Augustus, the first emperor

The story

A boy, a will, a name

In March 44 BC, when Julius Caesar was killed, nobody could have imagined that the young man who would become the most powerful man in Rome was an eighteen-year-old boy. His name was Gaius Octavius and he had been born in Rome on 23 September 63 BC. When Caesar's will was opened it was discovered that the dictator had adopted him and named him his heir. From that moment Octavius took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) and claimed the inheritance: his claims were approved by an assembly of the people, the comitia curiata.

Octavian was young and inexperienced, but he proved to be intelligent, patient and very skilled in politics. His name, Caesar's, brought him the support of the soldiers and veterans who had fought for his adoptive father.

From the triumvirate to Actium

After Caesar's assassination, Octavian allied with two powerful men, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. The three formed what historians call the Second Triumvirate, a three-way alliance to govern and to avenge Caesar. Together they defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. But in time the alliance broke down. Lepidus left the scene, and Antony, who had settled in Egypt beside Queen Cleopatra, became Octavian's rival.

The decisive clash was the battle of Actium, in Greece, in 31 BC. Octavian won, and soon afterwards Antony and Cleopatra, followed to Egypt, took their own lives. After almost a century of civil wars, Octavian was the sole master of the Roman world.

27 BC: “Augustus”

Octavian was skilful and knew well that the Romans hated the idea of a king. Caesar had been killed for exactly that. So he never took that title. In 27 BC he officially handed his powers back to the Senate, in a solemn gesture, and the Senate, in exchange, gave him a military command over many provinces and conferred on him the honorary title of Augustus, which means “worthy of reverence”. Historians mark the beginning of his rule at 16 January 27 BC.

What did he want to be called? He preferred princeps, which means “the first”, that is, the first among the citizens. Since 28 BC he had already been princeps senatus, the first of the senators. Officially the Republic continued: there were still consuls, the Senate, elections. In reality he took the important decisions. This system of government is called the principate, and it is the beginning of the Roman Empire.

How he governed

Augustus organised the administration with great care. In the provinces he sent governors chosen by himself, the legates, alongside the proconsuls appointed by the Senate. Egypt, very rich in grain, was entrusted to a prefect, that is, a trusted official, so that no senator could become too powerful there. He reformed taxes and the currency. In Rome he looked after the supply of food, water and the look of the city. He is credited with the saying in which he boasted of having found a Rome of brick and left it of marble: it is a figure of speech, but it gives the idea of the many monuments he had built.

A famous monument is also linked to him, the Ara Pacis, the “Altar of Peace”, wanted by the Senate in 13 BC to celebrate Augustus's return from a long expedition in Spain and southern Gaul, and inaugurated on 30 January 9 BC. Augustus also wrote an account of his deeds, the Res gestae: it is a kind of official autobiography, in which he tells of his victories with great pride and few shadows.

His name in the months

In 8 BC the month that was called Sextilis was dedicated to Augustus and took the name Augustus: it is our August.

The last day

Augustus died on 19 August AD 14 at Nola, in Campania, and is buried in the Mausoleum that he had had built in Rome. His adoptive son Tiberius succeeded him on the throne. Livia Drusilla, his third and last wife since 38 BC, is not mentioned in the Res gestae.