Augustus, Coins Julius Caesar Octavianus (named at his birth simply Caius Octavius), first emperor of Rome, born at Velitrae, Sept. 23, 63 B. C, died at Nola, Aug. 19, A. D. 14. He was the son of Caius Octavius, a rich senator, who in 60 B. C. was appointed praetor of Macedonia, and of Atia, a daughter of Julia, the younger sister of Julius Caesar. His father dying just after retiring from his praetorship, Octavius was educated in Rome at the wish of his mother, and afterward under the superintendence of Lucius Marcius Philippus, who became his stepfather. He soon attracted the notice of his great-uncle Julius Caesar, who treated him as his own son, and by his will made him his principal heir. On March 15, 44, when the dictator was assassinated at Rome, Octavius was at Apollonia on the W. coast of Epirus Nova, pursuing his studies. The news of the murder and of his own adoption as heir reached him almost immediately. Against the warning of friends, he went at once to Rome, changing his name Octavius to Octavianus, and demanded his inheritance, which Mark Antony, who had possessed himself of the principal power fax the state, after some hesitation was obliged to yield.

Octavius, who was now universally known by the name of Caesar, began a struggle with Antony for the control of Rome. Each tried every means to gain the favor of the people. Octavius was already beginning to gain the advantage, when Antony left Rome to secure for himself the legions in Cisalpine Gaul. Octavius took advantage of his rival's absence to win still further the popular favor, and was aided by the refusal of Decimus Brutus, praetor in Cisalpine Gaul, to give up that province to Antony. Cicero now came forward in Octavius's favor, thinking thus to advance the cause of a freer government. The senate, the people, and the soldiers were soon won. In January, 43, having received the rank of praetor and been appointed to the command of those troops whose good will he had secured, he went with the two consuls to the assistance of Decimus Brutus, whom Antony was besieging in Mutina (Modena). Antony was defeated and driven beyond the Alps. But the senate, dreading any increase of the power of the successful general, and relieved of their fear of Antony,'now made a change of policy, appointed Decimus Brutus to the chief command of the army, and denied Octavius a triumph.

The latter thereupon began to treat with Antony for a reconciliation and division of power, Antony having in the mean time allied himself with Lepidus and recrossed the Alps. First of all Octavius secured the consulship, which the senate was persuaded almost against its will to permit him to assume. He paid the people the sums left by the will of Caesar, and secured for himself the command of an army to be sent against Brutus and Cassius, against whom a decree of outlawry was passed. Under the guise of moving first against Antony, Octavius marched his army into northern Italy and met Antony and Lepidus at Bononia (Bologna). Here an open reconciliation took place, and he formed with them the triumvirate, agreeing to merge his own power in this equal division of the empire among the three. The triumvirs returned to Rome immediately, though they entered the city separately. In the general proscription and massacre of their enemies which followed, Octavius displayed cruelty fully equal to that of his associates.

After an unsuccessful attempt to take Sicily from Sex-tus Pompey, who had an excellent fleet, and with whom many Romans took refuge, Octavius and Antony turned their arms against Brutus and Cassius, whom they defeated at Philippi (42). On his return to Rome - Antony now being with Cleopatra in Egypt - Octavius found that Fulvia, Antony's wife, aided by Antony's brother, Lucius Antonius, had endeavored to excite popular feeling against him by declaring that a new proscription was about to begin, and by other means. Antonius had even assembled an army. Octavius put a speedy end to this revolt by taking Perusia (Perugia), where Lucius Antonius had fortified himself, and cruelly putting to death 400 Peru-sians as a sacrifice to the manes of Caesar (40). Fulvia's death prevented a renewal of the war, and Octavius and Antony were reconciled at Brundusium, Octavia, Octavius's sister, being given in marriage to his fellow triumvir. Sex-tus Pompey, however, still held Sicily, the grain storehouse of Rome, and Octavius was obliged to bribe him by the offer of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the province of Achaia, to make peace and supply Rome with food. No sooner had Octavius thus secured Pompey than he began to seek for a pretext to recapture the provinces given him.

Alleging that Pompey allowed piracy near his coasts, Octavius declared war against him (38). Antony at first refused his aid, but was persuaded by the mediation of Octavia, and sent a considerable fleet to join that of Octavius. After some vicissitudes, Agrippa, the commander of the navy, ended the war by an overwhelming defeat of Pompey, who fled to Asia (36). Lepidus, the only one of the triumvirs who had actually succeeded in landing in Sicily, now aspired to the government of that island; but Octavius won over his troops, and he suffered himself to be called to Rome and consigned to submissive quiet by the appointment of pontifex maximus. Octavius now divided among his soldiers the lands taken from his enemies. He was received with the greatest honors at Rome, but, with his wonted hypocrisy, assumed a modest and liberal mien; he improved the city, and even talked of fully restoring the republican forms. But while gaining for himself the favor of the people, he steadily undermined the influence of his only remaining rival, Antony, whom he pretended to support. Much of his time in the two years that followed (35-34) was occupied in the suppression of revolts in various parts of the Roman provinces.

The repudiation by Antony of his wife Octavia served to widen the breach between the triumvirs; and soon afterward the arrogant and dangerous assumptions of Cleopatra, who now held Antony as her complete slave, afforded Octavius the pretext he desired. Convincing the people of the dangerous designs of the Egyptian queen, he brought about a declaration of war, defeated her and Antony in the battle of Actium in September, 31, rapidly followed up this victory, and by the succeeding events, ending in the death of this only remaining opponent (30), he was left sole ruler of Rome, and celebrated his victories by a three days' triumph. He had some thought of laying aside his power, but in counsel with his friends Agrippa and Maecenas, the advice of the latter prevailed, probably coinciding more nearly with his own wishes, and he kept his rulership. Rome was now in complete peace. Octavius, although himself supreme, reestablished many of the old republican forms, and benefited the city by numerous wise measures. In his seventh consulship (27), he astonished the senate by proposing to lay down the chief power and to restore entirely the old order of things. The senators begged him to retain his position, and he, pretending great reluctance, consented.

This ruse was several times repeated during his life. On Jan. 16, 27, he received from the Roman people and the senate the name Augustus (the venerated or sanctified), and by this title he was generally known from this time forth. Within the next few years the powers of tribune, pontifex maximus, and of many other magistrates, were gradually assumed by Augustus, with the consent of the senate, and he became finally the absolute ruler of the empire. In 2G and 25 he established order in Spain, defeating the rebellious Astures and Can-tabri, who, however, afterward revolted, and were not finally subdued till 19. In 21, after four years spent at Rome, during which several conspiracies had been discovered against his life, he visited Sicily and the eastern part of the empire, establishing order everywhere. He left Agrippa, who married his daughter Julia, as governor of Rome in his absence. During this journey he visited Athens and Samos. In 20 he made a treaty with the Parthians, by which they peacefully restored standards and captives taken from Crassus (53) and Antony (30). In 16 he went to Gaul, where he remained three years, and established many colonies.

Agrippa died in 12, leaving two sons, who had been adopted by Augustus and called Caius and Lucius Cfesar. Within the year Julia was married again to her stepbrother Tiberius, the son of the crafty Livia, who in this year also was sent against the Pannonians and defeated them. In 10 Augustus went again to Gaul, and at the same time sent his stepson Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, against the western German tribes. Drusus conquered them, but was killed by an accident, and Augustus pronounced his funeral oration in the senate (9). In 8 B. C. the senate flattered Augustus on his victories by naming after him the month of August, before called Sextilis. A short time after this Augustus sent into exile his daughter Julia, whose dissolute life had become an open scandal. Her two sons had now assumed the toga virilism and were looked upon as the heirs of the emperor. But Lucius died at Massilia in A. D. 2, and Caius in Lycia in 4; and Augustus, upon whom these family misfortunes made a deep impression, adopted Tiberius, thus fulfilling the desire of Livia, and sent him to conduct a campaign against the Germans. Tiberius was victorious, but in the year 9 the overwhelming defeat of the Roman general Varus by Arminius lessened the value of these conquests.

A period of peace now followed, and Augustus turned his attention to the affairs of the city, which he administered wisely and with the popular favor. In 14 his health suddenly declined, and just after taking the census, the third during his administration, he died at Nola, whither he had gone on account of his illness. - The period of Augustus is one of the most important in Roman history. In it flourished those men who have caused it to be named the "Augustan age of literature " - Catullus, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, the great patron of art and letters Maecenas, and others. Augustus himself wrote several works, of which only fragments remain. These have been collected, and a good edition of them was published by Weichert (Grimma, 1841). The emperor's rule was most beneficial to the city. He boasted that he had found it of brick and left it of marble. He encouraged all useful arts, and his laws in matters of municipal government were generally admirable. In person Augustus was of middle height, with a well knit and fine figure, and a quiet face, with much dignity and firmness of expression. His hair was light, his eyes large and clear.

In his character the crafty traits predominated, but he displayed in the latter part of bis life much generosity. - See the life of Augustus in Suetonius, Plutarch's life of Antony, and the histories of Arnold, Merivale, and Ihne.