The Rubicon to Augustus: How Rome Made Room for an Emperor

Rome drove out its kings then gave one man the fate of an empire. How did a republic built to prevent kings make room for an emperor? From the 753 BCE origin tradition to the expulsion of the kings (traditional 509 BCE), Polybius and the republican balance, expansion and provincial commands Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon (49 BCE), civil war, Actium (31 BCE), the settlement of 27 BCE, Augustus and the Principate, to 476 CE and the eastern empire's endurance until 1453 - one question guides it all: how did shared power become one-man rule? Sources consulted include the Res Gestae of Augustus, Tacitus, Polybius (c. 200-c. 118 BCE), and modern reference works for dates. All visuals are oriainal code-drawn illustrations - a stvlized retellina, not historical footage. Spoken dates follow traditional/uncertain chronology where the narration says so.