Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Octavian – or Augustus, as he was officially known after 27 BCE (a made-up title meaning something close to ‘Revered One’) – dominated Roman political life for more than fifty years, until his death in 14 CE. Going far beyond the precedents set by Pompey and by Caesar, he was the first Roman emperor to last the course and the longest-serving ruler
... See moreMary Beard • SPQR
and of Augustus too.” Yet
Jon Meacham • Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
CHAPTER 9 · THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF AUGUSTUS Caesar’s heir
Mary Beard • SPQR
Augustus is dead. Long live Augustus!
Mary Beard • SPQR
His rule was also presented as inevitable, as part of the natural and historical order: in short, as part of how things were. In 8 BCE the senate decided (who knows with what nudging?) that the month Sextilis, next to Julius Caesar’s July, should be renamed August – and so Augustus became part of the regular passage of time, as he remains.
Mary Beard • SPQR
Augustus is dead. Long live Augustus!
Mary Beard • SPQR
Augustus was Rome’s most skillful cultivator. Having navigated himself into unchallenged authority, he used it to turn a failing republic—as if it were a Virgilian vine—into an empire that flourishes, in more ways than most of us realize, even now. Plants aren’t aware that they’re being made to mature in a certain way, but if firmly rooted and
... See moreJohn Lewis Gaddis • On Grand Strategy
Augustus, was likewise the 'saviour of the universal human race'[
Peter Gandy • The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?
But Augustus became something no Roman had been before: the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces, who appointed their major officers, decided where and against whom the soldiers should fight, and claimed all victories as by definition his own, whoever had commanded on the ground.