(63 B.C.-14 A.D.)
[Illustration: Augustus Caesar. [TN]]
Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, son of Caius Octavius and Atia
(Julius Caesar's niece), was born in 63 B.C. He was the first and
greatest of the Roman emperors, in his way perhaps fully as great as his
adoptive father, Julius Caesar. The Octavian family came originally from
Velitrae, in the country of the Volsci; and the branch to which Augustus
belonged was rich and honorable. His father had risen to the rank of
senator and praetor, but died in the prime of life, when Augustus was
only four years old. Augustus was carefully educated in Rome under the
guardianship of his mother and his step-father; and his talents
recommended him to his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, who adopted him as his
son and heir. At the time of Caesar's assassination (44 B.C.), Augustus
was a student under the celebrated orator Apollodorus, at Apollonia in
Illyricum, whither, however, he had been sent chiefly to gain practical
instruction in military affairs. He returned to Italy, and now first
learning that he was his uncle's heir, assumed the name of Julius Caesar
Octavianus. The soldiers at Brundusium saluted him as Caesar, but he
declined their offers, and entered Rome almost alone. The city was at
this time divided between the republicans and the friends of Mark
Antony, but the latter, by adroit manoeuvres, had gained the ascendency,
and enjoyed almost absolute power. At first, Augustus was haughtily
treated by Antony, who refused to surrender Caesar's property; but after
some fighting, in which Antony was worsted and forced to flee across the
Alps, Augustus, who had made himself a favorite with the people and the
army, obtained the consulship and carried out Caesar's will. He found an
able advocate in Cicero, who at first had regarded him with contempt. To
himself the great orator seemed to be laboring in behalf of the
republic, whereas he really was only an instrument for raising Augustus
to supreme power. When Antony returned from Gaul with Lepidus, Augustus
threw off the republican mask, and joined them in establishing a
triumvirate. He obtained Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily; Antony, Gaul; and
Lepidus, Spain. Their power was soon made absolute by the massacre of
those unfriendly to them in Italy, and by the victory at Philippi over
the republicans under Brutus and Cassius. The Perusian war, excited
by Fulvia, wife of Antony, seemed likely to lead to a contest between
Augustus and his rival; but was ended by Fulvia's death, and the
subsequent marriage of Antony with Octavia, sister of Augustus. Shortly
afterward the Roman world was divided anew, Augustus taking the western
half, and Antony the eastern. The contest for supremacy commenced. While
Antony was lost in luxurious dissipation at the court of Cleopatra,
Augustus was industriously striving to gain the love and confidence of
the Roman people, and to damage his rival in public estimation. War was
at length declared against the Egyptian queen, and at the naval battle
of Actium (31 B.C.) Augustus was victorious, and became sole ruler of
the whole Roman world. Antony soon afterward ended his life by suicide;
and Cleopatra, learning of his death and believing that Augustus
intended carrying her in chains to Rome, also killed herself, so that
Augustus triumphed only over her dead body, which he found awaiting him.
Antony's son by Fulvia, and Caesarion, son of Caesar and Cleopatra, were
put to death; and in 29 B.C., after regulating affairs in Egypt, Greece,
Syria, and Asia Minor, Augustus returned to Rome in triumph, and,
closing the temple of Janus, proclaimed universal peace.
[Illustration: Augustus Caesar and Cleopatra.]
His subsequent measures were mild and prudent. To insure popular favor,
he abolished the laws of the triumvirate, and reformed many abuses.
Hitherto, since Caesar's death, he had been named Octavian; but now the
title of Augustus ("sacred" or "consecrated") was conferred on him. In
his eleventh consulship (23 B.C.), the tribunician power was granted him
for life by the senate. Republican names and forms still remained, but
they were mere shadows; and Augustus, in all but name, was absolute
monarch. In 21 B.C., on the death of Lepidus, he had the high title of
Pontifex Maximus bestowed on him. The nation surrendered to him all the
power and honor that it had to give.
After a course of victories in Asia, Spain, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Gaul,
etc., Augustus (9 B.C.) suffered the one crushing defeat of his long
rule, in the person of Quintilius Varus, whose army was annihilated by
the Germans under Hermann. The loss so afflicted Augustus that for some
time he allowed his beard and hair to grow, as a sign of deep mourning,
and often exclaimed, "O Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!"
Thenceforth he confined himself to plans of domestic improvements and
reform, and so beautified Rome that it was said, "Augustus found the
city built of brick, and left it built of marble." He also built cities
in several parts of the empire; and altars were raised by the grateful
people to commemorate his beneficence; while by a decree of the senate
the name Augustus was given to the month Sextilis.
Though thus surrounded with honor and prosperity, Augustus was not free
from domestic trouble. The abandoned conduct of his daughter Julia was
the cause of sore vexation to him. He had no son, and his nephew
Marcellus, and Caius and Lucius, his daughter's sons, whom he had
appointed as his successors and heirs, as well as his favorite stepson,
Drusus, all died early; while his stepson, Tiberius, was an unamiable
character whom he could not love. Age, sorrow, and failing health warned
him to seek repose; and, to recruit his strength, he undertook a
journey to Campania; but his infirmity increased, and he died at Nola
(14 A.D.), in the seventy-seventh year of his age. According to
tradition, shortly before his death, he called for a mirror, arranged
his hair neatly, and said to his attendants: "Did I play my part well?
If so, applaud me!" Augustus had consummate tact and address as a ruler
and politician, and made use of the passions and talents of others to
forward his own designs. The good and great measures which marked his
reign were originated mostly by himself. He encouraged agriculture,
patronized the arts and literature, and was himself an author; though
only a few fragments of his writings have been preserved. Horace,
Virgil, Ovid, Propertius, Tibullus, and Livy--greatest of Latin poets
and scholars--belonged to the Augustan Age, a name since applied in
France to the reign of Louis XIV., in England to that of Queen Anne.