author
Emperor of Rome Augustus
-63–14
A young heir to Julius Caesar, he rose through civil war to become the first ruler of imperial Rome. His long reign reshaped Roman politics, government, and culture so deeply that later generations saw it as the beginning of a new age.
1 Audiobook
Monumentum Ancyranum: The Deeds of Augustus
by Emperor of Rome Augustus
About the author
Born Gaius Octavius in 63 BC, Augustus was the grandnephew and adopted heir of Julius Caesar. After Caesar’s assassination, he fought for power in a violent and unstable Roman world, first alongside Mark Antony and Lepidus and later against Antony and Cleopatra. By 27 BC, he had become Rome’s dominant leader and received the name Augustus.
He is remembered as the founder of the Roman Empire and its first emperor, though he carefully avoided the image of an open monarch. Instead, he kept many republican forms in place while gathering real authority in his own hands. During his reign, Rome saw major administrative reform, military reorganization, ambitious building projects, and a long period of relative stability often linked with the Pax Romana.
Augustus died in AD 14 after more than four decades in power. Ancient writers and later historians alike treated his rule as a turning point: the moment Rome moved from republic to empire, and the model many later emperors tried to follow.