Caesar and Augustus: What's in a Name (or a Title)?

You've probably seen references on this blog to "Augustus (emperor)" and "Caesar (junior emperor)," and several people have asked me either what that means, or whether "Caesar" was a name or a title. It's probably a good idea to explain just what "Augustus" and "Caesar" meant in the Roman Empire, and what the differences are. The short answer is: The title Augustus refers to the Roman Emperor. Caesar, once a name of a branch of the Julian family, had since become a title denoting the "junior emperor." In the earlier empire this meant the emperor's heir and usually intended successor. Also, in the early empire, Augustus and Caesar were titles the emperor held, whereas the heir and intended successor only held the Caesar title. During the time of the Tetrarchy the title of Caesar also denoted an office, as the empire was ruled by four men through a system of a western Augustus and Caesar, and an eastern Augustus and Caesar. In the Fourth Century the Tetrarchy was abandoned and, while the empire was permanently split into eastern and western halves by Theodosius I, Caesar was retained as the title of the Emperor-designate. A more lengthy explanation follows below.

Caesar as a name

Caesar was originally a name, specifically a cognomen, of the gens Iulia. A cognomen is usually the third name in the Roman naming convention; originally a nickname, it had lost that function when it became hereditary (similar to surnames in medieval England.) The first recorded man with the name "Caesar" reached the Roman office of praetor during the Second Punic War. A much later source claimed that this man had killed an elephant in battle and that "Caesar" derives from the Punic word for elephant. It's interesting that perhaps the most famous of coins minted by Julius Caesar is the elephant-trampling-serpent issue. It has also been speculated that the cognomen "Caesar" means "hairy" or "full head of hair." This would suggest that either the Caesars of the gens Iulia were either renowned for their full head of hair or, given the Roman sense of humor, were known for going bald, as was the famous Julius Caesar (full name: Gaius Julius Caesar.) This story may, however, be a later invention.

Origins of the title Augustus

Julius Caesar's great-nephew Gaius Octavius was named as Caesar's heir in his will and was therefore renamed per Roman convention Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (known to history as "Octavian" between his adoption and assumption of the title Augustus.) After 27 BC (the traditional date for the start of the Roman Empire), when Octavian was given the title Augustus (meaning "majestic," "venerable;" it obviously is the root for the English word "August") by the Senate, he styled himself Imperator Caesar Augustus, retaining the name Caesar to emphasize his connection to Julius Caesar. We know him today as "Augustus," which is how the average man on the Roman street would have known him. Imperator was a title of the Republic bestowed upon victorious Roman generals (it serves as the root for the English word "Emperor" but did not mean, and should not be understood to mean, that a man who held that title was necessarily the emperor.) Throughout the empire's history, the title of Augustus was officially held only by the Roman emperor, Imperator and Caesar could and were held by other men at the same time, most often the emperor’s children/heirs/intended successors. However, while the emperor was the only man who held the title of Augustus, his powers did not derive from the title. There was no constitutional office associated with "emperor." The Augustus was, therefore, the man who held a constellation of offices and their associated powers, such as princeps senatus, pontifex maximus, consulari imperium, and tribunicia potestas.

Change of Caesar from name to title

Augustus's heir, his step-son Tiberius (born Tiberius Claudius Nero), was renamed "Tiberius Julius Caesar" upon his adoption by Augustus and bore the name Caesar as a matter of course. That the name Caesar was becoming a title is evident in the emperor Claudius’s accession – he had no claim to the name Caesar, either by birth or adoption (though he was a member of the Julio-Claudian House.) Yet he is depicted on his coinage as "Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus."

A turning came in 68/69 AD – "The Year of the Four Emperors." The tyrannical Nero, after committing suicide in 68 AD, was the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors. The man who succeeded him, Galba, was the first emperor to use Caesar without either being a member of the Julio-Claudians or being born or adopted a Caesar. Not all of Galba's coins style him Caesar, but some do, along with the Imperator and Augustus titles. Galba also helped solidify what would become standard practice in the later empire when he gave the title of Caesar to his designated heir.

Galba and his designated heir were deposed shortly into his reign by Otho. I have heard it said that Otho did not use the Caesar title; that, instead, he took the title "Nero" at the behest of the tyrannical emperor's partisans. This, however, cannot be, as on all examples of Otho’s coins that I am aware of, he styles himself Imperator Caesar Augustus. In any event, Otho's reign was similarly brief as he was soon deposed by Vitellius. The later used the title Augustus on some of his coinage, but not the title Caesar. Instead, the title Germanicus was widely used, suggesting that Vitellius may have wished to replace Caesar with Germanicus.

So, by Claudius’s reign (41-54 AD), Caesar had probably become a title. Subsequent emperors styled themselves Caesar Augustus, whereas the heir was styled just Caesar. With some variations, this is the convention used for the rest of the empire’s existence.

Caesar as heir and successor

This is clearly evident during Vespasian's reign (69-79 AD). He took the titles Imperator Caesar Augustus and gave his eldest son (the future emperor Titus) the titles Imperator and Caesar. The younger son (the future emperor Domitian) just got the title Caesar. Because Domitian was styled Caesar in his father's reign, because he was given no real power during Vespasian's reign, and because their was no way that Vespasian could have known that Domitian would eventually succeed his elder brother Titus, I don't think Caesar at this time exclusively meant successor. Perhaps it meant a male member of the royal family - a personal title, like prince today.

At least before the Tetrarchy and beyond, there was no formal succession process in the Empire. However, the emperor Nerva began the custom of adopting the heir in the emperor’s lifetime and giving him the title Caesar. This ushered in Rome’s Golden Age under the rule of the Adoptive or "Five Good" emperors – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius – each one the heir and successor of the one before. Marcus Aurelius broke the tradition when he appointed his own natural son, the dreadful Commodus, as heir.

The practice of designating the heir and successor as Caesar continued until Diocletian instituted the Tetrarchy, dividing the rule of the empire into two Augusti and two Caesars. Theoretically, the two Caesars were to succeed the two Augusti. Thereafter, in the fourth century, the heir was again styled Caesar and at some point even Nobilissimus Caesar.

Complicating matters is the fact that emperors often gave their successors the Augustus title, making them co-emperors, for example as the emperor Septimius Severus did with his two sons Caracalla and Geta.

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