May 2, 2014

Pg. 101  "Assassination and Another Caesar"

• He was voted to be dictator for life
• He never ruled with terror but was a Greek style tyrant
• Senators struck him down with daggers in 44 B.C
• Caesar’s death led to more warlords
• His adopted son Octavian formed a triumvirate with 2 other war lords and together they defeated Caesar’s murders and declared Caesar as a divine being
• Octavian was based in Rome and pushed the other warlord out of power
• The remaining warlord and he went to war in 31 B.C.
• Octavian won was the supreme warlord of Rome

Pg. 103-107  LO1 The Rule of the Emperors

• The era of the Roman Peace was one of massive social, religious, and cultural changes that would form a new pattern of western civilization
• Augustus's new system kept many features of the Republic, allowed subject people some self-rule, and brought Rome's expansion to a halt.  
• Roman achievements in literature, art, philosophy and law, architecture and engineering were inspired by Greek models, but surpassed those of Greeks.
• Rome became a model to other civilizations as Greece was to it.
• Octavian soon took the name Augustus "revered one"
• "Augustan settlement" emerged by 27 B.C.------the end of the Republic and the beginning of the rule of the Roman empire
• Augustus proclaimed to be restoring the republic
• He refused the offer of a long-term dictatorship and referred to himself as princeps (first citizen)
• The only office he held continently was a tribune of the people
• In 27 B.C. he was confirmed by the senate as commander and chief of the army
• He let the Senate supervise Italy and Rome but he controlled the military and army
• He put to death many of the opposing senators and replaced them with friends do he could consult them and give the senate power
• The people's assembly lost all power but that's okay
• People trusted Augustus to rule in their interest as they trusted Caesar
• Augustus allowed himself to be the center of a religious worship
• People worshiped him and the divine city of Rome
• Shrines of Rome and Augustus were set up throughout the empire
• When he died the Senate declared him a Divine Being, like Caesar
• Livia, his wife, was also declared deified
• Augustus was the founder of the new system of monarchy
• He keep control over the affairs of Rome itself but let providence's deal with day to day stuff
• There was still corrupt government but not nearly as much as the Republic had
• He had 600,000 men in the army so he cut half of them and paid them off
• By the end of his rule, all his soldiers were volunteers, serving 25 years in permanent units.
• It was stable because all men served by own choice and knew when he would be discharged and paid
• Auxiliary soldiers were not offered money at the end but sometimes offered Roman citizenship.
• Every solider swore obedience to the princeps
• Augustus had created the first ever standing pro army
• Part of his army was in Rome for protection but most on the frontiers of the empire
• At his death he turned against further expansion
• He wanted to settle on someone to replace him
• He wanted him to come from his own family to continue the line from Caesar
• He settled on Tiberius, Livia's son from another marriage, and adopted him as his own
• He was already trusted by the army
• Augustus died in A.D. 41 and Tiberius took over
• Caesar's last descendant, Nero was overthrown and the line of adopted kids stopped
• After a civil war for power, Vespasian won and founded a new dynasty----the Flavian dynasty
• It ended when his blood son was killed
• Then Nerva was appointed (member of the Senate)
• He adopted the general Trajan to avoid another war
• Adopted son who was to become emperor- Caesar
• When he had become emperor- Augustus
• Adoption and designation was the pattern and it was good :Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius, and Marcus Aurelius
• Then Marcus had a blood son who took over and was murdered from a terrible ruling
• The Setimius Severus took over and his male descendants took over well into the 3rd century
• Augustus's governing structure ended until the 3rd century
• He brought 200 years of stability and prosperity that is known as the Pax Romana, Then Roman Peace

Quote of the Day: "Life is to short to make stupid mistakes."