Roman Empire

The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus).

Age of Augustus (31 BC - AD 14)

Political developments

As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been effectively under one-man rule since the time of Sulla.

Related Topics:
Battle of Actium - 31 BC - Century - Sulla

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The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome - the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic - now placidly accepted one man rule.

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Augustus's reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:

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• Creation of a hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
• Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
• Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
• Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus's death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
• Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
• Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
• Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
• Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.

Cultural developments Main article: Roman culture

The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.

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Sources The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus's reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:

• Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus's highly partisan autobiography,
• Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
• Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder.

Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions.

Related Topics:
Maritime archeology - Aerial surveys - Epigraphic - Coinage

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Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus's Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus's reign.

Related Topics:
Tacitus - Dio Cassius - Plutarch - Suetonius - Josephus - Jewish Antiquities - Judea - Province

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