Augustus (Roman Imperial Biographies) 2nd Edition by Patricia Southern (PDF)

Description

The first Emperor of Rome holds a perennial fascination for anyone with an interest in the Romans and their Empire. Augustus was a truly remarkable man who brought peace after many years of civil wars and laid the foundations of an Empire that lasted for nearly five centuries. Even today the Roman world still underpins modern society. This revised edition of Augustus incorporates new thinking on many aspects of his rule, and how he achieved such power. The image that he projected of himself and his achievements was benign, hopeful, and heroic, but behind this carefully orchestrated self-promotion he was subtle, clever, scheming and ruthless. He has been labelled as a saviour and as a mafia boss. This account of his life shows how he successfully combined the two extremes.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Authors of Twentieth Century biographies of Augustus have tended to take a point of view and then argue for that point of view. Did Augustus have a master plan from the very beginning to turn the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire with himself as its head? Or was the transformation something that evolved as a result of his gift for exploiting opportunities to his advantage? It’s hard to know because we have little biographical information on Augustus and that which we do have is colored by strong opinion. We know a lot about what he did, but not much about who he was. Pat Southern tries to be completely objective, just presenting the facts within the autobiographical context. This, to me, is a refreshing idea. The problems arise when the dates are inexact and the true order of events is not really known. Proponents of one point of view will argue for one sequence, opposing opinions will argue for another. The same problems arise when we don’t know many details about personal events, such as the “scandals” involving daughter Julia, granddaughter Julia and grandson Agrippa Posthumous. The confusion of the two Julia’s names does not make matters easier. What did Augustus do and why? Multi-sided speculation enters the argument yet again. Even though this got tedious for me after a while, I suppose it’s necessary.So, while I appreciate the book’s attempt at objectivity, that quest doesn’t exactly make for exciting reading. It’s pretty bloodless. However, I do think there’s a need for it.

⭐Overall, this was a good biography of Augustus. The author clearly resarched the subject thoroughly. The book does a very good job of portraying Augustus, his personality, and those closest to him. In some ways, the book is almost too focused on Augustus, without adequate attention to the background of Roman society. While the author does address background factors, these sometimes seem to get lost in the very detailed focus on Augustus himself. This book would probably be most enjoyed by those looking for a fairly academic approach, and those who have read other books on Augustus. Despite some of my misgivings, I still recommend this book. I enjoyed it, and learned from it.

⭐Not as dry as some of the other histories on Augustus, and has some great references for in depth info on the important events in Augustus’s life.

⭐Easy to read and an excellent wealth of knowledge. Please keep turning out more books Patricia!

⭐Most of the time throughout history, when a Roman emperor officially accepts the duties & responsibilities of their position, their main concerns revolve around making sure their power base is secure & intact. Augustus Caesar had to kind of make it up as he went along, because he was the first. His gradual absorption of autocratic power from the Roman senate, a feat which he accomplished through deft political maneuvering & the measured, minimal use of his authority, only when absolutely necessary to do so, probably gave rise to his famous maxim, ‘festina lente’ or ‘make haste, slowly’.It could be argued that Augustus Caesar’s best work was done when he ruled via exerting his considerable influence on people, to convince them to do what he wanted them to do, rather than through exercising his tribunal privileges to force them to do it. People liked having him in charge, it made them comfortable. For all of the labeling of Augustus Caesar as a usurper, ruthless triumvir, & destroyer of the Republic, most regular Roman citizens lived comfortable, peaceful lives during the time in which he reigned.Patricia Southern’s ‘Augustus’ is a well-written, informative, & accessible Roman Imperial Biography on ‘Divi Augusti’ (the Divine Augustus) that reads surprisingly easy for its fairly complex subject matter. The base work is around 200 pages in trade paperback, with 9 chapters that are well-organized if a bit lengthy at times. There are copious extended notes which are very conveniently denoted in the text, each coming at the end of a paragraph. Some paragraphs can run for two entire pages (yes, they’re that lengthy) but Augustus (or Octavian) Caesar’s story is interesting enough to keep the Roman history fan engaged.The author keeps the narrative focused & moves along at a brisk pace. Maybe I’m just partial to Augustus’ story, but for a Roman Imperial Biography, I was expecting a dry, dull accounting of Octavian’s exploits, but ‘Augustus’ managed to keep me immersed the entire time I was reading it. It’s not a mystery, either, as to why the book reads as well as it does : Patricia Southern is a very skilled author & historian. She’s an authority in the field of Roman history, & the level of detail in the text is indicative as to the amount of work that went into writing the book.By far the most utilized base reference material is Cassius Dio’s ‘Roman History’ with Appian’s ‘Civil War’ & Velleius Paterculus’ ‘Roman History’ also seeing frequent usage, as well as ‘The Twelve Caesars’ by Suetonius for the details concerning Octavian’s tenure as triumvir, more often than not. While these works definitely enrich the reading experience if you are acclimated with them, they’re not required if you still want to learn about Augustus. In the later part of his reign, Augustus started to compose a rather-subjective record of his accomplishments which came to be known as the ‘Res Gestae’ in the years after his death, in 14 A.D., which also is referenced & compared with a more-realistic hypothesis of what really transpired, or was omitted, or changed, et cetera. I think one of Augustus’ failings was to pretend like the nasty actions he precipitated to eventually attain his exclusive tribunal powers & ‘summi fastigii vocabulum’ (title of supreme eminence), didn’t happen. Admittedly, much of it was when he was a triumvir, as opposed to being in a formal, legal position but still utilizing illicit methods to achieve his ends. Southern brings so many small details into her arguments but still, you can obviously see that she enjoys the subject matter immensely & that shines through as well. Augustus Caesar definitely wasn’t a saint, not by our standards, but he conducted his policies amongst the common folk with a remarkably gentle hand, & they loved him for it.There are some informative maps which are placed in their respective chapters, such as a more detailed view of the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. & another displaying important locations during Augustus’ campaign in Illyricum (Croatia, Serbia, & Western Hungary). I found the second map to be more useful than the first, but they’re both helpful.Seeing as a very large portion of Augustus’ reign was expended in complex bureaucratic maneuvering with the Roman senate, there’s naturally a tremendous amount of content that covers this process in detail. He manipulated the senate into stripping powerful positions of their authority & privileges, to be administered as Augustus, & not the senate, saw fit. Seeing as if he were to be ratified as ‘Dictator perpetuo’ (dictator for life) he realized he would likely be assassinated, just as Caesar had been before him, Augustus opted for a much more subtle method of ‘insurgere paulatim’ (gradual assumption) where both his & lieutenant Marcus Agrippa’s exclusive executive privileges were voted to be renewed after they elapsed, anywhere from five to sometimes ten years. This was achieved all the way up to his death, in 14 A.D.His diplomacy skills with the senators & his popularity amongst the plebian class ensured that Augustus’ reign was met with very little resistance, almost none whatsoever. He was so skilled at what he did that there was still a need for his authority & influence, even when he was an ailing, 70-year old man. Always on the move, always needed somewhere, & always doing something constructive. That was the essence of Augustus Caesar’s life.Concepts such as ‘imperium proconsulare aequum’, ‘tribunicia potestas’, & ‘morum legumque regimen perpetuum’ are all crucial key notes that Patricia Southern discusses, at length, throughout the course of ‘Augustus’. This isn’t a book where you absolutely have to have read fifty treatises on Roman history before trying to tackle it, not by any means. While prior background knowledge never hurts, ‘Augustus’ is very self-sufficient in that regard.You can learn everything you need to be able to understand ‘Augustus’ in the book itself, but it helps to understand the difference between a ‘consul’ & ‘proconsul’, and what ‘praetor’ & ‘quaestor’ do in their respective roles as well, if you would like to make the experience easier.There’s one anecdote in the book that sticks out in my mind as to what kind of a man Augustus was. I think that he, just like anyone else, had flaws & imperfections, but the ‘Augustan propaganda’ notwithstanding, when someone is basically a decent human being, regardless of status, it eventually shines through in what’s written of them, or what’s remembered about them, after they die. Augustus was at a dinner party being given by a wealthy equestrian, & the dinner was being served by the equestrian’s slaves, one of whom broke a very expensive glass which was part of a set that his master valued highly, right in front of Augustus. The nobleman was furious. Apparently, he kept a pool of lamprey eels on the grounds of his mansion, & was so cruel of a master, that as punishment for breaking the glass, orders were given for this unfortunate man, the slave, to be dragged over to the pool & thrown into it, a death which was similar to, but slower than, being eaten alive by piranhas. Augustus witnessed all of this & calmly asked the equestrian if he could see the rest of the pieces in this priceless set. Which he then proceeded to shatter, one after another, in his own fit of rage at the nobleman’s cruelty to his slave. Obviously, Augustus wasn’t perfect, far from it. He had certain views that would be construed as barbaric by today’s standards, on many different, very important issues. But in his era, by its standards, he was light years ahead of the vast majority of civilization, period. For the first legitimate ’emperor’ the Roman republic ever had, the people of Rome could have had it much, much worse. And they would, in time.Augustus Caesar was so skilled at what he did, he probably was too good, for his OWN good. He possessed a level of political savvy & shrewd intellect that complemented his sound judgment, perfectly. He was so far removed from anyone living in that era in my opinion that there was no one else who could even come close to him. Not in his family, nor in the other patrician or equestrian gens, nor anywhere else for that matter. Either in Rome, or the rest of the civilized world. How a man could survive over ten years of civil war against seasoned battle commanders like Marcus Antonius & not only survive, but end up becoming emperor of Rome, is beyond my level of comprehension.There is a revised, second edition of ‘Augustus’ which I’ve yet to read, but what this edition contains is more than enough to make me want to recommend it to you without hesitation. It’s a fairly painless going through ‘Augustus’ if you have some interest in the politics of ancient Rome. I’d recommend at the very least that you read ‘The Twelve Caesars’ by Suetonius for some background knowledge on Augustus’ life. Suetonius does a very good job of showcasing all of Augustus’ positive character traits in the ‘Divus Augustus’ section of ‘The Twelve Caesars’. Obviously Cassius Dio would be the most beneficial, as Southern cites it copiously. I almost neglected to mention the numerous pictures of sculptures, busts, architecture featuring Augustus’ likeness in the middle of the book. There’s also a few very well-chosen statues of Livia Augusta, Octavian’s wife, as well as numerous denarii with their likenesses.I hope you were able to get something out of this review & it perhaps sparked an interest in Roman history!

⭐They are quite a few selections for a bioghraphy of Augustus and I chose Pat Southern’s work based on other reviews. Thanfully, I was not dissappointed and can easily recommend this solid biography of Augustus. It is a straightforward and informative biography that is easy to read and covers all of the important aspects of Augustus’ life. While the writing is not exceptional, it is very easy to follow and the book is well organized. The only minor weakness is that the author does not go into alot of detail regarding the specifics of the government structure of the Roman Republic and many terms such as Quaestor, Praetor, Consul, and Aedile may be a bit confusing to put in context if you are not familiar with those terms in the context of Ancient Roman history. I am currently reading a biography of Cicero by Anthony Everitt and he does a better job in this regard. Those who are new to the subject may wish to read Everitt’s biography of Augustus instead. Southern is superior, however, in the presentation of relevant scholarly discussion and analysis and will most appeal to those readers who would like a more in depth biography. While it did not quite reach 5 star status for me, it is definitely a solid 4 stars and highly recommended to anyone looking for a scholarly but readable biography of Augustus.

⭐There are many books on “Augustus” (or Caesar Augustus), as he had himself named and has become known to us, as opposed to Octavius, which was his real name. I do not claim to have read all of them and do not intend to compare this one with any other title addressing the live of the “founding father” of the Roman Empire, or, perhaps more accurately, of its Principate form.However, I do believe that this book, first published in 1998, is an excellent biography of Augustus and the means and ways he used to rise to supreme power and to remain there for over four decades, although it is perhaps not perfect. The reasons for believing this is a high quality book, and for warmly recommending it, are manifold.The first and foremost of these reasons is that the book clearly shows Augustus as a master politician. He had a consummate talent for spin, self-advertisement and manipulation of people and events. A second set of talents that this very ambitious politician aspiring at supremacy possessed in abundance was his patience, his relentlessness and his ruthlessness. When combined with his abilities to use people and events to his own advantage and his rather extraordinary self-control, this made him into a rather formidable and eminently dangerous opponent and arch-manipulator, as Mark Anthony (on whom Patricia Southern has also written a rather superb biography) discovered to his cost.The second reason is that although I simply could not raise any sympathy for Augustus when reading this book, although, to be fair, I have never “liked” Augustus, the author does her utmost to remain as objective as she can and present a balanced view of Augustus and his actions. She also demonstrates that given the tight control that he exercised over himself and his emotions most of the time during his whole life, you only get a few glimpses here and there of the real human being that generally remained hidden behind the stately mask. One thing that was clear, however, is that he was as hard on himself as he was on his family, starting with his own daughter.A third reason for praising this book is that it also shows to what extent Augustus could inspire loyalty and how much he owed to his two henchmen and old friends – Maecenas and Agrippa. He could rely on them totally and implicitly and he could use their own talents, which complemented his own so well.This was especially the case of Agrippa, his general and admiral to whom he owed his victories over both Sextus Pompey and Mark Antony, among other feats. Agrippa was almost invaluable to Augustus because the later was a rather poor soldier, to put it mildly, and was also afflicted with bouts of severe illness during his whole life which prevented him from conducting protracted military campaigns. Fortunately for the Princeps, at a time where prominence and success was largely defined through military victories, he had in Agrippa a talented and totally loyal friend who was even devoted enough to refuse his own rewards and triumphs and let Augustus claim the benefits from them. Maecenas, who is generally less well known, was just as important in promoting Augustus’ public image by supporting favoured authors, but also was a consummate diplomat and seems to have had in addition a first class network of informers which he put at Augustus’ service.A fourth reason for reading this book is the way in which the author shows how Augustus, very cautiously, with consummate skill, little by little, and very careful to avoid offending Roman sensitivities (unlike Julius Caesar’s behaviour and mistakes, from which he learned), accumulated all powers that really mattered while publicly claiming to have brought peace and restored a reformed Republic. She also shows that, contrary to what is sometimes assumed, he had no “master plan” when he started out building the Principate from 30 BC onwards. He experimented, and made some mistakes which he was quick to correct. He also had a very developed sense of duty. He worked tirelessly to build in more sense than one both Rome and what would become the Roman Empire.I will refrain from mentioning how he modified, transformed or established the institutions of Rome, starting with the army, since this is possibly among the better known aspects of Augustus’ achievements. Perhaps his most important achievement, however, was the “peace” that he brought to all provinces and to Italy. His reign marked the end of the endemic cycles of civil wars which had been going on since Marius and Sulla and it would take almost a century before Rome experienced another bout of civil war after the death of the last of the Julio-Claudians (Nero), the dynasty that he founded. This, of course, by no means implied that they were no more wars. On the contrary, Augustus’ reign saw the conquest of the Alps (modern Switzerland and Austria, in particular), the final pacification of Spain and Gaul, the conquest of Dalmatia and Pannonia, and, of course, wars along the Rhine and between the Rhine and the Elbe against multiple Germanic tribes, both before and after the Teutoburg disaster where Varus lost three legions (and a handful of auxiliary cohorts).He also carefully planned his succession well in advance, with the author showing that, in addition to a “right-hand man”, he had up to two further dynastic generations of family members lined up for the dynastic succession. In fact, he planned so much ahead that he had to modify his plans several times as a number of his heirs died before him. He finally seems to have settled on Tiberius, Livia’s surviving son (the more dashing and lovable Drusus having also died years before), but this was clearly not his first (and not even his second) choice.Despite all these qualities, the book is however not perfect. It has a few limitations and defects.One of these is its format and presentation. While the main text is slightly less than 200 pages, there are few paragraphs so that the text is rather compact and initially somewhat daunting. I got the impression that the author was subject to a space limit and tried to get in as much substance as she could within that somewhat artificial limit. A less compact presentation would go some way in making the book more readable and accessible.Another limitation is the rather lengthy notes (another fifty pages or so). While these contain multiple and valuable references for each of the topics under review in the respective chapters, they also often paraphrase the main text. They therefore do not add as much as they could have and they also could have been significantly shortened.Finally, some might find that the book is a bit short and does not cover all events in as much depth as they might have wanted. Here, however, it is worth noting that the purpose of the book was to be a biography of the very enigmatic Augustus, as opposed to “a life and times of Augustus” or a history book on Rome ranging from about 60 BC to 14 AD. In this, and despite the above mentioned limitations, it is very successful.

⭐This is the first biography (as much as there can be one) that I have read on Augustus, and I am glad I started with this book. The author writes clearly, explicitly and with a great deal in thought and intelligent interpretation of the primary sources. As such, the narrative is very clear and well layed out, and the book is a particularly enjoyable, as well as enlightening, read.The story traces Augustus’ life from Octavius to Octavian, to the son of Caesar, and then to his political career – the trimvurate, the elimination, one by one, of his rivals and those who doomed his great-uncle, until only Antonius stands between him and his ultimate goal. What Augustus really intended to do, and whether he had some master plan that he was working to over his whole political career is arguable, but he certainly appears to have been a master at the political strategies and games required in post-Republic Rome. While he comes across at times as a bit of a “cold fish”, there is no doubt, from the sources, that he had a sense of humour and saw the irony in situations – some of the anecdotes told of his life show that he had a sharp sense of right and wrong, even if he chose sometimes to ignore it, to get his own way.His sense of survival turned into what could be seen as a drive for a dynastic succession, a dangerous move indeed in Rome, particularly after what happened to Julius Caesar when he appeared to have taken over sole role of Rome in perpetuity. But somehow Augustus always pulled it off. Rivals were eliminated, but even then Augustus’ rule was not smooth, nor his dynastic ambitions realised. His loyal lifelong supporter Agrippa died, then Augustus lost members of his family that he had been grooming for power and possibly succession after his death. By the time of his death, the “imperial family” had shrunk to a smaller number, but what Augustus could never know was how his successors took what he had built, and turned it into a world Empire.A riveting, enthralling, and most intriguing and interesting read – highly recommended.

⭐Congratulations to seller. Book arrived in excellent condition, almost brand new, no page markings. I will definitely use this seller again.Pat Southern is a wonderful author. Anyone interested in this period of Roman history should read her books.

⭐Love anything about this era

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