Table of Contents
Essay 3
Bibliography 9
Focus Questions for Enquiry Topic 10
1.0 Definitions 10
2.0 Sources 10
3.0 Backgrounds, changes and continuities: motives and causes 11
4.0 Effects, Interests and Arguments 12
5.0 Reflections and responses 13
Primary Sources 15
Source 1: Tacitus: Annals, Book 1., Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. 15
Source 2: Cassius Dio, Roman History book 53 16
Source 3: Augustus, The Deeds of the Divine Augustus – Translated by Thomas Bushnell 17
Source 4: Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, trans. J. C. Rolfe 18
Source 5: Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, 2 Vols., trans. J. C. Rolfe 19
Secondary Sources 21
Secondary Source 1: Fagan, Garrett G. Augustus: From Octavian to Augustus: A New Order Established 21
Secondary Source 2: Paul A. Bishop, Rome: Transition from Republic to Empire 26
Source Notes: Representativeness, Relevance, and Reliability 29
Essay
During the late Iron Age period, little was known about the future of the small village of Rome. Situated by the river Tiber in the Italian peninsular, the rulership of the city was dominated by kings until “freedom and the consulship [was] established by Lucius Brutus” This newly founded city state expanded, controlling the rest of the peninsular, then came into conflict with other civilizations in the Mediterranean, who were too competing for survival and dominance. Equipped with the latest war tactics and the cunnings of war generals, Rome slowly dominated the surrounding Mediterranean area, but at the price of blood feuds and civil war. From the unsettled period of the second and first centuries BCE, several notorious personalities sought the ultimate power of becoming imperator of the colossal Republic. The politically and finically drained Republic set ideal conditions for “the need for a "governing leader" of the state.” This new governing leader controlled the provinces, the armies, and the power to convene the Senate, upon finally, the...