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Rome Notes 8
Rome Becomes an Empire
Rome becomes an empire
• Caesar has been killed
• Civil War raging in Rome= Caesar’s
opponents vs. Octavarian (Caesar’s Grand
nephew)
• Octavarian inherited Caesar’s wealth.
• Octavarian’s allies were Antony and
Ledipus (Caesar’s top generals)
• 43 BC Antony, Ledipus, and Oct. defeat
Caesar’s assassins and form the 2nd
Triumvirate
• Directly following the creation of the new
triumvirate, they begin fighting amongst
themselves.
2nd Triumvirate
• Oct. forces Ledipus to retire
• Oct. and Antony divide Rome between
themselves
– Antony takes east and Oct takes west
• Oct and Antony fight
• Antony forms an alliance with Cleopatra VII and
falls in love with her
• Oct told the Romans that Antony, with
Cleopatra’s help was going to become the single
ruler of Rome which makes the Romans mad
Octavarian vs Antony
• Octavarian declares war on Antony
• 31 BC Battle of Actium (well off the coast
of Greece) Oct defeats the combined army
and navy of Cleopatra and Antony
• 30 BC Antony and Cleo kill themselves
• Oct was 32 and was the ultimate ruler of
the Roman World
• Period of the Civil Wars and Republic is
finally dead
Octavarian as dictator
• Even though Oct knew that he could be ruler for
life, he knew that people didn’t really want a
dictator they wanted a republic
• He argues against being a dictator and instead
wanted limited power of a representative
government (aka the gov’t wasn’t in complete
control of everything
• Things he said and wrote influence the way
some of the Roman people thought. His
thoughts and writings were used by the peeps
that wrote the Roman declaration in BC-AD
Octavarian Cont.
• Octavarian (27 BC) restores the Roman gov’t
and gives some power to the senate but leaves
most of the power for himself
• Names himself the “imperator” which means
commander in chief- this eventually comes to
mean EMPORER
• In 27 BC Oct changes his name to Augustus
• Augustus means “the revered” or “majestic one”
From then on Oct was known as Augustus
Augustus
• Lays foundation after his begin of reign for peace for the
next 200 years
• For 200 years Rome is an empire
• Peace lasted until 180 AD
• Not all leaders that follow Augustus were good, but they
still helped Rome to reach its peak of “goodness”
• This period of peace was called “Pax Romana” or
Roman Peace
• Augustus first built army with about 150,000 men; men
were all citizens
• Also created a special unit called the Praetorian Guard
(about 9,000 men guarding the emperor- this was their
only job)
Augustus Cont.
• Augustus also captures more territory- all of
Spain and Gaul
• Already had the British islands (known as today)
• Also did a lot of Roman Repairs- repairs
included the rebuilding of Rome, public
buildings, and fountains
• Quote: “I found Rome a city of brick and left it a
city of marble”- Augustus
• Imports grain to feed the poor which make him
popular with the poor and keeps the poor happy
and less likely to rebel
Augustus Cont.
• Devotes time to improve the government
• During his rule there were about 50 million people living
in Rome
• Augustus appoints a pro-counsul or governor for each
province- these peeps replace those from the senate.
Augustus also went around to each province to check up
on them
• Improves the tax system- before this tax collectors paid
the gov’t to collect taxes in the first place. This meant
that tax collectors could steal the money they collected
and sometimes take more than they were supposed to
from the people
• Aug made tax collectors part of the gov’t so they can’t
keep the collected taxes.
Augustus Cont.
• Reforms the legal system: creates a new
system of laws for non citizens
• Authority to govern over the rights of
individual citizens