Sarah James
Instructor Geoffrey Hutcheson
History of Western Society I
November 26, 2017
Caesar Augustus
History is made up of individuals who were just living the life they wanted to live. Their actions ended up making an impact on our world as we know it. At the time they probably had no clue that the actions they put forth in their time would eventually lead up to the world we know today. Their life events may not have been grand, but they were enough to make an impact. Caesar Augustus is one example of a person in history who led a successful life.
Born Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 B.C., in Velletri, Italy. Augustus was a sickly child with few connections. Although, one connection he did have was being the great-nephew of Julius Caesar. Augustus was known by three different names throughout his life. From birth to 44 B.C. he was known as Octavius, in 44 B.C. he was adopted and changed his name to Octavian and in 26 B.C. he was named Augustus by the Roman Senate. His father worked as a senator and governor of the Roman Republic, and passed away when Augustus was four years old; Caesar’s niece Atai was his mother. In his younger years, his grandmother Julia Ceasaris helped raise him; she was the sister of Julius Caesar.
Augustus took on the Roman sign of manhood of wearing the toga at age 16, and began taking on responsibilities through his family connections. At the time Rome was dangerous and engulfed in a civil war, one faction of the war was led by
In the year 63 B.C Augustus became the first emperor of Rome, after the assassination of his adoptive father Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Augustus raised an army at the age of 19 to overthrow the tyrant leader Mark Antony, whom gained power of Rome after the assassination of Julius Caesar. After overthrowing the tyrannical system, Augustus liberated his father, and was offered dictatorship by the people of Rome. Augustus rejected the title of dictator on more than one occasion; he instead titled himself princeps civitatis: the first among citizens. In his reign Augustus completed many building projects, including the repair and rebuilding of aqueducts, roads, and sewers that had been neglected over time. The expansion of the Roman Empire under Augustus was extensive, stretching from Egypt to Spain including
Octavian, the heir to Rome’s previous leader Julius Caesar, was given the title of Augustus, meaning “Revered One” in 27 B.C. He took power of Rome in 43 B.C and formed the Second Triumvirate which consisted of Marc Antony, Lepidus, and himself. Octavian and Marc Antony quickly shut Lepidus out of power and then later had a civil war over control of Rome which Octavian won. Octavian was humble and generous to the Roman citizens, he kept peace, and restored damages in Rome. Due to his effective leadership qualities, Octavian earned his new title of Augustus.
Emperor Augustus was the most influential emperor in the history of the Roman Empire. He was also the first emperor of the Roman Empire. His real name was Octavian, but he was given the name Augustus when he took over as emperor. From early on in his life, he was an established leader. He began wearing a toga at just age sixteen, which is the Roman sign of manhood. He began to take on the responsibilities associated with his family’s connections. His uncle was Julius Caesar, who was leader of Rome before he became emperor. Octavian fought along his uncle in battle. From early on in his life, Octavian had the qualities of an impressive leader, and he showed these qualities later in his life.
Gaius Octavius was born September 23, 63 BCE. His father’s name was Gaius. His father, who died in 59 BCE, 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. This office was judicial and second only to consul in status in the Roman government. “Gaius Octavius was of a successful family that had long been settled at Velitrae, southeast of Rome.”1 Octavius began his public life at age 12 when he delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother, Julia. His great uncle, Julius Caesar, became the chief priest, Pontifex Maximus. Gaius Octavius was from a prosperous family in Velitrae, a city southeast of Rome. “He was described as unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. It was claimed that his expression, whether in conversation or when he was silent, was calm and mild; that he had clear, bright eyes, in which he believed there was a kind of divine power. His teeth were wide apart, small and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curly and gold in color.”2 He had a medium complexion, neither light nor dark. He was short.
Augustus, who was once named C. Octavius, was the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar. Due to Caesar’s death from the uprising in 44 B.C., it was stated from his will, that Octavian was to be adopted as Caesar’s son. So his name was changed to C. Julius Caesar Octavianus (Porter, 2010). Later throughout his political and military career, he controlled Rome under the title Augustus (Brand, 2013). This begins a story of a young man to an emperor of the Roman world.
Augustus, one of the greatest Roman emperors known, was born in Rome with the name of Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 BCE. His mother Atia, was Julius Caesar’s niece, which would make him Julius Caesars’s grand-nephew. Julius Caesar decided to adopt Gauis Octavius, also known as Octavian, and had him become the heir and predecessor of his belongings and estate. Julius Caesar was in his prime as the consul of Rome and had many enemies, both far as well as close and dear to him that didn’t want to take orders from him any longer. He was assassinated on the Ides of March near the Theatre of Pompey by the senators, which included Cassius Longinus, Servilius Casca, and his best friend Marcus Brutus.
Octavius Caesar, otherwise known as Caesar Augustus, was the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Octavius was born in September of 63 B.C, and died sometime in august of 14 A.D. He lived to be 76 years of age, there are many conspiracies that say his wife may have poisoned him, but most people say he died of natural causes. Caesar had a lot of adoptive children, such as Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Agrippa Postumus and Tiberius. Tiberius is the successor to the throne after Caesar dies. Tiberius took the throne after Octavius died in 14 A.D.
Emperor Augustus, born Gaius Octavius, on the 23 September, 63 BCE. He was the adoptive nephew of Julius Caesar, and so, inherited a large portion of Julius Caesar’s wealth and property, when Julius Caesar was murdered by members of the Roman senate in 44 BCE. Augustus, using the wealth left to him by Caesar, began his journey to becoming the Roman Empire’s first Emperor. From the age of 18, Augustus masterfully navigated Rome’s political arena, eliminating any who tried to rival him, until finally in 27 BCE, he was finally in full control of the Roman Empire.
Octavian enabled the long, nonviolent time of the Pax Romana, (Latin for Roman peace) by changing Rome from a frail, collapsing republican government to a powerful empire. He is known as the first, and one of the greatest, Roman Emperors ever. Octavian was born on September 23, 63 BC, and died in 14 AD. Born with the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was adopted posthumously by his great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar via his will, and then was named Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. This happened in 44 BC when his great uncle, Julius Caesar, was assassinated by a group of conspirators. Additionally, he received the name “Augustus” a term meaning “the revered one” from the Roman Senate in 27 BC. Because of the various names he had, it is
At age 16, he began to take on work that involved his royal family. He worked under his great uncle Julius Caesar, and this is where he began to gain respect from the people. Just a year later at age 17, his great uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated which gave power and rule to Octavius, which was then renamed Octavian. Julius had placed many games and other securities in place for his army. Octavian was fortunate to win these and ultimately win over the majority of the remaining army form Julius. This in ultimately was the foundation that was set to create a historic army that would propel his time in rule. Over the next period of time alliances were mad to keep peace in the near land and the surrounding land. However, romantic relationships began to arise and affairs started. Then Octavian declared war on his two alliances for betraying him behind his back. In the end they were defeated, which gave Octavian power to all of Rome. The two army’s leaders, Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra, ultimately fled to Egypt to eventually commit
The Augustan Age was marked as one of the greatest time periods in Roman history, where the Empire flourished with prosperity and power. Augustus was careful not to declare himself as an emperor or any kind of title to state his kingship, but he referred to himself as “Princeps” or the First Citizen (Mark). Although he gave back power the senate, by doing so he establish central authority to himself. By calling himself Princeps, he held tremendous power. Also,because his uncle, Julius Caesar identified himself as a god, Augustus also represented himself as son of a god, something that is depicted in many of his portraits such as the one found in Prima Porta. During his reign, Augustus enacted an effective social and cultural program enlisting literature and the other arts revived time-honored values and
To answer the question of whether or not Augustus was a good leader, his character and actions must be looked at over the sum of his life. The leadership traits of respect, generosity, fairness, compassion, fearlessness, humility, sensitivity, and innovation appear in The Annals, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The Deeds of The Divine Augustus and the class textbook. Augustus demonstrated all of these attributes during his 51-year reign as emperor from 63 BCE to 14 CE. However, he was not without fault as he also conducted himself in a less than worthy manner at times. Augustus was not a perfect leader but he matured into a man who was respected and obeyed during life and is still studied almost 2000 years after his death.
On the 23rd of September 63BC a baby boy was born. Little did his family know that this amazing child was going to be one of the greatest politicians in Rome, he was also going to touch the lives of many Roman Citizens and to be remembered by thousands of people many years after his death. He was to rule an empire that stretched from Spain to Judea. Turn the Mediterranean Sea into a peaceful Roman Lake and was eventually to be worshipped as a god. The future Emperor of Rome was called Gaius Julius Octavious, whom we all know now as Augustus.
Around 71 B.C.,a few years before Augustus was born, Gaius Octavius started pursuing a job within the senate, but because of his latin instead of roman descent the pursuit of the job was very difficult for him. He continued pursuing the job in senate till around 70 B.C. when he won a quaestorship, a lower place in the government that entails supervising tax collection and doing special tasks for consuls in Rome, and joined the senate. Based on his latin descent winning a questorship was no small feat so it was no surprise when he was offered a spouse from one of Rome’s great trician clans. The only problem with this was he was already married to Ancharia who is not very well recorded in history so people have no firm evidence for why Gaius Octavius suddenly married Atia, a member of the Julian family making Julius Caesar his great-uncle. Together Atia and Gaius had two children, Octavius the younger and Gaius Octavian, named after his father, along with the one from Ancharia the second of the two being who we know as Augustus.
to break free, Antony lost the battle but he and Cleopatra managed to flee the battle early