FREE AUGUSTUS AND THE CREATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS PDF University Ronald Mellor | 192 pages | 21 Jun 2005 | BEDFORD BOOKS | 9780312404697 | English | none Ancient Rome: Literature The influence of these cultures can be seen in objects, such as oil lamps, made and used throughout the Empire. It is thought that the city-state of Rome was initially formed by Latium villagers joining together with settlers from the surrounding hills in response to an Etruscan invasion. It is unclear whether they came together in defense or as a result of being brought under Etruscan rule. Archaeological evidence indicates that a great deal of change and unification took place around BC which likely led to the establishment of Rome as a true city. During this brief time Rome, led by no fewer than six kings, advanced both militaristically and economically with increases in physical boundaries, military might, and production and trade of goods including oil lamps. Politically, Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents period saw the early formation of the Roman constitution. Rome entered its Republican Period in BC. No longer ruled by kings, the Romans established a new form of government whereby the upper classes ruled, namely the senators and the equestrians, or knights. However, a dictator could be nominated in times of crisis. Rome continued to expand through the Republican Period and gained control over the entire Italian peninsula by BC. It was the Punic Wars from BC, along with some conflicts with Greece, that allowed Rome to take control of Carthage and Corinth and thus become the dominant maritime power in the Mediterranean. This led to the election of a dictator, L. Cornelius Sulla, who served from BC. While Rome continued to be governed as a Republic for another 50 years, the shift to Imperialism began to materialize in 60 BC when Julius Caesar rose to power. Octavian assumed the title of Augustus and thus became the first emperor of Rome. During this period, Rome saw several decades of peace, prosperity, and expansion. In AD the Roman Empire was split into eastern and western empires, each ruled by its own emperor. The western empire suffered several Gothic invasions and, in ADwas sacked by Vandals. Rome continued to decline after that until AD when the western Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents Empire came to an end. Chapter 6: The Roman World from BCE to CE | World History to The greatest and most influential multicultural empire in world history to date. It is of particular importance for Christianity, because Christ was born under the reign of Augustus, and the early Church developed in the milieu of Greco-Roman civilization within the Roman Empire and was subject to its government. Indeed, the New Testament is an important source for the life of the common people in the first century of the Empire. In Late Antiquity, the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europeand the yearwhen the last emperor of Rome was dethroned, has become a date of convenience for the fall of the Roman Empire. In the eastern Mediterranean, however, the Roman Empire continued, developing seamlessly into the Byzantine Empire which lasted until Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in Up into the nineteenth century, Greeks still called themselves ' Romaioi ' Romans. Gaius Octavius, b. His second wife, Atia, was the daughter of Julius Caesar 's sister. Julius Caesarwho had no son of his own he never acknowledged his son by Cleopatra, Caesarion, who would in any case have been illegitimate under Roman law showed a marked liking for the young Octavius. He enrolled him among the patricians, and at the time of his assassination he was about to add Octavius to his staff for a campaign aimed first against the Dacians and then the Parthians. Julius Caesar's will left Octavius three-quarters of his estate and adopted him as his son, thereby giving him the name "Gaius Julius Caesar d ivi f ilius Octavianus. It was, however, nearly a decade and a half before Octavian became master of the Roman world. Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated at the naval battle of Actium 31 b. The royal treasury of Egypt made him rich enough to discharge the claims of his soldiers and veterans;veterans were settled in colonies, each with a donative of 1, sesterces. Some two years after the victory at Actium, he returned to Italy and celebrated his triumph Aug. It now remained for him to regularize his position. It is hardly correct to say, as many historians do, that he set about fulfilling a promise to restore the pre- Civil War "Roman Republic. One was the charisma he enjoyed as the heir of Julius Caesar, reinforced by a personal oath of loyalty taken by the cities of Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia to himself and his descendants late 33 or early 32 b. The other was the consulship; Octavian took up his third consulship Jan. The symbolism was pointed. In Octavian's sixth consulship with his colleague the able general and his friend from his schooldays, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippathe former custom of having 12 lictors to attend each consul was restored, but Octavian got the powers of a censor for himself and Agrippa. The census they conducted registered 4, citizens. He also Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents to reduce the numbers in the Senate which had ballooned to over a thousand, and expelled somebut he failed to bring the number down to the Sullan figure of The following year 27 b. Octavian, who had just begun his seventh consulship, again with Agrippa as colleague, met the Senate on the Ides of January January 13 and resigned his extraordinary powers, placing his provinces at the Senate's disposal, though he remained consul with imperium : an office he continued to hold every year until 23 b. However the senate demurred; Octavian was promptly offered Spain except BaeticaSyria, Cilicia, Cyprus and Gaul, and he accepted them with apparent reluctance. Egypt he also kept, and a prefect appointed by him administered it as a successor of the Ptolemaic kings. The Senate also voted him new honors, chief of them the appellation "Augustus" the revered one. Octavian took a new name: "Imperator Caesar Augustus. Halfway through his term as consul in 23 b. He was granted, instead, Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents power tribunicia potestaswhich henceforth became so important an element of imperial control that emperors dated their rule by the number of years they held it. The tribunician power gave him a tribune's. As well, he was granted proconsular imperium maius for life, valid even within the boundaries of the city of Rome, and superior to the imperium held by any other proconsul. This made up a bundle of powers which gave Augustus extraordinary authority, although at the same time the machinery of constitutional government did not cease Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents operate. Elections continued to be held; Rome continued to have consuls, praetors, tribunes, aediles, and quaestors. Yet Augustus respected Roman traditions. He avoided any suggestion of monarchy where it might grate on Roman sensibilities, and preferred the informal title of princeps which had Roman precedents, whence the term "principate" which we apply to his constitutional settlement. In the East, however, which was accustomed to Hellenistic monarchy, he was called autokrator autocrat. In 12 b. Augustus was elected to another honor. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, who was pontifex maximusthe triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus had acquired the office and held it until his death in 13 b. Augustus had made no move to shove Lepidus aside. Yet no doubt he wanted the office and now he acquired it. Emperors continued to hold the office of pontifex maximus until the emperor Gratian — a. There was an aura of ambiguity about the principate. Augustus was both princeps first citizen and imperator generalissimo ; the first title denoted prestige and influence within the customary constitution of Rome, and the second denoted military power. He enjoyed the confidence of the masses; when there were floods, a food shortage, and an epidemic in 22 b. The army was loyal. The commanders Augustus appointed were men whom he could trust; when he could, he chose members of the imperial family. The provinces were better governed, and had no reason to regret the passing of the old republic. The people accepted peace after a generation of civil war with relief and gratitude. One of Augustus' most striking achievements was the organization of a professional military force which was efficient and economical. It was to last with little change for two centuries. The great army which had defeated Mark Antony was demobilized, and what Augustus kept was a force of 28 legions of 6, men each, if at full strength, made up of Roman citizens, supplemented by auxilia of about the same number, and recruited from non-citizen provincials. Under the emperor Vespasian 69 — 79 a. It was the 60 centurions in every Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents who maintained discipline. The centurions were professional officers who rose through the ranks, and they might rise as high as centurion of the first rank primipilusbut no higher. The higher officers belonged to the senatorial order. Legionary soldiers served for Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents years and received denarii a year, from which rations and equipment were deducted.