There Can Be Only One. . .
( There Can Be Only One. . .) It was on this day, January 16th, 27 BCE, that Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, was declared imperator , "first among equals," and took the name Augustus, Rome's first Emperor. Augustus' ascension to the Purple ended the Roman Republic and continued the next few centuries as the Roman Empire. Emperor Augustus, and those that followed ruled with absolute power over roughly one-fifth of the earth's surface. However, beneath what had been referred to as the Glory of Rome, for all its power, a flaw lay in its leadership. Augustus was a strong Emperor. Marcus Aurelius had been a strong Emperor. Honorius, for his part, was not a strong Emperor. Roman history was ultimately consumed by this and that claimant to the Throne and that had the effect of pitting Legion against Legion, fighting several civil wars, sapping the Empire's strength, draining the treasury. Say the Republican House and the Democrat Senate along with Preside...