What Is Augustus's Relationship With The Senate

The Roman Republic did not fall simply from one cause, rather many external pressures that brought on political instability and destruction. There were multiple pressures that lead to the downfall of Rome including ambitious generals, changing politics, client armies, and a desolate Senate desperate to remain prominent. Many significant people of the time, who wrote letters and speeches on ancient Rome, help to build detailed recollections of the political warfare that took place between 78-31BC.

Augustus chooses to enunciate achievements of which he either earned himself or achievements that were given to him by the Roman senate/Roman people. The first achievement he mentions is the fact that he raised an army at the age of 19 to restore order and liberty to Rome. As a result of this, Augustus tells that the senate enrolled him in this order, giving him consulship, imperium, and the people elected him consul and a triumvir. He chooses to point out many things throughout, such as the amount of money and

Rome had seen many leaders step up to the plate in order to rule over Rome with absolute power. There were many who only wanted to exercise their power over the people, those who only wanted the army’s strength, and those who only wanted to advance the senate and laws than help the people or watch the army. However, there were a few emperors who were able to rise above these issues and bring about a seemingly peaceful time in Rome. I have chosen the three, in my opinion, best emperors of Rome, who were able to take command of Rome and make a huge impact. The three emperors that I chose were Trajan, Hadrian, and last but not least Augustus.

Octavian, who would later be known as Augustus, was the adopted grandnephew of Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar’s death, Octavian would join with two other rulers named Mark Antony and Lepidus. Together they would become the second triumvirate or group of three rulers. Jealousy took over, and Octavian was the final ruler left of the three. Octavian changed his name to Augustus and became the new emperor of Rome. From the beginning of his rule in 27 B.C., peace reigned throughout the empire called the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace. Augustus was Rome’s most stable and powerful emperor and sustained Rome by keeping peace and glorifying the empire as well.

The title is a good indication of the tone that is adopted throughout the text, the use of the word Divine at the very start of work, indicates that this is an account of the life of a divine individual, perhaps of a god incarnate. This clear association between Augustus and the “Divine” suggests from the start that this text is going to be an overwhelmingly positive account of the life of the emperor. After all a “Divine” individual, is hardly a flawed one. The text in its entirety does not include a single criticism of Octavian. The text consistently emphasizes certain traits of the emperor, in particular fairness, mercy, and a deep respect for traditional values. The text makes a concerted effort, at showing Augustus to be a restorer and upholder of the traditional republic, rather than a reformer or destroyer. His deep respect for the Senate is especially emphasized. The names of the Consuls, who were his “colleagues”, are included in almost all of the main events of Augustus’s life, and the emperor explicitly states that although he had more “influence” than any other Roman, he had no “greater power”, than each of his colleagues, in each magistracy. By portraying himself as a loyal servant of the Senate and people, Augustus hides the true extent of his power. The fiction of equal “power” but outsized “influence”, allows Augustus to ‘restore’ the Republic and rule over it at the same

In Roman comedy, like in Greek comedy that came before it, Roman writers enjoyed to poke fun at social norms. Augustus sought to protect the Roman Empire’s longevity and in doing so elevated the power held by the paterfamilias. In a Roman family absolute authority is held by the father or the head of the household. The power of the paterfamilias was unrestricted and enabled him as the head of the house to control every aspect in the lives of his family. Most dramatically the form of this power was exercised in vitae necisque potestas or his ability to sentence his family members to death. This power extended over all the of father’s legitimate children, and included any slaves he owned. Frequently his wife was included if the arrangement of

To start off, Julius Caesar changed the local government of the Roman Empire. He altered it so that it could run more efficiently. He made the Senate substantially larger in size. The Senate was only at 300 members before he took office and expanded it to the size of 900 members in order to make it run more effectively. He made a ton more reforms to improve the Empire, but improving the local government allowed the Empire to run more smoothly.

Was Julius Caesar a hero or a villain? Was he greedy for land and money or was he just trying to help the Roman Empire? I believe Julius Caesar was a hero and a reformer because of all the astonishing things he did to help the citizens of the Roman Empire.

Though, the Romans made undemocratic decisions, they still included the people in a lot of executive decisions. The Assemblies carried out the majority of what the people wanted and what they decided. Therefore, Rome allowed their citizens to help make important decisions about government, which made them democratic.

Julius Caesar was a very important figure to the Roman people because he basically created the Roman Empire by expanding Rome, relieving debt from the roman people, revising the calendar and crafting its imperial system. Julius Caesar created what was known as the Roman Empire by expanding the land Rome had to even more. Before Julius Caesar, the size of the Roman Empire was small but inevitably when Julius Caesar came into the position Rome was expanded quite largely. The first expansion was the conquest of Gaul or during the Gallic wars because once Caesar became governor of Gaul all that territory was associated with Rome. With this expansion it meant Rome was growing into a very important country. Another expansion that Julius Caesar made

Julius Caesar was a very good leader, he did so much for Ancient Rome. He was one of the greatest leaders of all time There were so many things that happened after the death of him that changed Rome, he was part of the first Triumvirate, and changed the Roman Government. These are the reasons why he was the greatest of Rome.

“Veni, vidi, vici” – Julius Caesar by this he meant “I came, I saw, I conquered”. (www.brainyquote.com) These are three things Julius Caesar did in Rome. Julius Caesar was significant in Rome because he was instrumental in ending the Roman Republic and beginning the Roman Empire, he created job programs for poor romans and took power away from the senators who hated him for it. He is one of the most famous people in ancient Rome. Julius Caesar was a soldier, “Roman general and dictator”. (www.ducksters.com) He took power from Rome using force. He was hated by some of the Roman senators. “Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times by the Senators who assassinated him”. (www.dkfindout.com)

Another way the Cconstitution protected against tyranny was, through the power of big states vs. the power of small states compromises over representation. This process worked as, the amount of representatives appointed was based off the population of that state. The higher the population,= the more representatives. This obviously made making the bigger states happymore happy, because if they had all those representatives they could shift leeway the laws toward their liking, but not too much. The way this evened out was that when senators were appointed every state was given two for six years. Thus, making the small states happy, as they were now equal to the bigger states. “ Representatives … shall be apportioned...according to(population) … The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative.”(document D). The system makes sense as they would need more representatives to cover the larger amount of population, but at the same time, it didn’t give them a lot of additional power compared to the small states with less representatives. It also explains that one representative can only be appointed for thirty thousand people to ensure that one state didn’t have an overload of representatives. Another way they ensured the system was tyranny free and fair was that every state would be appointed at least one representative. As you can see the Cconstitution went through a very intricate process in

The Senate was a group of legislators that was selected from the elite and wealthy class

In discussion of Agrippa it is important to consider his beginnings. He was adopted by Augustus at the age of fifteen, when Germanicus was eighteen and Tiberius was forty-six. Due to Tiberius’ track record, he was the obvious choice for succession. He had been consul twice and invested with tribunicia potestas for a period of five years. The question of why Agrippa was even adopted by Augustus is raised by Pettinger, as it is obvious who was going to be succeeding Augustus as princeps. This question holds the meat of the analysis of the Roman court in regards to the adoption of Agrippa, which is described as an attempt by Augustus to keep a potential political rival far out of reach from those who could influence him.