● Roman Empire 27 BCE-476 CE

● The democratic part of Rome slowly was phased out

● The senate now voted with the positions of Rome
● The emperors decided that all soldiers must be loyal to them to stop civil war
● The emperor became a symbol to soldiers
● Octavian/Augustus 27 BCE-14CE) turned the republic into a monarchy without the
people noticing
● He called himself 1st citizen, not king and was not aggressive towards getting power
● Augustus pretended to not want power but the people gave him more and more power
● The politicians saw Augustus’s schemes but they couldn’t go back
● Augustus means revered one
● Augustus built a lot of buildings
● He brought back some laws but some couldn’t work because they were made for a
republic
● He established the Praetorian Guards who were skilled soldiers who basically became
police
● He established peace with Parthia
● Augustus warned the empire shouldn’t get any bigger at the end of his life
● First 200 years was Pax Romana ‘Roman Peace’
● Gaius Caligula (r. 37-41 CE)
● Caligula became insane after recovering from being sick
● He made his horse a priest
● Nero (r. 54-68 CE)
● Great Fire of Rome (64CE)
● All of the historical accounts were from senators who hate him
● Nero was not in Rome at the time and went on his balcony to find out how much damage
happened
● He built the Golden House out of some of the burnt land
● Nero killed himself by slitting his throat
● Trajan (r. 98-117 CE)
● Nowadays emperors didn’t fight anymore but Trajan did
● But he loved conquest too much
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