Rome - remained governed by traditional forms
- changes => made in governing the provinces
- half of the provinces (including Egypt) => kept under the direct control of Augustus => sending out representatives to govern in his name
- Augustus: began to create a foreign service (from equestrian class) => this reform eliminated some of the provincial abuses
- Augustus: started to eliminate private tax collectors
- to keep the peace on the borders => he stationed troops permanently on the borders => the empire began to maintain fixed borders with military camps along frontiers

==>> BUT: the empire was undermanaged => a few thousand individuals controlled some 50 million people
==>> the genius of the system => lay in a combination of limited goals on top - maintain peace, collect taxes, and prevent power from accumulating - with actual power exerted at the local level
- the history of the empire is recorded in detail by Livy The History of Rome
    Livy - recorded the development of his city from the earliest times to the principate, he included many speeches (brought the past to life); he emphasized Roman religion and morality, looking nostalgically at the Republican time. He - recognized that the future lay with the new imperial form of government
- the system established by Augustus => not perfect BUT Augustus lived for a long time => the principate became tradition
Tacitus (the Roman historian) - wrote that by Augustus' death in A.D. 14 - no one left alive could remember any other way to govern

Who could succeed him? Who could be the first citizen?
A dynasty was established - it did not matter that the rulers lacked the moral stature of Augustus or traditional republican values
- one of the heirs in this dynasty: Caligula (r. 37 - 41) - an irrational, insane ruler who wanted to be worshiped as a god
- next emperor: Claudius (r. 41 - 54) - regarded by many Romans as an imbecile unduly subject to the whims of his wives;
Suetonius' history of those years:
    - tells us about a series of murders within the family
- Nero (r. 54 - 68): marked the most excessive of the murders (he killed many of his family members - poison); Nero killed his mother; he was despised even by his personal guard; he would slit his own throat, saying How ugly and vulgar my life has become!
- no more successors in this dynasty
- A.D. 69 - Vespasian took power - restored some order to empire; he was a fine emperor
- followed by Domitian; after him => the Five Good Emperors (from Nerva (96-98) to Marcus Aurelius (161 - 1800 => increasingly centralized their power at the expense of the Senate, but they ruled with integrity
* Marcus Aurelius - the highest expression of a ruler whose political life was shaped by moral philosophy
- highly educated in law, poetry, philosophy (he adopted the Stoic philosophy, code dress and way of life); we wrote the Meditations  - notes should be followed by those who rose to power

Colonies:
what could hold the empire together?
- ROMANIZATION:
    - since the Republic - Romans established colonies for military veterans in the provinces
    - to boost the strength of his army Augustus recruited auxiliary troops from the noncitizens population all over the empire. After serving 24 years - veterans received citizenship and land in the colonies => those troops spread Roman culture (Latin language)
- Roman architecture, urban centers, Roman institutions (public baths), aqueducts, roads etc.