=The Power of the Individual.=--It was then that the heir of Cæsar, his nephew[144] Octavian, one of the triumvirs, after having conquered his two colleagues presented himself to the people now wearied with civil discord. "He drew to himself all the powers of the people, of the Senate, and of the magistrates;" for twelve years he was emperor without having the title. No one dreamed of resisting him; he had closed the temple of Janus and given peace to the world, and this was what everybody wished. The government of the republic by the Senate represented only pillage and civil war. A master was needed strong enough to stop the wars and revolutions. Thus the Roman empire was founded. FOOTNOTES: [140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B.C. made these distributions legal.--ED. [141] At a very low price.--ED. [142] 1600, according to Mommsen, "History of Rome," Bk. IV, ch. x.--ED. [143] Grandson.--ED. [144] Grand-nephew.--ED. CHAPTER XXIV THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT THE TWELVE CÆSARS =The Emperor.=--In the new régime absolute authority was lodged in a single man; he was called the emperor (imperator--the commander). In himself alone he exercised all those functions which the ancient magistrates distributed among themselves: he presided over the Senate; he levied and commanded all the armies; he drew up the lists of senators, knights, and people; he levied taxes; he was supreme judge; he was pontifex maximus; he had the power of the tribunes. And to indicate that this authority made him a superhuman being, it was decreed that he should bear a religious surname: Augustus (the venerable). The empire was not established by a radical revolution. The name of the republic was not suppressed and for more than three centuries the standards of the soldiers continued to bear the initials S.P.Q.R. (senate and people of Rome). The emperor's power was granted to him for life instead of for one year, as with the old magistrates. The emperor was the only and lifelong magistrate of the republic. In him the Roman people was incarnate; this is why he was absolute.