302R Fall 2026 Caesar Augustus and Rome’s Transition to Autocracy

In the late first century BCE, the ancient Roman state underwent a dramatic transition from a Republic in which power was shared and distributed through the state to a de facto autocracy under the emperors. This class will explore how the first emperor, the man we know as Augustus, achieved this transition and established a state that would endure for centuries. We will consider not only how the Augustan regime continued certain aspects of the Republican system, but also decisively broke from it. We will then look at how the system fared over the roughly two centuries after Augustus’ death in 14 CE.

David Timko holds an M.A. degree in Ancient History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught his first class with OLLI in fall 2025.