And Octavian spent many hours there.įirst, Caesar favored young Octavian with a series of public responsibilities. An hour at the feet of Caesar was worth more than a term of lectures by a professor. And last but not least, there was Julius Caesar, one of history’s masters of deceit. Young Octavian had many mentors in developing guile: his mother, who talked her way into a hiding place with the vestal virgins when the Senate wanted to take her hostage his sister, Octavia, who might have had something to do with her first husband Mark Antony’s surprising conversion from staunch enemy of her family to docile friend his stepfather, an ex-consul who survived a civil war without taking sides his great-grandmother and grandmother, who together gave detailed evidence in court of a female in-law’s adultery, thereby sparing the man of the family, Caesar, from having to dirty his hands in public in order to get a divorce. In Agrippa’s case, Octavian went to Caesar and got Agrippa’s brother freed from imprisonment even though he had fought against Caesar. To be sure, Octavian had a gift for making men follow him. He was courageous, assertive, and, above all, loyal. What Agrippa had in abundance was practical genius. Like Octavian, he came from a prosperous Italian family, although without any connection to the Roman nobility. In theory, at any rate: in practice, the republic could not prevail against a conquering general like Caesar and his tens of thousands of loyal soldiers.Ī prominent boy such as Octavian had many friends, one of whom turned out to be his lifelong right-hand man, Marcus Agrippa. The people and the elites shared power through institutions such as assemblies, courts, elected officials, and the Senate. While Octavian grew up, Caesar was revolutionizing Rome, which functioned as a self-governing republic. Julia’s brother was in the process of conquering Gaul and becoming the first man in Rome. Although Atia remarried soon, she entrusted Octavian to her mother, Julia, who raised the boy during his formative years. His ticket upward was his marriage to Julius Caesar’s niece Atia Balbus, but he died suddenly when Octavian was four years old. His father, also Gaius Octavius, was wealthy and ambitious but not a Roman noble, and he came not from the capital but from a small town to its south. It is complicated, but so was the man behind the names. From then on, he took the title by which he is best known today: Augustus. Most historians today call him Octavian, but only until he reached the age of thirty-five in 27 BC. But he rejected the name Octavianus and insisted on being called Caesar. Or, rather, he should have been called that, according to standard Roman naming practices. After accepting the offer of posthumous adoption in Caesar’s will, Octavius became known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Or, rather, we might ask: Who was born then? Even Octavian’s name is a matter of public relations. Octavian was born on September 23, 63 BC.
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