Vrbem Romam a principio reges habuere ; libertatem et consulatum L . Brutus instituit . dictaturae ad tempus sumebantur ; neque decemviralis potestas ultra biennium , neque tribunorum militum consulare ius diu valuit . non Cinnae , non Sullae longa dominatio ; et Pompei Crassique potentia cito in Caesarem , Lepidi atque Antonii arma in Augustum cessere , qui cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa nomine principis sub imperium accepit . sed veteris populi Romani prospera vel adversa claris scriptoribus memorata sunt ; temporibusque Augusti dicendis non defuere decora ingenia , donec gliscente adulatione deterrerentur . Tiberii Gaique et Claudii ac Neronis res florentibus ipsis ob metum falsae , postquam occiderant recentibus odiis compositae sunt . inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto et extrema tradere , mox Tiberii principatum et cetera , sine ira et studio , quorum causas procul habeo .

Kings first governed the city of Rome ; liberty and the consulship were established by Lucius Brutus . Dictatorships were employed to meet crises . The rule of the decemvirs lasted no more than two years , and the consular authority of the military tribunes was also short-lived . The ascendancy of Cinna was not of long duration , nor that of Sulla ; and the dominance of Pompey and Crassus swiftly passed to Caesar , the armed might of Lepidus and Antonius to Augustus . Augustus then brought a world exhausted from civil dissension under his authority , with the title of ' First Citizen ' .

The Roman people of old had their successes and their failures related by famous authors ; and there was no shortage of fine minds for recording the Augustan period , until the groundswell of obsequiousness frightened them off . The histories of Tiberius , Gaius , Claudius , and Nero were distorted because of fear while they reigned , and , when they were gone , were composed with animosities still fresh . Hence my decision to deal only briefly with Augustus—and specifically with the final days—and then to move on to the principate of Tiberius and its aftermath , without rancour or bias , far removed as I am from motives for these .

When Rome was first a city , its rulers were kings . Then Lucius Junius Brutus created the consulate and free Republican institutions in general . Dictatorships were assumed in emergencies . A Council of Ten did not last more than two years ; and then there was a short-lived arrangement by which senior army officers - the commanders of contingents provided by the tribes - possessed consular authority . Subsequently Cinna and Sulla set up autocracies , but they too were brief . Soon Pompey and Crassus acquired predominant positions , but rapidly lost them to Caesar . Next , the military strength which Lepidus and Antony had built up was absorbed by Augustus . He found the whole state exhausted by internal dissensions , and established over it a personal regime known as the Principate .
Famous writers have recorded Rome ' s early glories and disasters . The Augustan Age , too , had its distinguished historians . But then the rising tide of flattery exercised a deterrent effect . The reigns of Tiberius , Gaius , Claudius , and Nero were described during their lifetimes in fictitious terms , for fear of the consequence ; whereas the accounts written after their deaths were influenced by still raging animosities .