A new order that called itself an old one
The system that Augustus created is usually called the principate, from the Latin princeps, meaning “first citizen”. Its chief feature was that a single man held the decisive power, yet he claimed no royal title and said that he had restored the republic. That tension was deliberate. Rome had a deep hostility to kings, and the memory of Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE reminded any ruler what could happen to someone who seemed to want a crown.
Modern historians usually describe the result as a monarchy in practice. Augustus himself, in his own record of his achievements, the Res Gestae, described his role in the language of tradition and service. Both views contain something true.
From Octavian to the end of the wars
Octavian was born in 63 BCE and was a great-nephew of Julius Caesar. Caesar’s will adopted him, and in 44 BCE, aged eighteen, he accepted that inheritance and the name that went with it. At first he was a minor figure, but he gathered Caesar’s veterans, and in 43 BCE he joined Mark Antony and Lepidus in an official three-man commission to restore order, known as the Second Triumvirate. The three began by eliminating their enemies through proscriptions, lists of people who could be killed and whose property was seized. Cicero was among the victims.
The triumvirs defeated Caesar’s assassins at Philippi in 42 BCE. Later the partnership collapsed. Lepidus was sidelined, and the contest between Octavian and Antony, who was allied with Cleopatra of Egypt, ended at the naval battle of Actium in 31 BCE. Octavian entered Alexandria in 30 BCE, Antony and Cleopatra died, and Egypt came under his personal control. The long period of civil war generals fighting for the state was over, and Octavian had no rival left.
The settlement of 27 BCE
In January 27 BCE Octavian formally handed back his extraordinary powers to the Roman Senate and the people. The Senate responded by granting him a range of honours, including the name Augustus, a term suggesting dignity and religious authority rather than a political office. He also received control of the provinces where most of the army was stationed, for a term of years that was renewed repeatedly. Quieter provinces were left to be governed by senatorial proconsuls in the traditional way.
This arrangement gave Augustus command over the Roman legions while preserving the appearance of normal government. Offices were still elected, the Senate still met, and laws were still passed. But the person holding the army and the largest provinces held the real leverage.
Adjustments: 23 BCE and after
Augustus held the consulship for several years in a row, which drew criticism. In 23 BCE he gave up the continuous consulship and instead received powers that did not depend on holding that office. These included the powers of a tribune, which allowed him to propose laws and veto actions, and a form of command that ran across the empire’s provinces. Over time he received further functions and honours. In 12 BCE he became pontifex maximus, the head of the state religion, and in 2 BCE he was named “father of the country”.
None of these positions was a crown. Together they created authority that was unmatched, based on law, custom and prestige. The Latin term auctoritas, roughly personal influence, is often used by historians to describe the quality he claimed above others, in contrast to formal power.
The army, the city and the provinces
Augustus reduced the large armies left after the civil wars to a standing professional force. A figure of about twenty-eight legions after Actium is commonly given, although the number changed over time. He set terms of service and created a fund to pay retirement bonuses, so that soldiers looked to the state, not to individual generals, for their rewards. The emperor’s guard, the Praetorians, was based near Rome. A fire brigade and city watch helped to keep order in the capital.
The provinces were organised more systematically, with censuses and a more regular approach to taxation, which built on the ways Roman expansion had already begun to settle conquered territory. Augustus also ordered a major programme of building in Rome, famously claiming to have found a city of brick and left one of marble. That statement is rhetorical, but the scale of the work was real.
Law, morals and religion
Augustus presented his rule as a return to older Roman values. Laws promoted marriage and childbearing among the elite and penalised adultery. The effect of these measures is uncertain, and some were unpopular. He restored temples, revived religious priesthoods and encouraged festivals, in line with the Roman festival calendar. Poets such as Virgil, whose treatment of Aeneas and the Roman destiny is discussed under Virgil and Aeneas, wrote works that supported an image of Rome’s new age, though how far they were directed by the regime is debated.
Succession and legacy
The principate had no clear rule for succession, which was always its weakness. Augustus tried to prepare heirs from his family, but several died young. In the end, his stepson Tiberius succeeded him on his death in 14 CE. The pattern of rule by a family, with the Senate’s approval taken as a formality, continued and later developed into a more openly monarchical system.
The principate lasted in recognisable form until the late third century CE, when crises changed the way the empire was governed. Whatever its flaws, it ended the cycle of civil wars that had marked the last decades of the republic, and it gave the Mediterranean world a long period of relative stability, often called the Pax Romana. That peace was not total, since frontier wars and revolts continued, and it rested on the army’s loyalty.