Augustus: The First Emperor of Rome



Jayson Harris

HIST 1100

MW 5:30-6:45

Augustus: The First Emperor of Rome

Augustus was the first official emperor of Rome, and in the book, Augustus, Anthony Everitt tells about the kind of person Augustus was. Romans were a very strict people who liked having leaders who were strong and presented themselves well. In the biography, Augustus: Rome’s First Emperor, Anthony Everitt really tries to convey Augustus by not only telling how he perceived himself, but also how others perceived him like Mark Antony or Cicero.

Anthony Everitt is a brilliant author who seems to be very fascinated with ancient Rome. The book that had been written prior to Augustus was “Cicero” who was a great Roman politician. After writing two books about people of ancient Rome it really puts in perspective how he feels about this subject. Through his writing he really tries to capture us by describing (with what information he has) what kind of person Augustus was. He wanted to tell us how he reacted in situations, how people perceived him, and how he perceived himself. One example from the book about how Anthony Everitt does this is in Chapter Six of Augustus. “Appian summed up Octavian’s feelings: ‘He reflected on the way they (the Senate) had treated him like a boy” (Everitt 71). This shows how Augustus (or Octavian) had felt about himself during the beginnings of his political career. He felt as though no one respected him as a man because of his age, that to everyone else he was still just a boy. Augustus did not let this hold him back, but it gave him more fire and fury to gain the power that he believed he deserved. Another example of how he showed us Augustus’ personality was how often Augustus changes his name which was three times: first being Octavius, second being Octavian, and third being Augustus. It sounds like, through Anthony Everitt’s description, that Augustus was a very fickle human being. While reading Augustus, it is felt what kind of person Augustus was and that is what Anthony Everitt, this great historian author, was trying to communicate with the readers of his book.

The biography of Augustus starts off with Augustus as an old man on his deathbed. While Augustus had numerous death scares, there was one that really struck him and that was the one right before his death when he realized that he needed a successor to replace himself. The book then shifts gears to before Augustus was even born (Everitt, Introduction). The reason the author Anthony Everitt does this, is because he wanted to show what kind of life that Augustus had come from. Augustus was born in 63 B.C. in the hill town of Velletri. Although back then he wasn’t known as Augustus, but rather Gaius Octavius. “Every Roman boy received a praenomen, or forename” (Everitt 1). Gaius was the name of Augustus before he entered into adulthood. Gaius’ father was Gaius Octavius, who also like Gaius would become a politician. Gaius early in his life had Roman politics surrounding him, not only by his father but also his great uncle Gaius Julius Caesar (Everitt). Everitt explains that it was very unlikely while Gaius was a boy that he had met is uncle, but he was sure that with all Caesar was accomplishing that he had heard of him. Eventually Gaius became an adult receiving his forename, Octavius. Octavius, as time went on eventually met his great uncle Gaius Julius Caesar. The way Everitt portrays their relationship is that Caesar took a liking to Octavius very quickly. In chapter four Anthony Everitt says that it was believed that Caesar an Octavius actually had a sexual relationship as well as a family one. Everitt seemed to have dismissed this saying that it was highly unlikely because these accusations came during a time when Octavius was accompanying his great uncle on a military expedition. Sexual relations in a military were against the rules and “a wise commander [Julius Caesar] would not break the rules he expected the rank and file to obey” (Everitt 47). Soon Caesar made himself dictator of Rome. It seems as though Caesar really had an eye out for Octavius early on in the biography. The reason for this was that Caesar may have been looking for a successor and he believed that Octavius could be the right candidate. On March 15, 44 B.C. Caesar was murdered by members of the Senate who had been plotting against him. Their hope was to restore the old republic, but instead they got Octavius. In Julius Caesar’s will he wished to adopt young Octavius, who was now eighteen years old, as his son. Octavius was in Apollonia when he received news of this. He then made the decision to leave Apollonia and head for Rome to receive his inheritance from his great uncle’s will (Everitt 53). Octavius must have been very disappointed when he got to Rome because his inheritance was being with held by one of Caesar’s men Mark Antony, who did not want Octavius to obtain this power. Mark Antony however was not successful at this. Octavius in order to honor his newly adoptive father changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. As he is known throughout the book at this time was Octavian. Octavian was winning over his adoptive father’s supporters and giving himself a name throughout the Roman Empire. Mark Antony did not expect this from a boy (Everitt, 51-64). As time goes on Mark Antony, a Roman named Lepidus, and Octavian create the second triumvirate; the first triumvirate consisting of Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. The difference between this triumvirate and the newly established one was that in the new one they were actually given the title of triumvir. Octavian although having a lot of power throughout Rome wasn’t being taken seriously. While Octavian was popular with public speaking, his military experience as a commander lacked greatly. Throughout chapter seven, titled “Killing Fields”, it explains why this was. Octavian due to health issues as a young man never received proper military training. He was often thought of as a coward because in times of battle he would conveniently get sick and not be able to attend. Eventually Octavian was able to achieve military victory which is most likely because of his friend Agrippa who was a great military leader. (Everitt, 79-96). Problems started to soon arise within the triumvirate and there became constant feuds between Mark Antony and Octavian. Through much advances to settle the dispute on both their parts was never settled. Antony however was starting to develop a relationship with the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. The relationship was all for political gain and not for love. However Antony soon became very comfortable in Egypt with his new mistress. Octavian was displeased with this because Antony was married to Octavian’s sister, and he found this to be a huge betrayal of trust (Everitt 150). Mark Antony was become very unpopular throughout the Roman world, Roman’s were actually starting to believe that he was more Egyptian than Roman which to Romans this is preposterous because Romans believed that everyone should want to be them; They especially expected Roman citizens to think this way to which Mark Antony in their eyes was not. Octavian was an opportunist like most politicians and used this to his own advantage in gaining sole power over Rome (Everitt 152). It became a battle between the east and the west and eventually Octavian who was in the west came out on top. Finally in 27 B.C. on January 1st, Octavian went forth to the Senate and declared himself the first emperor of Rome. In order to fit this title his name was changed. “Octavian’s official name was now Imperator Julies Augustus” (Everitt 208). Augustus being the new emperor or rather princeps of the Roman world made great changes. One day at Mount Vesuvius this Roman Emperor, after fourty-four years of serving as Emperor, died on August 19, 14 A.D.(Everitt, 314).

In Anthony Everitt’s depiction of the life of the Roman Emperor, Augustus was phenomenal. Throughout the whole book Augustus really comes to life. This biography didn’t seem as though it was a biography, but rather a normal book that most people would pick out. Everitt did a really good job at explaining things that the reader might not get or know about in the Roman world. For example, there were numerous occasions that Everitt would actually teach Latin to the readers. This made the biography very interesting in the fact that readers really got to read the language that these ancient people use to speak throughout their daily lives. He also made it a key point to bring in other sources into his work, including actual writings from the time period. This biography was very interesting and very well written. Anthony Everitt does a spectacular job in bringing to life this Roman emperor, who was brilliant and powerful.

When comparing the information from Anthony Everitt’s biography, Augustus, to class there were a lot of similarities. One of the main things that was noticed is how the Roman people acted. In the biography Everitt depicted the Romans as being very family oriented and that they would use marriage to strengthen a bond between two different families. This was the same thing that was taught in class, that family was so important to the Romans and that family should always come first (even though this wasn’t always the case). One example of this was when Augustus to stop feuds with Mark Antony offered his sister to marry Antony in hopes of settling disputes between the two. Not only was this one of the similarities, but a lot of the facts were the same too. In class before even reading the biography it was taught that Augustus had many different names throughout his life, this helped especially in the first chapter to know who Everitt was talking about. Another thing that was noticed was that in class when we briefly talked about Lepidus, it was said that we didn’t know much about him but he had to of offered something significant in order to be in the triumvirate with Octavian (Augustus) and Mark Antony; Everitt’s biography said similar things. One of the things that made this book so enjoyable was the fact that there was the ability to be able to compare class with Anthony Everitt’s biography.

“Augustus: Rome’s First Emperor” is a great book that anyone with a taste of the ancient world would enjoy. It has action, accurate and knowledgeable information, and is a fun read. The book really captures the life of Rome’s great emperor Augustus and the life that made him into what we know him to be today. Although he lived long ago when reading this biography it is like he is standing right by your side.

Work Cited

Everitt, Anthony. Augustus: Rome's First Emperor. New York: Random House, Inc., 2006. 1-377. Print.

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