Augustusã¢â⢠Support of Art Literature and Education Have Helped Make Roman Society More Stable
As the offset Roman emperor (though he never claimed the championship for himself), Augustus led Rome's transformation from commonwealth to empire during the tumultuous years following the bump-off of his slap-up-uncle and adoptive father Julius Caesar. He shrewdly combined military machine might, institution-building and lawmaking to become Rome'south sole ruler, laying the foundations of the 200-yr Pax Romana (Roman Peace) and an empire that lasted, in various forms, for about i,500 years.
Augustus: Birth and Inheritance
Of Augustus' many names and honorifics, historians favor three of them, each for a dissimilar phase in the emperor'due south life. From his birth in 63 B.C. he was Octavius; afterward his adoption was announced in 44 B.C., Octavian; and beginning in 26 B.C. the Roman Senate conferred on him the name Augustus, the august or exalted one. He was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus in Velletri, twenty miles from Rome. His begetter was a senator and governor in the Roman Democracy. His female parent Atai was Caesar's niece, and the young Octavius was raised in office by his grandmother Julia Ceasaris, Caesar'due south sister.
Octavius donned the toga, the Roman sign of manhood, at historic period 16, and began taking on responsibilities through his family connections. In 47 B.C. he went to Hispania (modern-day Kingdom of spain) to fight alongside Caesar. He was shipwrecked along the manner, and had to cross enemy territory to reach his great-uncle—an act that impressed Caesar enough to name Octavius his heir and successor in his volition.
Augustus: The Path to Power
The 17-yr-quondam Octavius was at Apollonia (in present-mean solar day Albania) when the news of Caesar'due south death and his own inheritance arrived. The dead ruler's allies, including many in the senate, rallied around Octavian against their powerful rival Mark Antony. Merely after Octavian'south troops defeated Antony's army in northern Italy, the hereafter emperor refused an all-out pursuit of Antony, preferring an uneasy alliance with his rival.
In 43 B.C. Octavian, Antony and Marcus Aemilus Lepidus established the 2nd Triumvirate, a power-sharing agreement that divided up Rome's territories among them, with Antony given the Eastward, Lepidus Africa and Octavian the Due west. In 41 B.C. Antony began a romantic and political alliance with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, which connected even after a Senatorial decree forced his spousal relationship to Octavian's sister Octavia Small-scale. Lepidus remained a modest effigy until Octavian finally had him ousted after the triumvirate'southward renewal in 37 B.C.
Gyre to Continue
Antony'due south affair with Cleopatra continued, and in 32 B.C. he divorced Octavia. In retaliation, Octavian alleged war on Cleopatra. In the naval battle of Actium a year later, Octavian'due south armada, under his admiral Agrippa, cornered and defeated Antony'due south ships. Cleopatra'southward navy raced to aid her ally, but in the end the two lovers barely escaped. They returned to Arab republic of egypt and committed suicide, leaving Octavian as Rome's undisputed ruler.
Augustus: Emperor in All but Proper name
Historians date the start of Octavian's monarchy to either 31 B.C. (the victory at Actium) or 27 B.C., when he was granted the name Augustus. In that four-year span, Octavian secured his dominion on multiple fronts. Cleopatra'southward seized treasure allowed him to pay his soldiers, securing their loyalty. To mollify Rome'due south Senate and ruling classes, he passed laws harkening back—at least on the surface—to the traditions of the Roman Republic. And to win over the people, he worked to improve and beautify the city of Rome.
During his 40-years reign, Augustus nearly doubled the size of the empire, adding territories in Europe and Asia Minor and securing alliances that gave him effective rule from Britain to India. He spent much of his fourth dimension outside of Rome, consolidating power in the provinces and instituting a organization of censuses and tax that integrated the empire's furthest reaches. He expanded the Roman network of roads, founded the Praetorian Guard and the Roman postal service and remade Rome with both grand (a new forum) and applied gestures (police and fire departments).
Augustus: Family unit and Succession
Augustus married three times, although his offset union, to Mark Antony'southward stepdaughter Clodia Pulchra, was unconsummated. His second married woman, Scribonia, bore his merely child, Julia the Elder. He divorced in 39 B.C. to marry Livia Drusilla, who had ii sons—Tiberius and Drusus—by her first married man, Marker Antony's marry Tiberius Claudius Nero. The family unit tree became more than complicated after Augustus had his stepson Tiberius briefly marry his daughter, and so adopted Tiberius outright equally son and successor in A.D. iv.
Augustus Caesar died in A.D. 14, his empire secured and at peace. His reported last words were twofold: to his subjects he said, "I institute Rome of clay; I get out information technology to you of marble," but to the friends who had stayed with him in his rise to ability he added, "Accept I played the role well? Then applaud me equally I exit." Presently after that acknowledgement of human being frailty, the Roman Senate officially declared their departed emperor, like Julius Caesar earlier him, to be a god.
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Source: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/emperor-augustus
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