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The Age of Augustus
After Julius Caesar, some Roman leaders took the name Caesar as a sign of
power. This is also where we get the title of Czar (or Tsar in Russia) and Kaiser in
Germany, both areas where Rome had influence. Another term of leadership that comes
from ancient Rome is princeps (or prince) meaning “first,” from the title that Augustus
Caesar called himself. His official title was “first among equals,” as a sign to Rome that
he was attempting to restore long-lost equality and order to Rome. He is considered to be
one of the greatest Roman leaders for his actions led to reunifying Rome.
Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, the man who would become Augustus Caesar was
actually adopted by Julius Caesar upon his assassination through his will. Augustus, who
ruled from 27BC to 14AD, made great strides toward reforming government by weeding
out corruption and the lust for power. In an effort to balance out the power, Augustus
allowed for elections for many political offices, though he meddled in the process to only
allow the best candidates to win. This allowed lower-class persons to finally get involved
in politics and cleaned out those who were there to make money and attain power. The
new government was ruled by people who had the best interest of Rome in mind, rather
than their own.
Augustus’ military changed from volunteer to professional and he planted many
soldiers around the empire on farms to spread out the power and influence of Rome
throughout the known world. Rome was returning to the small-town, agrarian life that it
had been founded upon. All Italians were granted citizenship. Augustus held both
political and military claims to the empire and distributed power to the righteous and
intelligent provincial leaders who had no desires for ruling the entire empire and
therefore were of no threat to him. This peaceful and prosperous time for the Roman
Empire became known as the age of Augustus.
It was during this time that Augustus put a significant amount of money and effort
into building the culture of Rome by concentrating on the arts. It what would be
considered socialism today, Augustus undertook massive building projects that gave us
the Temple to Apollo and the Forum as well as many other temples and buildings that all
represented Roman greatness. Artists and sculptors were hired by the state to create
works for these buildings.
Building on the era of Cicero that ended with the fall of the Republic, The Golden
Age of Roman Literature began with Augustus’ Imperial Rome. All creativity came
under the direct patronage of the princeps himself. Augustus hired Maecenas to be the
cultural advisor for all of Rome. Maecenas’ job was kind of like an artistic talent scout as
he was to find the best people to advance the ideology of Augustus himself. It was
during this time that the poets Vergil, Horace and Ovid did their writing.
Many of the poems raised Augustus to be more glamorous than he was, while
others spoke of the daily strife that still existed in some forms in Rome. Stories of
Roman mythology were written down and spread throughout Europe and the Middle
East. Horace is credited with creating satire to describe the moral background of
everyday behaviors. Ovid was exiled for creating a series of poems that included stories
of sexual seduction, though he had put together the largest collection of Greek and
Roman myths to date. The continuation of the Roman Empire into the first centuries AD
was an expansion upon the work of Augustus.