Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (Latin: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, September 23, 63 BC-August 19, 14), formerly known as Gaius Octavian Thurinus, was the founding monarch of the Roman Empire and the founder of the head of state system. He ruled Rome for 40 years and was one of the most important figures in world history.

He was Caesar's grandnephew and was appointed first heir by Caesar in 44 BC and adopted as his adopted son. After Caesar was assassinated, he entered the political stage.

In 30 B.C., he settled a civil war attempted to divide the Roman Republic, and was baptized by the Senate as "August", meaning holy, solemn, and great. and reorganized the Roman government, bringing two centuries of peace and prosperity to the Roman world.

rise

Augustus was born in Rome as Gaius Octavius Thurinus. His father, Gaius OctaviusGaius Octavius came from a noble but unknown chivalrous family who was governor of Macedonia before his death in 58 BC. More importantly, his mother Atia was the niece of Gaius Julius Caesar, Rome's greatest general and de facto ruler. Caesar adopted Octavian and designated him as first heir by will (see the adoption system in ancient Rome).

Anthony accused Davi of relying on Caesar¡¯s pleasure in adopting him as a child. The Roman historian Suetonius analyzed Anthony¡¯s accusations that he sought to dust the house. As the adopted son of Caesar, according to the custom of Rome, Davius therefore accepted a new name: Gaius Julius Caesar Davianus (later known as ¡°Davi¡±).

When Caesar was assassinated in March 44 B.C., Daud was in the Apollonian army. At the age of eighteen, his opponents often deliberately despised the young man. However, he repeatedly stressed that he was the son of Caesar in order to arouse people¡¯s feelings for him (so that he deliberately avoided Daud by calling himself Gaius Julius).

He marched to Italy and recruited Caesar's old troops to expand his army. After arriving in Rome, he found that the capital was in the hands of the Republicans who murdered Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius. After a tense standoff, he formed an alliance with Mark Antony and Marcus Emilius Rapida, Caesar's important colleague. The three-man composition is known as the second three-headed military dictatorship. Then they began to clean out the Senate. 300 elders and 3000 knights were dispossessed and died. This is not only a "purification", a large part of their lost assets is used to maintain and expand their army.

Next, Anthony and Octavian led the army to pursue Brutus and Cassius, who had fled to the east. At Philippi (in Macedonia), Octavian's army won, and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide (42 BC). So Octavian returned to Rome, while Anthony went to Egypt, where he formed an alliance with Queen Cleopatra (Cleopatra), one of Julius Caesar's lovers and mother of Caesar's illegitimate son, Caesarion (the younger Caesar). At this point, Rome's territory belonged to Octavian in the west and Anthony in the east.

Anthony was busy with the wars in the East and his affair with Cleopatra; Octavian made popular efforts in Rome, consolidated his power, and spread rumors to slander Anthony: Anthony was becoming more and more like an Egyptian than a Roman. The situation is becoming increasingly tense. Finally, in the first 32 years, Octavian declared war on Anthony. The outcome of the war was soon revealed: Octavian defeated Antony in the Bay of Aktium on the west coast of Greece. Anthony fled to Egypt and fought Octavian again, but was defeated again and finally committed suicide. Cleopatra committed suicide. The young Caesar was ruthlessly killed by Octavian so as not to affect his identity as Caesar's only inheritance.

Feng Shen

After the Battle of Actium, the Devil had cleared all the obstacles to his advance.After years of civil war, Rome became almost a country without law, but Rome was reluctant to accept an authoritarian monarch.

He was very clever. First, he disbanded the army and held elections. As a result, he was elected to govern, the highest executive of the Roman Republic. In 27 B.C., he declared in an official event that he would return the senate and withdraw his forces from Egypt. The senate not only rejected his request, but also granted him rule over Spain, the Gauls and Syria¡ªthese are the three richest provinces in Rome.

Immediately after, the Senate awarded him the title of "Augustus." This name is related to ancient religion and is said to have its etymology from "authority"(augtoritas) and is related to the spiritual practice of the spectator (augur). In the religious beliefs of the people at that time, this title meant that the holder had transcending authority and no charter could define the nature of its status. In addition, this special method used to consolidate Octavian's power also separated his impending monarchy from the reign of terror that he had experienced when he was still an individual.

These things were unusual in the Roman political tradition. But the Senate was no longer the one of the nobles who assassinated Caesar. Antony and Octavian purged the Senate of dissidents and spread their henchmen throughout the Senate. We don't know to what extent these resolutions expressed the will of the Senate, and how many black-box operations were behind it.

Augustus understood well that a consulship did not guarantee him absolute power. In 23 BC, he resigned from the ruling office and accepted the other two posts.

The first is the tribunicia potestas, so it can arbitrarily intervene in the Senate and decide before the Senate. Since the custodian office usually deals with civil matters, this further consolidates his power.

The second is the "power of governance"(imperium proconsulare maius's power above the governors), which gives him the highest authority in any matter of territorial administration. It is generally believed that Augustus wore the yellow robe during the first 23 years. However, he still uses the title of First Citizens. In 13 years before, Lepida died, and Augustus was given the Pontifex Maximus.

The Miracle

It is estimated that due to the increased number of people kissing the wind, there are many miracles and legends about Augustus. One of the more common ones is that when Augustus was seriously ill, the statue of Augustus was struck by lightning, causing the letter C of Caesar in his name to be separated from Caesar. Caesar means god in some minority languages. Augustus died 40 days after the lightning strike, catering to the letter C.(Represents the number 40). In addition, before his death, Augustus dreamed that he was carried out of the room by forty young knights also catered to this number. Of course, what was even more boring was that after Augustus died, there were indeed 40 knights carrying him.

Rule over Rome

Augustus took power with his bold wrist and ruled Rome with his prudent wisdom. Rome gave him almost absolute power, and he gave Rome forty years of internal peace and continuous prosperity, known as the ¡°Pax Romana.¡±

He established the first permanent army of Rome (including the Navy) and stationed legions at the border to prevent them from interfering in internal affairs. He also established the Praetorian Guard, which defended the emperor and defended the emperor himself.

Augustus did not launch large-scale wars. The Battle of the Mountains of Northern Spain from 26 BC to 19 BC ended in the successful conquest of the area. After repeated riots in Gaul, the Arpin region was also conquered. Rome's territory expanded to the natural territory of the Danube River, and Galatia Province was occupied by Rome. In 9 AD, Rome lost in the ambush in the Teutonburg Forest. Rome's expansion into western Germany stopped. He later accepted the Rhine River as the final border of the empire. In the east, Rome annexed Armenia and the Caucasus, and expansion stopped at the borders of the Parthian Empire.

In internal affairs, Augustus used the vast wealth he had amassed from the empire to provide generous treatment to the army; he decorated the capital and flourished recreational activities to please the Roman citizens. He boasted that "a brick city has become a city of marble in my hands." He built the new Curia and the Temple of Apollo and Julius. He also built a shrine near the Circus Maximus. It is reported that the Temple of Capitoline and the Pompeian Theater (which was not named when it was built) were both built by Augustus.

It established the Ministry of Communications and completed a huge transportation network, which promoted the communication, trade and postal services of the empire. Augustus also established the world's first fire brigade. It also established a regular police force in Rome.

Roman rulers were generally ignorant of economics, and Augustus was no exception. Roman emperors, including Augustus, spent heavy taxes from agriculture on troops, temples, and entertainment. Once the empire stopped expanding and there were no war plunder, the economy began to stagnate and eventually declined. From this perspective, the rule of Augustus was the peak of imperial power and prosperity. Augustus tried to revitalize agriculture by putting veterans into agriculture, but with little success. The capital still relies on food imported from Egypt.

Augustus strongly encouraged the worship of Roman gods, especially Apollo. It describes Rome's victory over Egypt as the victory of the Roman god over the Egyptian god. His sponsorship of Aenead of Virgil was with the purpose of enhancing the reputation of Roman ancestors. Augustus also rectified the world, praising marriage, family and childbirth, and attacking luxury, luxury marriage, promiscuity and adultery, but with little success. (However, his daughter was exiled and sentenced to death for this.)

Augustus was also a conservator of literature and art. He helped poets, artists, sculptors and architects. His reign was the golden age of Roman literature. Under its protection, Horace, Livy, Ovid and Virgil stood out. These people praise their talents to approach their standards to avoid being expelled. Ovid was exiled for harming morality (Augustus 'standard). He won praise from almost the entire Roman intellectual community, although many still privately remembered the Republic. He won the support of the masses by entertaining and celebrating festivals for himself and his family. At the death of Augustus, it was impossible for Rome to return to the Republic. The only question was who would succeed Augustus.

inheritance

Augustus's control of power, throughout the empire, was so absolute that he was allowed to appoint his own heirs, and the democratic habits of Rome since the establishment of the republic have been abandoned and ridiculed. At first, it was for Marcellus, the son of his sister, who had married Augustus's daughter Julia Caesaris. However, Marcellus died of food poisoning in 23 BC. Historians later criticized the poisoning, and its subsequent death, as being due to the poisoning of Augustus's wife, Viya, but it cannot be proven to be true.

After the death of Marcaeus, Augustus married his daughter to his right-hand man, Marcus Agrippa. The two had five children, three sons and two daughters: Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Julia, Agrippina the Grand, and Postomus Agrippa, so named because these children were born after the death of Marcus Agrippa. When Augustus adopted his first two children as his own sons, he clearly had plans to make them his heirs. Augustus loved his adopted son very much. The children born to Livia's first marriage, Nero Claudius Dulusus Germannicus and Tiberius Claudius, were also very important to Augustus, allowing them to conquer a large part of Germany.

After Agrippa's death in 12 BC, Livia's son Tibery divorced his wife and married Agrippa's widow. Tiberi shared Augustus's tribune duties, but retired shortly afterwards. After the deaths of Guy and Luci in 4 and 2 BC respectively, and his brother Durosus (9 BC), Tiberi was recalled to Rome and adopted by Augustus.

On August 19, 14 AD, Augustus died. Postomus Agrippa and Tiberi were once appointed as joint heirs. Postumus, however, was banished and executed shortly after. It is not known who ordered his execution, but for Tiberi, it cleared the obstacles in his path to inheriting his adoptive father's power.

their evaluation

After his death, Augustus was immediately included in the ranks of gods and divinized. Both his pseudonym Caesar and his title Augustus became permanent titles for Roman rulers for the next four hundred years. This name was still used in the Byzantine Empire after 1400. The Kaiser and Tsar of the early 20th century both derived from his name. Until Constantine the Great established Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century, the God Augustus was a cult idol of the Romans. Therefore, people can still see many exquisite statues and busts of Augustus today. Augustus's tomb also originally had bronze columns engraved with the words "Res Gestae Divi Augusti"(The Works of God Augustus).

Many people consider Augustus to be the greatest emperor of Rome. His policy undoubtedly greatly extended the life of Rome and ushered in the golden age of Rome, namely the "Peace of Rome"(or "Peace of Augustus"). Augustus had a graceful demeanor, dignified appearance, alert, high understanding, and ability to decide on major issues. He was a very cunning political genius. But he was not as radiant as his adoptive father Caesar or his rival Anthony. Augustus's reputation was not as loud as these two men. Although he was more often confused with Julius Caesar, his legacy was more lasting than that of the other two. The lunar order of August (Latin Augustus, the Roman month of June) was named after Augustus; before this it was called Sextillis (Latin for 'six').

Sextus Pompeius said he was feminine, Marcus Anthony said he was adopted by Caesar by an unfair relationship, and Anthony's brother Lucius said he sold himself to Orus Hiltius in Spain for 300,000 Sextus after being taken away from the virginity by Caesar, and also said he used to bake his legs with a roasted shell of fruit to soften his legs.

Looking back at Augustus's rule and the legacy he left to Rome, his longevity must not be ignored. This was one of the key factors in the longevity of the monarchy that began by him. Its subjects were unaware of any system other than Principal. If he had died early (say, in the first 23 years), things could have been very different. The successive civil wars during the oligarchy of the Roman Republic and the longevity of Augustus were decisive factors in Rome's transformation from a republic to an imperial system. Augustus's personal shrewdness, patience, ingenuity and his booming political reputation also played a role. His creation influenced subsequent imperial policies in many aspects: maintaining the standing army and stationing it on the border, the principles and methods of succession to the throne, and using the emperor's funds to decorate the capital. Its most important legacy was the system that would maintain the peace and prosperity of the empire for the next two hundred years. In the imperial era, his behavior was regarded as a model for a wise monarch. Although later Roman emperors all adopted the title "Caesar Augustus", only a few people were truly worthy of it.

Related events

Octavian was born in a knight family. His grandfather was a local official and his father was a member of the Senate. Others say Octavian's grandfather was a money changer. By the time Octavian's father arrived, their family was already rich and prestigious. Octavian was Caesar's nephew. Caesar adopted him as his adopted son, appointed him as his heir, and decided to pass on three-quarters of his inheritance to him. When Caesar was killed, the consul of Rome was Anthony. He was Caesar's confidant general and claimed to be Caesar's successor. When Octavian rushed back to Rome from abroad, Anthony treated Octavian with contempt. He said arrogantly,"Young man, what else do you want except Caesar's name?" I don't have any money anymore. Do you want Caesar's regime? Octavian turned and left, knowing in his heart that he was about to engage in a power struggle with Anthony.

What is most needed to seize power? Army. Octavian auctioned off his property in the Roman Forum and used money to recruit Caesar's former subordinates. He soon had a well-equipped army. In July 43 BC, when Anthony was sending troops abroad, Octavian led his troops into Rome and coerced the Senate to appoint him consul. The Senate was trying to use Octavian to control Anthony, so Octavian and Anthony were evenly matched. At that time, Lepida was Caesar's cavalry commander, and many Caesar supporters in the Western Province of Rome surrendered to him. Octavian, Anthony, and Leipida all had considerable strength, but no one could establish their own dictatorship. In order to contain and use each other, the three formed a political alliance of the "Three Back Heads" in 43 BC to govern together. In 42 BC, after the "Back Three Heads" alliance eliminated their common enemy, the Senate aristocrats, a struggle broke out among the three giants. In 36 BC, Leipida was stripped of military power by Octavian. The Big Three became a situation where Octavian and Anthony stood side by side.

In 42 BC, Anthony went to Egypt to go to the governor of the eastern provinces of Rome. The Queen of Egypt was a woman of beauty and courage. She married Caesar, Octavian's adoptive father. After Caesar's death, she ruled her kingdom alone. Anthony was also fascinated by the Queen of Egypt, the goddess of beauty. They fell in love and had a pair of lovely twins. Anthony actually gave the region of the Eastern Province to the Queen of Egypt and her children. Anthony's behavior of undermining the territorial integrity of Rome aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Romans. Octavian used the opportunity to stir up such dissatisfaction. Finally, the Roman Senate and People's Assembly announced that Anthony was stripped of his power and decided to crusade against him and the Queen of Egypt.

In September 31 BC, the fleet of the Roman crusade and the fleet of Anthony and the Queen of Egypt fought on the sea off northwest Greece. The two sides are evenly matched and the battle is winless. But at the height of the fighting, the Queen of Egypt suddenly led the Egyptian fleet to withdraw from the battlefield and fled to Egypt. When Anthony saw the Queen leave by boat, he also abandoned the army and fled. His troops lost their commander and were quickly annihilated by Octavian alone. The following summer, Octavian marched into the Egyptian capital. When Anthony was about to lose, he proposed to duel with Octavian alone. Octavian replied: "There is no need. If you want to die, there are many ways to do it." "Anthony had no choice but to commit suicide with his sword. The Queen of Egypt also let a poisonous snake kill herself in the palace.

When David returned to Rome, he had become the same great figure as Caesar. His empire north of the Danube, south to Africa (including the North African Belt including Egypt), west from the Peninsula of Bilius, east to the Two Rivers Basin and the Asia Minor Peninsula, formed one of the largest empires in ancient history, and the Mediterranean Sea became the inner lake of the Roman Empire.

He decided to restore peace to the war-torn Romans, and since he began, Rome hasined peace for more than 200 years.

In January 27 BC, Octavian accepted the people's request and accepted the title "Augustus" given to him by the Senate. "Augustus" means "sacred" and "supreme". This is a more glorious title than the emperor. It later became a title for Western emperors. Octavian also accepted the honorary titles of "Chief Citizen of the Senate"(i.e.,"Head of State") and Marshal, and monopolized the administrative, military, judicial and religious powers of Rome. The word "head of state" has been used all over the world since then, when Octavian was only 36 years old.

Octavian ruled Rome for 43 years and died in 14 AD. For nearly 200 years since then, Rome's political situation was stable, and its economy and culture developed relatively greatly. It was called the "Rome Peace" period. Roads extending in all directions connected all parts of the Roman Empire into a whole, and Rome was the center of the Roman Empire. The proverb "All roads lead to Rome" vividly describes the Roman Empire's prosperous transportation and prosperous commerce at that time.