10 – 20s

Events in the 10s 2

• 27 BC – 14 Augustus — the reign Augustus rules from 27 BC to 14 AD — 41 years — transforming Rome from a city of brick to a city of marble. He creates a standing army with fixed pay and terms, a praetorian guard, a professional civil service, and a system of provinces governed by his legates. He reforms taxation, builds roads, reorganises the calendar and patronises Virgil, Horace, Livy and Ovid. The Pax Augusta — Roman peace — begins. His succession is troubled: he outlives three designated heirs before Tiberius succeeds him.
• 14 – 37 Tiberius — the second Emperor Tiberius, Augustus's stepson and reluctant successor, rules from 14 to 37 AD. A brilliant general and competent administrator, he is a suspicious and withdrawn ruler who increasingly governs through his Praetorian prefect Sejanus. The treason trials (maiestas) multiply; Sejanus falls in 31 AD, accused of plotting against Tiberius. Tiberius retires to Capri and never returns to Rome. He dies aged 77, possibly smothered by Caligula. "What a man, and how completely he has escaped notice!" — his own words about himself.