Why Is Caesar Augustus Revolutionary

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As each new era ushers in change, there is always one individual that can be associated with facilitating these reforms, Lorenzo Medici and the Renaissance, Galileo and the Scientific Revolution, Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Predeceasing these infamous men is Caesar Augustus. Many argue that Augustus was reformer, others a revolutionary. Augustus was both; he took prior roman laws and tradition and reformed them in revolutionary ways. He kept the traditions and ideals that made Rome strong and used them to reshape a government that would dominate over the Mediterranean arena for the next 400 years. Augustus himself attested to his morality, and vowed to end the corruption within the political society of the time, particularly…show more content…
Many senators were slaves that had been freed and were welcomed to the Senate by none other than Marc Antony. Augustus quickly changed the high level of inflation of Senators; there were over one thousand senators. He needed to reform the Senate three different times to achieve the result he wanted. These reforms occurred in 28, 18, and finally 11 BCE. Augustus did anticipate the possibility of revolt from the senators who had been removed from the Senate. While expelling the excess senators he wore mail under his robes, along with wielding a sword, was surrounded by what he considered to be his most loyal friends in the senatorial class, who conveniently happened to be rather large senators. Simply removing, or pressuring Senators to resign wasn’t enough change for Augustus; he also made being part of the Senate more convenient (as if their life was extremely difficult), meetings of the Senate now were to only be held at the most twice a month, and that in the month of September and October those who need attend were drawn by lots, and this number was only the amounted needed to pass decrees. On issues Augustus found to be of relative importance he would ask senators at random what their opinions on the topic were, to keep the senators on their toes and to ensure that they truly were keeping roman interests at
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