{"product_id":"augustus-isbn-9780812970586","title":"Augustus","description":"He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus’s accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAugustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra.\u003cbr\u003eThe world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.Anthony Everitt, visiting professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University, has written extensively on European culture, has contributed to \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and is the author of \u003ci\u003eCicero\u003c\/i\u003e. He once served as secretary general of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Everitt lives near Colchester, England’s first recorded town, founded by the Romans.Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e SCENES FROM A PROVINCIAL CHILDHOOD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 63–48 b.c.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Velletri is a compact  hill town about twenty-five miles southeast of Rome. It lies at the southern edge  of the Alban Hills, overlooking a wide plain and distant mountains. The walk from  the railway station to the center is a steep, hot climb.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Little remains of ancient  Velitrae, but signs of the Renaissance are to be found everywhere. In the main square  stands an old fountain with battered lions spouting water. The streets leading off  the piazza are roughly parallel and are gridded, echoing the original pattern of  the old Roman vici. At the town’s highest point, where the citadel must have been,  a sixteenth-century palazzo communale, which combines the functions of town hall  and museum, was built on the foundations of a Roman building.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Here, on a stone platform,  the modern life-size statue in bronze of a man in his late teens gazes blankly from  empty eye sockets into the far distance, contemplating the life that has yet to unfold.  This is Gaius Octavius, Rome’s future ruler Augustus: for Velitrae was his hometown  and Velletri is proud to celebrate his memory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gaius would recognize the lay of  the land, the rise and fall of streets and alleys, perhaps the layout, certainly  the views. Now as then, this is a provincial place, which seems farther from the  capital city than it really is. Change has always come slowly. The community leaves  a powerful impression of being self-contained and a little isolated. Even today,  elderly locals squint blackly at strangers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A certain dour feeling for tradition,  a suspicion of newfangled ways, a belief in propriety, have always been typical of  provincial life in towns such as Velitrae, and it would be hard to imagine a more  conventional family than that into which Gaius Octavius was born in 63 b.c.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Every  Roman boy received a praenomen, or forename, such as Marcus, Lucius, Sextus—or Gaius.  Then came his clan name, or nomen, such as Octavius. Some but not all Romans also  had a cognomen, which signified a family subset of a clan. Successful generals were  sometimes awarded a hereditary agnomen; for example, Publius Cornelius Scipio added  Africanus to his existing names, in honor of his victory over Hannibal in north Africa.  By contrast, girls were only known, inconveniently, by the feminine version of their  nomen; so Gaius’ two sisters were both known as Octavia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e An important feature of  the infant Gaius’ inheritance was that, although like most Italians the Octavii held  Roman citizenship, they were not of “Roman” stock. Velitrae was an outpost on the  borders of Latium, home of the Latin tribes that, centuries before, had been among  the first conquests of the aggressive little settlement beside a ford on the river  Tiber.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Two hundred years before Gaius’ birth, Rome finally united the tribes and  communities of central and southern Italy through a network of imposed treaties.  The men of these lands provided the backbone of the legions and were eventually,  as late as the eighties b.c., incorporated into the Republic as full citizens. The  little boy grew up with a clear impression of the contribution that Rome’s onetime  opponents were making to its imperial greatness, a contribution not always fully  recognized by the chauvinists in the capital. In a real sense, the Roman empire would  be better called the Italian empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Octavii were a well-respected local family  of considerable means. A Vicus Octavius, or Octavius Street, ran through Velitrae’ s center (just as a Via Ottavia does today), past an altar consecrated by a long-ago  ancestor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The family seems to have been in trade, a sure sign that it was not of  aristocratic status. Gaius’ paternal great-grandfather fought in Sicily as a military  tribune (a senior officer in a legion, or regiment) during the second war against  the great merchant state of Carthage in northern Africa (218 to 201 b.c.). Carthage’ s comprehensive defeat was the first indication to the Mediterranean world that a  new military power had arrived on the scene. Gaius’ grandfather, who lived to an  advanced age, was well-off, but had no ambitions for a career in national politics,  being apparently content to hold local political office.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Later hostile gossip claimed  that the great-grandfather was an ex-slave who, having won his freedom, made a living  as a rope maker in the neighborhood of Thurii, a town in Italy’s deep south. It was  also rumored that the grandfather was a money changer, with “coin-stained hands.”  Friendly propagandists took a different tack and invented a fictitious link with  a blue-blooded Roman clan of the same name.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When he came to write his memoirs many  years afterward, Gaius merely noted that he “came from a rich old equestrian family.”  The equites, or knights, were the affluent middle class, occupying a political level  below that of the nobility and members of the ruling Senate, but often overlapping  with them socially. To qualify for equestrian status, they needed to own property  worth more than 400,000 sesterces, and were not actively engaged in government. They  were usually wealthy businessmen or landed gentry who preferred to avoid the expense  and dangers of a political career. Many were contracted by the state to collect taxes  on its behalf from the provinces. By the time of the boy’s father, also named Gaius  Octavius, the family had become seriously rich, and probably far exceeded the equestrian  minimum.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The father Octavius, an ambitious man, decided to pursue a career in politics  at Rome with a view to making his way, if he could, to the top. This was an extremely  difficult project. The Roman constitution was a complicated contraption of checks  and balances, and the odds were stacked against an outsider—a novus homo, or “new  man”—from winning a position of authority.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Rome became a republic in 509 b.c., after  driving out its king and abolishing the monarchy. The next two centuries saw a long  struggle for power between a group of noble families, patricians, and ordinary citizens,  plebeians, who were excluded from public office.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The outcome was an apparent victory  for the people, but the old aristocracy, supplemented by rich plebeian nobles, still  controlled the state. What looked in many ways like a democracy was, in fact, an  oligarchy modified by elections.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Roman constitution was the fruit of many compromises  and developed into a complicated mix of laws and unwritten understandings. Power  was widely distributed and there were multiple sources of decision-making.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Roman  citizens (only men, for women did not have the vote) attended public meetings called  assemblies, where they passed laws and elected politicians to govern the Republic.  These leaders doubled as generals in time of war. Although in theory any citizen  could stand for public office, candidates usually came from a small group of very  rich, noble families.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If successful, politicians passed through a set sequence of  different jobs, a process called the cursus honorum or honors race. The first step  on the ladder, taken at the age of thirty or above (in practice, younger men were  often elected), was to become one of a number of quaestors; this post entailed supervising  the collection of taxes and making payments, either for the consuls in Rome or for  provincial governors. Then, if he wished, a man could be elected one of four aediles,  who were responsible for the administration of the city of Rome. During festivals  they staged public entertainments at their own expense, so deep pockets were needed.  The next position, that of praetor, was compulsory. Praetors were senior officers  of state, responsible for presiding as judges in the law courts and, when required,  to lead an army in the field.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At the top of the pyramid were two consuls, who were  heads of government with supreme authority; they were primarily army commanders and  conveners of the Senate and assemblies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Consuls and praetors held imperium, officially  sanctioned absolute power, although they were constrained in three important ways.  First, they held office only for one year. Second, there were always two or more  officeholders at the same level. Those of equal rank were allowed to veto anything  that their colleagues or junior officeholders decided. Finally, if they broke the  law, officeholders could face criminal charges once they were out of office.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On  top of that, ten tribunes of the people were elected, whose task was to make sure  that officeholders did nothing to harm ordinary Romans (patricians were not allowed  to be tribunes). They could propose laws to the Senate and the people and were empowered  to convene citizens’ assemblies. The tribunes held power only within the city limits,  where they could veto any officeholder’s decisions, including another tribune’s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The power of the assemblies was limited. They approved laws—but only those that  were laid before them. Speakers supported or opposed a proposed measure, but open  debate was forbidden; all that citizens were allowed to do was vote. There were different  kinds of assembly, each with its own rules: in the assembly that elected praetors  and consuls, for example, the voting system was weighted in favor of property owners  in the belief that they would act with care because they had the most to lose if  any mistakes were made.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Roman constitution made it so easy to stop decisions  from being made that it is rather surprising that anything at all got done. The Romans  realized that sometimes it might be necessary to override the constitution. In a  grave emergency, for a maximum of six months, a dictator was appointed who held sole  power and could act as he saw fit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Roman Senate was mainly recruited from officeholders.  By Octavius’ day, a quaestor automatically became a lifelong member, and he and his  family joined Rome’s nobility (if he was not already a member of it). Senators were  prohibited by law from engaging in business, although many used agents or front men  to circumvent the ban.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In theory, the Senate held little official power and its  role was merely to advise the consuls. However, because the Senate was a permanent  feature of the government, whereas consuls and other officeholders had fixed terms,  its authority and influence were very great. It was responsible for managing foreign  affairs, and it discussed laws before they were presented to the assemblies. Its  decrees, although not legally binding, were usually obeyed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Senate appointed  former consuls and praetors, called proconsuls and propraetors (Octavius was one),  to rule Rome’s provinces, usually for between one and three years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The equites,  who as has been mentioned were not members of the Senate, formed a second social  class, mainly comprising businessmen and country gentry. Beneath them came ordinary  citizens, listed in different categories according to their wealth. The poorest citizens  were capite censi, the “head count.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Modern governments employ many thousands of  administrators who carry out their decisions. This was not the case during the Roman  Republic. There were no bureaucrats, apart from a few clerks who looked after the  public treasury. There was no police force, no public postal system, and no fire  service, and there were no banks. There was no public criminal prosecution or judicial  service, and cases were brought by private citizens. Elected politicians acted as  judges in the law courts. The consuls brought in servants and slaves from their households,  as well as personal friends, to help run the government.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gaius Octavius won a quaestorship,  probably in 70 b.c., and joined the Senate. This was no mean achievement for a country  gentleman outside the magic circle of Roman politics. The promise of political success  brought with it an important benefit: a wife from one of Rome’s great patrician clans.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Octavius was already married to a woman of whom history has recorded nothing except  for her name, Ancharia. The couple had a daughter, and perhaps Ancharia died in childbirth,  for families with only one child were rare, especially if the child was a girl. Her  family was of obscure origin; she may have come from Velitrae or thereabouts. She  would have been no help to an ambitious young man’s career and, if alive, must have  been divorced. Her removal from the scene enabled Octavius to achieve a splendid  alliance, when he married Atia, a member of the Julian family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Julii traced  their ancestry to before the city’s foundation, traditionally set at 753 b.c. The  legend went that when, after a ten-year siege, the Greeks sacked the city of Troy  on what is now the Turkish coast near the Dardanelles, they killed or enslaved most  of the leading Trojans. One exception was Aeneas, the son of the love goddess Venus  and a handsome young warrior. He escaped the city’s destruction with some followers  and after many adventures made landfall in Latium. His son Iulus (sometimes also  called Ascanius) founded the Julian dynasty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e By the first century b.c., high birth  was not sufficient to guarantee political success. Money was also required, and in  large quantities. The Julii were impoverished; for long generations few of them had  won important posts in the honors race. Like aristocratic families before and since  that fall on hard times, they used marriage as a means of income generation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The  current head of the family, Gaius Julius Caesar, was a rising politician in his late  thirties, about the same age as Octavius. Talented, amusing, and fashionable, he  had a voracious appetite for cash and had built up enormous debts to feed both his  lifestyle and his career. One of his sisters married Marcus Atius Balbus, a local  worthy from Aricia, a town not far from Velitrae. Balbus was not prominent in public  life and his greatest attraction must have lain in the fact that he was a man of  substance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As a new man, Octavius knew that his dubious ancestry would damage his  career. A commodious dowry would be of value in a wife, but what he really needed  was entrée into the Roman nobility. As a niece of Julius Caesar, Balbus’ daughter  Atia was well placed to make that possible. Because the Balbi lived not far from  Octavius’ home base of Velitrae, they may well have traveled in the same social circles.  In that case, Atia formed an ambitious man’s bridge from provincial life to Rome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sometime before 70 b.c., the couple married and, in due course, Atia became pregnant.  Disappointingly, the outcome was a second daughter. Five or six years passed before  another child arrived: a son, this time, Gaius. He was born just before sunrise on  September 23, 63 b.c., at Ox Heads, a small property on the slopes of the fashionable  Palatine Hill, a few minutes’ walk from Rome’s main square, the Forum, and the Senate  House.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e By tradition, the paterfamilias held the power of life and death over his  household, both his relatives and his slaves. When a child was born, the midwife  took the infant and placed it on the floor in front of the father. Should the father  wish to acknowledge his paternity, he would lift the baby into his arms if it was  a boy; if a girl, he would simply instruct that she be fed. Only after this ritual  had taken place did the child receive his or her first nourishment.Bestselling author of Cicero; [quote]--The Washington Post Book World","brand":"Random House Trade Paperbacks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301499523301,"sku":"NP9780812970586","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780812970586.jpg?v=1767721956","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/augustus-isbn-9780812970586","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}