The Roman Series: How do you think about Augustus ?

Augustus: The first Roman Emperor

In this second  post about the Roman Empire series , there is a main role
for Augustus. 

Early Life

Augustus was born in the city of Rome, very close to the Roman Forum
on 23 September 63 BC.  He was named Gaius Octavius Thurinus. 

Due to the crowded places in Rome during that time, Octavius was taken
to his father's home at Velletri to be raised. His mother, Atia was the
niece of Julius Caesar. 

In 59 BC his father died, when he was just four years old. His mother
remarried a former governor of Syria, Lucius Marcius Philippus.

Then Octavius was raised by his grandmother, Julia, the sister of 
Julius Caesar. 

Julia died in 52 or 51 BC and Octavius delivered the funeral oration
for his grandmother. From this point his mother and stepfather took
more interest in Octavius. 

In 47 BC Octavius was elected to the College of Pontiffs.

A turning point

When Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March in 44 BC,
Octavius was studying and followed a military training in Illyria.
Caesar had no living legitimate children under Roman Law and so he
had adopted Octavius, his grand-nephew as his heir. 

Way to power

When Octavius arrived in Rome on 6 May 44 BC, Mark Antony,
Caesar's former colleague had made a truce with his grand uncle's 

assassins. 

Marc Antony had lost the support of many Romans and supporters of
Caesar. Finally  Octavius, Marc Anthony and Marcus Lepidus
formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. 

In 42 BC the Battle of Philippi took place and the three had a 
huge victory. They divided the Roman Republic among them and
ruled de facto as dictators. 

But .... the members of the Triumvirate had lots of ambitions and 
each of them wanted to take the ultimate power. 

The meeting of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra

Egypt

In Egypt Antony had been engaged in an affair with Cleopatra
and had three children with her. 

Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC and Antony was defeated by
Octavius at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. 

On 1 August 30 BC Octavius defeated the forces of Antony and
Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. 

The only leader of Rome

After the defeat of Antony, Octavius was in a position to rule the

Roman Republic under an unofficial principate. He courted the
Senate and the people and officially he held the republican 
traditions of Rome. 

In 27 BC Octavius made a show of returning full power to the
Roman Senate but in fact he was the only ruler. 

He enlarged the Roman Empire with Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia,
Noricum and much more. 

What's in a name?

On 16 January 27 BC the Senate of Rome gave Octavius some new
titles inter alia:

Augustus and Princeps.

Augustus is from the Latin word Augere (= to increase). It can be
translated as "the illustrious one". 

During his reign, the month of August was called Sextillis (6th.

month of the Roman calendar).

Sextillis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the
most significant events in his rise to power fell in that month. 

Love and marriage

Augustus married three times:

1/ Clodia Pulchra (stepdaughter of Mark Antony) - ended in a divorce;

2/ Scribonia 

3/ Livia Drusilla 

Death

Augustus died on 19 August 14 AD, while visiting Nola, where his
father had died. There were rumours that his third wife, Livia, had
poisoned him, but it's likely he died from natural causes. He was
75 years old when he died. 

Source pictures: Wikipedia