- In 44 BC Caesar was voted dictator for life
- To the senate, Caesar was a tyrant so on the ides of March (March 15) 44 BC they stabbed Caesar to death
- Mark Antony, Brutus, Cassius, and Octavian took over: they divided the land between them, Octavian in Rome, Lepidus in North Africa, Mark Antony in Alexandria
- Antony had an affair with Queen Cleopatra making him unpopular in Rome
- Octavian pushed Lepidus out of power
- In 31 BC Octavian and Antony went to war and within a year after being defeated, Antony and Cleopatra had both committed suicide
- Octavian became supreme warlord
The Rule of the Emperors
- Octavian went under a new title: Augustus
The First Citizen
- Princeps- "first citizen" a name given to prominent leaders who were considered indispensable to the republic
- In 27 BC Augustus made an arrangement with the senate where he was confirmed commander in chief, and in return he granted them supervision of Italy, Rome, and provinces where there were no stationed armed forces
- He killed his opponents among the senate and replaced them with allies
- The people's assembly had lost power to elect or make laws
The Divine Being
- Greek cities began building shrines in his honor, worshiping Augustus as a God-sent human
- When he died, the senate declared him to be a Divine Being like they did with Caesar
- Augustus acquired the title "Father of the Fatherland"
- Passed laws against:
- adultery by women
- both men and women who failed to marry
- exempted mothers of more than three children from needing guardianship
Reform, Reconstruction, and the End of Expansion
- Augustus began a series of reforms:
- He brought the system of government elections under his personal control
- He kept control over the affairs of the empire as a whole
- He reorganized the army to ensure the soldiers' loyalty. With the addition of Mark Antony's troops, Augustus had a combined army of 600,000- impossible to pay for and keep under control, so he cut the troops in half and paid the men he discharged with land and money
- By the end of his rule, all of the soldiers were volunteers
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