Transcript The Beginning of the Empire

The Beginning of the Empire
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After Caesar’s death, the Second Triumvirate
was formed.
Mark Anthony: A general in Caesar’s army
Octavian: Caesar’s nephew and adopted son
Marcus Lepidus: Another general in Caesar’s
army
All three wanted complete power and civil
war broke out.
Octavian’s armies defeated both men and he
was the sole ruler of Rome.
Octavian
Mark Anthony
Marcus Lepidus
Augustus Caesar
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In 27 BCE, four years after Octavian defeated Mark
Anthony, the Senate awarded Octavian with the title
Augustus
Augustus meant “highly respected” and it marked the
beginning of the Roman Empire
People were so grateful for the peace Octavian’s rule
brought that they gave up their rights to a republic
and made him king.
Augustus’s rule marked the beginning of a time
period called the Pax Romana. It was a period of
200 years of peace.
Augustus ruled for 41 years
Governing an Empire
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The empire was organized into provinces.
Each province had a Roman governor and an army to
support him
Rome allowed its conquered people to keep their
culture as long as there was peace
Many conquered people adopted Roman customs and
language. Roman coins were used throughout the
empire.
Trade was what made the empire successful.
Wine and olive oil were the major exports. Grain was
the major import.
The Mediterranean Sea was cleared of pirates by the
Roman navy
Provinces traded with each other as well as other
countries
Many Emperors
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After the death of Augustus in 14 AD, Rome
had many emperors.
Some bad: Caligula and Nero
Some good: Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus
Aurelius
Under Marcus Aurelius, the empire grew to its
largest size, stretching from Britain to the
middle east
After Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD, the
empire began to decline.
Trajan
The ruler Trajan had this column erected in
133 AD to commemorate his victory in the
Dacian wars. The column is 125 feet high
and has over 2500 sculpted scenes around a
spiral that is 652 feet long. It is made of 19
blocks of marble. The ashes of the emperor
were once set in the base of this column
and his statue had once been placed on top.
Hadrian
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Staggering in the
planning; masterful
in its execution;
awe-inspiring in its
scale. There can
only be one historic
monument in Britain
that truly lives up to
all this hype. And
that’s Hadrian's Wall,
our Roman Frontier.
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Empire under Marcus Aurelius