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Augustus And The First Emperor Of Rome

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Nowadays when thinking about Augustus there is a particularly positive image of him. Not only in popular literature or even movies , but also in academic publications. A clear example of this is the introduction in David Shotter his book: History sees Augustus Caesar as the first emperor of Rome, who brought the city and the Empire from the chaos of civil war to a system of ordered government. Of this overall achievement there is no doubt, for Augustus provided a firm and stable basis from which sprang the expansion and prosperity of the next two centuries, and which enabled Rome and the Empire to withstand they waywardness of many of the emperors who came after Augustus.” This is a view that’s for a great deal influenced by our knowledge of what happened afterwards. Augustus is seen as a breakpoint in Roman history, not only politically but also culturally. The whole image of Romanitas, what it means to be Roman, changed just like the manners of visualising this. A excellent example of this positive image of Augustus is mentioned by art historians N & A Ramage: “His style and approach became a model for subsequent emperors because he had been able to create a visual means of demonstrating the benefits he had brought to the Roman populace. He had also managed to associate himself with great movements and historical figures of the past and to use the aura attached to them for his own advantage. […] The charisma of Augustus served as the model and example not only for the

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