Overview: Imperial Rome. An expanding city made of large squares, palaces, marble, aqueducts, temples. After many years of war, Rome discovered itself to be an enormous and powerful city, the head of all peoples. It was led by a single man: his name was Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian, they called him Augustus, that is, the consecrated one. It was Augustus who brought peace to the chaos and made Rome the center of the universe, creating a center of power that represented the model for the 79 emperors who succeeded him over the course of the following four centuries.