His popularity among the warriors was guaranteed by his military reforms. Augustus made the Roman army really regular with unified traning, arms and command. He sent veterans to the colonies as agents of Roman influence thusly resolving two problems at a time: this allowed to quickly Romanize large territories and gave work to thousands of soldiers whose numbers far exceeded the needs of peace protection. Roman Expansion to Northern and Western Europe Expansion of Roman colonies and reforms of provincial administration followed.
Roman cults were brought to “wild” areas of Northern and Western Europe. Rome reached its “natural” frontier on the Rhine and Danube rivers that could never be longer expanded. In the provinces controlled by Rome people both in towns and villages adopted Roman customs and language. Literary Flowering and Social Changes A long period of prosperity during and after Augustus’s rule naturally resulted in prosperity of society and culture. This was a humanistic worldly culture. Poets like Virgil praised Roman lifestyle in all aspects.
Peace and order inside a huge territory of the empire was now named Pax Romana, while Roman history was tied by Virgil to the glorious Greek history in the Aeneid. He portrayed Rome as a protector and grantor of general well-being. A more “urban” approach towards Roman prosperity has been demonstrated by Ovid. Great heroes of the republic were chanted by Livy in his historical writings. Livy was not only a historian but a moralist who applied history to the matters of daily existence and for whom heroes were examples for future generations. Moralization was still a general trend of Roman culture at the time.
The Coming of Christianity Perhaps against their own will Romans allowed Christianity to become a world religion. Execution of Jesus by a Roman procurator was a minor event for Rome, yet had enormous impact on the further history of western civilization. Unrest in Judaea Judaea was put under Roman control already during Augustus’s rule, although the guerilla wars and rebellions continued in the region for another hundred years. The toils of war contributed greatly to visions of the future Messiah coming among Jews. At the same time traditional Roman cults became disintegrated and mixed up with local religions.