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Go into any library or bookstore and pick up a book about Roman history. Chances are it'll tell you that the Republic came to an end in 27BC as Octavian becomes Augustus and opens the Roman Empire as it's first Emperor. It's standard Roman history. I've done a lot a writing about Augustus in one way or another and it's dawned on me that we're guilty of seeing things the wrong way. It's the later empire writers that label Augustus as a king by another name and indeed by 500ad Zosimus writes him off as an absolute monarch who abolished the aristocracy. This phenomenon was caused by Roman historians describing the past in terms their contemporary readers would readily recognise, rather than analyse the politics of previous centuries - which would bore their readers stiff. Was Augustus actually an emperor? I say no, he never used ay such title, nor even allowed people to call him 'lord' or 'master'. Nor did he have any legal right to command citizens - he had refused a dictatorship. Nor did he command the entire empire, he kept Egypt as his own personal province and via superior right to military command held sway over about two thirds of the empire. The Senate remained in charge of the rest, and was reformed for efficient government. Under the guidance of Augustus, it must be said, and that caused him some criticism (and still does). He did not rid the Empire of democracy either, he managed vacancies in public offices to avoid public disorder since that was a major issue in the late republic era. It would be the Senate who eventually ignored democracy in favour of asking the guy in charge. Nor did imperator mean Emperor in his day - it meant 'Victorious General' and it wasn't until ad69 that it started to accrue a wider meaning as Rome's boss. So what exactly was Augustus? Of late I've stressed his day job as Princeps Senatus, a lapsed republican position he revived as manager of Roman government. Now I begin to think I missed the point along with everyone else. Augustus remained a Triumvir. He wanted to restore Rome as a prosperous successful state, and indeed, when he was first awarded the right to lead an army by a reluctant Senate he was also made to promise that he would protect the Republic. I think that was what he wanted to do and indeed maintained until he died. it was Antony who got in the way, an uncomfortable rivalry that ended with the defeat of Antony & Cleopatra for which Augustus was well honoured. Okay, you may well ask, but why was that not obvious? Because Augustus had struck a deal, negotiated with the Senate over his privileges. Note that Augustus maintained he was still a triumvir after the Second Triumvirate had finished yet that title vanishes. By the rules, he could not be triumvir alone - it was a council of three reformers, but freed without colleagues obstructing his reforms like Antony did, he could achieve his ambitions - if the state allowed him the privileges to do so. That was the ruse that Augustus pulled off. Not to rule the empire, he didn't, but to reform it with the status and privileges to achieve it. So, I put it to you that Emperor is the wrong title, a medieval conversion of the full autocracy of the Dominate that Rome evolved toward. Augustus instead remained a Triumvir by another name.

On the face of it, Roman history seems, if you'll excuse the pun, cast in concrete. The Republic falls, Augustus claims the empire as ruler, and Imperial history begins. Is it really that obvious? I ask because I'm increasingly drawn to different conclusions that the somewhat flawed accepted story. Time then to outline where I am in this accentuated period in history. What was the Roman Republic? You only have to watch the successful film Gladiator to see how fixated with modern concepts we are. I refer to that hilarious scene where Derek Jacobi attempts to point out to Joachim Pheonix that the Senate was chosen from among the people to represent the people. Really? Someone thought 'republic' meant more or less the same thing as modern America. And no, it most certainly did not, the Senate was a group of senior politicians who had to be wealthy enough to qualify. Representation had very little to with it and historically there many Senators who had little intention of making decisions to benefit the common people. The word 'republic' to modern readers means a type of government. To the Romans, it did not. The word is derived from res publica, or 'for the people'. It was therefore the obligation of privilege to take of the common public, though in fairness many senators would pay lip service to that. The actual regime was neither here nor there, and given that Rome tinkered with its format in small or mighty steps over the course of their history whenever it suited them, then the fact their state remained SPQR .Senate and People of Rome' to the very end in the west rather points to a different interpretation of empire than ours. So what was this 'Fall of the Republic'? It wasn't a change in regime. All the apparatus of government survived the accession of Augustus. Indeed, he set about reforming the Senate, removing the riff-raff, encouraging participation, and making it difficult for Senators to hide in the crowd. Tiberius would later pass on powers from the Popular Assemblies to the Senate so they could govern in his absence. Hardly the powerless gang of elites many dismiss airily. No, it was the loss of of civic duty. Under the Principate, pandering to the public was less important compared to the immediate feel-good factor of panem et circuses 'Bread and Circuses'. The public would be bribed rather than appeased. I have to say, it sort of worked. Yes, you argue, but Augustus was made Emperor? No, he was not. There was no such title in Roman society and anyone attempting it was not going to last long. Monarchy was considered a tyranny by Roman elites in a society that favoured free will and self determination as the mark of civilisation. The public wanted a popular leader, like Julius Caesar, and demanded that the Senate make Augustus a Dictator. He always refused the title, even though the public rioted and threatened the lives of the Senate over it. He endured accusations of being a dictator already. He denied it. With good reason. The Senate had awarded him his far reaching powers and privileges and the title itself had been legally abolished by Marc Antony. Having won a civil war to keep the empire together and prevent a new powerful empire forged from Egypt and the Eastern Roman provinces, to have then sneakily claimed a kingly title would have breathtakingly hypocritical, never mind dangerous. Augustus instead becomes patron to his Roman client. Hardly radical, but it offered a convenient step to managing the empire rather than actually ruling it. This idea that Augustus planned a sinister and clever covert takeover doesn't work for me. Perfect and saintly he was not, but reading accounts of him I get the impression he preferred to do business up front and vehemently disliked subterfuge. Taxing the Germanic tribes occupied by Roman forces was hardly covert was it? Sure, it was greedy and opportunistic, but that was normal for Rome. In any case, Augustus needed effective government and boasts in his Res Gestae that he tried to create the best government possible. So the Republic in fact continues, but now, under single person leadership. The Senate still governs the bulk of the Empire, although Augustus now has the right to intervene if he thought it was necessary. He sends representatives to make sure he isn't needed, and unfortunately, in doing so created a mechanism for appropriating provincial oversight from the Senate, which develops over the next century mostly at the behest of those successors who saw themselves as more absolute than those who preferred to work with the Senate (and who generally did better). This would account for the naming convention and the reason why future leaders would always receive authorisation of their power from the Senate in republican style packages rather than autocratic rights, long after the Senate had dwindled to ritual significance. That brings us to the Dominate, following Diocletian's assertion of absolute power. At that point, senatorial government is effectively over. The Republic still continues, now ruled by men who liked to call themselves Imperator 'Victorious General'. Civic duty has gone. Hence Roman writers say the 'republic is dead'. But an imperial monarchy? I'm sorry, that stretches the point a lot. There are too many anomalies to simply rationalise as a convenient ruse to gaining power. Rome was more complex beast than that.

If a foreign 19 year old young woman with the following features volunteered as a female gladiator in the ancient pagan Roman Empire's Colosseum and brutally defeated and killed many volunteer warlike northern barbarian male adult warriors such as Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, and Germans and many Hellenic male adult warriors such as Greek hoplites and Roman Legionnaires in the Roman Colosseum, how will the ancient pagan Romans react and interact with her? These are the following features of the foreign 19 year old young woman: 1. She is pale skinned, caucasoid, has built a body sexy by modern standards, fit, has breasts that are mildly bigger than the average size, and she is tall. 2. Her long straight hair is completely dyed with slightly dark green. 3. Her finger nails are painted with slightly dark green. 4. She wears a sleeveless backless top which covers most of her upper body down to the waist except the back and the arms. The whole top is colored moderate green. The top has no shoulder straps cause the straps are like that of a bra which means they are around the back. Also, the top has another strap that goes around the back of her waist in order to support the lower part of the top. The chest part of the top is shaped like that of a bra which means that it is shaped like that of a woman's breasts. This is also because the chest part of the top is also the one holding her breasts. The breasts shaped chest part of the top is colored slightly dark green and is made of leather. The breasts shaped chest part of the top exposes the upper parts of her breasts a bit (but not the nipples) cause the upper breasts shaped chest part of the top is essentially just a leather bra. 5. She wears a slightly dark green long skirt with two full slits on both sides which exposes both of her thighs. The slits almost reach her waist which kind of expose her buttocks. Since it is a long skirt with two full slits on both sides, that means that the long front garment part and the long back garment part of the long skirt are separated from each other and are not connected. The long front garment part of the long skirt has a cloth covered mildly heavy object hanging from below it and the back front garment part of the long skirt also has its own cloth covered mildly heavy object hanging from below it so that both the front part and the back part of the long skirt wouldn't swing wildly when a strong wind blows. This is because if the front part and the back part of the long skirt swings wildly by a strong wind, it will expose the young woman's panties which will cause great embarrassment for her. The long skirt is completely disconnected from the top of the foreign young woman which sometimes exposes the foreign young woman's belly button a bit. 6. She wears boots and fingerless gloves which are both colored moderate green. 7. Her socks are the same length as her boots and her boots' length is pretty much just ⅓ of her lower legs from the feet which means that ⅔ of the skin of her lower legs from the knees and the whole skin of her whole thighs are exposed. Her socks are moderate green. 8. She wears panties that are slightly dark green. Also, despite the breasts shaped chest part of her top being essentially a leather bra, she has another bra behind the breasts shaped chest part of her top and is her real bra that is colored slightly dark green. 9. She is not xenophobic and is actually friendly. She has no fear when it comes to interacting with foreign cultures. 10. She learned to speak fluent ancient Latin and ancient Greek despite them not being her native languages. 11. She carries two knives, two brass knuckles, a broadsword, and a polearm blade because she is an expert in some kind of foreign martial arts so she can at least defend herself in dangerous situations. As a volunteer female gladiator, she has brutally defeated and brutally killed many volunteer warlike northern barbarian male warriors such as Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, and Germans and many Hellenic male warriors such as Greek hoplites and Roman Legionnaires in the Roman Colosseum. She has also successfully defeated and brutally killed entire gangs and armies of bandits and pirates that tried to victimize her in the streets of Rome and in the seas and this became a rumour that spread quickly throughout all parts of the ancient pagan Roman Empire. 12. She is great at singing and dancing. She is an expert in non-Hellenic foreign sexy wild graceful energetic forms of dancing. Moderate green is different from slightly dark green cause moderate green is normal green while slightly dark green is slightly darker. She also has her own theme song and the theme song is this in the link below. Listen to it. It is on Youtube. https://youtu.be/FXWBbEBkjp0 This is the original lyrics for the song: [Verse 1] Tojikaketa doa no mukou te wo sashi nobasu naita koe Tonari no oto ni furi muite kieta Kotaemo shiranai ikari bakari de kaki midasareta sekai aga akaku mieteiku Yume ga kurikaeshiteiku youni mezameta [Pre-Chorus] Hanareta hitoriga tsunaida Komochi wa itami wo oshieta [Chorus] I only have one more hand left that I can play There ain’t no time so let’s do it now, I say I’m on a wave, yeah! A sea of flames! My soul is still the same But it has many names! Oh… [Verse 2] Why don’t you show me how much you love To rain down fire from high above? It keeps on flowing on and on Through your heart I can see through the steam It’s getting hot in the dust The bullets whiz through the air Is it curtains for us? You gonna trust They’re gonna tear your world apart Piece by piece [Pre-Chorus] A thundercloud Thundercloud Hammer is beating loud Soon it be coming down [Chorus] I only have one more hand left that I can play There ain’t no time so let’s do it now, I say I’m on a wave, yeah! A sea of flames! My soul is still the same But it has many names! Oh… [Chorus] I only have one more hand left that I can play There ain’t no time so let’s do it now, I say I’m on a wave, yeah! A sea of flames! My soul is still the same But it has many names! Oh… She has translated this song into two languages and the languages are ancient Greek and ancient Latin. She has a wireless molar mic that can be put inside the mouth so it will not be seen. She also has a music player and two very loud loudspeakers. In order to supply the music player, the two loudspeakers, and the wireless molar mic with electrical power, she has a solar power recharger and an electrical generator that can produce electricity. She got all of these from a time traveler. She uses the music player in order to play her theme songs in Greek and Latin. She uses the loudspeakers in many streets of the ancient Roman Empire even in front of the many diverse pagans of the ancient Roman Empire. There are times where she uses the instrumental version of the songs so that she can use the wireless molar mic to sing the Greek lyrics and the Latin lyrics and not let the music player do all the singing which is kind of like singing in Karaoke but the background music is pretty much the same as in the original music and not modified and degraded like in Karaoke. She mostly dances sexily and sings loud and sexily in ancient Greek and ancient Latin in many streets of the ancient Roman Empire in front of the various diverse pagan crowds. She does not want to entertain them but she just loves singing and dancing and she does not care what others think of her. Her dances are non-Hellenic foreign sexy alluring wild graceful energetic forms of dancing. It's as if she is alluring people with her dance but she actually does not mean to allure people cause the truth is that her dance forms are just sexy and she is actually not trying to allure anybody. Keep in mind that she fought as a gladiator in the Roman Colosseum while she is wearing her extremely foreign fashion that I wrote above. So how will the ancient Roman pagans react to these very foreign characteristics and her badass accomplishments as a warrior in the ancient Colosseum, the Roman streets, and the seas? How will the ancient Romans socialize and interact with her? How will the ancient pagan Romans react to her music and her dancing and singing sexily in many streets of the ancient pagan Roman Empire? I just want to know how culturally sensible the ancient pagan Romans are. Keep in mind that these are ancient PAGANS in the Roman Empire and not ancient CHRISTIANS in the ancient Roman Empire cause those two groups are very different culturally, socially, mentally, and morally. I know this is a weird question but I just want to know how culturally sensible the ancient pagan Romans are.