Advantages And Disadvantages Of Augustus

Gaius Octavius Thurinus (better known as Augustus) was the man who would turn the Roman Republic into an Autocracy, ruled by one man: Himself. It is true that Augustus built the Roman Empire around himself, and refurbished Rome for the better however, he achieved his title Imperator through rather questionable means. He emerged as emperor by defeating people who were once allies, he forced Marc Antony to be exiled to Gaul successfully defeating him as a rival, and he also had many supporters and was extremely popular. Augustus was said to be quite cruel in his younger years when he was known only as Octavian, but becoming much milder later in his life but was always ready to use brutality wherever needed. Augustus was the one to fix the mistakes

People were disadvantaged by some of the new reforms Augustus had put in place, as well as forcing people to agree with him or face brutal repercussions. One of the many reforms he put in place was one on marriage laws stating that “Men between the ages of twenty-five and sixty, and women between twenty and fifty had to be married.” In order to promote the birth of more children and discourage adultery. Quoting from Suetonius on these laws he has said that “Having been more severe in his reform of this law than the rest, he found the people utterly averse to submit” this is evidence that this law was extremely unpopular. This was a very harsh law for many, as many women too young to be betrothed were forced into marriage. These laws were certainly unpopular, and were failures because of it, there is little evidence on whether or not these laws had helped the birth-rate in Rome (James C. Thompson, B.A., M.Ed, 2010) the source that this information comes from is secondary, they reference primary sources within their work as evidence, other sources about this topic corroborate this one with few minor

Going back to when Augustus was known as Octavian, when Julius Caesar was still in command he started to build up his power and gain a reputation. After Caesar had been assassinated, it was revealed that Octavius was named rightful heir to Julius Caesar, upon being named his heir he gained control over Caesar’s legions. Caesars death lead Augustus to have a strong desire to avenge him, he achieved this goal as it is written in his deeds written by Augustus himself, details may be biased or distorted he wrote that “I drove the men who slaughtered my father into exile with a legal order, punishing their crime” (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus, by Augustus, 14 A.C.E), (Thomas Bushnell, Trans, 1994). Augustus and Marc Antony were initially allied, but quickly turned on him when it was revealed that Octavian was the true heir of Julius Caesar, reluctant to hand it over to a 17 year old he became the main rival of the soon to be emperor Augustus. Augustus during the civil war, while Marc Antony was giving control over Egypt, used that time to spread propaganda about him saying that he was not Roman anymore to make Augustus sound more favourable. Augustus defeated Marc Antony’s fleet, preventing him from escaping although he eventually did escape to Alexandria where he later committed suicide. After Marc Antony was defeated Augustus was