Was The First Emperor Of Rome So A Good Thing - 1214 Words

According to many historians Augustus was not only the first emperor of Rome but also the greatest. During his long and impressive career Augustus dissolved the faulty governmental system of the Republic and created a new basis of Roman government that stood for three centuries. On his death bed Augustus was purported to have said: â€Å"Did I play my part well?† Through examination of his reforms of the Roman tax and legal system, as well as his role in creating the Pax Romana and a stable military it is evident that Augustus’s reing and reformes was a good thing. The success of the Roman Empire in the centuries after Augustus reign may be attributed to his public revenue reforms. Previous taxation worked by extracting varying and random†¦show more content†¦Tax farmers could receive great profits from privatising tax as without supervision they had the ability to cruelly and corruptly extract from taxpayers. Extractions often considered of an unjustified amount and were incredibly harmful to the economy. Augustus sought the abolishment of private tax farmers and replaced them with civil service tax collectors. These individuals received a salary for their work to ensure they completed a good and honest job. Together these tax reforms not only created a boost in Rome’s net worth but also created a happier populace who perceived fair treatment from their government. Augustus legal reforms established a Roman government that lasted for 3 centuries. His new system was termed the ‘Principate’ (Augustus et al., 1967). By the end of Caeasr’s life the Roman Republic has not been functioning for many years. Upon Sextus Pompeius defeat in 36 BC Augustus declared that all the records of his past acts should be destroyed (Augustus et al., 1967). He was starting over and so began to form the Principate. He began his reform of the Roman Empire’s administration by moving the senate from being the chief of state to being a subordinate entity of administrators that were at Augustus’s disposal. To prevent uprising from the senate Augustus complimented this move by creating ‘suffect consulships, a supplementary consulship’ (Flower, 2004). This almost doubled the amount of consuls,