Emperor Augustus: An Overview

Yello Buzzers and welcome to a new article : D Today we will be covering Emperor Augustus! This was originally a school project but I thought that there might be Buzzers that were somewhat interested in history/empires/emperors etc etc or had this project too and maybe this could help them.

Please do not copy any of what is written!

Who was Augustus?

In 27-31 BC (historians are unsure) Augustus assured his role as ruler and started adding laws, he was rather fixed on modifying Rome to make it appear more…’beautiful.’

Emperor Augustus had a 40 year long reign in which he near doubled the overall size of the empire. Augustus mainly helped bring peace to his turbulent era.

Who was he connected to?

Julius Caesar was Augustus’ great-uncle and he did a great job in helping him rule, he even adopted him as his own son at one point.

His original rival, he manages to form a sort of truce, in this case a Triumvirate, where he shares governing the country with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus.

He is one of the people with whom Augustus formed an alliance, the other being Antony. He shares ruling the country with both Mark and Marcus.

How did he secure peace?

1. Reorganization – He reorganized parts of the government/Rome (in general) that he thought were faulty.
2. Monarchy – He enhanced the monarchy in Rome and made the dwellers adapt to a new regime, in this case, a monarchic one.
3. Masking – He sort of cunningly masked the fact that the main notion of this new peace was centered around monarchies and aristocrats, by using status levels.
4. Italian Control – He wanted Rome to be under Italian control, meaning he didn’t want to share it with other countries. This secured some peace.

How did he control the empire?

First, he doubled it in size in 41 years.

He was ‘pontifex maximus’ which means that he power over religious observances.

He gave the army large +s (more money/bonuses) and cheap food, which created peace (see slide 4.)

Making peace with certain empires gave him more power and thus more ability to control his empire.

Annexing other countries helped him to enlarge his empire and he controlled it using advice from helping mentors and being caring to his armies.

Problems he had

Those he had specifically ‘pin-pointed’ or chosen to be his soi-disant successors died, which caused him to find new ones (of course) but still affected him in a negative way. He carried an extremely heavy burden and he drove himself mad, he had such high expectations for himself that for others, he held the same expectations, no wonder some of his mentors had enough. He wasn’t the best person at giving orders and telling people about and thus he asked his elders for help. At first, Antony helped him but soon enough he died, leaving Augustus sorrowful. Of course, like any successful emperor, he had to deal with some controversy or people who didn’t agree with what he did. He became ill multiple times, often with the same illnesses, ergo causing him to fall on hid deathbed (if that sentence works!)

How he impacted the wealth of the empire

As aforementioned, he doubled the size of the whole empire in just 41 years, annexing multiple countries, making multiple connections and finding helpful, cheap techniques to benefit his army (see previous slides.) He fed them and found alternatives for habitually arduous but requisite tasks. He improved buildings and houses and overall architecture in Rome, modernizing it and managing to make more money, although he himself didn’t fight to win more countries to the empire , he usually watched it from the side and got disappointed when they didn’t win.

Extra Interesting Facts

1. His birth name was Octavius not Augustus.
2. His sister got married to Augustus’ worst rival.
3. He never actually fought in the wars.
4. His dad was Julius Caesar.
5. Notice a resemblance between his name and the month of August? That’s because it was named after him.
6. Ruthlessly, but fairly, he exiled his own child (daughter.)
7. A thread of deaths that were supposedly his future successors linked to Tiberius made people think that the latter had killed them.
8. After him there were 5 notable emperors, and by ‘coincidence’ he was related to all of them!
9. He was also adopted by Julius Caesar, so not directly by blood.
10. One of the main reasons he became popular amongst powerful Romans was as Caesar, his adoptive father, publicly disclosed that Octavius was his successor.
11. At just 19 years old, Augustus was co-consuls with his father.

THE END

This is my original work and if you use some stuff, please cite the source. Thanks Buzzers 😛

xxxxxx

TheBuzz Team