. A history of Rome . med ready to fall to pieces,might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was agreat work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos,a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of perpetuity andstrength. The establishment of the Roman Empire, says Merivale, was, after all, the greatest political work that any human being everwrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne,of Napoleon are not to be compared with it for a moment. Soon after his return from the East, Octavian laid down the ex-traordinary powers which
. A history of Rome . med ready to fall to pieces,might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was agreat work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos,a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of perpetuity andstrength. The establishment of the Roman Empire, says Merivale, was, after all, the greatest political work that any human being everwrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne,of Napoleon are not to be compared with it for a moment. Soon after his return from the East, Octavian laid down the ex-traordinary powers which he, as sole master of the legions, had beenexercising. Then the Senate, acting doubtless in accordance with aprevious understanding or the known wishes of Octavian, reinvestedhim with virtually the same powers but with republican titles; for,mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, Octavian saw to it that the reallyabsolute power which he received under the new arrangements was 106 §121] CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT 107. veiled under the forms of the old Republic. He did not take the titleof king. He knew how hateful to the people that name had beensince the ex-pulsion of theTarquins, andhe was mindfulhow many of the bestmen of Rome, in-cluding the great Juliushad perished because they gavethe people reason to think thatthey were aiming at the regalpower. Nor did he take the titleof dictator, a name that since thetime of Sulla had been almost asintolerable to the people as thatof king. But he adopted or ac-cepted the title of Imperator, —whence the name Emperor, — atitle which, although it carriedwith it the absolute authority ofthe commander of the legions,still had clinging to it no odiousmemories. He also received fromthe Senate the honorary surnameof Augustus, a title that hithertohad been sacred to the gods, andhence was free from all sinisterassociations. A monument ofthis act was erected in the cal-endar. It was decreed by theSenate that the sixth month ofthe Roman yea
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