Social, Political, and Economic Structures of Imperial Rome   This chapter describes how social tensions arising from the acquisition of an empire led to the fall of the Roman Republic, and how Octavian, later known as Augustus, emerged from the resulting civil wars to lay the foundation of a new system of government. A brief history is given of the first emperors followed by an analysis of trade and the imperial economy. The chapter concludes by examining how people, both slave and free, actually lived in the city of Rome and in the provinces during the early empire.