Chapter 8 was a discussion of Roman life at the time. Since it didn’t have much in the historical narrative that I’m trying to document, I won’t comment on it.

9 The Transformation of Augustus

Julius Caesar had no legitimate heirs, so he adopted his great-nephew to make him the beneficiary of his fortune. Gaius Octavius was only 18. He was known as Octavianus, but he didn’t use that name himself. His title after 27 BC, was Augustus (revered) and he dominated Roman political life for more than 50 years until his death in 14 BC. The Author writes: “He transformed the structures of Roman politics and the army, the government of the empire, the appearance of the city of Rome and the underlying sense of what Roman power, culture, and identity were all about”.

He also transformed himself from a brutal warlord into a responsible statesman.

The face of civil war
Fighting for rule of Rome followed Caesar’s assassination. Octavian, Marc Antony, and Lepidus had formed a triumvirate to rule, but as they took care of Caesar’s assassins, they turned more on each other. Lepidus was squeezed out by 36 BC. By 40 BC, Marc Antony and Octavian had effectively carved up the Mediterranean, with Octavian to the west, and Marc Antony to the east. Meanwhile, Marc Antony had taken up with Cleopatra, and their lavish lifestyle was leading to rumors that he was planning on transferring the capital to Alexandria. The forces met in a naval battle, but Antony’s forces were betrayed and overrun. Antony and Cleopatra ran back to Alexandria, where Octavian went looking for them. But both had committed suicide.

Losers and winners
There is more to the story though. What we got is a story written by the winner… not necessarily the truth. Augustus undoubtedly embellished the story to portray Antony as a Roman, morally debauched and led astray by the Oriental seductress Cleopatra. He painted his own victory as the triumph of traditional Roman values over the foreign enemy.

The riddle of Augustus
Augustus didn’t change much of the Roman governing structure. All the positions continued as before. Augustus himself was more difficult to define, and it seems that was part of his plan. He did write a biography, Res Gestae (What I Did), that tells us what he wanted us to know.

What I did
Several items are notable to today’s historians. He gives a census number close to 5 million for Roman citizens. He also brags that he enlarged Rome’s imperial reach much more than any other leader. He was also wealthy on a scale unheard of, and he used this wealth to act as the patron and protector of Rome. He also engaged in a massive building program in Rome. This laid the blueprint for one-man rule: military conquest, protector and benefactor of the Roman people, construction and reconstruction on a massive scale; underpinned by lots of cash and tempered with a respect for the ancient traditions of Rome.

Power Politics
Being the son of the recently assassinated Caesar was no simple matter for Augustus. How could he devise a form of rule that would win over the people, defuse the opposition, and allow him to stay alive? Part of it came down to the language of power. He chose to frame all his powers in terms of regular office holding. He was elected consul repeatedly. Then he arranged to be granted the powers of a tribune, without being a tribunate; the powers of consul without being consul. Undoubtedly people weren’t fooled by this, but he was cleverly adapting traditional idioms to serve a new politics, justifying and making comprehensible a new axis of power by systematically reconfiguring an old language.  

He also made himself the culmination of all Roman history, so that everything was meant to lead up to him.

However much art, myth, symbol and language played a part, Augustus also made sure he was secure through more practical means as well. He ensured the army was loyal to him and no one else, so that no one else would be able to easily follow in his own footsteps and raise their own private army to take over. He reformed the pension process so that the legions were now paid by the state, not their commanders.

Problems and successions
There were a few challenges over the years of Augustus reign, signaling some level of discontent.

Picking an heir was also a problem since Augustus and Livia had no children together. Her son Tiberius was chosen as the heir.

Augustus is dead, love live Augustus
Augustus died on August 19, 14 AD. He was succeeded by his step-son Tiberius.