Greece to Egypt, Cappadocian king Archelaus and the other Eastern client kings declared their loyal to Octavian. In return, Octavian allowed him and the other client kings to remain on their thrones. When Octavian became "Augustus" as the first Roman Emperor in 27 BC, Cappadocia become an important and trusted Eastern client kingdom, maintaining its tributary independence under the reorganized Roman Empire. Archelaus became an important client king for Augustus' Eastern policy. Augustus considered Archelaus as a loyal ruler, making no commitment to convert Cappadocia into a direct province. As a reward for his loyalty, in 25 BC, Augustus assigned to Archelaus the territories of Cilicia along the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Lesser Armenia along the Black Sea. Augustus gave Archelaus these additional territories in order to eliminate piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean and to build a buffer between Rome and the Parthian Empire. Roman province During the Principate Cappadocia remained an important and trusted eastern client kingdom under Emperor Augustus' reign. Rome's policy towards Cappadocia changed, however, following Augustus' death in 14 AD and the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Years earlier, Tiberius had been slighted by Archelaus when the Cappadocian king showed favor to Gaius Caesar, one of Augustus' grandsons and chief heirs. While Tiberius was in retirement on the Greek island of Rhodes from 6 BC to 2 AD, though the nominal commander of the Eastern half of the Empire, in 1 BC Archelaus recognized Gaius Caesar, then a military commander subordinate to Tiberius, as Augustus' true representative. Though Gaius Caesar was Augustus' preferred successor, his death in 4 AD while on military campaign in Armenia forced Augustus to adopt Tiberius and name him as his successor. Assuming the Imperial throne in 14 AD, Tiberius set about a change in Rome's eastern policy. Wanting direct access to Cappadocia's resources and seeking to reduce Archelaus, Tiberius summoned Archelaus to Rome in 17 AD. At the time, Archelaus had governed Cappadocia as Rome's client king for over fifty-years. When he arrived in Rome, Tiberius accused Archelaus of harboring revolutionary schemes and imprisoned him, where he died of natural causes soon thereafter. Sending his adoptive son Germanicus to oversee Rome's affairs in the East, Tiberius then annexed Cappadocia directly into the Empire by reducing the kingdom into a Roman province. Tiberius awarded rule of the Roman client kingdom of Armenia to Archelaus' step-son Artaxias III and rule of the Roman client