Augustus (meaning the exalted) was the name given to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
Augustus Caesar was the first Emperor of Rome. He reigned from 27 BC to AD 14, and restored order after centuries of civil war. Augustus Caesar was succeeded by his adopted son, Tiberius. His successors were known as the Julio-Claudian emperors.
The month of August is named after him. The alternation of 30 and 31-day months was broken so that Augustus Caesar's month would have the same number of days as Julius Caesar's month.
The rule of Augustus is sometimes considered the high point of the classical Roman era. Many of the monumental buildings of central Rome were built during the Augustan era. According to Suetonius,
- "The city [of Rome], which was not built in a manner suitable to the grandeur of the empire, and was liable to inundations of the Tiber, as well as to fires, was so much improved under his administration, that he boasted, not without reason, that he "found it of brick, but left it of marble."[1]