The Octavian changed his name to “Caesar Augustus’ (But was known as Augustus). This was in honour of Julius Caesar. He then takes up the titles Princeps and Imperator, which together gave him the title of Emperor! He became the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
As Emperor, he tries to change Rome back to the way that it used to be and was respected for. He rebuilt 70-80 temples in a year. This shows good leadership because it improves the life of the people. He creates the first Fire Service. This shows good leadership, because it shows that he cares about the people.
He also tried to bring back religion into the Roman Society, because he was religious and he felt that it was important to be brought up with religion. He also introduced entertainment and games. His most successful games were Gladiatorial fights. These were brutal, but were huge spectator sports. This showed good and bad leadership, because while he was providing entertainment for his people, he was slaughtering his own people aswell.
He soon expands the empire, by taking over Egypt, mainly because the Nile delta is fertile, and so they could grow crops, in fact it becomes so vital, that Egypt becomes his private property, this is why all other emperors ruled from Egypt.
These were some of the reasons why Augustus was a good emperor. But he was also partly a bad emperor:
He was dishonourable towards his opponents because he pressured them until breaking point. He was also a liar and a fraud. He was also extremely naïve.
He was naïve because he married a woman called Livia, but all she wanted was to get her son Tiberius on to the throne, but Tiberius is now something with Augustus’ grandchildren. But luckily for Tiberius, two of Julia’s (Augustus’ Daughter) sons had died in mysterious circumstances…Livia poisoned them! However Augustus carried on to believe Livia’s lives, so while Livia was plotting against him, he didn’t understand at all.
Then Julia’s husband, Marcus Agrippa dies. So, Augustus (Under pressure from Livia) makes Tiberius divorce his wife, and marry Julia. They didn’t have a relationship at all. So Julia has countless affairs and Tiberius goes away for six or seven years.
But as Augustus thinks his life is coming to an end, he re-writes his will, and includes Tiberius.
While this is all happening Livia is still poisoning threats, this time it was Tiberius’ nephew, whom he adopted after his brother died. He took him under his wing and Germanicus grew into a threat towards the throne, so Lydia had him killed.
He is a bad leader, because this shows how easily he can be tricked, misled, persuaded or deceived, and these are not good qualities in a leader or a country or an empire.
However he was also a good leader because when he left Rome he left it in a good and stable position, he created 28 new colonies, he cared for people who served his country and rewarded war veterans with land, he worked extremely hard for himself and his country, but overall he put the peoples’ interest first.
Overall, He was a good leader because he made Rome stable, conquered Egypt, and left Rome in a good position for the future, however he was easily misled and deceived, which is a very bad sign in a leader. Augustus was a good leader, but he had some major flaws.
