Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor (original 2006; edition 2007)

Ancient history is made up of bits of information from dated manuscripts and the plausible conjectures of historians. Reading this book, I would add that the personal biases of history writers fill in the information gaps which are especially large the farther back in time we go. The end result is a mix of fact and fiction, and like a scifi novel, the fiction needs to retain structural consistency with the rest of the facts. With equal parts wonder and skepticism, this book takes one way back to the beginnings of the Imperial West. For what the Romans built was a military empire, funding their armies through taxation of provinces, and ruthlessly suppressing dissent. They set up client nations and installed friendly governors to support the structure of their Imperium. And thus, developed a template for future generations of imperialists, conquistadors and manifest destiny-ers. The key character, Augustus, is depicted as an opportunistic politician whose skill was not in military matters but in identifying the compromises needed to advance himself. Ruthless and devious, the first Roman emperor defeated a succession of adversaries, including the ill-fated Mark Antony and his Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, to be the last man standing for the title Emperor. In the backdrop we get glimpses of ancient lifestyles --- the Roman toga and sandals, short lifetimes under the constant threat of unknown and incurable diseases, children and family members exchanged with allies to seal pacts, opulence among the Romans, easy divorces, casual relationships, military battles sans gunpowder and motorized transport. Quite a few minor characters, like one would find in a "sprawling" space opera, who come and go with no specific need. Too many, in fact, to be distracting. But of course, this is history, and persons and their names are needed for posterity. I would recommend this book but only if you have or will read other histories of the same period such as
[b:The History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire 3|1345610|The History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire 3|Edward Gibbon|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337790892s/1345610.jpg|15895421] to provide a broader perspective. ( )

A fascinating book. The first I've read about Roman history in a less haphazard fashion, already having seen many a film and documentary, and tv series. It was interesting to see how Augustus kept up a front of traditional values while radically converting Rome into an empire. It is clear that the powers he assumed led to unaccountable excesses by his successors. ( )

The First Roman Emperor, although many did not see him as such. A calculating figure, who brought forth a massive empire which left its mark on all of Europe. ( )

Augustus is portrayed as a benevolent despot who sacrifices runs roughshod over the feelings of his family to secure Rome. I like the image of the teenaged Augustus seeing his destiny as ruler of the world. His most brillant change was the transference of the army from being paid by the generals to being paid by Rome...hence no more civil wars as there were no more private armies. His modest home has recently been found and opened...hope to visit it when we go to Italy this summer.

Anthony Everitt's "Augustus" is a solid biography on one of history's most influential people. Augustus, born Gaius Octavius September 23, in 63 BC, lived to the ripe old age of 77 and ruled the Roman Empire for almost 45 years...both staggering amounts of time considering the average lifespan 2000 years ago and the average lifespan of Roman politician.

He is arguably one of the most impactful individuals ever to roam the earth. His existence intersected Julius Caesar (his grand-uncle and adopted father), Marc Antony (primary competitor for the Roman throne), Cleopatra (Antony's lover, and co-competitor for Roman throne), Jesus Christ (born during his reign), the Battle of Teutoberg Forest (key moment in empire's expansion), end of The Republic (initiated by Julius Caesar, completed by Augustus himself).

Everitt provides peeks into Augustus' life at all stages and ages. Some of the views are limited, thin or highly speculative as necessitated by the sources at Everitt's disposal. As he does in his biography of another engimatic Roman leader, "Hadrian", Everitt speculates and analyzes multiple sources when inconsistencies arise. Much time is spent laying out the political atmosphere, and complex interrelationships that provide the context and backdrop for this incredibly intense period of history.

What's enjoyable about Everitt is his narrative approach to the biography. Many elements of Augustus' life are highlighted with vignettes and stories. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on the day in the life of the Emperor, cobbled together from specific and non-specific references. The chapters on his adopted father's rise and downfall are fascinating as well, though it's difficult to keep up with the names of people, places and battles. It's particularly frustrating keeping track of individuals with similar names (there were two different "Brutuses" involved in Caesar's murder, for example). Everitt does his best to reminding the reader of re-introduced characters.

The book spends much time on the second civil war pitting Augustus against Marc Antony. For me, this was the first indepth study I'd read and I found the author's approach very readable.

"Augustus" is similar to Everitt's "Hadrian" in that one comes away unable to fully reconcile what kind of man Augustus was. How did the younger Octavian go from a sickly and almost accidental high stakes political player, to the self assured rebuilder of the Roman world? Everitt writes that he was "devious, untrustworthy, and bloodthirsty. But once he established his authority, he governed efficiently and justly, generally allowed freedom of speech, and promoted the rule of the law." Family was important - he and Livia were together for 50 years - but when his limits were tested, he reacted severely. In his later years, Augustus' daughter Julia was shut out of his life and exiled for the remainder of hers. His grandson Agrippa Postumus, while the only remaining successor by blood, was also banished.

Everitt points to Augustus' political reforms as some of his most courageous feats even though some took tweaking over time to get right, and some never stuck at all. He attempted to reset moral perspectives of the Roman elite. He instituted a governmental bureaucracy (Augustus-aucracy?) that paved the way for governmental growth (and, oddly enough, greater efficiencies).

I couldn't help but reflect on Robert Grave's fictional version of the life of Augustus and Livia in his "I, Claudius". While contemporary and near contemporary accounts suggest that Livia was deeply involved in her husband's political world, it would appear that Graves may have overstated her involvement in just about every important death during Augustus' reign.

The book is fact-filled, well written, highly notated and comes with several maps, photos and drawings, and a list of suggested reading. The writing is strong, but, by its nature is dense and, as I've mentioned, sometimes hard to follow.

For those interested in a very readable biography of Augustus, but also a anthropological study of the time in which he lived, then I'd highly recommend this book. ( )