4/14 Blog

Notes:

Caesar's reforms:

-Granted citizenship to people in provinces

-Expanded the Senate, adding his friends

-Created jobs for the poor, especially through public work projects

-Increased pay for soldiers

-Started colonies where those without land could own property

 

-The senators saw Caesar's rise in power as a huge threat to their political viability

-They lured him into the Senate, stabbing him 23 times, making sure all were involved

-Senators were not punished

-Octavius was named Julius Caesar's sole heir

 

Julius Caesar's grandnephew - and adopted son - Octavian takes over at the age of 18 with his own triumvirate.

Mark Antony is an experienced general

Lepidus is a powerful politician

 

Octavian forces Lepidus to retire

He and Mark Antony become rivals

Mark Antony partners up with Cleopatra of Egypt

Octavian defeats them at the Battle of Actium

 

He is now the unchallenged ruler of Rome

He was given the honorific "Augustus"

He was also given the title "Imperator"

This is where we get the word "Emperor"

Now Rome is an empire, not a republic.

 

After Octavian's death, power was passed down to emperors

Some were good, some were horrible, some appeared to be completely insane

 

Augustus:

-Ruled from 27 BC to AD 14 (41 years)

-Born Octavian, handpicked by Caesar

-Took over after Julius Caesar was assassinated

-Began the era of Pax Romana

-Expanded the empire into Africa, built a network of roads, established a police force and fire-fighting service for Rome

-Died of natural causes

 

Tiberius:

 

-Ruled from AD 14 to AD 37

-An excellent General, but a reluctant emperor

-After the death of his son, he exiled himself from Rome and left his prefects in charge

-Died at age 77

 

Caligula:

 

-Ruled from AD 37 to AD 41 (4 years)

-Won a power struggle after Tiberius' death

-Known for his cruelty, extravagance, and perversity - an insane tyrant

-Assassinated by a group of praetorian guards, Senators, and the imperial court, trying to re-establish the Republic

 

Claudius:

 

-Ruled from Ad 41 to AD 54

-Suffered from many infirmities: a limp, stammering, shaking, slobbering, possibly because of cerebral palsy

-Took over because he was the last adult male in the family

-Ruled well - built roads, aqueducts, canals, and started the conquest of Britain

-Died by poisoning - it was his last wife's plan (she wanted her son Nero to rise to power)

 

Nero:

 

-Ruled from 54 to 68

-Emphasized the arts

-Huge fire in 64

-He wanted to rebuild Rome to be more majestic

-He hugely overspent, and even raided the temples for money

-Historians do not look kindly on him