Who was Augustus and what did he accomplish?

Answer 1

Octavian (who later styled himself Augustus) was the adopted son of Julius Caesar who named him as his heir in his will.

After bringing the Civil Wars to a successful conclusion he set about establishing a regime which would avoid the faults in the republican model which had brought on the civil wars. He did this by indirect means to avoid the charge of trying to be king, which brought out the knives against father Julius:

a. took the powers of a tribune of the plebs for life (immunity within Rome, veto, ability to introduce legislation).

b. became a pro-magistrate (immunity outside the city, authority outside Rome in the Empire).

c. allocated the frontier provinces to himself, the settled ones to the Senate (the frontier ones had the legions, which he thereby kept out of the hands of rivals).

He also declared an end to expansion and stablised the Empire on defensible boundaries, supplementing this with diplomacy.

Read his achievements in his own words:

http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html

Answer 2

Augustus was actually Octavian (he just changed his name). After he came into power and defeated Antony and Cleopatra (also taking over Egypt) he was the first Emperor. He had also started the Pax Romana which was an era of peace, although there was still fighting and bad emperors.

Answer 3

Augustus established absolute rule by an emperor and became the first Roman emperor. Thus, he started the 503-year period of rule of emperors which followed the fall of the Roman Republic. The Republic had fell under the weight of imperial expansion. Its institutions were not equipped to deal with this and became dysfunctional and chaotic. In the last 64 years there were 12 civil wars. These wars eventually led to its demise.

By establishing tight control over the government and politics of Rome and the provinces (conquered territories) of the empire, Augustus ended the instability. This led to the period of voer 200 years (which historians call the Pax Romana, Roman Peace) of relative political stability within the Roman Empire.

Augustus reorganised tax collection, assigning it to paid imperial officials and set tax levels which did not discourage entrepreneurs. Previously tax collection had been tendered to private individuals who "farmed" it through abusive methods of collection to line their pockets. He encouraged trade by creating an economic framework which favoured it. He also built roads, bridges, and aqueducts to facilitate trade growth. During the Pax Romana, the empire developed thriving trading networks. Augustus also encouraged trade beyond the Roman Empire: Arabia, Persia, India, China and Ethiopia.

Augustus professionalised the Roman army and stationed the bulk of the legions in the frontier provinces to defend the vast borders of the empire. He also created a military treasury funded by inheritance taxes and taxes on sales.

Augustus also funded an extensive programme of public building in Rome. He built a giant public building called Saepta in the Campus Martius in the north of the city which had been conceived by Julius Caesar. He built the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace; commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) and erected a monumental sundial which used an obelisk taken from Egypt. He built the Forum of Augustus with its Temple of Mars Ultor. He encouraged Agrippa's construction of Aqua Virgo aqueduct, the Baths of Agrippa and the Pantheon (a temple) and a magnificent theatre by Balbus. On his deathbed, Augustus said "I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble".