooked as a key factor in its success. As Tacitus wrote, the younger generations alive in AD 14 had never known any form of government other than the principate.Template:Sfn Had Augustus died earlier, matters might have turned out differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the old Republican oligarchy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a de facto monarchy in these years. Augustus's own experience, his patience, his tact, and his political acumen also played their parts. He directed the future of the empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. Augustus's ultimate legacy was the peace and prosperity the Empire enjoyed for the next two centuries under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor. Every emperor of Rome adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, which gradually lost its character as a name and eventually became a title.Template:Sfn The Augustan era poets Virgil and Horace praised Augustus as a defender of Rome, an upholder of moral justice, and an individual who bore the brunt of responsibility in maintaining the empire.Template:Sfn

However, for his rule of Rome and establishing the principate, Augustus has also been subjected to criticism throughout the ages. The contemporary Roman jurist Marcus Antistius Labeo, fond of the days of pre-Augustan republican liberty in which he had been born, openly criticised the Augustan regime. In the beginning of his Annals, Tacitus wrote that Augustus had cunningly subverted Republican Rome into a position of slavery. He continued to say that, with Augustus's death and swearing of loyalty to Tiberius, the people of Rome traded one slaveholder for another.Template:Sfn In a 2006 biography on Augustus, Anthony Everitt asserts that through the centuries, judgments on Augustus's reign have oscillated between these two extremes.

Tacitus was of the belief that Nerva (r. 96–98) successfully "mingled two formerly alien ideas, principate and liberty".Template:Sfn The 3rd-century historian Cassius Dio acknowledged Augustus as a benign, moderate ruler, yet like most other historians after the death of Augustus, Dio viewed Augustus as an autocrat.Template:Sfn The poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39–65) was of the opinion that Caesar's victory over Pompey and the fall of Cato the Younger (95–46 BC) marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome; historian Chester Starr writes of his avoidance of criticizing Augustus, "perhaps Augustus was too sacred a figure to accuse directly."Template:Sfn

The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), in his Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome, criticised Augustus for installing tyranny over Rome, and likened what he believed Great Britain's virtuous constitutional monarchy to Rome's moral Republic of the 2nd century BC. In his criticism of Augustus, the admiral and historian Thomas Gordon (1658–1741) compared Augustus to the puritanical tyrant Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658).Template:Sfn Thomas Gordon and the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1755) both remarked that Augustus was a coward in battle.Template:Sfn In his Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, the Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell (1701–1757) deemed Augustus a Machiavellian ruler, "a bloodthirsty vindicative usurper", "wicked and worthless", "a mean spirit", and a "tyrant".Template:Sfn

Revenue reforms

Augustus's public revenue reforms had a great impact on the subsequent success of the Empire. Augustus brought a far greater portion of the Empire's expanded land base under consistent, direct taxation from Rome, instead of exacting varying, intermittent, and somewhat arbitrary tributes from each local province as Augustus's predecessors had done. This reform greatly increased Rome's net revenue from its territorial acquisitions, stabilized its flow, and regularized the financial relationship between Rome and the provinces, rather than provoking fresh resentments with each new arbitrary exaction of tribute.Template:Sfn

The measures of taxation in the reign of Augustus were determined by population census, with fixed quotas for each province. Citizens of Rome and Italy paid indirect taxes, while direct taxes were exacted from the provinces. Indirect taxes included a 4% tax on the price of slaves, a 1% tax on goods sold at auction, and a 5% tax on the inheritance of estates valued at over 100,000 sesterces by persons other than the next of kin.Template:Sfn

An equally important reform was the abolition of private tax farming, which was replaced by salaried civil service tax collectors. Private contractors who collected taxes for the State were the norm in the Republican era. Some of them were powerful enough to influence the number of votes for men running for offices in Rome. These tax farmers called publicans were infamous for their depredations, great private wealth, and the right to tax local areas.Template:Sfn

The use of Egypt's immense land rents to finance the Empire's operations resulted from Augustus's conquest of Egypt and the shift to a Roman form of government.Template:Sfn As it was effectively considered Augustus's private property rather than a province of the Empire, it became part of each succeeding emperor's patrimonium.Template:Sfn

Instead of a legate or proconsul, Augustus installed a prefect from the equestrian class to administer Egypt and maintain its lucrative seaports; this position became the highest political achievement for any equestrian besides becoming Prefect of the Praetorian Guard.Template:Sfn The highly productive agricultural land of Egypt yielded enormous revenues that were available to Augustus and his successors to pay for public works and military expeditions.Template:Sfn

Month of August

The month of August (Latin: ) is named after Augustus; until his time it was called Sextilis (named so because it had been the sixth month of the original Roman calendar, with the Latin word for 'six' being ). Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the 13th-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length (see Julian calendar).

According to a quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.

Creation of Italia

Roman Italy was established by Augustus in 7 BC with the Latin name . This was the first time that the Italian peninsula was united administratively and politically under the same name. Due to this act, Augustus was called the Father of Italy by Italian historians such as G. Giannelli.

Building projects

File:RomaAraPacisDecorazioneVegetale.jpg

Sculpted detail of the (Altar of Peace), 13–9 BC

On his deathbed, Augustus boasted "I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble." Although there is some truth in the literal meaning of this, Cassius Dio asserts that it was a metaphor for the Empire's strength. Marble could be found in buildings of Rome before Augustus, but it was not extensively used as a building material until the reign of Augustus.Template:Sfn

Although this did not apply to the Subura slums, which were still as rickety and fire-prone as ever, he did leave a mark on the monumental topography of the centre and of the Campus Martius, with the (Altar of Peace) and monumental sundial, whose central gnomon was an obelisk taken from Egypt.Template:Sfn The relief sculptures decorating the visually augmented the written record of Augustus's triumphs in the . Its reliefs depicted the imperial pageants of the praetorians, the Vestals, and the citizenry of Rome.Template:Sfn

He also built the Temple of Caesar, the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, the Temple of Apollo Palatinus and the Baths of Agrippa, and the Forum of Augustus with its Temple of Mars Ultor.Template:Sfn Other projects were either encouraged by him, such as the Theatre of Balbus, and Agrippa's construction of the Pantheon, or funded by him in the name of others, often relations (e.g. Portico of Octavia, Theatre of Marcellus). Even his Mausoleum of Augustus was built before his death to house members of his family.Template:Sfn To celebrate his victory at the Battle of Actium, the Arch of Augustus was built in 29 BC near the entrance of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and widened in 19 BC to include a triple-arch design.Template:Sfn

File:Vienne - Temple d'Auguste et de Livie -1.jpg

The Temple of Augustus and Livia in Vienne, late 1st century BC

After the death of Agrippa in 12 BC, a solution had to be found in maintaining Rome's water supply system. This came about because it was overseen by Agrippa when he served as aedile, and was even funded by him afterwards when he was a private citizen paying at his own expense. In that year, Augustus arranged a system where the Senate designated three of its members as prime commissioners in charge of the water supply and to ensure that Rome's aqueducts did not fall into disrepair.Template:Sfn

In the late Augustan era, the commission of five senators called the (translated as "Supervisors of Public Property") was put in charge of maintaining public buildings and temples of the state cult.Template:Sfn Augustus created the senatorial group of the 'supervisors for roads' for the upkeep of roads; this senatorial commission worked with local officials and contractors to organize regular repairs.Template:Sfn

The Corinthian order of architectural style originating from ancient Greece was the dominant architectural style in the age of Augustus and the imperial phase of Rome. Suetonius once commented that Rome was unworthy of its status as an imperial capital, yet Augustus and Agrippa set out to dismantle this sentiment by transforming the appearance of Rome upon the classical Greek model.Template:Sfn

Residences

The official residence of Augustus was the on the Palatine which he made into a palace after buying it in 41/40 BC.Template:Sfn He had other residences such as the in Rome where Augustus preferred to stay whenever he became ill and which Maecenas left to him in his will in 8 BC. The great villa of Vedius Pollio at Posilipo near Naples was bequeathed (probably forced) to him in 15 BC.Template:Sfn

Augustus built the Palazzo a Mare palace on Capri. He also built the immense Villa Giulia on the island of Ventotene as a summer residence early in his reign. The family home of Augustus was probably the villa at Somma Vesuviana, Nola. This was the location where he died and where his father also died.

Physical appearance and official images

File:Augusto capite velato 04 - Museo archeologico nazionale delle Marche.jpg

Veiled head of Augustus, 1st century BC, National Archaeological Museum of the Marches

His biographer Suetonius, writing about a century after Augustus's death, described his appearance as

... unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. He was so far from being particular about the dressing of his hair, that he would have several barbers working in a hurry at the same time, and as for his beard he now had it clipped and now shaved, while at the very same time he would either be reading or writing something ... He had clear, bright eyes ... His teeth were wide apart, small, and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curly and inclined to golden;Template:Efn his eyebrows met. His ears were of moderate size, and his nose projected a little at the top and then bent ever so slightly inward. His complexion was between dark and fair. He was short of stature, although Julius Marathus, his freedman and keeper of his records, says that he was five feet and nine inches [in modern units, just under Template:Cvt], but this was concealed by the fine proportion and symmetry of his figure, and was noticeable only by comparison with some taller person standing beside him...Template:Sfn

adding that "his shoes [were] somewhat high-soled, to make him look taller than he really was".Template:Sfn Scientific analysis of traces of paint found in his official statues shows that he most likely had light brown hair.

Template:Multiple image His official images were very tightly controlled and idealised, drawing from a tradition of Hellenistic portraiture rather than the tradition of realism in Roman portraiture. Walker and Burnett assert that he first appeared on coins by the age of 19, and from Template:Cx "the explosion in the number of Augustan portraits attests a concerted propaganda campaign aimed at dominating all aspects of civil, religious, economic and military life with Augustus's person."Template:Sfn The early images did indeed depict a young man, but although there were gradual changes his images remained youthful until he died in his seventies, by which time they had "a distanced air of ageless majesty", according to the classicist R. R. R. Smith. Among the best known of many surviving portraits are the Augustus of Prima Porta, the image on the Ara Pacis, and the Via Labicana Augustus, which depicts him in his role as . Several cameo portraits include the Blacas Cameo and .

See also

• Augustan and Julio-Claudian art
• Augustan literature (ancient Rome)
• Julio-Claudian family tree
• Temple of Augustus

Sources

Modern sources

• Template:Cite EB1911
• Template:Cite magazine

Further reading

• Template:Cite EB9

External links

Template:Main other Template:Library resources box

• Works by and about Augustus at Perseus Digital Library
• Gallery of the Ancient Art: August
• The Via Iulia Augusta: road built by the Romans; constructed on the orders of Augustus between the 13–12 B.C.
• Augustan Legionaries – Augustus's legions and legionaries
• Augustus – short biography on the BBC's History section
• Brown, F. The Achievements of Augustus Caesar, Clio History Journal, 2009.
• "Augustus Caesar and the Pax Romana" – essay by Steven Kreis about Augustus's legacy
• "De Imperatoribus Romanis" (archived 17 March 2022) – article about Augustus at Garrett G. Fagan's online encyclopedia of Roman emperors
• Augustus – article by Andrew Selkirk

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