Augustus: Encyclopedia II - Augustus - Rise to power

Augustus - Rise to power

When Caesar was assassinated in March 44 BC, Octavius was with the army at Apollonia, in what is now Albania. When Caesar's will was read it revealed that, having no legitimate children, he had adopted his great-nephew as his son and main heir. By virtue of his adoption, Octavius assumed the name Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman tradition dictated that he also append the surname Octavianus to indicate his biological family, from which historians derive the name Octavian; however, no evidence exists that he ever used the name Octavianus. Mark Antony later charged that he had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors, though Suetonius describes Antony's accusation as political slander.^[1]

Octavian, as he is now conventionally called, crossed over to Italy and recruited an army from among Caesar's veterans, gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar. Only eighteen years old, he was consistently underestimated by his rivals for power.

In Rome, he found Caesar's republican assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius, in control. After a tense standoff, he formed an uneasy alliance with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's principal colleagues. The three formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate, an explicit grant of special powers lasting five years and supported by law, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus.^[2]

The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions in which three hundred senators and two thousand equites were deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives, going beyond a simple purge of those allied with the assassins, and probably motivated by a need to raise money to pay their troops.^[3]

Antony and Octavian then marched against Brutus and Cassius, who had fled to the east. At Philippi in Macedonia, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide (42 BC). While Octavian returned to Rome, Antony went to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen Cleopatra, the ex-lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's infant son, Caesarion.

While in Egypt, Antony had an affair with Cleopatra that resulted in the birth of three children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Antony later left Cleopatra to make a strategic marriage with Octavian's sister Octavia in 40 BC. During their marriage Octavia gave birth to two daughters, both named Antonia. In 37 BC Antony deserted Octavia and went back to Egypt to be with Cleopatra. The Roman dominions were then divided between Octavian in the west and Antony in the east.

Antony occupied himself with military campaigns in the east and a romantic affair with Cleopatra; Octavian built a network of allies in Rome, consolidated his power, and spread propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman because of his preoccupation with Egyptian affairs and traditions. The situation grew more and more tense, and finally, in 32 BC, Octavian declared war. It was quickly decided: in the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece, after Antony's men began deserting, the fleets met in a great battle in which many ships burned and thousands on both sides lost their lives. Octavian defeated his rivals who then fled to Egypt. He pursued them, and after another defeat, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra also committed suicide after her upcoming role in Octavian's triumph was "carefully explained to her" and Caesarion, the supposed son of Julius Caesar by Cleopatra, was "butchered without compunction". ^[4](It is said that Cleopatra possibly used a snake to kill herself.)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rise to power", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki