Why Is Augustus The Most Important Emperor In Roman History

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The aim of this paper is to factually analyze the thesis- “Augustus was the most important emperor in Roman history because he had great success in rebuilding Rome”. Before going into historical demonstration of this thesis something must be said of the republican system which was reigning in Rome before Augustus put an end to-

The Roman Republic was a political system which was stamped and swayed, but it was not by parties and programmes which we are so familiar with which is a modern and parliamentary variety. And it was not swayed even by the powerful opposition between Senate and People, Optimates and Populares, nobiles and novi homines. The main locomotive force of politics was the strife for power, wealth and glory. (ref: Syme, Ronald 1960 The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press) [1] …show more content…

Now whether the change that this time period brought about followed the evolutionary line or a rapid outright contingent revolution can be debated for many time to come. To the political contemporaries of Augustus the transition of political pole from oligarchy to autocracy seemed almost smooth and predictable [2]- [4] Now this obviousness of Augustus’ rise of power was not due to intelligence of his political comtemporaries as such. The eminence of Augustus during the early principate evolved in due time with due measure. A situation is worthwhile to consider: After the Actium war, the final war o Roman Republic, which was against Mark Antony, Augustus (then known as Octavian) became the unprecedented head of Roman empire. He had control over sheering number of five hundred thousand legionaries [3]- [5]. And the recent seizure of Ptolemaic treasure trove. The total situation compelled Tacitus (one of the bitterest commentator of Augustus) to say- ‘Opposition did not

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