adam1234

Was Augustus a dictator or something else? I have read that he offered to give up his powers to the senate but the senate refused for some reason. He gained more and more powers over time to, but how did he accomplish this without the people trying to stop him?

Nick

All Roman emperors were dictators. They held absolute power whether they wanted to or not. The people accepted the emperors as they provided the poor with free bread and gladiatorial combat.

camac

adam1234;
Octavian was given the title Augustus by the Senate and the Roman People. He never took the title Emperor but maintain that he was merely the "First Citizen" of Rome. He was also called Caesar but this was his adopted name which he took when Julius Caesar made him his heir. It wasn't until after Augustus that the name Caesar became synonymous with Emperor.

camac

Diadochi

Augustus =Emperor in disguise. He never took the title but he held the power and did good things with it.

As for the Senate thing. He put a lot of his friends and people who owed him those position there, so not surprising that they would "insist" he keep power. And he had the people's support and love. Win over the mob and you're in a good position for power in ancient Rome.

Marius

That, plus the fact that he had the loyalty of the majority of the army at his back.

Gerard.

These two pages explain the meaning of Imperator and Dictator as far as the Romans were concerned

RomanHistorian

At first Octavian (along with Antony and Lepidus) was a Triumvir, which was a dictator in everything but name. He resigned his status as triumvir when he deposed Antony around 32 BC. It was his prestige that carried him from here on out. He was neither "dictator" nor "emperor". The term "emperor" didn't even have its modern definition until long after the Roman Empire fell, as "imperator" was an honorary title, given to any successful general, which dated back to the early republic. He served several consulships, but these were of no importance.

In 27 BC, he offered to resign from politics, but the senate wouldn't let him. Since it was under him that a century of civil wars ended, they wouldn't allow him to just leave. Here it offered him the two legal foundations for his rule, which he called the "Principate". First, he was given command power over many of the provincial governors (proconsuls). This was technically a sharing of power, since the senate retained command over about half of he provinces. However, since Augustus' provinces had most of the legions, he in effect won control of the army. The second legal foundation was his perpetual tribunition powers. These gave him the power to veto the senate, to preside over the legislative assembly, and made his person and office sacrosanct. These were ordinary powers of the tribunes, only he held the office for life, which, among other things, made his power extraordinary and protected him from prosecution. He did this to preserve the appearance of a republic, even if it was simply a disguise for a new monarchy.

His genius was in not insulting the senate and constitution as Caesar had done. This is why, for example, he resigned the triumvirate, and refused to be made dictator (the office was technically outlawed under Antony's consulship shortly after Caesar's assassination). He made sure that he stood for tribune every year, to make it appear more constitutional, rather than just holding the office for life. He wouldn't even stand for the Consulship every year, since precedent mandated that no one be elected Consul twice within a ten year period. He wrapped Caesar's ghost in Cato's shroud.

Chancellor

During his reign, legislative power was also transferred from the assemblies to the senate. Anyone know about how this was achieved? And this he indeed stand for election as (hi, I thought there were ten) tribune every year as commented? Need some help on straightening this out...

sylla1

As so well explained by several posters here, Octavius aka Caesar Jr aka Augustus was "something more"; the extraordinary magistrature of the dictatorship was abolished by the senate after the death of his adoptive father; BTW the office had been de facto abandoned since the Punic War II (Caius Servilius Geminus was the last bona fide dictator in DLII AUC / 202-203 BC); both LC Sulla Felix and CJ Caesar enjoyed irregular positions illegally acquired that were essentially unrelated with the original magistrature; they were both monarchs in all but name. In fact, CJ Caesar died as "perpetual dictator".

pixi666

In addition to the other stuff posted here, all of which is excellent, it must be noted that in his time, Augustus was not seen as the supreme authority, but as the princeps, literally the first citizen, a sort of 'first among equals'. He gave 'recommendations' to the senate, the army, and, well, the whole empire. It wasn't quite as informal as that, but you get the point.

And this wasn't just Augustus. This system, the Principate, lasted until the reign of Diocletian almost 300 years later. Diocletian reformed the system into what we call the 'Dominate', which basically made emperors divinely appointed monarchs.