Related: 8 powerful female figures of ancient Rome 14 to 37, largely kept the empire within its frontiers, future emperors did not - with some future military adventures also ending in disaster. 55 to 120) claimed that Augustus, in his final will, advised his successor Tiberius (Augustus's adopted son) to not expand the empire but keep it within its present frontiers. "They say that he was so greatly affected that for several months in succession he cut neither his beard nor his hair, and sometimes he would his head against a door, crying: 'Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!' And he observed the day of the disaster each year as one of sorrow and mourning," Suetonius wrote (translation by John Carew Rolfe).Īt its height, the Roman Empire's roads traversed continents to connect important cities and towns to its capital city. 70 to 122) claimed that this loss had a profound impact on Augustus. The Roman historian Suetonius (who lived around A.D. This met with disaster when three legions, including their commander, Quintilius Varus, were completely annihilated at the Battle of the Teutoburg forest in A.D. The army also advanced deep into what is now Germany in the hopes of incorporating it into the Roman Empire.
During Augustus' rule, the Roman army fought in Iberia, conquering areas that were not already under Roman control. While Augustus wanted to depict his period of rule as peaceful, the reality was quite different. "Among the many images of him, relatively few, especially of the statues, busts and reliefs, depict him as a general," wrote Adrian Goldsworthy, a historian, in his book " Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World (opens in new tab)" (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016).