While serving in the Asia Minor in 80 b. c., Caesar earned a high military decoration for bravery in the battle to take Mitylene (mit-uh-LEE-nee) on Lesbos (LEZ-bohs). He went on to take part in a war against pirates from Cilicia (suh-LI-shuh), a region in southeastern Asia Minor. Following the death of Sulla, Caesar went back to Rome. In 77 b. c. he earned a name for himself as a prosecutor in an important legal case.
Already recognizing his ability as a speaker, Caesar traveled to the Greek isle of Rhodes (ROHDZ) for further training in rhetoric, but the Cilician pirates captured him and held him for ransom. After his release, he led a force to victory against the pirates. Then, without being commanded to do, Caesar led a successful attack against Mithradates of Pontus (mith-ruh-DAY-teez; ruled 120-63 b. c.; PAHN-tuhs). Soon after this, he gained his first elected office as military tribune.
Caesar Augustus
Born Gaius Octavius Caesar on September 23, 63 b. c., the man destined to become Caesar Augustus was known for the first thiry-six years of his life as Octavian (ahk-TAY-vee-uhn). His father died when he was four years old, and he was raised by his mother's uncle, Julius Caesar. The latter, having no legitimate sons, named him as his heir.
When Caesar was assassinated, nineteen-year-old Octavian administered his uncle's will. He quickly won the trust of the senate, unlike Caesar's junior associate Mark Antony. Octavian was put in command of an army to defend the city against Antony. He defeated him, but Antony escaped. Octavian decided that in order to prevent another civil war, it would be better to join forces.
Therefore Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus (LEP-i-dus) formed the Second Triumvirate and set about dealing with Caesar's killers. There was a bloodbath in Rome, in which several thousand leading citizens died; later at Philippi (FIL-uh-pie) in Macedon, the Triumvirate defeated Brutus and Cassius, who committed suicide.
But there was more unfinished business from Caesar's time. The son of Pompey, Sextus Pompeius (SEX-tus PAHM-pee-uhs; 75-35 b. c.), controlled the Mediterranean, and his naval forces were harassing Roman ships. To influence Sextus, Octavian married Sextus's relative Scribonia (SKRI-boh-nee-uh), by whom he had his only child, Julia. This helped relations, but when Octavian divorced Scribonia, Sextus resumed his piracy. Using ships borrowed from Antony's fleet and commanded by Marcus Agrippa (uh-GRIP-uh; c. 63-12 b. c.), Octavian destroyed Sextus.
Over the next seven years, Octavian edged Lepidus out of the Triumvirate and then dealt with Antony. The latter had married Octavian's sister Octavia, but it was clear that his true love was Cleopatra, once the lover of Caesar. In a brilliant move, Octavian persuaded the senate to declare war not on Antony (to do so would have constituted another civil war, something Octavian had pledged would never happen again) but only on Cleopatra and Egypt. The Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 b. c., destroyed Antony
In 69 B. C., Caesar was elected quaestor. Cornelia died in 67 B. C., but within a year, he had remarried. Again the marriage had a political angle: Pompeia (pahm-PEE-yuh), his new wife, was the granddaughter of Sulla. Of course Sulla had once been Caesar's enemy, but times had changed. Now Caesar wanted to establish closer ties with the ultra-wealthy Crassus (KRA-suhs;
And Cleopatra and left Octavian in sole power over the Roman state.
In the next few years, Octavian made one of the most cunning power plays in history, and he did it by appearing to give up power. For every office that he surrendered, the senate, grateful to him for restoring order to Rome, heaped more authority on him. He thus began to combine the functions of several offices without the titles of those offices. In doing so, he became far more powerful than his uncle Julius had ever been.
Titles were to come, however, and they were magnificent titles indeed. In 27 B. C., the senate gave him the name by which he would be known to history, Augustus, meaning "great." They lavished more titles on him, each conveying greater and greater authority and a status close to that of a god. Whereas Julius had offended decency when he renamed a month after himself, the senate itself declared that the month of Sextilius would thenceforth be called "Augustus," or August.
The senate's proclamation of him as emperor meant that Augustus now held
All the leadership positions formerly occupied by a number of men; it did not, however, mean that he was an emperor in the traditional sense of the word, with a title he could pass down to his sons. Augustus was very careful about that, knowing as he did that the Romans had despised the idea of kings ever since they drove out Tarquinius Superbus half a millennium before. In a way, this position was unfortunate, because it always left open to question who would succeed the reigning emperor. Nero would be the last of Augustus's line to rule. In later years, men would succeed to the throne through treachery and assassination, often on the shoulders of the army.
Augustus, who died in a. d. 14, ruled over Rome in its greatest glory. He fostered the arts, aiding in the careers of such distinguished figures as Vergil (see entry) and overseeing the building of many magnificent structures. Whereas he had been ruthless in his rise to power, once he got to the top, he was a fair and just emperor.
C. 115-53 B. C.), a leading figure in the aristocratic party who had been friends with Sulla.
World History
