Augustus Essay

Before Augustus, there was Julius Caesar. Caesar appointed himself as dictator for life in Rome. Caesar declared himself all powerful and had control over the entire government. However, Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar because they believed he was becoming too powerful and had created a monarchy. Caesar was the granduncle of Augustus and because of this, Augustus wanted to avoid a connection with Caesar roots in becoming a dictator. Augustus avoided a tyranny and he could eliminate the risk of being assassinated like Caesar. In turn, Augustus put on a facade of seeming as though he was not becoming all-powerful. In order to deceive the government, Augustus denied any attempts that were given to him to take the throne as an authoritarian and continued to do great things for the will of the people, to be seen in a good light. While putting on a disguise for the Senate and the people, he made it seem as though power was in the hands of the Senate, when in actuality, he was consolidating power into his own hands.

Augustus was seen as the savior of the people of Rome during the time of starvation. In the Res Gestae, Augustus explains that he declined the offer of being king by the people and the senate; he further states, “I did not decline at a time of the greatest scarcity of grain the charge of the grain-supply…I freed the entire people, at my own expense.” Augustus refused to take the throne because it would make him seem as though he was a dictator, similar to Julius Caesar. Instead, to gain the people’s respect, he entice the Roman people. According to Tacitus, an action of this gratitude was one form of gaining the people trust and keeping the Senate in the shadows of his true plan. Tacitus, though, sheds some negative...

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... as though he was, no one could challenge his authority.

Augustus persuaded the Roman people and Senate through briberies that he was not all-powerful, but a good person. He wanted everyone to see him as no less than the average Roman person. Through Res Gestae written by Augustus, he shows his lavish gifts and the ways in which he declined the throne a few times to move away from becoming Julius Caesar regiment. However, many people such as Dio Cassius and Tacitus were not fooled by his ways and knew that he had a plan the entire time to have absolute power, similar to that of Caesar. The Senate and magistracies were weaker under Augustus’ rule because he had maintained the Senate powers in his own hands. Due to this, many people did not oppose him. In the end, Augustus formed a monarch and use discretion to not show the people and the Senate of his true tactics.