1. Augustus Exited the Scene in Style
After Caesar’s assassination, the office of dictator was formally abolished. In 23 BC, the Senate offered to revive the office and make Augustus dictator. Augustus was well aware of his uncle’s fate and wanted to avoid it, so he declined. However, he accepted the executive powers of a consul for life, as well as those of a tribune – whose person was theoretically inviolate. Thus, Augustus effectively assumed the powers of a dictator for life, without the title. That setup was passed on to his successors. The Roman Empire ushered in by Augustus as dictator in fact but not in name, replaced the Roman Republic.
The new state was a stable, autocratic, and centralized de-facto monarchy, whose founding kicked off a period known as the Pax Romana. It brought the Roman world two centuries of peace and prosperity. Augustus held power from 43 BC, first in conjunction with Mark Antony until 31 BC, and thereafter alone, until his death in 14 AD. As he lay on his deathbed, Augustus compared the role he had played as emperor to that of an actor on a stage. His last words to those gathered around his deathbed were: “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.”
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Ancient Origins – Ancient Romans Brushed Their Teeth With Urine
AV Club – Wikipedia Erected a Page to Explain Ancient Rome’s Fascination With the Phallus
Ball, Warwick – Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (2000)
Daily Beast – How a Fart Killed 10,000 People
Dawson, Jim – Who Cut the Cheese? A Cultural History of the Fart (1998)
Eck, Werner – The Age of Augustus (2002)
Folk Texts – Breaking Wind: Legendary Farts
Goldsworthy, Adrian – Augustus: First Emperor of Rome (2014)
Goldsworthy, Adrian – The Complete Roman Army (2003)
Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1932) – Cremation and Burial in the Roman Empire
History Collection – Celebrities in the Ancient World
Kang, Lydia – Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything (2017)
Med Page Today – Gladiator Blood and Liquid Gold: Good for What Ails You?
Messy Nessy Chic – When the Phallus Was Fashion
Nature, May 24th, 2016 – The Secret History of Ancient Toilets
Parkin, Tim, and Pomeroy, Arthur – Roman Social History (2007)
Plutarch – The Parallel Lives: The Life of Tiberius Gracchus
Scullard, Howard Hayes – From the Gracchi to Nero (1982)
Severy, Beth – Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (2003)
Ranker – What it Was Like to Live in Ancient Rome During its Golden Age
Rowell, Henry Thompson – Rome in the Augustan Age (1962)
Suetonius – The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Augustus
Vintage News – The Romans Used Urine For Mouthwash
Washington Post, February 17th, 2016 – Lead Poisoning and the Fall of Rome