“As Augustus’ public fortune had been successful, so that of his household was unfortunate,” intones Tacitus in his account of the recall from exile, under Tiberius, of Decimus Silanus, one of lovers of the younger Julia, Augustus’ granddaughter (Ann. 3.24.3). Both ancient writers and modern academics are fond of such dichotomies and there is certainly some truth to Tacitus’ statement. Its stark absolutes, however, need to be given more contours; we have seen, for instance, that even Augustus’ public life was not a simple sequence of benign Fortune smiling on him, but a continuing series of challenges, tests, and ongoing exertions. The physical setting of this chapter, Augustus’ house (not to be identified with the current “House of Augustus” on display), itself provides an appropriate perspective: the Roman upper-class house combined public and private functions. That is all the truer of Augustus’ residence because, as we have seen, it incorporated the public cult of Vesta and her shrine.

We can connect this theme with the truism that our greatest strengths often are also our greatest liabilities. While Augustus’ unrelenting persistence had much to do with his success in public life, it also shattered the fortunes – emotional, psychological, and physical – of some of his closest family members. Pursuit of happiness for them was not Augustus’ objective. Instead, they were shuffled around as pawns in a dynastic game that took its toll on them and him. Amid all this, life went on with its usual contradictions: our sources stress Augustus’ penchant for wit, humor, and hilarity – Macrobius offers a Top Eighteen list (Sat. 2.4) – while, at the same time, family members were torn asunder and some of them rotted in dismal exile, being deprived of human contact and more. Not all, of course: he was close to others and they were close to him. Here, Fate could cast its dark shadows as several of them died at an early age. Welcome, then, to the private world of Augustus, which was inextricably intertwined with his public one.