Round 9 - Political Leader - Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus) 63BC-AD14
A moon or two ago I took a course in Roman history and this character really stuck out for me. He seemed like a hell of a guy, but I'd never even heard of him. We all know Julius Caesar and, thanks to Bob Guccione, Caligula, but I didn't know this cool cat. He was way better at his job than the rest of those emperor clowns.
I'm retyping his bio from a book here, so read the damn thing.
Quote:
Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavius) 63 BC - AD 14
Founder of the Roman Empire, the son of Gaius Octavius, senator and Praetor, and great nephew (through his mother, Atia) of Julius Caesar. On Caesar's assassination (44 BC) he abandoned student life in Illyricum and returned to Italy where, using Caesar's money and name (he had acquired both in his will), he raised an army, defeated Antony and extorted a wholly unconstitutional consulship from the Senate (43 BC). When Antony returned in force from Gaul later that year with Lepidus, Octavian made a deal with his former enemies, joining the so-called Second Triumvirate with them, and taking Africa, Sardinia and Sicily as his province. A later redivision of power gave him the entire western half of the Roman world, and Antony the eastern. While Antony was distracted there by his military schemes against Parthia, and his liaison with Cleopatra, Octavian consistently undermined him at home. Matters came to a head in 31 BC, and the Battle of Actium followed, Octavian emerging victorious as the sole ruler of the Roman world. Though taking the inoffensive title princeps ("first citizen"), he was in all but name an absolute monarch. His new name, Augustus ("exalted"), had historical and religious overtones, and was deliberately chosen to enhance his prestige. His long reign (27BC-AD14) was a time of peace and reconstruction at home, sound administration and steady conquest abroad. In gratitude, the Romans awarded him the title of Pater Patriae (Father of his country) in 2BC and on his death made him a god (divus Augustus).
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Thank you to the fine folks at the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia Concern.
A couple other things...
The prof in the class where I heard about this guy was giddy with excitement about the movie "Gladiator" that was soon to come out and how the CGI would recreate Rome like nothing he'd ever seen.
And I remember that I made up one of those studying "sentences" in which the first letter of each word helps you remember a list of names or something. I had to remember the Caesars in order (or thought I did, it wasn't on the final). So to match "
Julius
Augustus
Tiberius
Caligula..." I came up with "
Just
Ask
Those
Cretins...".
B+ if I recall correctly. I probably spent more time coming up with what I thought was a funny story based on those letters than I did actually studying.