Augustus moves the capital

Listening to BBC's In Our Time program the other day they mentioned that Constantine's relocating the capital of the Empire from Rome itself to somewhere in the East was probably a change that was overdue by two centuries due to demographics, politics, and economics. They also mentioned that there had been some discussion of Augustus moving the capital (possibly to Egypt) when he first became emperor.

So what if Augustus had made that call and chose some site in the East, like Alexandria, Byzantium, or even Nicomedia? Presumably the West beyond Italy would immediately decline in importance but could the Empire could see some more economic and political stability? What other repercussions might there be?
 
At least Augustus has somehow enforce senate move too. But if he is succesful on his plan, wouldn't one pretty good option be Athens or some another Greek city?
 
The problem I see is that he probably remembers how he got the job in first place: Marc Antony based himself in Egypt, away from the Roman political center (and Italy, which at this point is still where most of the military is recruited from, and the Rhine, where a huge chunk of the military is stationed) and unable to prevent Octavian from rallying most Roman power structures against Antony. Plus Octavian being in Rome and Antony being in Egypt made it easy for Octavian to sell himself as the true Roman leader while portraying Antony as having gone native and allied himself with Egypt against Rome.

It's easier for Augustus to control Egypt and the rest of the Eastern provinces from Rome (since they have his soldiers all over them, and they're likely to stay his soldiers because their loyalties and family ties mostly go back to Italy) than it would be for him to control Rome, the Senate, Italy, and the Rhine Legions from Greece, Asia Minor, or Egypt. To rebase himself to the East would be to kick away the ladder that put him where he is, while he's still standing on it.
 
So what if Augustus had made that call and chose some site in the East, like Alexandria, Byzantium, or even Nicomedia? Presumably the West beyond Italy would immediately decline in importance but could the Empire could see some more economic and political stability? What other repercussions might there be?

Probably Augustus gets murdered, Julius-Caesar-style. A major part of his propaganda in the run-up to Actium had been centred on the idea that Antony wanted to move to Egypt and rule as an oriental despot, unlike the traditional-minded Augustus, who sought to bring back the golden age and restore the mos maiorum. Moving to some eastern province would, in the minds of many senators, confirm that all this talk of restauration had been a sham, and that Augustus was just a tyrannical despot after all. Not to mention, whereas Caesar had been popular with the commoners, any talk of moving the capital would have really annoyed the Roman mob, so any would-be Brutus could count on avoiding the sort of popular hostility that had brought the original conspirators down.
 
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