Augustus
“Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit“.
Gaius Octavius, known to history as Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD), was Rome’s first emperor. He was born to an affluent plebian family on his father’s side, while his mother was of the patrician Julii lineage and a niece of Julius Caesar. Octavius’ famous grand-uncle launched his grand-nephew into public life, and groomed him to be his heir. Octavius was in Albania, completing his military and academic studies, when his grand-uncle was assassinated in 44 BC.
Returning to Italy, he learned that Caesar had adopted him as his son in his will, and made him his chief heir. He was advised to decline the dangerous inheritance, but he ignored the advice and went to Rome. There, Caesar’s lieutenant, Mark Antony, refused to honor the will. Caesar’s assassins ignored the teenager, and Cicero, one of Rome’s leading elder statesmen and a leading figure of a politically powerful but militarily weak faction, sought to manipulate him, quipping that he would: “raise, praise, then erase” the young man.
All underestimated Octavius, who responded by paying for public games in honor of his adoptive father to gain recognition and popularity, and wooing Caesar’s veteran soldiers to his side. With a military force at his command, Cicero’s faction sought his aid, bent the rules to appoint him a senator despite his youth, and sent him against Mark Antony, who was forced to retreat from Italy to Gaul. The consuls in official command of the forces arrayed against Mark Antony were killed, so Octavius compelled the Senate to appoint him to a vacant consulship despite his youth.
He then double-crossed the Senate, reached an agreement with Mark Antony, and joined him in a power-sharing dictatorship that launched a massive purge that executed thousands of suspected opponents, including Cicero, before going after Julius Caesar’s assassins, defeating them, and exacting revenge. Octavius and Antony then swore friendship, sealing the bargain with Antony wedding Octavius’ sister, then divided the Roman empire, with Antony ruling the east, while Octavius stayed in Rome and ruled the west.
The duo fell out when Antony fell in love with Cleopatra in Egypt, and married her, abandoning Octavius’ sister. Octavius used that as a pretext to attack Antony, whom he defeated decisively in 31 BC, then seized Egypt and the eastern provinces, finally bringing the entire Roman Empire under his control.
He then set about reorganizing the state. He ended the Roman Republic, whose political structure, created for a city-state, had proved impractical for the governance of a vast empire and resulted in a century of chaos and bloodshed until the reins were taken by Octavius, whom the Senate granted the honorific “Augustus” by which he would be known to history. In the Republic’s place, Augustus established a stable, autocratic, and centralized de-facto monarchy, inaugurating a period known as the Pax Romana, that brought to the Greco-Roman world two centuries of peace, stability, and prosperity
He held supreme power in the Roman world from 43 BC, first in conjunction with Mark Antony until 31 BC, and thereafter alone, until his death in 14 AD. Comparing the role he had to play as emperor to the theater, Augustus’ last words to those gathered around his deathbed were: “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit“.