Caesar Augustus Essay, Research Paper

Caesar Augustus

Caesar Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, was born Gaius Octavius at Rome on

September 23rd. The nephew of Julius Caesar, Augustus was adopted in Julius?s will and

Became his sole heir after Julius?s assassination. Arriving at Rome, Augustus found

Julius Caesar?s power divided between Marc Antony and Lepidus, Antony, Lepidus and Octavian formed the second triumverit in order to maintain peace, but it was soon dissolved when Antony refued to hand over Caesar powers to Octavian. Caesar and Antony went to war and that war lasted for over a decade. Octavian won the support of many Romans by convencing them that Antony was plotting with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Octavians forces defeated Antony at the naval battle of Actium. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Now Octavian was the sole ruler of the Mediterranean world. Octavians biggest worries were that he now has to turn Rome into a political system with out offending the senate. The government that he was trying to establish was a traditional government it had risen from both political reality in which the senat held power for many generations and the Roman political theory. The Romans claimed that there form of government was given to them by the gods, who conferred the authority on Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. Then later the authority was passed on to the senate and they would ask the gods for advice about what actions Rome should take. Then the senate passed the authority on to the remaining of the governmental bureaucracy in which it was given to the male heads of the households. Only male households could sit in the senate because they believed that they where the only people worthy enough to consult with the gods. The many different ways that Octavian was

going to reestablish the Roman government. Octavian was so favored in the eyes of the senate that they appointed him commander-in-chief of the army, and gave him control of the many outlying provinces. What these providences did was that furnished grain supplies to the people of Rome as well as the soldiers and all of these people where grateful to Octavian more than they where to the senate. The senate gave him title of princeps .People thought that gods had left Rome after all the controversy but then they believed that they had came back because of Octavian. Then he started to build and repair most of Rome.

In conclusion Octavian mad a very big impact on Rome and cause Rome to recuperate to the way that it should have been in the first place.