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- Asia Minor › Antique Origins
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Augustus › Ancient History
Definition and Origins
Augustus Caesar (27 BCE – 14 CE) was the name of the first and, by most accounts, greatest Roman emperor. Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus on 23 September 63 BCE. Octavian was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, and then took the name Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BCE the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus ("the illustrious one"), and he was then known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.
Owing to the many names the man went by in his life, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BCE, Octavian when referring to events between 44 and 27 BCE, and Augustus regarding events from 27 BCE to his death in 14 CE. It should be noted, however, that Octavian himself, between the years 44 and 27 BCE, never went by that name, choosing instead to align himself closely with his great uncle by carrying the same name; a decision which prompted Mark Antony ’s famous accusation, as recorded by Cicero,“You, boy, owe everything to your name”.
AUGUSTUS, MARK ANTONY & LEPIDUS
After Julius Caesar's assassination in March of 44 BCE, Octavian allied himself with Caesar's close friend and relative, Mark Antony. Together with another supporter of Caesar, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Antony and Octavian formed the Second Triumvirate in October of 43 BCE. Their first order of business seems to have been the systematic killing of any political rivals and supporters of Caesar's assassins. Exactly which of the three was most responsible for the killings is disputed by ancient and modern writers alike with some claiming Octavian innocent and others ascribing to him the most bloodshed. Having cleansed Rome of the 'bad blood' of their opposition, the Second Trimvirate then turned their attention to Caesar's assassins.At the Battle of Phillipi in October 42 BCE, the forces of Brutus and Cassius were defeated by those of the Second Triumvirate forcing both assassins to kill themselves.
THE PEACE WHICH AUGUSTUS RESTORED (THE PAX ROMANA ) CAUSED THE ECONOMY, ARTS & AGRICULTURE TO FLOURISH.
Between 38 and 36 BCE, Octavian and Lepidus battled Sextus Pompeius (son of Pompey Magnus, Julius Caesar's great rival) for rule of Rome with Antony lending aid from Egypt. The Second Triumvirate was victorious over Pompeius, and Lepidus, glorying in the triumph and confident of his strength, insulted Octavian by ordering him to leave Sicily, the theatre of operations, with his troops. Octavian, however, offered Lepidus's troops more money than Lepidus could pay and his army defected to Octavian. Lepidus was stripped of all his titles save Pontifex Maximus and the Second Triumvirate came to an end.
Division of the Second Triumvirate
AUGUSTUS, ANTONY & CLEOPATRA
During this time, however, relations between Octavian and Mark Antony began to deteriorate. In 40 BCE, in an effort to solidify their alliance, Octavian had given his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage to Antony. Antony, though, had allied himself closely with Cleopatra VII of Egypt (the former lover of Julius Caesar and mother of his son Caesarion) and, in fact, had become her lover. Octavian charged that Antony had mis-used his sister when Antony divorced Octavia in favor of Cleopatra in 33 BCE which prompted Antony to write Octavian, “What's upset you? Because I go to bed with Cleopatra? But she's my wife and I've been doing so for nine years, not just recently. Does it really matter where, or with what women, you get your excitement?”
To Octavian, Antony's behavior in the east, both in private, politically and militarily, was intolerable. He forced the priestesses of the temple of Vesta in Rome to surrender Antony's will and had it read in the Senate. The will gave away Roman territories to Antony's sons and contained directions for a great mausoleum to be built in Alexandria for Antony and Cleopatra, among other stipulations which Octavian felt threatened the grandeur of Rome and branded Antony a renegade.
To Octavian, Antony's behavior in the east, both in private, politically and militarily, was intolerable. He forced the priestesses of the temple of Vesta in Rome to surrender Antony's will and had it read in the Senate. The will gave away Roman territories to Antony's sons and contained directions for a great mausoleum to be built in Alexandria for Antony and Cleopatra, among other stipulations which Octavian felt threatened the grandeur of Rome and branded Antony a renegade.
Among the worst of Antony's offenses was his declaration that Caesarion was the true heir of Julius Caesar, not Octavian. The Senate revoked Antony's consulship and declared war on Cleopatra VII. At the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BCE Octavian's forces, under the General Agrippa, defeated the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra, scattered them (many had already defected to Octavian's side before the battle) and pursued the survivors until 1 August 30 BCE when, after the loss of Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves. Octavian had Caesarion strangled (stating that “two Caesars are one too many”) and Antony's eldest son executed as a possible threat to Rome.
Augustus
Octavian was now the supreme ruler of Rome and all her territories but, in order to keep from making the same mistake his adoptive father had of seeming to covet power, Octavian was careful to characterize all of his political strategems as being for the good of the Republic of Rome. In January of 27 BCE, Octavian resigned his powers humbly only to receive them back from the grateful Senate who also bestowed upon him the title Augustus. Octavian was careful not to refer to himself by that title at any time in public, simply calling himself 'Princeps', or, First Citizen. So carefully did Octavian play the political game in Rome that his claims to restoration of the Republic seemed in earnest, even when he gained supreme power, giving him absolute control over Rome and her colonies.
POPULAR ALREADY WITH THE SOLDIERS OF HIS ARMY, THE TITLE AUGUSTUS SOLIDIFIED HIS POWER IN THE PROVINCES AS IMPERATOR.
AUGUSTUS AS EMPEROR
Popular already with the soldiers of his army, the title Augustus solidified his power in the provinces as Imperator, or commander-in-chief (from which the English word 'emperor' is derived). The month of August was named in his honor. In the year 19 BCE, he was given Imperium Maius (supreme power) over every province in the Roman Empire and, from that time on, Augustus Caesar ruled supremely, the first emperor of Rome and the measure by which all later emperors would be judged. By 2 BCE Augustus was declared Pater Patriae, the father of his country.
The era of Augustus' reign was a golden age in every respect. The peace which Augustus restored and kept (the Pax Romana) caused the economy, the arts and agriculture to flourish. An ambitious building program was initiated in which Augustus completed the plans made by Julius Caesar and then continued on with his own grand designs. In his famous inscription Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) he claims to have restored or built 82 temples in one year. The famous public baths of Rome were constructed under Augustus by his second-in-command, Agrippa, and the poet Virgil composed his epic the Aeneid. Augustus took great personal concern in the arts and was a personal patron of many artists.
The era of Augustus' reign was a golden age in every respect. The peace which Augustus restored and kept (the Pax Romana) caused the economy, the arts and agriculture to flourish. An ambitious building program was initiated in which Augustus completed the plans made by Julius Caesar and then continued on with his own grand designs. In his famous inscription Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) he claims to have restored or built 82 temples in one year. The famous public baths of Rome were constructed under Augustus by his second-in-command, Agrippa, and the poet Virgil composed his epic the Aeneid. Augustus took great personal concern in the arts and was a personal patron of many artists.
Augustus
DEATH
Augustus died at Nola in 14 CE. His official last words were, “I found Rome a city of clay but left it a city of marble” which aptly describes Augustus' achievements during his reign as emperor. According to his wife Livia and his adopted son Tiberius, however, his last words were actually, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.”
Augustus' body was brought back to Rome in state and, on the day of the funeral, all businesses in Rome closed out of respect for the emperor. He was succeeded by Tiberius who he had adopted in 4 BCE and who read the eulogy (along with his own son, Drusus) at Augustus' famously grand funeral. The emperor's body was cremated and his ashes interred in his mausoleum. Augustus' death was mourned as the loss of a great ruler of immense talent and vision. and he was proclaimed a god among the host of the Roman pantheon.
Asia Minor › Antique Origins
Definition and Origins
Ancient Asia Minor is a geographic region located in the south-western part of Asia comprising most of what is present-day Turkey. The earliest reference to the region comes from tablets of the Akkadian Dynasty (2334-2083 BCE) where it is known as “The Land of the Hatti ” and was inhabited by the Hittites. The Hittites themselves referred to the land as "Assuwa" (or, earlier, Aswiya) which actually only designated the area around the delta of the river Cayster in Lydia but came to be applied to the entire region. Assuwa is considered the Bronze Age origin for the name `Asia' as the Romans later designated the area.It was called, by the Greeks, “ Anatolia ” (literally, 'place of the rising sun', for those lands to the east of Greece ).
The name 'Asia Minor' (from the Greek `Mikra Asia' - Little Asia) was first coined by the Christian historian Orosius (c. 375-418 CE) in his work Seven Books of History Against the Pagans in 400 CE to differentiate the main of Asia from that region which had been evangelized by the Apostle Paul (which included sites known from Paul's Epistles in the Bible such as Ephesus and Galicia). The Byzantine Empire of the 9th century CE referred to the region as "East Thema" which meant, simply, Eastern Administrative Division, and later sailors called it "The Levant " which meant `the rising' or `to rise' referring to how the land rose up out on the horizon of the sea.
In the ancient world, Asia Minor was the seat of the kingdoms and cities of:
- Thrace
- Bythinia
- Paphlagonia
- Aeloia
- Phrygia
- Galicia
- Pontus
- Armenia
- Urartu
- Assyria
- Cilicia
- Pamphylia
- Lycia
- Pisidia
- Lycanoia
- Caria
- Mysia
- Ionia
- Lydia
- Troy
ASIA MINOR BOASTED SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE, PLACES & EVENTS IN ANCIENT HISTORY.
The accomplishments and advancements of the people of Asia Minor are vast and comprise a catalogue of some of the most famous people, places, and events in ancient history. According to the historian Philo of Byzantium ( writing in 225 BCE) and later writers, Asia Minor was the site of two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (in the region of Ionia) and the Tomb of Mauslos at Halicarnassus (also known as The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, in Caria). In the city of Miletus, in Ionia, the first western philosopher Thales, and his followers Anaximander and Anaximenes, sought the First Cause of existence, the matter which gave birth to all things, and initiated scientific inquiry and method.Herodotus, the `Father of History' was born at Halicarnassus. The great philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos and Heraclitus, another important philosopher, at Ephesus, where he lived and wrote. Cilicia included the city of Tarsus where the Apostle Paul was born, a region known for its expertise in tent making, which was Paul's vocation.
Lydian Silver Stater
Lydia was the kingdom of the great King Croesus who defied the Persian Empire under Cyrus and claimed to be the happiest man in the world until his defeat and capture by the Persians. Lydia was also the site where, in Greek mythology, the Titancalled Asia lived and, earlier, where the great mother goddess Potnia Aswiya (Mistress of Assuwa) was worshipped (who became Artemis and whose great temple was dedicated in the capital of Lydia, at Ephesus). Phrygia was the mythological birthplace of Rhea, the Greek Mother of the Gods and the City of Troy was made famous in Homer ’s 8th century BCE works the Illiad and the Odyssey. The region of Asia Minor is regarded as the birthplace of coinage and the first to use coined money in trade; which of the kingdoms were the first to do this, however, is much disputed.
GREEK COLONISTS SETTLED THE COASTLINE OF ASIA MINOR FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE BLACK SEA.
Between 1250 and 1200 BCE the Sea People 's invaded from the south, making incursions into Greece, harassing Egypt, and finally driving the Hittites from the region of Assuwa. The Sea Peoples did not remain to colonize the area, however (at least not to any important degree) and eventually moved on to settle, in part, to the south in Canaan. Greek colonists, mainly from Athens and surrounding Attica, settled the coastline of Asia Minor from the Mediterranean up to the Black Sea. It was these Ionian colonies which, supported and funded by Athens and Eretria, rose in revolt when the area came under Persian control, provoking the wrath of the Persian king Darius I and the first invasion of Greece in 490 BCE which was repelled at the Battle of Marathon.
Celsus Library, Ephesos
Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 334-333 BCE and conquered Asia Minor. In Gordium, capital of Phrygia, he is claimed to have famously cut the Gordian Knot which the oracles claimed meant Alexander would be king of Asia. Following his death the land was governed by his general Antigonus in the north and west and his other general Seleucus to the south and east and was prominently involved in the Wars of the Diadochi (the wars of Alexander's successors). The region remained unstable throughout the rule of the Hellenistic governors until the coming of Rome in 133 BCE (King Attalus III of Pergamon left his city to Rome in his will and thus invited the Roman presence into the region). After 133, Rome steadily conquered or annexed the cities of Asia Minor until it was wholly a Roman province.
Under Roman rule, the land became stabilized; roads were built and the infrastructures of many of the cities improved. The coastal communities flourished and Ephesus, especially, enjoyed great prosperity until the rise of Christianity when `earthly' advances in the region were neglected in anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ. The Byzantine Empire controlled the region after the fall of Rome in 476 CE and, after the rise of Islam, the later Byzantine Christians fought the Islamic Fatimids for the land until the coming of the Seljuq Turks in 1068 CE. Turkish control increased in the region until 1299 CE when Asia Minor became part of the Ottoman Empire and, after its collapse, became Turkey.
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