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Roman emperors legitimized their power by claiming to be the defenders of libertas against factions that threatened the res publica; their rivals did the same, comparing the power of the emperor they challenged to a dominatio. This paper studies the role played by Augustus in constructing this discourse. The example of Caesar, the precedents of Sulla, Pompeius, and the first Triumvirate, as well as the role taken by Cicero’s Philippics, allow us to understand how this argument took shape and its synthesis by the man presenting himself as a liberator (against Mark Antony, against the optimates, then against his own rivals, including Mark Antony once more) coming to the rescue of res publica threatened by factiones. This demonstrates the importance of consensus in this legitimation, since it indicates the abolition of all factions and the absence of dominatio.