12/15/2023 0 Comments Who was after julius caesar![]() ![]() Vespasian was the fourth man to win power in a civil war that raged for over a year after Nero’s death. The outsider: Vespasian (AD 9–79, emperor from 69) In the end he lost the support of the army, followed by the Senate, and took his own life. Yet his ability to remain in power for 14 years testified to the affection for Augustus’s family and the acceptance of imperial rule as natural. A teenager when he came to power, he was fonder of luxury and performance than government. Nero was the last of the four members of Augustus’s extended family to rule. The bon vivant: Nero (AD 37–68, emperor from 54) Yet the imperial system became even more firmly established during his rule. Tiberius was unpopular and far less active than Augustus. By the time of Tiberius’s succession, few people were able to imagine a world without an emperor. The unpopular heir: Tiberius (42 BC–AD 37, emperor from AD 14)Īugustus’s stepson Tiberius was not first choice as successor, but was adopted in AD 4 after the deaths of Augustus’s grandsons. When this was made permanent, he was murdered by conspirators including Brutus and Cassius. Caesar won, and copied Sulla by using the dictatorship as the basis of his power. In 49 BC Pompey and Caesar became rivals when the latter crossed the Rubicon and began a new civil war. The iconic general: Julius Caesar (100–44 BC)Ĭaesar was Augustus’s great-uncle and joined in an informal alliance with Pompey and Crassus, the two most important men in the state. He made himself dictator – turning a temporary emergency measure into the basis for long-term power – and created the first proscriptions, posting up death lists in the Forum, that named hundreds of his opponents. ![]() After fighting a war in the east, he returned in 83 BC and stormed the city a second time. In 88 BC Sulla was the first Roman commander to turn his legions against the city of Rome and seize power by force. The first dictator: Lucius Cornelius Sulla (c138–79 BC) They declared a triumvirate – a board of three supreme magistrates to restore the state, and effectively a joint dictatorship. Augustus now decided to join them, so that all of the murdered dictator’s supporters and soldiers were on the same side – at least for the moment. In the meantime Antony allied with another of Caesar’s old supporters, Lepidus, and so became stronger than ever. Discarding the young Augustus, however, proved difficult, for his soldiers served him and not the Senate. Augustus’s body is carried in state to Rome, and after a public funeral he is declared a god.Īt first it went well, and Augustus’s veterans played the key role in defeating Antony and driving his army across the Alps. It’s later rumoured that he was poisoned by his wife, Livia (below), who feared that he planned to change the succession. For days he roams the palace calling out: “Quinctilius Varus, return my legions!”Īugustus dies in a family villa at Nola. ![]() It is the most serious defeat of Augustus’s career. Three Roman legions led by Varus are wiped out by allies turned enemies among the Germanic tribes at Teutoburg Forest. Augustus has already adopted her two older sons with Agrippa, but both will die young, leaving Tiberius to succeed. Later in the year scandal rocks his family when he exiles Julia (above), his only child, for serial adultery. He eventually recovers.Īugustus is named Father of his Country by the Senate. He publicly hands his signet ring to Agrippa, but doesn’t name a successor to his position. He is now Imperator (or ‘generalissimo’) Caesar Augustus, a personal name without any precedent.Īugustus falls seriously ill and is not expected to survive. Within a year, he and Cleopatra will kill themselvesĬaesar’s heir is given the name Augustus to honour him for his service to the state. Antony flees, with no hope of recovering from this disaster. After one defeat, he was cast ashore with a few attendants and considered suicide.Īugustus, once again relying on Agrippa to command his forces, defeats Antony at the battle of Actium fought off the coast of Greece. The war has pushed Augustus to breaking point. Relying heavily on the skill of his friend Agrippa, Augustus defeats the fleet of Sextus Pompey. Soon afterwards, he joins Antony and Lepidus in the triumvirate. Having raised a private army and helped the Senate defeat his great rival Antony, Augustus leads his army back to Rome and demands to be elected consul. A few days later, it emerges that Caesar has nominated Augustus as his principal heir. On the day Julius Caesar is murdered, Augustus is in Greece, receiving military training ahead of the dictator’s planned invasion of Parthia. Despite this, there is no reason to expect him to have an exceptional career. His father is a member of the country gentry and the first in the family to enter the Senate at Rome. Augustus is born with the name Caius Octavius. ![]()
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