Augustus’s role as princeps blended republican forms with imperial power, preserving legitimacy while centralizing authority — the Principate’s defining paradox.
Caligula opened with popular reforms—amnesties, tax relief, transparency—but after a severe illness turned to theatrical provocations, fiscal exactions, and ritual self‑cult, alienating elites and Praetorians and prompting his assassination: coercive strategy over madness.
The Roman Senate: how SPQR, auctoritas vs. imperium, and figures from Cato to Cicero and Caesar shaped the Republic, its fall, and the Senate’s lasting legacy.
Ancient Rome, founded in 753 BC, evolved from a monarchy to a republic, and finally an empire, marking key events like the Republic's establishment in 509 BC and its fall in AD 476.
