The Augustan Legacy
"Perhaps the most instructive aspect of Augustus' approach to politics was his twin recognition that in the long run power was unsustainable without consent, and that consent could best be won by associating radical constitutional change with a traditional and moralizing ideology.
(...)
Augustus devoted his long reign to perfecting and implementing two core policies—constitutional reform, and imperial expansion under one-man rule. But no less important was his management of the provinces. Working with his friend and partner, Agrippa, he spent many years touring the empire. he disciplined, if he did not entirely eliminate, the rapacity of imperial proconsuls; he encouraged urbanization and the Roman way of life; and he extended Roman citizenship to many thousands of provincials throughout the empire.
This had a hugely important consequence. It generated loyalty and gratitude to Rome. It made people feel that they were not victims of the empire, but its stakeholders. They were members of an imperial commonwealth. It was this shared consciousness that helped to bind Europe and the lands of the Mediterranean basin together for half a millennium and more.
How many statesmen in human history can lay claim to such a record of enduring achievement?"
From Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
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