Historical Figure
Augustus Caesar
63–14
Roman emperor from 27 BC to AD 14
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Biography
Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The principate, a style of government where the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate, was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.
Timeline
The story of Augustus Caesar, told in moments.
Born Gaius Octavius in Rome. His family is wealthy but not noble. His great-uncle is Julius Caesar, who has no legitimate sons.
Born Gaius Octavius in Rome. His family is wealthy but not noble. His great-uncle is Julius Caesar, who takes an interest in the boy and eventually names him heir. Nobody expects this sickly teenager to amount to much. Caesar knows something they don't.
Caesar is assassinated. His will names 18-year-old Octavian as adopted son and primary heir. The boy has no army, no political office, no allies. He takes Caesar's name and begins collecting what's owed to him.
Caesar is murdered on the Ides of March. Octavian is 18, studying in Apollonia in present-day Albania. When he learns Caesar's will names him adoptive son and primary heir, his mother and stepfather beg him not to accept. He accepts. He marches to Rome. He is outnumbered, outranked, and underestimated by everyone.
Battle of Actium. His general Agrippa destroys the combined fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra off the coast of Greece. Antony and Cleopatra flee to Egypt. Both commit suicide within the year. Octavian is 32 and has no rivals left.
The Senate grants him the title "Augustus" (the revered one). He doesn't call himself king or dictator. He calls himself princeps, first citizen. He keeps the Senate. He keeps the elections. He keeps the republican forms. But he controls the army, the treasury, and half the provinces. The Republic is over. Nobody has to say it out loud.
Dies at Nola, near Naples. He is 75, the longest reign of any Roman emperor. His last words, reportedly: "Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit." The Pax Romana he built lasts another 150 years.
Dies at Nola, near Naples, at 75. He has ruled Rome for 41 years. His last words, according to Suetonius: "Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit." He'd turned a republic torn by civil war into the most powerful empire on earth. The Senate deifies him. A month bears his name. The age he built, the Pax Romana, will last two centuries.
Show full timeline (15 entries)
Forms the Second Triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus. They publish proscription lists. 300 senators and 2,000 equestrians are marked for death. Their property is confiscated to fund the war against Caesar's assassins. Cicero, the greatest orator in Rome, is on the list. Antony insists. Augustus agrees.
At Philippi, he and Mark Antony crush the armies of Brutus and Cassius, Caesar's assassins. Cassius falls on his sword after the first engagement. Brutus does the same after the second. The Republic's last defenders are dead. Octavian is 21.
His admiral Agrippa destroys Mark Antony and Cleopatra's fleet at Actium. Antony and Cleopatra flee to Egypt. Both kill themselves the following year. Egypt, the last Hellenistic kingdom, becomes a Roman province and Octavian's personal estate. He is the last man standing. He controls the entire Roman world.
The Senate grants him the title "Augustus." He pretends to restore the Republic. He holds no crown, wears no purple. He controls the army, half the provinces, and the treasury. The trick works. The Republic dies without anyone admitting it.
Granted the title pater patriae, father of the country. He has ruled for 25 years. The Roman Empire stretches from Spain to Syria. The population is roughly 60 million. A census is underway. He has built roads, aqueducts, and forums. "I found Rome a city of bricks," he will later say, "and left it a city of marble."
The month of Sextilis is renamed August in his honor. He's built roads, aqueducts, a fire brigade, a police force. Rome's population reaches one million. He finds it a city of brick and leaves it a city of marble. His own words.
His stepson Tiberius succeeds him. Not the successor Augustus wanted. His preferred heirs kept dying. His grandson Gaius. His adopted sons Lucius and Gaius Caesar. He outlived them all. The dynasty he founded, the Julio-Claudians, will produce Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Three of the four will be murdered or forced to suicide. Augustus's genius was dying in bed.
In Their Own Words (17)
Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.
Statement made as he was dying, as quoted in The Fall of the Roman Empire (2007) by Rita J. Markel, p. 126, 2007
Goodbye, Livia; remember our marriage!
Said to his wife Livia on his deathbed; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 99. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957., 1957
Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!
Said of Publius Quinctilius Varus, who commanded the three legions lost at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 23. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957., 1957
Behold them, conquerors of the world, the toga-clad race of Romans!
Said disparagingly of a group of men in cloaks, quoting Virgil's The Aeneid. Augustus allowed only those wearing a toga and no cloak to enter the Forum; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 40. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957., 1957
Αἴθ᾽ ὄφελον ἄγαμός τ᾽ ἔμεναι ἄγονός τ᾽ ἀπολέσθαι.
Ah, never to have married, and childless to have died!, 1957
Artifacts (15)
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