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Augustus | Short description | Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire. He reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult, as well as an era of imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.
Octavian was born into an equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia. His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir; as a result, he inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and his wife Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, killed themselves during Octavian's invasion of Egypt, which then became a Roman province.
After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward facade of the free republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates and the legislative assemblies, yet he maintained autocratic authority by having the Senate grant him lifetime tenure as commander-in-chief, tribune and censor. A similar ambiguity is seen in his chosen names, the implied rejection of monarchical titles whereby he called himself 'First Citizen' juxtaposed with his adoption of the title Augustus.
Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, and completing the conquest of Hispania, but he suffered a major setback in Germania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard as well as official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at age 75, probably from natural causes. Persistent rumors, substantiated somewhat by deaths in the imperial family, have claimed his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Livia's son and former husband of Augustus's only biological child, Julia. |
Augustus | Name | Name
As a consequence of Roman customs, society, and personal preference, Augustus ( ) was known by many names throughout his life:
: ( ; ). According to Suetonius, the cognomen (, 'of Thurii') was added to his birth name as a toddler in 60 BC. Later, after he had taken the name of Caesar, his rival Mark Antony referred to him as in order to belittle him. In what classicist Lee Fratantuono calls a "calm response" to Antony's provocation, Octavian merely said he was surprised that using his old name should be an insult.
(): After his adoption by Julius Caesar on the latter's death in 44 BC, he took Caesar's nomen and cognomen. He was often distinguished by historians from his adoptive father by the addition () after the name, denoting that he was a former member of the gens Octavia in conformance with Roman naming conventions. There is no evidence that Augustus did this himself, although Cicero seems to have (see below). In English he is mainly known by the anglicisation "Octavian" ( ) for the period between 44 and 27 BC.
('Commander-in-Chief Caesar'): Octavian's early coins and inscriptions all refer to him simply as Gaius Caesar, but by 38 BC he had replaced with the victory title 'commander'. The use of signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. He transformed , a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new family line that began with him. Occasionally the epithet or 'son of the divine Julius' was included, alluding to Julius Caesar's deification in 42 BC.
(Imperator Caesar divi filius Augustus): On 16 January 27 BC, in recognition of his perceived accomplishments, the Roman Senate granted him the honorific (), 'the revered'. Historians use this name to refer to him from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The name is sometimes given as Augustus Caesar. |
Augustus | Early life | Early life
Octavian was born Gaius Octavius in Rome on 23 September 63 BC. His paternal family was from the Volscian town of Velletri (), approximately south-east of the city. He was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. In his childhood, he received the cognomen "Thurinus", possibly commemorating his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves who had been followers of Spartacus. Roman histories gloss over the childhood of Octavian. Some details about his upbringing from his now lost autobiography were preserved by Suetonius, while the majority of information is preserved in a biography composed by Nicolaus of Damascus around 20 BC that survives only partially in 10th-century Byzantine excerpts.
Octavian was raised for at least part of his childhood in his father's hometown of Velletri. Octavian's father, also named Gaius Octavius, came from a moderately wealthy equestrian family of the gens Octavia. His paternal great-grandfather Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His grandfather was a banker, while his father became a Roman senator, was distinguished as a praetor by 61 BC, and then became a governor of Macedonia. His mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar.
thumb|upright=1.35|left| from 44 BC, showing Julius Caesar on the obverse and the goddess Venus on the reverse of the coin. Caption:
Octavian was four years old when his father died in 59 BC, or in 58 BC. His mother Atia married a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus. Philippus claimed descent from Alexander the Great and was elected consul in 56 BC. Philippus never showed much interest in young Octavian. Because of this, Octavian was raised by his grandmother, Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. Julia died in 52 or 51 BC, and Octavian delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother. From this point, his mother and stepfather took a more active role in raising him. He donned the 'toga of manhood' four years laterSuetonius, Augustus 8.1 and was elected to the College of Pontiffs in 47 BC. The following year he was put in charge of the Greek games that were staged in honour of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, built by Julius Caesar.
According to Nicolaus of Damascus, Octavian wished to join Caesar's staff for his campaign in Africa but gave way when his mother protested. In 46 BC, she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, where he planned to fight the forces of Pompey, Caesar's late enemy, but Octavian fell ill and was unable to travel. When he had recovered, he sailed to the front but was shipwrecked. After coming ashore with a handful of companions, he crossed hostile territory to Caesar's camp, which impressed Caesar considerably. Velleius Paterculus reports that after that time, Caesar allowed the young man to share his carriage. When back in Rome, Caesar deposited a new will with the Vestal Virgins,. naming Octavian as the prime beneficiary and his principal heir on 13 September 45 BC. |
Augustus | Rise to power | Rise to power |
Augustus | Heir to Caesar | Heir to Caesar
thumb|The Death of Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini. On 15 March 44 BC, Octavian's adoptive father Julius Caesar was assassinated by a conspiracy led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome.
Octavian was studying and undergoing military training in Apollonia, Illyria, when Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC. He rejected the advice of some army officers to take refuge with the troops in Macedonia and sailed to Italy to ascertain whether he had any potential political fortunes or security. Caesar had no living legitimate children under Roman law and so had adopted Octavian, his grand-nephew, in his will, making him his primary heir. Mark Antony later charged that Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favours, though Suetonius describes Antony's accusation as political slander.Suetonius, Augustus 68, 71. This form of slander was popular during this time in the Roman Republic to demean and discredit political opponents by accusing them of having an inappropriate sexual affair. After landing at Lupiae near Brundisium, Octavian learned the contents of Caesar's will, and only then did he decide to become Caesar's political heir as well as heir to two-thirds of his estate.Appian, Civil Wars 3.9–11.
Upon his adoption, Octavian assumed his great-uncle's name Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman citizens adopted into a new family usually retained their old nomen in cognomen form (e.g., for one who had been an Octavius, for one who had been an Aemilius. See Roman naming conventions for adoptions). However, though some of his contemporaries did,For example, there is no evidence that Octavian officially used the name , as it would have made his adoptive origins too obvious. Historians usually refer to the new Caesar as "Octavian" during the time between his adoption and his assumption of the name Augustus in 27 BC in order to avoid confusing the dead dictator with his heir.
Octavian could not rely on his limited funds to make a successful entry into the upper echelons of the Roman political hierarchy. After a warm welcome by Caesar's soldiers at Brundisium, Octavian demanded a portion of the funds that were allotted by Caesar for the intended war against the Parthian Empire in the Middle East. This amounted to 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium, the staging ground in Italy for military operations in the east. A later senatorial investigation into the disappearance of the public funds took no action against Octavian since he subsequently used that money to raise troops against the Senate's archenemy Mark Antony. Octavian made another bold move in 44 BC when, without official permission, he appropriated the annual tribute that had been sent from Rome's Near Eastern province to Italy.
Octavian began to bolster his personal forces with Caesar's veteran legionaries and with troops designated for the Parthian war, gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar.Appian, Civil Wars 3.11–12. On his march to Rome through Italy, Octavian's presence and newly acquired funds attracted many, winning over Caesar's former veterans stationed in Campania. By June, he had gathered an army of 3,000 loyal veterans, paying each a bonus of 500 . |
Augustus | Growing tensions | Growing tensions
thumb|upright=0.8|A bust of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated . Capitoline Museums, Rome
Arriving in Rome on 6 May 44 BC, Octavian found consul Mark Antony, Caesar's former colleague, in an uneasy truce with the dictator's assassins. They had been granted a general amnesty on 17 March in an agreement that they would respect the magistracies installed and laws passed by Caesar to avoid the political turmoil of invalidating them. Soon afterwards, Antony succeeded in driving most of them out of Rome with an inflammatory eulogy at Caesar's funeral, mounting public opinion against the assassins.
Mark Antony was amassing political support, but Octavian still had the opportunity to rival him as the leading member of the faction supporting Caesar. Antony had lost the support of many Romans and supporters of Caesar when he initially opposed the motion to elevate Caesar to divine status. Antony refused to hand over the money due Octavian as Caesar's adopted heir, possibly on grounds that it would take time to disentangle it from state funds, but also as a measure to delay Octavian from carrying out the popular provision in Caesar's will that promised the dispersal of 300 sesterces per capita to the urban plebs of Rome. During the summer, Octavian won the support of Caesarian veterans and also made common cause with those senators—many of whom were themselves former Caesarians—who perceived Antony as a threat to the state. After an abortive attempt by the veterans to reconcile Octavian and Antony, Antony's bellicose edicts against Brutus and Cassius alienated him from the moderate Caesarians in the Senate, who feared a renewed civil war. In September, Marcus Tullius Cicero began to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the republican order. |
Augustus | First conflict with Antony | First conflict with Antony
With opinion in Rome turning against him and his year of consular power nearing its end, Antony attempted to pass laws that would assign him the province of Cisalpine Gaul. Octavian meanwhile built up a private army in Italy by recruiting Caesarian veterans, and on 28 November he won over two of Antony's legions with the enticing offer of monetary gain.
In the face of Octavian's large and capable force, Antony saw the danger of staying in Rome and, to the relief of the Senate, he left Rome for Cisalpine Gaul, which was to be handed to him on 1 January. However, the province had earlier been assigned to Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins, who now refused to yield to Antony. Antony besieged him at Mutina and rejected the resolutions passed by the Senate to stop the fighting. The Senate had no army to enforce their resolutions. This provided an opportunity for Octavian, who already was known to have armed forces. Cicero also defended Octavian against Antony's taunts about Octavian's lack of noble lineage and aping of Julius Caesar's name, stating "we have no more brilliant example of traditional piety among our youth."
At the urging of Cicero, the Senate inducted Octavian as senator on 1 January 43 BC, yet he also was given the power to vote alongside the former consuls. In addition, Octavian was granted 'commanding power' which legalized his command of troops, sending him to relieve the siege along with Hirtius and Pansa (the consuls for 43 BC). He assumed the fasces on 7 January, a date that he would later commemorate as the beginning of his public career. Antony's forces were defeated at the battles of Forum Gallorum (14 April) and Mutina (21 April), forcing Antony to retreat to Transalpine Gaul. Both consuls were killed, however, leaving Octavian in sole command of their armies. These victories earned him his first acclamation as , a title reserved for victorious commanders.
The Senate heaped many more rewards on Decimus Brutus than on Octavian for defeating Antony, then attempted to give command of the consular legions to Decimus Brutus. In response, Octavian stayed in the Po Valley and refused to aid any further offensive against Antony. In July, an embassy of centurions sent by Octavian entered Rome and demanded the consulship left vacant by Hirtius and Pansa and also that the decree should be rescinded which declared Antony a public enemy. When this was refused, he marched on the city with eight legions. He encountered no military opposition in Rome and on 19 August 43 BC was elected consul with his relative Quintus Pedius as co-consul. Meanwhile, Antony formed an alliance with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another leading Caesarian. |
Augustus | Second Triumvirate | Second Triumvirate |
Augustus | Proscriptions | Proscriptions
thumb|upright=1.35| bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right), issued in 41 BC to celebrate the establishment of the Second Triumvirate. Both sides bear the inscription , meaning 'One of Three Men for the regulation of the Republic'. Caption: .
In a meeting near Bononia in October 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate. Their powers were made official by the Senate on 27 November. This explicit arrogation of special powers lasting five years was then legalised by law passed by the plebs, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate formed by Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions, in which between 130 and 300 senators and 2,000 were branded as outlaws and deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives. This decree issued by the triumvirate was motivated in part by a need to raise money to pay the salaries of their troops for the upcoming conflict against Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Rewards for their arrest gave incentive for Romans to capture those proscribed, while the assets and properties of those arrested were seized by the triumvirs.
Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir was most responsible for the proscriptions and killing. However, the sources agree that enacting the proscriptions was a means by all three factions to eliminate political enemies. Marcus Velleius Paterculus asserted that Octavian tried to avoid proscribing officials whereas Lepidus and Antony were to blame for initiating them. Cassius Dio defended Octavian as trying to spare as many as possible, whereas Antony and Lepidus, being older and involved in politics longer, had many more enemies to deal with. This claim was rejected by Appian, who maintained that Octavian shared an equal interest with Lepidus and Antony in eradicating his enemies. Suetonius said that Octavian was reluctant to proscribe officials but did pursue his enemies with more vigor than the other triumvirs. Plutarch described the proscriptions as a ruthless and cutthroat swapping of friends and family among Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian. For example, Octavian allowed the proscription of his ally Cicero, Antony the proscription of his maternal uncle Lucius Julius Caesar (the consul for 64 BC), and Lepidus his brother Paullus. |
Augustus | Battle of Philippi and division of territory | Battle of Philippi and division of territory
thumb|upright=1.35|A minted . Obverse: ; reverse: comet of eight rays with tail upward; , "divine Julius".
On 1 January 42 BC, the Senate posthumously recognised Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, . Octavian was able to further his cause by emphasizing the fact that he was , "Son of the Divine". Antony and Octavian then sent twenty-eight legions by sea to face the armies of Brutus and Cassius, who had built their base of power in Greece. After two battles at Philippi in Macedonia in October 42, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide. Mark Antony later used the examples of these battles as a means to belittle Octavian, as both battles were decisively won with the use of Antony's forces. In addition to claiming responsibility for both victories, Antony branded Octavian as a coward for handing over his direct military control to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa instead.
After Philippi, a new territorial arrangement was made among the members of the Second Triumvirate. Gaul and the province of Hispania were placed in the hands of Octavian. Antony travelled east to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen Cleopatra, the former lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's son Caesarion. Lepidus was left with the province of Africa, stymied by Antony, who conceded Hispania to Octavian instead.
Octavian was left to decide where in Italy to settle the tens of thousands of veterans of the Macedonian campaign, whom the triumvirs had promised to discharge. The tens of thousands who had fought on the republican side with Brutus and Cassius could easily ally with a political opponent of Octavian if not appeased, and they also required land. There was no more government-controlled land to allot as settlements for their soldiers, so Octavian had to choose one of two options: alienating many Roman citizens by confiscating their land, or alienating many Roman soldiers who could mount a considerable opposition against him in the Roman heartland. Octavian chose the former. There were as many as eighteen Roman towns affected by the new settlements, with entire populations driven out or at least given partial evictions. |
Augustus | Rebellion and marriage alliances | Rebellion and marriage alliances
There was widespread dissatisfaction with Octavian over these settlements of his soldiers, and this encouraged many to rally at the side of Lucius Antonius, who was brother of Mark Antony and supported by a majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, Octavian asked for a divorce from Claudia, the daughter of Fulvia (Antony's wife) and her first husband Publius Clodius Pulcher. He returned Claudia to her mother, claiming that their marriage had never been consummated. Fulvia decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, she raised an army in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. Lucius and Fulvia took a political and martial gamble in opposing Octavian however, since the Roman army still depended on the triumvirs for their salaries. Lucius and his allies ended up in a defensive siege at Perusia, where Octavian forced them into surrender in early 40 BC.
thumb|upright=1.6|Fresco paintings inside the House of Augustus, his residence during his reign as emperor
Lucius and his army were spared because of his kinship with Antony, the strongman of the East, while Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon. Octavian showed no mercy, however, for the mass of allies loyal to Lucius. On 15 March, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination, he had 300 Roman senators and equestrians executed for allying with Lucius. Perusia also was pillaged and burned as a warning for others. This bloody event sullied Octavian's reputation and was criticised by many, such as Augustan poet Sextus Propertius.
Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompey and still a renegade general, following Julius Caesar's victory over his father, had established himself in Sicily and Sardinia as part of an agreement reached with the Second Triumvirate in 39 BC. Both Antony and Octavian were vying for an alliance with Pompeius. Octavian succeeded in a temporary alliance in 40 BC when he married Scribonia, a sister (or daughter) of Pompeius's father-in-law Lucius Scribonius Libo. Scribonia gave birth to Octavian's only natural child, Julia, the same day that he divorced her to marry Livia Drusilla, little more than a year after their marriage.
While in Egypt, Antony had been engaged in an affair with Cleopatra and had fathered three children with her. Aware of his deteriorating relationship with Octavian, Antony left Cleopatra; he sailed to Italy in 40 BC with a large force to oppose Octavian, laying siege to Brundisium. This new conflict proved untenable for both Octavian and Antony, however. Their centurions, who had become important figures politically, refused to fight because of their Caesarian cause, while the legions under their command followed suit. Meanwhile, in Sicyon, Antony's wife Fulvia died of a sudden illness while Antony was en route to meet her. Fulvia's death and the mutiny of their centurions allowed the two remaining triumvirs to effect a reconciliation.
In the autumn of 40, Octavian and Antony approved the Treaty of Brundisium, by which Lepidus would remain in Africa, Antony in the East, Octavian in the West. The Italian Peninsula was left open to all for the recruitment of soldiers, but in reality this provision was useless for Antony in the East. To further cement relations of alliance with Antony, Octavian gave his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage to Antony in late 40 BC. |
Augustus | War with Sextus Pompeius | War with Sextus Pompeius
Sextus Pompeius threatened Octavian in Italy by denying shipments of grain through the Mediterranean Sea to the peninsula. Pompeius's own son was put in charge as naval commander in the effort to cause widespread famine in Italy. Pompeius's control over the sea prompted him to take on the name , "son of Neptune". A temporary peace agreement was reached in 39 BC with the Pact of Misenum; the blockade on Italy was lifted once Octavian granted Pompeius Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and the Peloponnese, and ensured him a future position as consul for 35 BC.
The territorial agreement between the triumvirate and Sextus Pompeius began to crumble once Octavian divorced Scribonia and married Livia on 17 January 38 BC. One of Pompeius's naval commanders betrayed him and handed over Corsica and Sardinia to Octavian. Octavian lacked the resources to confront Pompeius alone, so an agreement was reached with the Second Triumvirate's extension for another five-year period beginning in 37 BC.
thumb|upright=1.35|A of Sextus Pompeius, minted for his victory over Octavian's fleet. Obverse: the place where he defeated Octavian, Pharus of Messina decorated with a statue of Neptune; before that galley adorned with aquila, sceptre & trident; . Reverse, the monster Scylla, her torso of dogs and fish tails, wielding a rudder as a club. Caption:
In supporting Octavian, Antony expected to gain support for his own campaign against the Parthian Empire, desiring to avenge Rome's defeat at Carrhae in 53 BC. In an agreement reached at Tarentum, Antony provided 120 ships for Octavian to use against Pompeius, while Octavian was to send 20,000 legionaries to Antony for use against Parthia. Octavian sent only a tenth of those promised, which Antony viewed as an intentional provocation.
Octavian and Lepidus launched a joint operation against Sextus in Sicily in 36 BC. Despite setbacks for Octavian, the naval fleet of Sextus Pompeius was almost entirely destroyed on 3 September by General Agrippa at the naval battle of Naulochus. Sextus fled to the east with his remaining forces, where he was captured and executed in Miletus by one of Antony's generals the following year. As Lepidus and Octavian accepted the surrender of Pompeius's troops, Lepidus attempted to claim Sicily for himself, ordering Octavian to leave. Lepidus's troops deserted him, however, and defected to Octavian since they were weary of fighting and were enticed by Octavian's promises of money.
Lepidus surrendered to Octavian and was permitted to retain the office of , the head of the college of priests, but was ejected from the Triumvirate. His public career at an end, he effectively was exiled to a villa at Cape Circei in Italy. The Roman dominions were divided between Octavian in the West and Antony in the East. Octavian ensured Rome's citizens of their rights to property in order to maintain peace and stability in his portion of the empire. This time, he settled his discharged soldiers outside of Italy, while also returning 30,000 slaves to their former Roman owners—slaves who had fled to join Pompeius's army and navy. Octavian had the Senate grant him, his wife, and his sister tribunal immunity, or , in order to ensure his own safety and that of Livia and Octavia once he returned to Rome. |
Augustus | War with Antony and Cleopatra | War with Antony and Cleopatra
thumb|Antony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
thumb|The Battle of Actium, by Laureys a Castro, painted 1672, National Maritime Museum, London
Meanwhile, Antony's campaign turned disastrous against Parthia, tarnishing his image as a leader, and the mere 2,000 legionaries sent by Octavian to Antony were hardly enough to replenish his forces. On the other hand, Cleopatra could restore his army to full strength; he already was engaged in a romantic affair with her, so he decided to send Octavia back to Rome. Octavian used this to spread propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman because he rejected a legitimate Roman spouse for an "Oriental paramour". In 36 BC, Octavian used a political ploy to make himself look less autocratic and Antony more the villain by proclaiming that the civil wars were coming to an end and that he would step down as triumvir—if only Antony would do the same. Antony refused.
Roman troops captured the Kingdom of Armenia in 34 BC, and Antony made his son Alexander Helios the ruler of Armenia. He also awarded the title "Queen of Kings" to Cleopatra, acts that Octavian used to convince the Roman Senate that Antony had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Rome. Octavian became consul once again on 1 January 33 BC, and he opened the following session in the Senate with a vehement attack on Antony's grants of titles and territories to his relatives and to his queen.
The breach between Antony and Octavian prompted a large portion of the senators, as well as both of that year's consuls, to leave Rome and defect to Antony. However, Octavian received two key deserters from Antony in the autumn of 32 BC: Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius. These defectors gave Octavian the information that he needed to confirm with the Senate all the accusations that he made against Antony. Octavian forcibly entered the temple of the Vestal Virgins and seized Antony's secret will, which he promptly publicized. The will would have given away Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule and designated Alexandria as the site for a tomb for him and his queen. In late 32 BC, the Senate officially revoked Antony's powers as consul and declared war on Cleopatra's regime in Egypt.
thumb|This mid-1st-century BC Roman wall painting in the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus, Pompeii, is most likely a depiction of Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt as Venus Genetrix, with her son Caesarion as Cupid, similar in appearance to the now-lost statue of Cleopatra erected by Julius Caesar in the Temple of Venus Genetrix (within the Forum of Caesar). Its owner walled off the room with this painting, most likely in immediate reaction to the execution of Caesarion on orders of Augustus in 30 BC, when artistic depictions of Caesarion would have been considered a sensitive issue for the ruling regime.
In early 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra were temporarily stationed in Greece when Octavian gained a preliminary victory: the navy successfully ferried troops across the Adriatic Sea under the command of Agrippa. Agrippa cut off Antony and Cleopatra's main force from their supply routes at sea, while Octavian landed on the mainland opposite the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) and marched south. Trapped on land and sea, deserters of Antony's army fled to Octavian's side daily while Octavian's forces were comfortable enough to make preparations.
Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade. It was there that Antony's fleet faced that of Octavian, led by his commanders Agrippa and Gaius Sosius in the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC. Cleopatra and her portion of the fleet withdrew early in the battle and were later joined by Antony; his remaining forces were spared in a last-ditch effort by Cleopatra's fleet that had been waiting nearby.
thumb|Aureus of Octavian, , British Museum
A year later, Octavian defeated their forces in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC—after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Antony fell on his own sword and was allegedly taken by his soldiers back to Cleopatra's tomb where he died in her arms. After meeting with Octavian and refusing to be paraded in a triumph at Rome, Cleopatra took her own life by poisoning, contrary to the popular belief that she was bitten by an asp. Octavian had exploited his position as Caesar's heir to further his own political career, and he was well aware of the dangers in allowing another person to do the same. He therefore followed the advice of the Greek philosopher Arius Didymus that "two Caesars are one too many", ordering Caesarion killed while sparing Cleopatra's children by Antony, with the exception of Antony's older son. Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies and acted in ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he was given credit for pardoning many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium. |
Augustus | Sole ruler of Rome | Sole ruler of Rome
After Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian was in a position to rule the entire republic under an unofficial principate—with himself as ('First Citizen')— which he achieved through incremental power gains. He did so by courting the Senate and the people while upholding the republican traditions of Rome, maintaining the carefully curated appearance that he was not aspiring to dictatorship or monarchy. The term was previously applied to members of the Roman nobility who distinguished themselves in service to the Republic, and Octavian would embrace this title as part of his cultivated image as a restorer of the Republic. Marching into Rome, Octavian and Agrippa were elected as consuls by the Senate.
Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near lawlessness, but the republic was not prepared to accept the control of Octavian as a despot. At the same time, Octavian could not give up his authority without risking further civil wars among the Roman generals, and even if he desired no position of authority his position demanded that he look to the well-being of the city of Rome and the Roman provinces. Octavian's aims from this point forward were to return Rome to a state of stability, traditional legality, and civility by lifting the overt political pressure imposed on the courts of law and ensuring free elections—in name at least. |
Augustus | First settlement | First settlement
On 13 January 27 BC, Octavian made a show of returning full power to the Roman Senate and relinquishing his control of the Roman provinces and their armies. Under his consulship, however, the Senate had little power in initiating legislation by introducing bills for senatorial debate. Octavian was no longer in direct control of the provinces and their armies, but he retained the loyalty of active duty soldiers and veterans alike. The careers of many clients and adherents depended on his patronage, as his financial power was unrivaled in the Roman Republic. Historian Werner Eck states:
To a large extent, the public was aware of the vast financial resources that Octavian commanded. He failed to encourage enough senators to finance the building and maintenance of networks of roads in Italy in 20 BC, but he undertook direct responsibility for them. This was publicized on the Roman currency issued in 16 BC, after he donated vast amounts of money to the , the public treasury.
thumb|upright=0.8|left|Octavian as a magistrate. The statue's marble head was made , the body sculpted in the 2nd century AD (Louvre, Paris)
According to historian H. H. Scullard, however, Octavian's power was based on the exercise of "a predominant military power and ... the ultimate sanction of his authority was force, however much the fact was disguised." The Senate proposed to Octavian, the victor of Rome's civil wars, that he once again assume command of the provinces. The Senate's proposal was a ratification of Octavian's extra-constitutional power. Through the Senate, Octavian was able to continue the appearance of a still-functional constitution. Feigning reluctance, he accepted a ten-year responsibility of overseeing provinces that were considered chaotic. The provinces ceded to Augustus for that ten-year period comprised much of the conquered Roman world, including all of Hispania and Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt. Moreover, command of these provinces provided Octavian with control over the majority of Rome's legions.
While Octavian acted as consul in Rome, he dispatched senators to the provinces under his command as his representatives to manage provincial affairs and ensure that his orders were carried out. The provinces not under Octavian's control were overseen by governors chosen by the Roman Senate. Octavian became the most powerful political figure in the city of Rome and in most of its provinces, but he did not have a monopoly on political and martial power. The Senate still controlled North Africa, an important regional producer of grain, as well as Illyria and Macedonia, two strategic regions with several legions. However, the Senate had control of only five or six legions distributed among three senatorial proconsuls, compared to the twenty legions under the control of Octavian, and their control of these regions did not amount to any political or military challenge to Octavian. The Senate's control over some of the Roman provinces helped maintain a republican facade for the autocratic principate. Also, Octavian's control of entire provinces followed republican-era precedents for the objective of securing peace and creating stability, in which such prominent Romans as Pompey had been granted similar military powers in times of crisis and instability. |
Augustus | Change to Augustus | Change to Augustus
thumb| minted , marked:
On 16 January 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new title of . , from the Latin 'to increase', can be translated as 'illustrious one' or 'sublime'. It was a title of religious authority rather than political one, and it indicated that Octavian now approached divinity. His name of Augustus was also more favourable than , the previous one which he styled for himself in reference to the story of the legendary founder of Rome, which symbolised a second founding of Rome. The title of was associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image that Octavian tried to avoid. The Senate also confirmed his position as , which originally meant the member of the Senate with the highest precedence, but in this case it became an almost regnal title for a leader who was first in charge. The honorific was inherited by all future emperors and became the de facto main title of the emperor. As a result, modern historians usually regard this event as the beginning of his reign as "emperor". Augustus himself appears to have reckoned his "reign" from 27 BC. I.7, "For ten years in succession I was one of the triumvirs for the re-establishment of the constitution. To the day of writing this [June/July AD 14] I have been for forty years."
Augustus styled himself as 'Commander Caesar son of the deified one'. With this title, he boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, and the use of signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. He transformed , a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new family line that began with him.
thumb|left|upright=0.8|The Arch of Augustus in Rimini (), dedicated to Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, is one of the oldest preserved arches in Italy.
Augustus was granted the right to hang the (civic crown) above his door and to have laurels drape his doorposts. However, he renounced flaunting insignia of power such as holding a scepter, wearing a diadem, or wearing the golden crown and purple toga of his predecessor Julius Caesar. If he refused to symbolize his power by donning and bearing these items on his person, the Senate nonetheless awarded him with a golden shield displayed in the meeting hall of the Curia, bearing the inscription – 'valor, piety, clemency, and justice'. |
Augustus | Second settlement | Second settlement
thumb|upright=0.8|Portraits of Augustus show the emperor with idealized features.
By 23 BC, some of the un-republican implications were becoming apparent concerning the settlement of 27 BC. Augustus's retention of an annual consulate drew attention to his de facto dominance over the Roman political system and cut in half the opportunities for others to achieve what was still nominally the preeminent position in the Roman state. Further, he was causing political problems by desiring to have his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus follow in his footsteps and eventually assume the principate in his turn, alienating his three greatest supporters: Agrippa, Maecenas, and Livia. He appointed noted republican Calpurnius Piso (who had fought against Julius Caesar and supported Cassius and Brutus) as co-consul in 23 BC, after his choice Aulus Terentius Varro Murena died unexpectedly.
In the late spring Augustus had a severe illness and on his supposed deathbed made arrangements that would ensure the continuation of the principate in some form, while allaying senators' suspicions of his anti-republicanism. Augustus prepared to hand down his signet ring to his favored general Agrippa. However, Augustus handed over to his co-consul Piso all of his official documents, an account of public finances, and authority over listed troops in the provinces while Augustus's supposedly favored nephew Marcellus came away empty-handed. This was a surprise to many who believed Augustus would have named an heir to his position as an unofficial emperor.
Augustus bestowed only properties and possessions to his designated heirs, as an obvious system of institutionalized imperial inheritance would have provoked resistance and hostility among the republican-minded Romans fearful of monarchy. With regards to the principate, it was obvious to Augustus that Marcellus was not ready to take on his position;Stern, Gaius (2006), Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus's vision of a new world order in 13 BC, p. 23 nonetheless, by giving his signet ring to Agrippa, Augustus intended to signal to the legions that Agrippa was to be his successor and that they should continue to obey Agrippa, constitutional procedure notwithstanding.
thumb|upright=0.8|The Blacas Cameo showing Augustus wearing a gorgoneion on a three layered sardonyx cameo, AD 20–50
Soon after his bout of illness subsided, Augustus gave up his consulship. The only other times Augustus would serve as consul would be in the years 5 and 2 BC, both times to introduce his grandsons into public life. This was a clever ploy by Augustus; ceasing to serve as one of two annually elected consuls allowed aspiring senators a better chance to attain the consular position while allowing Augustus to exercise wider patronage within the senatorial class. Although Augustus had resigned as consul, he desired to retain his consular not just in his provinces but throughout the empire. This desire, as well as the Marcus Primus affair, led to a second compromise between him and the Senate known as the second settlement.
The primary reasons for the second settlement were as follows. First, after Augustus relinquished the annual consulship, he was no longer in an official position to rule the state, yet his dominant position remained unchanged over his Roman, 'imperial' provinces where he was still a proconsul. When he annually held the office of consul, he had the power to intervene with the affairs of the other provincial proconsuls appointed by the Senate throughout the empire, when he deemed necessary.
A second problem later arose showing the need for the second settlement in what became known as the "Marcus Primus affair". In late 24 or early 23 BC, charges were brought against Marcus Primus, the former proconsul (governor) of Macedonia, for waging a war without prior approval of the Senate on the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, whose king was a Roman ally. He was defended by Lucius Licinius Varro Murena who told the trial that his client had received specific instructions from Augustus ordering him to attack the client state. Later, Primus testified that the orders came from the recently deceased Marcellus. Such orders, had they been given, would have been considered a breach of the Senate's prerogative under the constitutional settlement of 27 BC and its aftermath—i.e., before Augustus was granted —as Macedonia was a senatorial province under the Senate's jurisdiction, not an imperial province under the authority of Augustus. Such an action would have ripped away the veneer of republican restoration as promoted by Augustus, and exposed his fraud of merely being the first citizen, a first among equals. Even worse, the involvement of Marcellus provided some measure of proof that Augustus's policy was to have the youth take his place as princeps, instituting a form of monarchy—accusations that had already played out.
thumb|upright=0.8|Augustus as Jupiter, holding a scepter and orb (first half of the 1st century AD)
The situation was so serious that Augustus appeared at the trial even though he had not been called as a witness. Under oath, Augustus declared that he gave no such order. Murena disbelieved Augustus's testimony and resented his attempt to subvert the trial by using his . He rudely demanded to know why Augustus had turned up to a trial to which he had not been called; Augustus replied that he came in the public interest. Although Primus was found guilty, some jurors voted to acquit, meaning that not everybody believed Augustus's testimony, an insult to the 'August One'.
The second settlement was completed in part to allay confusion and formalize Augustus's legal authority to intervene in senatorial provinces. The Senate granted Augustus a form of general , or proconsular imperium (power) that applied throughout the empire, not solely to his provinces. Moreover, the Senate augmented Augustus's proconsular imperium into , or proconsular imperium applicable throughout the empire that was more (maius) or greater than that held by the other proconsuls. This in effect gave Augustus constitutional power superior to all other proconsuls in the empire. Augustus stayed in Rome during the renewal process and provided veterans with lavish donations to gain their support, thereby ensuring that his status of proconsular imperium maius was renewed in 13 BC. |
Augustus | Additional powers | Additional powers
thumb|268x268px|Portrait of Augustus. Sardonyx cameo; gilt silver mount with pearls, sapphires and red glass beads, 16th/17th centuries.
During the second settlement, Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune () for life, though not the official title of tribune. For some years, Augustus had been awarded , the immunity given to a tribune of the plebs. Now he decided to assume the full powers of the magistracy, renewed annually, in perpetuity. Legally, it was closed to patricians, a status that Augustus had acquired some years earlier when adopted by Julius Caesar. This power allowed him to convene the Senate and people at will and lay business before them, to veto the actions of either the Assembly or the Senate, to preside over elections, and to speak first at any meeting. Also included in Augustus's tribunician authority were powers usually reserved for the Roman censor; these included the right to supervise public morals and scrutinize laws to ensure that they were in the public interest, as well as the ability to hold a census and determine the membership of the Senate.
thumb|upright=0.8|Head of Augustus as , Roman artwork of the late Augustan period, last decade of the 1st century BC
With the powers of a censor, Augustus appealed to virtues of Roman patriotism by banning all attire but the classic toga while entering the Forum. There was no precedent within the Roman system for combining the powers of the tribune and the censor into a single position, nor was Augustus ever elected to the office of censor. Julius Caesar had been granted similar powers, wherein he was charged with supervising the morals of the state. However, this position did not extend to the censor's ability to hold a census and determine the Senate's roster. The office of the began to lose its prestige due to Augustus's amassing of tribunal powers, so he revived its importance by making it a mandatory appointment for any plebeian desiring the praetorship.
Augustus was granted sole within the city of Rome in addition to being granted proconsular and tribunician authority for life. Traditionally, proconsuls (Roman province governors) lost their proconsular when they crossed the Pomerium—the sacred boundary of Rome—and entered the city. In these situations, Augustus would have power as part of his tribunician authority, but his constitutional imperium within the Pomerium would be less than that of a serving consul, which meant that when he was in the city he might not be the constitutional magistrate with the most authority. Thanks to his prestige or , his wishes would usually be obeyed, but there might be some difficulty. To fill this power vacuum, the Senate voted that Augustus's (superior proconsular power) should not lapse when he was inside the city walls. All armed forces in the city had formerly been under the control of the urban praetors and consuls, but this situation now placed them under the sole authority of Augustus.
In addition, the credit was given to Augustus for each subsequent Roman military victory after this time, because the majority of Rome's armies were stationed in imperial provinces commanded by Augustus through the legatus who were deputies of the princeps in the provinces. Moreover, if a battle was fought in a senatorial province, Augustus's proconsular allowed him to take command of (or credit for) any major military victory. This meant that Augustus was the only individual able to receive a triumph, a tradition that began with Romulus, Rome's first king and first triumphant general. Tiberius, Augustus's eldest stepson by Livia, was the only other general to receive a triumph—for victories in Germania in 7 BC.
Normally during republican times, the powers Augustus held even after the second settlement would have been split between several people, who would each exercise them with the assistance of a colleague and for a specific period of time. Augustus held them all at once by himself and with no time limits; even those that nominally had time limits were automatically renewed whenever they lapsed.Ancient Rome at Encyclopedia Britannica |
Augustus | Conspiracy | Conspiracy
thumb|left|upright=0.8|A colossal statue of Augustus from the Augusteum of Herculaneum, seated and wearing a laurel wreath
Many of the political subtleties of the second settlement seem to have evaded the comprehension of the plebeian class, who were Augustus's greatest supporters and clientele. This caused them to insist upon Augustus's participation in imperial affairs from time to time. Augustus failed to stand for election as consul in 22 BC, and fears arose once again that he was being forced from power by the aristocratic Senate. In 22, 21, and 19 BC, the people rioted in response and only allowed a single consul to be elected for each of those years, ostensibly to leave the other position open for Augustus.
Likewise, there was a food shortage in Rome in 22 BC which sparked panic, while many urban plebs called for Augustus to take on dictatorial powers to personally oversee the crisis. After a theatrical display of refusal before the Senate, Augustus finally accepted authority over Rome's grain supply "by virtue of his proconsular ", and ended the crisis almost immediately. It was not until AD 8 that a food crisis of this sort prompted Augustus to establish a , a permanent prefect who was in charge of procuring food supplies for Rome.
There were some who were concerned by the expansion of powers granted to Augustus by the second settlement, and this came to a head with the apparent conspiracy of Fannius Caepio. Some time prior to 1 September 22 BC, a certain Castricius provided Augustus with information about a conspiracy led by Fannius Caepio. Murena, the outspoken consul who defended Primus in the Marcus Primus affair, was named among the conspirators. The conspirators were tried in absentia with Tiberius acting as prosecutor; the jury found them guilty, but it was not a unanimous verdict. All the accused were sentenced to death for treason and executed as soon as they were captured—without ever giving testimony in their defence. Augustus ensured that the façade of Republican government continued with an effective cover-up of the events.
In 19 BC, the Senate granted Augustus a form of "general consular imperium", which was probably , like the proconsular powers that he received in 23 BC. Like his tribune authority, the consular powers were another instance of gaining power from offices that he did not actually hold. In addition, Augustus was allowed to wear the consul's insignia in public and before the Senate, as well as to sit in the symbolic chair between the two consuls and hold the fasces, an emblem of consular authority. This seems to have assuaged the populace; regardless of whether or not Augustus was a consul, the importance was that he both appeared as one before the people and could exercise consular power if necessary. On 6 March 12 BC, after the death of Lepidus, he additionally took up the position of , the high priest of the college of the pontiffs, the most important position in Roman religion. On 5 February 2 BC, Augustus was also given the title 'father of the country'. |
Augustus | Stability and staying power | Stability and staying power
thumb|upright=0.8|Bust of Augustus wearing the Civic Crown, at Glyptothek, Munich
A final reason for the second settlement was to give the principate constitutional stability and staying power in case something happened to Princeps Augustus. His illness of early 23 BC and the Caepio conspiracy showed that the regime's existence hung by the thin thread of the life of one man, Augustus himself, who had several severe and dangerous illnesses throughout his life.Suetonius, Augustus 81. If he were to die from natural causes or fall victim to assassination, Rome could be subjected to another round of civil war. The memories of Pharsalus, the Ides of March, the proscriptions, Philippi, and Actium, barely twenty-five years distant, were still vivid in the minds of many citizens. Proconsular imperium was conferred upon Agrippa for five years, similar to Augustus's power, in order to accomplish this constitutional stability. The exact nature of the grant is uncertain but it probably covered Augustus's imperial provinces, east and west, perhaps lacking authority over the provinces of the Senate. That came later, as did the jealously guarded tribunicia potestas. Augustus's accumulation of powers was now complete. |
Augustus | War and expansion | War and expansion
By AD 13, Augustus boasted 21 occasions where his troops proclaimed him after a successful battle. Almost the entire fourth chapter in his publicly released memoirs of achievements known as the is devoted to his military victories and honours.
Augustus also promoted the ideal of a superior Roman civilisation with a task of ruling the world (to the extent to which the Romans knew it), a sentiment embodied in words that the contemporary poet Virgil attributes to a legendary ancestor of Augustus: —"Roman, remember to rule the Earth's peoples with authority!" The impulse for expansionism was apparently prominent among all classes at Rome, and it is accorded divine sanction by Virgil's Jupiter in Book 1 of the Aeneid, where Jupiter promises Rome 'sovereignty without end'.
By the end of his reign, the armies of Augustus had conquered northern Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) and the Alpine regions of Raetia and Noricum (modern Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia), Illyricum and Pannonia (modern Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.), and had extended the borders of Africa Proconsularis to the east and south. Judea was added to the province of Syria when Augustus deposed Herod Archelaus, successor to client king Herod the Great. Syria (like Egypt after Antony) was governed by a high prefect of the equestrian class rather than by a proconsul or legate of Augustus.
thumb|upright=0.8|left|Bust of Tiberius, a successful military commander under Augustus who was designated as his heir and successor
Again, no military effort was needed in 25 BC when Galatia (part of modern Turkey) was converted to a Roman province shortly after Amyntas of Galatia was killed by an avenging widow of a slain prince from Homonada. The rebellious tribes of Asturias and Cantabria in modern-day Spain were finally quelled in 19 BC, and the territory fell under the provinces of Hispania and Lusitania. This region proved to be a major asset in funding Augustus's future military campaigns, as it was rich in mineral deposits that could be fostered in Roman mining projects, especially the very rich gold deposits at Las Médulas.
thumb|left|Muziris in the Chera Kingdom of Southern India, as shown in the Tabula Peutingeriana, with depiction of a temple of Augustus ()
Conquering the peoples of the Alps in 16 BC was another important victory for Rome, since it provided a large territorial buffer between the Roman citizens of Italy and Rome's enemies in Germania to the north. Horace dedicated an ode to the victory, while the monumental Trophy of Augustus near Monaco was built to honour the occasion. The capture of the Alpine region also served the next offensive in 12 BC, when Tiberius began the offensive against the Pannonian tribes of Illyricum, and his brother Nero Claudius Drusus moved against the Germanic tribes of the eastern Rhineland. Both campaigns were successful, as Drusus's forces reached the Elbe River by 9 BC—though he died shortly after by falling off his horse. It was recorded that the pious Tiberius walked in front of his brother's body all the way back to Rome.
To protect Rome's eastern territories from the Parthian Empire, Augustus relied on the client states of the east to act as territorial buffers and areas that could raise their own troops for defense. To ensure security of the empire's eastern flank, Augustus stationed a Roman army in Syria, while his skilled stepson Tiberius negotiated with the Parthians as Rome's diplomat to the East. Tiberius was responsible for restoring Tigranes V to the throne of the Kingdom of Armenia.
Arguably his greatest diplomatic achievement was negotiating with Phraates IV of Parthia (37–2 BC) in 20 BC for the return of the battle standards lost by Crassus in the Battle of Carrhae, a symbolic victory and great boost of morale for Rome. Werner Eck claims that this was a great disappointment for Romans seeking to avenge Crassus's defeat by military means. However, Maria Brosius explains that Augustus used the return of the standards as propaganda symbolizing the submission of Parthia to Rome. The event was celebrated in art such as the breastplate design on the statue Augustus of Prima Porta and in monuments such as the Temple of Mars Ultor ('Mars the Avenger') built to house the standards. Parthia had always posed a threat to Rome in the east, but the real battlefront was along the Rhine and Danube rivers. Before the final fight with Antony, Octavian's campaigns against the tribes in Dalmatia were the first step in expanding Roman dominions to the Danube. Victory in battle was not always a permanent success, as newly conquered territories were constantly retaken by Rome's enemies in Germania.
thumb| (The Victorious Advancing Hermann), depiction of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, by Peter Janssen, 1873
A prime example of Roman loss in battle was the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, where three entire legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed by Arminius, leader of the Cherusci, an apparent Roman ally. Augustus retaliated by dispatching Tiberius and Drusus to the Rhineland to pacify it, which had some success although the battle brought the end to Roman expansion into Germany. The Roman general Germanicus took advantage of a Cherusci civil war between Arminius and Segestes; at the Battle of Idistaviso in AD 16, he defeated Arminius. |
Augustus | Death and succession | Death and succession
thumb|left|Augustus in a copper engraving by Giovanni Battista Cavalieri. From the book (1583), preserved in the Municipal Library of Trento (Italy)
The illness of Augustus in 23 BC brought the problem of succession to the forefront of political issues and the public. To ensure stability, he needed to designate an heir to his unique position in Roman society and government. This was to be achieved in small, undramatic and incremental ways that did not stir senatorial fears of monarchy. If someone was to succeed to Augustus's unofficial position of power, he would have to earn it through his own publicly proven merits.
Some Augustan historians argue that indications pointed toward his sister's son Marcellus, who had been quickly married to Augustus's daughter Julia the Elder. Other historians dispute this since Augustus's will was read aloud to the Senate while he was seriously ill in 23 BC, indicating a preference Marcus Agrippa, who was Augustus's second in charge and arguably the only one of his associates who could have controlled the legions and held the empire together.
After the death of Marcellus in 23 BC, Augustus married his daughter to Agrippa. This union produced five children, three sons and two daughters: Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Julia, Agrippina, and Agrippa Postumus, so named because he was born after Marcus Agrippa died. Shortly after the second settlement, Agrippa was granted a five-year term of administering the eastern half of the empire with the of a proconsul and the same granted to Augustus (although not trumping Augustus's authority), his seat of governance stationed at Samos in the eastern Aegean. This granting of power showed Augustus's favor for Agrippa, but it was also a measure to please members of his Caesarian party by allowing one of their members to share a considerable amount of power with him.
Augustus's intent became apparent to make his grandsons Gaius and Lucius his heirs when he adopted them as his own children. He took the consulship in 5 and 2 BC so that he could personally usher them into their political careers, and they were nominated for the consulships of AD 1 and 4. Augustus also showed favour to his stepsons, Livia's children from her first marriage, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (henceforth referred to as Drusus) and Tiberius Claudius (henceforth Tiberius), granting them military commands and public office, though seeming to favour Drusus. After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Tiberius was ordered to divorce his own wife, Vipsania Agrippina, and marry Augustus's widowed daughter, Julia, as soon as a period of mourning for Agrippa had ended. Drusus's marriage to Augustus's niece Antonia was considered an unbreakable affair, whereas Vipsania was "only" the daughter of the late Agrippa from his first marriage.
Tiberius shared in Augustus's tribune powers as of 6 BC but shortly thereafter went into retirement, reportedly wanting no further role in politics while he exiled himself to Rhodes. No specific reason is known for his departure, though it could have been a combination of reasons, including a failing marriage with Julia as well as a sense of envy and exclusion over Augustus's apparent favouring of the younger Gaius and Lucius. (Gaius and Lucius joined the college of priests at an early age, were presented to spectators in a more favourable light, and were introduced to the army in Gaul.)
After the deaths of both Lucius and Gaius in AD 2 and 4 respectively, and the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome in June AD 4, where he was adopted by Augustus on the condition that he, in turn, adopt his nephew Germanicus. This continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs. In that year, Tiberius was also granted the powers of a tribune and proconsul, emissaries from foreign kings had to pay their respects to him and by AD 13 was awarded with his second triumph and equal level of with that of Augustus.
thumb|The deified Augustus hovers over Tiberius and other Julio-Claudians in the Great Cameo of France.
The only other possible claimant as heir was Agrippa Postumus, who had been exiled by Augustus in AD 7, his banishment made permanent by senatorial decree, and Augustus officially disowned him. He certainly fell out of Augustus's favour as an heir; the historian Erich S. Gruen notes various contemporary sources that state Agrippa Postumus was a "vulgar young man, brutal and brutish, and of depraved character".
On 19 August AD 14,Suetonius 100.1.Cassius Dio 56.30. Augustus died while visiting Nola where his father had died. Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia was rumored to have brought about Augustus's death by poisoning fresh figs. This element features in many modern works of historical fiction pertaining to Augustus's life, but some historians view it as likely to have been a salacious fabrication made by those who had favoured Postumus as heir, or other political enemies of Tiberius. Livia had long been the target of similar rumors of poisoning on the behalf of her son, most or all of which are unlikely to have been true. Alternatively, it is possible that Livia did supply a poisoned fig (she did cultivate a variety of fig named for her that Augustus is said to have enjoyed), but did so as a means of assisted suicide rather than murder. Augustus's health had been in decline in the months immediately before his death, and he had made significant preparations for a smooth transition in power, having at last reluctantly settled on Tiberius as his choice of heir. It is likely that Augustus was not expected to return alive from Nola, but it seems that his health improved once there; it has therefore been speculated that Augustus and Livia conspired to end his life at the anticipated time, having committed all political process to accepting Tiberius, in order to not endanger that transition.
left|thumb|The Mausoleum of Augustus restored, 2021
Augustus's famous last words were, "Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit" ()—referring to the play-acting and regal authority that he had put on as emperor. An enormous funerary procession of mourners travelled with Augustus's body from Nola to Rome, and all public and private businesses closed on the day of his burial. Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two . Augustus's body was coffin-bound and cremated on a pyre close to his mausoleum. It was proclaimed that Augustus joined the company of the gods as a member of the Roman pantheon.
Historian D. C. A. Shotter states that Augustus's policy of favoring the Julian family line over the Claudian might have afforded Tiberius sufficient cause to show open disdain for Augustus after the latter's death; instead, Tiberius was always quick to rebuke those who criticized Augustus. Shotter suggests that Augustus's deification obliged Tiberius to suppress any open resentment that he might have harbored, coupled with Tiberius's "extremely conservative" attitude towards religion. Also, historian R. Shaw-Smith points to letters of Augustus to Tiberius which display affection towards Tiberius and high regard for his military merits. Shotter states that Tiberius focused his anger and criticism on Gaius Asinius Gallus (for marrying Vipsania after Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce her), as well as toward the two young Caesars, Gaius and Lucius—instead of Augustus, the real architect of his divorce and imperial demotion. |
Augustus | Legacy | Legacy
thumb|The Virgin Mary and Child, the prophetess Sibyl Tivoli bottom left and the emperor Augustus in the bottom right, from the . The likeness of Augustus is that of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.
thumb|The Augustus cameo at the center of the Medieval Cross of Lothair |
Augustus | Overview | Overview
Augustus created a regime that maintained relative peace and prosperity in the Roman west and the Greek east for two centuries, initiating the celebrated , though historian Karl Galinsky affirms that the "Augustan Golden Age" myth of the obscures the complicated political challenges that Augustus had to face during his reign. His regime laid the foundations of a concept of universal empire in the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empires down to their dissolutions in 1453 and 1806, respectively. Both his adoptive surname, Caesar, and his title became the permanent titles of the rulers of the Roman Empire for fourteen centuries after his death, in use both at Old Rome and at New Rome. In many languages, became the word for emperor, as in the German and in the Bulgarian and subsequently Russian (sometimes or ). The cult of continued until the state religion of the empire was changed to Christianity in 391 by Theodosius I. Consequently, there are many statues and busts of the first emperor. The reign of Augustus was viewed favorably by later Romans, embodied by the Roman Senate's formal wish to every emperor after Trajan that they "be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan".
Augustus composed an account of his achievements, the , to be inscribed in bronze in front of his mausoleum. Copies of the text were inscribed throughout the empire upon his death. The inscriptions in Latin featured translations in Greek beside it and were inscribed on many public edifices, such as the temple in Ankara dubbed the , called the "queen of inscriptions" by historian Theodor Mommsen. The is the only major work by Augustus to have survived, though he is also known to have composed poems entitled , , and , an autobiography of 13 books, a philosophical treatise, and a written rebuttal to Brutus's Eulogy of Cato. Historians are able to analyze excerpts of letters penned by Augustus, preserved in various works of antiquity that reveal additional facts or clues about his personal life. In his Res Gestae, Augustus defined the relative peace established by his reign as a pact "born of victories" (), one that brought disastrous Roman civil wars to an end and ensured Romans and subjugated peoples within their Empire upheld a cohesive social pact: the latter would relinquish their sovereignty and pay taxes in exchange for the preservation of their native customs, economic stability, security and protection afforded to them by Rome. This theme of peace being rooted in conquest is also featured prominently in Augustan-era visual artworks.thumb|Gemma Augustea, a two-layered sardonyx depicting the Emperor Augustus surrounded by goddesses and allegories. 9-12 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna,The city of Rome was utterly transformed under Augustus, with Rome's first institutionalized police force, firefighting force, and the establishment of the municipal prefect as a permanent office. The police force was divided into cohorts of 500 men each, while the units of firemen ranged from 500 to 1,000 men each, with 7 units assigned to 14 divided city sectors. A , "prefect of the watch", was put in charge of the vigiles, Rome's fire brigade and police. With Rome's civil wars at an end, Augustus was also able to create a standing army for the Roman Empire, fixed at a size of 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers. This was supported by numerous auxiliary units of 500 non-citizen soldiers each, often recruited from recently conquered areas.
With his finances securing the maintenance of roads throughout Italy, Augustus installed an official courier system of relay stations overseen by a military officer known as the . Besides the advent of swifter communication among Italian polities, his extensive building of roads throughout Italy also allowed Rome's armies to march swiftly and at an unprecedented pace across the country. In the year 6 Augustus established the , donating 170 million sesterces to the new military treasury that provided for both active and retired soldiers.
One of the most enduring institutions of Augustus was the establishment of the Praetorian Guard in 27 BC, originally a personal bodyguard unit on the battlefield that evolved into an imperial guard as well as an important political force in Rome. They had the power to intimidate the Senate, install new emperors, and depose ones they disliked; the last emperor they served was Maxentius, as it was Constantine I who disbanded them in the early 4th century and destroyed their barracks, the Castra Praetoria.
thumb|upright=0.8|left|Augustus as Roman pharaoh in an Egyptian-style depiction, a stone carving of the Kalabsha Temple in Nubia
Although the most powerful individual in the Roman Empire, Augustus wished to embody the spirit of Republican virtue and norms. He also wanted to relate to and connect with the concerns of the plebs and lay people. He achieved this through various means of generosity and a cutting back of lavish excess. In the year 29 BC, Augustus gave 400 sesterces (equal to one-tenth of a Roman pound of gold) each to 250,000 citizens, 1,000 sesterces each to 120,000 veterans in the colonies, and spent 700 million sesterces in purchasing land for his soldiers to settle upon. He also restored 82 different temples to display his care for the Roman pantheon of deities. In 28 BC, he melted down 80 silver statues erected in his likeness and in honour of him, an attempt of his to appear frugal and modest.
The longevity of Augustus's reign and its legacy to the Roman world should not be overlooked as a key factor in its success. As Tacitus wrote, the younger generations alive in AD 14 had never known any form of government other than the principate. Had Augustus died earlier, matters might have turned out differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the old Republican oligarchy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a de facto monarchy in these years. Augustus's own experience, his patience, his tact, and his political acumen also played their parts. He directed the future of the empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. Augustus's ultimate legacy was the peace and prosperity the Empire enjoyed for the next two centuries under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor. Every emperor of Rome adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, which gradually lost its character as a name and eventually became a title. The Augustan era poets Virgil and Horace praised Augustus as a defender of Rome, an upholder of moral justice, and an individual who bore the brunt of responsibility in maintaining the empire.
However, for his rule of Rome and establishing the principate, Augustus has also been subjected to criticism throughout the ages. The contemporary Roman jurist Marcus Antistius Labeo, fond of the days of pre-Augustan republican liberty in which he had been born, openly criticised the Augustan regime. In the beginning of his Annals, Tacitus wrote that Augustus had cunningly subverted Republican Rome into a position of slavery. He continued to say that, with Augustus's death and swearing of loyalty to Tiberius, the people of Rome traded one slaveholder for another. In a 2006 biography on Augustus, Anthony Everitt asserts that through the centuries, judgments on Augustus's reign have oscillated between these two extremes.
Tacitus was of the belief that Nerva (r. 96–98) successfully "mingled two formerly alien ideas, principate and liberty". The 3rd-century historian Cassius Dio acknowledged Augustus as a benign, moderate ruler, yet like most other historians after the death of Augustus, Dio viewed Augustus as an autocrat. The poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39–65) was of the opinion that Caesar's victory over Pompey and the fall of Cato the Younger (95–46 BC) marked the end of traditional liberty in Rome; historian Chester Starr writes of his avoidance of criticizing Augustus, "perhaps Augustus was too sacred a figure to accuse directly."
The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), in his Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome, criticised Augustus for installing tyranny over Rome, and likened what he believed Great Britain's virtuous constitutional monarchy to Rome's moral Republic of the 2nd century BC. In his criticism of Augustus, the admiral and historian Thomas Gordon (1658–1741) compared Augustus to the puritanical tyrant Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). Thomas Gordon and the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1755) both remarked that Augustus was a coward in battle. In his Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, the Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell (1701–1757) deemed Augustus a Machiavellian ruler, "a bloodthirsty vindicative usurper", "wicked and worthless", "a mean spirit", and a "tyrant". |
Augustus | Revenue reforms | Revenue reforms
thumb|left|Coin of Augustus found at the Pudukottai hoard, from an ancient Tamil country, Pandyan Kingdom of present-day Tamil Nadu in India, a testimony to Indo-Roman trade. British Museum. Caption: . (The vertical slice, not part of the original design, was likely an old test cut to make sure the coin was solid rather than a fourrée.)
Augustus's public revenue reforms had a great impact on the subsequent success of the Empire. Augustus brought a far greater portion of the Empire's expanded land base under consistent, direct taxation from Rome, instead of exacting varying, intermittent, and somewhat arbitrary tributes from each local province as Augustus's predecessors had done. This reform greatly increased Rome's net revenue from its territorial acquisitions, stabilized its flow, and regularized the financial relationship between Rome and the provinces, rather than provoking fresh resentments with each new arbitrary exaction of tribute.
thumb|1st-century coin from the Himyarite Kingdom located in the southern Arabian Peninsula. It is also an imitation of a coin of Augustus.
The measures of taxation in the reign of Augustus were determined by population census, with fixed quotas for each province. Citizens of Rome and Italy paid indirect taxes, while direct taxes were exacted from the provinces. Indirect taxes included a 4% tax on the price of slaves, a 1% tax on goods sold at auction, and a 5% tax on the inheritance of estates valued at over 100,000 sesterces by persons other than the next of kin.
An equally important reform was the abolition of private tax farming, which was replaced by salaried civil service tax collectors. Private contractors who collected taxes for the State were the norm in the Republican era. Some of them were powerful enough to influence the number of votes for men running for offices in Rome. These tax farmers called publicans were infamous for their depredations, great private wealth, and the right to tax local areas.
The use of Egypt's immense land rents to finance the Empire's operations resulted from Augustus's conquest of Egypt and the shift to a Roman form of government. As it was effectively considered Augustus's private property rather than a province of the Empire, it became part of each succeeding emperor's patrimonium.
Instead of a legate or proconsul, Augustus installed a prefect from the equestrian class to administer Egypt and maintain its lucrative seaports; this position became the highest political achievement for any equestrian besides becoming Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. The highly productive agricultural land of Egypt yielded enormous revenues that were available to Augustus and his successors to pay for public works and military expeditions. |
Augustus | Month of August | Month of August
The month of August (Latin: ) is named after Augustus; until his time it was called Sextilis (named so because it had been the sixth month of the original Roman calendar, with the Latin word for 'six' being ). Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the 13th-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length (see Julian calendar).
According to a quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.35. |
Augustus | Creation of <span lang="la">Italia</span> | Creation of Italia
Roman Italy was established by Augustus in 7 BC with the Latin name . This was the first time that the Italian peninsula was united administratively and politically under the same name. Due to this act, Augustus was called the Father of Italy by Italian historians such as G. Giannelli.G. Giannelli (1965). Trattato di storia romana. 1. L'Italia antica e la Repubblica romana. |
Augustus | Building projects | Building projects
thumb|Sculpted detail of the (Altar of Peace), 13–9 BC
On his deathbed, Augustus boasted "I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble." Although there is some truth in the literal meaning of this, Cassius Dio asserts that it was a metaphor for the Empire's strength.Dio 56.30.3 Marble could be found in buildings of Rome before Augustus, but it was not extensively used as a building material until the reign of Augustus.
Although this did not apply to the Subura slums, which were still as rickety and fire-prone as ever, he did leave a mark on the monumental topography of the centre and of the Campus Martius, with the (Altar of Peace) and monumental sundial, whose central gnomon was an obelisk taken from Egypt. The relief sculptures decorating the visually augmented the written record of Augustus's triumphs in the . Its reliefs depicted the imperial pageants of the praetorians, the Vestals, and the citizenry of Rome.
He also built the Temple of Caesar, the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, the Temple of Apollo Palatinus and the Baths of Agrippa, and the Forum of Augustus with its Temple of Mars Ultor. Other projects were either encouraged by him, such as the Theatre of Balbus, and Agrippa's construction of the Pantheon, or funded by him in the name of others, often relations (e.g. Portico of Octavia, Theatre of Marcellus). Even his Mausoleum of Augustus was built before his death to house members of his family. To celebrate his victory at the Battle of Actium, the Arch of Augustus was built in 29 BC near the entrance of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and widened in 19 BC to include a triple-arch design.
thumb|The Temple of Augustus and Livia in Vienne, late 1st century BC
After the death of Agrippa in 12 BC, a solution had to be found in maintaining Rome's water supply system. This came about because it was overseen by Agrippa when he served as aedile, and was even funded by him afterwards when he was a private citizen paying at his own expense. In that year, Augustus arranged a system where the Senate designated three of its members as prime commissioners in charge of the water supply and to ensure that Rome's aqueducts did not fall into disrepair.
In the late Augustan era, the commission of five senators called the (translated as "Supervisors of Public Property") was put in charge of maintaining public buildings and temples of the state cult. Augustus created the senatorial group of the 'supervisors for roads' for the upkeep of roads; this senatorial commission worked with local officials and contractors to organize regular repairs.
The Corinthian order of architectural style originating from ancient Greece was the dominant architectural style in the age of Augustus and the imperial phase of Rome. Suetonius once commented that Rome was unworthy of its status as an imperial capital, yet Augustus and Agrippa set out to dismantle this sentiment by transforming the appearance of Rome upon the classical Greek model. |
Augustus | Residences | Residences
The official residence of Augustus was the on the Palatine which he made into a palace after buying it in 41/40 BC. He had other residences such as the in Rome where Augustus preferred to stay whenever he became ill and which Maecenas left to him in his will in 8 BC. The great villa of Vedius Pollio at Posilipo near Naples was bequeathed (probably forced) to him in 15 BC.
Augustus built the Palazzo a Mare palace on Capri.Ring, Trudy; Salkin, Robert M.; Boda, Sharon La (1996). International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe. Taylor & Francis. p. 121. . Retrieved 5 July 2012. He also built the immense Villa Giulia on the island of Ventotene as a summer residence early in his reign. The family home of Augustus was probably the villa at Somma Vesuviana, Nola. This was the location where he died and where his father also died.Tacitus, The Annals 1.5 |
Augustus | Physical appearance and official images | Physical appearance and official images
thumb|upright=0.8|left|The veiled head of Emperor Augustus, 1st century BC, National Archaeological Museum of the Marche Region
His biographer Suetonius, writing about a century after Augustus's death, described his appearance as: "... unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. He was so far from being particular about the dressing of his hair, that he would have several barbers working in a hurry at the same time, and as for his beard he now had it clipped and now shaved, while at the very same time he would either be reading or writing something ... He had clear, bright eyes ... His teeth were wide apart, small, and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curly and inclined to golden; his eyebrows met. His ears were of moderate size, and his nose projected a little at the top and then bent ever so slightly inward. His complexion was between dark and fair. He was short of stature, although Julius Marathus, his freedman and keeper of his records, says that he was five feet and nine inches (just under 5 ft. 7 in., or 1.70 meters, in modern height measurements), but this was concealed by the fine proportion and symmetry of his figure, and was noticeable only by comparison with some taller person standing beside him...", adding that "his shoes [were] somewhat high-soled, to make him look taller than he really was". Scientific analysis of traces of paint found in his official statues shows that he most likely had light brown hair.
His official images were very tightly controlled and idealised, drawing from a tradition of Hellenistic portraiture rather than the tradition of realism in Roman portraiture. Walker and Burnett assert that he first appeared on coins by the age of 19, and from about 29 BC "the explosion in the number of Augustan portraits attests a concerted propaganda campaign aimed at dominating all aspects of civil, religious, economic and military life with Augustus's person." The early images did indeed depict a young man, but although there were gradual changes his images remained youthful until he died in his seventies, by which time they had "a distanced air of ageless majesty", according to the classicist R. R. R. Smith. Among the best known of many surviving portraits are the Augustus of Prima Porta, the image on the Ara Pacis, and the Via Labicana Augustus, which depicts him in his role as . Several cameo portraits include the Blacas Cameo and . |
Augustus | See also | See also
Augustan and Julio-Claudian art
Augustan literature (ancient Rome)
Indo-Roman trade relations
Julio-Claudian family tree
Temple of Augustus |
Augustus | Notes | Notes |
Augustus | References | References |
Augustus | Sources | Sources |
Augustus | Ancient sources | Ancient sources
|
Augustus | Modern sources | Modern sources
|
Augustus | Further reading | Further reading
Besl, Marco (2025). Augustus als Programm. Eine Rezeptionsgeschichte des ersten Princeps (14–500 n. Chr.) [Augustus as a programme. A history of the reception of the first Princeps (14-500 AD)]. Historia Einzelschriften, vol. 276. Stuttgart: Steiner, .
Havener, Wolfgang (2016). Imperator Augustus. Die diskursive Konstituierung der militärischen „persona“ des ersten römischen „princeps“ [Imperator Augustus. The discursive constitution of the military ‘persona’ of the first Roman ‘princeps’]. Studies in ancient monarchies, vol. 4. Stuttgart: Steiner, .
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Augustus | External links | External links
Works by and about Augustus at Perseus Digital Library
Gallery of the Ancient Art: August
The Via Iulia Augusta: road built by the Romans; constructed on the orders of Augustus between the 13–12 B.C.
Augustan Legionaries – Augustus's legions and legionaries
Augustus – short biography at the BBC
Brown, F. The Achievements of Augustus Caesar, Clio History Journal, 2009.
"Augustus Caesar and the Pax Romana" – essay by Steven Kreis about Augustus's legacy
"De Imperatoribus Romanis" (archived 17 March 2022) – article about Augustus at Garrett G. Fagan's online encyclopedia of Roman emperors
Augustus – article by Andrew Selkirk
Category:63 BC births
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Category:1st-century BC Roman augurs
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Category:Ancient Roman military personnel
Category:Burials at the Mausoleum of Augustus
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Category:Characters in the Divine Comedy
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Category:Roman pharaohs
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Category:People of the War of Mutina
Category:Natalist politicians |
Augustus | Table of Content | Short description, Name, Early life, Rise to power, Heir to Caesar, Growing tensions, First conflict with Antony, Second Triumvirate, Proscriptions, Battle of Philippi and division of territory, Rebellion and marriage alliances, War with Sextus Pompeius, War with Antony and Cleopatra, Sole ruler of Rome, First settlement, Change to Augustus, Second settlement, Additional powers, Conspiracy, Stability and staying power, War and expansion, Death and succession, Legacy, Overview, Revenue reforms, Month of August, Creation of <span lang="la">Italia</span>, Building projects, Residences, Physical appearance and official images, See also, Notes, References, Sources, Ancient sources, Modern sources, Further reading, External links |
Geography of Antarctica | Short description |
The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is washed by the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean or, depending on definition, the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It has an area of more than . Antarctica is the largest ice desert in the world.
Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water. Averaging at least thick, the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than below sea level; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur (e.g. Lake Vostok). Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery. The present Antarctic ice sheet accounts for 90 percent of Earth's total ice volume and 70 percent of its fresh water. It houses enough water to raise global sea level by .
In September 2018, researchers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency released a high resolution terrain map (detail down to the size of a car, and less in some areas) of Antarctica, named the "Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica" (REMA). |
Geography of Antarctica | Regions | Regions
thumb|Antarctica without its ice cover. This map does not consider that sea level would rise because of the melted ice, nor that the landmass would rise by several hundred meters over a few tens of thousands of years after the weight of the ice was no longer depressing the landmass.
thumb|left|The Princesses Astrid and Ragnhild Coasts
thumb|left|The Banzare, Sabrina, and Budd Law Dome Coasts
Physically, Antarctica is divided in two by the Transantarctic Mountains, close to the neck between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. Western Antarctica and Eastern Antarctica correspond roughly to the western and eastern hemispheres relative to the Greenwich meridian.This usage has been regarded as Eurocentric by some; the alternative terms Lesser Antarctica and Greater Antarctica (respectively) are sometimes preferred.
West Antarctica is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There has been some concern about this ice sheet, as there is a small chance it will collapse due to rising temperatures in the region. If it does, global ocean levels will rise by a few metres in a short period of time. |
Geography of Antarctica | Volcanoes | Volcanoes
Volcanic activity occurring beneath glacial ice sheets is known as glaciovolcanism. An article published in 2017 claims that researchers from the University of Edinburgh discovered 91 new volcanoes below the Antarctic ice sheet, adding to the 47 volcanoes that were already known. As of 2017, 138 possible volcanoes have been identified in West Antarctica. There is limited knowledge about West Antarctic Volcanoes due to the presence of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which heavily covers the West Antarctic Rift System — a likely hub for volcanic activity. Researchers find it difficult to properly identify volcanic activity due to the comprehensive ice covering.
East Antarctica is significantly larger than West Antarctica, and similarly remains widely unexplored in terms of its volcanic potential. While there are some indications that there is volcanic activity under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, there is not a significant amount of present information on the subject.
Mount Erebus, as the southernmost historically active volcanic site on the planet, is one of the most notable sites in the study of Antarctic volcanism.
Deception Island is another active Antarctic volcano. It is one of the most protected areas in the Antarctic, given its situation between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. As the most active volcano in the Antarctic Peninsula, it has been studied closely since its initial discovery in 1820.
There are four volcanoes on the mainland of Antarctica that are
considered to be active on the basis of observed fumarolic activity or
"recent" tephra deposits:
Mount Melbourne (2,730 m) (74°21'S., 164°42'E.), a stratovolcano;
Mount Berlin (3,500 m) (76°03'S., 135°52'W.), a stratovolcano;
Mount Kauffman (2,365 m) (75°37'S., 132°25'W.), a stratovolcano; and
Mount Hampton (3,325 m) (76°29'S., 125°48'W.), a volcanic caldera.
Mount Rittmann (2,600 m) (73.45°S 165.5° E), a volcanic caldera, is dormant.
Several volcanoes on offshore islands have records of historic activity.
Mount Erebus (3,795 m), a stratovolcano on
Ross Island with 10 known eruptions and 1 suspected eruption.
On the opposite side of the continent,
Deception Island
(62°57'S., 60°38'W.), a volcanic caldera with 10 known
and 4 suspected eruptions, has been the most active.
Buckle Island in the Balleny Islands (66°50'S., 163°12'E.),
Penguin Island (62°06'S., 57°54'W.),
Paulet Island (63°35'S., 55°47'W.), and
Lindenberg Island (64°55'S., 59°40'W.) are also
considered to be active. In 2017, the researchers of Edinburgh University discovered 91 underwater volcanoes under West Antarctica. |
Geography of Antarctica | Marie Byrd Land | Marie Byrd Land
Marie Byrd Land makes up a large portion of West Antarctica, consisting of the Area below the Antarctic Peninsula. The Marie Byrd Land is a large formation of volcanic rock, characterized by 18 exposed and subglacial volcanoes. 16 of the 18 volcanoes are entirely covered by the antarctic ice sheet. There have been no eruptions recorded from any of the volcanoes in this area, however scientists believe that some of the volcanoes may be potentially active. |
Geography of Antarctica | Activity | Activity
Scientists and researchers debate whether or not the 138 identified possible volcanoes are active or dormant. It is very hard to definitively say, given that many of these volcanic structures are buried underneath several kilometers of ice. However, ash layers within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, as well as deformations in the ice surface indicate that the West Antarctic Rift System could be active and contain erupting volcanoes. Additionally, seismic activity in the region hints at magma movement beneath the crust, a sign of volcanic activity. Despite this, however, there is not yet definitive evidence of presently active volcanoes.
Subglacial volcanism is often characterized by ice melt and subglacial water. Though there are other sources of subglacial water, such as geothermal heat, it almost always is a condition of volcanism. Scientists remain uncertain about the presence of liquid water underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with some claiming to have found evidence indicating its existence. |
Geography of Antarctica | Conditions of formation | Conditions of formation
In West Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, volcanoes are typically composed of alkaline and basaltic lava. Sometimes, the volcanoes are entirely basaltic in composition. Due to the geographic similarity of the Marie Byrd Land, it is believed that the volcanoes in the West Antarctic Rift System are also composed of basalt.
Above-ice basaltic volcanoes, also known as subaerial basaltic volcanoes, generally form in tall, broad cone shapes. Since they are formed from repeated piling of liquid magma sourced from the center, they spread widely and grow upwards relatively slowly. However, West Antarctic Volcanoes form underneath ice sheets, and are thus categorized as subglacial volcanoes. Subglacial volcanoes that are monogenetic are far more narrow, steeper, flat topped structures. Polygenetic subglacial volcanoes have a wider variety of shapes and sizes due to being made up of many different eruptions. Often, they look more cone shaped, like stratovolcanoes. |
Geography of Antarctica | Hazards | Hazards |
Geography of Antarctica | Hazardous ash | Hazardous ash
Little has been studied about the implications of volcanic ash from eruptions within the Antarctic Circle. It is likely that an eruption at lower latitudes would cause global health and aviation hazards due to ash disbursement. The clockwise air circulation around the low pressure system at the South Pole forces air upwards, hypothetically sending ash upwards towards the Stratospheric jet streams, and thus quickly dispersing it throughout the globe. |
Geography of Antarctica | Melting ice | Melting ice
Recently, in 2017, a study found evidence of subglacial volcanic activity within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This activity poses a threat to the stability of the Ice Sheet, as volcanic activity leads to increased melting. This could possibly plunge the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into a positive feedback loop of rising temperatures and increased melting. |
Geography of Antarctica | Canyons | Canyons
There are three vast canyons that run for hundreds of kilometers, cutting through tall mountains. None of the canyons are visible at the snow-covered surface of the continent since they are buried under hundreds of meters of ice. The largest of the canyons is called Foundation Trough and is over long and wide. The Patuxent Trough is more than long and over wide, while the Offset Rift Basin is long and wide. These three troughs all lie under and cross the so-called "ice divide" – the high ice ridge that runs all the way from the South Pole out towards the coast of West Antarctica. |
Geography of Antarctica | West Antarctica | West Antarctica
thumb|400px|West Antarctica on the left.
thumb|300px|Typical landscape for the Antarctic Peninsula area, with fjords, high coastal mountains and islands. Click on the image for geographical details.
West Antarctica is the smaller part of the continent, (50° – 180°W), divided into: |
Geography of Antarctica | Areas | Areas
Antarctic Peninsula (55° – 75°W)
Graham Land
Palmer Land
Queen Elizabeth Land (20°W – 80°W)
Ellsworth Land (79°45' – 103°24'W)
English Coast
Bryan Coast
Eights Coast
Marie Byrd Land (103°24' – 158°W)
Walgreen Coast
Bakutis Coast
Hobbs Coast
Ruppert Coast
Saunders Coast
King Edward VII Land (166°E – 155°W)
Shirase Coast |
Geography of Antarctica | Seas | Seas
Scotia Sea (26°30' – 65°W)
Weddell Sea (57°18' – 102°20'W)
Bellingshausen Sea (57°18' – 102°20'W)
Amundsen Sea (102°20′ – 126°W) |
Geography of Antarctica | Ice shelves | Ice shelves
Larger ice shelves are:
Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (30° – 83°W)
Larsen Ice Shelf
Abbot Ice Shelf (89°35' – 103°W)
Getz Ice Shelf (114°30' – 136°W)
Sulzberger Ice Shelf
Ross Ice Shelf (166°E – 155°W)
For all ice shelves see List of Antarctic ice shelves. |
Geography of Antarctica | Islands | Islands
For a list of all Antarctic islands see List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. |
Geography of Antarctica | East Antarctica | East Antarctica
thumb|400px|East Antarctica on the right.
East Antarctica is the larger part of the continent, (50°W – 180°E), both the South Magnetic Pole and geographic South Pole are situated here. Divided into: |
Geography of Antarctica | Areas | Areas
Coats Land (20° – 36°W)
Queen Maud Land (20°W – 45°E)
Princess Martha Coast
Princess Astrid Coast
Princess Ragnhild Coast
Prince Harald Coast
Prince Olav Coast
Enderby Land (44°38' – 56°25'E)
Kemp Land (56°25' – 59°34'E)
Mac. Robertson Land (59°34' – 73°E)
Princess Elizabeth Land (73° – 87°43'E)
Wilhelm II Land (87°43' – 91°54'E)
Queen Mary Land (91°54' – 100°30'E)
Wilkes Land (100°31' – 136°11'E)
Adélie Land (136°11′ – 142°02′E)
George V Land (142°02' – 153°45'E)
George V Coast
Zélée Subglacial Trench
Oates Land (153°45' – 160°E)
Victoria Land (70°30' – 78°'S) |
Geography of Antarctica | Seas | Seas
Weddell Sea (57°18' – 102°20'W)
King Haakon VII Sea (20°W – 45°E)
Davis Sea (82° – 96°E)
Mawson Sea (95°45' – 113°E)
D'Urville Sea (140°E)
Ross Sea (166°E – 155°W)
Bellingshausen Sea (57°18' – 102°20'W)
Scotia Sea (26°30' – 65°W) |
Geography of Antarctica | Ice shelves | Ice shelves
Larger ice shelves are:
Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf
Ekstrom Ice Shelf
Amery Ice Shelf
West Ice Shelf
Shackleton Ice Shelf
Voyeykov Ice Shelf
For all ice shelves see List of Antarctic ice shelves. |
Geography of Antarctica | Islands | Islands
For a list of all Antarctic islands see List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. |
Geography of Antarctica | Research stations | Research stations |
Geography of Antarctica | Territorial landclaims | Territorial landclaims
Seven nations have made official Territorial claims in Antarctica. |
Geography of Antarctica | Dependences and territories | Dependences and territories
Bouvet Island
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Heard and McDonald Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Peter I Island |
Geography of Antarctica | See also | See also
Bibliography of Antarctica
List of Antarctic and Subantarctic islands
Geology of Antarctica |
Geography of Antarctica | Notes | Notes |
Geography of Antarctica | References | References |
Geography of Antarctica | General references | General references
Ivanov, L. General Geography and History of Livingston Island. In: Bulgarian Antarctic Research: A Synthesis. Eds. C. Pimpirev and N. Chipev. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2015. pp. 17–28. |
Geography of Antarctica | External links | External links
High resolution map (2018) – Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA)
Political Claims Map
USGS TerraWeb: Satellite Image Map of Antarctica (archived 1 March 2005)
United States Antarctic Resource Center (USARC)
BEDMAP (archived 25 January 2005)
Antarctic Digital Database (Topographic data for Antarctica, including web map browser)
Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA; USGS web pages)
Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA; NASA web pages) (archived 14 February 2015)
Geography of the land under the ice of Antarctica:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nasa-map-shows-what-antarctica-would-look-like-without-ice-1.1304997
https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap-2/
https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/maps/thematic-maps/bedmap2/
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/7/375/2013/tc-7-375-2013.pdf article in The Cryosphere, 7, 375–393, 2013
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Geography of Antarctica | Table of Content | Short description, Regions, Volcanoes, Marie Byrd Land, Activity, Conditions of formation, Hazards, Hazardous ash, Melting ice, Canyons, West Antarctica, Areas, Seas, Ice shelves, Islands, East Antarctica, Areas, Seas, Ice shelves, Islands, Research stations, Territorial landclaims, Dependences and territories, See also, Notes, References, General references, External links |
Transport in Antarctica | Short description | thumb|300px|Part of a traverse, which was bringing fuel, food, and other supplies from Dumont d'Urville Station to Dome C (Concordia Station). January 2005
Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open era due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, but also by land as well.
Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint.
The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable.
Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system.
Important parts of Antarctic transport include ships, but unlike warmer areas access may also require an icebreaker ship. Aircraft and airports are important but have some unique aspects; airstrips may be built on ice or compacted snow and aircraft with ski may be used. On the ground, transport includes traditionally wheeled vehicles adapted to the cold, but also vehicles with skis, such as snowmobiles are important as are towed sleds. |
Transport in Antarctica | Land transport | Land transport |
Transport in Antarctica | Roads and traverses | Roads and traverses
thumb|Cargo caravan on the ice highway in early 2006
thumb|A Tucker Sno-Cat at Rothera on Adelaide Island off Antarctica
Winds continuously blow snow on roads in Antarctica.
The South Pole Traverse (McMurdo–South Pole highway) is approximately long and links the United States McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. It was constructed by leveling snow and in crevasses, but is not paved. There are flags to mark the road.
Also, the United States Antarctic Program maintains two ice roads during the austral summer. One provides access to Pegasus Field on the Ross Ice Shelf. The ice road between Pegasus Field and McMurdo Station is about . The other road provides access to the Ice Runway, which is on sea ice. The road between the Ice Runway and McMurdo Station varies in length from year to year depending on many factors, including ice stability. These roads are critical for resupplying McMurdo Station, Scott Base, and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. |
Transport in Antarctica | Vehicles | Vehicles
thumb|left|Tucker Sno-cat at McMurdo Station, Ross Island. 2010
The scarcity and poor quality of road infrastructure limits land transportation by conventional vehicles.
A normal car on tires has very limited capability in Antarctic conditions. Scientific bases are often built on snow-free areas (oases) close to the
ocean. Around these stations and on a hard packed snow or ice, tire based vehicles can drive but on deeper and softer snow, a normal tire-based vehicle cannot travel. Due to these limitations, vehicles on belts have been the preferred option in Antarctica. In 1997, two specialized cars with very large tires running tire pressure as low as travelled onto the high Antarctica Plateau, giving strong indication that tire based vehicles could be an option for efficient travelling in Antarctica.
thumb|Antarctica 1 towing a sleigh in 1963
Mawson Station used classic Volkswagen Beetles, the first production cars to be utilized in Antarctica, from 1963 to 1970. The first of these was named the Antarctica 1.
In December 1997 into February 1998 two AT44, 4x4 cars (built in Iceland by Arctic Trucks with tire size of 44-inch tall) joined an expedition by the Swedish Polar Institution (SWEA). The cars got used to transport people and supplies from the Ice shelf to WASA station, to perform scanning of the snow and support a drilling expedition to on the Antarctica Plateau 76°S 8°03'W. This is the first time tire based vehicles successfully travel on the Antarctica high plateau.
thumb|Ice Challenger vehicle at Patriot Hills, 2005
In 2005, a team of six people took part in the Ice Challenger Expedition. Travelling in a specially designed six wheel drive vehicle, the team completed the journey from the Antarctic coast at Patriot Hills to the geographic South Pole in 69 hours. In doing so they easily beat the previous record of 24 days. They arrived at the South Pole on December 12, 2005.Ice Challenger 2005 Retrieved on 2008-10-14
thumb|Foremost Nodwell 240 in Antarctica
The team members on that expedition were Andrew Regan, Jason De Carteret, Andrew Moon, Richard Griffiths, Gunnar Egilsson and Andrew Miles. The expedition successfully showed that wheeled transport on the continent is not only possible but also often more practical. The expedition also hoped to raise awareness about global warming and climate change.
From start of December 2008 into February 2009, four AT44, 4x4 cars were used to support a ski race by Amundsen Omega 3, from S82° 41' E17° 43' to South Pole. A film was made of this race by BBC called "On Thin Ice" with Ben Fogle and James Cracknell. The cars started from Novo airbase at S70° 49' E11° 38', establish a route onto the plateau through the crevasse areas in the Shcherbakov Mountain Range driving nearly to the start line of the ski race. For the return journey each car covered between with one fuel depot on the way.
From 2008 to date (Dec 2015) tire based cars, AT44 4x4 and AT44 6x6 have been used every season to support various NGO and scientific expedition/projects, supporting flights, fuel drops, filming, skiers, biker, a tractor, collecting snow samples and more. The combined distance covered on the Antarctica Plateau is over and even though towing capacity is much lower than for most belt based vehicles, the tire based cars multiply the travel speed and use only a fraction of the fuel making this an option for some expeditions/projects.
A second expedition led by Andrew Regan and Andrew Moon departed in November 2010. The Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition this time traversed the entire continent twice, using two six-wheel-drive vehicles and a Concept Ice Vehicle designed by Lotus.Trans Antarctic Expedition Retrieved on 2011-02-20 This time the team used the expedition to raise awareness about the global environmental importance of the Antarctic region and to show that biofuel can be a viable and environmentally friendly option. |
Transport in Antarctica | Water transport | Water transport
thumb|A tour boat in fast ice near the coast
Antarctica's only harbour is at McMurdo Station. Most coastal stations have offshore anchorages, and supplies are transferred from ship to shore by small boats, barges, and helicopters. A few stations have a basic wharf facility. All ships at port are subject to inspection in accordance with Article 7, Antarctic Treaty. Offshore anchorage is sparse and intermittent, but poses no problem to sailboats designed for the ice, typically with lifting keels and long shorelines.
McMurdo Station (), Palmer Station (); government use only except by permit (see Permit Office under "Legal System"). A number of tour boats, ranging from large motorized vessels to small sailing yachts, visit the Antarctic Peninsula during the summer months (January–March). Most are based in Ushuaia, Argentina. |
Transport in Antarctica | Air transport | Air transport
thumb|A US Air Force C-141 Starlifter participating in Operation Deep Freeze with penguins, 1997
thumb|C-17 lands in Antarctica for WinFly 2003
Transport in Antarctica takes place by air, using fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Runways and helicopter pads have to be kept snow-free to ensure safe take off and landing conditions.
Antarctica has 20 airports, but there are no developed public-access airports or landing facilities. Thirty stations, operated by 16 national governments party to the Antarctic Treaty, have landing facilities for either helicopters and/or fixed-wing aircraft; commercial enterprises operate two additional air facilities.
thumb|A319 lands in 2010
thumb|Twin Otter at the WAIS Divide field camp,2012
thumb|Ski-equipped Hercules taxis on snow runway, 2023
Helicopter pads are available at 27 stations; runways at 15 locations are gravel, sea-ice, blue-ice, or compacted snow suitable for landing wheeled, fixed-wing aircraft; of these, one is greater than in length, six are between in length, three are between in length, three are less than in length, and two are of unknown length; snow surface skiways, limited to use by ski-equipped, fixed-wing aircraft, are available at another 15 locations; of these, four are greater than 3 km in length, three are between 2 km and 3 km in length, two are between 1 km and 2 km in length, two are less than 1 km in length, and data is unavailable for the remaining four.
Antarctic airports are subject to severe restrictions and limitations resulting from extreme seasonal and geographic conditions; they do not meet ICAO standards, and advance approval from the respective governmental or nongovernmental operating organization is required for landing (1999 est.) Flights to the continent in the permanent darkness of the winter are normally only undertaken in an emergency, with burning barrels of fuel to outline a runway. On September 11, 2008, a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III successfully completed the first landing in Antarctica using night-vision goggles at Pegasus Field.
In April 2001 an emergency evacuation of Dr. Ronald Shemenski was needed from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station when he contracted pancreatitis. Three C-130 Hercules were called back before their final leg because of weather. Organizers then called on Kenn Borek Air based in Calgary, Alberta. Two de Havilland Twin Otters were dispatched out of Calgary with one being back-up. Twin Otters are specifically designed for the Canadian north and Kenn Borek Air's motto is "Anywhere, Anytime, World-Wide". The mission was a success but not without difficulties and drawbacks. Ground crews needed to create a runway with tracked equipment not designed to operate in the low temperatures at that time of year, the aircraft controls had to be "jerry-rigged" when the flaps were frozen in position after landing, and instruments were not reliable because of the cold. When they saw a "faint pink line on the horizon" they knew they were going in the right direction. This was the first rescue from the South Pole during winter. Canada honoured the Otter crew for bravery.
In 2021, an Airbus A340 aeroplane operated by Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly landed in Antarctica for the first time. |
Transport in Antarctica | See also | See also
Tourism in Antarctica
List of airports in Antarctica
Bibliography of Antarctica
WinFly |
Transport in Antarctica | References | References |
Transport in Antarctica | External links | External links
Webpage of the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat on logistics
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Transport in Antarctica | Table of Content | Short description, Land transport, Roads and traverses, Vehicles, Water transport, Air transport, See also, References, External links |
Geography of Alabama | Short description |
right|frame|Physiographic regions in Alabama
right|thumb|260px|Political Regions of Alabama
The geography of Alabama describes a state in the Southeastern United States in North America. It extends from high mountains to low valleys and sandy beaches.
Alabama is 30th in size and borders four U.S. states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It also borders the Gulf of Mexico. |
Geography of Alabama | Physical features | Physical features
Extending entirely across the state of Alabama for about northern boundary, and in the middle stretching farther north, is the Cumberland Plateau, or Tennessee Valley region, broken into broad tablelands by the dissection of rivers. In the northern part of this plateau, west of Jackson county, there are about of level highlands from above sea level. South of these highlands, occupying a narrow strip on each side of the Tennessee River, is a country of gentle rolling lowlands varying in elevation from . To the northeast of these highlands and lowlands is a rugged section with steep mountain-sides, deep narrow coves and valleys, and flat mountain-tops. Its elevations range from . In the remainder of this region, the southern portion, the most prominent feature is Little Mountain, extending about from east to west between two valleys, and rising precipitously on the north side above them or above the sea.
Adjoining the Cumberland Plateau region on the southeast is the Appalachian Valley (locally known as Coosa Valley) region, which is the southern extremity of the Appalachian Mountains, and occupies an area within the state of about . This is a limestone belt with parallel hard rock ridges left standing by erosion to form mountains. Although the general direction of the mountains, ridges, and valleys is northeast and southwest, irregularity is one of the most prominent characteristics. In the northeast are several flat-topped mountains, of which Raccoon and Lookout are the most prominent, having a maximum elevation near the Georgia line of little more than and gradually decreasing in height toward the southwest, where Sand Mountain is a continuation of Raccoon. South of these the mountains are marked by steep northwest sides, sharp crests and gently sloping southeast sides.
Southeast of the Appalachian Valley region, the Piedmont Plateau also crosses the Alabama border from the N.E. and occupies a small triangular-shaped section of which Randolph and Clay counties, together with the northern part of Tallapoosa and Chambers, form the principal portion. Its surface is gently undulating and has an elevation of about above sea level. The Piedmont Plateau is a lowland worn down by erosion on hard crystalline rocks, then uplifted to form a plateau.
The remainder of the state is occupied by the Coastal Plain. This is crossed by foothills and rolling prairies in the central part of the state, where it has a mean elevation of about , becomes lower and more level toward the southwest, and in the extreme south is flat and but slightly elevated above the sea.
The Cumberland Plateau region is drained to the west-northwest by the Tennessee River and its tributaries; all other parts of the state are drained to the southwest. In the Appalachian Valley region the Coosa River is the principal river; and in the Piedmont Plateau, the Tallapoosa River. In the Coastal Plain are the Tombigbee River in the west, the Alabama River (formed by the Coosa and Tallapoosa) in the western central, and in the east the Chattahoochee River, which forms almost half of the Georgia boundary. The Tombigbee and Alabama rivers unite near the southwest corner of the state, their waters discharging into Mobile Bay by the Mobile and Tensas rivers. The Black Warrior River is a considerable stream which joins the Tombigbee from the east.
The valleys in the north and northeast are usually deep and narrow, but in the Coastal Plain they are broad and in most cases rise in three successive terraces above the stream. The harbour of Mobile was formed by the drowning of the lower part of the valley of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers as a result of the sinking of the land here, such sinking having occurred on other parts of the Gulf coast. |
Geography of Alabama | Flora and fauna | Flora and fauna
The fauna and flora of Alabama are similar to those of the Gulf states in general and have no distinctive characteristics. However, the Mobile River system has a high incidence of endemism among freshwater mollusks and biodiversity is high.
In Alabama, vast forests of pine constitute the largest proportion of the state's forest growth. There is also an abundance of cypress, hickory, oak, populus, and eastern redcedar trees. In other areas, hemlock growths in the north and southern white cedar in the southwest. Other native trees include ash, hackberry, and holly. In the Gulf region of the state grow various species of palmetto and palm. In Alabama there are more than 150 shrubs, including mountain laurel and rhododendron. Among cultivated plants are wisteria and camellia.
While in the past the state enjoyed a variety of mammals such as plains bison, eastern elk, North American cougar, bear, and deer, only the white-tailed deer remains abundant. Still fairly common are the bobcat, American beaver, muskrat, raccoon, Virginia opossum, rabbit, squirrel, red and gray foxes, and long-tailed weasel. Coypu and nine-banded armadillo have been introduced to the state and now also common.
Alabama's birds include golden and bald eagles, osprey and other hawks, yellow-shafted flickers, and black-and-white warblers. Game birds include bobwhite quail, duck, wild turkey, and goose. Freshwater fish such as bream, shad, bass, and sucker are common. Along the Gulf Coast there are seasonal runs of tarpon, pompano, red drum, and bonito.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists as endangered 99 animals, fish, and birds, and 18 plant species. The endangered animals include the Alabama beach mouse, gray bat, Alabama red-bellied turtle, fin and humpback whales, bald eagle, and wood stork.
American black bear, racking horse, yellow-shafted flicker, wild turkey, Atlantic tarpon, largemouth bass, southern longleaf pine, eastern tiger swallowtail, monarch butterfly, Alabama red-bellied turtle, Red Hills salamander, camellia, oak-leaf hydrangea, peach, pecan, and blackberry are Alabama's state symbols. |
Geography of Alabama | Climate and soil | Climate and soil
The climate of Alabama is humid subtropical.
The heat of summer is tempered in the south by the winds from the Gulf of Mexico, and in the north by the elevation above the sea. The average annual temperature is highest in the southwest along the coast, and lowest in the northeast among the highlands. Thus at Mobile the annual mean is , the mean for the summer , and for the winter ; and at Valley Head, in De Kalb county, the annual mean is , the mean for the summer , and for the winter . At Montgomery, in the central region, the average annual temperature is , with a winter average of , and a summer average of . The average winter minimum for the entire state is , and there is an average of 35 days in each year in which the thermometer falls below the freezing-point. At extremely rare intervals the thermometer has fallen below zero (-18 °C), as was the case in the remarkable cold wave of the 12th-13 February 1899, when an absolute minimum of was registered at Valley Head. The highest temperature ever recorded was in Talladega county in 1902.
The amount of precipitation is greatest along the coast (62 inches/1,574 mm) and evenly distributed through the rest of the state (about 52 inches/1,320 mm). During each winter there is usually one fall of snow in the south and two in the north; but the snow quickly disappears, and sometimes, during an entire winter, the ground is not covered with snow. Heavy snowfall can occur, such as during the New Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm and the 1993 Storm of the Century. Hailstorms occur occasionally in the spring and summer, but are seldom destructive. Heavy fogs are rare, and are confined chiefly to the coast. Thunderstorms occur throughout the year - they are most common in the summer, but most severe in the spring and fall, when destructive winds and tornadoes occasionally occur. The prevailing winds are from the news. Hurricanes are quite common in the state, especially in the southern part, and major hurricanes occasionally strike the coast which can be very destructive.
As regards its soil, Alabama may be divided into four regions. Extending from the Gulf northward for about is the outer belt of the Coastal Plain, also called the Timber Belt, whose soil is sandy and poor, but responds well to fertilization. North of this is the inner lowland of the Coastal Plain, or the Black Prairie, which includes some and seventeen counties. It receives its name from its soil (weathered from the weak underlying limestone), which is black in colour, almost destitute of sand and loam, and rich in limestone and marl formations, especially adapted to the production of cotton; hence the region is also called the Cotton Belt. Between the Cotton Belt and the Tennessee Valley is the mineral region, the Old Land area—a region of resistant rocks—whose soils, also derived from weathering in silu, are of varied fertility, the best coming from the granites, sandstones and limestones, the poorest from the gneisses, schists and slates. North of the mineral region is the Cereal Belt, embracing the Tennessee Valley and the counties beyond, whose richest soils are the red clays and dark loams of the river valley; north of which are less fertile soils, produced by siliceous and sandstone formations. |
Geography of Alabama | Wetumpka Meteor Crater | Wetumpka Meteor Crater
Wetumpka is the home of "Alabama's greatest natural disaster.""Wetumpka Impact Crater" Wetumpka Public Library, accessed Aug. 21, 2007. A -wide meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago. The hills just east of downtown showcase the eroded remains of the wide impact crater that was blasted into the bedrock, with the area labeled the Wetumpka crater or astrobleme ("star-wound") for the concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock can be found beneath the surface."The Wetumpka Astrobleme" by John C. Hall, Alabama Heritage, Fall 1996, Number 42. In 2002, Christian Koeberl with the Institute of Geochemistry University of Vienna published evidence and established the site as an internationally recognized impact crater. |
Geography of Alabama | Public lands | Public lands
Alabama includes several types of public use lands. These include four national forests and one national preserve within state borders that provide over 25% of the state's public recreation land.
land regions
Alabama State Parks
Alabama Public Fishing Lakes
Alabama Wildlife Management Areas
Little River Canyon National Preserve
Russell Cave National Monument
National Forests
Conecuh National Forest
Talladega National Forest
Tuskegee National Forest
William B. Bankhead National Forest
Wilderness Areas
Cheaha Wilderness
Dugger Mountain Wilderness
Sipsey Wilderness
National Recreation Trail
Pinhoti National Recreation Trail
National Wildlife Refuge
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge
Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge
Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge
Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge
Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge
Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Watercress Darter National Wildlife Refuge
Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge |
Geography of Alabama | See also | See also
Alabama
Geography of the United States |
Geography of Alabama | References | References |
Geography of Alabama | External links | External links
State of Alabama Geological Survey
USGS - Tapestry of Time - Alabama
Summary of Alabama Park & Recreation Sites
Interactive Map of Park & Recreation Sites
Encyclopedia of Alabama: Cultural Geography
Encyclopedia of Alabama: Black Belt Region in Alabama
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Geography of Alabama | Table of Content | Short description, Physical features, Flora and fauna, Climate and soil, Wetumpka Meteor Crater, Public lands, See also, References, External links |
List of governors of Alabama | Short description | The governor of Alabama is the head of government of the U.S. state of Alabama. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Alabama's state government and is charged with enforcing state laws.
There have officially been 54 governors of the state of Alabama; this official numbering skips acting and military governors. The first governor, William Wyatt Bibb, served as the only governor of the Alabama Territory. Five people have served as acting governor, bringing the total number of people serving as governor to 59, spread over 63 distinct terms. Four governors have served multiple non-consecutive terms: Bibb Graves, Jim Folsom, and Fob James each served two, and George Wallace served three non-consecutive periods. Officially, these non-consecutive terms are numbered only with the number of their first term. William D. Jelks also served non-consecutive terms, but his first term was in an acting capacity.
The longest-serving governor was George Wallace, who served 16 years over four terms. The shortest term for a non-acting governor was that of Hugh McVay, who served four and a half months after replacing the resigning Clement Comer Clay. Lurleen Wallace, the first wife of George Wallace, was the first woman to serve as governor of Alabama, and the third woman to serve as governor of any state. The current governor is Republican Kay Ivey, who took office on April 10, 2017 following Robert J. Bentley's resignation amidst a corruption scandal. She is the second female governor of Alabama. |
List of governors of Alabama | List of governors | List of governors |
List of governors of Alabama | Territory of Alabama | Territory of Alabama
Alabama Territory was formed on March 3, 1817, from Mississippi Territory. It had only one governor appointed by the President of the United States before it became a state; he became the first state governor.
+ Governor of the Territory of AlabamaGovernorTerm in officeAppointed by175pxWilliam Wyatt BibbSeptember 25, 1817–November 9, 1819James Monroe |
List of governors of Alabama | State of Alabama | State of Alabama
thumb|right|150px|Seal for use by the governor-elect
thumb|right|150px|Governor's flag before 1939
Alabama was admitted to the Union on December 14, 1819., It seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861, and was a founding member of the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861.Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America , accessed July 8, 2015 Following the end of the American Civil War, Alabama during Reconstruction was part of the Third Military District, which exerted some control over governor appointments and elections. Alabama was readmitted to the Union on July 14, 1868.Act authorizing readmission on ratification of 14th amendment: . Proclamation of Alabama's ratification: .
The first Alabama Constitution, ratified in 1819, provided that a governor be elected every two years, limited to serve no more than 4 out of every 6 years. This limit remained in place until the constitution of 1868, which simply allowed governors to serve terms of two years. The current constitution of 1901 increased terms to four years, but prohibited governors from succeeding themselves. An amendment in 1968 allowed governors to succeed themselves once; a governor serving two consecutive terms can run again after waiting out the next term. The constitution had no set date for the commencement of a governor's term until 1901, when it was set at the first Monday after the second Tuesday in the January following an election. However, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that a governor's term ends at midnight at the end of Monday, and the next governor's term begins the next day, regardless of if they were sworn in on Monday.
The office of lieutenant governor was created in 1868, abolished in 1875, and recreated in 1901. According to the current constitution, should the governor be out of the state for more than 20 days, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor, and if the office of governor becomes vacant the lieutenant governor ascends to the governorship. The governor and the lieutenant governor are elected at the same time but not on the same ticket.
Alabama was a strongly Democratic state before the Civil War, electing only candidates from the Democratic-Republican and Democratic parties. It had two Republican governors following Reconstruction, but after the Democratic Party re-established control, 112 years passed before voters chose another Republican. Since 2002, the state has continuously elected Republicans to the governorship.
+ Governors of the State of AlabamaGovernorTerm in officePartyElectionLt. Governor175px William Wyatt BibbAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1st sess., 59, accessed September 25, 2023–July 10, 1820Democratic-Republican1819Office did not exist275pxThomas Bibb–November 9, 1821Democratic-Republican375pxIsrael PickensAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 3rd sess., 29, accessed July 27, 2023–November 25, 1825Democratic-Republican18211823475pxJohn MurphyAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 7th sess., 24, accessed July 27, 2023–November 21, 1829JacksonDemocrat18251827575pxGabriel MooreAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 11th sess., 33, accessed July 27, 2023–March 3, 1831JacksonDemocrat1829675pxSamuel B. Moore–November 26, 1831JacksonDemocrat775pxJohn GayleAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 13th sess., 38, accessed July 27, 2023–November 21, 1835JacksonDemocrat1831Democratic1833875pxClement Comer ClayAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 17th sess., 30, accessed July 27, 2023–July 17, 1837Democratic1835975pxHugh McVay–November 21, 1837Democratic1075pxArthur P. BagbyAla. General Assembly. Journal of the Senate. 1837 sess., 36, accessed July 28, 2023–November 22, 1841Democratic183718391175pxBenjamin FitzpatrickAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1841 sess., 101, accessed July 28, 2023–December 9, 1845Democratic184118431275pxJoshua L. MartinAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1845 sess., 57, accessed July 28, 2023–December 16, 1847Independent18451375pxReuben ChapmanAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1847–1848 sess., 69, accessed July 28, 2023–December 17, 1849Democratic18471475pxHenry W. CollierAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1849–1850 sess., 196, accessed July 28, 2023–December 20, 1853Democratic184918511575pxJohn A. WinstonAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1853–1854 sess., 220, accessed July 28, 2023–December 1, 1857Democratic185318551675pxAndrew B. MooreAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1857–1858 sess., 153, accessed July 28, 2023–December 2, 1861Democratic185718591775pxJohn Gill ShorterAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1861 sess., 207, accessed July 28, 2023–December 1, 1863Democratic18611875pxThomas H. WattsAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1863 sess., 199, accessed July 28, 2023–May 3, 1865Whig1863—Vacant–June 21, 18651975pxLewis E. Parsons"President Johnson appoints Lewis E. Parsons, Sr. as provisional governor of Alabama," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, accessed July 28, 2023–December 13, 18652075pxRobert M. PattonAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1865–1866 sess., 151, accessed July 28, 2023–July 13, 1868Nonpartisan 1865—75pxWager Swayne–January 11, 18682175pxWilliam Hugh Smith–November 26, 1870Republican1868 Vacant2275pxRobert B. LindsayAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1870–1871 sess., 31, accessed July 28, 2023–November 25, 1872Democratic18702375pxDavid P. Lewis–November 24, 1874Republican18722475pxGeorge S. HoustonAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1874–1875 sess., 56, accessed July 28, 2023–November 27, 1878Democratic18741876Office did not exist2575pxRufus W. CobbAla. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1878–1879 sess., 151, accessed July 28, 2023–December 1, 1882Democratic187818802675pxEdward A. 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Comer–January 16, 1911Democratic19063475pxEmmet O'Neal–January 18, 1915Democratic19103575pxCharles Henderson–January 20, 1919Democratic19143675pxThomas Kilby–January 15, 1923Democratic19183775pxWilliam W. Brandon–January 17, 1927Democratic19223875pxBibb Graves–January 19, 1931Democratic19263975pxBenjamin M. Miller–January 14, 1935Democratic19303889x89pxBibb Graves–January 16, 1939Democratic1934Vacant4099x99pxFrank M. Dixon–January 18, 1943Democratic19384175pxChauncey Sparks–January 20, 1947Democratic194242107x107pxJim Folsom–January 15, 1951Democratic19464375pxGordon Persons–January 17, 1955Democratic195042107x107pxJim Folsom–January 19, 1959Democratic19544475pxJohn M. Patterson–January 14, 1963Democratic19584575pxGeorge Wallace–January 16, 1967Democratic19624695x95pxLurleen Wallace–May 7, 1968Democratic19664794x94pxAlbert Brewer–January 18, 1971DemocraticVacant4575pxGeorge Wallace–January 15, 1979Democratic197019744875pxFob James–January 17, 1983Democratic19784575pxGeorge Wallace–January 19, 1987Democratic198249 75pxH. Guy Hunt–April 22, 1993Republican198619905075pxJim Folsom Jr.–January 16, 1995DemocraticVacant4875pxFob James–January 18, 1999Republican19945175pxDon Siegelman–January 20, 2003Democratic19985275pxBob Riley–January 17, 2011Republican200220065375pxRobert J. Bentley–April 10, 2017Republican2010201454102x102pxKay Ivey–IncumbentRepublicanVacant20182022 |
List of governors of Alabama | Timeline | Timeline |
List of governors of Alabama | See also | See also
List of Alabama state legislatures |
List of governors of Alabama | Notes | Notes |
List of governors of Alabama | References | References
General
Specific |
List of governors of Alabama | External links | External links
Office of the Governor of Alabama
Category:Lists of state governors of the United States
*
Governors
Category:Political history of Alabama |
List of governors of Alabama | Table of Content | Short description, List of governors, Territory of Alabama, State of Alabama, Timeline, See also, Notes, References, External links |
Apocrypha | short description | thumb|right|upright=1.4|The apocryphal letter of Sultan Mehmed II to the Pope (), published by Nicolae Iorga. Series 4: 1453–1476, Paris; Bucarest, 1915, pages 126–127
Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word apocryphal (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings that were to be read privately rather than in the public context of church services. Apocrypha were edifying Christian works that were not always initially included as canonical scripture.
The adjective "apocryphal", meaning of doubtful authenticity, mythical, fictional, is recorded from the late 16th century, then taking on the popular meaning of "false," "spurious," "bad," or "heretical." It may be used for any book which might have scriptural claims but which does not appear in the canon accepted by the author. A related term for non-canonical apocryphal texts whose authorship seems incorrect is pseudepigrapha, a term that means "false attribution".
In Christianity, the name "the Apocrypha" is applied to a particular set of books which, when they appear in a Bible, are sometimes placed between the Old and New Testaments in a section called "Apocrypha." The canonicity of such books took longer to determine. Various of these books are accepted by the Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East, as deuterocanonical. Some Protestant traditions reject them outright; others regard the Apocrypha as non-canonical books that are useful for instruction. |
Apocrypha | Etymology | Etymology
The word's origin is the Medieval Latin adjective (secret, or non-canonical) from the Greek adjective , , (private) from the verb , (to hide away).
It comes from Greek and is formed from the combination of (away) and (hide or conceal).
The word apocrypha has undergone a major change in meaning throughout the centuries. The word apocrypha in its ancient Christian usage originally meant a text read in private, rather than in public church settings. In English, it later came to have a sense of the esoteric, suspicious, or heretical, largely because of the Protestant interpretation of the usefulness of non-canonical texts. |
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