Octavian, or Augustus as he was called during his rule of Rome, became the first emperor of Rome. He ruled from 313C to 14AD when he passed awayl. While Augustus did a vast number of great things for Rome, he in no way restored the republic he claimed to be honoring. This begs the question, was it worth it? I believe the answer is yes. To understand why, one must examine how he originally rose to power, the facets of Augustus’ uniquely suited personality, and Lhen finally explore the many good things that Augustus did for the Roman people, Augustus’ original rise to power was not an ordinary one. To truly understand how he came to rule Rorne, one must go back to the rule of Caesar. Caesar took control of Rome by force, marching on the city as many others had done before him.
Unlike his predecessors, however, Caesar chose to declare himself “dictator for life” which was a bold and ill-advised move. It struck a cord with the Roman people, who had long ago asserted that they never wanted to live under the rule of a king It also grabbed the attention of the senators, the most well known of this group are Cassius and Brutus, The senators assassinated Caesar together, and took the blame togetheri In Caesar’s will he stated that he adopted Octavian, and made him his heir. Octavian then had to accept the adoption before he could be made the new Consul. His parents advised him not to accept it, but he accepted anyhow. Upon being named Consul, Octavian didn’t have much experience, in life or in governing.
He was known as a sickly young man, and didn’t fit the Roman image of a good leader at alli Octavian knows this, and very quickly begins to paint a new image of himself as Augustus, the father of Rome. He rebuilds buildings that were lost in the many civil wars that occurred before he was in power. He pays out pensions to Roman veterans from his own wealth. He shrinks the senate from 100 to 600 men, As this is happening, he begins to work through legal channels to build more power. He creates new titles such as “Princeps” which means leading man, and eventually the title of emperor.
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These titles gave him basically the same types of powers as a king, but without the harsh sound of the name “king” He very expertly convinces the Roman public that he’s following all of the laws and upholding good Roman traditions. While Augustus did not restore the Roman republic the way that he claims, he did stabilize Rome. I believe that in exchange for the violation of the values that Rome was built upon, peace was well worth its Augustus came into power during a time when there was a lot of instability in Rome. There had been civil war after civil war, and having a single ruler gave Rome the stability that it so desperately needed.
Even though he was a dictator, even though he completely changed the Roman system of government, he was a good ruler. He turned Rome into an empire, and extended it to it’s furthest reachesi Rome became great under his ruler. While he may not have gone about it in the most “Roman“ way, Augustus did many great things for the good of Rome, From the time when he was first made Consul, to his days as the Roman Emperor, Augustus carefully crafted his public image to convince the Roman people that he was working through legal channels and honoring their system of governments Truly, Augustus did not give them what they wanted, he gave them what they needed.
