Preface

The story of Augustus’ life is as stunning as his achievements. Frail and only eighteen years old, he stepped on the stage of history when Caesar, slain on the Ides of March of 44 BC, named him, his grandnephew then known as Octavius, as his heir and posthumously adopted him. If the young man had followed the counsel of his mother and stepfather and refused to accept the will, history would have taken a different course and this book (and many others) would not have been written. He had no résumé to speak of at the time, yet some thirteen years later he defeated Antony and Cleopatra and, in his own words, had “power over all things.” He became the sole ruler of Rome’s Mediterranean empire and profoundly reshaped it and its culture. In the process he reinvented himself from a murderous warlord who took no prisoners to the model of an effective leader who gave Rome stability for almost two centuries. No question, then, that he is a key figure not only of classical antiquity but also of world history.

Given his tumultuous ascent to power, the range of his actions and policies, his immense impact, and the many sides of his personality, unanimity of opinion is the last thing we should expect, let alone wish, from biographers and historians, whether on the myriad of individual issues or on his overall attainments. Not waiting for others, he presented the latter, with his own perspectives, in the most monumental inscription from Roman times, the Res Gestae. It is not an autobiography – the one that he wrote has not survived – and the focus is not on personal details; his wife Livia, for instance, is not mentioned, although she was a great influence on his life.