section_path: Sole ruler of Rome/Change to Augustus
section_name: Change to Augustus
paragraph_text: Change to Augustus
  
  On 16 January 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new title of augustus. Augustus is from the Latin word augere (meaning "to increase") and can be translated as "illustrious one" or "sublime". It was a title of religious authority rather than political one, and it indicated that Octavian now approached divinity. His name of Augustus was also more favorable than Romulus, the previous one which he styled for himself in reference to the story of the legendary founder of Rome, which symbolized a second founding of Rome. The title of Romulus was associated too strongly with notions of monarchy and kingship, an image that Octavian tried to avoid. The Senate also confirmed his position as princeps senatus, which originally meant the member of the Senate with the highest precedence, but in this case it became an almost regnal title for a leader who was first in charge. The honorific augustus was inherited by all future emperors and became the de facto main title of the emperor. As a result, modern historians usually regard this event as the beginning of his reign as "emperor". Augustus himself appears to have reckoned his "reign" from 27 BC.
  
  Augustus styled himself as Imperator Caesar divi filius, "Commander Caesar son of the deified one". With this title, he boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, and the use of imperator signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory. He transformed Caesar, a cognomen for one branch of the Julian family, into a new family line that began with him.
  
  Augustus was granted the right to hang the corona civica (civic crown) above his door and to have laurels drape his doorposts. However, he renounced flaunting insignia of power such as holding a scepter, wearing a diadem, or wearing the golden crown and purple toga of his predecessor Julius Caesar. If he refused to symbolize his power by donning and bearing these items on his person, the Senate nonetheless awarded him with a golden shield displayed in the meeting hall of the Curia, bearing the inscription virtus, pietas, clementia, iustitia – "valor, piety, clemency, and justice."