This led to the second triumvirate. The three men who were running in this were Lepidus, Octavian, and Marc Anthony. After Lepidus retired from running for dictator, it left only Octavian and Marc Anthony. As Marc Anthony and Cleopatra set out to take the throne in Rome, they went to western Rome in Asia Minor to win battles. Anthony won the battle of Armenia but soon after returned to Alexandria instead of Rome. When People had wondered why he had done this Octavian said to the senate "Anthony intends to make Alexandria, instead of Rome, the capital of the Roman empire. Anthony is bewitched by Cleopatra. Has he not bestowed upon her provinces which belong to you, as Romans? Has he not deserted Octavia, his faithful wife, for that accursed female (Foster 114)?" Anthony started moving his Egyptian fleet and 200 ships toward a city called Actium. Octavian had a fleet off 400 ships waiting for him, and Octavian soon won the battle. Anthony had heard that Cleopatra had killed herself, and without thought he killed himself so he could be with her. Cleopatra though, wasn't dead. She came back home to visit Anthony's tomb. She then went to her own tomb and poisoned herself. Octavian now stood alone, one ruler who now controlled all of Rome and now a new Roman province, Egypt.

             Octavian now was ruler of Rome. Since he was Julius Caesar's adopted son, in January, 27 BC the senate changed his name from Octavian to Augustus Caesar. From this point on, Pax Romana had begun. Pax Romana is Latin for Rome in peace. Peace was finally restored in Rome, And Augustus was the imperator. Imperator later became know as emperor. Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. The first thing Augustus did to restore peace was present to Rome a new constitution. This constitution "transferred the State to the free disposal of the Senate and people ("Augustus" 370)." There were still several civil wars but definitely not as many as before.