Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Augustus)

63 b.c.e. -14 c.e.

Emperor

Sources

Master of the Roman World. Born as Gaius Octavius in 63 B.C.E., he was adopted by Julius Caesar in his will (this type of adoption was not an unusual procedure at Rome). Informally, he also inherited much of Caesar’s political and military support. For several years he had an uneasy alliance with Caesar’s lieutenant Mark Antony, but eventually (31 B.C.E.) he defeated Antony in a naval battle to become undisputed master of the Roman world. He held various offices and honors (including the name Augustus given in 27 B.C.E.) but wisely avoided any title such as “king” or “dictator,” which would have rubbed his superiority in the face of other nobles too much. Over the course of his forty-five-year reign Augustus’s generals acquired new territory in Egypt, Spain, and North Africa for the empire. He also instituted reforms in provincial administration, marriage law, manumission of slaves, and other areas. Augustus had no son and outlived many potential successors among allies and family. Eventually, he was succeeded by Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia by a previous marriage. Like his father, he was made a god after his death in 14 C.E.