The Early Roman Empire and the Reign of Augustus Caesar

Meet Imperator, Caesar, Divi Filius, Augustus, Pater Patriae. You can call him Augustus. Without question, Augustus is one of the most important people in history. So who is this Roman fellow with the unwieldy name? Well, we can learn a lot about him and about the history of Rome just by looking at that name. Augustus' name tells the story of his rise to power, the collapse of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. Augustus did not always have such a fancy name. When he was born in 63 BCE, his name was Gaius Octavius. Octavius was just another young man of one of the many noble families in Rome, and an impoverished one at that. Then, Gaius Octavius' grand-uncle, Gaius Julius Caesar, who we know as Caesar, began his meteoric rise to power. Caesar took over the Roman Republic and set himself up at its head, making himself incredibly wealthy and powerful. Caesar adopted his grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius, as his sole heir, then got assassinated. Hoping to inherit the fame, property, and popularity of Caesar, Gaius Octavius took his uncle's name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Since that is a mouthful, let us refer to him as Octavian for the time being. Octavian was not the only fellow hoping to succeed Caesar. When Octavian arrived in Rome after his uncle's assassination, he found Caesar's right-hand man, Mark Antony, making his own bid for power. Mark Antony held the city in tyranny and had incited the masses against Caesar's assassins in the Senate, driving them from Rome. Much of Mark Antony's power and authority derived from his association with Caesar. Yet with Caesar's heir, Octavian, at hand, public favor began to slip from Antony. The common people saw the son of Caesar. The Senate saw a young man they could manipulate to get rid of Mark Antony. Realizing his dire situation, Antony fled to Gaul. Yet the Senate had gotten more than they had bargained for in Octavian. Using the menace of Mark Antony as a goad, Octavian bullied the frightened Senate into granting him extraordinary powers for a man of his age. He was made a senator and granted the same powers as the consuls. More importantly, he was given legal control over the armies of Rome. This was a wise choice by the Senate, since much of the Roman army revered Caesar and might have defected to Antony without Caesar's heir there, Octavian, to hold them to the Senate. With the full backing of the Roman Senate, Octavian and the two consuls set out for Gaul. They beat the heck out of Antony at Mutina, forcing the bedraggled general to retreat. In the fighting, both consuls died, leaving all the glory and military command to Octavian. If Octavian had hoped for a hero's welcome upon returning to Rome, he was sorely disappointed. The Senate had grown wary of the young Octavian and were reluctant to grant him any more glory or power than they could avoid. The Senate had never been a fan of Caesar in the first place, nor of his heir. They had used Octavian to keep Antony occupied while they waited for Caesar's assassins, the fugitive senators, to return to Rome with an army. Realizing the situation, Octavian allied himself with Antony and another of Caesar's supporters named Lepidus. The three formed the Second Triumvirate, an alliance between Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus. Working together, these three men killed off their political rivals and seized their property in a series of political murders known as proscriptions. This removed the last obstacles to absolute power and made the three very wealthy. In 42 BCE, the Triumvirate strong-armed the Senate into naming Julius Caesar a god, Divus Julius. After which point, Octavian was able to add the title Divi Filius, the son of a god, to his already long name. While Octavian and Antony had been fighting among themselves in the west, Caesar's assassins had been amassing power in the east. A conflict was inevitable, and in 42 BCE, the two sides clashed at the Battle of Philippi. Caesar's assassins, the last champions of the Republic, were completely defeated, and Brutus, who had betrayed Caesar, took his own life. A few years later, in 36 BCE, the Triumvirate destroyed the fleet of Pompey Magnus' son, Sextus Pompeius, wiping out the last of those who had opposed Caesar. With their common enemy destroyed, the members of the Triumvirate turned against one another. Lepidus attempted to claim Sicily, but his troops abandoned him, and he was exiled. But the biggest rivals in this conflict were Octavian and Antony, who soon turned against one another. Antony was far more ambitious than Lepidus. He wanted the entire Eastern Empire. He was setting himself up as an Eastern despot, and sought to rule all of the Empire from Egypt, with his queen, Cleopatra. Or, at least, that's what Octavian tried to convince the Romans. It might have even been true. Eventually, this conflict came to a head, and in 31 BCE, the two sides met in a naval battle at Actium, in which Antony and Cleopatra's fleet was utterly destroyed. After suffering another defeat the next year at Alexandria, the two committed suicide together, inspiring poets and playwrights through the ages. Octavian had now defeated all his enemies. The Romans had a name for a victorious general, Imperator. Octavian took this title and made it something more. He made it his name, and by doing so, he changed its meaning. Though Imperator continued to hold implications of military victory, by the time Octavian was finished, all military victories belonged to him. Imperator became the title of the loftiest position that man has ever achieved. The absolute ruler. The king of kings. The emperor. Though Octavian held the Empire in his hand, he knew that an iron fist could not hold him in power forever. Rather than seizing authority and becoming a dictator, he allowed many of the offices of the Republic to remain. Octavian refused to be named dictator, or even consul for life. Instead, he just made sure he held enough important positions to get him what he wanted. By maintaining the illusion of the Republic, Octavian gave his reign legitimacy. That being said, the Senate still laid on the titles. They named Octavian proconsul, the governor of a province. They called him tribune, by which they meant he was a defender of the people. They hailed him as princeps, the first among equals. And finally, they gave him the title by which we know him today. Augustus, which in Latin means dignified, majestic, sacred, venerable, worthy of honor. Yet even this was not enough. Augustus knew that all of the titles in the world could not protect him if the people turned against him. And so he attempted to shore up his legitimacy in a number of other routes. He enacted laws to restore the ancient morality and customs of Rome, despite the fact that his very authority defied those laws and customs. To hide this hypocrisy, Augustus started an aggressive propaganda campaign, headed by his friend and advisor, Mycenaeus. Mycenaeus brought several poets to the emperor's cause, including the famous Virgil, who wrote the Aeneid, an epic poem for the Roman people. Augustus used Virgil's Aeneid to weave himself and his agenda into the pages of Roman history. Augustus also built a vast number of public works and monuments, transforming the city of Rome to such an extent that upon his death he could say, I found Rome a city of brick and left it clothed in marble. These accomplishments so endeared Augustus to the Roman people, that in 2 BCE they named Augustus Pater Patriae, Father of the Nation. So, we've seen how Gaius Octavius became Imperator Caesar Divifilius Augustus Pater Patriae. He was adopted as the heir to Julius Caesar, whose name he took. He then got Caesar named a god, making him the son of a god, Divifilius. Having conquered all his enemies, he took the name for a victorious general, Imperator, and turned it into the title of his new position. By maintaining the illusion of the Republic, while still holding absolute power, he earned the name Augustus. And, by winning over the hearts and minds of the Romans, to such an extent that his very name was synonymous with the Roman Empire, Augustus gained the title Pater Patriae, Father of the Nation.