Credit Augustus With the Flourishing of Roman Empire

With the final defeat of Antony, and Octavian's emergence as sole political ruler of the Roman world, the Roman Republic still teetered on the edge of potential disaster. Despite Octavian's victory, and initial attempts to appear as a great advocate for the return of Republican rule, the Republican system had failed irreparably. To reconstitute the administration of Rome's now vast empire was to re-invite a continuance of the social disorder and civil wars that had plagued it for the last century or more. What would be required was a soft and eventual rise of a single man to lead the nation as a whole. Unlike his predecessor and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, Octavian slowly consolidated his position and accepted honors and power gradually, minimizing fear and resentment among the elite classes. Coupled with the fact that most outright resistance to rule through a select few or a single head of state had been eliminated through war and previous proscriptions, the stage was clearly set for Octavian's final transformation.