The Oxford History Of The Classical World

Map 10. The Growth Of Roman Rule

It is plain that the ciuilis princeps Augustus understood the great importance of preserving and respecting outward forms, whether we regard this as evidence of craft and duplicity or
of tact and diplomacy. To have 'restored the Republic' in any literal sense would have been misguided, if not impossible, and as damaging to the loyalties and interests of the mass of
the inhabitants of Italy and the Empire as to any personal ambition of Augustus himself. To have established an overt autocracy would have been to fly in the face of five centuries of
history and discard much that was of immense psychological significance and solid practical value. Augustus chose a middle way, preferring (one of his own favourite maxims) 'to