How long was the reign of Augustus of Rome?
Slovakia in the Roman era
The reign of Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD) began a long period known as the Pax Romana, or Roman peace. Despite continuous wars on the frontiers, and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession, the Mediterranean world remained at peace for more than two centuries. Augustus enlarged the empire dramatically, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Raetia, expanded possessions in Africa, and completed the conquest of Hispania.
By the end of his reign, the armies of Augustus had conquered the Alpine regions of Raetia and Noricum (modern Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia), Illyricum and Pannonia (modern Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.).
Western Roman Empire
Romulus Augustus was crowned as Western Emperor after his father Orestes deposed Julius Nepos. The rule of Romulus would be brief; in the autumn of 476 the "foederati" under the control of Odoacer rebelled when their demands for a third of the land of Italy were ignored. Orestes was captured and executed on 28August the same year and Romulus was deposed by Odoacer a week later. Romulus was spared and allowed to live out his life in the Castellum Lucullanum in Campania, where he might have been alive as late as 507 AD.
Final War of the Roman Republic
The Empire that Augustus established would last in Western Europe until the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD. The Eastern part of the Roman Empire would also survive as the Byzantine Empire until the fall of Constantinople in AD 1453.
Italians
From its inception, Rome was a republican city-state, but four famous civil conflicts destroyed the republic: Lucius Cornelius Sulla against Gaius Marius and his son (88–82 BC), Julius Caesar against Pompey (49–45 BC), Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony and Octavian (43 BC), and Mark Antony against Octavian.
Octavian, the final victor (31 BC), was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. Augustus created for the first time an administrative region called "Italia" with inhabitants called "Italicus populus", stretching from the Alps to Sicily: for this reason historians like Emilio Gentile called him "Father of Italians".
Legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic
During his dictatorship from 82 BC until 80 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla restored the old Servian Organization to this assembly. Sulla died in 78 BC, and in 70 BC, the Consuls Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus repealed Sulla's constitutional reforms, including his restoration of the Servian Organization to this assembly. Thus, they restored the newer organization that had originated in 241 BC. The organization of the Centuriate Assembly was not changed again until its powers were all transferred to the Roman Senate by the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, after the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC.
Augustus
A final reason for the Second Settlement was to give the Principate constitutional stability and staying power in case something happened to Princeps Augustus. His illness of early 23 BC and the Caepio conspiracy showed that the regime's existence hung by the thin thread of the life of one man, Augustus himself, who suffered from several severe and dangerous illnesses throughout his life. If he were to die from natural causes or fall victim to assassination, Rome could be subjected to another round of civil war. The memories of Pharsalus, the Ides of March, the proscriptions, Philippi, and Actium, barely twenty-five years distant, were still vivid in the minds of many citizens. Proconsular imperium was conferred upon Agrippa for five years, similar to Augustus' power, in order to accomplish this constitutional stability. The exact nature of the grant is uncertain but it probably covered Augustus' imperial provinces, east and west, perhaps lacking authority over the provinces of the Senate. That came later, as did the jealously guarded tribunicia potestas. Augustus' accumulation of powers were now complete. In fact, he dated his 'reign' from the completion of the Second Settlement, 1 July 23 BC.
Western Roman Empire
The brief rule of Nepos in Italy ended in 475 when Orestes, a former secretary of Attila and the "magister militum" of Julius Nepos, took control of Ravenna and forced Nepos to flee by ship to Dalmatia. Later in the same year, Orestes crowned his own young son as Western Emperor under the name Romulus Augustus. Romulus Augustus was not recognised as Western Emperor by the Eastern Court, who maintained that Nepos was the only legal Western Emperor, reigning in exile from Dalmatia.
History of the Roman Empire
In 14 AD Augustus died at the age of seventy-five, having ruled the empire for forty years, and was succeeded as emperor by Tiberius.
Reign of Marcus Aurelius
Although Marcus Aurelius shows no personal affection for Hadrian (significantly, he does not thank him in the first book of his "Meditations"), he presumably believed it his duty to enact the man's succession plans. Thus, although the senate planned to confirm Marcus Aurelius alone, he refused to take office unless Lucius received equal powers. The senate accepted, granting Lucius the "imperium", the tribunician power, and the name Augustus. Marcus Aurelius became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus Aurelius' family name, Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus. It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors.
Roman conquest of the Iberian peninsula
Augustus took the command in 26 BC, the fourth year of the war. He left Rome in 27 BC. There were rumours that he was going to conquer Britannia to perform a great military feat. Instead, he undertook the reorganisation of Gallic provinces that had been left largely unsupervised since their conquest by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars (58–50 BC). He might have seen the war in next door Hispania as a chance for military glory. He reached Tarraco (Tarragona) in eastern Hispania in 27 BC, but he arrived in the area too late for fighting before winter set in. In terms of personal propaganda these wars became his war, even though he fought only one campaign. In 25 BC, he retired to Tarraco due to illness. Cassius Dio wrote that he fell ill from over-exertion and anxiety. González Echegaray, places the involvement of Augustus in the political context of his task of delineating and defending the frontiers of the Roman Empire after the Roman civil wars. After the conquest of Gaul there was no more room for expansion and there was the task defence from attacks of the borders in Europe in the face of a reduction in size of the Roman army. In an economic context there was the question of control over the rich gold mine at Las Medullas (the richest in the empire) in Asturia and the abundant iron ores of Cantabria. Towards the end of the Roman Civil Wars there was a shortage of gold and silver.
Titus
His satisfactory record may also have been due to the fact that he survived his accession but a very short time, for he was thus given no opportunity for wrongdoing. For he lived after this only two years, two months and twenty days—in addition to the thirty-nine years, five months and twenty-five days he had already lived at that time. In this respect, indeed, he is regarded as having equalled the long reign of Augustus, since it is maintained that Augustus would never have been loved had he lived a shorter time, nor Titus had he lived longer. For Augustus, though at the outset he showed himself rather harsh because of the wars and the factional strife, was later able, in the course of time, to achieve a brilliant reputation for his kindly deeds; Titus, on the other hand, ruled with mildness and died at the height of his glory, whereas, if he had lived a long time, it might have been shown that he owes his present fame more to good fortune than to merit.
Augustus of Prima Porta
Augustus of Prima Porta () is a 2.03 m high marble statue of Augustus Caesar, the first and one of the most significant emperors of Ancient Rome, which was discovered on April 20, 1863 in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome. Augustus Caesar's wife Livia Drusilla, now known as Julia Augusta, retired to the villa after his death. The sculpture is now displayed in the Braccio Nuovo (New Arm) of the Vatican Museums.
Roman Kingdom
The traditional version of Roman history, which has come down to us principally through Livy (64 or 59 BC-AD 12 or 17), Plutarch (46–120), and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( 60 BC – after 7 BC), recounts that a series of seven kings ruled the settlement in Rome's first centuries. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro (116 BC – 27 BC), allows 243 years for their combined reigns, an average of almost 35 years. Since the work of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, modern scholarship has generally discounted this schema. The Gauls destroyed many of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (according to Varro; according to Polybius, the battle occurred in 387/6), and what remained eventually fell prey to time or to theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom surviving, all accounts of the Roman kings must be carefully questioned.
Roman emperor
In 27 BC, Octavian appeared before the Senate and offered to retire from active politics and government; the Senate not only requested he remain, but increased his powers and made them lifelong, awarding him the title of Augustus (the elevated or divine one, somewhat less than a god but approaching divinity). Augustus stayed in office until his death; the sheer breadth of his superior powers as "princeps" and permanent "imperator" of Rome's armies guaranteed the peaceful continuation of what nominally remained a republic. His "restoration" of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his "auctoritas" and pious respect for tradition.
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Although Augustus' succession plans were all but ruined due to the deaths of more than several family members, including many of his own descendants, in the end Tiberius remained faithful to his predecessor's wishes that the next emperor would hail from the Julian side of the Imperial family. Thus, Tiberius was succeeded by Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the sole-remaining son of his adopted son Germanicus. The new emperor not only belonged to both the Julian and Claudian sides of the Imperial family, but was also a direct descendant of Augustus Caesar through his mother Agrippina the Elder. More commonly remembered in history by his childhood nickname Caligula, he was the third Roman Emperor ruling from AD 37 to 41.
Roman triumph
Following Caesar's murder, Octavian assumed permanent title of "imperator" and became permanent head of the Senate from 27 BCE (see principate) under the title and name Augustus. Only the year before, he had blocked the senatorial award of a triumph to Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger, despite the latter's acclamation in the field as Imperator and his fulfillment of all traditional, Republican qualifying criteria except full consulship. Technically, generals in the Imperial era were legates of the ruling Emperor (Imperator). Augustus claimed the victory as his own but permitted Crassus a second, which is listed on the "Fasti" for 27 BCE. Crassus was also denied the rare (and technically permissible, in his case) honour of dedicating the "spolia opima" of this campaign to Jupiter Feretrius.
Roman Emperor (Principate)
A far more important development was the "Second Settlement" of 23 BC, when Caesar Augustus accepted "tribunicia potestas" for life and "imperium maius proconsulare". Two further developments concluded the establishment of the Imperial dignity: Caesar Augustus accepted "imperium consulare" on an "ad personam" basis in 19 BC and was elected "pontifex maximus" in 13 BC. Thus the Imperial dignity was fully established as the extraordinary concentration of ordinary powers and immunities."Caesar Augustuss third wife Livia Drusilla (subsequently "Julia Augusta") had previously borne two children by her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero: Tiberius and Drusus. Tiberius's second wife was Julia the Elder, Marcus Agrippa's widow (his first wife had been Vipsania, Agrippa's daughter by his first marriage); Caesar Augustus adopted Tiberius on June 26, 4, whereupon Tiberius himself adopted his brother Drusus's son by Mark Antony's daughter who was also Augustus' niece, Germanicus Julius Caesar. Germanicus married Vipsania Agrippina, Agrippa's daughter by Julia and Tiberius's stepdaughter, and had by her one surviving son, Gaius "Caligula" ("Little Boots"), and a daughter, Julia Agrippina, whose third husband was Germanicus's brother by blood, Claudius (she was his fourth wife); Agrippina had already borne a son, Lucius, whom Claudius adopted under the name Nero"' in 40; Nero married Claudius's daughter Claudia Octavia in 53.
Constitutional reforms of Augustus
With the legitimate government of the Republic defeated, Caesar set about initiating his own constitutional reforms. Caesar immediately set about consolidating the various offices of the Republic into himself. He was first appointed Dictator in 49 BC but resigned it within eleven days. In 48 BC, he was re-appointed dictator, only this time for an indefinite period, and in 46 BC, he was appointed dictator for ten years. Finally, in 44 BC, Caesar was appointed Dictator for life. In addition to holding the dictatorship, Caesar held the Consulship in 48 BC, 46 BC, 45 BC (without colleague), and 44 BC. By holding the Dicatorship and the Consulship simultaneously, Caesar's "imperium" ("military authority") was supreme and all provincial governors were subservant to his will. With his unchallengeable command authority, Caesar could remove any civil magistrate or military commander from office at his pleasure.
Augustus
He also built the Temple of Caesar, 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. 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.
After the death of Agrippa in 12 BC, a solution had to be found in maintaining Rome's water supply system. This came about because it was overseen by Agrippa when he served as aedile, and was even funded by him afterwards when he was a private citizen paying at his own expense. In that year, Augustus arranged a system where the Senate designated three of its members as prime commissioners in charge of the water supply and to ensure that Rome's aqueducts did not fall into disrepair.
History of Rome
The years 44–31 BC mark the struggle for power between Marcus Antonius and Octavian (later known as Augustus). Finally, on 2 September 31 BC, in the Greek promontory of Actium, the final battle took place in the sea. Octavian was victorious, and became the sole ruler of Rome (and its empire). That date marks the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Principate.
Augustus
The provinces ceded to him for that ten-year period comprised much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt. Moreover, command of these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of Rome's legions.
Legionary
As Augustus consolidated power in 27BC and founded the Principate, he further professionalized the Roman legionary. Under him, a legionary's term of service was raised to 25 years (before that, a legionary's average term of service was only 10 years) and pay was standardized throughout the legions. Other than the gradual provincialization of recruits and the evolution of some military equipment, Roman legionaries would remain broadly unchanged until the end of the Pax Romana. These legionaries would expand Rome's borders to include lower Britannia, Dacia, North Africa, and more through military campaigns under Augustus and future emperors.
History of the Roman Empire
Meanwhile, Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius were joined by a fourth Augustus. Theodosius proclaimed his oldest son Arcadius an Augustus in January 383 in an obvious attempt to secure succession. The boy was still only five or six years old and held no actual authority. Nevertheless, he was recognised as a co-ruler by all three Augusti.
Geta (emperor)
Geta (; Latin: "Publius", or "Lucius", "Septimius Geta Augustus"; 7 March 189 – 26 December 211) was Roman emperor with his father Septimius Severus and older brother Caracalla from 209, when he was named Augustus like his brother, who had held the title since 198. Severus died in 211, and although he intended for his sons to rule together, they proved incapable of sharing power, culminating with the murder of Geta in December of that year.
History of Italy
The traditional account of Roman history, which has come down to us through Livy, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and others, is that in Rome's first centuries it was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro, allots 243 years for their reigns, an average of almost 35 years, which, since the work of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, has been generally discounted by modern scholarship. The Gauls destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BCE (Varronian, according to Polybius the battle occurred in 387/6) and what was left was eventually lost to time or theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned.
Mausoleum of Augustus
The Mausoleum of Augustus () is a large tomb built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The mausoleum is located on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, near the corner with Via di Ripetta as it runs along the Tiber. The grounds cover an area equivalent to a few city blocks, and nestle between the church of San Carlo al Corso and the Museum of the Ara Pacis. The mausoleum is currently in the process of a restoration with a prospective completion date of April 2019, upon which it will open to the public.
Crisis of the Roman Republic
The end of the Crisis can likewise either be dated from the assassination of Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC, after he and Sulla had done so much "to dismantle the government of the Republic," or alternately when Octavian was granted the title of "Augustus" by the Senate in 27 BC, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. The end could also be dated "earlier", to the time of the constitutional reforms of Julius Caesar in 49 BC.
Ancient Rome
Augustus also continued the shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him. Augustus brought a peaceful and thriving era to Rome, known as "Pax Augusta" or "Pax Romana". Augustus died in 14 AD, but the empire's glory continued after his era.
Antony and Cleopatra (novel)
McCullough continues her "Masters of Rome" series with the seventh and final installment, "Antony and Cleopatra". The novel spans the years 41 BC to 27 BC, from the aftermath of the Battle of Philippi and the suicide of Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus until the downfall of the second triumvirate, the final war of the Roman Republic and the renaming of Octavian to Augustus in 27 BC . The novel, which was McCullough's last in the series, focuses mainly on the famous love story between Mark Antony, victor at Philippi, and queen Cleopatra, earlier the lover of Julius Caesar.
Fasti Capitolini
The Fasti Capitolini, or Capitoline Fasti, are a list of the chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, extending from the early fifth century BC down to the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Together with similar lists found at Rome and elsewhere, they form part of a chronology referred to as the "Fasti Annales", "Fasti Consulares", or "Consular Fasti", or occasionally just the "fasti".
Augustus
The month of August (Latin: "Augustus") is named after Augustus; until his time it was called Sextilis (named so because it had been the sixth month of the original Roman calendar and the Latin word for six is "sex"). Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the 13th century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length (see Julian calendar). According to a "senatus consultum" quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honor Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.
Cottius
The Roman alliance was established in 13 or 12 BC, and is attested in an inscription in the Arch of Susa, which was erected to commemorate this agreement between 9 and 8 AD. Augustus attended its unveiling. By it Cottius became a client king of Rome, with his authority was reduced in exchange of the retention of his autonomy. While deferring authority to Augustus, he continued to hold his hereditary position in his land. Millar called such an arrangement as a dual sovereignty. Cottius became a Roman citizen, Latinising his name as Marcus Julius Cottius, and was appointed "præfectus civitatium". Areas assigned to this type of prefect were areas newly brought under Roman administration in the Augustan period. These officials oversaw areas with a number of tribes and had a fixed term of office. However, this post in Cottia was permanent and hereditary.
Octavian (romance)
The Roman Emperor Octavian, upset that, after seven years of marriage, his wife has born him no child, weeps to himself in bed. Octavian's wife hears this and tries to comfort him with the suggestion that they build an abbey and dedicate it to the Virgin Mary. In thanks the Virgin will provide them with a child, she is sure (Octavian became the Roman Emperor Augustus in 27 BC, nearly thirty years before the birth of Christ. Geoffrey Chaucer also transports us back to the age of Augustus in his Book of the Duchess).
Imperial Roman army
Under Augustus, the European borders of the empire he inherited from his grand-uncle Julius Caesar were considerably expanded. During the first half of his sole rule (30–9 BC), Augustus' central strategic objective was to advance the Roman border from Illyricum and Macedonia to the line of the Danube, Europe's greatest river, in order both to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and to provide a major fluvial supply route for the Roman armies in the region. The strategy was successfully executed: Moesia (29-7 BC), Noricum (16 BC), Raetia (15 BC) and Pannonia (12-9 BC) were annexed in steady succession. After settling the Danube border, Augustus turned his attention to the North, where Julius Caesar had in 51 BC established the border of Roman Gaul along the river Rhine, the second major European fluvial route. Augustus launched an ambitious strategy of advancing the Rhine border to the river Elbe, aiming to incorporate all the warlike Germanic tribes. This would eliminate their chronic threat to Gaul, increase strategic depth between free Germans and Gaul, and make the western Germans' formidable manpower available to the Roman army. But a massive and sustained military effort (6 BC – AD 9) came to nothing. Roman advances in Germania Magna (i.e. Germany outside the empire) had to be scaled down during the Great Illyrian Revolt of AD 6-9, when many troops were diverted to Illyricum. Then Augustus' expansion strategy suffered a crushing setback when some 20,000 Roman troops were ambushed and massacred by the Germans at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. After this, Augustus shelved his Elbe strategy. It was apparently revived briefly by his successor Tiberius, whose nephews, the generals Germanicus and Drusus, launched major and successful operations in Germania in AD 14-17, during which the main tribes responsible for Varus' defeat were crushed and the three lost legionary "aquilae" (eagle-standards) were recovered.
Constitutional reforms of Augustus
Julius Caesar campaigned in Gaul from 59 BC to 49 BC, which granted him unmatched military power and popularity with the people of Rome. With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to lay down his military command and return to Rome as a "privatus" ("private citizen"). Caesar refused, and marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon River at the head of his army, leaving his province and illegally entering Roman territory under arms. Civil war resulted, from which Caesar emerged as the unrivaled ruler of Rome.
Death of Cleopatra
The deaths of Cleopatra and Caesarion marked the end of both the Ptolemaic dynasty's rule of Egypt and the Hellenistic period, which had lasted since the reign of Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC). Egypt became a province of the newly established Roman Empire, with Octavian renamed in 27 BC as Augustus, the first Roman emperor, ruling with the facade of a Roman Republic. Roller affirms that Caesarion's alleged reign was "essentially a fiction" invented by chroniclers of Egypt, such as Clement of Alexandria in his "Stromata", to explain the gap between Cleopatra's death and the induction of Egypt as a Roman province directly ruled by Octavian as pharaoh of Egypt. Antony's three children with Cleopatra were spared and sent to Rome; their daughter Cleopatra Selene II eventually married Juba II of Mauretania.
List of Roman emperors
The Roman emperors were rulers of the Roman Empire, wielding power over its citizens and military, dating from the granting of the title of to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC. Augustus maintained a façade of republican rule, rejecting monarchical titles but calling himself (first man of the senate) and (first citizen of the state). The title of Augustus was conferred on his successors to the imperial position. The style of government instituted by Augustus is called the Principate and continued until reforms by Diocletian. The modern word 'emperor' derives from the title , which was granted by an army to a successful general; during the initial phase of the empire, it still had to be earned by the .
Imperial Roman army
Unlike the Republican legions, which were, in theory at least, temporary citizen-levies for the duration of particular wars, Augustus and his right-hand man Agrippa clearly envisioned their legions as permanent units composed of career professionals. Under the late Republic, a Roman citizen "iunior" (i.e. male of military age: 16–46 years) could legally be required to serve a maximum of sixteen years in the legions and a maximum of six years consecutively. The average number of years served was about ten. In 13 BC, Augustus decreed sixteen years as the "standard" term of service for legionary recruits, with a further four years as reservists ("evocati"). In AD 5, the standard term was increased to twenty years plus five years in the reserves. In the period following its introduction, the new term was deeply unpopular with the troops. On Augustus' death in AD 14, the legions stationed on the rivers Rhine and Danube staged major mutinies, and demanded, among other things, reinstatement of a sixteen-year term. Augustus prohibited serving legionaries from marrying, a decree that remained in force for two centuries. This measure was probably prudent in the early imperial period, when most legionaries were from Italy or the Roman colonies on the Mediterranean, and were required to serve long years far from home. This could lead to disaffection if they left families behind. But from about AD 100 onwards, when most legions were based long-term in the same frontier-province and recruitment was primarily local, the prohibition of marriage became a legal encumbrance that was largely ignored. Many legionaries formed stable relationships and brought up families. Their sons, although illegitimate in Roman law and thus unable to inherit their fathers' citizenship, were nevertheless frequently admitted to legions.
Coniuratio Italiae
The Oath of Italy ("Coniuratio Italiae") was an historical event taking place in 31 BC, by which Italy swore allegiance to Octavian Caesar in the Final war of the Roman Republic against Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Augustus himself retells the facts in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti: ""The whole of Italy voluntarily took oath of allegiance to me and demanded me as its leader in the war in which I was victorious at Actium."" Following the event, the Western provinces of Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and Gaul also sided with Augustus, and the same happened with the Eastern provinces and Egypt following the conflict. The Oath of Italy was foundational for the birth of the Roman Empire in a similar way the Oath of Brutus was declared to overthrow the Roman Kingdom, as both were used as an expression of the will of the people.
Augustus
After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward façade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates, and the legislative assemblies. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and those of tribune and censor. It took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself "Princeps Civitatis" ("First Citizen of the State"). The resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire.
Roman province
In the so-called Augustan Settlement of 27 BC which established the Roman Empire, the governance of the provinces was regulated. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, having emerged from the Roman civil wars as the undisputed victor and master of the Roman state, officially laid down his powers, and in theory restored the authority of the Roman Senate. Octavian himself assumed the title "Augustus" and was given to govern, in addition to Egypt, the strategically important provinces of Gaul, Hispania and Syria (including Cilicia and Cyprus).
Augustus
By 23 BC, some of the un-Republican implications were becoming apparent concerning the settlement of 27 BC. Augustus' 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. 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, alienating his three greatest supporters – Agrippa, Maecenas, and Livia. He appointed noted Republican Calpurnius Piso as co-consul in 23 BC, after his choice Aulus Terentius Varro Murena (who had fought against Julius Caesar and supported Cassius and Brutus) was executed in consequence of his involvement in the Marcus Primus affair.
August
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. It was originally named "Sextilis" in Latin because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar under Romulus in 753 BC, and March was the first month of the year. About 700 BC, it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 46 BC (708 AUC), giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC, it was renamed in honor of Augustus. According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt.
Perusine War
The Perusine War (also Perusian or Perusinian War, or the War of Perusia) was a civil war of the Roman Republic, which lasted from 41 to 40 BC. It was fought by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia to support Mark Antony against his political enemy (and the future Emperor Augustus), Octavian.
Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Eng. The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. The "Res Gestae" is especially significant because it gives an insight into the image Augustus portrayed to the Roman people. Various portions of the "Res Gestae" have been found in modern Turkey. The inscription itself is a monument to the establishment of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that was to follow Augustus.
1st century
During this period, Europe, North Africa and the Near East fell under increasing domination by the Roman Empire, which continued expanding, most notably conquering Britain under the emperor Claudius (AD 43). The reforms introduced by Augustus during his long reign stabilized the empire after the turmoil of the previous century's civil wars. Later in the century the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which had been founded by Augustus, came to an end with the suicide of Nero in AD 68. There followed the famous Year of Four Emperors, a brief period of civil war and instability, which was finally brought to an end by Vespasian, ninth Roman emperor, and founder of the Flavian dynasty. The Roman Empire generally experienced a period of prosperity and dominance in this period and the First Century is remembered as part of the Empire's golden age.
History of Rome
However, the growth of the Imperium Romanum (Roman power) created new problems, and new demands, that the old political system of the Republic, with its annually elected magistrates and its sharing of power, could not solve. The dictatorship of Sulla, the extraordinary commands of Pompey Magnus, and the first triumvirate made that clear. In January 49 BC, Julius Caesar the conqueror of Gaul, marched his legions against Rome. In the following years, he vanquished his opponents, and ruled Rome for four years. After his assassination in 44 BC, the Senate tried to reestablish the Republic, but its champions, Marcus Junius Brutus (descendant of the founder of the republic) and Gaius Cassius Longinus were defeated by Caesar's lieutenant Marcus Antonius and Caesar's nephew, Octavian.
History of Europe
The Romans expanded from Arabia to Britannia. In 44 BC as it approached its height, its dictator Julius Caesar was murdered by senators in an attempt to restore the Republic. In the ensuing turmoil, Octavian (ruled as Augustus; and as "divi filius", or Son of God, as Julius had adopted him as an heir) usurped the reins of power and fought the Roman Senate. While proclaiming the rebirth of the Republic, he had ushered in the transfer of the Roman state from a republic to an empire, the Roman Empire, which lasted for more than four centuries until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
The Twelve Caesars
Octavian (not yet renamed Augustus) finished the civil wars started by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar. One by one, Augustus defeated the legions of the other generals who wanted to succeed Julius Caesar as the master of the Roman world. Suetonius includes descriptions of these civil wars, including the final one against Mark Antony that ended with the Battle of Actium. Antony had been Octavian's last surviving rival, but committed suicide after his defeat at Actium. It was after this victory in 31 BC that Octavian became master of the Roman world and imperator (emperor). His declaration of the end of the Civil Wars that had started under Julius Caesar marked the historic beginning of the Roman Empire, and the Pax Romana. Octavian at this point was given the title ("the venerable") by the Roman Senate.
Emperor
When Republican Rome turned into a "de facto" monarchy in the second half of the 1st century BC, at first there was no name for the title of the new type of monarch. Ancient Romans abhorred the name Rex ("king"), and it was critical to the political order to maintain the forms and pretenses of republican rule. Julius Caesar had been Dictator, an acknowledged and traditional office in Republican Rome. Caesar was not the first to hold it, but following his assassination the term was abhorred in Rome.
Augustus, considered the first Roman emperor, established his hegemony by collecting on himself offices, titles, and honours of Republican Rome that had traditionally been distributed to different people, concentrating what had been distributed power in one man. One of these offices was "princeps senatus", ("first man of the Senate") and became changed into Augustus' chief honorific, "princeps civitatis" ("first citizen") from which the modern English word and title prince is descended. The first period of the Roman Empire, from 27 BC – 284 AD, is called the "principate" for this reason. However, it was the informal descriptive of "Imperator" ("commander") that became the title increasingly favored by his successors. Previously bestowed on high officials and military commanders who had "imperium", Augustus reserved it exclusively to himself as the ultimate holder of all "imperium". ("Imperium" is Latin for the authority to command, one of a various types of authority delineated in Roman political thought.)
Western Roman Empire
The deposition of Romulus Augustus and the rise of Odoacer as ruler of Italy in 476 received very little attention at the time. Overall, very little changed for the people; there was still a Roman Emperor in Constantinople to whom Odoacer had subordinated himself. Interregna had been experienced at many points in the West before and the deposition of Romulus Augustus was nothing out of the ordinary. Odoacer saw his rule as entirely in the tradition of the Roman Empire, not unlike Ricimer, and he effectively ruled as an imperial "governor" of Italy and was even awarded the title of "patricius". Odoacer ruled using the Roman administrative systems already in place and continued to mint coins with the name and portrait of Julius Nepos until 480 and later with the name and portrait of the Eastern "Augustus", rather than in his own name.
Indo–Roman relations
Indo-Roman relations began during the reign of Augustus (23 September 63 BCE – 19 August 14 CE), the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
The presence of Romans in the Indian Subcontinent and the relations between these regions during the period of the Roman Empire are poorly documented. Before the conquests of Alexander in the Indian subcontinent, there are no surviving accounts by contemporaries or near-contemporaries, so modern understanding depends on more abundant literary, numismatic, and archaeological evidence, mainly relating to the trade between them.
Caligula
Caligula (; Latin: "Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus"; 31 August 12 – 24 January 41 AD) was Roman emperor from AD 37 to AD 41. The son of the popular Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder, Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire, conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Germanicus' uncle and adoptive father, Tiberius, succeeded Augustus as emperor of Rome in AD 14.
Roman Empire
The first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). It reached its greatest territorial expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD). A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus. In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified under Aurelian. In an effort to stabilize the Empire, Diocletian set up two different imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West. Christians rose to power in the 4th century following the Edict of Milan in 313 and the Edict of Thessalonica in 380. Shortly after, the Migration Period involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and the Huns of Attila led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD by Odoacer, who proclaimed himself King of Italy, the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed and it was formally abolished by emperor Zeno in 480 AD. The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, continued until 1453 with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire.
Classical Anatolia
With Antony dead, and Lepidus marginalised, the second triumvirate was effectively dissolved, leaving Octavian as the sole power. Thus the republic came to and end. Octavian's powers progressively increased, he was granted the title "Augustus" by the Senate and adopted the title "princeps senatus" in 27 BC although technically a consul, and shortly after "Imperator" in effect Emperor and the first phase of the Roman Empire, the Principate (27 BC – 284 AD) was born. In exchange for this redistribution of powers, a long history of civil wars came to an end, replaced by the Augustan age (27 BC – 14 AD). 
The endless wars had been devastating for Asia Minor.
Augustus (Massie novel)
Augustus is a 1986 historical novel by Scottish writer Allan Massie, the first of a highly regarded series of novels about the movers and makers of Imperial Rome. Massie begins with Augustus, the successor to Julius Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire for forty one years and oversaw the beginnings of an extended peace,' the Pax Romana '.
Pax Romana
The Pax Romana began when Octavian (Augustus) defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC and became Roman emperor. He became princeps, or "first citizen". Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a junta of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of civil war. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in Hispania and in the Alps. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the Gates of Janus (a ceremony indicating that Rome was at peace) three times, first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but Inez Scott Ryberg (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the commissioning of the Ara Pacis. At the time of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BC the Concept of Peace was publicised, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and Agrippa jointly returned from pacifying the provinces. The order to construct the Ara Pacis was no doubt part of this announcement.
Augustus (Williams novel)
Augustus is an epistolary, historical fiction by John Williams published by Viking Press in 1972. It tells the story of Augustus, emperor of Rome, from his youth through old age. The book is divided into two parts, the beginning chronicling his rise to power, the latter describing his rule thereafter, and the familial problems faced choosing a successor. Williams and "Augustus" shared the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction with John Barth and "Chimera", the first time the award was split, and the only of Williams' four novels to receive significant acclaim within his lifetime.
History of accounting
By the time of Emperor Augustus (63 BC - AD 14), the Roman government had access to detailed financial information as evidenced by the "Res Gestae Divi Augusti" (Latin: "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus"). The inscription was an account to the Roman people of the Emperor Augustus' stewardship, and listed and quantified his public expenditure, including distributions to the people, grants of land or money to army veterans, subsidies to the "aerarium" (treasury), building of temples, religious offerings, and expenditures on theatrical shows and gladiatorial games, covering a period of about forty years. The scope of the accounting information at the emperor's disposal suggests that its purpose encompassed planning and decision-making.
Parthian Empire
Following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian consolidated his political power and in 27 BC was named Augustus by the Roman Senate, becoming the first Roman emperor. Around this time, Tiridates II of Parthia briefly overthrew Phraates IV, who was able to quickly reestablish his rule with the aid of Scythian nomads. Tiridates fled to the Romans, taking one of Phraates' sons with him. In negotiations conducted in 20 BC, Phraates arranged for the release of his kidnapped son. In return, the Romans received the lost legionary standards taken at Carrhae in 53 BC, as well as any surviving prisoners of war. The Parthians viewed this exchange as a small price to pay to regain the prince. Augustus hailed the return of the standards as a political victory over Parthia; this propaganda was celebrated in the minting of new coins, the building of a new temple to house the standards, and even in fine art such as the breastplate scene on his statue Augustus of Prima Porta.
Along with the prince, Augustus also gave Phraates IV an Italian slave-girl, who later became Queen Musa of Parthia. To ensure that her child Phraataces would inherit the throne without incident, Musa convinced Phraates IV to give his other sons to Augustus as hostages. Again, Augustus used this as propaganda depicting the submission of Parthia to Rome, listing it as a great accomplishment in his "Res Gestae Divi Augusti". When Phraataces took the throne as Phraates V ("r". c. 2 BC – 4 AD), Musa married her own son and ruled alongside him. The Parthian nobility, disapproving of both the incestuous relationship and the notion of a king with non-Arsacid blood, forced the pair into exile in Roman territory. Phraates' successor Orodes III of Parthia lasted just two years on the throne, and was followed by Vonones I, who had adopted many Roman mannerisms during time in Rome. The Parthian nobility, angered by Vonones' sympathies for the Romans, backed a rival claimant, Artabanus III of Parthia ("r". c. 10–38 AD), who eventually defeated Vonones and drove him into exile in Roman Syria.
Ballot laws of the Roman Republic
After the Final War ended in 30 BC, Octavius controlled all of Rome. He concentrated the powers of consul, tribune, and pontifex maximus in his own hands, ruling as an autocrat in all but name. Octavius, renamed Augustus in 27 BC, would be the first Roman emperor. These events marked the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Principate. Although the assemblies continued to meet during the Principate, Augustus removed their judicial role and began transferring their electoral power to the Senate; his successor Tiberius would completely end the electoral role of the assemblies. The assemblies continued to have legislative powers, but even under Augustus this power was exercised more and more rarely. Rome became an autocratic state in all but name, and the ballot laws became irrelevant to the running of the state.
Zhang Qian
The Roman historian Florus describes the visit of numerous envoys, including "Seres" (Chinese or central Asians), to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who reigned between 27 BC and 14:
European balance of power
Rome, a Latin republic with a mixed constitution, unified Italy around the same period and then rose to prominence in the western and eastern Mediterranean through the Punic and Macedonian wars. Such a rapid expansion was followed by the so-called 'Roman Revolution', when the Gracchi, the Servile Wars, the Social War and Sulla's civil wars shook the Italian peninsula. Meanwhile, the popularity and wealth of Roman generals increased:  notably Julius Caesar acquired fame for projecting military power north of the Alps into Gaul, east of the Rhine into Germania and across the English channel into Britain. A group of senators afraid of Caesar's title of "dictator for life" assassinated him the Ides of March of 44 BC. The adoptive son of Caesar, Octavian Augustus, defeated the killers of his father and became the first Roman Emperor ("Princeps") in 27 BC.
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.
History of the Roman Empire
Now sole ruler of Rome, Octavian began a full-scale reformation of military, fiscal and political matters. The Senate granted him power over appointing its membership and over the gov
lic, and as such he operated within the existing constitutional machinery. He thus rejected titles that Romans associated with monarchy, such as "rex" ("king"). The dictatorship, a military office in the early Republic typically lasting only for the six-month military campaigning season, had been resurrected first by Sulla in the late 80s BC and then by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s; the title "dictator" was never again used. As the adopted heir of Julius Caesar, Augustus had taken "Caesar" as a component of his name, and handed down the name to his heirs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. With Vespasian, one of the first emperors outside the dynasty, "Caesar" evolved from a family name to a formal title.
Ancient Rome
By the end of the Republic (27 BC), Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa. The Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century.
Women in ancient Rome
Classical texts have little to say about women and the Roman army. Emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BC–AD 14) disallowed marriage by ordinary soldiers, a ban that lasted nearly two centuries. However it has been suggested that wives and children of centurions lived with them at border and provincial forts. Shoes in women's and children's sizes were found at Vindolanda (site of a Roman fort on Hadrian's wall in northern England), along with bronze plaques, awarded to provincial soldiers whose 25 years of service earned them Roman citizenship, that mention their wives and children. Likewise, in Germany, further evidence of this practice was discovered in the form of brooches and shoes. Trajan's Column depicts six women amongst the soldiers who are attendants holding sacrificial offerings at a military religious ceremony.
Lucretia
The constitutional consequences of this event were, formally at least, to reverberate for more than two thousand years. Rome would never again have a hereditary "king," even if later emperors were absolute rulers in all but name. This constitutional tradition prevented both Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus from accepting a crown; instead they had to devise a confluence of several republican offices onto their persons in order to secure absolute power. Their successors both in Rome and in Constantinople adhered to this tradition in form if not in essence, and even the office of German Holy Roman Emperor remained typically elective rather than hereditary—up to its abolition in the Napoleonic Wars, 2314 years later.
Ancient Rome
In military activity, Augustus was absent at battles. His generals were responsible for the field command; gaining such commanders as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Nero Claudius Drusus and Germanicus much respect from the populace and the legions. Augustus intended to extend the Roman Empire to the whole known world, and in his reign, Rome conquered Cantabria Aquitania, Raetia, Dalmatia, Illyricum and Pannonia.
History of Tunisia
Augustus (ruled 31 B.C. to 14 A.D.) controlled the Roman state following the civil war at would mark the end of the Roman Republic. He established a quasi-constitutional regime known as the "Principate", later to be called the Roman Empire.
Augustus
The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the "Pax Romana". The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, and completing the conquest of Hispania, but suffered a major setback in Germania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at the age of 75, probably from natural causes. However, there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son (also stepson and former son-in-law) Tiberius.
Mark Antony
When Antony died, Octavian became uncontested ruler of Rome. In the following years, Octavian, who was known as Augustus after 27 BC, managed to accumulate in his person all administrative, political, and military offices. When Augustus died in AD 14, his political powers passed to his adopted son Tiberius; the Roman Principate had begun.
Roman calendar
After the establishment of the Roman Republic, years began to be dated by consulships and control over intercalation was granted to the pontifices, who eventually abused their power by lengthening years controlled by their political allies and shortening the years in their rivals' terms of office. Having won his war with Pompey, Caesar used his position as Rome's chief pontiff to enact a calendar reform in 46, coincidentally making the year of his third consulship last for 446 days. In order to avoid interfering with Rome's religious ceremonies, the reform added all its days towards the ends of months and did not adjust any nones or ides, even in months which came to have 31 days. The Julian calendar was supposed to have a single leap day on 24 February (a doubled ") every fourth year but following Caesar's assassination the priests figured this using inclusive counting and mistakenly added the bissextile day every three years. In order to bring the calendar back to its proper place, Augustus was obliged to suspend intercalation for one or two decades. The revised calendar remaining slightly longer than the solar year, the date of Easter shifted far enough away from the vernal equinox that Pope Gregory XIII ordered its adjustment in the 16th century.
Julius Nepos
The reasons for Orestes' decision to crown his son as a puppet-emperor, rather than become emperor himself, are somewhat unclear. However, Romulus' position was not constitutional inasmuch as he had not been recognised by the Emperor at Constantinople, in whose eyes Nepos was still the sole Augustus of the West. Romulus' short reign ended on September 4, 476, when Odoacer, head of the Germanic Foederati in Italy, captured Ravenna, killed Orestes, and deposed Romulus. Odoacer sent Romulus Augustulus to Campania in exile or retirement, after which he disappears from the historical record.
Roman army
Under the founder–emperor Augustus (ruled 30 BC – 14 AD), the legions, c. 5,000-strong all-heavy infantry formations recruited from Roman citizens only, were transformed from a mixed conscript and volunteer corps serving an average of 10 years, to all-volunteer units of long-term professionals serving a standard 25-year term (conscription was only decreed in emergencies). In the later 1st century, the size of a legion's First Cohort was doubled, increasing legionary personnel to c. 5,500.
Julius Caesar
Because Caesar's clemency had resulted in his murder, the Second Triumvirate reinstated the practice of proscription, abandoned since Sulla. It engaged in the legally sanctioned killing of a large number of its opponents to secure funding for its 45 legions in the second civil war against Brutus and Cassius. Antony and Octavian defeated them at Philippi.
Afterward, Mark Antony formed an alliance with Caesar's lover, Cleopatra, intending to use the fabulously wealthy Egypt as a base to dominate Rome. A third civil war broke out between Octavian on one hand and Antony and Cleopatra on the other. This final civil war, culminating in the latter's defeat at Actium in 31 BC and suicide in Egypt in 30 BC, resulted in the permanent ascendancy of Octavian, who became the first Roman emperor, under the name Caesar Augustus, a name conveying religious, rather than political, authority.
Roman army
During this period the Republican system of citizen-conscription was replaced by a standing professional army of mainly volunteers serving standard 20-year terms (plus 5 as reservists), although many in the service of the empire would serve as many as 30 to 40 years on active duty, as established by the first Roman emperor, Augustus (sole ruler 30 BC – AD 14).Regular annual conscription of citizens was abandoned and only decreed in emergencies (e.g. during the Illyrian revolt 6–9 AD). Under Augustus there were 28 legions, consisting almost entirely of heavy infantry, with about 5,000 men each (total 125,000). This had increased to a peak of 33 legions of about 5,500 men each (c. 180,000 men in total) by AD 200 under Septimius Severus. Legions continued to recruit Roman citizens, mainly the inhabitants of Italy and Roman colonies, until 212. Legions were flanked by the auxilia, a corps of regular troops recruited mainly from "peregrini", imperial subjects who did not hold Roman citizenship (the great majority of the empire's inhabitants until 212, when all were granted citizenship). Auxiliaries, who served a minimum term of 25 years, were also mainly volunteers, but regular conscription of "peregrini" was employed for most of the 1st century AD. The "auxilia" consisted, under Augustus, of about 250 regiments of roughly cohort size, that is, about 500 men (in total 125,000 men, or 50% of total army effectives). Under Severus the number of regiments increased to about 400, of which about 13% were double-strength (250,000 men, or 60% of total army). "Auxilia" contained heavy infantry equipped similarly to legionaries, and almost all the army's cavalry (both armoured and light), and archers and slingers.
Illyricum (Roman province)
After his campaigns in Illyricum, Octavian fought a war against Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt in 31/30 BC. He won and became the sole ruler of Rome. After that he spent a few years laying the foundations for his personal rule. Illyricum became a province as a formal administrative unit in 27 BC, with the first settlement with the Roman senate. This formalised his personal rule. The senate bestowed of the honorary title of Augustus on him. He became the first Roman emperor. Historians use the name Augustus for this period. The settlement also divided the provinces of the empire into senatorial and imperial provinces. The former were under the authority of the senate, which chose their governors form among the senators. The latter were under Augustus, who appointed their governors. Augustus held the frontier provinces, which hosted the bulk of the Roman troops. Initially Illyricum was a senatorial propreatorial province. Rebellions in the province showed the necessity of maintaining a strong force there and in 11 BC it became an imperial province under the governorship of Publius Cornelius Dolabella.
The Sandman: Fables &amp; Reflections
Another story concerning a month. An extremely bleak tale about the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar set in 7 AD. Disguised as a beggar, he talks of his life to the dwarf who instructs him in this disguise. We learn that as a young man, he was raped by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar; and we learn that Augustus chose the future of the world from two sets of prophecies, one in which the Roman Empire grew to cover the whole world and lasted millennia, and one in which it died out after a few hundred years. He spends one day a year disguised as a beggar because Morpheus told him, in a dream, that if he does so the gods cannot spy on his plans. It is implied that, during his days in disguise as a beggar, Augustus plotted for the Roman Empire to fall after his death out of his hatred for Julius Caesar. Penciled by Bryan Talbot and inked by Stan Woch.
Celtic warfare
The "Gallic Wars" were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against Gallic tribes, lasting from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Romans would also raid Britannia and Germania, but these expeditions never developed into full-scale invasions. The Gallic Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the Roman Republic over the whole of Gaul. The wars paved the way for Caesar to become the sole ruler of the Roman Republic.
Roman Empire
The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs. The Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically-inclined Marcus Aurelius.
Arch of Augustus (Susa)
The Arch of Augustus is an important monument constructed in the city of Susa, Piedmont, in the province of Turin. It was originally built at the end of the 1st century BC to record the renewed alliance between Emperor Augustus and Marcus Julius Cottius, a Celto-Ligurian ruler who had been made king and Roman prefect of the Cottian Alps. The arch, together with other remains from the period, such as the Roman amphitheatre, underscore the importance that the city of Susa had during the Roman period.
History of the Roman Constitution
By 48 BC, after having defeated the last of his major enemies, Julius Caesar wanted to ensure that his control over the government was undisputed. He assumed these powers by increasing his own authority, and by decreasing the authority of Rome's other political institutions. Caesar held the office of Roman Dictator, and alternated between the Consulship (the chief-magistracy) and the Proconsulship (in effect, a military governorship). In 48 BC, Caesar was given the powers of a Plebeian Tribune, which made his person sacrosanct, gave him the power to veto the Senate, and allowed him to dominate the legislative process. After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Mark Antony formed an alliance with Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, Gaius Octavian. Along with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, they formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate, and held powers that were nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution. While the conspirators who had assassinated Caesar were defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, the peace that resulted was only temporary. Antony and Octavian fought against each other in one last battle in 31 BC. Antony was defeated, and in 30 BC he committed suicide. In 29 BC, Octavian returned to Rome as the unchallenged master of the state. The reign of Octavian, whom history remembers as Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, marked the dividing line between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. By the time this process was complete, Rome had completed its transition from a city-state with a network of dependencies, to the capital of an empire.
Mark Antony
While Antony was serving Gabinius in the East, the domestic political situation had changed in Rome. In 60 BC, a secret agreement (known as the "First Triumvirate") was entered into between three men to control the Republic: Marcus Licinius Crassus, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, and Gaius Julius Caesar. Crassus, Rome's wealthiest man, had defeated the slave rebellion of Spartacus in 70 BC; Pompey conquered much of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 60's BC; Caesar was Rome's Pontifex Maximus and a former general in Spain. In 59 BC, Caesar, with funding from Crassus, was elected Consul to pursue legislation favorable to Crassus and Pompey's interests. In return, Caesar was assigned the governorship of Illyricum, Cisalpine Gaul, and Transalpine Gaul for five years beginning in 58 BC. Caesar used his governorship as a launching point for his conquest of free Gaul. In 55 BC, Crassus and Pompey served as Consuls while Caesar's command was extended for another five years. Rome was effectively under the absolute power of these three men. The Triumvirate used the demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher, Antony's patron, to exile their political rivals, notably Cicero and Cato the Younger.
Constitutional reforms of Julius Caesar
After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony, who at the time had been Caesar's fellow consul, eventually formed an alliance with Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, Gaius Octavian. Along with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who was Caesar's magister equitum (master of horse) at the time of his assassination, they formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate. They held powers that were nearly identical to the powers that Caesar had held under his constitution, and as such, the senate and assemblies remained powerless. The conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. Lepidus became powerless, and Antony went to Egypt to seek glory in the east, while Octavian remained in Rome. Eventually, however, Antony and Octavian fought against each other in one last battle. Antony was defeated in the naval Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and committed suicide in 30 BC. In 29 BC, Octavian returned to Rome, as the unchallenged master of the state. In 27 BC, Octavian offered to give up the Dictatorial powers which he had held since 42 BC, but the senate refused, and thus ratified his status as master of the state. He became the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, and the transition from Roman Republic to Roman Empire was complete.
History of Italy
Under Augustus's rule, Roman literature grew steadily in the Golden Age of Latin Literature. Poets like Vergil, Horace, Ovid and Rufus developed a rich literature, and were close friends of Augustus. Along with Maecenas, he stimulated patriotic poems, as Vergil's epic "Aeneid" and also historiographical works, like those of Livy. The works of this literary age lasted through Roman times, and are classics. Augustus also continued the shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him. Augustus' enlightened rule resulted in a 200 years long peaceful and thriving era for the Empire, known as "Pax Romana".
Imperial Roman army
On gaining undisputed mastery over the Roman empire in 30 BC, Augustus (sole rule 30 BC – AD 14) was left with an army which was bloated by extraordinary recruitment for the Roman civil wars and at the same time lacking a suitable organisation for the defence and expansion of a vast empire. Even after disbanding most of his defeated adversary Mark Anthony's legions, Augustus had 50 legions under his command, composed exclusively of Roman citizens i.e. by that time, of Italians and inhabitants of Roman colonies outside Italy. Alongside these were a mass of irregular non-Italian allied units whose command, size and equipment varied greatly. Some allied units came from provinces within the empire, others from beyond the imperial borders.
Berber kings of Roman-era Tunisia
Augustus (imperial rule: 31 BC to AD 14) controlled the Roman state following the civil wars that marked the end of the Republic (c. 510–44). He established a quasi-constitutional regime known as the Principate, commonly included as the first phase of the Empire. Roman actions in Africa throughout the period of civil war are harshly criticized by a modern Maghribi historian, Abdallah Laroui, who notes the cummulative lands lost by Berbers to Romans, and how the Romans had steadily steered events to their benefit.
Augustus
Tacitus was of the belief that Nerva (r. 96–98) successfully "mingled two formerly alien ideas, principate and liberty". 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. The poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39–65) was of the opinion that Caesar's victory over Pompey and the fall of Cato the Younger (95 BC–46 BC) marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome; historian Chester G. Starr, Jr. writes of his avoidance of criticizing Augustus, "perhaps Augustus was too sacred a figure to accuse directly."
Domitian
Domitian had a minor and largely ceremonial role during the reigns of his father and brother. After the death of his brother, Domitian was declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard. His 15-year reign was the longest since that of Tiberius. As emperor, Domitian strengthened the economy by revaluing the Roman coinage, expanded the border defenses of the empire, and initiated a massive building program to restore the damaged city of Rome. Significant wars were fought in Britain, where his general Agricola attempted to conquer Caledonia (Scotland), and in Dacia, where Domitian was unable to procure a decisive victory against king Decebalus. Domitian's government exhibited strong authoritarian characteristics; he saw himself as the new Augustus, an enlightened despot destined to guide the Roman Empire into a new era of brilliance. Religious, military, and cultural propaganda fostered a cult of personality, and by nominating himself perpetual censor, he sought to control public and private morals. As a consequence, Domitian was popular with the people and army, but considered a tyrant by members of the Roman Senate.
Archelaus of Cappadocia
When Octavian became the first Roman Emperor Augustus, Archelaus became an important client monarch to Rome, and Augustus considered Archelaus loyal. Augustus had no commitment to provincialization as a matter of policy. In 25 BC, Augustus assigned Archelaus to rule Cilicia Trachea, the harbor city of Elaiussa Sebaste, as well as parts of the surrounding Cilician coast and Armenia Minor. By giving Archelaus all these extra territories to govern, Augustus was able to eliminate piracy and build a more solid bulwark against Parthia.
Fasti
Solinus observed that Gaius Pompeius Gallus and Quintus Verranius were consuls in Olympiad 207.1, and that this year was 801 AUC, counting from the foundation of Rome at Olympiad 7.1. By modern calculation this is 49 AD. He was relying on the official dating scheme, which must have been the "fasti consulares". In Varro's chronology this is AUC 802. Simple subtraction shows that AUC 1 in Augustus' fasti is 753/752 BC. The fasti give to the start of the republic a date of 244 AUC, but some editors "correct" all the AUC to Varronian. Similarly the fasti run to the death of Augustus in 13 AD (14 in the Varronian). This is not a difference in the starting date of the republic or the year of Augustus' death, which remain in the same years relative to surrounding events in either case; instead, the year of AUC 1 differs.
Cleopatra
Cleopatra decided in her last moments to send Caesarion away to Upper Egypt, perhaps with plans to flee to Kushite Nubia, Ethiopia, or India. Caesarion, now Ptolemy XV, would reign for a mere 18 days until executed on the orders of Octavian on 29 August 30 BC, after returning to Alexandria under the false pretense that Octavian would allow him to be king. Octavian was convinced by the advice of the philosopher Arius Didymus that there was room for only one Caesar in the world. With the fall of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Roman province of Egypt was established, marking the end of the Hellenistic period. In January 27 BC Octavian was renamed Augustus ("the revered") and amassed constitutional powers that established him as the first Roman emperor, inaugurating the Principate era of the Roman Empire.
Itineraries of the Roman emperors, 337–361
Julian's troops proclaimed him Augustus in February 360. Constantius did not recognize Julian's claim to the title, but was detained from campaigning against him by Persian raids. Constantius died on 3 November 361 after declaring Julian his successor. Julian was sole emperor from Constantius' death until his own death in 363. This article ends its coverage at Julian's death on June 26, 363. For a further timeline until 426, consult Matthews, John. Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D. 364-425. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
A † indicates that a date or an event is uncertain. A superscript S indicates that the manuscript is corrupt, and has been emended to follow Otto Seeck's corrections in his edition of the "Codex Theodosianus". Manuscript details are given in brackets (as "mss. date" or "mss. year", etc.) for all emended texts. Unsourced events are purely conjectural. Note that some are based on triangulation of different sources and can be, as such, somewhat inexact. These cases have been noted.
Augustus
In addition, the credit was given to Augustus for each subsequent Roman military victory after this time, because the majority of Rome's armies were stationed in imperial provinces commanded by Augustus through the legatus who were deputies of the princeps in the provinces. Moreover, if a battle was fought in a Senatorial province, Augustus' proconsular imperium maius allowed him to take command of (or credit for) any major military victory. This meant that Augustus was the only individual able to receive a triumph, a tradition that began with Romulus, Rome's first King and first triumphant general. Lucius Cornelius Balbus was the last man outside Augustus' family to receive this award, in 19 BC. Tiberius, Augustus' eldest stepson by Livia, was the only other general to receive a triumph—for victories in Germania in 7 BC.
Constitutional reforms of Augustus
The Constitutional reforms of Augustus were a series of laws that were enacted by the Roman Emperor Augustus between 30 BC and 2 BC, which transformed the Constitution of the Roman Republic into the Constitution of the Roman Empire. The era that began when Augustus (then named Imp. Caesar Divi Filius, but often called Octavian by historians) defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the final war of the Roman Republic in 30 BC, and ended when the Roman Senate granted Augustus the title ""Pater Patriae"" in 2 BC.
Marcus Aurelius
Two days before his death, the biographer reports, Antoninus was at his ancestral estate at Lorium, in Etruria, about 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Rome. He ate Alpine cheese at dinner quite greedily. In the night he vomited; he had a fever the next day. The day after that, 7 March 161, he summoned the imperial council, and passed the state and his daughter to Marcus. The emperor gave the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password—"aequanimitas" (equanimity). He then turned over, as if going to sleep, and died. His death closed out the longest reign since Augustus, surpassing Tiberius by a couple of months.
Georgics
Beginning with Caesar's assassination in 44 BC and ending with Octavian's victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC, Rome had been engaged in a series of almost constant civil wars. After almost 15 years of political and social upheaval, Octavian, the sole surviving member of the Second Triumvirate, became firmly established as the new leader of the Roman world. Under Octavian, Rome enjoyed a long period of relative peace and prosperity. However, Octavian's victory at Actium also sounded the death knell of the Republic. With Octavian as the sole ruler of the Roman world, the Roman Empire was born.
Ancient Rome
In 27 BC and at the age of 36, Octavian was the sole Roman leader. In that year, he took the name "Augustus". That event is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire—although Rome was an "imperial" state since 146 BC, when Carthage was razed by Scipio Aemilianus and Greece was conquered by Lucius Mummius. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers. His reform of the government brought about a two-century period colloquially referred to by Romans as the Pax Romana.
Victor (emperor)
Victor (Latin: "Flavius Victor Augustus"; Unknown – August 388AD) was a Western Roman Emperor from either 383/384 or 387 to August 388. He was the son of the Magister militum per Gallias Magnus Maximus, who later became an usurper of the Western Roman Empire, in opposition to Gratian. Maximus rose up in 383, and was recognized as the legitimate emperor in the west by Theodosius I. Victor was elevated to "augustus" of the Western Roman Empire in either 383/384 or mid-387, making him co-emperor with his father. Maximus invaded Italy, in 387, to depose Valentinian II, the brother and successor of the late Gratian. Because of Maximus' invasion, Theodosius invaded the Western Roman Empire in 388. Theodosius defeated Maximus in two battles in Pannonia, before crushing his army at Aquilea, and capturing Maximus. Maximus was executed on 28 August 388. His death was followed quickly by Victor's, who was executed where he had stayed in Trier by the Frankish General Arbogast.
Temple of Augustus, Pula
The Temple of Augustus () is a well-preserved Roman temple in the city of Pula, Croatia (known in Roman times as "Pola"). Dedicated to the first Roman emperor, Augustus, it was probably built during the emperor's lifetime at some point between 27 BC and his death in AD 14. It was built on a podium with a tetrastyle prostyle porch of Corinthian columns and measures about , and high. The richly decorated frieze is similar to that of a somewhat larger and more recent temple, the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France. These two temples are considered the two best complete Roman monuments outside Italy.