Thus ended the Roman Republic, an end to which it had been tending for the last hundred years. The corruption and demoralization of all classes had rendered a Republic almost an impossibility; and the civil dissensions of the state had again and again invested one or more persons with despotic authority. The means which Augustus employed to strengthen and maintain his power belong to a history of the Empire. He proceeded with the caution which was his greatest characteristic. He refused the names of King and Dictator, and was contented with the simple appellation of _Princeps_, which had always been given to one of the most distinguished members of the Senate. He received, however, in B.C. 27, the novel title of _Augustus_, that is, "the sacred," or "the venerable," which was afterward assumed by all the Roman emperors as a surname. As Imperator he had the command of the Roman armies; and the tribunitian and proconsular powers which the Senate conferred upon him made him absolute master of the state. He made a new division of the provinces, allowing the Senate to appoint the governors of those which were quiet and long-settled, like Sicily, Achaia, and Asia, but retaining for himself such as required the presence of an army, which were governed by means of his Legati. On the death of Lepidus in B.C. 13, he succeeded him as Pontifex Maximus, and thus became the head of the Roman religion. While he thus united in his own person all the great offices of state, he still allowed the Consuls, Praetors, and other magistrates of the Republic to be annually elected. "In a few words, the system of Imperial government, as it was instituted by Octavian, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, may be defined as an absolute government, disguised by the form of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength; and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the Senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed."[73] [Footnote 72: Antony retaliated by sending Octavia a bill of divorce.] [Footnote 73: Gibbon.] [Illustration: Map of the Provinces of the Roman Empire.] [Illustration: Horace.] CHAPTER XXXVIII. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS.