The Great Emperors: Augusto

The legend of the birth of Rome

The Ides of March

The seven kings of Rome

The great filosopher

The Great Emperors: Marco Aurelio

The Roman calendar

The insulae

Daily life on Ancient Rome

The vestals

The rise and fall of Roman Empire

The aqueducts of Rome

Video: Romulus and Remus

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian Augustus, better known as Octavian Augustus, was the first Roman emperor.
The Senate awarded him the title of Augustus (the name meant worthy of veneration) January 16, 27 BC and its official name was since then emperor Augustus Caesar Divi filius.
In the same year he was also given its name to the month of August (= Augustus) and in 23 BC he was recognized tribunicia potestas and the Imperium proconsulare in life and in 12 BC became Pontifex Maximus.
In 8 BC was enacted, the Lex Iulia majestatis in which for the first time the offense was punished for "majesty" of the emperor and finally, in 2 BC, the year of the Temple of Mars Ultor and the Forum of Augustus, he was awarded the honorary title of "Father of the fatherland"

He remained on the throne until his death, and his principality was the longest in Imperial Rome (44 years from 30 BC, 37 years from 23 BC).
It was not a dictator, but his power was equal to that of a monarch:
He had the supreme military command and absolute, uncontrolled and uncontrollable had the direction of foreign policy, had under him, directly and indirectly, all the provinces, could stand as a tribune for judges without the other would limit his power, was prince of the Senate and representative of the people. Began to take measures to give Italy and the provinces awaited the well-being, after over a decade of civil wars: uniforms

Italy into eleven regions, adding new centers and improved the situation in Rome, capital of the .
He made Rome a city of marble monuments, increased water supply with the construction of two new aqueducts, and divided into 14 regiones to manage it better, personally supervised the supplies of food to the population of the capital, increased, finally , the level of security to safeguard Urbe town by placing three new prefectures.

In 27 BC, he reorganized the provinces from a fiscal point of view and administrative

reorganized the financial administration of the Roman state.
He attributed it salary and a bonus of leave to all soldiers of the imperial , a salary assigned (Salaria) for the public service, for all the representatives of the Senate, and then gradually extend it also to the ordinary magistrates. The Republican Judiciary type was paid with compensation and cibaria, rather than Salaria, was the fiscus (ie the cash receipts of the emperor), but Augustus was authorized to draw from it the amounts necessary for all administrative and military functions.
The emperor, in fact, it could direct the economic policy of the Empire, and ensure that resources were equitably distributed so that the subject peoples of Rome Government could consider a blessing not a curse. Finally, he created a military
aerarium for compensation to be given to veterans. He reorganized the army

legionary and auxiliary introducing a standing army of volunteers willing to serve initially for sixteen years, and then for twenty years from 6, solely dependent on him; instituted a cursus honorum even for those who aspired to play the highest positions in the army hierarchy, with the introduction of general practitioners, inexperienced commanders no longer sent into the fray in the border provinces

Under his government were spending large sums of money to provide Rome with grain reserves, water, police, and for the erection or restoration of public buildings, was also increased the number of patricians and was ordered a census of the population, from which it appeared that the inhabitants of Rome touched 1,000,000. Many were eventually

buildings, public works and commemorative monuments built or restored during his reign, including: The Pantheon (between 27 and 25 BC), the Ara Pacis , the Theatre of Marcellus, the Basilica Julia and the Forum of Augustus

Augustus died in 14 AD after adopting Tiberius as the new successor