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Augustus

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                           Augustus
                  Emperor of the Roman Empire
                   Bust of Caesar Augustus.
   Reign       January 16, 27 BC– August 19 AD 14
   Full name   Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
   Born        September 23, 63 BC
               Rome, Roman Republic
   Died        August 19, AD 14
               Nola, Roman Empire
   Buried      Mausoleum of Augustus
   Predecessor None
   Successor   Tiberius, stepson by third wife and adoptive son
   Consort to  1) Clodia Pulchra ?–40 BC
               2) Scribonia 40 BC–38 BC
               3) Livia Drusilla 38 BC to AD 14
   Issue       Julia the Elder
   Royal House Julio-Claudian
   Father      Gaius Octavius
   Mother      Atia Balba Caesonia

                                         CAPTION: Roman imperial dynasties
                                                    Julio-Claudian Dynasty


                                   Augustus
     Children
        Natural - Julia the Elder
        Adoptive - Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Agrippa Postumus, Tiberius
                                   Tiberius
     Children
        Natural - Julius Caesar Drusus
        Adoptive - Germanicus
                                   Caligula
     Children
        Natural - Julia Drusilla
        Adoptive - Tiberius Gemellus
                                   Claudius
     Children
        Natural - Claudia Antonia, Claudia Octavia, Britannicus
        Adoptive - Nero
                                     Nero
     Children
        Natural - Claudia Augusta

   Augustus (Latin: IMP•CAESAR•DIVI•F•AVGVSTVS; September 23, 63 BC–
   August 19, AD 14), known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (English
   Octavian; Latin: C•IVLIVS•C•F•CAESAR•OCTAVIANVS) for the period of his
   life prior to 27 BC, was the first and among the most important of the
   Roman Emperors.

   Although he preserved the outward form of the Roman Republic, he ruled
   as an autocrat for 41 years, and his rule is the dividing line between
   the Republic and the Roman Empire. He ended a century of civil wars and
   gave Rome an era of peace, prosperity, and imperial greatness, known as
   the Pax Romana, or Roman peace.

Early life

   He was born in Rome (or Velletri) on September 23, 63 BC with the name
   Gaius Octavius. His father, also Gaius Octavius, came from a
   respectable but undistinguished family of the equestrian order and was
   governor of Macedonia. Shortly after Octavius's birth, his father gave
   him the cognomen of Thurinus, possibly to commemorate his victory at
   Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves. His mother, Atia, was the
   niece of Julius Caesar, soon to be Rome's most successful general and
   Dictator. He spent his early years in his grandfather's house near
   Veletrae (modern Velletri). In 58 BC, when he was four years old, his
   father died. He spent most of his childhood in the house of his
   stepfather, Lucius Marcius Philippus.

   In 51 BC, aged eleven, Octavius delivered the funeral oration for his
   grandmother Julia, elder sister of Caesar. He donned the toga virilis
   at fifteen, and was elected to the College of Pontiffs. Caesar
   requested that Octavius join his staff for his campaign in Africa, but
   Atia protested that he was too young. The following year, 46 BC, she
   consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, where he planned to fight
   the forces of Pompey, but he fell ill and was unable to travel. When he
   had recovered, he sailed to the front, but was shipwrecked; after
   coming ashore with a handful of companions, he made it across hostile
   territory to Caesar's camp, which impressed his great-uncle
   considerably. Caesar and Octavius returned home in the same carriage,
   and Caesar secretly changed his will.

Rise to power

   Bronze statue of Augustus, Archaeological Museum, Athens.
   Enlarge
   Bronze statue of Augustus, Archaeological Museum, Athens.

   When Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (the 15th) 44 BC,
   Octavius was studying in Apollonia, Illyria. Caesar's will revealed
   that, having no legitimate children, Caesar had adopted his
   great-nephew Octavius as his son and main heir. Owing to his adoption,
   Octavius assumed the name Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman tradition dictated
   that he also append the surname Octavianus (Octavian) to indicate his
   biological family; however, no evidence exists that he ever used that
   name. Mark Antony later charged that he had earned his adoption by
   Caesar through sexual favours, though Suetonius describes Antony's
   accusation as political slander.

   Octavian recruited a small force in Apollonia. Crossing over to Italia,
   he bolstered his personal forces with Caesar's veteran legionaries,
   gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar. He
   furthered his cause by emphasizing the fact that he was the son of a
   god, since Caesar had been Deified. Only eighteen years old, he was
   consistently underestimated by his rivals for power.

   In Rome, he found Mark Antony and the Optimates led by Marcus Tullius
   Cicero in an uneasy truce. After a tense standoff, and a war in
   Cisalpine Gaul after Antony tried to take control of the province from
   Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, he formed an alliance with Mark Antony
   and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's principal colleagues. The three
   formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate, an explicit grant of
   special powers lasting five years and supported by law, unlike the
   unofficial First Triumvirate of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, Julius Caesar and
   Marcus Licinius Crassus.

   The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions in which 300 senators
   and 2,000 equites were deprived of their property and, for those who
   failed to escape, their lives, going beyond a simple purge of those
   allied with the assassins, and probably motivated by a need to raise
   money to pay their troops.

   Antony and Octavian then marched against Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius
   Cassius, who had fled to Greece. After two battles at Philippi in
   Macedonia, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius
   committed suicide (42 BC). After the battle, a new arrangement was made
   between the members of the Second Triumvirate: while Octavian returned
   to Rome, Antony went to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen
   Cleopatra VII, the former lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's
   infant son, Caesarion. Lepidus went on to govern Hispania and the
   province of Africa.

   Octavian, governing in Italy, busied himself taking lands from Italians
   and giving them to triumvirate veteran soldiers. This caused political
   and social unrest, and when Octavian asked for a divorce from Clodia
   Pulchra, the daughter of Fulvia and her first husband Publius Clodius
   Pulcher. Octavian divorced Clodia to marry Scribonia, with whom he
   would have his only child, Julia. His marriage with Clodia was never
   consummated, he returned her to her mother with a letter informing her
   that he was returning her in "mint" condition. Fulvia, Antony's wife,
   decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, Mark Antony's
   brother, she raised eight legions in Italy to fight for Antony's rights
   against Octavian. The army occupied Rome for a short time, but
   eventually retreated to Perusia (modern Perugia). Octavian besieged
   Fulvia and Lucius Antonius in the winter of 41– 40 BC, starving them
   into surrender. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon, where she died of a sudden
   illness, while Antony was en route to meet her. To Scribonia and
   Octavian was born Octavian's only natural child, Julia, who was born
   the same day that he divorced Scribonia to marry Livia Drusilla.

   While in Egypt, Antony had been conducting an affair with Cleopatra
   that resulted in three children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene,
   and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Aware of his deteriorating relationship with
   Octavian, Antony left Cleopatra. Fulvia's death allowed for the two
   triumvirs to effect a reconciliation. Octavian gave his sister,
   Octavia, in marriage to Antony in 40 BC. During their marriage, Octavia
   gave birth to two daughters, both named Antonia. In 37 BC, Antony
   deserted Octavia and went back to Egypt to be with Cleopatra. The Roman
   dominions were then divided between Octavian in the West and Antony in
   the East.

   Whilst Antony occupied himself with military campaigns against the
   Parthians and a romantic affair with Cleopatra, Octavian built a
   network of allies in Rome, consolidated his power, and spread
   propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman because of
   his preoccupation with Egyptian affairs and traditions. The situation
   grew more and more tense, and finally, in 32 BC, the senate officially
   declared war on "the Foreign Queen", to avoid the stigma of yet another
   civil war. It was quickly decided: in the bay of Actium on the western
   coast of Greece, after Antony's men began deserting, the fleets met in
   a great battle in which many ships were burned and thousands on both
   sides were slain. Octavian defeated his rivals who then fled to Egypt.
   He pursued them, and after another defeat, Antony committed suicide.
   Cleopatra also committed suicide after her upcoming role in Octavian's
   Triumph was "carefully explained to her", and Caesarion was "butchered
   without compunction". Octavian supposedly said "two Caesars are one too
   many" as he ordered Caesarion's death. This demonstrates a key
   difference between Julius Caesar and Octavian—while Caesar had
   demonstrated clemency in his victories, Octavian most certainly did
   not.

Octavian becomes Augustus: the creation of the Principate

   Augustus as a magistrate.
   Enlarge
   Augustus as a magistrate.

   The Western half of the Roman Republic territory had sworn allegiance
   to Octavian prior to Actium in 31 BC, and after Actium and the defeat
   of Antony and Cleopatra, the Eastern half followed suit, placing
   Octavian in the position of ruler of the Republic. 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. At the same
   time, Octavian could not simply give up his authority without risking
   further civil wars amongst the Roman generals, and even if he desired
   no position of authority whatsoever, his position demanded that he look
   to the well-being of the City and provinces. Marching in to Rome, he
   forced the Roman Senate to name him consul; as such, though he had
   given up his personal armies, he was now legally in command of the
   legions of Rome.

First settlement

   In 27 BC, Octavian officially returned power to the Roman Senate, and
   offered to relinquish his own military supremacy over Egypt.

   Reportedly, the suggestion of Octavian's stepping down as consul led to
   rioting among the Plebeians in Rome. A compromise was reached between
   the Senate and Octavian's supporters, known as the First Settlement.
   Octavian was given proconsular authority over the Western half and
   Syria—the provinces that, combined, contained almost 70% of the Roman
   legions.

   The Senate also gave him the titles Augustus and Princeps. Augustus,
   from the Latin word Augere, "to increase," was a title of religious
   rather than political authority. According to Roman religious beliefs,
   the title symbolized a stamp of authority over humanity, and in fact
   nature, that went beyond any constitutional definition of his status.
   Additionally, after the harsh methods employed in consolidating his
   control, the change in name would also serve to separate his benign
   reign as Augustus from his reign of terror as Octavian. Princeps
   translates to "first-citizen" or "first-leader". It had been a title
   under the Republic for those who had served the state well; for
   example, Pompey had held the title.

   In addition, Augustus was granted the right to hang the corona civica,
   the "civic crown" made from oak, above his door, and have laurels drape
   his doorposts. This crown was usually held above the head of a Roman
   general during a Triumph, with the individual holding the crown charged
   to continually repeat, "Remember, thou art mortal," to the triumphant
   general. Additionally, laurel wreaths were important in several state
   ceremonies, and crowns of laurel were rewarded to champions of
   athletic, racing, and dramatic contests. Thus, both the laurel and the
   oak were integral symbols of Roman religion and statecraft; placing
   them on Augustus's doorposts was tantamount to declaring his home the
   capital. However, it must be noted that none of these titles, or the
   Civic Crown and laurels, granted Octavian any additional powers or
   authority; for all intents and purposes the new Augustus was simply a
   highly-honored Roman citizen, holding the consulship within the city
   and acting as proconsul in territories abroad.

   These actions were highly abnormal from the Roman Senate, but this was
   not the same body of patricians that had assassinated Caesar. Both
   Antony and Octavian had purged the Senate of suspect elements and
   planted it with their loyal partisans. How free a hand the Senate had
   in these transactions, and what backroom deals were made, remain
   unknown.

Second settlement

   In 23 BC, Augustus renounced the consulship, but retained his consular
   imperium, leading to a second compromise between Augustus and the
   Senate known as the Second Settlement. Augustus was granted the power
   of a tribune (tribunicia potestas), though not the title, which allowed
   him to convene the Senate and people at will and lay business before
   it, veto the actions of either the Assembly or the Senate, preside over
   elections, and the right to speak first at any meeting. Also included
   in Augustus' tribunician authority were powers usually reserved for the
   Roman censor; these included the right to supervise public morals and
   scrutinize laws to ensure they were in the public interest, as well as
   the ability to hold a census and determine the membership of the
   Senate. No Tribune of Rome ever had these powers, and there was no
   precedent within the Roman system for combining the powers of the
   Tribune and the Censor into a single position, nor was Augustus ever
   elected to the office of Censor. Julius Caesar had been granted
   similiar powers, wherein he was charged with supervising the morals of
   the state, however this position did not extend the Censor's ability to
   hold a census and determine the Senate's roster. Whether censorial
   powers were granted to Augustus as part of his tribunician authority,
   or he simply assumed these responsibilities, or, as Augustus indicates
   in his Res Gestae, he somehow retained consular authority, is still a
   matter of debate.

   In addition to tribunician authority, Augustus was granted sole
   imperium within the city of Rome itself: all armed forces in the city,
   formerly under the control of the Prefects and consuls, were now under
   the sole authority of Augustus. Additionally, Augustus was granted
   imperium proconsulare maius, or "imperium over all the proconsuls",
   which translated to the right to interfere in any province and override
   the decisions of any governor. With maius imperium, Augustus was the
   only individual able to receive a triumph as he was ostensibly the head
   of every Roman army.

   Many of the political subtleties of the Second Settlement seem to have
   evaded the comprehension of the Plebeian class. When, in 22 BC,
   Augustus failed to stand for election as consul, fears arose once again
   that Augustus, seen as the great "defender of the people", was being
   forced from power by the aristocratic Senate. In 22, 21, and 20 BC, the
   people rioted in response, and only allowed a single consul to be
   elected for each of those years, ostensibly to leave the other position
   open for Augustus. Finally, in 19 BC, the Senate voted to allow
   Augustus to wear the consul's insignia in public and before the Senate,
   with an act sometimes known as the Third Settlement. This seems to have
   assuaged the populace; regardless of whether or not Augustus was
   actually a consul, the importance was that he appeared as one before
   the people.

   With these powers in mind, it must be understood that all forms of
   permanent and legal power within Rome officially lay with the Senate
   and the people; Augustus was given extraordinary powers, but only as a
   pronconsul and magistrate under the authority of the Senate. Augustus
   never presented himself as a king or autocrat, once again only allowing
   himself to be addressed by the title princeps. After the death of
   Lepidus in 13 BC, he additionally took up the position of pontifex
   maximus, the high priest of the collegium of the Pontifices, the most
   important position in Roman religion.

   Later Roman Emperors would generally be limited to the powers and
   titles originally granted to Augustus, though often, in order to
   display humility, newly appointed Emperors would often decline one or
   more of the honorifics given to Augustus. Just as often, as their reign
   progressed, Emperors would appropriate all of the titles, regardless of
   whether they had actually been granted by the Senate. The Civic Crown
   (which later Emperors took to actually wearing), consular insignia, and
   later the purple robes of a Triumphant general ( toga picta) became the
   imperial insignia well into the Byzantine era, and were even adopted by
   many Germanic tribes invading the former Western empire as insignia of
   their right to rule.

Succession

   Silver denarius of Augustus.
   Enlarge
   Silver denarius of Augustus.

   Almost immediately after the First Settlement, Augustus fell ill. By 26
   BC, Augustus had become bedridden, and the problem of succession came
   to the forefront. Augustus himself passed his signet ring and
   government documents to his close friends, Marcus Agrippa and Maecenas
   respectively. While Augustus recovered enough to make short trips and
   public appearances by 24, and was certainly fully recovered by 23, his
   near death seems to have brought the issue to the forefront of
   Augustus's plans.

   Noted Augustan historian Ronald Syme argues that indications pointed
   toward his sister's son Marcellus, who had been married to Augustus'
   daughter Julia the Elder. Other historians dispute this, instead
   indicating a preference for Marcus Agrippa, who was arguably the only
   one of Augustus's associates who could have controlled the legions.
   After the death of Marcellus in 23 BC, Augustus married his daughter to
   Agrippa. This union produced five children, three sons and two
   daughters: Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Julia, Agrippina the
   Elder, and Postumus Agrippa, so named because he was born after Marcus
   Agrippa died. Shortly after the Second Settlement, Agrippa was granted
   tribunician power and seems to have administered the eastern half of
   the empire from Samos in the Cyclades.

   Augustus' intent to make Gaius and Lucius Caesar his heirs was apparent
   when he adopted them as his own children, and personally ushered them
   into their political careers by serving as consul with each. Augustus
   also showed favour to his stepsons, Livia's children from her first
   marriage, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus and Tiberius Claudius,
   granting them military commands and public office, and seeming to
   favour Drusus after granting him a triumph after subjugating a large
   portion of Germany.

   After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Livia's son Tiberius was ordered to
   divorce his own wife and marry Agrippa's widow, Augustus's daughter.
   Tiberius shared in Augustus' tribune powers, but shortly thereafter
   went into retirement, reportedly wanting no further role in politics. A
   somewhat apocryphal tale tells of Augustus's various attempts to
   convince Tiberius to return, even going so far as to pretend to have
   fallen ill and be on his deathbed; Tiberius reportedly responded by
   anchoring his vessel off the coast of Ostia until word had reached him
   that Augustus would be well, then sailing straightway for Rhodes. After
   the early deaths of both Lucius and Gaius in 2 and 4 respectively, and
   the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled
   to Rome, where he was adopted by Augustus on the condition that he, in
   turn, adopt Germanicus, continuing the tradition of presenting at least
   two generations of heirs to Augustus's powers.

   On August 19, 14, Augustus died, and Tiberius was named his heir. The
   only other possible claimant, Postumus Agrippa, had been banished by
   Augustus, and was put to death around the same time. Who ordered his
   death is unknown, but the way was clear for Tiberius to assume the same
   powers that his stepfather had.

Augustus' legacy

   The famous Augustus of Prima Porta
   Enlarge
   The famous Augustus of Prima Porta

   Augustus was deified soon after his death, and both his borrowed
   surname, Caesar, and his title Augustus became the permanent titles of
   the rulers of Rome for the next 400 years, and were still in use at
   Constantinople fourteen centuries after his death. In many languages,
   caesar became the word for emperor, as in German ( Kaiser) and in
   Russian ( Tsar). The cult of the Divine Augustus continued until the
   state religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in the 4th
   century. Consequently, there are many excellent statues and busts of
   the first, and in some ways the greatest, of the emperors. Augustus'
   mausoleum also originally contained bronze pillars inscribed with a
   record of his life, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, which had also been
   disseminated throughout the empire during his lifetime.

   Many consider Augustus to be Rome's greatest emperor; his policies
   certainly extended the empire's life span and initiated the celebrated
   Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. He was handsome, intelligent, decisive, and
   a shrewd politician, but he was not perhaps as charismatic as Julius
   Caesar, and was influenced on occasion by his 3rd wife, Livia (usually
   for the worst). Nevertheless, his legacy proved more enduring.

   In looking back on the reign of Augustus and its legacy to the Roman
   world, its longevity should not be overlooked as a key factor in its
   success. As one ancient historian says, people were born and reached
   middle age without knowing any form of government other than the
   Principate. Had Augustus died earlier (in 23 BC, for instance), matters
   may have turned out differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the
   old Republican oligarchy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must
   be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the
   Roman state into a de facto monarchy in these years. Augustus' own
   experience, his patience, his tact, and his political acumen also
   played their parts. 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. Augustus' ultimate legacy was the
   peace and prosperity the empire enjoyed for the next two centuries
   under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the
   political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor,
   and although every emperor adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, only a
   handful, such as Trajan, earned genuine comparison with him. His reign
   laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for 250 years.

Revenue Reforms

   Probably Augustus's most important legacy from the standpoint of its
   impact on the subsequent success of the Empire was his reform of Rome's
   public revenue system. Three of these reforms, in particular, are
   considered to have had substantial beneficial effects on both the
   fairness of the tax system and its effects on the Empire's economic
   prosperity.

   The first reform was to bring a much larger portion of the Empire's
   expanded land base under consistent, direct taxation from Rome, instead
   of exacting varying, intermittent, and somewhat arbitrary tributes from
   each local province, as Augustus's predecessors had done. This reform
   greatly increased Rome's net revenue from its territorial acquisitions,
   stabilized its flow, and regularized the financial relationship between
   Rome and the provinces, rather than provoking fresh resentments with
   each new arbitrary exaction of tribute.

   The second and equally important reform was the abolition of private
   tax farming and its replacement with salaried civil service tax
   collectors. The tax farmers had gained great infamy for their
   depredations, as well as great private wealth, by winning the right to
   tax local areas. Rome's revenue was the amount of the successful bids,
   and the tax farmers' profits consisted of any additional amounts they
   could forcibly wring from the populace with Rome's blessing. The more
   rapacious the tax farmer, the more he could afford to bid on the next
   area, and the more onerous the people's tax burdens became. Lack of
   effective supervision, combined with tax farmers' desire to maximize
   their profits, had produced a system of arbitrary exactions that was
   often barbarously cruel to taxpayers, widely (and accurately) perceived
   as unfair, and very harmful to investment and the economy. Its
   abolition was an enormous relief to the people, and perhaps more than
   any other factor explains not only the Empire's great prosperity for
   the next two centuries, but also Augustus's great personal popularity
   during his lifetime.

   The third reform, the use of Egypt's immense land rents to finance the
   Empire's operations, resulted from Julius Caesar's conquest of Egypt
   and the shift under Augustus to an imperial form of government. As it
   was effectively considered first Julius's and then Augustus's private
   property, and became part of each succeeding emperor's patrimonium, the
   highly productive agricultural land of Egypt yielded enormous revenues
   that were available to Augustus and his successors to pay for public
   works and military expeditions, as well as bread and circuses for the
   population of Rome. The diversion of this land rent to Rome's coffers
   was probably even beneficial to the Egyptian economy and people, as
   Rome provided better infrastructure and public administration in return
   for the money than the pharoahs had ever done.

Month

   The month of August (Latin Augustus) is named after Augustus; until his
   time it was called Sextilis (the sixth month of the Roman calendar).
   Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus
   wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this
   is an invention of the 13th-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco.
   Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not
   chosen for its length (see Julian calendar). A more widely held reason
   is that it was chosen since it was the month in which Cleopatra ( Marc
   Antony's lover) committed suicide.

Building projects

   Augustus boasted that he 'found Rome brick and left it marble'.
   Although this did not apply to the Subura slums, which were still as
   rickety and fire-prone as ever, he did leave a mark on the monumental
   topography of the centre and of the Campus Martius, with the Ara Pacis
   (Altar of Peace) and monumental sundial, whose central gnomon was an
   obelisk taken from Egypt, the Temple of Caesar, the Forum of Augustus
   with its Temple of Mars Ultor, and also other projects either
   encouraged by him (eg Theatre of Balbus, Agrippa's construction of the
   Pantheon) or funded by him in the name of others, often relations (eg
   Portico of Octavia, Theatre of Marcellus). Even his own mausoleum was
   built before his death to house members of his family.

Augustus in popular culture

Modern archaeological research

   In July 2006, archaeologists announced that they had discovered what
   they believed to be the birthplace of Augustus. Head archaeologist
   Clementina Panella stated that the team uncovered a section of corridor
   and other fragments under Rome's Palatine Hill, which she described on
   July 20 as "a very ancient aristocratic house", and stated that "the
   emperor was particularly fond of the area."

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