Augustus
• Following the murder
of Julius Caesar, the
assassins were
forced to flee for their
lives.
The Second Triumvirate
• Caesar's leading supporters, Octavian (Caesar's 18 year
old nephew), Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus, joined
to form a second triumvirate that would defeat Brutus
and Cassius in Greece in 42 BCE.
The Second Triumvirate
• They divided the Roman world among themselves, but
they did not share power for long.
• Octavian forced Lepidus to retire from politics.
[Antony was] "...carried away by her to Alexandria, there to keep holiday,
like a boy, in play and diversion, squandering and fooling away in
enjoyment that most costly of all valuables, time."
Plutarch
• Antony fell in love with Cleopatra (queen of Egypt). He
began to give away parts of Roman territory to her.
Civil War
• Octavian used the anger of the Romans to wage war
with Antony's fleet near Actium off the coast of Greece in
31 BCE. Antony abandoned his fleet and they
surrendered.
• Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt and
committed suicide.
• Octavian conquered Egypt, and returned to
Rome as the undisputed ruler of an empire.
• He became the first Emperor (absolute ruler)
of Rome, and was given the title Augustus,
meaning the "highest one."
• He claimed to be restoring the Republic, but everyone
knew the senate did whatever he wanted.
• He became known as "Caesar Augustus." Many of the
later Roman emperors were Octavian's descendants.
"Caesar" was an important title of later Roman
emperors.
• Under Caesar Augustus began the Pax Romana
(200 years of Roman peace and prosperity).