Augustus, First Caesar of Rome

Most students who have taken any level of history class in school are vaguely familiar with the “Great Roman Empire,” but few have any knowledge beyond the idea that there was an empire based in the Italian city of Rome. They recognize the name Julius Caesar, but have no idea what Caesar meant to a Republic that was dominated by the upper class and had barely two hundred years before taken control of the “known world.”
Augustus, born Gaius Octavianus, is less known than his adoptive father Julius Caesar, but in considering the whole of Roman history, Augustus is one of the most important political figures. He was a shrewd politician, a trait that served him well as he ruled the fledgling Roman Empire for the first 40 years.

The statue of Augustus at Prima Porta

The End of the Republic

The Principate