Rome And Her Enemies: An Empire Created And Des...

Augustus concerned himself with every detail and aspect of the empire. He attended to everything with dignity, firmness, and generosity, hoping, as he said himself, that he would be "called the author of the best possible government." He stabilized the boundaries of the empire, provided for the defense of the frontiers, reorganized and reduced the size of the army, and created two fleets to form a Roman navy. His many permanent innovations included also the creation of a large civil service which attended to the general business of administering so vast an empire.

Rome and Her Enemies: An Empire Created and Des...

As emperor Augustus concerned himself with every detail of the empire. He secured its boundaries, provided for the defense of remote areas, reorganized the army, and created a navy. He also formed a large civil service department, which attended to the general business of managing Rome's vast empire. Augustus was also interested in encouraging a return to the religious dedication and morality of early Rome. His efforts included passing laws to regulate marriage and family life and to control promiscuity (loose sexual behavior). He made adultery(when a married person has a sexual relationship with someone other than his or her spouse) a criminal offense, and he encouraged the birthrate by granting privileges to couples with three or more children.

The constitution of Rome when the republic was in peril, which demanded great and prompt remedies, had need of a magistracy able to provide them. It was necessary in times of trouble and calamity, in order to remedy them promptly, to fix the administration in the hands of a single citizen; it was necessary to unite in his person the honors and power of the magistracy, because they represented sovereignty; it was necessary that this magistracy be exercised with brilliance, since it entailed intimidating the public, the squabblers, and the enemies: it was necessary that the dictator was created for this affair alone, and only assumed authority related to the purpose of this affair, as it was created for an unforeseen circumstance; finally, it was necessary in such a magistracy, under which the sovereign bowed his head and popular laws were silenced, to compensate the grandeur of its power with the brevity of its duration. Six months was the fixed term; a shorter term would not have sufficed; a longer term would have been dangerous. Such was the institution of the dictatorship: nothing better and wiser being established, the republic long enjoyed its advantages. 041b061a72