Lasting more than 500 years, the Roman Empire was, at its peak, the most extensive political and social structure in all of western civilization. Its has shaped almost every aspect of our western culture, and its influence can still be felt strongly to this very day. How and when then, did this mighty empire begin, and what was its ultimate undoing?

In 43 BC the then Dictator of the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar, was assassinated. In Caesar’s will his great nephew Octavian was named as his successor. Instead of following Caesar’s example and making himself the next Dictator however, Octavian founded the principate: a system of monarchy headed by an emperor who held power for the duration of his life.