The Twelve Caesars

Augustus (63 BCE-14 CE) began his life as Octavian. However, after he became emperor the Senate granted him the title “Augustus,” which became the name by which historians refer to him. Further, the word “emperor” comes from an old military title, imperator, which became one of the titles Augustus and his successors used. At the time, Augustus and the early emperors were more likely to use the title princeps (from which our word “prince” derives), which meant “first man.” Even though Augustus held more political power than anyone in the history of the Roman Republic, his genius was in not presenting himself as a monarch but as the first citizen of the Republic. For the sake of convenience, though, historians still do use the terms “emperor” and “imperial” when describing his rule.

As Suetonius suggests, this calculated presentation was the entire basis for Augustus’s resounding success. Unlike Caesar, who recklessly engaged in actions that validated rumors that he was trying to establish a monarchy, Augustus carefully presented himself as a traditionalist, not an innovator. While historians—again, for convenience—talk about the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, Romans who lived in the time of Augustus believed they still lived in a republic. Augustus simply acted in a new constitutional role designed to provide a balance of power to prevent factions and competing aristocrats from tearing the Republic apart, as had happened in the recent past. It was not for another couple of centuries that the emperors of Rome would openly present themselves as monarchs even though they had held such political power since Augustus. However, as we will see with Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, a few of the Caesars were more than willing to test the boundaries of the role Augustus created.

As part of his efforts to restore Roman traditions, Augustus enacted several reforms and also tried to present a modest lifestyle to the public. He had his wife and daughter dress humbly and practice the role of the traditional Roman noblewoman while living in unpretentious housing. Suetonius seems aware that Augustus was highly conscious of what we call public relations. This aspect of Augustus’s public persona becomes especially apparent when Suetonius compares Augustus’s controversial youth with his behavior as emperor.

Another important shift from the republican to the imperial era that Suetonius highlights is the importance of the family. Some of this is seen in “The Deified Julius,” when Caesar cemented his political alliance with Pompey through family marriages. With Augustus, however, family matters took an unprecedented importance more akin to royal politics than that of a republic. The adultery of Augustus’s daughter and granddaughter was severe enough to merit exile. Even more importantly, Augustus’s lack of heirs, due to the deaths of his grandsons Lucius and Gaius as well as Agrippa’s apparent mental instability, became a serious political problem that overshadowed the last years of his reign. Suetonius draws attention to this by heavily implying, based on actual letters preserved in the imperial archives, that Augustus did not fully view his stepson Tiberius as a suitable heir.