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| Augustus (Gaius Octavius) Caesar | |
| Birth: | 23 Sep 0063 Bc |
| Death: | 19 Aug 0014 |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | |
| Mother: | Atia Caesar |
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| Occupation: First Roman Emperor after the Republic |
| Religion: Faithful to Apollo |
| Changed: 15 Jun 2001 |
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Individual:
great-nephew of Julius Caesar, his adoptive father. Hisautocratic regime is known as the principate because he was theprinceps, the first citizen, at the head of that array ofoutwardly revived republican institutions that alone made at thehead of that array of outwardly revived republican institutionsthat alone made his autocracy palatable. With unlimitedpatience, skill, and efficiency, he overhauled every aspect ofRoman life and brought durable peace and prosperity to theGreco-Roman world. Gaius Octavius was born on September 23, 63BC, of a prosperous family that had long been settled atVelitrae (Velletri), southeast of Rome. His father, who died in59 BC, had been the first of the family to become a Romansenator and was elected to the high annual office of thepraetorship, which ranked second in the political hierarchy tothe consulship. Gaius Octavius' mother, Atia, was the daughterof Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar; and it was Caesar wholaunched the young Octavius in Roman public life. At the age of12 he made his debut by delivering the funeral speech for hisgrandmother Julia. Three or four years later he received thecoveted membership of the board of priests (pontifices). In 46he accompanied Caesar, now dictator, in his triumphal processionafter his victory in Africa over his opponents in the Civil War;and in the following year, in spite of ill health, he joined thedictator in Spain. He was at Apollonia (now in Albania),completing his academic and military studies when, in 44 BC, helearned that Julius Caesar had been murdered adoptive name GAIUSJULIUS CAESAR OCTAVIANUS. Augustus was one of the greatadministrative geniuses of history. The gigantic work ofreorganization that he carried out in every field of Roman lifeand throughout the entire empire not only transformed thedecaying republic into a new, monarchic regime with manycenturies of life ahead of it but also created a durable Romanpeace, based on easy communications and flourishing trade. Itwas this Pax Romana that ensured the survival and eventualtransmission of the classical heritage, Greek and Roman alike,and provided the means for the diffusion of Judaism andChristianity. Although his regime was an autocracy, Augustus,being a tactful and imaginative master of propaganda of manykinds, knew how to cloak that autocracy in traditionalist formsthat would satisfy a warworn generation--perhaps, most of all,the upper bourgeoisie immediately below the leading nobility,since it was they who benefitted from the new order more thananyone. He was also able to win the approbation, through thepatronage of Maecenas, of some of the greatest writers the worldhas ever known, including Virgil, Horace, and Livy. Theirenthusiasm was partly due to Augustus' conviction that the Romanpeace must be under Occidental, Italian control. This was incontrast to the views of Antony and Cleopatra, who had envisagedsome sort of Greco-Roman partnership such as began to prevailonly three or four centuries later. Augustus' narrower view,although modified by an informed admiration of Greekcivilization, was based on his small-town Italian origins. Thesewere also partly responsible for his patriotic, antiquarianattachment to the ancient religion and for his puritanicalsocial policy. Augustus was a cultured man, the author of anumber of works (all lost): a pamphlet against Brutus, anexhortation to philosophy, an account of his own early life, abiography of Drusus, poems, and epigrams. The conventional viewof his character distinguishes between his cruelty in earlyyears and his mildness in later life. But there was not so muchneed for cruelty later on, and, when it was needed (notably inthe suppression of alleged plots), he was still ready to applyit. It is probable that nothing short of this degree ofpolitical ruthlessness could have achieved such enormousresults. His domestic life, however, was simple and homespun.Within his family, the successive deaths of those he hadearmarked as his successors or helpers caused him much sadnessand disappointment. His devotion to his wife Livia Drusillaremained constant, though, like other Romans, he was unfaithful.His surviving letters show kindliness to his relations. Yet heexiled his daughter Julia for offending against his public moralattitudes, and he exiled her daughter by Agrippa for the samereason; he also exiled the son of Agrippa and Julia, AgrippaPostumus, though the suspicion that he later had him killed isunproved. As for Augustus' male relatives who were his helpers,he was loyal to them but drove them as hard as he drove himself.He needed them because the burden was so heavy, and heespecially needed them in the military sphere because he was nota great commander. In Agrippa and Tiberius and a number ofothers he had men who supplied this deficiency, and although, onhis deathbed, he is said to have advised against the furtherexpansion of the empire, he himself, with their assistance, hadexpanded its frontiers in many directions. His physicalcondition was subject to a host of ills and weaknesses, many ofthem recurrent. Indeed, in his early life, particularly, it wasonly his indomitable will that enabled him to survive--a strangepreliminary to an unprecedented and unequalled life's work. Hisappearance is described by the biographer Suetonius. He wasunusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods ofhis life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. Hisexpression, whether in conversation or when he was silent, wascalm and mild. . . . He had clear, bright eyes, in which heliked to have it thought that there was a kind of divine power,and it greatly pleased him, whenever he looked keenly at anyone,if he let his face fall as if before the radiance of the sun.His teeth were wide apart, small and ill-kept; his hair wasslightly curly and inclining to golden; his eyebrows met. . . .His complexion was between dark and fair. He was short ofstature, but this was concealed by the fine proportion andsymmetry of his figure, and was noticeable only by comparisonwith some taller person standing beside him. Augustus'countenance proved a godsend to the Greeks and Hellenizedeasterners, who were the best sculptors of the time, for theyelevated his features into a moving, never-to-be-forgottenimperial type, which Napoleon's artists, among others, keenlyemulated. The contemporary portrait busts of Augustus, echoed onhis coins, formed part of a significant renaissance of the artsin which Italic and Hellenic styles were discreetly andbrilliantly blended. Still extant at Rome are the severe yetdelicate reliefs of the Ara Pacis ("Altar of Peace"), depictinga religious procession in which the national leaders are takingpart; there are also scenes from the Roman mythology. The altarwas dedicated by the Senate and people of Rome in 13 BC tocommemorate the pacification of Gaul and Spain. Thearchitectural masterpieces of the time were also numerous; andsomething of their monumental grandeur and classical purity canbe seen today in the remains of the Theatre of Marcellus at Romeand of the massive Forum of Augustus, flanked by colonnades andculminating in the Temple of Mars the Avenger--the Avenger ofJulius Caesar. Outside Rome, too, there are abundant memorialsof the Augustan Age; on either side of the Alps, for example,there are monuments to celebrate the submission and loyalty ofthe local tribes, an elegant arch at Segusio (Susa) and a squarestone trophy, topped by a cylindrical drum, at La Turbie. FromLivia's mansion on the outskirts of Rome, at Prima Porta, comesa reminder that not all the art of the day was formal and grand.For one of the rooms is adorned with wall paintings representingan enchanted garden; beyond a trellis are orchards and flowerbeds, in which birds and insects perch among the foliage.Augustus himself had no interest in personal luxury. Yet if everhe or his associates had any spare time, such were the rooms inwhich they spent it. (Britannica)
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