(known until 27 bc as Octavian) (63 bc–14 ad) The first Roman emperor. Originally called Gaius Octavius, he took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus when he was adopted by the will of his great‐uncle Julius Caesar in 44 bc. He established his position as one of the triumvirate of 43 bc, gaining supreme power by his defeat of Antony in 31 bc. A constitutional settlement in 27 bc in theory restored the republic but in practice regularized his sovereignty; in the same year he was given the title Augustus (Latin for ‘venerable’). His rule was marked abroad by a series of expansionist military campaigns and at home by moral and religious reforms intended to restore earlier Roman values disrupted during previous civil wars.