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‘A Period of confusion, unrest, civil strife and violence of all kinds had finally culminated in the emergence of one man as the supreme arbiter of the destinies of the roman world.’ Octavian was that man. During his triumph in 29B.C, Octavian (later to become Augustus) had returned to Rome a hero after having organized the East. Octavian had held the consulship in 31B.C up until 23B.C. The Augustan principate was the …

…of time that it spent as their way of governing. The Augustan principate encompassed both the old and the new; Augustus took aspects from both spectrums and used them to his gain to create a successful system that remained in place for 200 years. J.J Pollit says, ‘The wrinkled hard-bitten, and occasionally tormented look of the late Republican portraiture was replaced by smooth, imperturbable, seemingly impervious to age, of Augustus and his family and associates.’