Augustus Caesar (September 23, 63 B.C. - 14 A.D), known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, for the period of his life prior to 27 B.C, was the first and among the most important of the Roman Emperors. Although he preserved the the outward form of the Roman Republic, he rule as an autocrat for more than 40 years and his rule is the dividing line between the republic and the Roman Empire. He ended a century of civil wars and gave Rome an era of peace, prosperity, and imperial greatness, known as the Pax Romana, ''Roman Peace.'' Over the next four-hundred years, Rome would establish municipalities across Western Europe and North Africa, build roads, public buildings, and construct the infrastructure of governance that still provides the basis