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Roman emperor Augustus question

Was it true the army and the people were the main pillars of Augustus' rule?

Anyone know how to go about answering this cheers!



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Avatar for jadys10
jadys10
14
Original post by oasis12
Was it true the army and the people were the main pillars of Augustus' rule?

Anyone know how to go about answering this cheers!


I thought it was because Julius Caesar named him as the future heir, so he got all the people's support.
The "rise to power" but might help you a bit more:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus
Reply 2
Avatar for Sir Fox
Sir Fox
18
It was his main support, yes, especially at the beginning of his rule and during the civil war before.

But it's a pretty broad question you're throwing at us here. To answer it you need to look at what brought him to power (the civil war) and then what kept him there. Look at his relationship with the army, the people of Rome and the senate and how all of these countered each other and their relationships (e.g. the senate and the army).

In short: he succeeded because he turned the republic into an empire in all but the name, painting the image of an intact democracy and respect for the senate when in fact he held all the power through his numerous positions (Pontifex Maximus, people's tribune, consul multiple times etc.) and controlled the most important province which were the bases of the majority of the state's troops.
I wouldn't say so - it's not like Augustus was using the army to crush uprisings left and right, or the people were squashing dissent or whatever, there just wasn't any.

You could consider what role Propaganda played in the maintenance of his rule, what role his simply being a successful ruler played. Also, it perhaps wasn't clear to everyone even that he was their ruler, he was only princeps after all, not rex​.

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