emperor's groove

Last Blog, I talked about Caesar's rule and how the senators murdered him, but today I will talk about the aftermath. Caesar had a grandnephew and adopted son named Octavian who , at age 18, formed his own triumvirate with general Mark Antony and politician Lepidus. Ten years after this triumvirate defeated Brutus and Cassius's army, Octavian started to get power-hungry. Octavian starts gaining power by forcing Lepidus to retire, and then becoming rivals with Mark Antony. Octavian defeated Antony, who was partnered up with Cleopatra, in the battle of Actium. Mark and Cleopatra ended up both committing suicide. Octavian became ruler of Rome, and was re-named Augustus which means "exalted one". He was also given the title imperator which meant he was in charge of the military. The senators didn't know it, but their decision to kill Caesar still ended up in the republic falling. Rome became an empire. Augustus ruled for 40 years and started Pax Romana. Pax Romana is the era of peace and prosperity Rome had. This era lasted 207 years. This era started because of some of the great things Augustus did for Rome like: he Expanded the Roman Empire further into Africa, he set up civil service to run the government/empire, built a network of roads, collected taxes, established a postal service, administered the grain supply, built awesome public buildings & aqueducts, set up a police department, and ran a fire-fighting organization. After Octavian/Augustus's death, many emperors came after. Tiberius was an excellent general, but he did not take his emperor position seriously, After his sons death, he exiled himself from Rome and left his prefects in charge. Another crazy emperor is Caligula who became emperor after he won a power struggle for Tiberius's power. He was an insane tyrant who ruled harshly. He only ruled for four years before he was assassinated by a group of praetorian guards, Senators, and the imperial court, trying to re-establish the Republic. The empire continued with Claudius who suffered from many infirmities: a limp, stammering, shaking, and slobbering. Historians think this could've been because he had cerebral palsy. Claudius was forced to rule because he was the last adult male in his family, but he ruled well because he built roads, aqueducts, canals, and started the conquest of Britain. He soon poisoned by his wife because she wanted her son Nero to rule. Nero from 54 to 68 AD, and centered his rule around the arts. The was a huge fire in Rome around 64 AD, but Nero didn't give it much thought. He wanted to build Rome to be majestic, but he overspent and had to raid temples to pay for the building costs. If only the Senators had not killed Caesar....