AUGUSTUS 25BC Asian mint possibly Ephesus Authentic Ancient Roman Coin i55540

Beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client 
states, and made peace with the Parthian 
Empire through diplomacy. 
He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks 
of roads with an official couriersystem, 
established a standing army, established the Praetorian 
Guard, created official police and fire-fighting 
services for Rome, and 
rebuilt much of the city during his reign.

Augustus died in 14 AD at the age of 75. He may have died from natural causes, 
although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was 
succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son (also stepson and former son-in-law),Tiberius.

Name

Throughout his life, the man historians refer to as Augustus was 
known by many names:

• At birth he was named Gaius 
  Octavius after his biological 
  father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius (or 
  Octavian) between his birth in 63 until his posthumous adoption by Julius 
  Caesar in 44 BC.
• Upon his adoption by Caesar, he took 
  Caesar’s name and become Gaius 
  Julius Caesar Octavianus in 
  accordance with Roman 
  adoption naming standards. Though he quickly dropped “Octavianus” 
  from his name and his contemporaries referred to him as “Caesar” during this 
  period, historians refer to him as Octavian between 
  44 BC and 27 BC.
• As part of his actions to strengthen his 
  political ties to Caesar’s former soldiers, in 42 BC, following the deification of 
  Caesar, Octavian added Divi 
  Filius (Son of the Divine) 
  to his name, becoming Gaius 
  Julius Caesar Divi Filius.
• In 38 BC, Octavian replaced his praenomen “Gaius” 
  and nomen “Julius” 
  with Imperator, the title 
  by which troops hailed their leader after military success, 
  officially becoming Imperator 
  Caesar Divi Filius
• In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark 
  Antony and Cleopatra, 
  the Roman 
  Senate voted new 
  titles for him, officially becoming Imperator 
  Caesar Divi Filius Augustus. It is the events of 27 BC from which he 
  obtained his traditional name of Augustus, 
  which historians use in reference from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.

Early life

While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, 
approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Rome, Augustus was born in the city of 
Rome on 23 September 63 BC. He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine 
Hill, very close to the Roman 
Forum. He was given the nameGaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly 
commemorating his father’s victory at Thurii over 
a rebellious band of slaves.

Due to the crowded nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his 
father’s home village at Velletri to 
be raised. Octavius only mentions his father’s equestrian family 
briefly in his memoirs. His paternal great-grandfather was a military tribune in Sicily during 
the Second 
Punic War. His grandfather had served in several local political 
offices. His 
father, also named Gaius Octavius, had been governor of Macedonia. His 
mother, Atia, 
was the niece of Julius 
Caesar.

In 59 BC, when he was four years old, his father died. His 
mother married a former governor of Syria, Lucius 
Marcius Philippus. Philippus 
claimed descent from Alexander 
the Great, and was elected consul in 
56 BC. Philippus never had much of an interest in young Octavius. Because of 
this, Octavius was raised by his grandmother (and Julius Caesar’s sister), Julia 
Caesaris.

In 52 or 51 BC, Julia Caesaris died. Octavius delivered the funeral oration for 
his grandmother. From this point, his 
mother and stepfather took a more active role in raising him. He donned the toga 
virilis four years 
later, and was elected to the College 
of Pontiffs in 47 BC. The 
following year he was put in charge of the Greek 
games that were staged in 
honor of the Temple 
of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar. According 
to Nicolaus 
of Damascus, Octavius wished to join Caesar’s staff for his campaign 
in Africa, 
but gave way when his mother protested. In 
46 BC, she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, 
where he planned to fight the forces of Pompey, 
Caesar’s late enemy, but Octavius fell ill and was unable to travel.

When he had recovered, he sailed to the front, but was shipwrecked; after coming 
ashore with a handful of companions, he crossed hostile territory to Caesar’s 
camp, which impressed his great-uncle considerably. Velleius 
Paterculus reports that 
after that time, Caesar allowed the young man to share his carriage. When 
back in Rome, Caesar deposited a new will with the Vestal 
Virgins, naming Octavius as the prime beneficiary.

Rise to power

Heir to Caesar

The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Léon 
Gérôme (1867). 
On 15 March 44 BC, Octavius’s adoptive father Julius Caesar was 
assassinated by a conspiracy led by Marcus 
Junius Brutus and Gaius 
Cassius Longinus

At the time Caesar 
was killed on the Ides 
of March (15 March) 44 BC, 
Octavius was studying and undergoing military training in Apollonia, 
Illyria. Rejecting the advice of some army officers to take refuge 
with the troops in Macedonia, 
he sailed to Italia to 
ascertain whether he had any potential political fortunes or security. After 
landing at Lupiae near Brundisium, 
he learned the contents of Caesar’s will, and only then did he decide to become 
Caesar’s political heir as well as heir to two-thirds of his estate.

Having no living legitimate children, Caesar 
had adopted his great-nephew Octavius as his son and main heir. Upon 
his adoption, 
Octavius assumed his great-uncle’s name, Gaius 
Julius Caesar. Although Romans who had been adopted into a new family 
usually retained their old nomen in cognomen form 
(e.g. Octavianus for 
one who had been an Octavius, Aemilianus for 
one who had been an Aemilius, etc.) there is no evidence that he ever bore the 
nameOctavianus, as it would have made his modest origins too obvious.

Despite the fact that he never officially bore the name Octavianus, 
however, to save confusing the dead dictator with his heir, historians often 
refer to the new Caesar—between his adoption and his assumption, in 27 BC, of 
the name Augustus—as Octavian. Mark 
Antony later charged that 
Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favours, though Suetonius, 
in his work Lives 
of the Twelve Caesars, describes Antony’s accusation as political 
slander.

To make a successful entry into the upper echelons of the Roman political 
hierarchy, Octavian could not rely on his limited funds. After 
a warm welcome by Caesar’s soldiers at Brundisium, Octavian 
demanded a portion of the funds that were allotted by Caesar for the intended 
war against Parthia in 
the Middle East. This amounted to 700 
million sesterces stored 
at Brundisium, the staging ground in Italy for military operations in the east.

A later senatorial investigation into the disappearance of the public funds made 
no action against Octavian, since he subsequently used that money to raise 
troops against the Senate’s arch enemy, Mark Antony. Octavian 
made another bold move in 44 BC when without official permission he appropriated 
the annual tribute that had been sent from Rome’s Near 
Eastern province to Italy.

Octavian began to bolster his personal forces with Caesar’s veteran legionaries 
and with troops designated for the Parthian war, gathering support by 
emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar. On 
his march to Rome through Italy, Octavian’s presence and newly acquired funds 
attracted many, winning over Caesar’s former veterans stationed in Campania. By 
June he had gathered an army of 3,000 loyal veterans, paying each a salary of 
500 denarii.

A statue of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated ca. 30 BC

Arriving in Rome on 6 May 44 BC, Octavian 
found the consul Mark 
Antony, Caesar’s former colleague, in an uneasy truce with the 
dictator’s assassins; they had been granted a general amnesty on 17 March, yet 
Antony succeeded in driving most of them out of Rome. This 
was due to his “inflammatory” eulogy given at Caesar’s funeral, mounting public 
opinion against the assassins.

Although Mark Antony was amassing political support, Octavian still had 
opportunity to rival him as the leading member of the faction supporting Caesar. 
Mark Antony had lost the support of many Romans and supporters of Caesar when 
he, at first, opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status. Octavian 
failed to persuade Antony to relinquish Caesar’s money to him. During the summer 
he managed to win support from Caesarian sympathizers, however, who saw the 
younger heir as the lesser evil and hoped to manipulate him, or to bear with him 
during their efforts to get rid of Antonius.

In September, the Optimate orator Marcus 
Tullius Cicero began to 
attack Antony in a series 
of speeches portraying 
Antony as the greatest threat to the order of the Senate. With 
opinion in Rome turning against him and his year of consular power nearing its 
end, Antony attempted to pass laws which would lend him control over Cisalpine 
Gaul, which had been assigned as part of his province, from Decimus 
Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar’s assassins.

Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian 
veterans, and on 28 November won over two of Antony’s legions with the enticing 
offer of monetary gain. In the face 
of Octavian’s large and capable force, Antony saw the danger of staying in Rome, 
and to the relief of the Senate, he fled to Cisalpine Gaul, which was to be 
handed to him on 1 January.

First conflict with 
Antony

Bust of Augustus in Musei 
Capitolini, Rome

After Decimus Brutus refused to give up Cisalpine 
Gaul, Antony besieged him at Mutina. The 
resolutions passed by the Senate to stop the violence were rejected by Antony, 
as the Senate had no army of its own to challenge him; this provided an 
opportunity for Octavian, who already was known to have armed forces. Cicero 
also defended Octavian against Antony’s taunts about Octavian’s lack of noble 
lineage; he stated “we have no more brilliant example of traditional piety among 
our youth.”

This was in part a rebuttal to Antony’s opinion of Octavian, as Cicero quoted 
Antony saying to Octavian, “You, boy, owe everything to your name.” In 
this unlikely alliance orchestrated by the arch anti-Caesarian senator Cicero, 
the Senate inducted Octavian as senator on 1 January 43 BC, yet he also was 
given the power to vote alongside the former consuls. In 
addition, Octavian was granted imperium (commanding 
power), which made his command of troops legal, sending him to relieve the siege 
along with Hirtius and Pansa (the 
consuls for 43 BC). In April 43 BC, 
Antony’s forces were defeated at the battles of Forum 
Gallorum and Mutina, 
forcing Antony to retreat to Transalpine 
Gaul. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole 
command of their armies.

After heaping many more rewards on Decimus Brutus than on Octavian for defeating 
Antony, the Senate attempted to give command of the consular legions to Decimus 
Brutus, yet Octavian decided not to cooperate. Instead, 
Octavian stayed in the Po 
Valley and refused to aid 
any further offensive against Antony. In 
July, an embassy of centurions sent 
by Octavian entered Rome and demanded that he receive the consulship left vacant 
by Hirtius and Pansa.

Octavian also demanded that the decree declaring Antony a public enemy should be 
rescinded. When this was refused, he 
marched on the city with eight legions. He 
encountered no military opposition in Rome, and on 19 August 43 BC was elected 
consul with his relative Quintus 
Pedius as co-consul. Meanwhile, 
Antony formed an alliance with Marcus 
Aemilius Lepidus, another leading Caesarian.

Second Triumvirate

Proscriptions

Roman aureus bearing 
the portraits ofMark 
Antony (left) 
and Octavian (right), issued in 41 BC to celebrate the establishment 
of the Second 
Triumvirate by 
Octavian, Antony and Marcus 
Lepidus in 
43 BC. Both sides bear the inscription “III VIR R P C”, meaning “One 
of Three Men for the Regulation of the Republic”.

In a meeting near Bologna in 
October 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed a junta called 
the Second 
Triumvirate. This explicit 
arrogation of special powers lasting five years was then supported by law passed 
by the plebs, 
unlike the unofficialFirst 
Triumvirate formed by Gnaeus 
Pompey Magnus, Julius 
Caesar, and Marcus 
Licinius Crassus. The 
triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions in 
which 300 senators and 2,000 equites, 
allegedly were branded as outlaws and 
deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives.

The estimation that 300 senators were proscribed was presented by Appian, 
although his earlier contemporary Livy asserted 
that only 130 senators had been proscribed. This 
decree issued by the triumvirate was motivated in part by a need to raise money 
to pay the salaries of their troops for the upcoming conflict against Caesar’s 
assassins, Marcus 
Junius Brutus and Gaius 
Cassius Longinus. Rewards 
for their arrest gave incentive for Romans to capture those proscribed, while 
the assets and properties of those arrested were seized by the triumvirs.

Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir 
was more responsible for the proscriptions and killing, however, the sources 
agree that enacting the proscriptions was a means by all three factions to 
eliminate political enemies. Marcus 
Velleius Paterculus asserted 
that Octavian tried to avoid proscribing officials whereas Lepidus and Antony 
were to blame for initiating them. Cassius 
Dio defended Augustus as 
trying to spare as many as possible, whereas Antony and Lepidus, being older and 
involved in politics longer, had many more enemies to deal with.

This claim was rejected by Appian, who maintained that Octavian shared an equal 
interest with Lepidus and Antony in eradicating his enemies. Suetonius presents 
the case that Octavian, although reluctant at first to proscribe officials, 
nonetheless pursued his enemies with more rigor than the other triumvirs. Plutarch describes 
the proscriptions as a ruthless and cutthroat swapping of friends and family 
among Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian. For example, Octavian allowed the 
proscription of his ally Cicero, 
Antony the proscription of his maternal uncle Lucius 
Julius Caesar (the consul 
of 64 BC), and Lepidus his brother Paullus.

A denarius minted 
c. 18 BC. Obverse: CAESAR AVGVSTVS; reverse: DIVVS IVLIV[S] (DIVINE 
JULIUS)

Battle of Philippi and division of territory

On 1 January 42 BC, the Senate posthumously 
recognized Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, Divus 
Iulius. Octavian was able to further his cause by emphasizing the 
fact that he was Divi 
filius, “Son of God”. Antony 
and Octavian then sent 28 legions by 
sea to face the armies of Brutus and Cassius, who had built their base of power 
in Greece. After two battles 
at Philippi in Macedonia in 
October 42, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committedsuicide. 
Mark Antony would later use the examples of these battles as a means to belittle 
Octavian, as both battles were decisively won with the use of Antony’s forces. In 
addition to claiming responsibility for both victories, Antony also branded 
Octavian as a coward for handing over his direct military control to Marcus 
Vipsanius Agrippa instead.

After Philippi, a new territorial arrangement was made among the members of the 
Second Triumvirate. While Antony placed Gaul, 
the provinces of Hispania, 
and Italia in 
the hands of Octavian, Antony traveled east 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 was left with the province 
of Africa, stymied by Antony, who conceded Hispania to Octavian 
instead.

Octavian was left to decide where in Italy to settle the tens of thousands of 
veterans of the Macedonian campaign, whom the triumvirs had promised to 
discharge. The tens of thousands who had fought on the republican side with 
Brutus and Cassius, who could easily ally with a political opponent of Octavian 
if not appeased, also required land. There 
was no more government-controlled land to allot as settlements for their 
soldiers, so Octavian had to choose one of two options: alienating many Roman 
citizens by confiscating their land, or alienating many Roman soldiers who could 
mount a considerable opposition against him in the Roman heartland. Octavian 
chose the former. There were as many 
as eighteen Roman towns affected by the new settlements, with entire populations 
driven out or at least given partial evictions.

Rebellion and 
marriage alliances

Widespread dissatisfaction with Octavian over these settlements of his soldiers 
encouraged many to rally at the side of Lucius 
Antonius, who was brother of Mark Antony and supported by a majority 
in the Senate. Meanwhile, Octavian 
asked for a divorce from Clodia 
Pulchra, the daughter of Fulvia and 
her first husband Publius 
Clodius Pulcher. Claiming that his marriage with Clodia had never 
been consummated, he returned her to her mother, Mark Antony’s wife. Fulvia 
decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, she raised an army in 
Italy to fight for Antony’s rights against Octavian. Lucius and Fulvia took a 
political and martial gamble in opposing Octavian, however, since the Roman army 
still depended on the triumvirs for their salaries. Lucius 
and his allies ended up in a defensive siege at Perusia (modern Perugia), 
where Octavian forced them into surrender in early 40 BC.

Lucius and his army were spared, due to his kinship with Antony, the strongman 
of the East, while Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon. Octavian 
showed no mercy, however, for the mass of allies loyal to Lucius; on 15 March, 
the anniversary of Julius Caesar’s assassination, he had 300 Roman senators and 
equestrians executed for allying with Lucius. Perusia 
also was pillaged and burned as a warning for others. This 
bloody event sullied Octavian’s reputation and was criticized by many, such as 
the Augustan poet Sextus 
Propertius.

Sextus Pompeius
, son of the First Triumvir Pompey and 
still a renegade general following Julius Caesar’s victory over his father, was 
established in Sicily and Sardinia as 
part of an agreement reached with the Second Triumvirate in 39 BC. Both 
Antony and Octavian were vying for an alliance with Pompeius, who, ironically, 
was a member of the republican party, not the Caesarian faction. Octavian 
succeeded in a temporary alliance when in 40 BC he married Scribonia, 
a daughter of Lucius 
Scribonius Libo who was a 
follower of Pompeius as well as his father-in-law.
Scribonia conceived Octavian’s only natural child, Julia, 
who was born the same day that he divorced Scribonia to marry Livia 
Drusilla, little more than a year after their marriage.

While in Egypt, Antony had been engaged in an affair with Cleopatra and 
had fathered three children with her. 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. 
This new conflict proved untenable for both Octavian and Antony, however. Their centurions, 
who had become important figures politically, refused to fight due to their 
Caesarian cause, while the legions under their command followed suit. Meanwhile 
in Sicyon, Antony’s wife Fulvia died of a sudden illness while Antony was en 
route to meet her. Fulvia’s death and the mutiny of their centurions allowed the 
two remaining triumvirs to effect a reconciliation.

In the autumn of 40, Octavian and Antony approved the Treaty of Brundisium, by 
which Lepidus would remain in Africa, Antony in the East, Octavian in the West. 
The Italian peninsula was left open to all for the recruitment of soldiers, but 
in reality, this provision was useless for Antony in the East. To 
further cement relations of alliance with Mark Antony, Octavian gave his sister, Octavia 
Minor, in marriage to Antony in late 40 BC. During 
their marriage, Octavia gave birth to two daughters (known as Antonia 
Major and Antonia 
Minor).

War with Pompeius

A denarius of Sextus 
Pompeius, minted for his victory over Octavian’s fleet, 
on the obverse the Pharus of Messina, 
who defeated Octavian, on the reverse, the monster Scylla

Sextus Pompeius threatened Octavian in Italy by denying to the peninsula 
shipments of grain through the Mediterranean; Pompeius’ own son was put in 
charge as naval commander in the effort to cause widespread famine in Italy. Pompeius’ 
control over the sea prompted him to take on the name Neptuni 
filius, “son of Neptune“. A 
temporary peace agreement was reached in 39 BC with the treaty of Misenum; the 
blockade on Italy was lifted once Octavian granted Pompeius Sardinia,Corsica, 
Sicily, and the Peloponnese, 
and ensured him a future position as consul for 35 BC.

The territorial agreement amongst the triumvirs and Sextus Pompeius began to 
crumble once Octavian divorced Scribonia and married Livia on 17 January 38 BC. One 
of Pompeius’ naval commanders betrayed him and handed over Corsica and Sardinia 
to Octavian. Antony’s additional support to attack Pompeius, became a necessity 
to Octavian, however, so an agreement was reached with the Second Triumvirate’s 
extension for another five-year period beginning in 37 BC.

In supporting Octavian, Antony expected to gain support for his own campaign 
against Parthia, desiring to avenge Rome’s defeat 
at Carrhae in 53 BC. In 
an agreement reached at Tarentum, 
Antony provided 120 ships for Octavian to use against Pompeius, while Octavian 
was to send 20,000 legionaries to 
Antony for use against Parthia. Octavian 
sent only a tenth the number of those promised, however, which was viewed by 
Antony as an intentional provocation.

Octavian and Lepidus launched a joint operation against Sextus in Sicily in 
36 BC. Despite setbacks for Octavian, 
the naval fleet of Sextus Pompeius was almost entirely destroyed on 3 September 
by general Agrippa at the naval battle 
of Naulochus. Sextus fled 
with his remaining forces to the east, where he was captured and executed in Miletus by 
one of Antony’s generals the following year. Both 
Lepidus and Octavian gathered the surrendered troops of Pompeius, yet Lepidus 
felt empowered enough to claim Sicily for himself, ordering Octavian to leave. Lepidus’ 
troops deserted him, however, and defected to Octavian since they were weary of 
fighting and found Octavian’s promises of money to be enticing.

Lepidus surrendered to Octavian and was permitted to retain the office of pontifex 
maximus (head of the 
college of priests), but was ejected from the Triumvirate, his public career at 
an end, and effectively was exiled to a villa at 
Cape Circei in Italy. The Roman 
dominions were now divided between Octavian in the West and Antony in the East. 
To maintain peace and stability in his portion of the Empire, Octavian ensured 
Rome’s citizens of their rights to property. This time he settled his discharged 
soldiers outside of Italy while returning 30,000 slaves to former Roman owners 
that had previously fled to Pompeius to join his army and navy. To 
ensure his own safety and that of Livia and Octavia once he returned to Rome, 
Octavian had the Senate grant him, his wife, and his sister tribunal immunity, 
orsacrosanctitas.

War with Antony

Anthony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence 
Alma-Tadema

Meanwhile, Antony’s campaign against Parthia turned disastrous, tarnishing his 
image as a leader, and the mere 2,000 legionaries sent by Octavian to Antony 
were hardly enough to replenish his forces. On 
the other hand, Cleopatra could restore his army to full strength, and since he 
already was engaged in a romantic affair with her, he decided to send Octavia 
back to Rome. Octavian used this to 
spread propaganda implying 
that Antony was becoming less than Roman because he rejected a legitimate Roman 
spouse for an “Oriental paramour“. In 
36 BC, Octavian used a political ploy to make himself look less autocratic and 
Antony more the villain by proclaiming that the civil wars were coming to an 
end, and that he would step down as triumvir, if only Antony would do the same; 
Antony refused.

After Roman troops captured the Kingdom 
of Armenia in 34 BC, 
Antony made his son Alexander Helios the ruler of Armenia; he also awarded the 
title “Queen of Kings” to Cleopatra, acts which Octavian used to convince the 
Roman Senate that Antony had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Rome. When 
Octavian became consul once again on 1 January 33 BC, he opened the following 
session in the Senate with a vehement attack on Antony’s grants of titles and 
territories to his relatives and to his queen.

Defecting consuls and senators rushed over to the side of Antony in disbelief of 
the propaganda (which turned out to be true), yet so did able ministers desert 
Antony for Octavian in the autumn of 32 BC. These 
defectors, Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius, gave Octavian the information he 
needed to confirm with the Senate all the accusations he made against Antony.

By storming the sanctuary of the Vestal Virgins, Octavian forced their chief 
priestess to hand over Antony’s secret will, which would have given away 
Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule, alongside plans to 
build a tomb inAlexandria for 
him and his queen to reside upon their deaths. In 
late 32 BC, the Senate officially revoked Antony’s powers as consul and declared 
war on Cleopatra’s regime in Egypt.

The Battle 
of Actium, by Lorenzo Castro, painted 1672, National 
Maritime Museum, London

In early 31 BC, while Antony and Cleopatra were temporarily stationed in Greece, 
Octavian gained a preliminary victory when the navy under the command of Agrippa 
successfully ferried troops across the Adriatic 
Sea. While Agrippa cut off 
Antony and Cleopatra’s main force from their supply routes at sea, Octavian 
landed on the mainland opposite the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) 
and marched south. Trapped on land 
and sea, deserters of Antony’s army fled to Octavian’s side daily while 
Octavian’s forces were comfortable enough to make preparations.

In a desperate attempt to break free of the naval 
blockade, Antony’s fleet sailed through the bay of Actium on 
the western coast of Greece. It was there that Antony’s fleet faced the much 
larger fleet of smaller, more maneuverable ships under commanders Agrippa and Gaius 
Sosius in the battle 
of Actium on 2 September 
31 BC. Antony and his remaining 
forces were spared only due to a last-ditch effort by Cleopatra’s fleet that had 
been waiting nearby.

Octavian pursued them, and after another defeat in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC, 
Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide; Antony fell on his own sword and was 
taken by his soldiers back to Alexandria where he died in Cleopatra’s arms. 
Cleopatra died soon after, reputedly by the venomous bite of an asp or 
by poison. Having exploited his 
position as Caesar’s heir to further his own political career, Octavian was only 
too well aware of the dangers in allowing another to do so and, reportedly 
commenting that “two Caesars are one too many”, he ordered Caesarion—Julius 
Caesar’s son by Cleopatra—to be killed, whilst sparing Cleopatra’s children by 
Antony, with the exception of Antony’s older 
son.

Octavian had previously shown little mercy to military combatants and acted in 
ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he was given credit 
for pardoning many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium.

Octavian becomes 
Augustus

Aureus
 of 
Octavian, circa 30 BC, British 
Museum

After Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian was in a position 
to rule the entire Republic under an unofficial principate, but 
would have to achieve this through incremental power gains, courting the Senate 
and the people, while upholding the republican traditions of Rome, to appear 
that he was not aspiring to dictatorship or monarchy. Marching 
into Rome, Octavian and Marcus 
Agrippa were elected as 
dual consuls by 
the Senate.

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 of Rome and the Roman 
provinces. Octavian’s aims from this point forward were to return 
Rome to a state of stability, traditional legality and civility by lifting the 
overt political pressure imposed on the courts of law and ensuring free 
elections in name at least.

First settlement

Augustus as a magistrate. The statue’s marble head was made c. 
30–20 BC, the body sculpted in the 2nd century AD (Louvre,Paris).

In 27 BC, Octavian made a show of returning full power to the Roman 
Senate and relinquishing 
his control of the Roman provinces and their armies. Under 
his consulship, however, the Senate had little power in initiating legislation 
by introducingbills for 
senatorial debate. Although Octavian 
was no longer in direct control of the provinces and their armies, he retained 
the loyalty of active duty soldiers and veterans alike. The 
careers of many clients and adherents depended on his patronage, as his 
financial power in the Roman Republic was unrivaled. The 
historian Werner 
Eck states:

The sum of his power derived first of all from various powers of office 
delegated to him by the Senate and people, secondly from his immense private 
fortune, and thirdly from numerous patron-client relationships he 
established with individuals and groups throughout the Empire. All of them 
taken together formed the basis of his auctoritas, 
which he himself emphasized as the foundation of his political actions.

To a large extent the public was aware of the vast financial resources Augustus 
commanded. When he failed to encourage enough senators to finance the building 
and maintenance of networks of roads in Italy, he undertook direct 
responsibility for them in 20 BC. This 
was publicized on the Roman currency issued in 16 BC, after he donated vast 
amounts of money to the aerarium 
Saturni, the public treasury.

According to H.H. Scullard, however, Augustus’s power was based on the exercise 
of “a predominant military power and … the ultimate sanction of his authority 
was force, however much the fact was disguised.”

The Senate proposed to Octavian, the victor of Rome’s civil wars, that he once 
again assume command of the provinces. The Senate’s proposal was a ratification 
of Octavian’s extra-constitutional power. Through the Senate Octavian was able 
to continue the appearance of a still-functional constitution. 
Feigning reluctance, he accepted a ten-year responsibility of overseeing 
provinces that were considered chaotic.

The provinces ceded to him, that he might pacify them within the promised 
ten-year period, comprised much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, 
and Egypt. Moreover, 
command of these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of 
Rome’s legions.

While Octavian acted as consul in Rome, he dispatched senators to the provinces 
under his command as his representatives to manage provincial affairs and ensure 
his orders were carried out. On the 
other hand, the provinces not under Octavian’s control were overseen by 
governors chosen by the Roman Senate. Octavian 
became the most powerful political figure in the city of Rome and in most of its 
provinces, but did not have sole monopoly on political and martial power.

The Senate still controlled North Africa, an important regional producer 
of grain, as well as Illyria and 
Macedonia, two martially strategic regions with several legions. However, 
with control of only five or six legions distributed amongst three senatorial 
proconsuls, compared to the twenty legions under the control of Augustus, the 
Senate’s control of these regions did not amount to any political or martial 
challenge to Octavian.

The Senate’s control over some of the Roman provinces helped maintain a 
republican façade for the autocratic Principate. Also, 
Octavian’s control of entire provinces for the objective of securing peace and 
creating stability followed Republican-era precedents, in which such prominent 
Romans as Pompey had 
been granted similar military powers in times of crisis and instability.

Bust of Augustus, wearing theCivic 
Crown. Glyptothek, Munich.

On 16 January 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new titles of Augustus and Princeps. Augustus, from 
the Latin word Augere (meaning 
to increase), can be translated as “the illustrious one”. It 
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. After the harsh methods employed in consolidating his control, 
the change in name would also serve to demarcate his benign reign as Augustus 
from his reign of terror as Octavian. His new title of Augustus was also more 
favorable than Romulus, the 
previous one he styled for himself in reference to the story of Romulus 
and Remus(founders of Rome), which would symbolize a second founding 
of Rome.

However, the title of Romulus was 
associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image Octavian 
tried to avoid. Princeps, 
comes from the Latin phrase primum 
caput, “the first head”, originally meaning the oldest or most distinguished 
senator whose name would appear first on the senatorial roster; 
in the case of Augustus it became an almost regnal title for a leader who was 
first in charge. Princeps had 
also been a title under the Republic for those who had served the state well; 
for example, Pompey had 
held the title. Augustus also styled himself as Imperator 
Caesar divi filius, “Commander Caesar son of the deified one”.

With this title he not only boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, 
but the use of Imperator signified 
a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. The 
word Caesar was 
merely a cognomen for 
one branch of the Julian 
family, yet Augustus transformed Caesar into 
a new family line that began with him.

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 “memento 
mori“, or, “Remember, you are 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’ doorposts was tantamount to 
declaring his home the capital. However, Augustus renounced flaunting insignia 
of power such as holding a scepter, 
wearing a diadem, 
or wearing the golden crown and purple toga of 
his predecessor Julius Caesar. If he 
refused to symbolize his power by donning and bearing these items on his person, 
the Senate nonetheless 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.”

Second settlement

By 23 BC, some of the implications of the settlement of 27 BC were becoming 
apparent. Augustus’ holding of an annual consulate made his dominance over the 
Roman political system too obvious, whilst at the same time halving the 
opportunities for others to achieve what was still purported to be the head of 
the Roman state. Further, his desire 
to have his nephew Marcus 
Claudius Marcellus follow 
in his footsteps and eventually assume the Principate in his turn was causing 
political problems and alienating his 
three biggest supporters – Agrippa, Maecenas and Livia. Feeling 
pressure from his own core group of adherents, Augustus turned to the Senate in 
an attempt to bolster his support there, especially with the Republicans; after 
his choice for co-consul in 23 BC, Aulus 
Terentius Varro Murena died 
before taking office he appointed the 
noted Republican Calpurnius 
Piso, who had fought against Julius Caesar and supported Cassius and 
Brutus.

In the late spring Augustus suffered a severe illness, and on his supposed 
deathbed made arrangements that would ensure the continuation of the Principate 
in some form, whilst at the same time 
put in doubt the senators’ suspicions of his anti-republicanism. Augustus 
prepared to hand down his signet 
ring to his favored 
general Agrippa. However, Augustus 
handed over to his co-consul Piso all of his official documents, an account of 
public finances, and authority over listed troops in the provinces while 
Augustus’ supposedly favored nephew Marcellus came away empty-handed. This 
was a surprise to many who believed Augustus would have named 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 amongst the republican-minded Romans fearful of 
monarchy. With regards to the 
Principate, it was obvious to Augustus that Marcellus was not ready to take on 
his position; nonetheless, by giving 
his signet ring to Agrippa, it was Augustus’ intent to signal to the legions 
that Agrippa was to be his successor, and that no matter what the constitutional 
rules were, they would continue to obey Agrippa.

The Blacas 
Cameo showing 
Augustus wearing a gorgoneionon 
a three layered sardonyxcameo, 
AD 20-50

Soon after his bout of illness subsided, Augustus gave up his permanent 
consulship. The only other times 
Augustus would serve as consul would be in the years 5 and 2 BC’, both 
times to introduce his grandsons into public life. Although 
he had resigned as consul, Augustus retained his consular imperium, 
leading to a second compromise between him and the Senate known as the Second 
Settlement. This was a clever ploy by 
Augustus; by stepping down as one of two consuls, this allowed aspiring senators 
a better chance to fill that position, while at the same time Augustus could 
“exercise wider patronage within the senatorial class.”

Augustus was no longer in an official position to rule the state, yet his 
dominant position over the Roman provinces remained unchanged as he became a proconsul. When 
he was a consul he had the power to intervene, when he deemed necessary, with 
the affairs of provincial proconsuls appointed by the Senate. As 
a proconsul he would ordinarily have lost this power; he wanted to keep it, so imperium 
proconsulare maius, or “power over all the proconsuls” was granted to 
Augustus by the Senate. The existence 
of imperium maius is 
debated by scholars, and it is also argued that he was only granted imperium 
aequum, or power equal to that of the governors, but his supreme influence 
allowed him to control the affairs of the provinces.

Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune (tribunicia 
potestas) for life, though not the official title of tribune. Legally 
it was closed to patricians, 
a status that Augustus had acquired years ago when adopted by Julius Caesar. This 
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.

With the powers of a censor, Augustus appealed to virtues of Roman patriotism by 
banning all other attire besides the classic toga while 
entering the Forum. 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 
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. The office of the tribunus 
plebis began to lose its prestige 
due to Augustus’ amassing of tribunal powers, so he revived its importance by 
making it a mandatory appointment for any plebeian desiring the praetorship.

The Via 
Labicana Augustus—Augustus as Pontifex 
Maximus.

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. With maius 
imperium proconsulare, Augustus was the only individual able to receive a triumph as 
he was legally the head of every Roman army. In 
19 BC, Lucius 
Cornelius Balbus, governor of Africa and conqueror of the Garamantes, 
was the first man of provincial origin to receive this award, as well as the 
last.

For every following Roman victory the credit was given to Augustus, because 
Rome’s armies were commanded by the legatus, 
who were deputies of the princeps in the provinces. Augustus’ 
eldest son by marriage to Livia, Tiberius, 
was the only exception to this rule when he received a triumph for victories in Germania in 
7 BC. Ensuring that his status of maius 
imperium proconsulare was renewed 
in 13 BC, Augustus stayed in Rome during the renewal process and provided 
veterans with lavish donations to gain their support.

Many of the political subtleties of the Second Settlement seem to have evaded 
the comprehension of the Plebeian class. When Augustus failed to stand for 
election as consul in 22 BC, fears arose once again that Augustus was being 
forced from power by the aristocratic Senate. In 22, 21, and 19 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. In 
22 BC there was a food shortage in Rome which sparked panic, while 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 “by virtue of his proconsular imperium“, 
and ended the crisis almost immediately. It 
was not until AD 8 that a food crisis of this sort prompted Augustus to 
establish a praefectus annonae, 
a permanent prefect who was in charge of procuring food supplies for Rome.

Nevertheless, there were some who were concerned by the expansion of powers 
granted to Augustus by the Second Settlement, and this came to a head with the 
apparent conspiracy of Fannius Caepio and Lucius 
Lucinius Varro Murena. In 
early 22 BC, charges were brought against Marcus 
Primus, the former proconsul (governor) 
of Macedonia, 
of waging a war on the Odrysian kingdom 
of Thrace, 
whose king was a Roman ally, without prior approval of the Senate. He 
was defended by Murena, who told the trial that his client had received specific 
instructions from Augustus, ordering him to attack the client state. Later, 
Primus testified that the orders came from the recently deceased Marcellus.

Under the Constitutional settlement of 27 BC such orders, had they been given, 
would have been considered a breach of the Senate’s prerogative, as Macedonia 
was under the Senate’s jurisdiction, not that of the Princeps. Such an action 
would have ripped away the veneer of Republican restoration as promoted by 
Augustus, and exposed his fraud of merely being the first citizen, a first among 
equals. Even worse, the involvement 
of Marcellus provided some measure of proof that Augustus’s policy was to have 
the youth take his place as Princeps, instituting a form of monarchy – 
accusations that had already played out during the crisis of 23 BC.

The situation was so serious, that Augustus himself appeared at the trial, even 
though he had not been called as a witness. Under oath, Augustus declared that 
he gave no such order. Murena, 
disbelieving Augustus’s testimony and resentful of his attempt to subvert the 
trial by using hisauctoritas, 
rudely demanded to know why Augustus had turned up to a trial to which he had 
not been called; Augustus replied that he came in the public interest. Although 
Primus was found guilty, some jurors voted to acquit, meaning that not everybody 
believed Augustus’s testimony.

Then, sometime prior to 1 September 22 BC a certain Castricius provided Augustus 
with information about a conspiracy led by Fannius Caepio against the Princeps. Murena 
was named among the conspirators. Tried in absentia, with Tiberius acting 
as prosecutor, the jury found the conspirators guilty, but it was not a 
unanimous verdict. Sentenced to death 
for treason, all the accused were executed as soon as they were captured without 
ever giving testimony in their defence. Augustus 
ensured that the facade of Republican government continued with an effective 
cover-up of the events.

In 19 BC, the Senate voted to allow Augustus to wear the consul’s insignia in 
public and before the Senate, as well 
as sit in the symbolic chair between the two consuls and hold the fasces, 
an emblem of consular authority. Like 
his tribune authority, the granting of consular powers to him was another 
instance of holding power of offices he did not hold. This 
seems to have assuaged the populace; regardless of whether or not Augustus was a 
consul, the importance was that he appeared as one before the people. On 6 March 
12 BC, after the death of Lepidus, 
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. On 
5 February 2 BC, Augustus was also given the title pater 
patriae, or “father of the country”.

Later Roman Emperors would generally be limited to the powers and titles 
originally granted to Augustus, though often, to display humility, newly 
appointed Emperors would 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 been granted them by the 
Senate. The civic crown, which later Emperors took to wearing, consular 
insignia, and later the purple robes of a Triumphant general (toga 
picta) became the imperial insignia well into the Byzantine era.

War and expansion

Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. The yellow legend 
represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, the shades of green 
represent gradually conquered territories under the reign of 
Augustus, and pink areas on the map represent client 
states; however, areas under Roman control shown here 
were subject to change even during Augustus’ reign, especially in Germania.

Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus chose Imperator, 
“victorious commander” to be his first name, since he wanted to make the notion 
of victory associated with him emphatically clear. By 
the year 13, Augustus boasted 21 occasions where his troops proclaimed 
“imperator” as his title after a successful battle. Almost 
the entire fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known 
as the Res 
Gestae was devoted to 
his military victories and honors.

Augustus also promoted the ideal of a superior Roman civilization with a task of 
ruling the world (the extent to which the Romans knew it), a sentiment embodied 
in words that the contemporary poet Virgilattributes 
to a legendary ancestor of Augustus: tu 
regere imperio populos, Romane, memento—”Roman, remember by your strength to 
rule the Earth’s peoples!” The 
impulse for expansionism, 
apparently prominent among all classes at Rome, is accorded divine sanction by 
Virgil’s Jupiter, who in Book 1 of the Aeneid promises 
Rome imperium sine fine, 
“sovereignty without limit”.

By the end of his reign, the armies of Augustus had conquered northern Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal), the Alpine regions 
of Raetia and Noricum (modern 
Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia), Illyricum and Pannonia (modern 
Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.), and 
extended the borders of the Africa 
Province to the east and 
south.

Bust of Tiberius, 
a successful military commander under Augustus before he was 
designated as his heir and successor.

After the reign of the client 
king Herod 
the Great (73–4 BC), Judea was 
added to the province 
of Syria when Augustus 
deposed his successor Herod 
Archelaus. Like Egypt 
which had been conquered after the defeat of Antony in 30 BC, Syria was governed 
not by a proconsul or legate of Augustus, but a high prefect of the equestrian 
class.

Again, no military effort was needed in 25 BC when Galatia (modern 
Turkey) was converted to a Roman province shortly after Amyntas 
of Galatia was killed by 
an avenging widow of a slain prince from Homonada. When 
the rebellious tribes of Cantabria in 
modern-day Spain were finally quelled in 19 BC, the territory fell under the 
provinces of Hispania and Lusitania. This 
region proved to be a major asset in funding Augustus’ future military 
campaigns, as it was rich in mineral deposits that could be fostered in Roman mining projects, 
especially the very rich gold deposits 
at Las 
Medulas for example.

Conquering the peoples of the Alps in 16 BC 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. The poet Horace dedicated 
an ode to the victory, while the monument Trophy 
of Augustus near Monaco was 
built to honor the occasion. The 
capture of the Alpine region also served the next offensive in 12 BC, when Tiberius began 
the offensive against the Pannonian tribes of Illyricum and his brother Nero 
Claudius Drusus against 
the Germanic tribes of the eastern Rhineland. Both 
campaigns were successful, as Drusus’ forces reached the Elbe River 
by 9 BC, yet he died shortly after by falling off his horse. It 
was recorded that the pious Tiberius walked in front of his brother’s body all 
the way back to Rome.

Muziris
 in 
the Chera 
Kingdom of Southern 
India, as shown in the Tabula 
Peutingeriana, with depiction of a “Temple of Augustus” 
(“Templum Augusti”), an illustration of Indo-Roman 
relations in 
the period.

To protect Rome’s eastern territories from the Parthian 
Empire, Augustus relied on the client 
states of the east to act 
as territorial buffers and 
areas which could raise their own troops for defense. To 
ensure security of the Empire’s eastern flank, Augustus stationed a Roman army 
in Syria, while his skilled stepson Tiberius negotiated with the Parthians as 
Rome’s diplomat to the East. Tiberius 
was responsible for restoring Tigranes 
V to the throne of the 
Kingdom of Armenia.

Yet arguably his greatest diplomatic achievement was negotiating with Phraates 
IV of Parthia (37–2 BC) 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. Werner 
Eck claims that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge 
Crassus’ defeat by military means. However, 
Maria Brosius explains that 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.

Although Parthia always posed a threat to Rome in the east, the real battlefront 
was along the Rhine and Danube rivers. Before 
the final fight with Antony, Octavian’s campaigns against the tribes in Dalmatia was 
the first step in expanding Roman dominions to the Danube. Victory 
in battle was not always a permanent success, as newly conquered territories 
were constantly retaken by Rome’s enemies in Germania.

A prime example of Roman loss in battle was the Battle 
of Teutoburg Forest in AD 
9, where three entire legions led by Publius 
Quinctilius Varus were 
destroyed with few survivors by Arminius, 
leader of the Cherusci, 
an apparent Roman ally. Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus 
to the Rhineland to pacify it, which had some success although the battle of AD 
9 brought the end to Roman expansion into Germany. The 
Roman general Germanicus took 
advantage of a Cherusci civil war between Arminius and Segestes; 
they defeated Arminius, who fled that battle but was killed later in 21 due to 
treachery.

Death and succession

A Roman aureus struck 
under Augustus,c. AD 
13–14; the reverse shows Tiberius 
riding on a quadriga, 
celebrating the fifteenth renewal of his tribunal power. At least 
six potential heirs, including Agrippa and his sons, had expired or 
proven incapable of succeeding Augustus, before he finally settled 
on Tiberius in AD 9.

The illness of Augustus in 23 BC brought the problem of succession to the 
forefront of political issues and the public. To ensure stability, he needed to 
designate an heir to his unique position in Roman society and government. This 
was to be achieved in small, undramatic, and incremental ways that did not stir 
senatorial fears of monarchy. If 
someone was to succeed his unofficial position of power, they were going to have 
to earn it through their own publicly proven merits.

Some Augustan historians argue that indications pointed toward his sister’s son Marcellus, 
who had been quickly married to Augustus’ daughter Julia 
the Elder. Other 
historians dispute this due to Augustus’ will read aloud to the Senate while he 
was seriously ill in 23 BC, instead 
indicating a preference for Marcus Agrippa, who was Augustus’ second in charge 
and arguably the only one of his associates who could have controlled the 
legions and held the Empire together.

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 a five-year term of 
administering the eastern half of the Empire with the imperium of 
a proconsul and the same tribunicia 
potestas granted to Augustus 
(although not trumping Augustus’ authority), his seat of governance stationed at Samos in 
the eastern Aegean. Although 
this granting of power would have shown Augustus’ favor for Agrippa, it was also 
a measure to please members of his Caesarian party by allowing one of their 
members to share a considerable amount of power with him.

The Mausoleum 
of Augustus

Augustus’ intent to make Gaius and Lucius Caesar his heirs was apparent when he 
adopted them as his own children. He 
took the consulship in 5 and 2 BC so he could personally usher them into their 
political careers, and they were 
nominated for the consulships of AD 1 and 4. Augustus 
also showed favor to his stepsons, Livia’s children from her first marriage, Nero 
Claudius Drusus Germanicus (henceforth 
referred to as Drusus) and Tiberius 
Claudius (henceforth 
Tiberius) granting them military commands and public office, though seeming to 
favor Drusus. After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Tiberius was ordered to divorce his 
own wife Vipsania and marry Agrippa’s widow, Augustus’ daughter Julia — as soon 
as a period of mourning for Agrippa had ended. While 
Drusus’ marriage to Antonia was considered an unbreakable affair, Vipsania was 
“only” the daughter of the late Agrippa from his first marriage.

Tiberius shared in Augustus’ tribune powers as of 6 BC, but shortly thereafter 
went into retirement, reportedly wanting no further role in politics while he 
exiled himself to Rhodes. Although 
no specific reason is known for his departure, it could have been a combination 
of reasons, including a failing marriage with Julia, as 
well as a sense of envy and exclusion over Augustus’ apparent favouring of his 
young grandchildren-turned-sons, Gaius and Lucius, who joined the college of 
priests at an early age, were presented to spectators in a more favorable light, 
and were introduced to the army in Gaul.

After the early deaths of both Lucius and Gaius in AD 2 and 4 respectively, and 
the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome in 
June AD 4, where he was adopted by Augustus on the condition that he, in turn, 
adopt his nephew Germanicus. This 
continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs. In 
that year, Tiberius was also granted the powers of a tribune and proconsul, 
emissaries from foreign kings had to pay their respects to him, and by 13 was 
awarded with his second triumph and equal level of imperium with 
that of Augustus.

The deified Augustus hovers over Tiberius and other Julio-Claudians 
in the Great 
Cameo of France

The only other possible claimant as heir was Postumus 
Agrippa, who had been exiled by Augustus in AD 7, his banishment made 
permanent by senatorial decree, and Augustus officially disowned him. He 
certainly fell out of Augustus’ favor as an heir; the historian Erich S. Gruen 
notes various contemporary sources that state Postumus Agrippa was a “vulgar 
young man, brutal and brutish, and of depraved character.” Postumus 
Agrippa was murdered at his place of exile either shortly before or after the 
death of Augustus.

On 19 August AD 14, Augustus died while visiting the place of his birth father’s 
death at Nola. 
Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia brought about Augustus’ death by 
poisoning fresh figs, though this allegation remains unproven. Tiberius, 
who was present alongside Livia at Augustus’ deathbed, was named his heir. Augustus’ 
famous last words were, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I 
exit”—referring to the play-acting and regal authority that he had put on as 
emperor. Publicly, though, his last words were, “Behold, I found Rome of clay, 
and leave her to you of marble.” An enormous funerary procession of mourners 
traveled with Augustus’ body from Nola to Rome, and on the day of his burial all 
public and private businesses closed for the day.

Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two rostra. Coffin-bound, 
Augustus’ body was cremated on a pyre close to his 
mausoleum. It was proclaimed that Augustus joined the company of the 
gods as a member of the Roman pantheon. In 
410, during the Sack 
of Rome, the mausoleum was despoiled by the Goths and his ashes 
scattered.

The historian D.C.A. Shotter states that Augustus’ policy of favoring the Julian 
family line over the Claudian might have afforded Tiberius sufficient cause to 
show open disdain for Augustus after the latter’s death; instead, Tiberius was 
always quick to rebuke those who criticized Augustus. Shotter 
suggests that Augustus’ deification, coupled with Tiberius’ “extremely 
conservative” attitude towards religion, obliged Tiberius to suppress any open 
resentment he might have harbored.

Also, the historian R. Shaw-Smith points to letters of Augustus to Tiberius 
which display affection towards Tiberius and high regard for his military 
merits. Shotter states that Tiberius 
focused his anger and criticism on Gaius 
Asinius Gallus (for 
marrying Vipsania after Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce her) as well as the 
two young Caesars Gaius and Lucius, instead of Augustus, the real architect of 
his divorce and imperial demotion.

Legacy

Laureate bust of Augustus

Augustus’ reign laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for nearly fifteen 
hundred years through the ultimate decline 
of the Western Roman Empire and 
until the Fall 
of Constantinople in 1453. 
Both his adoptive surname, Caesar, and his title Augustus became 
the permanent titles of the rulers of Roman 
Empire for fourteen 
centuries after his death, in use both at Old 
Rome and at New 
Rome. In many languages, Caesar became 
the word for Emperor, as in 
the German Kaiser and 
in the Bulgarian and subsequently Russian Tsar. 
The cult of Divus Augustus continued 
until the state religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in 
391 by Theodosius 
I. Consequently, there are many excellent statues and busts of the 
first emperor. He had 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 
inscriptions in Latin featured translations in Greek beside it, and were 
inscribed on many public edifices, such as the temple in Ankara dubbed 
the Monumentum Ancyranum, 
called the “queen of inscriptions” by historian Theodor 
Mommsen.

There are a few known written works by Augustus that have survived. This 
includes his poems Sicily, Epiphanus, 
and Ajax, an autobiography of 
13 books, a philosophical treatise, and his written rebuttal to Brutus’ Eulogy 
of Cato. However, historians are 
able to analyze existing letters penned by Augustus to others for additional 
facts or clues about his personal life.

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. The Roman Senate wished subsequent emperors to “be 
more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan“. Augustus was 
intelligent, decisive, and a shrewd politician, but he was not perhaps as 
charismatic as Julius 
Caesar, and was influenced on occasion by his third wife, Livia 
(sometimes for the worse). Nevertheless, his legacy proved more enduring. The 
city of Rome was utterly transformed under Augustus, with Rome’s first 
institutionalized police 
force, fire 
fighting force, and the 
establishment of the municipal prefect as 
a permanent office. The police force 
was divided into cohorts of 500 men each, while the units of firemen ranged from 
500 to 1,000 men each, with 7 units assigned to 14 divided city sectors.

A praefectus vigilum, or 
“Prefect of the Watch” was put in charge of the vigiles, 
Rome’s fire brigade and police. With 
Rome’s civil wars at an end, Augustus was also able to create a standing 
army for the Roman Empire, 
fixed at a size of 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers. This 
was supported by numerous auxiliary units 
of 500 soldiers each, often recruited from recently conquered areas.

With his finances securing the maintenance of roads throughout Italy, Augustus 
also installed an official courier system 
of relay stations overseen by a military officer known as the praefectus 
vehiculorum. Besides the advent 
of swifter communication amongst Italian polities, his extensive building of 
roads throughout Italy also allowed Rome’s armies to march swiftly and at an 
unprecedented pace across the country. In 
the year 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 the most enduring institutions of Augustus was the establishment of the Praetorian 
Guard in 27 BC, originally 
a personal bodyguard unit on the battlefield that evolved into an imperial guard 
as well as an important political force in Rome. They 
had the power to intimidate the Senate, install new emperors, and depose ones 
they disliked; the last emperor they served was Maxentius, 
as it was Constantine 
I who disbanded them in 
the early 4th century and destroyed their barracks, the Castra 
Praetoria.

Augustus in an Egyptian-style depiction, a stone carving of theKalabsha 
Temple in Nubia.

Although the most powerful individual in the Roman Empire, Augustus wished to 
embody the spirit of Republican virtue and norms. He also wanted to relate to 
and connect with the concerns of the plebs and lay people. He achieved this 
through various means of generosity and a cutting back of lavish excess. In the 
year 29 BC, Augustus paid 400 sesterces 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 erected in his likeness and in honor of 
him, an attempt of his to appear frugal and modest.

The longevity of Augustus’ reign and its legacy to the Roman world should not be 
overlooked as a key factor in its success. As Tacitus wrote, 
the younger generations alive in AD 14 had never known any form of government 
other than the Principate. Had 
Augustus died earlier (in 23 BC, for instance), matters might 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. Every Emperor of Rome adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, which 
gradually lost its character as a name and eventually became a title. The 
Augustan era poets Virgil and Horace praised Augustus as a defender of Rome, an 
upholder of moral justice, and an individual who bore the brunt of 
responsibility in maintaining the empire.

However, for his rule of Rome and establishing the principate, Augustus has also 
been subjected to criticism throughout the ages. The contemporary Roman jurist Marcus 
Antistius Labeo (d. AD 
10/11), fond of the days of pre-Augustan republican liberty in 
which he had been born, openly criticized the Augustan regime. In 
the beginning of his Annals, 
the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 
56–c.117) wrote that Augustus had cunningly subverted Republican Rome into a 
position of slavery. He continued to 
say that, with Augustus’ death and swearing of loyalty to Tiberius, the people 
of Rome simply traded one slaveholder for another. Tacitus, 
however, records two contradictory but common views of Augustus:

Fragment of a bronze equestrian statue of Augustus, 1st century AD

Intelligent people praised or criticized him in varying ways. One 
opinion was as follows. Filial duty and a national emergency, in which 
there was no place for law-abiding conduct, had driven him to civil 
war—and this can neither be initiated nor maintained by decent methods. 
He had made many concessions to Anthony and to Lepidus for the sake of 
vengeance on his father’s murderers. When Lepidus grew old and lazy, and 
Anthony’s self-indulgence got the better of him, the only possible cure 
for the distracted country had been government by one man. However, 
Augustus had put the state in order not by making himself king or 
dictator, but by creating the Principate. The Empire’s frontiers were on 
the ocean, or distant rivers. Armies, provinces, fleets, the whole 
system was interrelated. Roman citizens were protected by the law. 
Provincials were decently treated. Rome itself had been lavishly 
beautified. Force had been sparingly used—merely to preserve peace for 
the majority.

According to the second opposing opinion:

filial duty and national crisis had been merely pretexts. In actual 
fact, the motive of Octavian, the future Augustus, was lust for 
power … There had certainly been peace, but it was a blood-stained 
peace of disasters and assassinations.

In a recent biography on Augustus, Anthony 
Everitt asserts that 
through the centuries, judgments on Augustus’ reign have oscillated between 
these two extremes but stresses that:

“Opposites do not have to be mutually exclusive, and we are not obliged 
to choose one or the other. The story of his career shows that Augustus 
was indeed ruthless, cruel, and ambitious for himself. This was only in 
part a personal trait, for upper-class Romans were educated to compete 
with one another and to excel. However, he combined an overriding 
concern for his personal interests with a deep-seated patriotism, based 
on a nostalgia of Rome’s antique virtues. In his capacity asprinceps, 
selfishness and selflessness coexisted in his mind. While fighting for 
dominance, he paid little attention to legality or to the normal 
civilities of political life. He was devious, untrustworthy, and 
bloodthirsty. But once he had established his authority, he governed 
efficiently and justly, generally allowed freedom of speech, and 
promoted the rule of law. He was immensely hardworking and tried as hard 
as any democratic parliamentarian 
to treat his senatorial colleagues with respect and sensitivity. He 
suffered from no delusions of grandeur.”

Tacitus was of the belief that Nerva (r. 
96–98) successfully “mingled two formerly alien ideas, principate and liberty.” The 
3rd-century historian Cassius Dio acknowledged Augustus as a benign, moderate 
ruler, yet like most other historians after the death of Augustus, Dio viewed 
Augustus as an autocrat. The 
poet Marcus 
Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39–65) 
was of the opinion that Caesar’s victory over Pompey and the fall of Cato 
the Younger (95 BC–46 BC) 
marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome; historian Chester G. Starr, Jr. 
writes of his avoidance of criticizing Augustus, “perhaps Augustus was too 
sacred a figure to accuse directly.”

The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan 
Swift (1667–1745), in his Discourse 
on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome, criticized Augustus for 
installing tyranny over Rome, and likened what he believed Great 
Britain‘s virtuous constitutional 
monarchy to Rome’s moral 
Republic of the 2nd century BC. In 
his criticism of Augustus, the admiral and historian Thomas 
Gordon (1658–1741) 
compared Augustus to the puritanical tyrant Oliver 
Cromwell (1599–1658). Thomas 
Gordon and the French political 
philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1755) 
both remarked that Augustus was a coward in battle. In 
his Memoirs of the Court of 
Augustus, the Scottish scholar Thomas 
Blackwell (1701–1757) 
deemed Augustus a Machiavellian 
ruler, “a bloodthirsty vindicative usurper”, “wicked and worthless”, 
“a mean spirit”, and a “tyrant”.

Revenue reforms

Coin of Augustus found at the Pudukottaihoard, 
from an ancient 
Tamil country,Pandyan 
Kingdom of 
present day Tamil 
Naduin India. British 
Museum

Augustus’ public revenue reforms 
had a great impact on the subsequent success of the Empire. Augustus brought a 
far greater 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’ 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 measures of taxation in the reign of Augustus were determined by population census, 
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.

An equally important reform was the abolition of private tax 
farming, which was replaced by salaried civil service tax collectors. 
Private contractors that raised taxes had been the norm in the Republican era, 
and some had grown powerful enough to influence the amount of votes for 
politicians in Rome. 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. 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.

Coin of the Himyarite Kingdom, 
southern coast of the Arabian 
peninsula. This is also an imitation of a coin of 
Augustus. 1st century

The use of Egypt‘s 
immense land rents to finance the Empire’s operations resulted from Augustus’ 
conquest of Egypt and the shift to a Roman form of government. As 
it was effectively considered Augustus’ private property rather than a province 
of the Empire, 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 Prefect 
of the Praetorian Guard. 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.

Month of August

The month of August (Latin: Augustus) 
is named after Augustus; until his time it was called Sextilis (named 
so because it had been the sixth month of the original Roman 
calendar and the Latin 
word for six is sex). Commonly 
repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month 
to match the length of Julius 
Caesar‘s July, but this is an invention of the 13th century scholar Johannes 
de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, 
and it was not chosen for its length (see Julian 
calendar). According to a senatus 
consultum quoted by Macrobius, 
Sextilis was renamed to honor Augustus because several of the most significant 
events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, 
fell in that month.

Building projects

Close up on the sculpted detail of the<span class="Apple-converted-spa Ara 
Pacis (Altar 
of Peace), 13 BC to 9 BC

On his deathbed, Augustus boasted “I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one 
of marble”. Although there is some truth in the literal meaning of this, Cassius 
Dio asserts that it was a 
metaphor for the Empire’s strength. Marble could 
be found in buildings of Rome before Augustus, but it was not extensively used 
as a building material until the reign of Augustus.

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 relief sculptures 
decorating the Ara Pacis visually augmented the written record of Augustus’ 
triumphs in the Res 
Gestae. Its reliefs 
depicted the imperial pageants of thepraetorians, 
the Vestals, and the citizenry of Rome.

He also built the Temple 
of Caesar, the Baths 
of Agrippa, and the Forum 
of Augustus with its Temple 
of Mars Ultor. Other 
projects were either encouraged by him, such as the Theatre 
of Balbus, and Agrippa’s construction of the the Pantheon, 
or funded by him in the name of others, often relations (e.g. Portico 
of Octavia, Theatre 
of Marcellus). Even his Mausoleum 
of Augustus was built 
before his death to house members of his family.

To celebrate his victory at the Battle of Actium, the Arch 
of Augustus was built in 
29 BC near the entrance of the<span class="Apple-converted-spa Temple 
of Castor and Pollux, and widened in 19 BC to include a triple-arch 
design. There are also many buildings 
outside of the city of Rome that bear Augustus’ name and legacy, such as the Theatre 
of Merida in modern Spain, 
the Maison 
Carrée built at Nîmes in 
today’s southern France, as well as the Trophy 
of Augustus at La 
Turbie, located near Monaco.

The Temple of Augustus and Livia inVienne, 
late 1st century BC

After the death of Agrippa in 12 BC, a solution had to be found in maintaining 
Rome’s water supply system. This came about because it was overseen by Agrippa 
when he served as aedile, and was even funded by him afterwards when he was a 
private citizen paying at his own expense. In 
that year, Augustus arranged a system where the Senate designated three of its 
members as prime commissioners in charge of the water supply and to ensure that 
Rome’s aqueducts did not fall into disrepair.

In the late Augustan era, the commission of five senators called the curatores 
locorum publicorum iudicandorum (translated 
as “Supervisors of Public Property”) was put in charge of maintaining public 
buildings and temples of the state cult. Augustus created the senatorial group 
of the curatores viarum (translated 
as “Supervisors for Roads”) for the upkeep of roads; this senatorial commission 
worked with local officials and contractors to organize regular repairs.

The
The Corinthian 
order of architectural 
style originating from ancient Greece was the dominant architectural style in 
the age of Augustus and the imperial phase of Rome. Suetonius once 
commented that Rome was unworthy of its status as an imperial capital, yet 
Augustus and Agrippa set out to dismantle this sentiment by transforming the 
appearance of Rome upon the classical Greek model.

Physical 
appearance and official images

His biographer Suetonius, 
writing about a century after Augustus’ death, described his appearance as: 
“… unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his life, 
though he cared nothing for personal adornment. He was so far from being 
particular about the dressing of his hair, that he would have several barbers 
working in a hurry at the same time, and as for his beard he now had it clipped 
and now shaved, while at the very same time he would either be reading or 
writing something … He had clear, bright eyes … His teeth were wide apart, 
small, and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curly and inclining to golden; 
his eyebrows met. His ears were of moderate size, and his nose projected a 
little at the top and then bent ever so slightly inward. His complexion was 
between dark and fair. He was short of stature (although Julius Marathus, his 
freedman and keeper of his records, says that he was five feet and nine inches 
in height), but this was concealed by the fine proportion and symmetry of his 
figure, and was noticeable only by comparison with some taller person standing 
beside him. … “

His official images were very tightly controlled and idealized, drawing from a 
tradition of Hellenistic royal 
portraiture rather than the tradition of realism in Roman 
portraiture. He first appeared on coins at 
the age of 19, and from about 29 BC “the explosion in the number of Augustan 
portraits attests a concerted propaganda campaign aimed at dominating all 
aspects of civil, religious, economic and military life with Augustus’ person”. The 
early images did indeed depict a young man, but although there were gradual 
changes his images remained youthful until he died in his seventies, by which 
time they had “a distanced air of ageless majesty”.