1. Rise of Octavian and Creation of the Principate

young Octavian

43 B.C.: Second Triumverate: Octavian, Antony, Lepidus

31 B.C.: battle of Actium: defeat of Antony and Cleopatra

coinage after Actium

27 B.C.: "Restoration of the Republic" (see Achievements of the Divine Augustus chap. 34)

a. gave up extraordinary emergency powers; received name Augustus ("revered"):

• worship of numen ("spirit")
• Imperial Ruler Cult and Goddess Roma

b. consulship and provincial command

c. title princeps: "first man" (cf. princeps senatus)

d. tribunician power (23 B.C.): in Rome

e. imperium: armies in the empire

Augustus as Pontifex Maximus

Prima Porta Augustus

Res Gestae

2. "Restoration of the Republic"/Principate

Princeps: reality or sham?

Augustus' power (potestas) vs. his influence (auctoritas)

the problem of the Senate: dignitas, libertas

3. The Golden Age of Literature and Freedom of Expression

• Virgil: Aeneid, Georgics
• Horace
• Livy

  enthusiasm for new age: promise of peace and prosperity

  romanticizing the past

  literary patronage and the question of independence: Augustus and the poets

4. The Problem of the Succession 

A. Tiberius: A.D. 14

adopted by Augustus (mother: Livia, wife of Augustus)

Tacitus on Tiberius

2. Development of "Principate"

Principate (rule of the "first citizen")

Julio-Claudians, 27 B.C.-AD 68 (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero)

Domitian (81-96): Dominus Deus

Trajan, Hadrian (98-117, 117-138)