Augustus
Augustus was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia. His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. He was named in Caesar’s will as his adopted son and heir. Augustus rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis. He dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia.
About Augustus in brief
Augustus was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia. His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. He was named in Caesar’s will as his adopted son and heir. Augustus rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis. He dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia. He also completed the conquest of Hispania, but suffered a major setback in Germania. Augustus died in AD 14 at the age of 75, probably from natural causes. However, there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. His adopted son Tiberius was succeeded as emperor by his adoptive son Julius Caesar. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire’s frontiers. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system. He established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus was known by many names throughout his life: While his paternal family was from the Volscian town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres to the south-east of Rome, he was born in the city of Rome on 23 September 63 BC.
His mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar, and his father had served in several local political offices. His paternal great-grandfather was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. In 59BC, when he was four years old, when his father died, his father married a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus Philippus, and was elected consul in 56BC. Because of this, Octavianus never had much interest in an interest in young Julius Caesar or Julia Caesar. He died in 52BC or 51BC and was delivered by his grandmother, Julia Caesar, of the funeral of the sister of the late Alexander the Great. His father had never claimed descent from Alexander, and had never been an official member of the Great or the Great Philippus. In 56BC, his mother died and he was raised by his father’s wife, Julia, and the mother of his young son, Tiberianus. After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward façade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power—with the Senate granting him lifetime powers of supreme military command, tribune, and censor. He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. His cognomen possibly commemorating his father’s victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves which occurred a few years after his birth.
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This page is based on the article Augustus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
