The cultural synthesis perfected under the first Roman emperor, Augustus, has been called his age; for the most pivotal era for Roman art, architecture and landscape architecture coincided, between about 50 BC and 50 AD, with radical political transformation from republic to autocracy. The last generations of Republican aristocracy who became its first court society displayed fierce pride in Roman visual culture and its ability to invigorate Greek traditions, as they perfected a style of living which everywhere integrated the arts. Art served ideology as never before: the capital was transformed, the new literatures of Latin's Golden Age circulated its praise, and Augustus' Rome like Augustus' image was exported from Spain to Arabia. Yet as political liberties constricted, artistic ones expanded. Extraordinary invention was encouraged; women, ex-slaves, foreigners became public patrons; parks, libraries, galleries became public institutions. Looking at `the Augustan age', we will debate how one person can affect an empire of art

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