AUGUSTUS, CAESAR

born Sept. 23, 63 BC died Aug. 19, AD 14, Nola, near Naples also called (until 27 BC) Octavian, original name Gaius Octavius, adopted name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus first Roman emperor, following the republic, which had been finally destroyed by the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, his great-uncle and adoptive father. His autocratic regime is known as the principate because he was the princeps, the first citizen, at the head of that array of outwardly revived republican institutions that alone made his autocracy palatable. With unlimited patience, skill, and efficiency, he overhauled every aspect of Roman life and brought durable peace and prosperity to the Greco-Roman world. Gaius Octavius was born on September 23, 63 BC, of a prosperous family that had long been settled at Velitrae (Velletri), southeast of Rome. His father, who died in 59 BC, had been the first of the family to become a Roman senator and was elected to the high annual office of the praetorship, which ranked second in the political hierarchy to the consulship. Gaius Octavius' mother, Atia, was the daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar; and it was Caesar who launched the young Octavius in Roman public life. At the age of 12 he made his debut by delivering the funeral speech for his grandmother Julia. Three or four years later he received the coveted membership of the board of priests (pontifices). In 46 he accompanied Caesar, now dictator, in his triumphal procession after his victory in Africa over his opponents in the Civil War; and in the following year, in spite of ill health, he joined the dictator in Spain. He was at Apollonia (now in Albania), completing his academic and military studies when, in 44 BC, he learned that Julius Caesar had been murdered. Additional reading The principal ancient literary sources are Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, in Latin, which describes the lives of the Roman emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian; and books 5256 of Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Romaike istoria, a history of Rome written in Greek. Both exist in several English translations, including, respectively, The Twelve Caesars, trans. by Robert Graves, rev. by Michael Grant (1979, reprinted with new bibliography, 1989); and Dio's Roman History, trans. by Earnest Cary, 9 vol. (191427, reprinted 198089).Among biographies of Augustus are A.H.M. Jones, Augustus (1970); John M. Carter, The Battle of Actium: The Rise & Triumph of Augustus Caesar (1970); Hermann Bengtson, Kaiser Augustus: sein Leben und seine Zeit (1981); Dietmar Kienast, Augustus, Prinzeps und Monarch (1982); Ines Stahlmann, Imperator Caesar Augustus (1988), in German; and David Shotter, Augustus Caesar (1991). Special topics are covered in Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939, reprinted 1974), a scholarly analysis of Augustus' creation of the Roman imperial system, History in Ovid (1978), which deals with Augustus' motives for Ovid's exile, and Roman Papers (1979 ); Helmut Signon, Agrippa (1978), in German, which explores Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa's friendship and collaboration with Augustus; and Fergus Millar and Erich Segal (eds.), Caesar Augustus (1984), a compilation of scholarly papers.The Augustan empire is the particular focus of The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 10, The Augustan Empire, 44 BCAD 70 (1934, reprinted 1966); Donald Earl, The Age of Augustus (1968, reissued 1980); Mason Hammond, The Augustan Principate in Theory and Practice During the Julio-Claudian Period, enlarged ed. (1968); C.M. Wells, The German Policy of Augustus: An Examination of the Archaeological Evidence (1972); Kitty Chisholm and John Ferguson (eds.), Rome, the Augustan Age (1981); and Kurt A. Raaflaub and Mark Toher (eds.), Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate (1990). Augustus' rule is set in context by H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68, 5th ed. (1982); Barry Baldwin, The Roman Emperors (1980), a study based on primary sources; and Allan Massie, The Caesars (1983), a companion volume to the edition of Suetonius cited above.The inscriptions of the Augustan Age are used to explicate the history of the period in P.A. Brunt and J.M. Moore (eds.), Res Gestae Divi Augusti: The Achievements of the Divine Augustus (1967, reprinted 1988); and Victor Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones (compilers), Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus & Tiberius, 2nd ed. (1955, reprinted with addenda, 1976). Books that examine numismatic evidence from the reign of Augustus include C.H.V. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, 31 BCAD 68 (1951, reprinted 1978), and Roman History and Coinage, 44 BCAD 69 (1987); and Michael Grant, From Imperium to Auctoritas: A Historical Study of Aes Coinage in the Roman Empire, 49 BCAD 14 (1946, reprinted with corrections, 1969). The art, architecture, and decoration of this period are treated by J.M.C. Toynbee, The Art of the Romans (1965); Axel Bothius, Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture, 2nd integrated ed., rev. by Roger Ling and Tom Rasmussen (1978); and Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, trans. from (1988). Michael Grant