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Augustus
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Augustus (Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS;[Fully ''Imperator Caesar, Divi Filius, Augustus'' which means ''Imperator Caesar, Son of the Divus (Divus Julius), Augustus.''] September 23, 63 BC – August 19, AD 14), born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and was thenceforth known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Latin: GAIVS·IVLIVS·CAESAR·OCTAVIANVS). After his adoption, he became the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The young Octavius came into his inheritance after Caesar's assassination in 44 BC. In 43 BC, Octavianus joined forces with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in a military dictatorship known as the Second Triumvirate. As a Triumvir, Octavian ruled Rome and many of its provinces[Some provinces were governed by the Senate.] as an autocrat, seizing consular power after the deaths of the consuls Hirtius and Pansa and having himself perpetually re-elected. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart under the competing ambitions of its rulers: Lepidus was driven into exile, and Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium by the fleet of Octavian in 31 BC.
After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Octavian restored the outward facade of the Roman Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, but in practice retained his autocratic power. It took several years to work out the exact framework by which a formally republican state could be led by a sole ruler; the result became known as the Roman Empire. The emperorship was never an office like the Roman dictatorship which Caesar and Sulla had held before him; indeed, he declined it when the Roman populace "entreated him to take on the dictatorship".[CCAA, Erich S. Gruen, ''Augustus and the Making of the Principate'', 35.] By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including those of tribune of the plebs and censor. He was consul until 23 BC. His substantive power stemmed from financial success and resources gained in conquest, the building of patronage relationships throughout the Empire, the loyalty of many military soldiers and veterans, the authority of the many honors granted by the Senate,
The rule of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the ''Pax Romana'', or ''Roman peace''. Despite continuous frontier wars, and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession, the Mediterranean world remained at peace for more than two centuries. Augustus expanded the Roman Empire, secured its boundaries with client states, and made peace with Parthia through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army (and a small navy), established the Praetorian Guard, and created official police and fire-fighting forces for Rome. Much of the city was rebuilt under Augustus; and he wrote a record of his own accomplishments, known as the ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti'', which has survived. Upon his death in AD 14, Augustus was declared a god by the Senate, to be worshipped by the Romans.
Early life
While his paternal family was from the town of Velitrae, about 25 miles from Rome, Augustus was born in the city of Rome on September 23, 63 BC. He was born at Ox Heads, which was a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. An astrologer had given a warning to his father. However, his father decided to keep the child despite the warning (rather than leave the child in the open to be eaten by dogs). He was given the name Gaius Octavius. Due to the crowded nature of Rome at the time, Octavian (at this point he was simply called Gaius) was taken to his father's home village at Velitrae to be raised.
Octavian 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.[Suetonius, ''Augustus'' The "Marcus Octavius" vetoing the agrarian law suggested by Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC was possibly his ancestor. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html#1 1–4].][Rowell, 14.] Shortly after Octavius' 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.
Since Octavius' father was a plebeian, Octavius himself was a plebeian, despite the fact that his mother, being Julius Caesar's niece, was a patrician.[By Roman custom, one's status passed through one's father, not one's mother.] Octavius gained patrician status when he was adopted by Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
In 59 BC, when he was four years old, his father died.[Chisholm, 23.] 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,[Suetonius, ''Augustus'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html#8 8.1]] and was elected to the College of Pontiffs in 47 BC.[Rowell, 16.] 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.
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 Caesar afterwards 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
At the time Caesar was killed on the Ides of March (the 15th) 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 if he had any potential political fortunes or security.[Eck, 9.] 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.[Rowell, 16.] Having no living legitimate children, Caesar had adopted his great-nephew Octavius as his son and main heir.[Rowell, 15.] Owing to his adoption, Octavius assumed the name ''Gaius Julius Caesar''. Roman tradition dictated that he also append the cognomen ''Octavianus'' (''Octavian'') to indicate his biological family. Yet no evidence exists that he ever used that name, as it would have made his modest origins too obvious.
To make a successful entry into the echelons of the Roman political hierarchy, Octavian could not rely on his limited funds.[Eck, 9–10.] After a warm welcome by Caesar's soldiers at Brundisium,[Rowell, 18.] 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.[Rowell, 19.] Octavian made another bold move in 44 BC when he appropriated the annual tribute that had been sent from Rome's Near Eastern province to Italy without official permission.[Eck, 10.][CCAA, Walter Eder, ''Augustus and the Power of Tradition'', 18.] 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.[Chisholm, 24.][Chisholm, 27.][Rowell, 20.]
Arriving in Rome on May 6, 44 BC,[Eck, 11.] Octavian failed to persuade Antony to relinquish Caesar's money to him, but managed to win support from Caesarian sympathizers during the summer. In September, the Optimate orator Marcus Tullius Cicero began to attack Antony in a series of speeches, seeing Antony as the greatest threat to the order of the Senate.[Chisholm, 26.][Rowell, 30.] 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.[Eck, 11–12.][Rowell, 21.] Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian veterans, and on November 28 won over two of Antony's legions with the enticing offer of monetary gain.[Eck, 12.][Rowell, 23.] With 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 January 1.
First conflict with Antony
After Decimus Brutus refused to give up Cisalpine Gaul, Antony besieged him at Mutina.[Rowell, 24.] 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 was already known to have armed forces.[Chisholm, 29.] 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."[Chisholm, 30.][Rowell, 19–20.] In this unlikely alliance orchestrated by the arch anti-Caesarian senator Cicero, the Senate inducted Octavian as senator on January 1, 43 BC, yet he was also given the power to vote alongside the former consuls.
After heaping many more rewards on Decimus Brutus than Octavian for defeating Antony, the Senate attempted to give command of the consular legions to Decimus Brutus, yet Octavian decided not to cooperate.[Rowell, 26–27.] Instead, Octavian stayed in the Po Valley and refused to aid any further offensive against Antony.[Rowell, 27.] In July, an embassy of centurions sent by Octavian entered Rome and demanded that he receive the consulship left vacant by Hirtius and Pansa.[Chisholm, 32–33.] Octavian also demanded that the decree declaring Antony a public enemy should be rescinded.[Eck, 14.][Rowell, 28.] Meanwhile, Antony formed an alliance with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another leading Caesarian.
Second Triumvirate
The Roman Revolution
In a meeting near Bologna in October of 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate.[Eck, 15.] The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions in which 300 senators and 2,000 ''equites'' were branded as outlaws and deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives.[Eck, 16.] This measure by the triumvirs went beyond a simple purge of those allied with the assassins. Octavian objected to enacting the proscriptions at first because he wanted to spare the life of his newfound ally Marcus Tullius Cicero (who was to be listed on the proscriptions).[Eck, 17.]
Source: Wikipedia