When Lepidus was forced into retirement, the areas he controlled (Gaul and western North Africa) fell to Octavian. ", Explore Biblical Bethlehem: The City of David and Birthplace of Jesus, Enjoy the Complete Christmas Story of the Birth of Jesus, Earliest Days of the Roman Christian Church, Meet Herod the Great: Ruthless Ruler of the Jews, Herod Antipas - Co-Conspirator in Jesus' Death, Profile of Pontius Pilate, Roman Governor of Judea, The Ultimate List of Christmas Bible Verses to Celebrate Jesus' Birth, Israel Tour Pictures: Photo Journal of the Holy Land, M.A., English Composition, Illinois State University, B.S., English Literature, Illinois State University. He was succeeded by Tiberius who he had adopted in 4 CE and who read the eulogy (along with his own son, Drusus) at Augustus’ famously grand funeral. [168] All the accused were sentenced to death for treason and executed as soon as they were captured—without ever giving testimony in their defence. [213] It is likely that Augustus was not expected to return alive from Nola, but it seems that his health improved once there; it has therefore been speculated that Augustus and Livia conspired to end his life at the anticipated time, having committed all political process to accepting Tiberius, in order to not endanger that transition. Augustus was no stranger to assassination plots. He killed his mother, persecuted Christians and is said to have "fiddled while Rome burned.". [142], 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. Provincials were decently treated. The resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. [177] Augustus's accumulation of powers was now complete. [161], Augustus was granted sole imperium within the city of Rome itself, in addition to being granted proconsular imperium maius and tribunician authority for life. [88] A temporary peace agreement was reached in 39 BC with the treaty of Misenum; the blockade on Italy was lifted once Octavian granted Pompeius Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and the Peloponnese, and ensured him a future position as consul for 35 BC. Politicians in Ancient Rome Were Insulting, Too", "Common Legend Abbreviations On Roman Coins", Works by and about Augustus at Perseus Digital Library, Cassius Dio's Roman History: Books 45–56, English translation, Suetonius's biography of Augustus, Latin text with English translation. With this title, he boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, and the use of Imperator signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. [137] 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. Owing to the many names the man went by in his life, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BCE, Octavian when referring to events between 44 and 27 BCE, and Augustus regarding events from 27 BCE to his death in 14 CE. [26] In 46 BC, she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, where he planned to fight the forces of Pompey, Caesar's late enemy, but Octavius fell ill and was unable to travel. [117], On 16 January 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new titles of Augustus and Princeps. "[58], 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. Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus on 23 September 63 BCE. These ties of kinship did not deter Sextus, after the Perusine War, from making overtures to Antony; but Antony rejected them and reached a fresh understanding with Octavian at the treaty of Brundisium, under the terms of which Octavian was to have the whole west (except for Africa, which Lepidus was allowed to keep) and Italy, which, though supposedly neutral ground, was in fact controlled by Octavian. He directed the future of the Empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. [147] For some years, Augustus had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, the immunity given to a Tribune of the Plebs. [236] 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. There had certainly been peace, but it was a blood-stained peace of disasters and assassinations.[238]. "Augustus." All of them taken together formed the basis of his auctoritas, which he himself emphasized as the foundation of his political actions. [190], Parthia had always posed a threat to Rome in the east, but the real battlefront was along the Rhine and Danube rivers. [231] 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. [186][187][188] Werner Eck claims that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge Crassus's defeat by military means. In 27 BCE the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus ("the illustrious one"), and he was then known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. [192] Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus to the Rhineland to pacify it, which had some success although the battle of AD 9 brought the end to Roman expansion into Germany. Lepidus was left with the province of Africa, stymied by Antony, who conceded Hispania to Octavian instead. ", Will 5G Impact Our Cell Phone Plans (or Our Health?! [145] It was not until AD 8 that a food crisis of this sort prompted Augustus to establish a praefectus annonae, a permanent prefect who was in charge of procuring food supplies for Rome. [115] The title of Romulus was associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image that Octavian tried to avoid. Almost the entire fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known as the Res Gestae was devoted to his military victories and honors. [249], On his deathbed, Augustus boasted "I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble." [243], The measures of taxation in the reign of Augustus were determined by population census, with fixed quotas for each province. He did a lot of good things for Rome, although the Senate believed he overused his power. [184] 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. Rome expanded from Great Britain all the way to India during the reign of Augustus. His father, who died in 59 bce, had been the first of the family to become a Roman senator and was elected to the high annual office of the praetorship, which ranked second in the political hierarchy to the consulship. Augustus used a census along with a taxation system to raise funds. Legally, it was closed to patricians, a status that Augustus had acquired some years earlier when adopted by Julius Caesar. (2018, May 04). Bowersock (1990), p. 380. Augustus held that title until his death in 14 CE. Octavian soon reached an agreement with Antony and with another of Caesar’s principal supporters, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had succeeded him as chief priest. Lepidus was stripped of all his titles save Pontifex Maximus and the Second Triumvirate came to an end. [143], The situation was so serious that Augustus himself appeared at the trial, even though he had not been called as a witness. [145][157] 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. Caesar Augustus brought peace and prosperity to the Roman empire. Gaius Octavius was of a prosperous family that had long been settled at Velitrae (Velletri), southeast of Rome. [75], This claim was rejected by Appian, who maintained that Octavian shared an equal interest with Lepidus and Antony in eradicating his enemies. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi’s father, was a leader of India’s nationalist movement and became India’s first prime minister after its independence. [221], The Res Gestae is the only work to have survived from antiquity, though Augustus is also known to have composed poems entitled Sicily, Epiphanus, and Ajax, an autobiography of 13 books, a philosophical treatise, and a written rebuttal to Brutus's Eulogy of Cato. To Octavian, Antony’s behavior in the east, both in private, politically and militarily, was intolerable. Eder, Walter. He changed the way governors were appointed in the provinces, which reduced greed and extortion. He changed the way governors were appointed in the provinces, which reduced greed and extortion. The Empire's frontiers were on the ocean, or distant rivers. 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. In a 2006 biography on Augustus, Anthony Everitt asserts that through the centuries, judgments on Augustus's reign have oscillated between these two extremes but stresses that: Opposites do not have to be mutually exclusive, and we are not obliged to choose one or the other. The cult of Divus Augustus continued until the state religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in 391 by Theodosius I. Consequently, there are many excellent statues and busts of the first emperor. [119], Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness, but the Republic was not prepared to accept the control of Octavian as a despot. [82], Lucius and his army were spared, due to his kinship with Antony, the strongman of the East, while Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon. [87] Pompeius's control over the sea prompted him to take on the name Neptuni filius, "son of Neptune". By 2 BCE Augustus was declared Pater Patriae, the father of his country.The era of Augustus’ reign was a golden age in every respect. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies. Lucius Cornelius Balbus was the last man outside Augustus's family to receive this award, in 19 BC. Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia was rumored to have brought about Augustus's death by poisoning fresh figs. Roman citizens adopted into a new family usually retained their old nomen in cognomen form (e.g., Octavianus for one who had been an Octavius, Aemilianus for one who had been an Aemilius, etc.).