3.  General  Powerful Public Speaker  Had huge following among Rome’s poor

4.  60 BC- 1 st Triumvirate – “rule of three” (Caesar, Pompey [PAHM-pee], and Crassus)—a political alliance   59 BC—Caesar became consul Knew that he could not win power without a loyal army Took a special military command—10 years Later, he brought Gaul (France) under Roman rule

5.  Meanwhile, Crassus died in battle in 53 BC.  Pompey made sole consul in 52 BC.  Pompey jealous of Caesar’s rising fame, he ordered Caesar home without his army.  Instead, Caesar and HIS army march on Rome.

6.  49 BC—Caesar declared war on the republic- Jan. 10 th  Pompey and his followers fled to Greece, where Caesar defeated him and then marched into Egypt. He put Cleopatra (daughter of the ruling family) on the throne as a Roman ally.   46 BC—returns to Rome triumphantly

7.  44 BC –declared “Dictator for Life”  Caesar increased the Senate to 900 members but reduced it power. Many senators, fearing Caesar’s ambition and popularity, formed a conspiracy against him.

8.  On March 15—the Ides of March—44 BC, the conspirators killed Caesar in the Senate.  Two were men that Caesar considered friends: Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus.

9.  Note: Caesar had chosen his grandnephew, Octavian, as his heir. A struggle for power, however broke out after Caesar’s death.

10.  19 years old when Julius Caesar was murdered   Formed the 2 nd Triumvirate—“rule of three” (Octavian, Antony—along with Lepidus, Caesar’s second-in-command)

11.  Marc Antony led an army east, reconquering Syria and Asia Minor from the armies of Brutus and Cassius. Then he joined his ally Cleopatra in Egypt.  Meanwhile, Octavian forced Lepidus to retire.

12.  Antony and Octavian divide the Roman world. Antony took the east, and Octavian the west.  In time, Octavian persuaded the Senate to declare war on Antony and Cleopatra.

13.  31 BC—naval battle at Actium, Greece, Octavian defeats their fleet. . 

14.  30 BC—Octavian captured Alexandria, Egypt. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. 

15.  Senate declared Octavian consul—to avoid Julius Caesar’s fate—Octavian did not present himself as king or emperor. Instead, he called himself princeps, or “first citizen.”  27 BC—the Senate gave Octavian the title, Augustus, or “the revered one.” 

16.  27 BC—the Senate gave Octavian the title, Augustus, or “the revered one.” 

17.  Historians refer to him as the first Roman emperor  Because the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire under his reign.

18.  Under his rule, the empire stretched from Spain in the west to Syria to the east, and from Egypt and the Sahara in the south to the Rhine and Danube in the north.

19.  The reign of Augustus, known as Pax Romana or “Roman Peace”—lasted for 200+ years

20.  The political system that Augustus created—reduced the powers of the Senate, Assemblies, & Magistrates   AD 14 Augustus died death unspecified