Augustus
Augustus (; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) was a Roman statesman and military leader who was the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, controlling Imperial Rome from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated an enduring legacy as one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history.
Constitution of the Roman Empire
At this point, the Senate also granted Octavian the title ""augustus"" and the position of "princeps senatus", or the first Senator. When Augustus, as Octavian was renamed, gave up the consulship in 23 BC, the Senate granted him an expansion of his proconsular authority, with legal authority at the same level as those of the normal consuls. Furthermore, Augustus expanded the use of the tribunician powers granted in 36 BC, which allowed him to interfere in administration, convoke the people, propose legislation, veto other political bodies, etc. After these final reforms had been instituted, Augustus never again altered his constitution, although he did periodically assume the office of censor to affect changes in the Senatorial rolls (alone in 8 BC, and with Tiberius in AD 14) and hold the consulship (twice after 23 BC). When, in 20 BC, a famine in Rome led to the people offering Augustus the dictatorship, he refused, instead taking on the "cura annonae": the administration of the grain supply. And when the ten-year term of his proconsular authority elapsed, he continued the fiction of the temporary nature of his authority, having it renewed in 18 BC, 13 BC, 8 BC, 3 BC, and 8 AD. While there were minor changes in the provinces which he governed by nature of his proconsular authority ("Gallia Narboensis" and "Cyprus" were returned to the Senate's administration in 22 BC), its overriding nature did not change until after his death.