Reigning Supreme

-Augustus was no longer preoccupied with consolidating power- he was finally the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire!
-Surprisingly, one of the fist crises of his rule was actually a grain shortage, but this ultimately ended up working in his favor.
   -The masses were sick and tired of the corrupt oligarchy running the show and wanted Augustus to kick some ass and get shit running smoothly again...
      -No more "consul-at-large" or "princeps" nonsense- they wanted Augustus as dictator-for-life!
         -However, Augustus turned down the position, pointing out that the ban on any dictators (set up after the assassination of Julius Caesar) was still in effect.
-22 BC- Augustus now wanted to focus on foreign affairs- Agrippa was sent west to Spain to make sure shit stayed under control there while Augustus himself traveled east (maybe to Alexandria?).
   -It was time to figure out how to deal with the Parthians.  It was obvious that the Romans probably wouldn't be able to conquer them, but at the same time the Parthians still had Roman war trophies on display in their court, a huge embarrassment to Rome. 
   -Anyway, Augustus felt that the key to gaining leverage with the Parthians was through Armenia, which at this time were a Parthian ally.
      -Augustus sent his legions to invade Armenia, with his stepson Tiberius (Livia's son from her previous marriage) leading the troops!
         -However, when Tiberius arrived, he found Armenia in the middle of a revolt and civil war!  The monarch, Artaxias II, had been placed on the throne by the Parthians after they invaded the kingdom (which at that time had been dominated by Rome).  However, Artaxias II proved to be a very unpopular ruler for whatever reason(s), so they sent envoys begging Augustus to come in and remove Artaxias II from the throne and install his much more popular brother, Tigranes III, on the throne in his place.
            -So, when Tiberius arrived he crowned Tigranes III as the new king of Armenia, and Armenia was back under Roman domination.
      -Augustus and the Parthian king, Phraates IV, then worked out a peace treaty which said that the Romans wouldn't invade or fuck with the Parthians in exchange for the Parthians returning the Roman war trophies and POWs.
         -Augustus considered this to be a major highlight of his international relations career.
-Also, it was at this point that Augustus made it so that he had his own private military for his princeps position in the name of national security. 
   -This private military was known as the Praetorian Guard. 
      -Augustus set up the Praetorian Guard because it was illegal for him to command the legions of the Italian peninsula from his position, so that's how he got around that.
-Augustus then focused on trimming the immensely bloated Senate numbers from 1000 down to 300.     -He made it so that you had to have a lot of money to be in the Senate, but due to corruption this changed very little. 
      -So, finally he made an inner circle of senators, quaestors, and other officials (about 30 members in total). Then, once they worked out their plans/objectives, the plans/objectives would be hashed out in the Senate to vote on.  It wasn't perfect, but it did make shit more efficient.
         -He also began to pass anti-corruption laws and a civil service sector that offered government jobs across the empire to all- even slaves and freemen!  Surprisingly, this kept everyone happy; the rich got nice jobs and the common folk finally had a hand in government administration.
-Augustus was also super-wealthy at this point. 
   -In fact, he was the richest dude in the empire, which gave him a ton of leverage and the ability to really get shit done. 
      -This made the public love him even more.
-Augustus also wanted to bring back traditional Roman morals and values since society had become so decadent and debauched.
   -He wanted to focus on building a society based on strong familiar structures to set up a stable culture steeped in morality.
      -Men were to be the workers and warriors, and the women were to keep the home nice and be baby factories.
         -Due to the shrinking birth rates, Augustus implemented incentives to encourage larger families and marriage, and cheating on your spouse became a capital offense!
            -Of course, this was really silly and poorly enforced, especially because Augustus was banging random chicks all the time outside of his own marriage haha.
-Among other points of interest in the empire, Augustus really wanted to secure the Alps, since they were infested with barbarian hordes that had still yet to be conquered.
   -So, he put Tiberius in charge of this, along with Tiberius' younger brother, Drusus, as co-general.