At this time, Augustus was given honorifics that made his full name Imperator Caesar divi filius Augustus. Imperator stressed military power and victory and emphasized his role as commander-in-chief. The use of Caesar provided a link between himself and Julius Caesar, who was still very popular among lower classes.
By the end of the first settlement, Augustus was in an ideal political position. Although he no longer held dictatorial powers, he had created an identity of such influence that authority followed naturally.
During this time, Augustus outwardly appeared to rein in his constitutional powers, but really continued to extend his dominion throughout the Empire. Augustus renounced his ten-year consulship, but in return, secured the following concessions for himself. Augustus was also granted the role of tribunicia potestas , which enabled him to act as the guardian of the citizens of Rome.
This position came with a number of benefits, including the right to propose laws to the Senate whenever he wanted, veto power of laws, and the ability to grant amnesty to any citizen accused of a crime. Beyond Rome, Augustus was granted maius imperium , meaning greater proconsular power. This position enabled him to effectively override the orders of any other provincial governor in the Roman Empire, in addition to governing his own provinces and armies.
Augustus created a junta of the greatest military magnates and gave himself the titular honor. By binding together these leading magnates into a single title, he eliminated the prospect of civil war. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil war, because fighting continued in Hispania and in the Alps. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanded possessions in Africa as well as into Germania, and completed the conquest of Hispania.
Augustus closed the Gates of Janus the set of gates to the Temple of Janus, which was closed in times of peace and opened in times of war three times. The third closure is undocumented, but scholars have persuasively dated the event to 13 BCE during the Ara Pacis ceremony, which was held after Augustus and Agrippa jointly returned from pacifying the provinces.
Augustus faced some trouble making peace an acceptable mode of life for the Romans, who had been at war with one power or another continuously for years prior to this period.
There's some accounts that he would dip them in oil and set them on fire in his garden just as a source of light. These people, to say that they were insane, or demented, or sick, normally I try to avoid making any judgement on some of these historical figures, but both Caligula, and Nero, if we believe the accounts that we get from that period, and shortly after that period, were not, by any stretch of the imagination, good people.
Nero eventually does commit suicide, and, with Nero's end, you actually have the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Let me write that down, Julio, Julio, Claudian, Claudian dynasty. The reason why it's called the Julio-Claudian dynasty is that all of these characters, let me circle them, or underline 'em. All of these characters right over here are essentially from the same family.
They're descended from both the Julian line, Julius Caesar, and the Claudian family. That's why it's called the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Now, at the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, you have a new dynasty, Vespasian.
There's a short civil war, so the Pax Romana is not without some war and bloodshed. In fact, this whole time, there's a lot of relatives being killed, people who might threaten the Emperor being killed, and that's just talking about the Romans, themselves. They're constantly fighting the Germanic tribes, and groups in the Middle East, and taking more, and more, and more territory, and these are extremely bloody thing.
They're constantly enslaving people. The Roman Empire sometimes it looks like this neat, clean, idealistic thing, but there was a lot of enslaving of people, destroying of towns. Killing people out of paranoia, or really just out of the joy of killing, if you take the case of Caligula, or Nero. Then, you have the Flavian dynasty.
I don't have the three Flavian Emperors depicted right over here. You have Vespasian, you have Titus, and you have Domitian. Of note, the Colosseum. The famous Colosseum in Rome was built during their time. They're also known for the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem. Then, after that, you have what historians, and especially Niccolo Machiavelli, so this is many centuries later, called the Good Emperors. The Good Emperors are these characters, let me square them off right over here.
And these are really the last five emperors of the Pax Romana. We should even use the term, Good, maybe in quotation marks, because for Rome's enemies, for the slaves of Rome, for the people who were thrown into the Colosseum just because they were a prisoner of war, or they committed some simple crime, the Roman Empire didn't seem good.
The reason why they were viewed good is they were viewed as able administrators. They continued to expand the Roman Empire. Trajan in particular, the peak of the Roman Empire comes, in terms of Geography, comes under Trajan's rule. Under Augustus alone, Rome built 50, miles of new roads that eased the movement of troops, information and goods.
Water flowing through Roman aqueducts allowed cities to prosper. Bridges and harbors built by Trajan as part of an enormous public works program also spurred trade.
Roman literature flourished under the rule of Augustus, who patronized artists who glorified the empire in their works. It was during this time period that poets such as Horace penned classic verses and Livy wrote his monumental history of Rome. Throughout Pax Romana, the Romans assimilated provinces through a cultural imperialism that attempted to recast conquered people in their own image. The spread of Roman hairstyles, clothing, literature and theater outward from the capital created a common culture among educated elites, who were encouraged to adopt Roman citizenship and even serve in the Roman Senate.
This was particularly true in western regions of the empire that lacked the more sophisticated urban cultures found in eastern provinces. The development of concrete from a mixture of volcanic sand, high-grade lime and small stones or broken bricks enabled the construction of rounded arches and domes, which became symbols of Roman imperial power.
While Rome recast cities such as London and Beirut in its own image, massive beautification and building programs implemented by emperors transformed the imperial capital from a dilapidated town on the Tiber River into the gleaming Eternal City.
Roman landmarks such as the Colosseum and Pantheon were built during this time period.
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