Period of Ascendancy:

63 Gaius Octavius born.

45 Senate confirms Julius Caesar as dictator, as consul for ten years, and grants the use of "Imperator" as a hereditary name.

44 Julius Caesar murdered; the will adopts Octavius as heir; he is now called Caesar by allies, Octavius by opponents, Octavian by historians.

43 Octavian made senator, granted imperium (the legal right to command his army), charged to defend the Republic; march on Rome; Octavian elected consul; his adoption legally recognized; Octavian holds a trial to convict the assassins; Octavian, Antonius, and Lepidus form triumvirate ("tresviri rei publicae constituendae" -- compare the abolished "Dictator rei publicae constituendae"); proscription of opponents in Rome.

42 Julius Caesar declared divine; assassins Brutus and Cassius defeated at Phillipi, Octavian returns to Rome to celebrate his first triumph.

36 Sextus Pompey defeated; Octavian voted a triumph, granted the right to wear a laurel wreath and either tribunician sacrosanctity or power (unclear) for life; Lepidus falls from power.

32 War declared on Cleopatra, companion of Antonius; Octavian administers loyalty oath to himself among population under his control.

31 Octavian elected consul each year through 23; victory at Actium.

30 Octavian victorious at Alexandria, Antonius and Cleopatra dead; Egypt becomes special province of Octavian, ruled by an equestrian appointee, where senators are forbidden to travel (see temple portrait of Pharoah).

29 Octavian celebrates triple triumph, awarded the right to wear a triumphal crown at festivals, the right to elevate citizens to patrician status, the right revise the membership of the senate; new Forum dedicated; gates of Janus closed.

28 Octavian declared princeps senatus for life.

Period of Constitutional Settlements:

27 Octavian "transferred the state from my own power to the control of the senate and people of Rome"; senate decrees the name Augustus, the adornment of his house with laurel, the corona civica for saving the lives of citizens (also the governorship of Spain, Gaul, Sicily, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt).

23 Augustus resigns consulship, perhaps receiving tribunician power for life and proconsular imperium for five years; for two or three years Augustus refuses to stand for election as consul and the assembly refuses to elect a second consul.

22 Augustus accepts temporary control of the corn supply, but refuses offers of dictatorship and consulship for life.

19 Senate and people appoint Augustus sole supervisor of laws and morals with supreme power, but he claims to rely only on tribunician power.

Later Honors:

13 Senate votes to construct altar to Augustan peace (Ara Pacis).

12 On Lepidus’s death Augustus becomes pontifex maximus.

8 The assembly moves to rename the eighth month of the year "August".

2 The senate, the equestrian order, and the people declare Augustus pater patriae.

14CE Augustus dies and is deified.

 

Res Gestae §1:

At the age of 19, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I liberated the Republic [rem publicam… in libertatem vindicavi], which was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which reason the senate, with honorific degrees, made me a member of its order... giving me at the same time consular rank in voting, and granted me the imperium. It ordered me as propraetor, together with the consuls, to see to it that the state suffered no harm [res publica ne quid detrimenti caperet]. Moreover, in the same year, when both consuls had fallen in the war, the people elected me consul and a triumvir for the settlement of the Commonwealth [triumvirum rei publicae constituendae].

The edict of Augustus from Suetonius §28:

May I be privileged to build firm and lasting foundations for the government of Rome [salvam ac sospitem rem publicam sistere -- literally: to set up a sound and secure republic]. May I also achieve the reward to which I aspire: that of being known as the author of the best possible constitution, and of carrying with me, when I die, the hope that these foundations will abide secure [fundamenta rei publicae quae iecero -- literally: foundations of the republic which I will have laid down] [p.66].

From the notice of proscriptions in 43:

No one is to harbor or conceal any of the persons listed below in this register, or arrange to convey them anywhere else, or be induced by payment to do so. If any person is discovered to have saved, assisted, or been privy to information about them, we regard such a person as one of the proscribed, and we exclude the possibility of excuse or pardon. The killers are to bring the heads of their victims to us: For each, a freeman will receive 25,000 denarii, and a slave will receive his personal freedom, 10,000 denarii, and Roman citizenship for his master. The same will hold for informers, and to preserve anonymity the names of none of those who receive awards will be noted in our records [Appian, Civil Wars, IV.11].

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