AUGUSTUS

A Life From Beginning to End

Copyright © 2018 by Hourly History.

All rights reserved.

 Table of Contents
Introduction
Uncle Caesar’s War
The Clemency of Caesar
Ushering in the Age of Empire
The Adoptive Son of Julius Caesar
Defeating Mark Antony
The Second Triumvirate
The Triumvirate Begins to Crack
The Treaty of Brundisium
The Suicide Pact
The First Roman Emperor
Conclusion
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 Introduction
Ancient Roman names are known for their length and complexity—so much
so, that they are often the bane of historians attempting to tell one famous
Roman apart from another. The man who would become Augustus shares this
complicated legacy of appellation. Upon his birth in 63 BCE, he had been
bestowed with the name of Gaius Octavius Thurinus, with Octavius—later
Octavian—being his first name with which others were to address him. In
this book, he will be referred to as Octavian to avoid confusion.
On his father’s side, Octavian’s family hailed from the village of Velletri
some 25 miles outside of Rome. His father—who also carried the name
Octavian—had risen to some political prominence, first with his appointment
as quaestor (the Roman equivalent of prosecutor) in 70 BCE and then the seat
of praetor in 61 BCE when Octavian was just two years old. This then led to
an expanded role for Octavian’s father as the administrator of Macedonia,
which meant that he would be gone for much of young Octavian’s first few
years of life. When he returned in 58 BCE, he died from an abrupt and
sudden illness, leaving the young Octavian officially fatherless.
Octavian’s mother, a still fairly young and eligible woman named Atia,
would remarry shortly after her first husband’s passing. She married a
Macedonian aristocrat named Lucius Marcius Philippus who claimed to have
been descended from none other than the Macedonian king of legend,
Alexander the Great. Shortly after his mother’s union with Phillippus,
Octavian was sent to live with his grandmother Julia. No one knows for sure
why this was the case, although many have drawn the conclusion that
Phillippus may not have been entirely accepting of his new stepson.
At any rate, in his early years, it is said that Octavian was well cared for
by his grandmother. It was also through the house of his grandmother that he
would become acquainted with the most pivotal person in his life, his great-
uncle Gaius Julius Caesar. Octavian and this rising Roman star shared Julia
as their common relative since she was Julius Caesar’s aunt as well as
Octavian’s grandmother. Caesar was in his early forties at the time and
Octavian just a small child, so as you can imagine any interaction during this
phase of Octavian’s life couldn’t have been too meaningful due to the gap in
age, but the two would become close in good time.
 Immediately after being in his grandmother’s care during his early years,
Octavian then went on to public education in the Roman form of elementary
school called the ludi litterarii. Here Octavian would have learned the basics
of mathematics, reading, and writing. Much emphasis would have been
placed on group learning with the teacher repeating back information to the
class and expecting the students to memorize what they were told.
The next major milestone in Octavian’s life occurred when he was 12
years old in 51 BCE as his grandmother Julia passed away. As young as he
was, due to the recognized closeness that the child had with his caretaker, he
was allowed to say a few words at her funeral. Octavian’s eulogy was no
doubt a touching one, but it was quickly overshadowed by the rousing speech
given by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar. Caesar wanted to leave no doubt that
he revered his aunt and all of his ancestors from the house of Julien. He
proclaimed, “The family of my aunt Julia is descended from kings on her
mother’s side and, through her father, from the gods themselves. For the
Marcii Reges, her mother’s family, are heirs of Ancus Marcius, fourth King
of Rome, while the Julian’s of which our clan is a member, descend from the
goddess Venus herself. My family therefore holds the sanctity of kings who
rule among men and of gods who rule over kings.”
Claiming descent from the divine was a pretty bold statement, but for the
most part the local residents in attendance, who all revered and respected
both Julia and her nephew Julius Caesar in equal measure, are said to have
responded favorably to the send-off. But no doubt lost in all of this acclaim
and familial fanfare were the words of young Octavian, who through the tears
streaming down his face attempted to express not his belief in his family’s
greatness, but simply the heartache he felt after having lost the person who
had cared for him most.
 Chapter One

Uncle Caesar’s War

“Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was
young.”

—Augustus

After the death of his grandmother, Octavian finally moved in with his
mother and stepfather. Shortly after settling in with his new primary
providers, he was enrolled to take classes with a grammaticus—a special
Roman instructor in literature and language. Here young Octavian would
learn to become well versed in both Latin and Greek, with a heavy overall
emphasis on Hellenic culture. But most importantly, and telling for the future
that Octavian was being groomed for, the grammaticus also specialized in
training the pupils in public speaking. For any prominent Roman expected to
someday contribute to civic culture, this was a crucial aspect of their
education.
As well as advancing his studies, Octavian was also busy developing his
social life. He is said to have been rather easy to get along with and well liked
among his peers, making many friends. One of which, Marcus Vipsanius
Agrippa, would remain so for the rest of their lives. These strong support
groups would prove pivotal as Octavian entered into his teenage years.
Adolescence would prove to be a trying time for Octavian. Not only did
he have to face the normal stressors of coming of age, but he also had to deal
with a Roman Republic that was coming apart at the seams. And Octavian’s
own great-uncle was one of the main figures who had a hand in the
impending Roman Civil War. You see, in 49 BCE due to a collapse of old
political alliances, military grandstanding, and economic downturn, all the
ingredients were coming together for a schismatic split of Rome.
Julius Caesar had previously been allied with the powerful Roman
General Pompey, but as the ambitions of both men began to grow, Rome was
soon not quite big enough for the two of them. Pompey, who had gained
considerable support in the Senate, convinced the senators to order Caesar to
resign.
Caesar was with his troops in Gaul, a Roman territory in western Europe,
when he received orders to return to the Senate to tender his resignation in
person. Caesar, however, believed that this was just a ruse to separate him
from his troops. He was convinced that if he did as he was told, he would be
arrested and promptly executed as soon as he arrived. So instead of returning
to Rome as commanded, Caesar officially went rogue and, gathering his
troops together, moved onto the border of northern Italy poised to strike out
at his rival.
After their overtures were rejected by Caesar, on January 7, 49 BCE the
Senate unanimously declared Caesar to be an enemy of the state and declared
martial law. Not wasting any time, just a few days after this declaration,
Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubicon, leaving the Roman territory of Gaul
for Italian soil, and began his march on Rome. In the midst of all this turmoil,
Octavian meanwhile had been hustled off to the safety of the countryside by
his mother Atia.
In this first test of wills, Caesar would ultimately be victorious, chasing
General Pompey out of Rome with what was left of his army fleeing to
Pharsalus in Greece. In just a matter of weeks, Caesar was then named
dictator of the Republic. This was meant to be a stopgap measure,
temporarily put in place until order could be established.
It was shortly after this dictatorial dust had settled that Octavian
underwent the coming of age ceremony common to all Roman children in
which he put away his childish cloak for the togo virilis, or as it is roughly
translated, “gown of manhood.” In this ceremony, along with publicly
donning the toga virilis, Octavian was also expected to give a public speech
and conduct a public sacrifice. Animal sacrifices were very much a part of
Roman life, and Octavian must have already had some sense of familiarity
with the act. The stress of doing it in public would have significantly
increased the pressure, but Octavian got through it. The only real problem he
had was when he attempted to put on his toga virilis. It is said that while he
was still in the process of raising the robe over his head to put it on, there was
an audible ripping sound, and the next thing anyone knew his undertunic was
torn asunder, falling to his feet.
The audience now stared in shock as Octavian stood before them in
nothing more than the Roman equivalent of underwear. Most would be
mortified and perhaps paralyzed with fear. But Octavian, demonstrating his
ability to roll with the punches—the sheer tenacity that would make him
famous—simply looked down at the undergarments that had fallen to his feet,
shrugged his shoulders, and remarked, “I shall have the whole Senatorial
Order at my feet!” You can only imagine the relief of the embarrassed
audience as they suddenly forgot all about their embarrassment and burst into
laughter at Octavian’s wisecracks.
From early on, Octavian showed that he had an incredible capacity to turn
the tragic into magic. He was an astute reader of others and always knew just
what to say in order to seize victory from the jaws of defeat. Even as Caesar’s
war raged, Octavian was poised and ready to take all the glory.
 Chapter Two

The Clemency of Caesar

“Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in
war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight
forces.”

—Julius Caesar

After General Pompey fled to Greece, Caesar made the decision to put off
any pursuit in favor of consolidating his gains. This meant reinforcing
territory gained, shutting down factions loyal to Pompey, and implementing
his special program of Clementia. It is from this Latin word that we get the
term “clemency,” and for Caesar it meant much the same thing. His campaign
of Clementia was used to reconcile segments of Roman society that were
initially opposed to his leadership. Those that pledged to renounce Pompey
and follow Caesar were immediately absolved of any wrongdoing.
After all of this interpersonal and political wrangling, Caesar finally
raised enough troops to march on Pompey’s Greek stronghold in Pharsalus in
August of 48 BCE. Pompey’s army was decisively defeated, but the general
managed to escape Caesar’s dragnet once again, and this time he fled to
Egypt. He was seeking asylum with the Ptolemaic dynasty which had ruled
the Egyptian Kingdom since the days of Alexander the Great.
Unfortunately for Pompey, the Egyptians were more afraid of incurring
Caesar’s wrath than anything else, so rather than granting him a safe refuge,
they decided to have him executed instead. And so, in one of the most
anticlimactic moments in history, Caesar arrived on Egyptian soil to finish
his long drawn out struggle with Pompey only to have Pompey’s head
handed over to him by the Egyptians.
Egypt at the time was in the midst of a succession crisis and being ruled
by Ptolemy XIII who was only 11 years old. This meant that even though the
child had been placed on the throne and treated as a figurehead, the real rulers
were his royal handlers who were making all of the decisions behind the
scenes. The most competent member of the royal family to rule was actually
Ptolemy’s 21-year-old sister Cleopatra. And as shocking as it may be to most
in the modern world, Cleopatra had already been made queen through
marriage to her little brother. Such incestuous practices were quite common
in ancient Egypt, and even though Ptolemy and Cleopatra were both Greek
transplants, this was an Egyptian tradition that the Ptolemaic dynasty had
adopted on their own.
It was shortly into Cleopatra’s tenure as queen of Egypt that Ptolemy’s
entourage grew resentful of her power and drove her out. And when Caesar
arrived, Cleopatra was essentially in exile, living with her own loyal retinue
of followers, while the young King Ptolemy was directed by palace officials.
This was the maze of intrigue that Caesar had walked into. Since Egypt
was a protectorate of Rome, and with Caesar still riding high on his previous
works of clemency, he felt compelled to mediate the peace and declared that
both parties should meet under his supervision to come to terms. Cleopatra
knew, however, that if she ventured out from her stronghold she would risk a
potential ambush from her brother’s troops. It was for this reason that she
came up with a clever ploy for the ages.
She had one of her loyal subjects roll her up into a carpet and hand
deliver her to Julius Caesar. Just about as soon as this beautiful young woman
was unrolled from that piece of carpeting and presented to the infatuated
Caesar, her brother Ptolemy was all but doomed. Caesar and Cleopatra began
to engage in an affair with each other shortly after their meeting, and the only
thing that pulled Caesar from her arms was news of an uprising in the Roman
province of Asia Minor.
Caesar left to quash this rebellion and then finally made his way back to
Rome in October of 47 BCE. It was during this return trip to Rome that
Caesar held an audience with his grand-nephew Octavian once again. Caesar
is said to have been very impressed with how his nephew had turned out and
saw to it that he was trained as a proper patrician—or member of the Roman
aristocracy. But when Caesar prepared to set sail back to North Africa—and
no doubt back to Cleopatra—Octavian insisted that he join him for the
journey.
But even though Octavian was now 17 years old and beginning to assert
his independence, he was overruled by an even greater power than Caesar—
his mother Atia. She insisted that he wasn’t quite yet ready to go overseas,
and Octavian quietly obeyed her commands and stayed home. Caesar
wouldn’t return to Rome again until nearly a year later in July of 46 BCE. It
was during this time that Octavian began to truly get to know his great-uncle,
attending official functions with him and learning all of the nuances of
statecraft as well as everyday interpersonal relations.
As much as the two were seen together, it became common knowledge
that young Octavian had the ear of Caesar. And soon enough those close to
him began to ask Octavian to intercede with Caesar on their behalf for
various requests and favors. One of those seeking this intercession was
Octavian’s old friend Agrippa. Octavian’s old classmate Agrippa wasn’t
pleading for any special favors for himself, but rather for his brother who had
been caught on the wrong side of the Roman Civil War and was in dire need
of Caesar’s clemency.
The only trouble was Caesar had already granted the man clemency in the
past, but he had joined up with a group of rebels once again, this time getting
himself captured as an enemy combatant in North Africa. As forgiving as
Caesar was, he certainly didn’t take too kindly to those who had squandered
his previous acts of clemency. Even so, Octavian was still able to work a
little bit of magic for Agrippa and his brother, convincing his uncle to grant a
general amnesty for the young man once again.
If Octavian wasn’t already Julius Caesar’s right-hand man, he certainly
seemed like it to most.
 Chapter Three

Ushering in the Age of Empire

“To seek to keep the established constitution unchanged argues a good
citizen and a good man.”

—Augustus

In celebration of the successful conclusion of the campaign in North Africa,

Caesar hosted an official triumph in which Octavian was encouraged to take
part. During the victory parade, Octavian was given a place of honor, riding
right behind Caesar’s carriage. This was rather remarkable considering the
fact that Octavian played no role in the actual campaign itself. After the
triumph came to a close, Octavian was also frequently seen seated next to
Caesar at public banquets and civic events. It was only when Cleopatra
arrived from Egypt to join Caesar as his personal guest in Rome that
Octavian began to be seen less frequently with Julius Caesar.
But by the time of Octavian’s 18th birthday, Caesar was already on the
move once again, this time for Spain, and he wished for his nephew to
accompany him. Yet another rebellion had broken out on the Iberian
Peninsula, and Caesar wanted to have Octavian to be part of his trusted
entourage as he worked to snuff this Spanish rebellion out. This would have
been a great opportunity for Octavian, a kind of internship for the
unseasoned. But just prior to Caesar’s announcement that he was leaving for
Spain, Octavian had come down with a bad case of heat stroke and was
relegated to bed. Caesar, wishing his grand-nephew a speedy recovery,
instructed him to join him when he felt strong enough to do so.
After resting up for a time, Octavian was then able to leave for Spain in
the Spring. To his chagrin and immense disappointment, by the time
Octavian arrived in Spain, the battle was all but over and the rebellion firmly
put down by Julius Caesar. Caesar, however, was overjoyed to be once again
in the company of his nephew and made sure that Octavian roomed with him
in his own lodging. The two grew even closer during this time spent together,
engaging in endless conversation all hours of the night. Later critics of
Octavian would try to accuse Octavian of having had an incestuous
relationship with his great-uncle Julius Caesar, but there is no real proof of
anything of that nature ever having occurred.
Staying in these lodgings for a while, Caesar would then have Octavian
accompany him and his entourage to the next destination on his itinerary: the
Spanish port city of Cartagena. After a brief stay in Cartagena, Caesar and
Octavian then made their way to northern Italy later that summer. Octavian
would stay for just a short time longer with Caesar before requesting and
receiving permission to head back to the house he shared with his mother and
stepfather. For the next few months, the teenager laid low, living a quiet life
with his parents. He didn’t see too many people during this period except for
the occasional friends, such as Agrippa, who would come over to visit him.
Meanwhile, Caesar made his way back to Rome and began to engage in a
major overhaul in Roman legislation. Not everyone in the Senate would be
happy with these changes, but they felt powerless to object to Caesar’s
authority openly. They felt that he was strangling the life out of the Republic,
so they took it into their own hands to stop him. It was during a special
meeting held on March 15, 44 BCE that Caesar was stabbed to death. His
murderers believed they were saving the Republic from a dictator, but all
they did was sign the death warrant of the Roman Republic and ushered in
the age of empire—an empire that Octavian would soon rule as the very first
Roman emperor.
 Chapter Four

The Adoptive Son of Julius Caesar

“Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in
war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight
forces.”

—Julius Caesar

Octavian was getting ready to eat dinner with some friends at a country estate
in Apollonia, Illyria, when a messenger sent by his mother arrived with the
devastating news of Caesar’s assassination. As the servant read out the
contents of his mother’s letter, Octavian was overwhelmed with a mixture of
grief, fear, and outrage. He was grieved to lose the man he had become so
close to, he feared what the future of Rome might be, and he was outraged
enough to immediately consider avenging his murdered relative.
For a time, as he talked amongst his friends as to what course of action he
should take, he seriously considered joining Caesar’s army, which was
quartered outside of Rome. He knew that the soldiers were no doubt just as
shocked as he was and wanted nothing more than to get revenge for the death
of their leader. The only thing that stayed his hand was the arrival of another
letter from his mother and stepfather which urged him to take a more patient
approach, not to do anything drastic, and wait things out as a private citizen.
They also advised him to return to Rome as soon as possible.
Octavian left for Italy shortly thereafter, landing in the southern Italian
port city of Brundisium. It was after his arrival here that he was informed of
his stake in Caesar’s will. Caesar had apparently crafted a new will shortly
before his death, and in it, he had named Octavian as his adopted heir. His
parents, especially his stepfather, was immediately wary of Octavian taking
any side of the conflict. Philippus even went so far as to tell Octavian to
ignore the will, as Caesar’s was an inheritance far too dangerous to accept.
Octavian stood his ground, however, and ignoring the warnings of his
parents left for Rome with the full intention of claiming all that his slain
uncle had left behind for him. Octavian gambled that just as was the case
with Caesar, the general public would be on his side. And he was right. As
soon as he stepped foot in Rome, he was greeted by throngs of supporters and
well-wishers. The politicians in the Senate may not have liked his arrival too
much, but they were far outnumbered but the average Roman citizen who
were ready to turn their eyes onto Octavian as their new leader.
But despite this popular upswell from the ground, Octavian knew he
needed some strong political allies on his side. It was for this reason that he
came into contact with Caesar’s prior associate Mark Antony. At the time
Mark Antony, though a loyal follower of Caesar, had managed to hammer
out a tenuous peace with the faction of senators that were linked to—or even
directly responsible for—Caesar’s death. Ever since the soaring speech he
gave at Caesar’s funeral, Mark Antony was doing everything he could to win
over popular Roman sentiment to his side.
Octavian was desperately seeking an ally, but it soon became clear that
Mark Anthony would be something much more akin to a rival. And as the
rivalry heated up, the most important thing for Octavian to achieve was
legitimizing his adoption by Julius Caesar in the eyes of the Republic. As
heir, it was Octavian’s right to demand his inheritance from the acting consul
—which was Mark Antony. Upon requesting this, however, Mark Antony
flatly refused, claiming that upon Caesar’s death he had found the state
treasury empty. This was a complete fabrication. In reality, the treasurer was
empty because Mark Antony had drained it to pay off his huge debts.
As was Roman custom, Octavian as true inheritor was meant to take some
of his adoptive father’s inherited fortune and use it to pay out legacies to all
of his father’s associates. But even though Mark Antony had squandered
much of Octavian’s inheritance, Octavian, an already wealthy young man,
dipped into his own pocket to pay for it. With this objective complete, he
went on a campaign to win over the hearts and minds of Rome. This was a
personality campaign and test of tenacity between Mark Antony and
Octavian, not too different from the bitter political election campaigns of
today, with both sides hurling vitriol at the other. But vicious barbs were
getting both men nowhere fast.
It was in was in this volatile backdrop that Mark Antony left Rome on
October 9, 44 BCE, for Brundisium to rally his troops. He had four whole
Macedonian legions situated in the region, and he intended to make sure that
he could rely on them if he had to. But the reception that Mark Antony
received from his troops was not what he expected. As soon as he arrived, the
men were restless and began to bombard him with questions. They also began
to demand that he punish those responsible for Caesar’s death.
Mark Antony then mounted the stage to address his soldiers, supplying
them with several unsatisfactory explanations to their inquiries. He concluded
his speech by announcing that he would be giving each of them a small
bonus. This was a gesture of goodwill that Mark Antony hoped would buy
the loyalty of the troops. But the amount he offered was such a paltry sum
that many of the soldiers burst into laughter when they heard it. Humiliated,
Antony viewed the disruption as nothing short of insubordination and moved
to make an example of his more boisterous troops. He had a few of them
seized and brutally punched and kicked until they died right there on the spot.
He then turned to the shocked crowd and flatly informed them, “You will
obey orders.”
 Chapter Five

Defeating Mark Antony

“At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised
an army by means of which I restored liberty to the Republic, which had been
oppressed by the tyranny of a faction.”

—Augustus

While Mark Antony was busy instilling fear and terror in his own army,
Octavian tried a much different approach. Wishing to secure a loyal militia,
he left for the port city of Campania where many of Caesar’s veterans were
residing. Here he pulled on both their heartstrings as well as their purse
strings. Octavian reminded them of their loyal service to his now adoptive
father and how much they revered the slain leader, and at the same time
promised them such a generous financial compensation that they couldn’t
refuse his offer.
Octavian offered these men twice the amount of what their normal salary
would have been. And unlike others who had made them promises and then
backed out, they knew that Octavian’s pockets were deep enough that he
would be able to make good on his promise. As a result, in a very short
period of time, Octavian had brought together a solid fighting force of over
3,000 troops.
But despite his popular support, and the loyalty that his money helped
secure, from the beginning there was confusion over what the actual
objectives of the group would be. Octavian raised the army with the full
intention of deposing Mark Antony. Most of these veterans, however, wished
to hunt down Caesar’s assassins instead. Despite these conflicting goals
among the ranks, Octavian placed himself at the head of his new army and
marched on Rome. The army stormed right into the Roman Forum, causing
the senators to flee. But Mark Antony was ready and arrived shortly
thereafter with his Macedonian troops.
 Facing off against their brothers in arms was apparently not what
Octavian’s soldiers had signed up for and many began to defect. As his army
began to collapse, Octavian had no choice but to gather those most loyal to
him and make a hasty retreat. But even though Octavian had lost this initial
battle, it soon became clear that he was winning the larger war. Greatly
dissatisfied with Mark Antony, whole legions began to abandon him and
pledge allegiance to Octavian. With a new legion joining forces with
Octavian on a daily basis, it became clear to Mark Antony that he had found
himself in a highly untenable situation.
In April of 43 BCE, the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian would face
off once again. Antony had been tipped off that a contingent of Octavian’s
troops would be traveling from Bologna to Mutina. He saw this as the perfect
opportunity to carry out an ambush. Octavian’s commanders had foreseen
just such a contingency, however, and at the last minute sent an additional
legion as well as Octavian’s Pretorian Guard to trail the group as potential
reinforcements. Mark Antony assembled his troops on the side of the road
hidden in the brush, and when Octavian’s men passed by, they struck.
The battle raged for about two hours before Mark Antony was able to
push his opponents back. He and his men thought that the battle was won, but
on their back to their encampment, they were intercepted by the additional
reinforcements that had been sent by Octavian’s commanders. Mark
Antony’s men were caught completely off guard and decimated in short
order. His troops would then regroup in the city of Mutina, where they would
confront their opponents once again, this time led by none other than
Octavian himself. Here for the first time, Octavian proved himself in battle,
and Mark Antony was utterly defeated. Yet he was not killed or captured and
managed to make a break for it at the last minute, escaping across the Alps to
the wildlands of Gaul.
Although Octavian could have pursued and overtaken the fleeing Mark
Antony, he refused to do so. He wished to conserve resources, and he still
harbored the notion that he could convert Mark Antony into an ally against
the senatorial opposition he would have to face eventually. He knew that he
needed to consolidate his power in Rome, and this meant requesting he be
given the role of consul. According to the rules of the Roman Republic, in
order for anyone to obtain the position of consul they had to be at least 42
years of age. Barely 20 years old, Octavian was far from meeting this
requirement. Luckily, he had some powerful backers.
 In July of 43 BCE, about 400 of his loyal veterans marched into the
Senate and demanded that Octavian be granted a place on the consul. And
just a few months later, on October 19, 43 BCE, Octavian was duly elected as
Roman consul—just one more stepping stone on his path to Empire.
 Chapter Six

The Second Triumvirate

“Make haste slowly.”

—Augustus

While Octavian was consolidating his power base and authority in Rome, it
didn’t take Mark Antony very long at all to build a new army for himself in
Gaul. He also managed to make a new friend in the form of the leading
Roman political figure Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. It was through Lepidus that
the idea of peace talks between Mark Antony and Octavian had been
conceived. Octavian agreed to give it a try, and with 11 legions, he marched
off to the predetermined meeting grounds near Bologna in November of 43
BCE.
There was a small island located in the river Lavinius which flowed
between Bologna and Mutina, and it was determined that it would be on this
small piece of isolated terrain that Mark Antony and Octavian would meet.
The two men and their armies, marching from opposite directions, converged
on this tiny waterlogged island. It is said that both Antony and Octavian
posted about 5,000 troops on their side of the river banks. Then about 300
soldiers were placed on opposite ends of the bridges leading to the island.
Finally, once convinced that their side was secure and the other side was
not plotting any underhanded tricks, Mark Antony and Octavian stepped foot
onto the island with Lepidus standing between them as mediator. The three
men quickly got down to business and hammered out their objectives. Top
priorities for them if they were going to work together were to legitimize
their power as well as hunt down the remaining senatorial conspirators Brutus
and Cassius. These two senators were responsible for Caesar’s death and
were now fomenting rebellion in the east, so both Mark Antony and Octavian
could agree that they needed to be shut down.
Seizing upon this common ground, Mark Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus
would from this moment forward form the so-called Second Triumvirate
patterned after the First Triumvirate that Julius Caesar formed with the
powerful Roman figures of General Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus.
As was the case with the First Triumvirate, the three men apportioned
territory to each other to govern. Mark Antony was governor of Gaul,
Lepidus was given Transalpine Gaul and Spain, and Octavian was awarded
North Africa and the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
Once this was established, the men enacted a program of proscription in
which Roman politicians and nobles were quantified as enemies of the state
based on their involvement in Caesar’s assassination and any other
subsequent civil turmoil. Those who were classified as such had their land
and possessions confiscated and often faced execution as well. This was all
just a staging ground, however, for the final confrontation with the renegade
senators Brutus and Cassius. The two senators, who had been building a
power base in Greece, sent their troops to meet Octavian’s men in the nearby
Macedonian city of Philippi on October of 42 BCE. These troops were
promptly decimated by Antony and Octavian’s combined force of 28 legions.
Upon hearing that all was lost, Brutus and Cassius opted to end their own
lives by committing suicide.
It is said that after the hostilities had ceased, the behavior of Mark Antony
and Octavian couldn’t have been more different. Although Mark Antony was
known for his brutality among his own soldiery, for whatever reason against
the defeated rebels led by the senatorial defectors, he decided to show a fairly
large amount of grace and mercy. Octavian, on the other hand, became
known for his cruel retribution, showing no mercy for those he believed to
have sided with the assassins of his dead uncle.
Among the thousands of prisoners of war, it was determined that there
were several noble Romans linked to the senatorial conspirators Brutus and
Cassius. Octavian decided that all of these men should be executed on the
spot. And he would not spare even the slightest of niceties for these men that
he had summarily condemned. In one famous instance, one of the condemned
had merely requested that he receive a proper burial, to which Octavian
coldly responded, “That’s a matter for the carrion birds to decide.”
Octavian was apparently determined to make sure that anyone linked to
the death of his uncle receive no quarter. This was done both out of
sentimental attachment to his great uncle and also out of a pragmatic
realization that these loose ends of conspirators had to be tied. Octavian
wished to show the world that he was a force to be reckoned with.
 Chapter Seven

The Triumvirate Begins to Crack

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all
the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on
the opinions of others.”

—Marcus Aurelius

After the successful conclusion of the battle of Philippi, Antony and Octavian
began to reassess the territorial holdings of the Triumvirate. It had come to
their attention that while they were engaged in battle in the east, the third
member of the Triumvirate, Lepidus, was back in Italy engaged in secret
negotiations with a leader of the senatorial rebellion named Sextus Pompeius,
who since the days of his father Pompey had managed create quite a
monopoly for himself in Sicily. As a result of this perceived betrayal,
Lepidus was ordered to give his territory in Spain to Octavian while handing
over his extra territory in Gaul to Mark Antony. It was then later determined
that Cisalpine Gaul should be incorporated into northern Italy.
With these new arrangements decided upon, Octavian turned his attention
to the rule of his new dominion. But the year 41 BCE would prove to be yet
another year of unrest for Rome. He soon found that he was caught between a
rock and a hard place when it came to satisfying the wishes of his war
veterans as well as appeasing the needs of the general population. Soon these
two factions of Roman society were practically in open warfare with each
other in the streets. There was even a kind of general strike that took place in
Rome in which all official offices and commerce were effectively shut down.
As the Roman historian Appian describes it, “The civilian population shut
the workshops and made the elected office-holders leave, saying that they
had no need of either office-holders or crafts in a starving and plundered
city.” The main problem was the fact that there was a shortage in the
government subsidized grain on which a large chunk of the Roman poor
depended. It has been estimated that about 300,000 Romans consumed
150,000 tons of this grain on a yearly basis. But most of this grain was not
grown in Rome or even surrounding Italy; most had to be shipped from
Sicily, Sardinia, and even Egypt. The fact that Rome was so dependent on
outside grain imports was always a source of consternation for Roman rulers,
and now Octavian was forced to crunch the numbers and do this same kind of
grain calculus himself.
Meanwhile in the east, Mark Antony was facing a looming deficit of his
own, not of grain, but of cold hard cash. The coffers had been emptied during
the many wars in the east, yet the eastern province had already been taxed so
much that, short of provoking a rebellion, he didn’t dare tax the strained
citizenry any further. He soon realized that he would have to look elsewhere
to raise his funds, and the first place that came to mind was Egypt. He knew
that Egypt was legendary for its riches and knowing that the queen of Egypt
—Julius Caesar’s former mistress—Cleopatra was dependent on the whims
of Rome, he figured it would be an easy purse to plunder.
Mark Antony sent his close aid Quintus Dellius to Alexandria to inform
the queen of his demands. Like many men, Dellius was immediately
captivated by the charms of Cleopatra, and even more importantly he knew
that Mark Antony would be as well. Thinking as much, Dellius, a man known
for his mischievous charisma and ability to instantly worm his way into
hearts, took it upon himself to groom the queen for her meeting with Mark
Antony. He informed her to maximize her beauty by wearing her most
“alluring attire” while at the same time reassuring her that Mark Antony was
a gentleman and that she would have nothing to fear during her stay.
Cleopatra was apparently persuaded by Dellius and composed herself just as
directed before sailing off to meet Mark Antony. Much as Dellius had
expected, Mark Antony was immediately enthralled by the charm and
personality of Cleopatra and invited her to have a personal dinner with him.
This dinner then turned into several more dinners, which culminated in Mark
Antony leaving his post in the east to set sail for Egypt arriving sometime in
January of 40 BCE, where he determined to spend the rest of the winter
months.
But even if Mark Antony was on vacation, the enemies of Rome were
not. And an age-old foe in the east, the Parthian Empire (modern-day Iraq
and Iran), found Mark Antony’s leave of absence to be the perfect time to
strike, invading Roman Syria in late February. Upon hearing of this
incursion, Mark Antony cut his wintertime liaison with Queen Cleopatra
short and headed back to his command post in Asia Minor. After putting out
this fire, Mark Antony would soon turn his attention to his frayed relationship
with Rome, where tension was threatening to boil over once again into war.
 Chapter Eight

The Treaty of Brundisium

“Whatever is done well enough is done quickly enough.”

—Augustus

It seems that while Mark Antony was engaged in an affair with Cleopatra in
Egypt, his wife Fulvia had taken matters into her own hands in Italy. The
trouble began when Octavian sought to put away his wife Clodia, who also
happened to be Fulvia’s daughter. Octavian dropped Clodia off on her
mother’s doorstep, asserting that it was his right to do so because the
marriage had never been consummated in the first place.
Fulvia apparently was not going to take this insult to her family’s honor
lightly. She took drastic measures by strapping a sword to her side and began
to organize some of Mark Antony’s legions in preparation to march on Rome.
Further encouraging her toward these brash actions was Mark Antony’s
brother, Lucius Antonius, who cited the ongoing massive discontent of the
Roman public as a sign of Octavian’s weakness and their ultimate success.
Things didn’t go well for Fulvia’s army, however; they were soon
cornered in the Italian town of Perusia, and after a two-month long siege,
they were forced to surrender. Despite the trouble they caused, Octavian’s
punishment of the insurrectionists was light. Being the brother of Mark
Antony, Lucius’ life was spared, and since Fulvia was Mark Antony’s wife,
she was merely sent into exile. Perhaps her biggest punishment came with her
husband’s sharp rebuke when he met up with her in Athens, Greece.
Although it has not been recorded exactly what transpired between the two of
them during this visit, it is said that Antony held Fulvia in the highest of
contempt, basically disavowing her and placing all of their misfortune on her
shoulders. Sadly, this was too much of a burden for Fulvia to bare, and
shortly after their meeting, Fulvia became deathly sick. It remains unclear
exactly what the cause of her malady was, but she was also severely
depressed, which only hastened her decline. She passed away shortly after his
departure.
It’s hard to say how much Mark Antony may have grieved his troubled
wife’s death, but at any rate, he didn’t have much time to mourn. Shortly
after Fulvia’s death, he received word that Fufius Calenus, the governor of
Gaul, had died, and that Octavian had taken it upon himself to seize the
territory and all of the former governor’s troops. Since this violated the terms
of their Triumvirate, Mark Antony prepared once again for war with Italy.
The two armies seemed to be poised for a titanic collision, but then
something rather incredible occurred. As both sides converged on the
intended site of battle in the city of Brundisium, the veteran soldiers on both
sides of the conflict began to open a dialogue with each other. Bypassing
their leaders completely, the troops began to enter into peace talks among
themselves. This was apparently a war that neither side wished to fight, and
so defying orders from Octavian and Antony, both sides put down their arms.
Octavian and Mark Antony were both astonished and outraged at the
sudden turn of events. But neither of them dared punish their troops for
insubordination since they knew it would only provoke an all-out mutiny. So,
seizing this rare opportunity as a way out of war, the two leaders agreed to
grant each other a general amnesty and hammer out a new peace agreement.
Even though the third member of the Triumvirate, Lepidus, wasn’t present,
Antony and Octavian crafted a new contract for all three of them for another
five years.
This agreement had Lepidus maintaining his miniscule holdings in North
Africa while Octavian took over all territory west of Italy and Mark Antony
was allotted all land east of Italy. Italy itself was considered a kind of neutral
territory where both had authority and the ability to raise troops. This
template would come to be repeated many times over the next few centuries
with the Roman Empire divided primarily between the east and the west,
governed by two strong rulers, one for each side.
As a special addition to the terms they came up with, Octavian sought to
strengthen the deal by offering the newly widowed Mark Antony his sister’s
hand in marriage. In doing so, Octavian tried to follow the example of his
great-uncle Julius Caesar who had bought precious peace with Pompey by
having him marry his daughter Julia. Octavian hoped that this extra provision
would help to bind the two leaders together. This new agreement, known as
the Treaty of Brundisium, would prove to be a bitter disappointment,
however, and its shelf life would prove to be much shorter than the agreed
five years.
 Chapter Nine

The Suicide Pact

“I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”

—Augustus

Even though peace had been restored between Octavian and Mark Antony,
Rome still suffered from an age-old crisis—lack of grain to feed its populace.
Most of Rome’s grain supplies were coming out of Sicily and Sardinia which
was controlled by Sextus Pompeius, the surviving son of Pompey, who had
ruled the islands virtually unopposed since his father’s defeat by Julius
Caesar. During the chaos of Caesar’s assassination and the Second
Triumvirate’s squabbles, Sextus was left to build up a powerful army and
navy centered around Sicily.
But it wasn’t his naval power that he used to threaten Rome, in the
summer of 39 BCE, Sextus used his monopoly over grain to bring Octavian
to his knees. Octavian had attempted to keep the peace with Sextus through
various means before—one of which included a marriage to Scribonia, a
daughter of one of Sextus’ loyal followers. He had married Scribonia shortly
after putting away Fulvia’s daughter. This marriage quickly produced a child,
but it didn’t produce the political favor that Octavian wished it would bring
him with Sextus.
The peace bought was only a temporary one, and soon Sextus began to
blockade grain shipments once again. And so, in a quite callous and cold
fashion, Octavian had cast off his second wife Scribonia without a second
thought, divorcing her on the very day she gave birth to their daughter Julia
in 39 BCE. Octavian then switched tactics and began to wage war against
Sextus instead. Joining forces with Lepidus, Octavian led a combined army in
an invasion of Sicily in 36 BCE. By early September, Sextus’ maritime
empire had been all but decimated. Sextus himself barely escaped with his
life but was soon captured in the Greek city of Miletus, where one of Mark
Antony’s generals had him put to the sword.
All seemed to be going well for the Triumvirate, until Lepidus, the
weakest member of the trio, decided to attempt to take Sicily for himself,
taking up arms against Octavian and trying to evict him from the island. But
right when battle was about to be engaged, most of Lepidus own soldiers
refused to fight and switched sides to Octavian, leaving the embarrassed
Lepidus no choice but to surrender. Octavian was surprisingly merciful to
Lepidus, and even though he was officially terminated from the Triumvirate,
Lepidus was allowed to keep his title as pontifex maximus and effectively
allowed to retire in peace.
The Roman Empire was now split between two rulers, Octavian and
Mark Antony, who each controlled approximately one half of all Roman
territory. Mark Antony had been engaged in a series of battles against the
Parthian Empire on his eastern borders. Facing high casualties, he had
requested reinforcements from Octavian but was disappointed to receive less
than 2,000 troops. Desperate to bolster his forces, Mark Antony turned to the
only other monarch he knew that he could rely upon: the queen of Egypt,
Cleopatra. As he became involved with Cleopatra again, his interest in his
second wife Octavia waned, and to her brother Octavian’s disgust, he sent her
back to Rome.
Mark Antony’s luck on the battlefield began to improve shortly
thereafter, culminating in the successful seizure of Armenia in 34 BCE.
Despite these victories in the east, Octavian was becoming a much louder
critic of Mark Antony, a sentiment that was on full display on January 1, 33
BCE during his address to the Roman Senate. It was during this speech that
Octavian denounced Mark Antony for his relationship with Cleopatra and
accused him of arbitrarily handing out “land and distinction” to non-Roman
citizens. Strangely, he also criticized Mark Antony for allowing the execution
of Sextus Pompeius two years prior, even though Octavian most likely would
have done much the same thing had he been the one to capture the renegade.
All of these remarks, however, seemed only to backfire on Octavian,
since after these lines were drawn, many senators opted to defect to Mark
Antony’s side. But less than a year later, in the fall of 32 BCE, his attacks on
Mark Antony would pay off when former Antony loyalists Marcus Titius and
Munatius Plancus drifted into Octavian’s orbit. It was Munatius Plancus, in
particular, that would provide the key in turning most of Rome against
Antony. Plancus was a close aide of Antony’s who knew many of his most
guarded secrets. Wishing to help Octavian in his search to dig up dirt on
Mark Antony, Plancus informed him that Antony had hidden his final will
and testament inside the Temple of the Vestal Virgins in Rome.
Seeing this document as a good enough place to start as any, Octavian
then moved to have the curators of the temple hand over the will. They were
not willing to violate the sanctity of the temple, however, and insisted that if
Octavian wanted the document, he should get it himself. Octavian
immediately obliged, seizing the will by force. Then, after scouring the will
for any potentially inflammatory material, he publicized it for all to see. Most
troubling for Romans who read it was the fact that Mark Antony had
requested to be buried in Alexandria, Egypt, and had left special legacies for
his children with Cleopatra.
As trivial as these things may seem to us today, for the ancient Romans,
they were tantamount to treason, and their revelation served to give Octavian
all the support he would need to declare war on Mark Antony. He would have
to declare war on Egypt first, which was done in late 32 BCE. Antony and
Cleopatra were actually in Greece at the time, and by catching them off
guard, Octavian’s army managed to cut them off from their main supply of
troops. Mark Antony was now surrounded, and the knowledge of the trap
they were in facilitated massive defections from Antony’s remaining troops.
Desperate to escape the dragnet they were caught in, Mark Antony and
Cleopatra took what was left of their entourage and set sail off the shores of
the Greek mainland. After a harrowing pursuit, Mark Antony’s small fleet
managed to escape to Alexandria, but the escape was pointless since
Octavian immediately landed and continued the chase over land, threatening
to overtake the beleaguered couple again. Realizing that there was nowhere
left to run, Mark Antony and Cleopatra chose to take their own lives. Mark
Antony stabbed himself with his weapon before dying in Cleopatra’s
embrace. Cleopatra then followed her lover’s lead by taking a drought of
poison.
 Chapter Ten

The First Roman Emperor

“He [Julius Caesar] learned that Alexander, having completed nearly all his
conquests by the time he was thirty-two years old, was at an utter loss to
know what he should do during the rest of his life, whereat Augustus
expressed his surprise that Alexander did not regard it as a greater task to
set in order the empire which he had won than to win it.”

—Plutarch

After the demise of his archrival, Octavian was now the undisputed, single
ruler of the Roman Empire. Some still entertained the idea that Rome was a
republic, but when all power rested in the hands of one man, empire status
was hard to deny. It is true that Octavian initially allowed the continuance of
most free elections, but for the most part, Rome was now a republic in name
only. The Senate still had a foothold in North Africa and more importantly
the grain stores therein. But senators could only count on five legions
between them whereas Octavian had a full twenty legions under his
command. There could be no doubt that if anyone rose up against Octavian,
they would be quickly shut down.
After several years of consolidating his power, on January 16, 27 BCE,
Octavian reached another milestone on the road to empire, receiving the title
of Augustus. Roughly translated, Augustus means, “the illustrious one.” This
title had spiritual connotations for the average Roman since it was meant to
be a title that conveyed Octavian’s divine authority over the common man.
Now that all of his earthly rivals had been shut down, Octavian wanted his
people to believe that he had been ordained by deity.
But this man of supposed god-given authority would soon prove his
mortality when he struck down by a horrible illness in 23 BCE. This malady
was so bad that all those in attendance assumed that he was on his deathbed.
Octavian, thinking as much himself, began to make his final will and
testament known. Without a biological heir in sight, Octavian made it known
that he wished for General Agrippa to succeed him. This was a shock to
many who believed that Octavian had been grooming his nephew Marcellus
as a potential successor.
It could be that at the time Octavian did not think his nephew would be
ready for the weight of command, whereas the seasoned General Agrippa
would be much more acclimated for the role of supreme ruler. He went ahead
and handed his signet ring over to Agrippa, and despite the fact that the
senatorial procedures were traditionally needed to make such transfers of
power legal, Octavian overruled them and declared that Agrippa should be
considered in charge.
Octavian then surprised everyone—including himself—by recovering
from his illness, but his intentions had already been made clear regardless.
Marcellus would face death later that year when he came down with the same
mysterious illness that had nearly proved lethal with Octavian. Due to subpar
sanitation practices, outbreaks of plague were quite common in Rome at the
time. Unfortunately for young Marcellus, he didn’t have an immune system
as strong as his uncle’s, and he succumbed to the illness.
Shortly after Octavian’s recovery, he awarded General Agrippa a term of
five years as the administrator of the east. Agrippa seemed to be an emperor
in training, but when he passed away in 12 BCE, Octavian was forced to look
for a new successor. The two most promising candidates were his stepsons
from his marriage to his latest wife, Livia. In particular, Octavian was fond of
his stepson Tiberius and began to groom him as a potential successor.
By 7 BCE, Tiberius was elected to hold office as consul for the second
time. He then went on to complete a daring military campaign in the
uncharted territory of the Germanic lands of the north, a battle that resulted in
Roman victory and the deportation of 40,000 Germanic tribesmen to the
other side of the Rhine. This earned Tiberius his first official triumph,
gaining him just the right kind of notoriety needed to follow in Octavian’s
footsteps. But to the amazement of all who heard it, just a year later in 6
BCE, Tiberius announced that he was going to “retire from public life.” He
then sent himself into a kind of self-imposed exile to the island of Rhodes.
The idea that this capable 36-year-old man with all the social and political
connections that anyone could want would retire seemed to perplex the entire
Roman world. The news was the most alarming to Emperor Augustus,
however, since at the age of 57 years old, having a preordained heir was of
the utmost importance. His only other viable options at the time were his
grandsons Lucius and Caius Caesar, but they were still far too young to be
relied upon. And when Lucius died in the year 2 CE, and Gaius passed in 4
CE, it became clear that Tiberius was the only possible heir to be had.
 Conclusion
When Octavian finally passed away on August 19, 14 CE at age 75, he died
with the assurance that his stepson Tiberius would carry on his legacy.
Octavian, who was a meticulous planner during his life, wanted to make sure
that all things were well in order upon his death. In fact, his famous final
words are said to be, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit!”
He was critiquing his actions even as he left the world stage behind.
Say what you will about the first Roman Emperor Augustus, but he left a
lasting legacy in the known world, ushering in the rise of the Roman Empire
and the subsequent Pax Romana, or Roman Peace.
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