Surname 1
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Tacitus View the System of The Principate
Introduction
The principate was characterized by a reign of a single emperor and an effort on the part
of the earliest rulers to preserve an illusion of a formal continuation in various aspects of the
Roman empire. In his opening chapter of the Annals, Tacitus gives a history of Rome when his
work begins. At first, there came kings, then came liberty and the consulship. From time to time,
there were moments where there was a one-person rule which was short-lived were. Finally,
Augustus took all the rule under his control which was the beginning of the principate. Augustus
absorbed all the functions of the senate, the laws, and even all the officials.
There was no opposition during the time either. What existed was war, judicial murder,
which disposed of all men of spirit (Tacitus, The Annals, 1.12 (translated by J. C. Yardley, pg.
2). Many survivors discovered that the only way that they could only show obedience by being
successful both financially and politically. Many of them had profited from the revolution, and
they now enjoyed the security they got from the arrangement that came into existence which was
different from the uncertainty of the old regime. Tacitus began the historical chapter with
Augustus because he was the one who came up with the logic of the principate.
The principate did not come with freedom. From the beginning of the rule of Augustus,
there was the principle of service, which meant servitude without freedom and people were
required to embrace servility, which was a slavish attitude for the people involved. The old
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Tacitus View the System of The Principate
Introduction
The principate was characterized by a reign of a single emperor and an effort on the part
of the earliest rulers to preserve an illusion of a formal continuation in various aspects of the
Roman empire. In his opening chapter of the Annals, Tacitus gives a history of Rome when his
work begins. At first, there came kings, then came liberty and the consulship. From time to time,
there were moments where there was a one-person rule which was short-lived were. Finally,
Augustus took all the rule under his control which was the beginning of the principate. Augustus
absorbed all the functions of the senate, the laws, and even all the officials.
There was no opposition during the time either. What existed was war, judicial murder,
which disposed of all men of spirit (Tacitus, The Annals, 1.12 (translated by J. C. Yardley, pg.
2). Many survivors discovered that the only way that they could only show obedience by being
successful both financially and politically. Many of them had profited from the revolution, and
they now enjoyed the security they got from the arrangement that came into existence which was
different from the uncertainty of the old regime. Tacitus began the historical chapter with
Augustus because he was the one who came up with the logic of the principate.
The principate did not come with freedom. From the beginning of the rule of Augustus,
there was the principle of service, which meant servitude without freedom and people were
required to embrace servility, which was a slavish attitude for the people involved. The old
