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Message:: [QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 2833334, member: 39084"]Augustus Caesar (Octavian) [ATTACH=full]668374[/ATTACH] Augustus Caesar’s reign began an era of (relative) peace that has become known as Pax Romana (The Roman Peace).  This is a bit of a misnomer since wars expanding the empire continued to be fought on the empire’s frontiers, but for Roman civilians it was indeed a peaceful time.  He controlled the Roman Empire for 40 years – from 27 BC to his death in 14 AD. He was born in 63 BC as Gaius Octavius of the old and wealthy, albeit plebeian, Octavii family.  After his father died when Octavian was four, he was raised by his grandmother Julius Caesaris (who was Julius Caesar’s sister) since his stepfather (a Roman consul) Lucius Philippus had little interest in raising Octavian.  However, when his grandmother died in 52 or 51 BC, his mother and stepfather became actively involved in his upbringing. By the time he was 17, Octavian had been elected to the College of Pontiffs, put in charge of the Greek games staged in honor of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, eventually joining Julius Caesar’s military efforts in Hispania fighting the forces of Pompey, crossing hostile territory to reach Caesar’s camp.  This latter effort greatly impressed Caesar, and when he returned to Rome, Caesar modified his will to name Octavian as his main beneficiary. After he defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (see The Imperatorial Period), Augustus was in a position to consolidate and rule the entire Republic.  This was a tricky proposition, though: on the one hand, he couldn’t appear to be aspiring to be a dictator and run the Republic as a monarch; on the other hand, he would risk future civil wars if he simply gave up his authority. He accomplished this gradually, starting by returning full power to the Roman Senate and relinquishing control of the provinces and their armies.  In reality, his immense wealth allowed him to retain effective control through patronage, while active soldiers as well as veterans remained loyal to him.  Eventually, the Senate returned control of the provinces to him, and along with that control went the control of most of Rome’s legions.  Augustus was in essence a monarch. Augustus had divorced his first wife Scribonia and married Livia in 38 BC, when she was pregnant with her second chilled Nero Claudius Drusus.  Scribonia had given birth to Augustus’ daughter Julia, and Livia had given birth to her son Tiberius in 42 BC.  Livia’s first husband had fought with Marcus Antonius against Octavian; clearly, Livia knew where her future lay. During Augustus’ reign, the Roman Empire was extended to include Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, Raetia, expanded areas in Africa and Germany, and completing the conquest of Hispania.  He also negotiated peace with the Parthian empire via diplomacy. Domestically his rule was equally extensive and beneficial.  In addition to reforming the Roman system of taxation, he created a system of roads that supported an official courier system, established both a standing army as well as the Praetorian Guard, and used his immense wealth to fund public works projects benefitting all the citizens of Rome. Augustus lived to the age of 75, dying in 14 AD.  It’s uncertain if he died from natural causes or was poisoned by his wife Livia, who was impatient to see her son Tiberius as Roman Emperor.  Suetonius portrays his death as benign, surrounded by family: “Then he sent them all off, and while he was asking some newcomers from the city about the daughter of Drusus, who was ill, he suddenly passed away as he was kissing Livia, uttering these last words: "Live mindful of our wedlock, Livia, and farewell," thus blessed with an easy death and such a one as he had always longed for.” But in the great BBC series I, Claudius, Livia is clearly portrayed as poisoning Augustus, going so far as to paint poison directly onto figs growing on live trees, since Augustus would only eat food he himself had chosen. About the  Coins [ATTACH=full]668376[/ATTACH] When Augustus finally consolidated his rule, according to RIC: "... coinage had consisted, in its final stages, of a flood of silver denarii with intermittent aurei, supported by a token coinage of bronze which had become irregular in both weight and output; this aes, in fact, had not been produced at Rome since c.80 BC, succeeding decades having had to rely partly upon the remains of earlier aes issues." Augustus systematized Roman coinage and established the large orichalcum sestertius as its foundation, but never struck portrait sestertii at Rome during his lifetime. Portrait sestertii instead were struck mainly at Lugdunum (modern day Lyon), where Augustus erected the famous altar of the cult of Rome and Augustus. The sestertii and asses both contained this altar on their reverses. Bronzes of Augustus can be hard to find.  Although struck in great quantities, these bronzes saw heavy circulation and few survive today in other than heavily worn condition.  My Augustus sestertius an upgrade from my original example of this type, with the altar well preserved but the ROM ET AVG legend in somewhat lesser condition. Let’s see everyone’s Augustus coins![/QUOTE]

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