Augustus

Early life

Octavian was born as Gaius Octavius in Rome on 23 September 63 BC, at a family property on the Palatine Hill. His father, Gaius Octavius, came from a moderately wealthy equestrian family of the gens Octavia. He ascended the cursus honorum and served as a proconsular governor of Macedonia. His family was from Velitrae, near Rome, where his son spent part of his childhood. The younger Octavius's mother, Atia, was a niece of Julius Caesar.

After Octavius's father died in 59 BC or 58 BC, his mother married Lucius Marcius Philippus, who was elected as consul in 56 BC. When Octavius's grandmother Julia, sister of Julius Caesar, died in 52 or 51 BC, Octavius delivered her funeral oration, his first public appearance. A Greek slave tutor named Sphaerus educated him in reading, writing, arithmetic, and Greek. Octavius later freed Sphaerus and gave him a state funeral in 40 BC. As a teenager, he studied philosophy under Areios of Alexandria and Athenodorus of Tarsus, Latin rhetoric under Marcus Epidius, and Greek rhetoric under Apollodorus of Pergamon.

Julius Caesar had formed an informal alliance with Pompey and Crassus in 60 BC, but by 49 BC it had fallen apart and Pompey and Caesar were fighting a protracted civil war. In 47 BC, after Octavius donned the toga virilis and became an adult citizen, Caesar had him elected as pontiff, replacing the slain Lucius Ahenobarbus. The following year, Octavius presided over the Greek games commemorating the opening of Caesar's Temple of Venus Genetrix. He wished to join Caesar's staff for the African campaign but gave way when his mother Atia protested over his poor health. Caesar allowed Octavius to proceed next to his chariot during his triumph celebrating the campaign and awarded Octavius with military decorations as if he had been present. In 45 BC Octavius traveled to Hispania to join Caesar's Spanish campaign against Pompey the Younger. On 13 September 45 BC Caesar deposited a new will with the Vestal Virgins naming Octavius as his principal heir.

Rise to power

Heir to Caesar

In 44 BC, Octavius was at Apollonia, Illyria, when Julius Caesar was made Rome's first dictator perpetuo ('dictator in perpetuity') in February, and then assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March). Octavius consulted with Caesar's officers in Macedonia before sailing for Italy to ascertain his political fortunes. Caesar had no living legitimate children under Roman law. His will made Octavius his main heir with the condition that he assume the dead dictator's name. After landing near Brundisium in southern Italy, Octavius received a copy of the will, which bequeathed him three-quarters of Caesar's estate. Against the advice of his stepfather Philippus, Octavius accepted Caesar's will on 8 May 44 BC. He purported that Caesar adopted him as his son and assumed the name Gaius Julius Caesar. His stepfather, Cicero, and other contemporaries referred to him as Octavianus.

Octavian could not rely on his limited funds to make a successful entry into politics. After a warm welcome by Caesar's soldiers at Brundisium, he demanded a portion of the funds allotted by Caesar for his eastern war against the Parthians. This amounted to 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium, the staging ground in Italy for military operations in the east. Octavian made another bold move when, without official permission, he appropriated the annual tribute from Rome's province of Asia to Italy. He also began to recruit Caesar's veterans and men designated for the Parthian war. On his march to Rome through Italy, Octavian's presence and newly acquired riches won over many, including Caesar's veterans stationed in Campania. By June, he had gathered an army of 3,000 men, paying each a bonus of 500 denarii, which was more than twice a soldier's annual pay.

Growing tensions

Arriving in Rome on 6 May 44 BC, Octavian found consul Mark Antony, Caesar's former colleague, in an uneasy truce with Caesar's assassins. A general amnesty on 17 March pardoned the assassins in exchange for recognition of Caesar's legal acts. Soon afterwards, Antony succeeded in driving most of them out of Rome with an inflammatory eulogy at Caesar's funeral, mounting public opinion against the assassins.

Mark Antony amassed political support, but had lost the support of many Romans and Caesarians when he opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status. Octavian challenged him as the leader of the Caesarians. To halt Octavian from dispersing 300 sesterces per capita to the urban plebs in accordance with Caesar's will, Antony refused to give Octavian the money due him as Caesar's heir. He also blocked the curiate assembly from hearing Octavian's attempts to legitimize his supposed adoption by Caesar, to have Caesar formally deified and to reinstate Caesar's golden throne for public view at games staged in April and June. During Caesar's victory games, Octavian distributed some of the funds in Caesar's will and combined this with his own money, enhancing his popularity while damaging Antony's.

During the summer of 44 BC, Octavian won the support of more veterans and also senators who perceived Antony as a threat to the state. Antony had lictors drag Octavian away from a hearing over the reinstatement of private property seized by Caesar in 49 BC. Octavian then claimed Antony threatened his life as retribution for distributing money to the plebs in Caesar's will. Caesar's veterans convinced Antony to publicly reconcile with Octavian in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Thereafter, Antony's bellicose edicts against the assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus alienated him from the moderate Caesarian senators, who feared a renewed civil war. In September, Marcus Tullius Cicero, now a political ally of Octavian, began to give a series of speeches portraying Antony as a threat to the Republic.

First conflict with Antony

With opinion in Rome turning against him and his consulship concluding, Antony illegally passed a law that would assign him the province of Cisalpine Gaul in northern Italy. Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian veterans, and in early November entered Rome with this private force to challenge Antony. However, they vacated the city shortly afterwards, due to some veterans choosing to quit once it became clear they were involved in a Caesarian squabble rather than a revenge campaign against Caesar's assassins. Nevertheless, on 28 November, Octavian won over two of Antony's legions with the enticing offer of monetary gain. Antony then left Rome for Cisalpine Gaul, which was to be handed to him on 1 January 43 BC. However, the province had earlier been assigned to the assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, who now refused to yield to Antony. Antony besieged him at Mutina. This provided an opportunity for Octavian, whose private army was at hand.

Cicero defended Octavian against Antony's taunts, and had him inducted as a senator on 1 January 43 BC. Octavian was given the power to vote alongside the former consuls, the privilege to stand for election at an earlier age than usual, and imperium pro praetore which legitimized his command. Octavian accompanied the consuls to relieve the siege of Mutina. He assumed the fasces on 7 January, a date that he would later commemorate as the beginning of his public career. Antony retreated to Transalpine Gaul after his forces were defeated at the battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina in April. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies. These victories earned him his first acclamation as imperator, a title reserved for victorious commanders.

Largely ignoring Octavian, the Senate heaped many rewards on Decimus Brutus and attempted to give him command of the consular legions. In response, Octavian stayed in the Po Valley and refused to pursue Antony. In July, an embassy of centurions sent by Octavian entered Rome; they demanded the now-vacant consulship for Octavian, with Cicero as co-consul, and the rescission of the decree declaring Antony a public enemy. When this was refused, Octavian marched on Rome, where he encountered no military opposition. On 19 August 43 BC, aged 19, he became consul alongside his relative Quintus Pedius. Pedius passed legislation creating a special tribunal for Caesar's assassins and their alleged associates; Octavian presided over the trial and had them convicted and exiled in absentia. Octavian also induced the curiate assembly to have him adrogated into Caesar's family, legitimizing his claim of testamentary adoption. Meanwhile, Antony formed an alliance with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, then governor of Gallia Narbonensis. The Senate branded Lepidus, a fellow Caesarian, as a public enemy for joining Antony, but they reversed the pair's outlawing at Pedius's behest while Octavian marched north to fight Decimus Brutus and meet with Antony.

Second Triumvirate

In a meeting near Bononia in October 43 BC, Octavian joined with Antony and Lepidus to form the triumvirate, ostensibly for the stability of the Roman Republic, and on 27 November the lex Titia legitimized their agreement for five years. The triumvirate gave the men consular power, the right to appoint magistrates, and allowed their division among themselves of the provinces not under the control of the liberatores in the east. Octavian had previously been engaged to Servilia, daughter of Servilius Isauricus, but instead became engaged to Claudia, stepdaughter of Antony, to solidify their political union. Octavian also relinquished the consulship to Antony's ally Publius Ventidius.

Proscriptions

The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions, targeting some 300 men as outlaws, divided roughly evenly between senators and equestrians. Thousands more had their properties confiscated. Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir was most responsible for the proscriptions and killing. However, the sources agree that the proscriptions enabled all three to eliminate political enemies.

The triumvirs initiated the proscriptions partly to raise money to pay the salaries of their troops for the upcoming conflict against Caesar's assassins Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius, but the main intention was the removal of wartime rivals. The triumvirs seized the proscripts' property. However much money was raised was insufficient, so the triumvirs introduced a range of new taxes to fund their war. They reinstituted property taxes and created new imposts on slaves, before also demanding property assessments for taxes on rich women that were reduced after a public protest of women in Rome.

Battle of Philippi and division of territory

On 1 January 42 BC, with Lepidus as consul, the Senate posthumously recognized Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, divus Iulius. Octavian was able to further his cause by emphasizing that he was divi filius ('son of the divine'). Antony and Octavian then led twenty-eight legions east against Brutus and Cassius, whom they defeated after two battles at Philippi in Macedonia in October 42 BC. Brutus and Cassius both died by suicide. Claiming responsibility for both victories, Antony branded Octavian a coward for handing over his direct military control to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Octavian was bedridden with illness during the first battle, allegedly removing himself from command over the camp per his doctor's advice, but captured Brutus's camp during the second battle.

After Philippi, the triumvirs again divided the provinces. Lepidus was suspected of colluding with Sextus Pompey, the renegade general whom the anti-Caesarian Senate had given command over all Mediterranean coastlines in 43 BC. Cisalpine Gaul was combined with Italia and given to Octavian along with the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior that Lepidus had to forfeit. Antony travelled east to Egypt where he allied himself with Cleopatra, a Roman client ruler, former lover of Julius Caesar, and mother of Caesar's son Caesarion. In addition to the eastern provinces, Antony controlled Gallia Comata and took Gallia Narbonensis from Lepidus, who was left with the province of Africa.

Octavian was left to settle tens of thousands of discharged veterans in Italy. Those who fought for the assassins also required settlement for their pacification. With no remaining public land, Octavian chose to confiscate land from citizens, instead of alienating the soldiers who could mount a real threat to the regime in Italy. The settlements affected some eighteen cities, with entire populations fully or partially evicted.

Perusine War, marriage alliances, and Brundisium

These veteran settlements brought Octavian widespread dissatisfaction. The disaffected rallied to Mark Antony's brother Lucius Antonius, who was supported by a majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, Octavian asked for a divorce from Claudia, Antony's stepdaughter. He returned Claudia to her mother, Fulvia, claiming that their marriage had never been consummated. Fulvia and Lucius Antonius then raised an army in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. Lucius even briefly took Rome, forcing Lepidus and his two legions to flee the city. However, the Roman army still depended on the triumvirs for their salaries. Lucius and his allies ended up in a defensive siege at Perusia, where Octavian forced their surrender in February 40 BC. Octavian spared Lucius, while Fulvia fled to Sicyon in Greece and died shortly afterwards. On 15 March, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination, Octavian had 300 Roman senators and equestrians executed for allying with Lucius. Perusia was also sacked, though it is unclear who started the fires. These reprisals sullied Octavian's reputation.

Sextus Pompey affirmed his control of Sicily as part of an agreement with the triumvirate in 40 BC, and gained control of Sardinia and Corsica in 39. Both Antony and Octavian sought an alliance with him. Octavian established a temporary alliance in 40 BC when he married Scribonia, an aunt of Sextus's wife. A year later, Scribonia gave birth to Octavian's only surviving child, Julia, on the same day that he divorced her to marry Livia Drusilla. When Livia began her affair with Octavian, she was already married to Tiberius Claudius Nero, had a son Tiberius with Nero, and was pregnant with their second child. She gave birth to her second son, Drusus, several months after her divorce from Nero and marriage to Octavian. Livia later had another child with Octavian, who was born prematurely and did not survive.

While in Egypt, Antony had engaged in an affair with Cleopatra and had fathered three children with her. Antony's Gallic provinces fell into Octavian's hands after the death of Antony's legate Quintus Calenus in 40 BC. Aware of his deteriorating relationship with Octavian, Antony left Cleopatra; he sailed to Italy in 40 BC with a large force to oppose Octavian, laying siege to Brundisium, but the men's revolting armies forced them to reconcile. In late 40, the triumvirs divided the empire between Antony in the east, Octavian in the west, and Lepidus in Africa. Now in a stronger position due to the Parthian threat in Antony's provinces, Octavian gave his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage to Antony.

War with Sextus Pompey and exile of Lepidus

Before the battles of Philippi, Octavian had sent Salvidienus Rufus to remove Sextus Pompey from Sicily, but after Rufus's defeat, the triumvirs recognized Sextus's Mediterranean command at Brundisium in 40 BC. When Sextus resumed his blockade, a starving angry mob in Rome blamed Octavian and Antony and attacked them in early 39 BC; Antony's forces rescued Octavian and dispersed the mob. Another temporary peace agreement was reached in 39 BC at Misenum. Sextus lifted the blockade on Italy once Octavian granted him Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and the Peloponnese and ensured him a future position in the consulship.

The agreement between the triumvirate and Sextus began to crumble when Octavian divorced Scribonia and married Livia in 38 BC. After Antony refused to relinquish the Peloponnese, Sextus reimposed his blockade, starting food riots at Rome. Sextus's naval commander Menas defected, handing over Corsica and Sardinia. However, after Octavian's naval forces were defeated at Cumae, Octavian lacked the resources to confront Sextus alone, so he sought Antony's help, extending their terms for another five-year period beginning in 37 BC.

In supporting Octavian, Antony expected to gain support for his own campaign against the Parthians. At Tarentum in mid-37 BC, Antony provided 120 ships for Octavian to use against Sextus, while Octavian was to send 20,000 legionaries to Antony for use against Parthia. Two years later Octavian sent only a tenth of those promised, which Antony viewed as a provocation. Meanwhile, Octavian tasked Agrippa with creating the artificial harbor Portus Julius for the training and shipbuilding of Octavian's naval fleet.

Octavian and Lepidus launched a joint operation against Sextus in Sicily in 36 BC. Octavian was shipwrecked in Sicily, but Agrippa defeated Sextus at Mylae in August before almost destroying Sextus's forces at Naulochus in September. Sextus fled to the east, but Antony had him executed at Miletus in 35 BC.

As Lepidus and Octavian accepted the surrender of Sextus's troops, Lepidus attempted to claim Sicily for himself. However, Lepidus's troops deserted him after Octavian bribed them. Octavian forced Lepidus into retirement but allowed him to remain pontifex maximus ('supreme pontiff'). Octavian protected Roman citizens' rights to property, settled his discharged soldiers outside Italy, and returned 30,000 slaves to their former Roman owners after they had fled to join Sextus's army and navy. To ensure his family's safety once he returned to Rome, he had the Senate grant him, his wife, and his sister tribunician immunity, or sacrosanctitas.

After defeating Sextus, Octavian campaigned in Illyricum (in what is now Croatia). During the first campaign in 35 BC he destroyed Segesta (modern Siscia) and was wounded by a collapsing siege ramp when he besieged Metulum (along the Kolpa River). The Senate lauded these efforts, though Octavian postponed a triumph for his victories, and only later acknowledged the contributions of commanders Agrippa and Statilius Taurus.

War with Antony and Cleopatra

In 36 BC, Octavian declared the civil wars at an end and suggested that he and Antony resign as triumvirs; Antony refused. Antony's Parthian campaign in 36 BC turned into a debacle and ruined his reputation. The mere 2,000 legionaries sent by Octavian to Antony, traveling with his wife Octavia, were hardly enough to replenish his lost forces. On the other hand, Cleopatra, with her enormous wealth, could restore his army to full strength. Her and Antony's third child, Ptolemy Philadelphus, was born in 36 BC, so in 35 BC Antony decided to send Octavia back to Rome. Octavian attacked Antony for rejecting his Roman spouse for a foreign queen. He also sought to convince the Senate that Antony had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Rome. When Octavian assumed the consulship of 33 BC, he opened the Senate with a vehement attack on Antony's grants of titles and territories to his relatives and Cleopatra, later known as the Donations of Alexandria.

In early 32 BC, amid an intense war of propaganda with Octavian, Antony divorced Octavia. The new consuls Gaius Sosius and Gnaeus Ahenobarbus supported Antony and threatened to revoke Octavian's triumviral authority. This prompted Octavian to enter the Senate house and denounce Antony and Sosius; both consuls and many senators then fled Rome for Antony. However, two of Antony's key supporters, Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius, defected to Octavian in autumn. They offered him vital information about Antony's will, which Antony published after marching on the Temple of Vesta. The will would have given away Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule and designated Alexandria as the site of a tomb for him and Cleopatra.

In late 32 BC, the Senate revoked Antony's upcoming consulship and declared war on Cleopatra. Octavian used emergency powers to have men of military age throughout the Republic swear an oath of loyalty to him. In early 31 BC, as Antony and Cleopatra moved to Greece, Octavian's forces under Agrippa transited the Adriatic Sea, and cut off their main force from their supply routes in the Ionian Sea. Octavian then landed in Epirus, and proceeded to march south. Trapped on land and sea, Antony's men started to desert as Octavian prepared for battle.

Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium along the Ambracian Gulf of western Greece to break the blockade. There, they fought the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC. Cleopatra and her portion of the fleet withdrew early in the battle and Antony later joined them; Cleopatra's fleet spared Antony's remaining forces in a last-ditch effort. Antony's nearby forces on land surrendered to Octavian after attempting a retreat through Macedonia. Various client kings now defected to Octavian. Octavian would later establish a new city—Nicopolis ('victory city')—near the site of the battle at Actium.

On 1 August 30 BC, Octavian defeated Antony at Alexandria; Antony then died by suicide. After meeting with Octavian and refusing to be paraded in a triumph at Rome, Cleopatra took her own life with poison. Well aware of the dangers presented by another potential heir to Caesar, Octavian ordered the death of Cleopatra's son Caesarion. He also had Antony's son Marcus Antonius Antyllus killed, but spared their other children and pardoned many of his opponents. Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies. He also ensured that Cleopatra was buried with Antony in their tomb. He appointed Cleopatra's daughter Cleopatra Selene II and her husband, Juba II of Numidia, as the new co-rulers of Mauretania following their marriage in 25 BC.

Sole ruler of Rome

Control of Egypt

The conquest of Egypt greatly relieved Octavian's debts incurred from the civil wars. He controlled Roman Egypt directly, forbade senators to travel there, and appointed equestrian governor Cornelius Gallus to supervise its administration and enormously lucrative taxation. While in Alexandria in 30 BC, Octavian visited the tomb of Alexander the Great, the conqueror he emulated and imitated in his own artistic portraits. Octavian's conquest of Egypt brought an end to the Hellenistic period; it also cemented the cultural formation of a Greek East and Latin West in the Mediterranean and a cosmopolitan universal monarchy centered on Rome.

Octavian would become the first Roman emperor as Augustus and also the first Roman pharaoh of Egypt, though he did not partake in Egyptian coronation rites or worship of the Apis bull, and he never visited Egypt again after 30 BC. Before returning to Rome, Octavian wintered in 30 BC on the Greek island of Samos. In August the following year, he celebrated three triumphs in Rome for his victories in Illyria, Greece, and Egypt. He and Agrippa were elected as the consuls for 28 BC, and granted the powers of a censor so as to conduct the census.

Principate

After defeating Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian could rule the entire Republic under an unofficial principate, with himself as princeps ('leading citizen' or 'first citizen'). He achieved this incrementally by courting the Senate and people of Rome while purporting not to aspire to dictatorship or monarchy. Influential aristocrats were previously called princeps and Octavian would embrace this title as part of his self-representation as restorer of the Republic.

Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness, but republican tradition opposed autocracy. At the same time, Octavian could not give up his authority without risking war. The Senate and people desired a return to stability, traditional legality, civility, and the assurance of free elections—which would be conducted in name at least under Octavian, soon to be princeps Augustus. The gradual fashioning of this regime involved trial by error and experimentation, popular support for legally sanctioned moves, and appointed term limits for offices in perhaps a cautious attempt to avoid the same fate as his adoptive father Julius Caesar.

First settlement

Control of provinces

On 13 January 27 BC, Octavian made a show of returning power to the Senate and relinquishing his provinces and armies. However, he retained the loyalty of serving soldiers and veterans. The careers of many clients and adherents depended on his patronage, as his financial power was unrivaled. Other senators refrained from spending to build and maintain roads in Italy in 20 BC, but Octavian undertook direct responsibility on behalf of the public. The Roman currency issued in 16 BC publicized Octavian's involvement, after he donated vast amounts of money to the aerarium Saturni, the public treasury.

In an agreement known as the first settlement, Octavian was able to continue the appearance of a still-functional constitution through the Senate proposing to him that he once again assume control of the provinces. Feigning reluctance, on 16 January 27 BC he accepted a ten-year responsibility of overseeing provinces that were considered chaotic. The provinces ceded to him constituted much of the Roman world, including Hispania, Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt. Moreover, command of these provinces provided him control over the majority of Rome's legions. Octavian–Augustus's power ultimately rested in his control over Rome's military.

However, Octavian–Augustus did not have a monopoly on political and martial power. The Senate still controlled the grain-producing North Africa as well as the militarily strategic Illyria and Macedonia. However, the Senate had control of only five or six legions distributed among three senatorial proconsuls, compared to the twenty legions under Augustus's control, and their control of these regions did not significantly challenge his authority. Divided control between senators and proconsuls had precedent, and Augustus used republican legal frameworks to amass power.

While Augustus acted as consul in Rome, he dispatched senators to the provinces under his command as his representatives to manage provincial affairs. The Senate chose governors to oversee the remaining provinces. Augustus issued instructions and edicts not only to his own legates but also to independent proconsuls governing public provinces that were nominally under senatorial control. Augustus's control of entire provinces followed Republican-era precedents for the limited objective of securing peace and creating stability, with Pompey having been given a similar level of command across the Roman world.

Title of Augustus

On 16 January 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new title of augustus ('revered'). It was a title of religious rather than political authority, and it indicated that Octavian now approached divinity. Future Roman emperors inherited the honorific augustus, and it became their main title. Another titular option, that of Romulus, after the legendary founder of Rome, was associated too strongly with monarchy, an association Octavian sought to avoid. The Senate also confirmed his position as princeps senatus ('leader of the Senate'). Augustus now styled himself as Imperator Caesar divi filius ('Commander Caesar son of the deified one'), boasting his familial link to deified Julius Caesar. The use of imperator signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. Augustus transformed Caesar, a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new imperial family line that began with him.

The Senate allowed Augustus to hang the corona civica ('civic crown') above his door and to have laurels drape his doorposts. He renounced flaunting insignia of power such as holding a scepter, wearing a diadem, or wearing the golden crown and purple toga of Julius Caesar. Nonetheless, the Senate awarded him with a golden shield displayed in the meeting hall of the Curia, bearing the inscription virtus, pietas, clementia, iustitia ('valor, piety, clemency, and justice'). By the summer of 27 BC he left Rome and traveled to Gaul. From 26 to 24 BC he governed the Empire from Tarraco in Roman Spain, overseeing military campaigns in the Iberian peninsula until his return to Rome.

Second settlement

By 23 BC, some of the un-republican implications of the first settlement were becoming apparent. Augustus's continuous consulships drew attention to his de facto dominance of politics and halved the opportunities for others to achieve what was still nominally the preeminent position in the Roman state. His desire to have his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus eventually assume the principate in his turn also caused problems. To signal reconciliation with pro-republican aristocrats, Augustus appointed the noted republican Calpurnius Piso, who had opposed Julius Caesar and supported the assassins, as co-consul in 23 BC, after his choice Aulus Terentius Varro Murena died unexpectedly.

Resignation from the consulship

In the late spring Augustus was severely ill, apparently with a liver disease. Expecting his death, he made arrangements ensuring the continuation of the principate while allaying senators' suspicions of his anti-republicanism. He prepared to hand down his signet ring to his friend and general Agrippa but handed to his co-consul Piso all of his official documents, an account of public finances, and authority over troops in the provinces. Augustus's supposedly favored nephew Marcellus came away empty-handed. This surprised many who expected Augustus to name an heir to his position as an unofficial emperor.

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. It appears that Augustus did not view the 19-year-old Marcellus as being ready to inherit his political pre-eminence. By giving his signet ring to Agrippa, however, Augustus signaled to the legions that Agrippa was a potential successor who they should obey, constitutional procedure notwithstanding.

The emperor's illness subsided while under the care of his personal physician Antonius Musa, and soon afterwards on 1 July 23 BC Augustus gave up his consulship. He would serve as consul only twice more, in 5 and 2 BC, both times to introduce his grandsons into public life. Augustus's resignation from the consulship allowed him to exercise wider patronage within the senatorial class while allowing other senators a better chance to become consul. However, Augustus desired to retain his consular imperium throughout the empire, leading to another compromise between him and the Senate known as the second settlement.

Marcus Primus affair

After Augustus relinquished the annual consulship, he was no longer in an official position to rule the state. However, his dominant position remained unchanged over his 'imperial' provinces where he was still a proconsul. When he annually held the office of consul, he had the power to intervene with the affairs of the other provincial proconsuls appointed by the Senate throughout the empire, when he deemed necessary.

A second problem later arose showing the need for the second settlement in what became known as the "Marcus Primus affair". In late 24 or early 23 BC, charges were brought against Marcus Primus, former proconsular governor of Macedonia, for waging a war without approval of the Senate on the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, whose king was a Roman ally. Lucius Licinius Varro Murena defended Primus, arguing that Augustus had ordered Primus to attack the client state. Later, Primus testified that the orders came from the recently deceased Marcellus. Such orders suggested that Augustus intended to have his nephew take his place as princeps and establish a monarchy over Rome, and would have been considered a breach of the Senate's prerogatives under the settlement of 27 BC, since Macedonia was a province under senatorial jurisdiction, not Augustus's imperial authority.

The situation was so serious that Augustus appeared at the trial even though he had not been called as a witness. Under oath, he declared that he gave no such order. Murena disbelieved Augustus's testimony and resented his attempt to subvert the trial by using his auctoritas. He demanded to know why Augustus appeared at the trial; Augustus replied that he came in the public interest. The jurors found Primus guilty, though some voted to acquit, suggesting that some disbelieved Augustus's claims.

Greater proconsular authority

The Senate negotiated the second settlement with Augustus partly to allay confusion and formalize his legal authority to intervene in senatorial provinces, granting him a form of general imperium proconsulare ('proconsular power') that applied throughout the empire, not solely to his provinces. Moreover, the Senate augmented Augustus's proconsular imperium into imperium proconsulare maius ('greater proconsular power'). This form of proconsular imperium was applicable throughout the empire and in effect gave Augustus constitutional power superior to all other proconsuls. Augustus stayed in Rome during the renewal process and obtained veterans' support for the renewal of his proconsular imperium maius in 13 BC by providing them with lavish donations.

Additional powers

Powers of the tribune

During the second settlement, Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life, though not the official title of tribune. For some years, Augustus had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, the immunity given to a tribune of the plebs. Now he decided to assume the full powers of the magistracy, renewed annually, in perpetuity. Legally, it was closed to patricians, a status that Augustus had acquired when adopted by Julius Caesar. This power allowed him to convene the Senate and people at will, lay business before them, and veto their decisions, to preside over elections, and to speak first at any meeting. Augustus's amassing of tribunal powers caused the office of tribunus plebis to lose prestige, so he revived its importance by making it a mandatory appointment for any plebeian desiring the praetorship.

Powers of the censor

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. There was no precedent within the Roman system for combining the powers of the tribune and the censor, nor was Augustus ever elected to the office of censor. Julius Caesar had been granted similar powers, wherein he was charged with supervising the morals of the state. However, this position did not extend to the censor's ability to hold a census and determine the Senate's roster. Appealing to patriotic sentiments, Augustus is alleged to have used censorial powers to ban all attire except the classic toga for those entering the Forum. However, the powers of the censorship may have only been temporary or even refused by Augustus.

Imperium over the city of Rome

The Senate also granted Augustus sole imperium within the city of Rome. Traditionally, proconsuls lost their imperium when they crossed the pomerium—the sacred boundary of Rome—and entered the city. In these situations, Augustus held tribunician authority, but the consuls held greater authority. While others would usually obey his wishes owing to his auctoritas, there might be some difficulty. In either 23 or 19 BC, the Senate voted that Augustus's imperium proconsulare maius ('superior proconsular power') should not lapse when he was inside the city walls. The city's armed forces had formerly been under the control of the urban praetors and consuls, but they now came under the sole authority of Augustus.

The Roman triumph

After 19 BC, Augustus received credit for every Roman military victory, because the majority of Rome's armies were stationed in imperial provinces overseen by the legati, his provincial deputies. If a battle was fought in a senatorial province, Augustus's proconsular imperium maius allowed him to take command and credit for any major victory. With few exceptions Augustus was the only individual who could receive a triumph, a tradition that allegedly began with Romulus, the legendary first king of Rome. For celebrating his victory against the Garamantes in Roman Libya in 19 BC, Cornelius Balbus was the last person outside Augustus's family to receive a triumph. Tiberius, Augustus's eldest stepson, received triumphs in 7 BC and AD 12, respectively for victories in Germania and Illyria (Pannonia). For the latter campaign, his nephew Germanicus instead received the ornamenta triumphalia ('triumphal honors'), a praetorship, and the ability to stand for the consulship despite his young age.

Diplomacy

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

Conspiracy, titles, and the share of power

Many of the political subtleties of the second settlement seem to have evaded the comprehension of Augustus's plebeian supporters, leading them to insist upon his participation in imperial affairs and form violent mobs on occasion. When Augustus refused to stand for election as consul in 22 BC and traveled to Sicily on another tour of the Empire, the Comitia centuriata voted in his absence to have him serve as co-consul for the following year, despite not being one of the candidates. A riot occurred in Rome when only a single consul Marcus Lollius assumed office on 1 January 21 BC and the factions of the two remaining candidates fought each other. Infuriated, Augustus summoned both candidates to Sicily and settled on having one of them serve as Lollius's co-consul.

A food shortage in Rome during 22 BC sparked widespread panic, as many urban plebs called for Augustus to take on dictatorial powers to personally oversee the crisis. After a theatrical display of refusal before the Senate, Augustus finally accepted authority over Rome's grain supply through the use of his existing proconsular imperium, and ended the crisis almost immediately. Another food crisis in AD 8 prompted Augustus to establish a praefectus annonae, a permanent prefect who was in charge of procuring food supplies for Rome.

Augustus's expansive powers concerned some people, and this came to a head with the apparent conspiracy of Fannius Caepio. Some time prior to 1 September 22 BC, a certain Castricius provided Augustus with information about a conspiracy led by Fannius Caepio. The conspirators, among whom was the consul Murena in the Marcus Primus affair, were tried in absentia with Tiberius acting as prosecutor; the jury found them guilty, but it was not a unanimous verdict. All the accused were executed for treason as soon as they were captured—without ever giving testimony in their defense. Augustus ensured that the façade of republican government continued with an effective cover-up of the events.

In 19 BC, the Senate granted Augustus imperium consulare maius proconsular powers in addition to those received in 23 BC, another instance of gaining power from offices he did not hold, now fully applicable to Italy and Rome. To assuage the restless populace, Augustus was allowed to wear the consul's insignia in public and before the Senate, to sit in the symbolic chair between the two consuls, and to hold the magisterial fasces. On 6 March 12 BC, after the death of Lepidus, he assumed the position of pontifex maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs. On 5 February 2 BC, the Senate gave Augustus the title pater patriae ('father of the country'), which was then inscribed in various places in Rome such as the Senate chambers in the Forum Romanum.

Historian Ronald Syme wrote that Augustus's death could leave Rome subject to further civil war, given the public memory of recent wars and Caesar's assassination. Possibly during the 20s BC and certainly by 18 BC, the Senate granted Agrippa proconsular imperium for five years, similar to Augustus's power, in order to accomplish constitutional stability. The grant probably covered Augustus's imperial provinces if not authority over senatorial provinces. Like Augustus, Agrippa was also granted the powers of the tribunate.

War and expansion

By AD 13, Augustus's troops had proclaimed him imperator 21 times following successful battles. The fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known as the Res Gestae is devoted to his military victories and honors. Augustus also promoted the ideal of a superior Roman civilization, a sentiment the poet Virgil attributed to a legendary ancestor of Augustus. All classes at Rome apparently sought expansionism, and this impulse is accorded divine sanction in Virgil's Aeneid, in which Jupiter promises Rome imperium sine fine ('sovereignty without end').

By the end of Augustus's reign, his armies had conquered northern Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) and the Alpine regions of Raetia and Noricum (modern Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia), Illyricum and Pannonia (modern Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.), and had extended the borders of Africa Proconsularis to the east and south. Judea was added to the province of Syria when Augustus deposed the client king Herod Archelaus. After the Senate assigned Syria to Augustus in 27 BC, it was governed first by legates under Agrippa and then by an equestrian high prefect. In AD 6 Augustus also appointed an equestrian governor in Sardinia after pirate raids necessitated the presence of troops stationed there.

In 25 BC the Romans made Galatia (part of modern Turkey) a province without any military effort after the murder of its king, Amyntas, while in 19 BC Agrippa incorporated Asturias and Cantabria in modern-day Spain under the provinces of Hispania and Lusitania. This region proved to be a major asset in funding Augustus's future military campaigns, as it was rich in mineral deposits that could be fostered in Roman mining projects. Conquering the peoples of the Alps in 15 BC after the disastrous defeat of Lollius was another important victory for Rome, since it provided a large territorial buffer between the Roman citizens of Italy and Rome's enemies in Germania to the north. Horace dedicated an ode to the victory, while the monumental Trophy of Augustus was built in La Turbie near Monaco to honor the occasion.

The capture of the Alpine region also served the next offensive in 12 BC, when Augustus's stepsons Tiberius and Drusus launched offensives against the Pannonian tribes of Illyricum and against the Germanic tribes of the eastern Rhineland, respectively. Both campaigns were successful, as Drusus's forces reached the Elbe River by 9 BC. Drusus died shortly after from an injury sustained by falling off his horse. Tiberius rushed from Italy to Germany to see his brother and escorted Drusus's body to Rome, where he and Augustus provided eulogies for Drusus. After Illyrian tribes revolted in Illyricum in AD 6, Tiberius and Germanicus's forces quelled their rebellion in AD 9. This was the only major rebellion within Roman provincial territory since Augustus had become emperor, and by this point he had reduced the standing Roman army from roughly 500,000 soldiers during the civil wars down to 300,000 soldiers used primarily for foreign conquests.

To protect Rome's eastern territories from the Parthian Empire, Augustus relied on eastern client states to act as territorial buffers and areas that could raise their own troops for defense. Augustus stationed a Roman army in Syria, while Tiberius negotiated with the Parthians as Rome's diplomat to the East. Tiberius then restored Tigranes V to the Armenian throne in 20 BC, personally placing the crown on his head.

Augustus negotiated with Phraates IV of Parthia in 20 BC for the return of the battle standards lost by Crassus in the Battle of Carrhae, a symbolic victory and great boost of morale for Rome. Historians Werner Eck and Sarolta Takács claim that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge Crassus's defeat by military means. However, Augustus used the return of the standards as propaganda symbolizing the submission of Parthia to Rome. The event was celebrated in art such as the breastplate design on the statue Augustus of Prima Porta and in monuments such as the Temple of Mars Ultor ('Mars the Avenger') built to house the standards. After Phraates V of Parthia managed to cleave Armenia away from Roman control, Augustus dispatched his grandson Gaius Caesar with an army to Syria in 1 BC, mounting a diplomatic pressure campaign that in AD 2 convinced Phraates V to concede to Roman demands.

Parthia posed a threat to Rome in West Asia, but the more pressing concern was the battlefront along the Rhine and Danube rivers. During the triumvirate, Octavian's campaigns against the tribes in Dalmatia were the first step in expanding Roman dominions to the Danube. Rome's enemies in Germania almost constantly retook conquered territories. At the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, Arminius, the leader of the Cherusci, destroyed three entire legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius to the Rhineland to pacify it in AD 10 and AD 11, and these campaigns had some success. However, Augustus advised Tiberius against further conquests after the defeat at Teutoburg, and the Romans abandoned expansion into Germany beyond the Rhine. Although Augustus lamented the loss, his Res Gestae merely states that he pacified Germania up to the mouth of the Elbe. Under Augustus's successor Tiberius, Roman general Germanicus took advantage of a Cherusci civil war between Arminius and Segestes, defeating Arminius at Idistaviso in AD 16.

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

Augustus ordered Gaius Petronius, Aelius Gallus's successor as prefect of Egypt, to invade Aethiopia, after Queen Amanirenas of the Kingdom of Kush (in modern Sudan) invaded Roman Egypt in 24 BC and sacked Aswan and Philae. The Romans counterattacked, sacking Napata in Nubia before withdrawing, but Amanirenas invaded Egypt again in 22 BC and threatened Primis (modern Qasr Ibrim). After Petronius withstood a Kushite assault, Amanirenas sent diplomats to negotiate a peace treaty with Augustus on the island of Samos. The treaty established Maharraqa as the new border with Kush, lessened the amount of Roman tribute gathered from Kush, and guaranteed peaceful trade relations between Egypt and Nubia. In the Maghreb of North Africa, Cossus Cornelius Lentulus quashed a rebellion of the Gaetuli against Juba II of Mauretania in AD 6.

Death and succession

Augustus's illness in 23 BC accentuated the problem of succession. To ensure stability, he needed to designate an heir. This needed to be done subtly so that it did not trigger fears of monarchy. If someone was to succeed to Augustus's position of power, he would first have to be recognized as meritful.

The search for an heir

Some historians argue that Augustus favored his nephew Marcellus, who had married Augustus's daughter Julia, while others argue that he preferred Marcus Agrippa, who was Augustus's second in charge and a respected military commander. After Marcellus died in 23 BC, Augustus remarried his daughter Julia to Agrippa in 21 BC. This union produced five children, three sons and two daughters. In 18 BC, Agrippa was granted a five-year appointment to the eastern provinces with proconsular imperium and also the tribunicia potestas that Augustus possessed. This grant showed Augustus's favor but upset some conservative senators.

Augustus adopted his grandsons Gaius and Lucius, illuminating his intent to make them his heirs. He served as consul in 5 and 2 BC so that he could personally usher them into their political careers. Gaius was consul for AD 1, with Augustus having him wait until he turned 21, while Lucius died before his designated consulship. Augustus also showed favor to his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus, granting them public offices while seeming to favor Drusus. Tiberius married Agrippa's eldest daughter, Vipsania Agrippina, while Drusus married Augustus's niece Antonia. After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Augustus ordered Tiberius to divorce Vipsania for the widowed Julia. Drusus and Antonia's marriage was considered an unbreakable affair, whereas Vipsania was deemed less important. Drusus died in 9 BC.

Tiberius, heir to Augustus

Tiberius shared in Augustus's tribunician powers from 6 BC but shortly thereafter withdrew into retirement, reportedly wanting no further role in politics. A failing marriage with Julia and envy for her sons Gaius and Lucius could have contributed to Tiberius's departure. Augustus exiled his daughter for adultery in 2 BC, but inducted his grandsons into the college of priests at an early age and introduced them to the army in Gaul.

After the deaths of Lucius in AD 2 and Gaius in AD 4, Augustus recalled Tiberius to Rome in June AD 4 and adopted him, on the condition that Tiberius adopt his nephew Germanicus. This continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs. In AD 4 Tiberius was also granted the tribunicia potestas and a proconsular post in Germany; for his efforts there and in Illyricum, he eventually triumphed. By AD 13, he had received the imperium maius proconsulare equalling that of Augustus.

The only other possible claimant was Agrippa Postumus, Augustus's youngest grandson. However, Augustus had exiled him to Sorrento in AD 6 and then to Planasia in AD 7. The Senate made Agrippa's banishment permanent, and Augustus officially disowned him for his lack of good character and alleged involvement in a conspiracy. After Tiberius succeeded Augustus, he was most likely the one who had Agrippa killed in exile.

Death of Augustus

On 19 August AD 14, Augustus died at Nola, where his father had died. Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio claimed Livia poisoned him. Many historians dismiss the alleged poisoning, however, as a fabrication to discredit her son Tiberius. Livia had long been the target of similar (probably false) rumors of poisoning. If poisoning is accepted, it is possible that Livia supplied a poisoned fig to assist death. Augustus's health had declined in the months before his death and he had prepared for a smooth transition in power to Tiberius.

Augustus's famous last words were, "Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit" (Acta est fabula, plaudite). An enormous procession of mourners travelled with Augustus's body from Nola to Rome, with all business closed on his funeral. Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two rostra. Augustus's body was coffin-bound and cremated on a pyre close to his mausoleum.

Deification

On 17 September 27 BC the Senate proclaimed Augustus to have joined the company of the gods and the deified Julius Caesar as a member of the Roman pantheon. People in Rome's eastern provinces had worshipped Octavian as a living deity since his victory at Actium. There was limited worship of him in some western provinces, primarily at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls in Lugdunum (Lyon, France) and at Ara Ubiorum in Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne, Germany), but not at Rome where such worship remained taboo. Only his genius (spirit) was allowed worship there.

Legacy

Overview

Augustus created a regime that maintained relative peace and prosperity in the Latin West and Greek East for two centuries, initiating the celebrated Pax Romana (or Pax Augusta), though the Augustan golden age myth may obscure the complicated political challenges faced by Augustus. His regime laid the foundations of a concept of universal monarchy in the Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires down to their dissolutions in 1453 and 1806, respectively. Later Romans viewed his reign favorably, embodied by the Senate's formal wish to every emperor after Trajan that they "be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan". This positive overall image was also helped by his successors copying many of Augustus's policies and forms of self-promotion, which modern research calls imitatio Augusti.

The surname Caesar and the title augustus became permanent titles of Roman rulers for fourteen centuries after Augustus's death, used in Rome and Constantinople following the Empire's division. Caesar formed the root of later regnal titles such as the German kaiser and Russian czar. Emperors preferred his title of civilis princeps for three centuries until they adopted the title domini ('lords'), beginning with Diocletian. His adoptive name Imperator ('victorious general') served as the etymological root of the word 'emperor', though it did not possess this connotation in Augustus's lifetime. The emperors alone held the office of pontifex maximus until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, after which the papacy adopted it.

Written works

Augustus composed an account of his achievements, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, to be inscribed in bronze in front of his mausoleum. Copies of the text were inscribed throughout the empire upon his death. The Latin inscriptions, along with Greek translations, were inscribed on many public edifices, and historian Theodor Mommsen called them the "queen of inscriptions". The Res Gestae is Augustus's only surviving major work, though he is also known to have composed poems entitled "Sicilia", "Epiphanus", and "Ajax", an autobiography of 13 books, a philosophical treatise, and a written rebuttal to Brutus's Eulogy of Cato. Augustus's private letters also reveal facts about his personal life. The poet Martial preserved a sexually crude poem allegedly written by Octavian during the Perusine War, which pokes fun at Mark Antony, his wife Fulvia, and his mistress Glaphyra. Pliny the Elder suggested that Augustus displayed and finished Agrippa's world map publicly exhibited in the Porticus Vipsania. This map would later form the basis of various medieval world maps.

In his Res Gestae, Augustus defined the relative peace established by his reign as a peace "born of victories" (parta victoriis pax) in the civil wars, and Augustan artwork incorporates this theme. This peace ensured Romans and subjugated peoples within their Empire upheld a cohesive social pact: the latter would relinquish their sovereignty and pay taxes in exchange for the preservation of their customs and the protection of Rome. By boasting of his many conquests, the Res Gestae emphasizes the same code of honor found in Republican funerary inscriptions such as those of the Scipios, a key element in elevating the political reputation of Roman families.

Enduring institutions

Augustus thoroughly transformed the city of Rome, creating a permanent police force, firefighting force, and praefectus ('municipal prefect'). Established in AD 6 and based on previous firefighting services established in 22 and 7 BC, the vigiles was a combined fire brigade and police force divided into cohorts of 500 to 1,000 men each, with seven units assigned to fourteen divided city sectors. A praefectus vigilum ('prefect of the watch') was put in charge of the vigiles, whereas vicomagistri officials had previously been in charge of each district following the fire of 7 BC. Augustus created a standing army, fixed at a size of 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers, reduced from 60 legions at the end of the civil wars in 30 BC. This was supported by many auxiliary units of 500 non-citizen soldiers each, often recruited from recently conquered areas.

With his finances securing the maintenance of roads throughout Italy, Augustus installed an official system of relay stations overseen by a military officer known as the praefectus vehiculorum. Besides speeding communication in Italy, his extensive road construction allowed Roman armies to march swiftly across the country. In AD 6 Augustus established the aerarium militare, donating 170 million sesterces to the new military treasury that provided for both active and retired soldiers.

One of Augustus's most enduring institutions was the establishment of the Praetorian Guard in 27 BC, commanded by two praetorian prefects (later one) after Augustus created this office in 2 BC. Originally a personal bodyguard unit on the battlefield, the praetorians evolved into an imperial guard as well as an important political force in Rome. They served the emperors into the early 4th century.

Revenue reforms

Augustus's tax reforms greatly impacted the subsequent success of the Empire, bringing it under direct taxation from Rome. This increased and stabilized Rome's revenues from its territories and regularized the financial relationship between Rome and its provinces, avoiding provincial resentments with arbitrary exaction. An equally important reform was the abolition of tax farming. The publicani, Republican era private tax farmers, were infamous for their depredations and great wealth, so they were replaced by salaried tax collectors.

Under Augustus, the measures of taxation were determined by censuses with fixed quotas for each province. Citizens of Rome and Italy paid indirect taxes, while direct taxes were exacted from the provinces. Indirect taxes included a 4% tax on the price of slaves, a 1% tax on goods sold at auction, and a 5% tax on the inheritance of estates valued at over 100,000 sesterces by persons other than the next of kin. Due to protest from equestrians, the suffect consuls for 9 AD modified and lessened penalties in the Lex Papia Poppaea that affected the inheritance of estates by unmarried or childless individuals, though it continued to generate revenues with properties of the deceased seized by the state.

Augustus's annexation of Egypt allowed him to divert its immense wealth for imperial purposes. Considered Augustus's private property rather than a province, it became part of each succeeding emperor's patrimonium. Instead of a legate or proconsul, Augustus installed a prefect from the equestrian class to administer Egypt and maintain its lucrative seaports. This position became the highest political achievement for any equestrian besides becoming praetorian prefect. Gold and silver found in the Ptolemaic royal treasury was melted down for coins. In his will, Augustus left money to his family but also 43 million sesterces to the Roman people, 1,000 sesterces to every praetorian, 500 sesterces to every soldier in urban cohorts, and 300 sesterces to each soldier.

Month of August

In 8 BC, the Roman month of Sextilis (or Sextilus) was renamed August (Latin: Augustus) after Augustus. Augustus chose Sextilis as it was the month of his first consulship and of his various victories. In comparison, the month of July (Latin: Iulius) in the Julian calendar was named after Julius Caesar, the only other month in the Roman calendar named after a Roman.

Building projects

Remodeling of Rome

On his deathbed, Augustus boasted that he converted Rome from a city of bricks into one of marble. Marble could be found in Roman buildings before Augustus, but it was not extensively used as a building material until his reign. He left a mark on the monumental topography of the city's center, as well as on the Campus Martius with the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) and monumental sundial, whose central gnomon was an obelisk taken from Egypt. The relief sculptures decorating the Ara Pacis visually augment Augustus's triumphs outlined in the Res Gestae. Its reliefs depict praetorians, the Vestals, and the citizenry of Rome. The Corinthian order of architectural style originating from ancient Greece was the dominant architectural style in the age of Augustus. Suetonius once commented that Rome was unworthy of its status as an imperial capital, yet Augustus and Agrippa set out to dismantle this sentiment. They transformed the appearance of Rome upon the Greek model, incorporating both Classical and Hellenistic elements with many Athenian monuments as direct inspirations.

Augustus had the temples of Caesar, Jupiter Tonans, and Apollo Palatinus erected, as well as the Baths of Agrippa and the Forum of Augustus with its Temple of Mars Ultor. He encouraged the establishment of the Theatre of Balbus and Agrippa's construction of the Pantheon, and funded additional projects in the name of others, often relations (e.g. Portico of Octavia, Theatre of Marcellus). Even his tomb in Rome 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. He also completed projects left unfinished by Julius Caesar, such as the Curia Julia, the Forum of Caesar, and the Temple of Venus Genetrix. He rebuilt the Basilica Aemilia by 2 BC (previously burned down in a fire of 35 BC).

Augustus also provided grand spectacles in Rome. The amphitheater constructed by Statilius Taurus from 34 to 29 BC was the first stone amphitheater built in the city, and opened with gladiator games around the time Octavian staged shows of live combat and the first ever killing of a rhino and hippopotamus for entertainment in Rome. Augustus staged lion hunts in the Circus Maximus, temporarily flooded the Circus Flaminius for slaughtering crocodiles, and held gladiatorial bouts in the Saepta Julia. In 2 BC he also staged an elaborate mock naval battle, the naumachia Augusti, by creating an artificial lake on the west bank of the Tiber, its waters fed by a newly built aqueduct, the Aqua Alsietina that stretched for over twenty miles. In a lethal performance, the combatants reenacted the 480 BC Battle of Salamis between the Greek city-states led by Athens and the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Public works

Augustus put Agrippa in charge of Rome's water supply, sanitation, drainage system, public baths, and roads. Agrippa had overseen these works when he served as aedile in 33 BC, and even privately funded them afterwards. In 33 BC he built the Aqua Julia aqueduct, along with new cisterns and water towers. After Agrippa's death in 12 BC, Augustus had to find a solution to maintain Rome's water supply system, and he arranged a system where the Senate designated three of its members as commissioners in charge of the water supply and repair of aqueducts.

During the triumvirate and early reign of Augustus, Agrippa oversaw the construction of new roads for military purposes to the Rhine frontier. Augustus created the senatorial commission of the curatores viarum ('supervisors for roads'), which worked with local officials and contractors to organize regular repairs to roads. Augustus repaired all bridges in Rome except the Milvian and Minucian ones, and paved the Via Flaminia between Rome and Ariminum. In his late reign, he tasked a commission of five senators, the curatores locorum publicorum iudicandorum ('Supervisors of Public Property'), with maintaining public buildings and temples.

Residences

Augustus's official residence was the Domus Augusti ('House of Augustus') on the Palatine Hill, though its identification is not certain. According to Suetonius the home was somewhat modest, but if it was the Carettoni house west of the Palatine temple of Apollo, then Augustus's residence would have been substantially larger and more luxurious than literary sources admit. Augustus dedicated this temple to Apollo near his home in 28 BC, and he often appears on coinage wearing the civic crown with laurels highly associated with Apollo. The Domus Augusti is also located near the Casa Romuli ('House of Romulus'), purportedly that of Rome's legendary founder Romulus. The House of Livia is located nearby, though it is unclear if Augustus's wife lived there before his death.

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

Critical analysis

Ancient and contemporary views

Writers throughout the ages have both praised and criticized Augustus. The contemporary Roman jurist Marcus Antistius Labeo, fond of the days of pre-Augustan republican liberty in which he had been born, openly criticized the Augustan regime. In his Annals, Tacitus wrote that Augustus had cunningly subverted Republican Rome into a position of slavery, and that the people of Rome traded one slaveholder for another with the succession of Tiberius. Tacitus believed that Emperor Nerva (r. 96–98) successfully joined principate and liberty. The 3rd-century historian Cassius Dio acknowledged Augustus as a benign, moderate ruler, yet like most other post-Augustan historians he viewed Augustus as an autocrat. The 1st-century poet Lucan argued that Caesar's victory over Pompey and the death of Cato the Younger in 46 BC marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome.

Modern academics still debate the extent to which Augustus censored criticism of him. As triumvir, Octavian destroyed all public records dating from the Ides of March 44 BC to the defeat of Sextus Pompey in 36 BC, a convenient political move that aligned with popular sentiment for purging painful memories about the proscriptions. Augustan poets sometimes openly criticized the emperor, such as Propertius when he disapproved of the execution of prisoners during the Perusine War. Some of Virgil and Horace's poetry has been interpreted as praising their patron Augustus as an upholder of moral justice, and for maintaining the Empire. Octavian was Virgil's patron when the latter penned his Eclogues, which express the discontented views of impoverished farmers and landowners during the triumvirate. Through private letters it appears that Augustus maintained genuine friendships with Virgil and Horace, with no evidence that he intervened directly in their writing of poems. Yet in c. AD 8 Augustus had the poet Ovid exiled, and his literature banned.

Tacitus claimed that the discipline of history declined under Augustus due to historians flattering the emperor rather than by active suppression. Livy wrote his highly influential and encompassing History of Rome during Augustus's reign. Despite championing many of Augustus's views, Livy wrote independently and Tacitus later claimed that Augustus even lightly criticized Livy for glorifying Pompey's career. Augustus may have quietly had his niece Antonia Minor pressure her son Claudius to refrain from writing a history on Rome's civil wars.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Augustus became a revered figure in Christendom during the Middle Ages due to church fathers Orosius, Ambrose, and Bede depicting him as a divinely ordained peacemaker who created a stable realm for the arrival of Christ. The c. 1250 Golden Legend hagiographical anthology promoted the legend of the Tiburtine Sibyl, in which Augustus had an alleged vision of Jesus and his mother Mary. Petrarch viewed Augustus as a righteous ruler, an idea widely accepted in Renaissance humanist literature until the 16th century when more negative views found acceptance.

Modern perspectives

Views on Augustus varied during the early modern period. The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift criticized Augustus for installing tyranny over Rome, likening the virtues of the previous Roman Republic to those of Great Britain's constitutional monarchy. French political philosopher Montesquieu remarked that Augustus was a coward in battle, and English playwright William Shakespeare portrayed 'Caesar' as such in his 1607 play Antony & Cleopatra. Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell deemed Augustus a bloodthirsty usurper and tyrant, views that were shared by Montesquieu and Voltaire. During the 19th century Augustus was widely considered a reformer who brought peace and prosperity after the chaos caused by a failed Republic, though Napoleon Bonaparte emulated Julius Caesar as a role model and was slightly dismissive of Augustus.

Attitudes about Augustus shifted once again during the 20th century, as scholarship during the upheavals of fascism in the 1930s and 1940s generally held negative views about Augustus's seizure of power. In 1937–1938, Benito Mussolini held an 'Augustan exhibition' in Rome to celebrate the bimillenary of the birth of Augustus, an event which influenced architectural trends of Fascist Italy. Mussolini also styled himself as Il Duce after dux Augustus. Ronald Syme expressed apprehension about Mussolini's espousal of Augustus. He sparked debate by publishing the then controversial The Roman Revolution (1939) at the onset of the Second World War, acknowledging the political climate that impacted his research. He rejected fascist appropriations of ancient Rome while examining deceptive political terminology employed by totalitarian regimes. Subsequently more peaceful times have led to a greater focus on the art and literature produced in the Augustan age. In 2014 the historian Adrian Goldsworthy stressed that, in modern terms, Augustus was essentially a military dictator, but argued that Augustus was no more ruthless than "other warlords", and that comparing him to Mussolini or other modern dictators is anachronistic and inaccurate.

The Roman Revolution was not widely circulated in continental Europe until 1952, but this and other works by Syme left a major impact on scholarship in the English-speaking world and its views on Augustus in particular. Syme viewed Octavian as a "sickly and sinister youth," and his political faction as an entity similar to a modern crime syndicate. Syme criticized some academics for attributing Julius Caesar's political achievements to Octavian, their ready acceptance of Augustan propaganda about Mark Antony, and the view of Augustus as a flawless organizer and peacemaker. Goldsworthy largely agrees with Syme's analysis, but argues that he was very favorable toward Antony and far too harsh in criticizing Augustus's supporters, "especially the majority who came from outside the established aristocracy". Modern academics debate whether Augustus attempted to distance himself from Caesar the dictator when embracing the deified Caesar. Octavian–Augustus placed more emphasis on his own role as princeps over time.

Modern historians have also highlighted the many positive effects of Augustus's reign, the longevity of which is viewed as a major contributing factor in the transformation of Rome into a de facto monarchy. Eck and Takács stress that Augustus was responsible for establishing a standing professional army, the dynastic principle of the imperial succession, the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense, and relative peace and prosperity for over two centuries. Historian Walter Eder contends that Augustus promoted Republican Roman virtues and addressed the concerns of the plebs by means of generosity and cutting back on lavish excess. In 29 BC, Augustus gave 400 sesterces (equal to one-tenth of a Roman pound of gold) each to 250,000 citizens, 1,000 sesterces each to 120,000 veterans in the colonies, and spent 700 million sesterces in purchasing land for his soldiers to settle upon. He also restored 82 different temples to display his care for the Roman pantheon of deities. In 28 BC, he melted down 80 silver statues commemorating him in an attempt to appear frugal and modest.

Cultural depictions

Physical appearance and official images

Suetonius's Twelve Caesars includes a biography of Augustus and details about his appearance. According to Goldsworthy, descriptions of hair color in ancient Roman sources are often ambiguous, and Suetonius's comment that Augustus's curly hair was inclined towards golden (subflavum) could mean either "slightly blond" or "brown rather than black" hair. Scientific analysis of traces of paint found in his official statues shows that he most likely had naturally light brown hair. Augustus was likely about 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and may have worn built-up soles to appear taller. Among the best known portraits of Augustus are the Prima Porta Statue, his sculpted relief on the Ara Pacis, and the sculpted Via Labicana Augustus. Prominent cameo portraits include the Blacas Cameo and Gemma Augustea. The official imagery was tightly controlled and idealized, drawing from a tradition of Hellenistic portraiture. From c. 29 BC, his portraits proliferated across the Roman world, and they emphasized a youthful appearance until his death.

Julius Caesar first introduced personalized portraits of living individuals on Roman coins in the 40s BC, and Augustus's image on coins is perhaps one means by which he emulated Caesar. It is highly likely Augustus personally dictated how these portraits appeared. Augustus's name and image became universal on coinage throughout the Empire. Goldsworthy notes how the 'Caesar' on silver coins which was mentioned by Jesus in the New Testament was most likely Augustus rather than Tiberius. Later emperors minted coins depicting both themselves and previous rulers including Augustus.

Post-classical visual artworks

Augustus has also been depicted in various artworks following classical antiquity. For instance, he appears on the Hereford Mappa Mundi dated c. 1300 wearing a papal tiara as he orders geographers to create a survey of the world. In 1765 Louis XV commissioned French painter Charles-André van Loo to create a painting depicting Augustus closing the gates of the Temple of Janus in the Forum, a signal that Rome was at peace. Louis XV disliked the painting and had it removed from his hunting lodge, but historian Mary Beard contends that van Loo's painting served as "an appropriate backdrop" during the signing of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon III commissioned French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme to create the painting titled The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ (c. 1852–1854), which blends classical and gothic elements and depicts Augustus on an imperial dais above a nativity scene, juxtaposing the birth of Jesus with the peace brought about by the reign of Augustus. It was exhibited in Paris at the 1855 Universal Exposition.

Theater, film, televised series, and novels

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