Augustus

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, a style of government where the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate,Template:Sfn 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 the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his primary heir. Inheriting Caesar's estate and assuming his name, Octavian fought for the loyalty of Caesar's legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed a triumvirate regime to avenge themselves upon the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, the triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto autocrats. The triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was sidelined in 36 BC and Antony was defeated by Octavian's naval commander Marcus Agrippa 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 Octavian's personal property.

After the demise of the triumvirate, Augustus reached an accord with the remaining Roman elite: he would restore the façade of a free republic, centered around the Senate, the executive magistrates and the legislative assemblies. But his control of the military meant he maintained autocratic power legitimized by his appointment as commander-in-chief of most Roman armies along with assuming the powers of the tribunate and censorship. A similar ambiguity is seen in his chosen names, the implied rejection of monarchical titles whereby he called himself ('first citizen'), juxtaposed with his acceptance of the name Augustus ('the revered'). The Senate also granted him the title (Template:Literally), and named the month of August after him.

Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, and completing the conquest of Hispania. His expansionism, however, suffered a major setback in Germania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the empire with a buffer region of client states and negotiated peace treaties with the Parthian Empire and Kingdom of Kush. He reformed the Roman system of taxation and currency, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing professional army, established the Praetorian Guard as well as official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and renovated much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at age 75 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 adoptive 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:Sfn

• Template:Langr:Template:Sfnm (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:SfnmTemplate:Efn Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, referred to Octavian as Octavius, rejecting Octavian's claim to testamentary adoption.Template:Sfn
• Template:Langr:Template:Sfnm After his adoption by Julius Caesar on the latter's death in 44 BC, he took Caesar's nomen and cognomen.Template:Sfnm He was often distinguished by historians from his adoptive father by the addition () after the name,Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm although Cicero and some other contemporaries called him Gaius Octavius,Template:Sfn Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus,Template:Sfnm as well as "the young Caesar".Template:Sfn In English he is mainly known by the anglicisation Octavian (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) for the period between 44 and 27 BC.Template:Sfnm
• Template:Langr ('Commander-in-Chief Caesar'):Template:Sfnm 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:SfnmTemplate:Efn The use of signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn His new family line would continue the use of the name , a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, and eventually this would form a standard imperial title.Template:Sfn Occasionally the epithet or 'son of the divine Julius' was included, alluding to Julius Caesar's deification in 42 BC.Template:Sfnm
• Template:Langr:Template:Sfnm On 16 January 27 BC, in recognition of his perceived accomplishments,Template:Sfn the 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:Sfnm The name is sometimes given as Augustus Caesar.Template:Sfnm

Early life

File:GaiusOctavius.jpg

An idealized Roman sculpted portrait of young Octavian as a teenager, possibly produced posthumously or when he was much older, now located in the Vatican MuseumsTemplate:Sfn

Octavian was born Gaius Octavius in Rome on 23 September 63 BC.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn His paternal family was from the Volscian town of Velitrae (modern Velletri),Template:Sfnm approximately south-east of the city.Template:Sfnm He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum.Template:Sfnm In his childhood, he may have received the cognomen "Thurinus" to commemorate his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves who had been followers of Spartacus.Template:Sfnm Roman histories gloss over the childhood of Octavian. Some details about Octavian's upbringing from his now-lost autobiography were preserved by Suetonius,Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

Octavian was raised for at least part of his childhood in his father's hometown of Velitrae.Template:Sfnm Octavian's father, also named Gaius Octavius, came from a moderately wealthy equestrian family of the .Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Octavian's paternal great-grandfather Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His grandfather was a banker. His father ascended the Cursus honorum as quaestor c. Template:Trim, aedile c. Template:Trim, and praetor in 61 BC,Template:Sfnm before being made proconsular governor of Macedonia,Template:Sfnm where he was proclaimed for victories against the Thracian Bessi on its frontiers. His mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm or in 58 BC.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn In 58 BC his mother Atia married a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus.Template:Sfnm Philippus came from a leading family in Rome and was elected consul in 56 BC.Template:Sfnm According to historian Karl Galinsky, as Octavian's stepfather, Philippus served as a role model in how to delicately navigate troubled political waters while preserving his personal wealth.Template:Sfnm Octavian was partly raised by his grandmother, Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar.Template:Sfnm When Julia died in 52 or 51 BC, Octavian delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

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:SfnmTemplate:Efn 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 or 47 BC Octavian donned the ('toga of manhood').Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn At the request of Caesar to fill a priesthood position left vacant by Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (after he was killed at Pharsalus),Template:Sfnm Octavian was elected to the College of Pontiffs in 47 BC.Template:Sfnm The following year he was put in charge of the Greek games that were staged in honor of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar.Template:Sfnm

In 63 BC Julius Caesar became , head of the College of Pontiffs, allowing him to build political clout and eventually form the so-called 'first triumvirate' with the statesmen Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus in 60 BC.Template:Sfnm This informal alliance, which superseded but did not suspend Rome's constitution, had fallen apart by the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon on 11 January 49 BC and initiated a protracted civil war.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn In late 47 BC, Octavian wished to join Caesar's staff for his campaign in Africa but gave way when his mother Atia protested over his poor health.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm In 45 BC Octavian traveled to Hispania to join Caesar's camp during the fight against the lingering forces of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus the Younger (son of Pompey),Template:Sfnm convincing his mother Atia not to join him despite her worries about his fragile physical health.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Returning to Rome from Hispania in October 45 BC,Template:Sfnm Caesar deposited a new will with the Vestal Virgins (drafting it while at his villa in Labici),Template:Sfn naming Octavian as the prime beneficiary and his principal heir on 13 September 45 BC.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

Rise to power

Heir to Caesar

File:Vincenzo Camuccini - La morte di Cesare.jpg

The Death of Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1805, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

In 44 BC, Octavian was studying and undergoing military training in Apollonia, Illyria, when Julius Caesar was made Rome's first ('dictator in perpetuity') in February,Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn and then assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March).Template:Sfnm Octavian consulted with Caesar's loyal army officers stationed in Macedonia for advice on a course of action, and ultimately decided to sail to Italy to ascertain whether he had any potential political fortunes or security.Template:Sfnm Caesar had no living legitimate children under Roman law.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn In the absence of sons, Caesar's will made Octavian his main heir with the condition that he take up the dead dictator's name.Template:Sfnm After landing at Lupiae near Brundisium in southern Italy,Template:Sfnm Octavian received a copy of the will, which made him heir to three-quarters of Caesar's estate.Template:Efn Octavian's stepfather Philippus advised him against accepting Caesar's will and to live quietly instead, while Atia—who often intervened in young Octavian's affairs—left this pivotal choice to her son, who ultimately accepted it on 8 May 44 BC.Template:Sfnm

Accepting the inheritance by appearing before the urban praetor,Template:Sfn Octavian purported that he was adopted as Caesar's son, a legally spurious but politically powerful claim, and assumed his great-uncle's name Gaius Julius Caesar.Template:Sfnm 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). There is no evidence that Octavian himself used the name , seeking to portray himself more closely as Caesar's son;Template:Sfnm however some of his contemporaries did refer to him as Octavianus, such as Cicero and his stepfather Philippus.Template:Sfnm 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,Template:Sfnm to avoid confusing the dead dictator with his heir.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm 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 enemy 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 province of Asia in the Near East to Italy.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm By June, he had gathered an army of 3,000 loyal veterans, paying each a bonus of 500 ,Template:Sfnm which was more than a legionary soldier earned after two years of service.Template:Sfn

Growing tensions

File:Octave (13668015683).jpg

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

Arriving in Rome on 6 May 44 BC,Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

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 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 As consul, Antony blocked the curiate assembly from hearing Octavian's petition to legitimize his supposed adoption by Caesar,Template:Sfnm Octavian's attempts to reinstate Caesar's golden throne for public view at games staged in April and June, and Octavian's attempts to have Caesar formally deified after a comet seen in July during games honoring Caesar (and Venus) was widely interpreted as a sign of his divinity.Template:Sfnm Despite Antony's obstructionist tactics, during Caesar's victory games Octavian was able to distribute some of the funds in Caesar's will and combine this with other personal finances to cover half of the promised payouts to the plebs, enhancing his popularity while damaging that of Antony.Template:Sfn

During the summer of 44 BC, 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.Template:Sfnm Antony had lictors drag Octavian away from a trial hearing over the reinstatement of private property seized by Caesar in 49 BC, after which Octavian claimed Antony threatened his life as retribution for ensuring the plebs received their rightful dues. Caesar's veterans then convinced Antony to publicly reconcile with Octavian in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.Template:Sfn Following this abortive attempt at reconciliation, Antony's bellicose edicts against Brutus and Cassius alienated him from the moderate Caesarians in the Senate, who feared a renewed civil war.Template:Sfnm In September, Marcus Tullius Cicero, now a political ally of Octavian, began to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the republican order.Template:Sfnm

First conflict with Antony

File:Marble bust of Mark Antony (Vatican Museums).jpg

Flavian-era bust traditionally identified as Mark Antony, Vatican Museums

With opinion in Rome turning against him and his year of consular power nearing its end, Antony attempted to pass a plebiscite that would assign him proconsular governorship over the strategic province of Cisalpine Gaul in northern Italy, rather than the province of Macedonia.Template:Sfnm Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian veterans,Template:Sfnm and in early November entered Rome with this private force to challenge Antony.Template:Sfnm However, they vacated the city shortly afterwards,Template:Sfnm due to some veterans choosing to quit once it became clear they were involved in a Caesarian squabble rather than a revenge campaign against Caesar's assassins.Template:Sfnm Nevertheless, on 28 November Octavian won over two of Antony's legions with the enticing offer of monetary gain.Template:Sfnm

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,Template:Sfnm which was to be handed to him on 1 January 43 BC.Template:Sfnm However, the province had earlier been assigned to Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins, who now refused to yield to Antony.Template:Sfnm Antony besieged him at Mutina,Template:Sfnm 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 was already known to have armed forces.Template:Sfnm Cicero also defended Octavian against Antony's taunts about Octavian's lack of noble lineage and aping of Julius Caesar's name.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

File:M. Tullius Cicero, Capitoline Museum, Rome (cropped).jpg

Bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, 1st century AD, Capitoline Museums, Rome

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 and the ability to stand for election of offices at an earlier age than usual.Template:Sfnm In addition, Octavian was granted , which legitimized his command, and was sent to relieve the siege along with Hirtius and Pansa (the consuls for 43 BC).Template:Sfnm He assumed the fasces on 7 January,Template:Sfn a date that he would later commemorate as the beginning of his public career.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm These victories earned him his first acclamation as , a title reserved for victorious commanders.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm 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 Pansa,Template:Sfnm with Cicero as the proposed co-consul,Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

Pedius passed legislation that created a special tribunal; over a single day with Octavian as president, the tribunal tried, convicted, and passed sentences of exile on the Caesarian assassins and alleged associates in absentia.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Octavian also induced the curiate assembly to have him adrogated into Caesar's family, sanctioning his legally dubious claim of testamentary adoption.Template:Sfnm Meanwhile, Antony formed an alliance with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, then governor of Gallia Narbonensis.Template:Sfnm A fellow Caesarian, Lepidus was branded by the Senate as a public enemy for joining Antony.Template:Sfnm While Octavian marched north to fight Decimus Brutus and meet with Antony, Pedius convinced the Senate to revoke the law branding Antony and Lepidus as outlaws.Template:Sfnm Octavian's mother Atia died at some point before he officially allied with Antony and Lepidus in November, with nothing known about her death except that, as consul, Octavian arranged a lavish public funeral service for her.Template:Sfnm

Second Triumvirate

Proscriptions

File:Antony with Octavian aureus.jpg

bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right), issued in 41BC to celebrate the establishment of the Second Triumvirate. Both sides bear the inscription III vir rpc, meaning 'Three Men for the regulation of the Republic'. Caption: Template:Efn iiivir rpc m barbatTemplate:Efn q p / caesar imp pont iiivir rpc.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In a meeting near Bononia in October 43BC, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus sketched plans to form the triumvirate, ostensibly for the putting together of the republic.Template:Sfnm Their agreement, legitimized by law for five years, was then put in to force by the , passed by tribune Publius Titius on 27 November that year.Template:Sfnm The triumvirate, unlike the unofficial "first triumvirate" of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, was a formal office; it gave the three men consular power, the right to appoint the magistrates, and allowed their division among themselves of the provinces not under the control of the in the east.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Octavian had previously been engaged to Servilia, daughter of Publius Servilius Isauricus, but instead became engaged to Claudia, stepdaughter of Antony, a marriage alliance that was intended to solidify their official political union.Template:Sfnm Octavian also relinquished the consulship to Antony's political ally Publius Ventidius.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions, in which some 300 men were targeted as outlaws, divided roughly evenly between senators and equestrians.Template:Sfnm Thousands more had their properties confiscated.Template:Efn Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir was most responsible for the proscriptions and killing.Template:Sfnm However, the sources agree that enacting the proscriptions was a means by all three factions to eliminate political enemies.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Plutarch described the proscriptions as a ruthless and cutthroat swapping of friends and family among Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian.Template:Sfn For example, Octavian allowed the proscription of his ally Cicero,Template:Sfnm Antony the proscription of his maternal uncle Lucius Julius Caesar (the consul for 64 BC), and Lepidus his brother Paullus.Template:Sfnm Plutarch insisted that Octavian defended Cicero at first before giving in to Antony's bloodlust, but historian Patricia Southern suggests that Octavian had his own motives for allowing Cicero to be killed.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

The proscriptions were 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, but the main intention was the removal of wartime rivals.Template:Sfnm Rewards for their arrest gave incentive for Romans to capture those proscribed, while property of those arrested were seized by the triumvirs.Template:Sfnm However much money was raised was insufficient, possibly due to the few bidders for properties of proscript victims.Template:Sfnm The triumvirs then introduced a range of new taxes to fund their war. They reinstituted property taxes (in abeyance since 167 BC) and created new imposts on slaves, before also demanding property assessments for taxes on rich women that were reduced after a public protest of women in Rome.

Battle of Philippi and division of territory

File:S0484.4.jpg

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

On 1 January 42 BC, with Lepidus as consul,Template:Sfn the Senate posthumously recognized 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:Sfnm 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 and eastern provinces.Template:Sfnm After two battles at Philippi in Macedonia in October 42 BC, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

Mark Antony used the battles of Philippi as a means to belittle Octavian, as both engagements 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 Octavian was bedridden with illness during the first battle,Template:Sfnm allegedly removing himself from command over the camp per his doctor's advice,Template:Sfnm but captured Brutus' camp during the second battle.Template:Sfn Galinsky asserts that Octavian saved face from this embarrassment by having the corpse of Brutus beheaded,Template:Sfn though Goldsworthy says it is unclear who gave this order.Template:Sfn The remains were sent back to Rome for public display, but these were lost in a storm at sea before they could arrive.Template:Sfnm

File:Head of Octavian, dating to the Triumvirate at the time of the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the oldest portrait known, Moi, Auguste, Empereur de Rome exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris - 14651195355.jpg

Sculpted marble head of triumvir Octavian dated roughly to the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, Archaeological Museum of Spoleto

After Philippi, a new territorial arrangement was made among the members of the triumvirate. Lepidus was suspected by Octavian and Antony of colluding with Sextus Pompeius,Template:Sfnm the son of Pompey and renegade general who had been given command over all Mediterranean coastlines by the anti-Caesarian Senate in 43 BC.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Cisalpine Gaul was combined with Italia and given to Octavian along with the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior that Lepidus had to forfeit.Template:Sfnm Antony travelled east to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen Cleopatra, a Roman client ruler, former lover of Julius Caesar, and mother of Caesar's son Caesarion.Template:Sfnm In addition to eastern provinces, Antony also took Gallia Narbonensis from Lepidus, and already controlled Gallia Comata.Template:Sfnm Lepidus was left with the province of Africa, stymied by Antony, who conceded Hispania to Octavian.Template:Sfnm

Octavian was left to decide where in Italy to settle tens of thousands of veterans of the African and Macedonian campaigns, whom the triumvirs had promised to discharge.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Those 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:Sfnm There was no more government-controlled land to allot as settlements for their soldiers, so Octavian chose to alienate many Roman citizens by confiscating their land, instead of alienating many Roman soldiers who could mount a considerable opposition against him in the Roman heartland.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

The Perusine War, marriage alliances, and Treaty of Brundisium

File:Aureus of Antony & Octavian, 40 BC.jpg

Roman aureus bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right), issued to celebrate their reconciliation in October 40 BC

File:Cleopatra Tetradrachm Antiochia.jpg

Cleopatra and Mark Antony on the obverse and reverse, respectively, of a silver tetradrachm struck at the mint of Antioch in 36 BC, with Greek legends

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.Template:Sfnm Meanwhile, Octavian asked for a divorce from Claudia, the daughter of Antony's wife Fulvia and her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher. He returned Claudia to her mother, claiming that their marriage had never been consummated.Template:Sfnm Fulvia decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, she raised an army in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian,Template:Sfnm and Lucius Antonius even briefly took Rome, forcing Lepidus and his two legions to flee the city.Template:Sfnm Yet Lucius and Fulvia took a political and martial gamble in opposing Octavian, since the Roman army still depended on the triumvirs for their salaries.Template:Sfn Lucius and his allies ended up in a defensive siege at Perusia, where Octavian forced them into surrender in February 40 BC.Template:Sfnm

Lucius and his army were spared because of his kinship with Antony, the strongman of the East, while Fulvia fled in exile to Sicyon in Greece.Template:Sfnm She died shortly afterwards,Template:Sfnm with blame for the revolt conveniently placed on her rather than on Lucius.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:SfnmTemplate:Efn Perusia was also pillaged and burned,Template:Sfnm though it is unclear if Octavian's troops or local inhabitants started the fires.Template:Sfn This bloody event sullied Octavian's reputation and was criticized by many, such as Augustan poet Sextus Propertius.Template:Sfn

Sextus Pompeius affirmed his control of his powerbase in Sicily as part of an agreement reached with the triumvirate in 40 BC,Template:Sfn and gained control of Sardinia and Corsica in 39 BC.Template:Sfnm Both Antony and Octavian were vying for an alliance with Pompeius.Template:Sfnm 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 (hence an aunt of Sextus Pompey’s wife).Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Octavian's affair with Livia also began while she was already married and pregnant.Template:Sfnm

While in Egypt, Antony had been engaged in an affair with Cleopatra and had fathered two children with her.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Antony's Gallic provinces also fell into Octavian's hands after the death of Antony's legate Quintus Fufius Calenus in 40 BC.Template:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfnm Meanwhile, in Sicyon, Antony's wife Fulvia died of a sudden illness,Template:Sfnm shortly after Antony met with her.Template:Sfnm Fulvia's death and the mutiny of their centurions allowed the two remaining triumvirs to effect a reconciliation.Template:Sfnm

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.Template:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfn Octavian was in a stronger negotiating position due to the troubles Antony had to face in the east with the Parthians invading Asia Minor.Template:Sfnm To further cement relations of alliance with Antony, Octavian gave his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage to Antony in late 40 BC.Template:Sfnm

War with Sextus Pompeius and exile of Lepidus

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

Sextus Pompeius threatened Octavian in Italy by denying shipments of grain through the Mediterranean Sea to the peninsula.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Before the battles of Philippi, Octavian had sent Salvidienus Rufus with a naval force to dislodge Sextus Pompeius from Sicily, but without success, and so the triumvirs recognized his command over the sea with the Treaty of Brundisium in 40 BC.Template:Sfn However, when Sextus Pompeius resumed his blockade, a starving angry mob in Rome blamed Octavian and Antony and attacked them in early 39 BC; Antony's forces rescued Octavian and dispersed the mob.Template:Sfn Another 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 in the consulship.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

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 After Antony refused to relinquish the Peloponnese, Pompeius blocked Rome's food supply, causing riots there.Template:Sfn Pompeius's naval commander Menas betrayed him, handing over three legions to Octavian,Template:Sfn as well as Corsica and Sardinia.Template:Sfnm However, Octavian's naval forces were defeated at Cumae.Template:Sfn Octavian lacked the resources to confront Pompeius alone, so an agreement was reached with the triumvirate's extension for another five-year period beginning in 37 BC.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm In an agreement reached at Tarentum in mid-37 BC,Template:Sfnm Antony provided 120 ships for Octavian to use against Pompeius,Template:Sfnm while Octavian was to send 20,000 legionaries to Antony for use against Parthia. Two years later Octavian sent only a tenth of those promised, which Antony viewed as an intentional provocation.Template:Sfnm Meanwhile, Agrippa was tasked with creating the artificial harbor Portus Julius near Cumae by joining the Lucrinus and Avernus lakes for the training and shipbuilding of Octavian's naval fleet.Template:Sfnm

File:Denarius of Lepidus and Octavian (obverse).jpg

Denarius of 42 BC depicting Marcus Aemilius Lepidus; the inscription reads ('Triumvir for the regulation of the republic, Lepidus, Pontifex maximus')

Octavian and Lepidus launched a joint operation against Sextus in Sicily in 36 BC.Template:Sfnm Octavian suffered major setbacks, including the loss of his fleet as he became shipwrecked in Sicily, aided by the sole companion Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus.Template:Sfnm However, the naval fleet of Sextus Pompeius fled the fighting against Agrippa at Mylae in August,Template:Sfnm and was almost entirely destroyed on 3 September by Agrippa at the naval battle of Naulochus.Template:Sfnm Sextus fled to the east with his remaining forces, where he was captured and executed in Miletus by Antony or one of his legates in 35 BC.Template:Sfnm

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, enticed by Octavian's promises of money.Template:Sfnm They were also effectively surrounded by Octavian's forces in Sicily.Template:Sfn Lepidus surrendered to Octavian and was permitted to retain the office of , but was ejected from the Triumvirate and exiled to a villa at Cape Circei in Italy.Template:Sfnm The Roman dominions were then divided between Octavian in the West and Antony in the East. Octavian ensured Rome's citizens of their rights to property, settled his discharged soldiers outside of Italy,Template:Sfnm and returned 30,000 slaves to their former Roman owners after they had fled to join Pompeius's army and navy.Template:Sfn Octavian had the Senate grant him, his wife, and his sister tribunician immunity, or , in order to ensure his own safety and that of Livia and Octavia once he returned to Rome.Template:Sfnm

After defeating Pompeius, Octavian's military campaigns in Illyricum from 35–33 BC secured the submission of the Iapodes and Dalmatae people (in what is now Croatia). This conflict allowed him to return the military standards previously lost by Aulus Gabinius, which Octavian housed afterwards in the Porticus Octavia.Template:Sfnm During the first campaign, Octavian destroyed Segesta (modern Siscia) and was wounded by a collapsing siege ramp when he besieged Metulum (along the Kolpa River).Template:Sfnm These efforts were lauded in the Senate, though Octavian postponed a triumph for his victories,Template:Sfnm and only later acknowledged the contributions of commanders Agrippa and Statilius Taurus.Template:Sfn Nevertheless both Octavian and Antony's generals celebrated triumphs during the 30s BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn such as Antony's general Publius Ventidius when granted a triumph for defending Roman Syria in 38 BC against the invasion of Pacorus I of Parthia.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, painted 1885

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:Sfnm Antony's Parthian campaign in 36 BC turned into a debacle, tarnishing his image as a leader.Template:Sfnm The mere 2,000 legionaries sent by Octavian to Antony, traveling with his wife Octavia, were hardly enough to replenish his lost forces.Template:Sfnm On the other hand, Cleopatra, with her enormous wealth, could restore his army to full strength.Template:Sfnm Antony was already engaged in a romantic affair with Cleopatra, their third child Ptolemy Philadelphus born in 36 BC,Template:Sfnm so in 35 BC he decided to send Octavia back to Rome.Template:Sfnm Octavian used this to spread propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman, rejecting his legitimate Roman spouse who he wronged while favoring a foreign queen as his lover.Template:Sfnm

Roman troops captured the Kingdom of Armenia in 34 BC,Template:Sfnm and Antony made his son Alexander Helios the ruler of Armenia.Template:Sfnm Cleopatra assumed the title "Queen of Kings" and her son Caesarion was named King of Kings and co-regent,Template:Sfnm acts that Octavian used to convince the Senate that Antony had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Rome.Template:Sfnm 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, later known as the Donations of Alexandria.Template:Sfnm

In early 32 BC, amid an intense war of propaganda between him and Octavian, Antony publicly announced the end of his marriage to Octavia.Template:Sfnm The new consuls Gaius Sosius and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus were Antonine loyalists who threatened to revoke Octavian's triumviral authority.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn This prompted Octavian to enter the Senate house with armed guards where he made a speech accusing Antony and Sosius of misdeeds, an intimidation tactic that convinced a large portion of the senators and both consuls to flee Rome and defect to Antony.Template:Sfnm However, Octavian received two key deserters from Antony in the autumn of 32 BC: Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius.Template:Sfnm These defectors gave Octavian the information that he needed to confirm with the Senate all the accusations that he made against Antony.Template:Sfnm 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 of a tomb for him and his queen.Template:Sfnm Octavian demonstrated his loyalty to Rome by building his mausoleum on the Campus Martius.Template:Sfnm He also contested the clause in Antony's will recognizing Caesarion as the true heir to Julius Caesar.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

File:Castro Battle of Actium.jpg

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

In late 32 BC, the Senate officially revoked Antony's assigned consulship for the following year and declared war on Cleopatra's regime in Egypt.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Following the terms of two suffect consuls for late 32 BC,Template:Sfn Octavian had legal standing to conduct the war against Antony by being elected as consul for 31 BC.Template:Sfn He retained his authority as a triumvir despite his term having officially expired at the end of 33 BC.Template:Sfnm He used emergency powers (tumultus) to have men of military age throughout the Republic swear an oath of loyalty to him as a mandate for assuming leadership.Template:Sfnm

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.Template:Sfnm Agrippa cut off Antony and Cleopatra's main force from their supply routes in the Ionian Sea,Template:Sfn while Octavian landed at Toryne in Epirus,Template:Sfn opposite the Greek island of Corcyra (modern Corfu), and marched south.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

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:Sfnm

Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium along the Ambracian Gulf of western Greece in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Cleopatra and her portion of the fleet withdrew early in the battle and were later joined by Antony;Template:Sfnm his remaining forces were spared in a last-ditch effort by Cleopatra's fleet that had been waiting nearby.Template:Sfn All of Antony's nearby forces on land surrendered to Octavian after initially attempting a retreat through Macedonia.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Various client rulers siding with Antony now also defected to Octavian,Template:Sfnm such as Herod the Great of Judea, who met Octavian at Rhodes and would help supply Octavian's forces at Ptolemais in Phoenicia during their march to Egypt.Template:Sfn Octavian would later establish a new city—Nicopolis ('victory city')—near the site of the battle at Actium, where games were staged every four years in honor of his victory.Template:Sfnm

A year later, Octavian defeated their forces in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC—after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm After meeting with Octavian and refusing to be paraded in a triumph at Rome,Template:Sfnm Cleopatra took her own life by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp.Template:Sfnm 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 followed the advice of the Greek philosopher Arius Didymus that there was room in the world for only one Caesar,Template:Sfnm and therefore ordered Caesarion to be killed.Template:Sfnm He also had Antony's son Marcus Antonius Antyllus killed,Template:Sfnm but spared Iullus Antonius and Cleopatra's children sired by Antony.Template:Sfnm Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies and acted in ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he pardoned many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium.Template:Sfn He also ensured that Cleopatra was buried properly next to Antony in their tomb.Template:Sfnm After Octavia arranged the marriage of Cleopatra's daughter Cleopatra Selene II to Juba II of Numidia, Emperor Augustus appointed this couple as the new co-rulers of Mauretania in 25 BC.Template:Sfnm

Sole ruler of Rome

File:Augustus-in-Kalabsha.jpg

Augustus as Roman pharaoh in an Egyptian-style stone carving at the Temple of Kalabsha in Nubia; Augustus was commonly depicted in Egyptian art performing sacrifices to Egyptian deities.Template:Sfn

Control of Egypt

The conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt relieved the financial debts incurred by Octavian during the civil wars.Template:Sfnm He controlled Roman Egypt directly, forbade Roman Senators to travel there, and appointed equestrian governor Cornelius Gallus to supervise its administration and enormously lucrative taxation.Template:Sfnm While in Alexandria in 30 BC, Octavian visited the tomb of Alexander the Great, the conqueror king he emulated and associated himself with through similar artistic portraits.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Octavian's conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt brought an end to the Hellenistic period initiated by Alexander.Template:Sfn It also led to the cultural formation of a Greek East and Latin West in the Mediterranean and the type of cosmopolitan universal monarchy espoused by Alexander, albeit one now centered on Rome.Template:Sfnm

Octavian would become the first Roman emperor as Augustus and also the first Roman pharaoh of Egypt, though he did not partake in Egyptian coronation rites or worship of the Apis bull,Template:Sfn and he never traveled to Egypt again after 30 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Before returning to Rome, Octavian spent the winter of 30 BC on the Greek island of Samos.Template:Sfn In August 29 BC Octavian was awarded with three triumphs in Rome for his respective victories in Illyria, Greece, and Egypt.Template:Sfnm Octavian and Agrippa were elected as the consuls for 28 BC,Template:Sfnm granted certain powers of the censor but not with the office itself, namely for the duty of conducting Rome's census.Template:Sfn

Principate

File:Domus-augusti-2.jpg

Fresco paintings inside the House of Augustus, his alleged but not verified residence on the Palatine Hill during his reign as emperorTemplate:Sfnm

After Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian was in a position to rule the entire republic under an unofficial principate—with himself as ('leading citizen'Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn)—which he achieved through incremental power gains.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness,Template:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfn The Senate and people of Rome desired a return to stability, traditional legality, civility, and the assurance of free elections—which would be conducted in name at least under Octavian, soon to be Augustus.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn

Historian Adrian Goldsworthy stresses that Augustus did not have a carefully planned design in fashioning this principate regime, which was far from inevitable, and relied much on chance, experimentation, improvisation, and trial-by-error.Template:Sfn In his "Caesar Augustus: A Call to Order" historian T. P. Wiseman argues that, given the overwhelmingly positive reception of Augustus in contemporary Roman sources, Augustus should not be viewed as an unlawful usurper masking his monarchical intentions or autocratic wishes.Template:Sfn Southern surmises that Octavian needed to at least keep up the appearance of being bound by term limits for the consulship and other offices: "Octavian probably remembered very starkly that Caesar did not survive for more than a few weeks after accepting the appointment as ".Template:Sfn

First settlement

On 13 January 27 BC, Octavian made a show of returning full power to the Senate and relinquishing his control of the Roman provinces and their armies.Template:Sfnm 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 Historians Werner Eck and Sarolta Takács state that:

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 c. Template:Trim, 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, on 16 January 27 BC he accepted a ten-year responsibility of overseeing provinces that were considered chaotic.Template:Sfnm The provinces ceded to Augustus for that ten-year period constituted much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt.Template:Sfnm Moreover, command of these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of Rome's legions.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm The Senate's control over some of the Roman provinces helped maintain a republican facade for the autocratic principate.Template: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 Senate.Template:Sfnm However, by virtue of his , the later reigning Augustus issued instructions and edicts not only to his own legates but also to independent proconsuls governing public provinces that were nominally under senatorial control.Template:Sfnm Octavian's control of entire provinces even followed Republican-era precedents for the limited objective of securing peace and creating stability. For instance, Pompey had been given a similar level of command across the Roman world.Template:Sfnm Pompey was given term limits for extraordinary proconsular authority that included legates who answered to him, not the Senate, during his campaign against Mediterranean pirates in 67 BC and the subsequent Third Mithridatic War against Mithridates VI of Pontus.Template:Sfn

Change to Augustus

File:Augustus first century aureus obverse.png

minted c. Template:Trim, marked:

On 16 January 27 BCTemplate:Refn the Senate gave Octavian the new title of .Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn , from the Latin 'to increase',Template:Sfn can be translated as "illustrious one",Template:Sfnm "sublime",Template:Sfn or "revered".Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn It was a title of religious authority rather than a political one, and it indicated that Octavian now approached divinity.Template:Sfnm His name of Augustus was also more favorable than , the previous one which he styled for himself in reference to the story of the legendary founder of Rome, which symbolized a second founding of Rome.Template:Sfnm The title of was associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image that Octavian tried to avoid.Template:Sfnm The Senate also confirmed his position as ('leader of the Senate'), the member of the Senate with the highest precedence.Template:Sfnm The honorific was inherited by future Roman emperors, became the de facto main title of the emperor,Template:Sfnm and by the late 2nd century became the title of the senior emperor, his junior partner titled as instead.Template:Sfn

Augustus styled himself as ('Commander Caesar son of the deified one').Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn 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 Senate in 27 BC, is one of the oldest preserved triumphal 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:Sfnm Augustus also did not feel the need to stay in Rome to retain these powers and privileges. For instance, he left for Gaul in the summer of 27 BC,Template:Sfnm and from 26 to 24 BC governed the Empire from Tarraco in Roman Spain, overseeing military campaigns in the Iberian peninsula until his return to Rome.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm 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:SfnmTemplate: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:Sfnm

Resignation from the consulship

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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfn 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:Sfnm

File:Cameo August BM Gem3577.jpg

The Blacas Cameo showing Augustus wearing a gorgoneion on a three layered sardonyx cameo, and wearing a diadem that was added during the Middle Ages,Template:Sfn and original artwork dated to 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:Sfnm 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

Marcus Primus affair

After Augustus relinquished the annual consulship, he was no longer in an official position to rule the state. However, his dominant position remained unchanged over his 'imperial' provinces where he was still a proconsul.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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 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:Sfnm Even worse, the involvement of Marcellus provided 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.Template:Sfn

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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm

Greater proconsular authority

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 ('proconsular power') that applied throughout the empire, not solely to his provinces. Moreover, the Senate augmented Augustus's proconsular imperium into ('greater proconsular power'). This form of proconsular imperium was applicable throughout the empire and in effect gave Augustus constitutional power superior to all other proconsuls.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 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.

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

The head of the statue depicting the emperor as , Roman artwork of the late Augustan period, last decade of the 1st century BC

Powers of the tribune

During the second settlement, Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune () for life, though not the official title of tribune.Template:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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

Powers of the censor

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

Imperium over the city of Rome

Augustus was granted sole within the city of Rome in addition to being granted proconsular and tribunician authority for life.Template:Sfn 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

The Roman triumph

Credit was given to Augustus for every Roman military victory after the second settlement,Template:Sfn because the majority of Rome's armies were stationed in imperial provinces commanded by Augustus through the who were deputies of the princeps in the provinces.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfnm With few exceptions Augustus was the only individual who could receive a triumph,Template:Sfnm a tradition that began with Romulus, Rome's first king and first triumphant general.Template:Sfn Licinius Crassus (grandson of the triumvir) was awarded a triumph for his victories in Thrace against the Germanic Bastarnae in 29–27 BC, but was denied other traditional honors.Template:Sfn For celebrating his victory against the Garamantes in Roman Libya in 19 BC, Cornelius Balbus was the last person outside the family of Augustus to receive a triumph.Template:Sfnm Agrippa was awarded a triumph for his victories in Spain in 19 BC but he refused to celebrate it.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Tiberius, Augustus's eldest stepson by Livia, received a triumph in 7 BC for victories in Germania in 8 BC,Template:Sfnm and again for victories in Illyria (Pannonia) in AD 9,Template:Sfnm celebrated in AD 12.Template:Sfn For that campaign, his fellow commander Germanicus Julius Caesar was instead granted the ('triumphal honors'), a praetorship, and the ability to serve as a candidate for the consulship despite his young age.Template:Sfnm

Diplomacy

Augustus received emissaries from as far east as India,Template:Sfnm and his court included political exiles from as far north as the British Isles with the chieftains Dubnovellaunus and Tincomarus.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Foreign embassies typically came to Augustus directly rather than to the Senate,Template:Sfnm though Augustus was careful to show respect to the Senate in certain cases. For instance, when the Parthians sent ambassadors to Augustus in 20 BC, he referred them to the Senate, but the latter sent them back to Augustus so they could negotiate solely with him instead.Template:Sfn Petitions to Augustus from provinces and semi-autonomous municipalities were handled similarly to embassies of Roman client states and foreign countries, traveling to the court of the emperor as his administration moved to different locations across the Empire.Template:Sfn In AD 8, the elderly Augustus assigned the exhausting work of managing foreign embassies to three ex-consuls, granting them the power to make all decisions that did not require serious debate in the Senate or oversight by the emperor.Template:Sfn

Conspiracy, titles, and the share of power

File:Augustus MAN Napoli Inv6040.jpg

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

A food shortage in Rome during 22 BC sparked widespread panic, as 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 through the use of his existing 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:Sfnm Some time prior to 1 September 22 BC, a certain Castricius provided Augustus with information about a conspiracy led by Fannius Caepio.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm All the accused were sentenced to death for treason and executed as soon as they were captured—without ever giving testimony in their defense.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm 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:SfnmTemplate:Efn On 5 February 2 BC, Augustus was also given the title ('father of the country'), which was then inscribed in various places in Rome such as the Senate chambers in the Forum Romanum.Template:Sfnm

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

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

In terms of principate constitutional stability, historian Ronald Syme wrote that if Augustus were to die from natural causes or fall victim to assassination, Rome could be subjected to another round of civil war, given the public memory of Pharsalus, the Ides of March, the proscriptions, Philippi, and Actium.Template:Sfn Possibly during the 20s BC and certainly by 18 BC,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfnm Like Augustus, Agrippa was also granted the powers of the tribunate.Template:Sfnm

War and expansion

By AD 13, Augustus boasted 21 occasions where his troops proclaimed him after a successful battle.Template:Sfn Almost the entire fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known as the is devoted to his military victories and honours.Template:Sfnm Augustus also promoted the ideal of a superior Roman civilization 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: ('Roman, remember to rule the Earth's peoples with authority!').Template:Sfn 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:SfnTemplate:Efn

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.Template:Sfn Judea was added to the province of Syria when Augustus deposed Herod Archelaus, successor to client king Herod the Great.Template:Sfnm After Syria was assigned to Augustus by the Senate in 27 BC it was initially governed by legates under Agrippa,Template:Sfn and then by a high prefect of the equestrian class rather than by a proconsul or legate of Augustus (much like Egypt after Antony).Template:Sfn In AD 6 an equestrian governor was also appointed in Sardinia after pirate raids necessitated the presence of troops stationed there.Template:Sfn

File:Tiberius NyCarlsberg01.jpg

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

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:Sfnm The rebellious tribes of Asturias and Cantabria in modern-day Spain were finally quelled in 19 BC by Agrippa, and the territory fell under the provinces of Hispania and Lusitania.Template:Sfnm 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

Conquering the peoples of the Alps in 15 BC after the disastrous defeat of Marcus Lollius in 17/16 BC was another important victory for Rome,Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn 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 was built in La Turbie near Monaco to honor the occasion.Template:Sfnm 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 from an injury sustained by falling off his horse.Template:Sfnm Tiberius rushed from Italy to Germany to see Drusus just before he died,Template:Sfn and escorted his brother's body back to Rome,Template:Sfnm where he and Augustus provided eulogies for Drusus.Template:Sfn After Illyrian tribes revolted in Illyricum in AD 6, their rebellion was quelled by forces under Tiberius and Germanicus in AD 9.Template:Sfn This was the only major rebellion within Roman provincial territory since Augustus had become emperor, and by this point he had reduced the standing Roman army from roughly 500,000 soldiers during the civil wars down to 300,000 soldiers used primarily for foreign conquests.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:Sfnm Tiberius then restored Tigranes V to the throne of the Kingdom of Armenia in 20 BC, personally placing the crown on his head and replacing his brother Artavasdes IV as king.Template:Sfnm

Arguably Augustus's greatest diplomatic achievement was negotiating with Phraates IV of Parthia 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:Sfnm Eck and Takács claim that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge Crassus's defeat by military means.Template:Sfn However, Augustus used the return of the standards as propaganda symbolizing the submission of Parthia to Rome.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm After Phraates V of Parthia managed to cleave Armenia away from Roman control, Augustus dispatched his grandson Gaius Caesar with an army to Syria in 1 BC, mounting a diplomatic pressure campaign that in AD 2 convinced Phraates V to concede to Roman demands.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

Parthia posed a threat to Rome in West Asia, but the more pressing concern was the battlefront 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 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, a Roman citizen and apparent Roman ally.Template:Sfnm Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus to the Rhineland to pacify it in AD 10 and AD 11, and these campaigns had some success.Template:Sfnm However, Augustus advised Tiberius against further conquests after the loss at Teutoburg,Template:Sfnm and the Romans abandoned expansion into Germany beyond the Rhine.Template:Sfnm Augustus lamented the loss,Template:Sfnm but it is glossed over entirely in his , which merely states that he pacified Germania up to the mouth of the Elbe.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Under Augustus's successor Tiberius, 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

File:TabulaPeutingerianaMuziris.jpg

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

Rome also experienced loss to the south in Arabia Felix against the Kingdom of Saba (in modern Yemen). In 26 BC Augustus had Gaius Aelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, invade South Arabia with Roman troops supported by Jewish and Nabataean Arab auxiliaries.Template:Sfnm They aimed to conquer the Sabaeans or force them to accept client state status so that Rome could gain a share of their profitable trade with India.Template:Sfnm Roman forces laid siege to Marib,Template:Sfnm but retreated to Hejaz (under allied Nabataean control) after a shortage of water supplies.Template:Sfnm Southern suggests that this campaign might have been part of a failed two-pronged assault to flank the Parthian Empire, considering how Augustus encouraged Tiridates II of Parthia to invade Mesopotamia and reclaim his throne the same year.Template:Sfn

Gaius Petronius, who replaced Aelius Gallus as prefect of Egypt, was ordered by Augustus to invade Aethiopia,Template:Sfnm after Queen Amanirenas of the Kingdom of Kush (in modern Sudan) invaded Roman Egypt in 24 BC and sacked Aswan and Philae.Template:Sfnm The Romans counterattacked, sacking Napata in Nubia before withdrawing,Template:Sfnm but Amanirenas invaded Roman Egypt again in 22 BC and threatened Primis (modern Qasr Ibrim).Template:Sfnm Petronius bolstered its defenses and withstood a Kushite assault, after which Amanirenas sent diplomats to negotiate a favorable peace treaty with Augustus while he was on the island of Samos.Template:Sfnm The treaty established Maharraqa as the new border with Kush (previously set at Aswan),Template:Sfn and lessened the amount of Roman tribute gathered from Kush.Template:Sfn It also guaranteed peaceful trade relations between Roman Egypt and Nubia for the next three centuries.Template:Sfn Rome had better fortunes further west in the Maghreb of North Africa, where Cossus Cornelius Lentulus put down a rebellion of the Gaetuli against Rome's Mauretanian client ruler Juba II in AD 6.Template:Sfn

Death and succession

The illness of Augustus in 23 BC and his lifelong struggles with ill health brought the problem of succession to the forefront of political issues and the public.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn 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:Sfnm

The search for an heir

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:Sfnm Other historians dispute this due to the content of Augustus's will read aloud to the Senate while he was seriously ill in 23 BC. The will indicated a preference for Marcus Agrippa,Template:Sfn 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:Sfnm

After the death of Marcellus in 23 BC, Augustus married his daughter Julia to Agrippa in 21 BC.Template:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfnm In 18 BC (and perhaps also earlier),Template:Sfn 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),Template:Sfnm his seat of governance stationed at Samos in the eastern Aegean.Template:Sfnm This granting of power showed Augustus's favor for Agrippa,Template:Sfnm and upset some senators of the old aristocracy,Template:Sfn but perhaps placated some members of the Caesarian party by allowing one of their members to share a considerable amount of power with Augustus.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:Sfnm He took the consulship in 5 BC and 2 BC so that he could personally usher them into their respective political careers.Template:Sfnm Gaius was nominated for the consulship of AD 1 after serving in the priesthood until age 21, deferred from 6 BC when at age 14 he was elected consul but deemed by Augustus to be too young to serve.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Lucius died before his designated consulship.Template:Sfn Augustus also showed favor 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 favor Drusus.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Drusus's marriage to Augustus's niece Antonia was considered an unbreakable affair, whereas Vipsania, the daughter of the late Agrippa from his first marriage, was deemed less important.Template:Sfnm

Tiberius, heir to Augustus

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 seated next to the goddess Roma, with Augustus equated as Jupiter as he looks on at a figure riding in a chariot (likely his heir Tiberius celebrating his triumph for victories in Germania), 9–12 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, ViennaTemplate: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:Sfnm No specific reason is known for his departure, though it could have been a combination of reasons, including a failing marriage with Julia,Template:Sfnm who in 2 BC was banished to the island of Pandateria (modern Ventotene) by Augustus for committing adultery.Template:Sfn Another possible reason would be his sense of envy and exclusion over Augustus's apparent favoring of the younger Gaius and Lucius.Template:Sfnm Gaius and Lucius joined the college of priests at an early age, were presented to spectators in a more favorable light, and were introduced to the army in Gaul.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm This continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs.Template:Sfn In AD 4 Tiberius was also granted the powers of a tribune and proconsul, emissaries from foreign kings had to pay their respects to him, and he was eventually awarded with a triumph.Template:Sfn In October AD 12 Tiberius was granted proconsular over the entire empire and not just the western half where he had been campaigning in Germania,Template:Sfn and in AD 13 he was granted an equal level of with that of Augustus for a ten-year term.Template:Sfnm

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, 1st century AD

The only other possible claimant as heir was Agrippa Postumus. However, he had been exiled by Augustus to Sorrento in AD 6 and then to Planasia AD 7.Template:Sfn His banishment was made permanent by senatorial decree,Template:Sfn and Augustus officially disowned him for his lack of good character and alleged involvement in a conspiracy.Template:Sfnm 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 After Tiberius succeeded Augustus, he was most likely the one who had Agrippa killed in exile.Template:Sfnm

Death of Augustus

On 19 August AD 14, Augustus died while visiting Nola, where his father had died.Template:Sfnm Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia was rumored to have brought about Augustus's death by poisoning fresh figs. 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 favored 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:Sfnm 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.Template:Sfn 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:Sfnm 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 to the succession of Tiberius, in order not to endanger that transition of power.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.Template:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two .Template:Sfnm Augustus's body was coffin-bound and cremated on a pyre close to his mausoleum.Template:Sfnm

Deification

On 17 September 27 BC Augustus was proclaimed by the Senate to have joined the company of the gods and his adoptive father Julius Caesar as a member of the Roman pantheon.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn People in Rome's eastern provinces had worshipped him as a living deity since his victory at Actium.Template:Sfn There was even limited worship of him as a living god in some of Rome's western provinces, primarily at Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France) and Oppidum Ubiorum (modern Cologne, Germany),Template:Efn but not in Rome itself where this claim was highly taboo during his reign. Only his (spirit or general divine nature) was allowed worship there.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

Overview

Augustus created a regime that maintained relative peace and prosperity in the Latin West and Greek East for two centuries,Template:Sfnm initiating the celebrated (or ),Template:Sfnm though Galinsky affirms that the "Augustan Golden Age" myth 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 monarchy in the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Rome) and the Holy Roman Empires down to their dissolutions in 1453 and 1806, respectively.Template:Sfn The reign of Augustus was viewed favorably by later Romans, embodied by the Senate's formal wish to every emperor after Trajan that they "be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan".Template:Sfn This positive overall image was also helped by his successors copying a lot of Augustus's policies and forms of self-promotion, which modern research calls ‘imitatio Augusti’.Template:Sfn

Augustus's 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 Rome and Constantinople following the reign of Constantine I and the division of the Roman Empire.Template:Sfnm His adoptive name formed the root of later regnal titles such as the German and Russian .Template:Sfnm His title of was preferred by emperors for three centuries until they adopted the title ('lords'), beginning with Diocletian.Template:Sfn His adoptive name ('victorious general') served as the etymological root of the word 'emperor', though it did not possess this connotation in Augustus's lifetime.Template:Sfn

File:Augustus kameo.jpg

The Roman cameo of Augustus at the center of the medieval Cross of Lothair, housed in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury

Written works

Augustus composed an account of his achievements, the , to be inscribed in bronze in front of his mausoleum.Template:Sfnm Copies of the text were inscribed throughout the empire upon his death.Template:Sfn The inscriptions in Latin featured translations in Greek beside it, were inscribed on many public edifices such as the temple in Ankara dubbed the , and were 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:Sfnm The poet Martial preserved a sexually crude poem allegedly written by Octavian during the Perusine War, which pokes fun at Glaphyra, Antony, and Fulvia.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

In his Res Gestae, Augustus defined the relative peace established by his reign as a pact "born of victories" (),Template:Sfn one that brought disastrous Roman civil wars to an end.Template:Sfnm It 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 By boasting of his many conquests, the of Augustus emphasizes the same code of honor found in Republican funerary inscriptions such as those of the Scipios, a key element in elevating the political reputation of Roman families.Template:Sfn

File:HymiariteKingdomAugustusImitation1stCenturyCE.jpg

Coin of the Himyarite Kingdom in the southern Arabian peninsula, in imitation of coins of Augustus, 1st century AD

Enduring institutions

File:Statue of Emperor Augustus Capri.jpg

Statue of Augustus at Monte Solaro on the island of Capri in Campania, Italy

The city of Rome was thoroughly transformed under Augustus, with Rome's first institutionalized police force, firefighting force, and the establishment of the ('municipal prefect') as a permanent office.Template:Sfnm Established in AD 6 and based on previous (but inadequate) firefighting services established in 22 BC and 7 BC (the first iteration consisted of slaves belonging to Senator Marcus Egnatius Rufus),Template:Sfn the vigiles was a combined fire brigade and police force divided into cohorts of 500 to 1,000 men each, with seven units assigned to fourteen divided city sectors.Template:Sfnm A ('prefect of the watch') was put in charge of the vigiles,Template:Sfnm whereas officials had previously been in charge of each district following the fire of 7 BC.Template:Sfn Augustus was also able to create a standing army for the Roman Empire,Template:Sfn fixed at a size of 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers,Template:Sfnm reduced from 60 legions at the end of the Republican civil wars in 30 BC.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,Template:Sfn commanded by the praetorian prefect after this office was created by Augustus in 2 BC.Template:Sfn Originally a personal bodyguard unit on the battlefield, the praetorians evolved into an imperial guard as well as an important political force in Rome.Template:Sfnm 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

Revenue reforms

File:Octavian aureus circa 30 BCE.jpg

Aureus of Octavian, c. Template:Trim, British Museum

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 during the Republic. 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. It also avoided sparking provincial 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 , were infamous for their depredations, great private wealth, and the right to tax local areas.Template:Sfn Due to protest from equestrians, the suffect consuls for 9 AD modified and lessened penalties in the that affected the inheritance of estates by celibate, unmarried, or childless individuals, though it continued to generate revenues with properties of the deceased seized by the state.Template:Sfnm

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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Instead of a legate or proconsul, Augustus installed a prefect from the equestrian class to administer Egypt and maintain its lucrative seaports.Template:Sfnm This position became the highest political achievement for any equestrian besides becoming Prefect of the Praetorian Guard.Template:Sfnm 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 Gold and silver found in the Ptolemaic royal treasury was melted down for minting coins.Template:Sfn In his will, Augustus left money to members of his family such as his wife Livia but also 43 million sesterces to the Roman people, 1,000 sesterces to every praetorian, 500 sesterces to every soldier in urban cohorts, and 300 sesterces to each legionary soldier.Template:Sfnm

Month of August

The month of August (Latin: ) was named after Augustus in 8 BC.Template:Sfnm Until his time it was called Sextilis (or ), named so because it had been the sixth month of the original Roman calendar,Template:Sfnm which was based on the lunar cycle.Template:Sfn Sextilis, the eighth month in the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar, which was based on the solar cycle, was chosen by Augustus due to it being the month in which he had first served as a consul and won various victories.Template:Sfn In comparison, the month of July (Latin: ) was named after his adoptive father Julius Caesar,Template:Sfnm the only other month in the Roman calendar named after a Roman statesman.Template:Sfn

Building projects

On his deathbed, Augustus boasted that he converted Rome from a city of bricks into one of marble.Template:Sfnm Marble could be found in buildings of Rome before Augustus, but it was not extensively used as a building material in Rome until the reign of Augustus.Template:Sfn This did not apply to the Subura slums, which were still as rickety and fire-prone as ever. However, he did leave a mark on the monumental topography of the city's center, as well as on the Campus Martius with the (Altar of Peace) and monumental sundial, whose central gnomon was an obelisk taken from Egypt.Template:Sfnm 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

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. They did so by transforming the appearance of Rome upon the Classical Greek model.Template:Sfn

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

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

Augustus was responsible for the erection of 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. 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:Sfnm 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:Sfnm Augustus barely mentions Julius Caesar in the Res Gestae, but he completed construction projects initiated by him, such as the Curia Julia (a meeting place of the Senate), the Forum of Caesar, and the Temple of Venus Genetrix (allowing the statue of Cleopatra inside it to remain).Template:Sfn He also rebuilt the Basilica Aemilia by 2 BC (previously burned down in a fire of 35 BC).Template:Sfn

Public works

Augustus put Agrippa in charge of Rome's water supply, sanitation, drainage system, public baths, and road repairs.Template:Sfn After the death of Agrippa in 12 BC, a solution had to be found in maintaining Rome's water supply system.Template:Sfnm This came about because it was overseen by Agrippa when he served as aedile in 33 BC,Template:Sfnm and was even funded by him afterwards when he was a private citizen paying at his own expense.Template:Sfn In 33 BC Agrippa built the Aqua Julia aqueduct, along with new cisterns and water towers.Template:Sfn In 12 BC, 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 ('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 Augustus repaired all bridges in Rome except the Milvian and Minucian ones, and paved the Via Flaminia between Rome and Ariminum.Template:Sfnm

Residences

File:House of Augustus, North-east corner of the Lower cubiculum with architectural decoration, Palatine Hill, Rome (20659554676).jpg

A corner of the lower cubiculum in the House of Augustus on the Palatine Hill in Rome, with Pompeian second style frescos

The official residence of Augustus was the ('House of Augustus') on the Palatine Hill, though its identification is not certain.Template:Sfnm According to Suetonius the home was somewhat modest,Template:Sfn though if the home should be identified archaeologically with the Carettoni house west of the Palatine temple of Apollo, Augustus's residence would have been substantially larger and more luxurious than the literary sources admit.Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Galinsky asserts that it is no coincidence that Augustus is often shown on coinage wearing the civic crown with laurels highly associated with Apollo, having dedicated this temple to Apollo near his home in 28 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Southern insists that Octavian built the temple near his home in honor of Diana, Apollo's twin sister, who was believed to have divinely assisted Octavian in his victory at the 36 BC Battle of Naulochus.Template:Sfn The is also located near the ('House of Romulus'), the alleged domicile of Rome's legendary founder Romulus.Template:Sfnm Southern contends that Augustus was keen to stress his connection to him.Template:Sfn The House of Livia is located nearby as well, identified with an inscription on a lead water pipe, though it is unclear if Augustus's wife occupied the residence before his death.Template:Sfn

Outside of Rome, Augustus owned three countryside villas, which were not extravagant by contemporary standards but did have ornamental gardens.Template:Sfn Augustus built the Palazzo a Mare palace on the island of Capri,Template:Sfnm where he hosted a sizable collection of fossils and what may have been dinosaur bones (referred to as 'bones of giants').Template:Sfn At the Villa Giulia on the island of Ventotene, where Augustus exiled his daughter Julia, he constructed a sophisticated hypocaust central heating system for two large bathtubs and a hot plunge bath.Template:Sfn The family home of Augustus was a villa located in Nola, where he and his father died.Template:Sfnm This residence was probably the villa discovered at Somma Vesuviana.

Critical analysis

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

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

Historians Eck and Takács assert that the attrition of civil wars on the old Republican oligarchy and the longevity of Augustus's reign must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a de facto monarchy.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Augustus's experiences, patience, tact, and political acumen also played their parts. He was responsible for establishing a standing professional army stationed along the frontiers, the dynastic principle of the imperial succession, and 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. Every emperor of Rome adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, which gradually lost its character as a name and eventually became a title.Template:Sfn

Historian Walter Eder contends that, although Augustus was the most powerful individual in the Roman Empire, he wished to embody the spirit of Republican virtue and norms. He also wanted to address 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 honor of him, an attempt of his to appear frugal and modest.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 criticized 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

File:Jean-Auguste-Dominique INGRES - Tu Marcellus Eris - Musée des Augustins - RO 124.jpg

Virgil reading The Aeneid before Augustus, Livia and Octavia, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1812, Musée des Augustins

Debate still exists among modern academics about the extent to which Augustus utilized censorship of criticism or allowed free speech in his Empire, though the consensus is that he engaged in constant self-promotion.Template:Sfn As triumvir Octavian, he destroyed all public records dating from the Ides of March 44 BC to the defeat Sextus Pompeius in 36 BC, a convenient political move for him that seemed to align with popular sentiment of purging painful memories about the proscriptions.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 Octavian was Virgil's patron when the latter penned his Eclogues, which express the discontented views of impoverished farmers and landowners during the triumvirate.Template:Sfn Yet Augustus was responsible for the exile of the poet Ovid in c. Template:Trim and banning of his literature.Template:Sfn Ovid suggested that this was in reprisal for writing a poem and making a mistake, perhaps being a witness to a sexual scandal involving either Julia the Elder (Augustus's daughter) or Julia the Younger (Augustus's granddaughter).Template:Sfn

Tacitus was of the belief that emperor 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 1st-century poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus was of the opinion that Caesar's victory over Pompey and the fall of Cato the Younger in 46 BC marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome. Historian Chester Starr writes of Annaeus Lucanus's avoidance of criticizing Augustus: "perhaps Augustus was too sacred a figure to accuse directly".Template:Sfn

Views on Augustus varied during the early modern period. The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift, in his 1701 Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome, criticized 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 Scottish admiral and historian Thomas Gordon compared Augustus to the puritanical tyrant Oliver Cromwell.Template:Sfn Thomas Gordon and the French political philosopher Montesquieu both remarked that Augustus was a coward in battle,Template:Sfn his alleged cowardliness also hinted at strongly by English playwright Shakespeare in his portrayal of 'Caesar' (Augustus) in the 1607 play Antony & Cleopatra.Template:Sfn In his 1753 Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, the Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell deemed Augustus a Machiavellian ruler, "a bloodthirsty vindicative usurper", "wicked and worthless", "a mean spirit", and a "tyrant".Template:Sfn However, during the 19th century Augustus was viewed favorably as a figure who brought stability, prosperity, and peace after a tumultuous period caused by a failed Republic.Template:Sfn

File:Gaius Iulius Caesar (Vatican Museum).jpg

The Chiaramonti Caesar bust, a posthumous portrait of Julius Caesar in marble, 44–30 BC, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums

Attitudes about Augustus shifted once again during the 20th century,Template:Sfn as scholarship during the upheavals of fascism and WWII in the 1930s and 1940s generally held negative views about Augustus's seizure of state powers.Template:Sfnm Subsequently more peaceful times have led to a greater focus on the art and literature produced in the Augustan age.Template:Sfn Ronald Syme, who sparked debate by publishing the then controversial The Roman Revolution (1939) at the onset of WWII, acknowledged the political climate that impacted his research,Template:Sfnm rejecting fascist appropriations of ancient Rome while examining the misuse of political terminology and deceptive language employed by totalitarian regimes.Template:Sfn Goldsworthy cautions that, while Benito Mussolini styled himself as after Augustus, the general temptation to compare Augustus to either him or Hitler and Stalin is anachronistic and inaccurate. He highlights how Augustus was no more ruthless than "other warlords" even when considering the lethal proscriptions against his rivals, some of whom had been pardoned by Julius Caesar before betraying the latter, a fact the triumvirs had strongly emphasized.Template:Sfn

The Roman Revolution was not circulated in continental Europe until its revised publication in 1952,Template:Sfn but this and other works by Syme left a major impact on scholarship in the English-speaking world and its views on Augustus in particular.Template:Sfnm Syme viewed Octavian as a "sickly and sinister youth," and the so-called "party of Augustus" as an entity somewhat analogous to a modern crime syndicate.Template:Sfn Syme criticized some academics for attributing to Octavian various political achievements that were initiated by Julius Caesar, their ready acceptance of Augustan propaganda about Mark Antony, and the view of Augustus as a flawless organizer and peacemaker.Template:Sfn Goldsworthy largely agrees with Syme, but argues that he was "extremely charitable in his judgements of Antony and deliberately harsh in his comments on Augustus’s supporters, especially the majority who came from outside the established aristocracy."Template:Sfn Goldsworthy also takes issue with the often repeated idea in academia that Augustus attempted to distance himself from Julius Caesar the man and dictator when embracing the deified Caesar, claiming there is no explicit evidence for it.Template:Sfn Southern contends that this is implicitly evidenced by Augustan literature's portrayal of Julius Caesar as divine while rarely mentioning his acts as dictator, and that Octavian-Augustus placed less emphasis on and more on his own role as princeps over time.Template:Sfn

Cultural depictions

Physical appearance and official images

In The Twelve Caesars, Roman historian Suetonius provided a biography on Augustus and wrote about his appearance.Template:Efn According to Goldsworthy, descriptions of hair color in ancient Roman sources are difficult to decipher, and Suetonius' comment that Augustus's curly hair was inclined towards golden () could mean "slightly blond" or "simply mean brown rather than black" hair.Template:Sfn Scientific analysis of traces of paint found in his official statues shows that he most likely had naturally light brown hair.Template:Sfn Given descriptions by Suetonius, it is estimated that Octavius-Augustus was about 5 foot 9 inches in height, and, conscious of his short stature, may have worn built-up soles in his shoes to appear taller.Template:Sfn

Among the best known of many surviving portraits of Augustus are the Prima Porta Statue,Template:Sfnm his sculpted relief on the Ara Pacis,Template:Sfnm and the sculpted Via Labicana Augustus, the latter which depicts him in his role as .Template:Sfn Prominent cameo portraits include the Blacas Cameo and .Template:Sfnm The official images of Augustus were very tightly controlled and idealized, drawing from a tradition of Hellenistic portraiture rather than the tradition of realism in Roman portraiture. Archaeologist Susan Walker and numismatist Andrew Burnett assert that Octavian 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 depicted a young man and, although there were gradual changes, his images remained youthful until he died in his seventies,Template:Sfnm by which time they had "a distanced air of ageless majesty", according to the classicist R. R. R. Smith.Template:Sfn

Personalized portraits of living individuals were first introduced on Roman coins by Julius Caesar in the 40s BC, and Augustus's image on coins is perhaps one means by which he emulated his adoptive father.Template:Sfn Southern insists that it is still unclear who precisely controlled images and legends seen on coins, or how they were fully perceived by people across the Empire, though it is possible Augustus personally dictated how these portraits appeared.Template:Sfn Goldsworthy notes how Augustus's name and image became universal on coinage throughout the Empire, and how the 'Caesar' mentioned by the prophet Jesus in the New Testament in reference to the figure on silver coins used by Jews and others for paying taxes was most likely Augustus rather than Tiberius.Template:Sfn

Post-classical visual artworks

File:Le Siècle d'Auguste - naissance de N.S. Jésus-Christ par Gérôme.jpg

The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ, c. 1852–1854, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Musée de Picardie

Augustus has also been depicted in various artworks following classical antiquity. In 1765 French painter Charles-André van Loo was commissioned by Louis XV to create a painting depicting Augustus closing the gates of the Temple of Janus in the Roman Forum, a symbolic act signaling that Rome was at peace. Although Louis XV disliked this and other paintings of monarchical virtue, having them removed from his royal hunting lodge, historian Mary Beard contends that van Loo's painting served as "an appropriate backdrop" during the signing of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens during the Napoleonic Wars.Template:Sfn Napoleon III commissioned French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme to create the painting titled The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ (c. 1852–1854), which blends classical and gothic elements and depicts Augustus on an imperial dais above a nativity scene, juxtaposing the birth of Jesus with the peace brought about by the reign of Augustus. It was exhibited in Paris at the 1855 Universal Exposition world's fair.Template:Sfn

Theater, film, televised series, and novels

According to historian Adrian Goldsworthy, Augustus is not as widely known as his great-uncle Julius Caesar and is often sidelined as a minor character or brooding villain in theatrical plays, films, and novels, attributing this to the fact that William Shakespeare never wrote a play centered around him.Template:Sfn Shakespeare's 1599 play Julius Caesar features the character of Octavius, and Augustus is named as Caesar in the 1607 play Antony and Cleopatra, in which he plays a foil to Antony as a weak, cowardly, and manipulative foe.Template:Sfn Goldsworthy claims this view is based on ancient primary sources that reflect the propaganda war waged between Antony and Octavian, and is also manifested in the cold performance of actor Roddy McDowall as Octavian in the 1963 film Cleopatra.Template:Sfn The 1934 historical fiction novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves and its subsequent 1976 television series depict the older Augustus in a far more sympathetic light as he is outmaneuvered by his murderous wife Livia, though he plays only a supporting character.Template:Sfn

See also

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

Sources

Ancient sources

• • White, Horace (1913–14). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius.

• • Shipley, Frederick W. (1924). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius.

• • Shackleton-Bailey, D. R. (1999). Loeb Classical Library. 4 volumes.

• • Cary, Earnest (1914–27). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius.

• • Lendering, Jona. (2003). Livius.org.
  • Schlesinger, Alfred C. (1959). Loeb Classical Library.

• • Hall, Clayton M. (1923). Northampton – via CSUN.edu. Template:Webarchive.

• • Rolfe, J. C. (1913–14). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius

• • Jackson, J. (1931–37). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius

• • Shipley, Frederick W. (1924). Loeb Classical Library – via LacusCurtius.

Further reading

• Template:Cite EB9

External links

Template:Library resources box

• Works by and about Augustus at Perseus Digital Library
• Gallery of the Ancient Art: August
• Augustus – short biography on the BBC's History section
• "Augustus Caesar and the Pax Romana" – essay by Steven Kreis about Augustus's legacy at the History Guide
• "De Imperatoribus Romanis" – article about Augustus by Garrett G. Fagan at the Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers