But apart from their employment as judges, which was often highly contested by some senators, they had never before been systematically mobilized to occupy official posts. The knights, then, broadened the scope of Augustus' assistants in a very valuable way because they represented a whole class of new men from the towns of Italy and the provinces who felt somewhat unattached to the ideals of the traditional Republican leadership and were thus susceptible to the appeal of the new regime headed by none other than Augustus.
Unfortunately, this new system was doomed to failure, not so much on account of Augustus but due to a number of shortcomings associated with the future of Rome. Under this system, the government of Rome was inundated with new masses of persons who soon realized that they too could become important members of society with power and influence. Thus, the system in essence took on far too much responsibility and expanded beyond its own capabilities which eventually, resulting from a vast broadening of its base structure, brought about the collapse of the entire system, aggravated by greed and avarice. In less than five hundred years from the time that Augustus initiated this new system, the Roman Empire tottered on the brink of destruction, due to not realizing that expansion often brings about severe problems which the system itself could not handle nor maintain.
Governmentally, Augustus witnessed the institution of both a senatorial court, presided over by the consuls, and an imperial court in which he himself was the judge. Each of these institutions was based...
Augustus took his duties as president of his court very seriously and from his or the senate's primary jurisdiction, there was no right to an appeal, but another new innovation provided that appeals from other courts could now be heard either by the senate or, far more frequently, by Augustus himself.
Augustus' entire system, political, military, social and moral, was so ingeniously designed and presented that he carried most of the ruling class with him, heavily influenced by his own political supporters, yet the substantial remnants of the Republican nobility regarded his constitution as a sham and remained adamantly disloyal. The story of the entire reign of Augustus could be related as a long list of almost unremitting suspicions and fears, fed by repeated unpleasant incidents which even the continual presence of his highly paid Praetorian guardsmen was never able to bring to a substantial conclusion. Thus, the regime of Augustus paved the way for the future of Rome and all its provinces and conquered lands, even as far north as modern-day Great Britain. When Tiberius succeeded Augustus to become the new emperor of Rome, this new Caesar would attempt to carry on the traditions of his colleague and further influence the coming years and centuries of Western civilization. Yet by the time of the early years of the new millennium, the power and prestige of mighty Rome was beginning to wan and unfortunately would not achieve the status it had reached under the leadership and vision of Augustus.
