Augustus

Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (Latin: Octavianus), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace (the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

Octavian was born into an equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia. Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto oligarchs. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian's naval commander Marcus Agrippa at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and his wife Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, killed themselves during Octavian's invasion of Egypt, which then became a Roman province.

After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward facade of the free republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates and the legislative assemblies, yet he maintained autocratic authority by having the Senate grant him lifetime tenure as commander-in-chief, tribune and censor. A similar ambiguity is seen in his chosen names, the implied rejection of monarchical titles whereby he called himself Princeps Civitatis ('First Citizen'), juxtaposed with his adoption of the name Augustus.

Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, and completing the conquest of Hispania, but he suffered a major setback in Germania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard as well as official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at age 75, probably from natural causes. Persistent rumors, substantiated somewhat by deaths in the imperial family, have claimed his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Livia's son and former husband of Augustus's only biological child, Julia.

As a consequence of Roman customs, society, and personal preference, Augustus (/ɔːˈɡʌstəs/ aw-GUST-əs) was known by many names throughout his life:

Octavian was born Gaius Octavius in Rome on 23 September 63 BC. His paternal family was from the Volscian town of Velitrae (modern Velletri), approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south-east of the city. He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. In his childhood, he received the cognomen "Thurinus", possibly commemorating his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves who had been followers of Spartacus. Roman histories gloss over the childhood of Octavian. Some details about Octavian's upbringing from his now-lost autobiography were preserved by Suetonius, while the majority of information is preserved in a biography composed by Nicolaus of Damascus around 20 BC that survives only partially in 10th-century Byzantine excerpts.

Octavian was raised for at least part of his childhood in his father's hometown of Velitrae. Octavian's father, also named Gaius Octavius, came from a moderately wealthy equestrian family of the gens Octavia. His paternal great-grandfather Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His grandfather was a banker, while his father became a Roman senator, was distinguished as a praetor by 61 BC, and then became a governor of Macedonia. His mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar.

Octavian was four years old when his father died in 59 BC, or in 58 BC. In 58 BC his mother Atia married a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus. Philippus came from a leading family in Rome, was elected consul in 56 BC, and according to historian Karl Galinsky as Octavian's stepfather he served as a role model in how to delicately navigate troubled political waters while preserving his personal wealth. Octavian was largely raised by his grandmother, Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. When Julia died in 52 or 51 BC, Octavian delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother. In Philippus' household, Octavian was educated in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Greek language by a Greek slave tutor named Sphaerus, who Octavian later freed from slavery and honored with a state funeral in 40 BC. As a teenager he studied philosophy under the tutelage of Areios of Alexandria and Athenodorus of Tarsus, Latin rhetoric under Marcus Epidius, and Greek rhetoric under Apollodorus of Pergamon. In 48 BC Octavian donned the toga virilis ('toga of manhood'), and was elected to the College of Pontiffs in 47 BC. The following year he was put in charge of the Greek games that were staged in honour of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar.